Houston street sign severely faded, unreadable on Cullen Boulevard in South Park neighborhood

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — We rely on street signs to tell us where we are at any given place. But what happens when you can’t read one and the words are faded?

It’s the situation for a Cullen Boulevard street sign in the South Park neighborhood.

Not long ago, the sign was partially covered by tall grass that was growing near it.

“Barely can see the poles and you definitely couldn’t see the sign. So we cleared out all of that grass in that area as much as we could,” Andrew Beaver, Clean the Block Founder, said.

Beaver and his nonprofit team spent several weeks clearing out the grass left on an abandoned property where the sign stands.

“We clean up illegal dumping every day and the Sunnyside and Third Ward communities,” Beaver said. “Essentially the underserved communities that don’t have the resources to get it done consistently.”

But what should be one of the easiest things to spot along the road is ultimately becoming something people can’t read.

“Elderly couple, they were literally driving down here real slow,” Beaver said. “They stopped and said, ‘Hey, could you get us to Cullen?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s right here.’ They would have never had to ask if they would have been able to see this sign.”

This is an issue reported to the City of Houston hundreds of times over the years.

According to 311 data, so far this year there have been more than 760 complaints about faded traffic markings, which includes crosswalks, street signs, and lane markers.

During the same time last year, that number was more than 800.

According to the city’s data, a majority of the requests from this year have been marked as completed, but that could mean a variety of things.

The data showed some cases could be closed because the reported location is part of a capital improvement plan or city workers decided repairs weren’t needed at this time.

Beaver said getting a new sign is an important next step, but he doesn’t want it to stop there.

“Is there not something where the government, the local officials have quarterly maintenance checks? Shouldn’t there be someone going through these communities and saying, this sign needs to be replaced? This grass is overgrown,” Beaver said.

ABC13 asked the city if they do routine maintenance checks for things like faded or damaged street sign. We’re waiting to hear back.

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