VOLUME 107, ISSUE NO. 7 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2022
Rice’s Ion settles into Third Ward
KATHERINE HUI / THRESHER
BONNIE ZHAO / THRESHER
What we’ve tried to do as part of this development is to engage all of the relevant stakeholders that are in our neighborhood. Sam Dike INVESTMENT MANAGER FOR RICE MANAGEMENT COMPANY
The new building now has coworking office areas, various businesses and public spaces. Notable tenants include Chevron and Microsoft. Dike says that the Ion building is meant to couple people with opportunities. “If you think about what’s happening
SEE ION DEVELOPMENTS PAGE 2
Third Ward community shares their stories Lana Edwards
HAJERA NAVEED
NEWS EDITOR
MacGregor Way was coined by the Texas Monthly in 1982 as the “main street of the richest, stateliest Black neighborhood in Texas.” Lana Edwards recalls that her husband, Albert “Al” Edwards, had a childhood dream of owning a house on this street. When Al Edwards was young, his dad, a landscaper at the time, used to drive him down MacGregor to show him the houses, Lana said. After Al and Lana married in 1969, the two purchased a spacious twostory home on MacGregor. “He always said he was going to have one of those houses,” Lana said. “And so we ended up buying a house on MacGregor … that was his lifelong dream.” Lana worked as an educator for the Houston Independent School District for 37 years. Al was elected in 1978 to serve in the Texas Legislature as the representative for House District 146. Al Edwards, who passed in 2020, served in the legislature for more than 30 years and is best remembered for authoring the bill that made Juneteenth a state holiday in 1979. He did not live to
see Juneteenth become a federal holiday in 2021. “Al sponsored the bill, and he worked hard to get it passed, because there [were] some people that did not feel that they wanted to get it passed,” Lana said. “Al wasn’t actually here to see it [become a federal holiday]. He’s looking down and happy, [and] I am sure they celebrate it wherever he is.” Lana has now been living in Third Ward for more than 50 years. She is on the board of the African American Library at the Gregory School and regularly attends “elder meetings” at the SHAPE community center. As an educator, Lana created close bonds with community members. “I love the neighborhood, I love the community,” Lana said. “But Al loved it first.” Lana said she has seen how the people who left Third Ward early on in her life have wanted to come back, now viewing this area as a “goldmine.” “Every day, I get calls from people wanting to know if my property is for sale. I don’t know why if they don’t see a sign on [the property], why would they even call me to ask,” Lana said. “Many people are trying to come back, because they realize what a goldmine this [area] really is.”
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ON RICE’S INNOVATION DISTRICT
Introduced in 2019, Rice’s Innovation District is a joint initiative between the City of Houston and Rice, intended to lift up economically disadvantaged areas. The central building hub, the Ion, held its grand opening in May with a ceremony featuring Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and former Rice President David Leebron. According to the Brookings Institution, an innovation district is a public and private partnership meant to lift economically disadvantaged areas. Sam Dike, an investment manager for strategic investments for the Rice Management Company, said the Ion District will support innovation in Houston’s economy. The RMC is the firm that manages the university’s endowment and is responsible for overseeing the project. “This is about strengthening Houston’s economic resiliency,” Dike said. “If you
with our core industries, folks are realizing that they need to innovate,” Dike said. “They’re looking for opportunities to get with like-minded people, smart people, that can help them continue to innovate. This place provides a forum for those discussions to happen in a very productive way.” The construction of the district, adjacent to Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood, has been met with strong opposition from some community members, who fear negative impacts of the development. The most prominent effort has been led by the Houston Coalition for Equitable Development without Displacement, which has argued that the development of the district would lead to displacement in the historically Black Third Ward. “It will push African Americans out of a community they’ve invested in for years,” Carl Davis, a founding member of HCEDD, told Houston Public Media in 2019 when the Ion was still under construction.
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think about the core industries that make up Houston: energy sector, healthcare sector, logistics, aerospace, all of those sectors are all evolving and changing.”
SPECIAL PROJECT
MURTAZA KAZMI & MATT BANSCHBACH