Woman confronts couple taking baby pics in photogenic TX neighborhood, video shows
Two parents in a scenic Houston neighborhood pulled out their cellphones Saturday, as a woman got out of her car and approached with a small dog.
What happened next is just the latest example of what has become a recurring debate over public and private property in some of the city’s most photogenic neighborhoods.
“This is private property,” the woman says in the video Kelyn Alyssa posted to Facebook. The woman is seen in the video twice slapping at Isaiah Allen’s phone, and once more slapping at a yellow balloon in the shape of a “1,” one of the assorted props the couple brought with them.
They had hired a photographer to take family photos in the Broadacres neighborhood, celebrating their daughter’s first birthday. The walking trail where Allen, Alyssa, their crying baby and the photographer had set up isn’t private property, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“Shame on you,” Alyssa can he heard telling the barefoot woman as her husband films the confrontation. “You brought your dog here to bite my child.”
The small dog never became aggressive in the video. The woman was identified by KTRK as retired Houston lawyer and philanthropist Franci Neely. Neely is the ex-wife of Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, and one of the founding members of the University of Texas School of Law’s Center for Women in Law.
“Look at what you’re doing,” Neely says to the couple’s photographer in the video, which had been shared more than 10,000 times as of Tuesday afternoon. “This is my neighborhood, and you’re bringing these people here, and they’re crazy.”
“Why don’t you go tell them that?” Allen asks the woman, as the camera pivots to show another couple’s photo shoot in the distance along the same trail.
Neely later released this statement, KTRK reported:
“The Broadacres Homeowners Association Invests lots of money paying to maintain the trees, grass and walkways in our neighborhood. The high volume of commercial photography damages the property that Broadacres HOA pays to maintain and interferes with dog walkers and others who merely want to walk under the pretty trees.
“We asked the commercial photographers to please stop. I am very sorry that I got upset on late Saturday afternoon. Putting it in context, however: I saw three commercial photography shoots in one block at the same time, something that happens frequently.
“When I explained the situation to the first and third groups, they were respectful. The couple whose photo shoot obstructed the walkway was not. It’s hard to remain composed when confronted by shouted threats of lawsuits and false, inflammatory accusations.”
The issue of photography in the Broadacres neighborhood came to light in 2017, according to earlier reporting from the Chronicle. At first, signs went up declaring that the trails and esplanade area between the trail and the street were owned by the Broadacres Trust, and that photo shoots along the trails were banned, the newspaper reported.
But later that year, the City of Houston forced the neighborhood to take down the signs on the basis that the land in question is actually “part of the public right of way,” according to the Chronicle.
The Broadacres neighborhood sits between Houston’s Rice University and midtown.
