Cutting Class

Still, he says, "we're not married to any site. We've got our ears wide open."

But the fact remains, as spokesman Abbott puts it, that 11th Street is still the designated site for the new school.

Mary Martha Lappe, the HSPVA development director who has been with the school since its inception, is probably right when she says these HSPVA students can truly appreciate the wonders of nature offered by the 11th Street park.

But if the school comes in, a lot of those trees disappear. Chances are good that others will die when the dirt is brought in to protect against flooding. The crawfish will smother as well, and the herons will move on.

So then it really doesn't matter how sensitive these kids are. When everything has been removed or choked to death and covered with asphalt and aspirations and dirt, what'll be left to look at?

Lorraine Cherry's photos of what used to be?

E-mail Margaret Downing at margaret_downing@ houstonpress.com.