Sunnyside, Houston

Thousands of enslaved African-Americans lived near Houston before the U.S. Civil War. Many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. In 1860, 49% of the city's population was enslaved.[4]

African Americans started to settle in the community and it was founded by H. H. Holmes. Sunnyside, the oldest African-American community in southern Houston, was first platted in 1912.[5] When the community opened in the 1910s, H. H. Holmes, the founder, gave the land the name Sunny Side.[6] By the 1940s area residents established a water district and a volunteer fire department. The City of Houston annexed Sunnyside in 1956.[5]

Fire Station 55, 1976

In the 1940s and 1950s new additions were constructed in the Sunnyside area, and local residents of nearby Mykawa, then a mostly white community, expressed dismay at this,[7] as the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court decision meant that neighborhoods could no longer have rules excluding people on the basis of race.[8] Terroristic threats were made against the Sunnyside community.[7]

In the 1970s and 1980s the neighborhood, while low income, had healthy business activity, and was known as "Black Wall Street" or "Baby River Oaks" due to the concentration of businesses.[9] The population decreased beginning in the 1970s.[10] From the 1980 U.S. Census to the 1990 Census, many African-Americans left traditional African-American neighborhoods like Sunnyside and entered parts of Southwest Houston.[11] Sunnyside lost 30% of its population in the decade prior to August 20, 1992.[12] In addition, by the 1980s the imprisonment of African Americans, an increase in violence, and the proliferation of recreational drugs began to damage the neighborhood.[13] The 1980s oil bust also damaged the Sunnyside economy.[9]

Between 1990 and 2000 the Hispanic population of Sunnyside increased a little by between 5 and 10 percent as Hispanics in the Houston area moved into majority black neighborhoods.[14] In the same period, the black population of both Sunnyside and South Park combined declined by 4,225, or 11% as majority African-American neighborhoods in Houston had declines in their black populations.[15]

As of January 2007, according to a Houston Chronicle article, Sunnyside has many issues with recreational drug use. Phencyclidine (PCP) is cited by the article as a drug popular in Sunnyside.[16]

On August 30, 2007, the Houston Chronicle published an article about a syphilis outbreak in Houston. Marlene McNeese-Ward, the Houston Health Department chief of HIV/STD and Viral Hepatitis Prevention, stated "We're really looking at Acres Homes especially, and Sunnyside, but there's not too many ZIP codes ... where we're not seeing any (cases)."[17]

The 2000s-2010s Great Recession further harmed Sunnyside particularly because many businesses had thin operating margins.[9]

In 2010 a zip code including much of the Sunnyside area had 118 registered sex offenders; it has the highest concentration of sex offenders of any zip code without facilities designed to house registered sex offenders. While some other Houston areas have higher concentrations of sex offenders than Sunnyside, those areas have specific facilities housing sex offenders. Travis McGee, the president of the Sunnyside Civic Association, said that the Sunnyside area was a "dumping field for anything that’s negative" and that he felt fear for area children.[18]

A 2013 NeighborhoodScout crime study that analyzed data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concluded that Sunnyside was #6 in its list of the 25 most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States. According to the ranking, every year each Sunnyside resident had a 1 in 11 chance of becoming a victim of crime, and the violent crime rate was 91.27 out of 1,000.[19]

In 2016 the Houston City Council established a tax increment reinvestment zone (TIRZ) in western Sunnyside.[9]

In 1980 64% of residents owned their houses.[10]

According to the 1990 Census Sunnyside had 3,484 residents. 93.8% of them were African-American, 4.2% were Hispanic, and 2% were White, Asian, or other. The median household income was $12,477, compared to the City of Houston median of $26,621. 38.6% of Sunnyside residents lived below the poverty line.[12] As of that year, in the wider area, 1.5% were Hispanic.[10]

In 2000 the City of Houston-defined Sunnyside Super Neighborhood had 18,629 residents. 93% were non-Hispanic black, 4% were Hispanic, and 1% each were non-Hispanic white, Asian, and others.[20]

In 2010 the home ownership rate was 46%. As of 2016 about 22,000 people lived in the Sunnyside area, with 97% being black and 10% being Hispanic.[10]

In 2006, the unemployment rate was 12%. In 2016 it was 29%, the highest percentage of any community in Houston; the city's overall unemployment rate was 5.5%.[9]

