Houston City Hall Glows Purple on Monday for Epilepsy Awareness - and Downtown Closes Streets for the Rockets
Two lines on the city's own calendar tell Houston's Monday. City Hall is lit purple for National Epilepsy Awareness, and by mid-afternoon the streets around Toyota Center begin closing for the Rockets' night game against Boston - Bell, Polk and Clay near the arena, and the Pease Street crossings by the convention district.
HOUSTON - City Hall wears purple on Monday. The Mayor's Office special-events calendar lists Monday, Nov. 2, as an illumination day - "Illumination: Purple, National Epilepsy" - with City Hall lit purple for National Epilepsy Awareness, the city's annual gesture for the roughly one in 26 people who will develop epilepsy in their lifetime and the families who live with it.
The same calendar carries Monday's practical downtown news. The Rockets host the Boston Celtics at Toyota Center on Monday night, and the city's posted closure plan for the game runs from 10 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on the streets around the arena: four lanes closest to the arena on Bell Street at 1501 Bell, one lane closest to the arena on Polk Street at 1510 Polk, and two lanes on Clay Street in the 1400 block, under a plan produced by Clutch City Events.
A second closure entry, produced by Houston First for the Avenida de las Americas area, runs from 3 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. and closes the Pease Street crossings at Crawford, Emmanuel, Chenevert and Chartres - the convention-district grid that game traffic crosses on its way to and from the arena garages.
Drivers headed downtown Monday evening for anything other than the game should give the Toyota Center blocks a wide berth after mid-afternoon; drivers headed to the game should expect the arena-side lanes, not the freeways, to be the slow part. The purple lights, at least, require no detour.
