HOUSTON -- Residents of the Houston East End said Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee was the key to the construction of a stadium for the Major League Soccer team Houston Dynamo -- and accused him of stalling the project.
"Without the Dynamo I don't think [this area] can survive," said Khen Ly, the owner of the Kim Sung supermarket, east of Downtown Houston.
Residents pushed Harris County commissioners to sign off on the project Tuesday morning, but Lee refused to take a stand when pressed by East End resident Marilu De La Fuente.
"Mister [Lee], you are known as the Godfather," she said. "I know know you will do the right thing."
Much of the 12-acre site proposed for the stadium sits in Lee's county precinct. He has stayed quiet on the subject for months. Again on Tuesday, he dodged reporters who wanted to ask him about his position.
The Houston Dynamo has pledged $60 million to build much of the stadium. Former Houston Mayor Bill White proposed dedicating $10 million in city property tax to build part of the stadium's infrastructure. Harris County still has to commit to $10 million in county property taxes.
"I've had a brief conversation with Mayor [Annise] Parker about it," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. "Commissioner Lee [and] Commissioner Garcia remain very interested in it. And it's just still out there bubbling as an issue."
Sylvia Medina, director of economic development for the Houston East End Chamber of Commerce, told commissioners residents were in this "for the long haul."
"We are not going to give up," she said.
