Clear Lake City, Houston, Texas

Clear Lake City is a master-planned community located in southeast Harris County, Texas and is the second-largest master-planned community in Houston—behind Kingwood. The majority of the community lies in the corporate limits of Houston, while a small eastern portion is in the city limits of Pasadena. Also see ( Pasadena Clear Lake )

The community is adjacent to NASA's Johnson Space Center, as well as other major aerospace companies—including Boeing and Lockheed-Martin. Clear Lake City is diverse and has the largest Asian American concentration within any master-planned communities inside the city of Houston. The community and its adjacent areas have a high concentration of engineers due to both NASA and the local petrochemical industries.

The master-planned community was named Clear Lake City for a lake south of the Johnson Space Center that separates Harris County from Galveston County and connects Clear Creek to Galveston Bay.

History

Clear Lake City was originally developed by the Friendswood Development Company on land sold to Humble Oil and Refining Company (now ExxonMobil) by James Marion West in 1938.

The portion of Clear Lake City that was Houston's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) was annexed by the city of Houston in 1977 despite a grass-roots campaign by its residents to stop it. Their slogan was "Free The Clear Lake 25,000!" Lawsuits over the annexation resulted in the conversion of Houston city government from at-large city councilmen to the current-day nine district and five at-large council seats. Resulting was the decline of influence of the traditional developer-led power structure behind Houston government.

Since 1980, part of Clear Lake City within the Houston City Limits is located in Council District E.

Kathy Whitmire was elected Mayor of Houston, in large part because of voting support from Clear Lake City, an area she promised to disannex; she did not keep her promise. For several years after the annexation, Clear Lake residents were paying Houston taxes but receiving no services, such as fire and police protection Fact|date=September 2007. Later on, the eastern portion in Pasadena's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) was annexed by the city of Pasadena.

Crime

Several well-known murders were committed in the area in recent years. The community became the focus of worldwide attention in the summer of 2001 when Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub in their home within the community; her 2002 conviction was reversed and she was found innocent by reason of insanity during her second trial. In 2002, another murder was committed that achieved tabloid infamy, as Clara Harris ran down her husband David Harris in a hotel parking lot in nearby Nassau Bay; she was convicted in February, 2003 ( [http://www.toobeautiful.org/ap_030213.html Associated Press article] ).

On July 18, 2003, four young people were shot to death at a home in the Brook Forest subdivision. The home, located on the 3700 block of Millbridge Drive, was owned by the family of 18-year old Tiffany Nichole Rowell. Rowell's friend, 18-year old Rachael Ann Koloroutis, had moved in with Rowell over the Fourth of July weekend. Both girls had graduated from Clear Lake High School the previous May. Koloroutis, Rowell, 19-year old Marcus Ray Precella (Rowell's boyfriend), and 21-year old Adelbert Nicholas Sanchez (Precella's cousin), were shot multiple times. Koloroutis was also beaten [http://www.toobeautiful.org/houchron_030719.html] [http://cache.zoominfo.com/cachedpage/?archive_id=0&page_id=495406018&page_url=%2f%2fwww.chron.com%2fcs%2fCDA%2fssistory.mpl%2fmetropolitan%2f2083094&page_last_updated=9%2f5%2f2003+4%3a12%3a44+PM&firstName=Rachael&lastName=Koloroutis] . For three years the case remained a mystery that disturbed the community. Then on July 21, 2006 two suspects were named, one of which, a woman named Christine Paolilla, was arrested later that day [http://www.click2houston.com/news/9558992/detail.html] . The body of the other suspect, Christopher Lee Snider, a local man, was found on August 5, 2006 [http://www.hcnonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17039832&BRD=1574&PAG=461&dept_id=532240&rfi=6] in South Carolina.

On April 20, 2007, death struck the Johnson Space Center facility when Bill Phillips, a NASA employee shot and killed David Beverly, Phillips' supervisor, before killing himself.

Education

Pupils in Clear Lake City attend Clear Creek Independent School District. Two of the four comprehensive high schools in the district—Clear Brook High School and Clear Lake High School—serve the community. Despite being located in Houston and Pasadena, it is "not" served by the Houston Independent School District nor the Pasadena Independent School District.

The community is served by the Clear Lake City–County Freeman Branch of the Harris County Public Library. This branch is administered by Harris County, but is funded in part by the Houston Public Library.

The University of Houston–Clear Lake is adjacent to the community (the majority of the 520-acre UHCL campus lies in the corporate limits of Pasadena, while the part of campus south of Armand Bayou lies in the city of Houston).

The West mansion in Pasadena Clear Lake, is still located on NASA Parkway overlooking Clear Lake. For years, the Lunar and Planetary Institute was housed in the mansion until it moved to a bigger, more modern building. The property was recently sold to former basketball player Hakeem Olajuwon's property management company for future development.

See also

External links

* [http://www.photohome.com/clearlake Clear Lake Information Page]
* [http://www.uhcl.edu/ University of Houston–Clear Lake]
* [http://www.ccisd.net/ Clear Creek Independent School District]
* [http://www.lakeorchestra.org/ Clear Lake High School Orchestra]
* [http://www.bayareayouthsymphony.org/ Bay Area Youth Symphony]