In 2010 4,576 households had salaries under $25,000 annually. Circa 2016 about 30% of the households were poorer than the defined poverty line, and 5,062 households made under $25,000 annually.[9]

In 2015 the super neighborhood had 20,071 residents. 88% were non-Hispanic black, 10% were Hispanic, and 1% each were non-Hispanic white and other. The percentage of non-Hispanic Asians was zero.[20]

A "you buy we fry" restaurant in Sunnyside

In the 1970s and 1980s the area was known as "Black Wall Street" or "Baby River Oaks" due to the concentration of businesses. The 1980s oil bust damaged the Sunnyside economy. There were 800 businesses in Sunnyside in 2006; the 2000s-2010s Great Recession further harmed Sunnyside particularly because many businesses had thin operating margins; many African-American businesses received above-average damage from the 2008 recession, and new ones had since been established in Missouri City and Pearland. In 2016 the number of businesses in Sunnyside was 600, a 25% decrease from 2006.[9]

As of 2016, according to crime statistics, Sunnyside had 3 times the Houston average in terms of crime.[10] In 2013 NeighborhoodScout placed a tract in Sunnyside, the intersection of Scott Street and Wilmington Street, as the 2nd most dangerous neighborhood in the United States.[21][22] Although there were no reports of the area increasing in crime that year, stats from NeighborhoodScout showed that Scott Street had a slight increase in burglaries and violent crime.

In 2019 Kinder Institute for Urban Research of Rice University concluded that the community had a "strong" "social fabric".[23]

Rafael Longoria and Susan Rogers of the Rice Design Alliance said that Sunnyside could be described as "rurban," a word coined in 1918 which describes an area with a mix of urban and rural characteristics.[24] By 2007 new houses began to appear in the area.[25] As of 2008 Sunnyside still has small churches, shotgun houses, horse stalls, original frame houses, open ditches, uncontrolled garbage fires, and vacant lots, features which characterize many rural areas. By 2008 a major landfill and incinerator in the area had been converted into a park.[5]

As of 2010 Sunnyside has two grocery stores within its area, which serve a regional population of 22,000. Toral Sindha, a nutritionist in the City of Houston's health department and the manager of the city's Community Garden Program, stated that because of this Sunnyside was "a true food desert" and that "healthy produce in fresh fruits and vegetables is not accessible in Sunnyside."[26] Cindy George of the Houston Chronicle said during that year that in Sunnyside and several other communities in Houston, "an abundance of drive-throughs and convenience stores offer processed, fatty foods to residents."[26] George added that Sunnyside's neighborhood stores "offer fewer healthy options of any kind."[26]

As of 2016 a large number of federally subsidized low income housing units are in the area. The Houston Housing Authority (HHA), formerly the Housing Authority of the City of Houston (HACH), proposed additional ones in 2013, although they were not built.[10] Villa Americana formerly known as the VA,[27] Wesley Square,[28] Sunflower Terrace,[29] Scott Plaza,[30] King's Row,[31] Royal Palms East,[32] Southlawn,[33] Missionary Village,[34] and the now demolished Wilmington[35] are low income housing developments located around the area.

In 2019 there were plans to establish a solar power facility in the area.[36]

The city operates the Sunnyside Park and the Sunnyside Community Center at 3502 Bellfort Boulevard. The park and the community center include a playground, an outdoor basketball pavilion, a 0.48 miles (0.77 km) hike and bicycle trail, lighted tennis courts, an indoor gymnasium, weight rooms, meeting rooms, a lighted athletics field, and a swimming pool.[75][76] The community celebrates the "Chocolate Bayou" festival annually.[2] Sunnyside is included in the service area of the Sam Houston Area Council Boy Scouts W.L. Davis District.[77]

The American Red Cross operates the Southeast (Sunnyside) Houston-Harris County Branch Office at 4605 Wilmington Street.[78]

• Alma Allen - Member of the Texas House of Representatives[79]
• Rodney Ellis - Member of the Texas Senate[79]

• 
  Fire Station 55 Sunnyside
• 
  Sunnyside Park

• History of the African-Americans in Houston

• "SUNNYSIDE AND SOUTH PARK COMPREHENSIVE NEEDS ASSESSMENT DATA REPORT" (PDF). Baker Institute for Public Policy. November 2019.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sunnyside.

• Houston HOPE section on Sunnyside
• Sunny Side/South Park Super Neighborhood Association
• H.R. No. 2613 - Texas Legislature
• Attucks Middle School
• Young Elementary School