David Crossley: Urban Dreamer; Quality of Life Seeker
by Vicki Wolf

David Crossley says studying cities is the most interesting thing he’s ever done. It’s not just learning about them that motivates Crossley, he is thoroughly involved in improving quality of life for people who live in the Houston area. This is the mission of Gulf Coast Institute, the organization he founded in 1998.

Crossley has been involved in Houston’s city life since the 1970’s. He first became aware of the environment as an issue of growing importance in 1971, when he was manager of KPFT 90.1 FM radio. His understanding of the mistakes being made with the environment was deepened by living on a farm from 1973-1975.

The real epiphany came when Crossley was vacationing on Mustang Island. “On April 14, 1992, I watched C-span and saw a press conference that talked about a new book titled “Beyond the Limits,” Crossley recalls. “They used terms like ‘over-shoot and collapse’. They said we were filling (the) stratosphere with chemicals, and it wasn’t doing the things it was meant to do any more. They warned that change would happen fast and would happen in wealthy cities. The ability to deliver food might vanish,” he continues. “We see now that it’s coming to a head; there is a lot to do – I didn’t want my kids to live in that kind of city.”

Crossley says he stayed up the whole night and by morning had decided to start a non-profit business to create a learning tool for educating children about systems and the environment. The company, called Sense Interactive, was Houston’s first multi-media company. Crossley says he naively started the company as a non-profit, and later changed to a for-profit business. The company lost a lot of money and Crossley transitioned into doing website services. While running his business, Crossley was volunteering about half-time to do civic work and started Gulf Coast Institute.

“I realized that creating a comprehensive plan for the City of Houston was the single most important thing that you could do,” Crossley explains as he ponders the impetus for a significant turning point in his life’s work. His research found that surveys consistently show that 85 percent of Houston area residents favor a comprehensive plan. By 2001, Crossley was focused on facilitating the creation of this plan for the future of Houston, and he’s been working on it ever since. “Houston is the only large city that doesn’t have a comprehensive plan,” Crossley says.

The issues included in Houston area planning are air quality, water, transportation and health. Crossley says the biggest milestone has been providing input for the development a regional transportation plan. “We are doing huge amounts of analysis; we have study groups and go out and make comments to get officials stirred up,” Crossley says. We’ve started very loud public discussions, and we now have a better plan. The work has evolved into Envision Houston 2035, a new approach to future planning for the Houston-Galveston area.

For his own future Crossley says, “I would like Gulf Coast Institute to be a larger institute, able to really provide decision makers with a lot of information.” Crossley also would like to have a retreat center in the country, about 45 minutes from the city. “We could go off and talk about things, separated from the world, in the center of nature. We would talk about quality of life and health, and how to have these kinds of places in urban areas,” he says.

It is hard to build coalitions for change in Houston, Crossley says “A lot of people in Houston have made vast sums of money from the oil business. They don’t want to change anything, it’s worked so well. They don’t want to give money for change,” he says.

For now, Crossley says his central theme is figuring out what quality of life means. He researches, studies and writes about this topic a lot. “I want to write a couple of books,” Crossley says. “As you get older, you get jealous of your time. I want to listen to my inner voice and follow my bliss instead of what others think I should do.”

Crossley is married to Jody Blazek who has her own practice consulting with non-profits. “She is a fantastic partner,” Crossley says.

They have two sons, Jay Blazek Crossley, 29, who works at the Gulf Coast Institute, and Austin Blazek Crossley, 31, director of marketing for the Houston Grand Prix and Cleveland Grand Prix.

Crossley’s hobby is photography. He’s one of the founders of Houston Center for Photography, an art gallery that exhibits photographs.

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