Housing
A Party to Bring the East Houston Community Together
As gentrification brings shifts to the East End of Houston, a new resident hopes to bring the community together with a greet, eat, and meet gathering.
Paul Richards-Kuan decided a modern problem needed an old-fashioned solution. Seeking to combat the displacement and alienation that are potential byproducts of gentrification, he came up with a plan: monthly block parties in Houston, Texas’s changing East End.
“I picked up a phrase somewhere: ‘Why have a meeting when you can have a party?’ So I took it and ran with it,” the 28-year-old associate pastor at St. Paul's United Methodist Church said as he hauled gear from the back of his blue Volkswagen Golf into M.C. Cullinan Park on a Saturday morning in October.