Southgate, Houston

Southgate is a neighborhood in Houston, Texas, United States.

In 2002 St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital was engaging in an expansion project. In January 2003 some residents asked the City of Houston to reclassify University Boulevard as a residential street in order to control the amount of traffic on the street. The Southgate Civic Club asked for a street closure on Southgate Boulevard to prevent traffic from the Texas Medical Center from reaching the subdivision. In late December 2003 the City of Houston Public Works Department closed a portion of Southgate Boulevard to block Medical Center traffic. In 2003, on weekdays, 38% of the vehicle traffic on Southgate Boulevard did not originate from the neighborhood. The Houston Fire Department had stated opposition to the street closures. In December 2003 the City of Houston closed Southgate east of Travis Street, preventing commuters to a St. Luke's office building from parking in the neighborhood. Deborah Mann Lake of the Houston Chronicle. said that the closure of Southgate Boulevard did not bring very many complaints.

In 2004 residents considered establishing a property owners association to better prevent developments not desirable to the community from occurring and to more strongly enforce deed restrictions. Some residents believed that a property owners association could gain too much power and cause the community's direction to fall into an undesirable power authority. In 2004 Richard Merrill, the president of the Southgate Civic Club, said that a majority of residents supported the idea of a property owners association. One resident, Michael Bonderer, launched a campaign against the idea of a property owners association and put a sign in his yard. He was banned from the Southgate community message board, which had been established to discuss the property owner issue.

In 2007 Southgate residents and Houston City Council member Anne Clutterbuck worked on a plan to make modify street closures to continue stemming Texas Medical Center traffic.

In 2010 Raj Mankad of the Houston Chronicle said that despite being in the presence of the high-rises of the Texas Medical Center, it "retains a close-nit [sic] community feel.

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