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09 February 2010

KTRK-13'S TED OBERG reports that the City of Houston is taking action to tear down a derelict building, "two weeks after Eyewitness News" reported on it as part of a story on the demolition backlog.

In a related story, KHOU-11's Jeremy Rogalski reports that the city and county own a large number of those run-down, neglected properties that so many pols (including the current and former mayor!) criticize.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/09/10 07:48 AM | Comments (1)

08 February 2010

THE DANGER TRAIN AND A METRO BUS collided downtown earlier today, right near METRO headquarters (Chronicle, KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KTRK-13, KRIV-26).

Remind us again why so many smart Houtopians think building rail at grade down busy streets is such a good idea?

The spin that eventually comes from METRO's massive PR shop should prove interesting, at least.

ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: Maybe Chief Lambert can explain why METRO's own bus drivers don't understand safety.

UPDATE (02/09/10): Chron print editors thought the story so important they buried it on B3 (with a B1 photo refer).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/10 06:24 PM | Comments (7)

SLAMPO recounts his conversation with the Chronicle's erratic features editor, Kyrie O'Connor, over the newspaper's new "The Good Life" gambit, which he posted about previously. That man deserves some sort of Blogurbatin'-hazardous-duty pay (or at the very least, a good stiff drink on us at a future meetup).

As for The Good Life, we noticed while walking the dog last night that the rag was still littering many driveways in our west-Houston neighborhood. The visual clutter is not world-class.

MORE: Harris County Almanac.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/10 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

07 February 2010

BLOGHOUSTON FAVS JAY WALL AND STAN BURTON offer Mayor Parker a number of public-safety recommendations in this op-ed in today's Chronicle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/10 08:09 PM | Comments (2)

METRO says it will continue its Airport Express bus service despite a KTRK-13/Ted Oberg story this week criticizing the per-passenger cost of the service (caused by low ridership so far).

Count me among those who thinks the city could use affordable airport transportation options besides the ones dominated by Yellow Cab (whose Super Shuttle, readers may recall, was "given" the exclusive IAH shuttle franchise by Richard Vacar, Bill White, and Council, who shamefully put an existing shuttle service out of business). Indeed, perhaps METRO should even consider cutting the cost of the service to boost ridership (which probably won't happen, because Yellow Cab wouldn't like that), or should run small vans instead of more expensive large luxury buses when there are only two passengers. Do we really want to return to the days of the METRO 102 "Express"?

In related airport news this past week, the Chronicle's Chris Moran posted an analysis of the EZ Tag Airport Parking program that was recently killed by Harris County Commissioners Court. The deal negotiated by the Harris County Toll Road Authority never quite lived up to expectations, and will wind up costing taxpayers some $3-3.5 million before it shuts down, according to Moran.

Still, the service was/is a convenient one for travelers, and we'd like to see it return under a deal that allows it to sustain itself. Like Charles Kuffner (who posted most of the story, just in case it rolls to archives or you'd rather click there than Chron.com), we're not sure why this turned into such an expensive fiasco.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/10 08:02 PM | Comments (2)

THIS WEEK'S HOUSTON PRESS features a really solid local story by an actual professional journalist*: John Nova Lomax takes a look the sharp change in the prosecution of vehicular crimes under Harris Country District Attorney Patricia** Lykos. The story features commentary from local blawggers Murray Newman and Mark Bennett.

* The Village Voice Houston corporate alt-weekly occasionally throws a curveball.
** We've noticed that many publications have started referring to our media-obsessed DA as "Patricia" rather than "Pat," the name that seemed to work just fine for years.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/10 07:31 PM | Comments (0)

METRO'S MARKETING DEPARTMENT WANTED to do something that showed "METRO isn't just a government entity," so they thought and they thought, and shazam! it hit them: Let's make a rap video with kids. As the video's director said, "It's a subtle and unique way to get people to pay attention to METRO and its services without following the same old route." Uh, okay.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/07/10 06:47 AM | Comments (4)

04 February 2010

YESTERDAY, UNCA DARRELL skewered the Chronicle editorial board, as he is wont to do on his intelligent blog.

Today, he announced that he's shutting things down.

Unless he's becoming the Chron's conservative staff columnist (right!), we think that's a real drag. Take a break and reconsider, Unca Darrell!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/04/10 10:24 PM | Comments (3)

MIKE MCGUFF thinks CW39 should be pretty happy with the Chron's glowing profile of Mia Gradney, even if the timing is a little puzzling.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/04/10 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

THE CHRON'S JUNIOR METRO/STATE COLUMNIST returns to the print version of the newspaper today with an essay not about metro/state matters... but about herself.

Congratulations go out to the new mother, of course. But we can't quite comprehend why any editor at America's worst big city daily thought this dreck should actually make it to print in the metro/state section.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/04/10 10:09 PM | Comments (1)

IT'S BEEN A WHILE, so we thought we'd have one of our blogger/beer/BS gatherings.

We'll be hitting the Stag's Head Pub on Saturday from 2pm - ????

Come on by, have an adult beverage, and say hello if you have time Saturday.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/04/10 08:36 PM | Comments (0)

03 February 2010

THE MOVE TO INCREASE WATER RATES* that blogger Ubu Roi has been warning about for some time has finally spilled onto the pages of the Chronicle. Here is the ominous warning from our mayor:

“Council members are going to have to make some hard choices,” Parker said. “This is a problem that's been out there for a very long time.”

Too bad effectively dealing with that longstanding problem (and the crime lab, pension underfunding, HPD understaffing, etc) wasn't a priority of the mayor who purported to "run the city like a business" (although a better description might have been, "run the city like a big statewide campaign prop, while punting hard decisions and problems to future administrations").

It is no secret that we have been highly critical of Clarence Bradford over the years. But we'll give the councilmember (!) points for this sensible (if slightly ineloquent) defense of fiscal conservatism:

“Our economy is now sagging terribly down,” Councilman C.O. Bradford said. He added that he opposed any increases in taxes, fees or rates, “particularly when we haven't had a healthy, productive broad discussion about reducing spending. ... We must start with reducing spending and looking at core services.”

* As Cory Crow properly notes, you can regard it as a tax increase.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/03/10 09:34 AM | Comments (6)

01 February 2010

SLAMPO POSTS about the Chron's latest effort to generate some interest (while apparently littering driveways of non-subscribers).

We're a little more bullish on the enterprise -- maybe with the addition of some reader party pics and excerpts from the online blogs, The Good Life could be made even better!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/01/10 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

ANDY ICKEN, quaintly described as former Mayor Bill White's City Hall "troubleshooter" by the Chron.com Houston Politics blog, will be moving from Public Works to Mayor Parker's office.

Since so much of his *ahem* troubleshooting for the previous administration gave the appearance of politicizing an ostensibly technocratic agency, moving him to a more purely political *ahem* troubleshooting role seems appropriate.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/01/10 09:16 PM | Comments (0)

31 January 2010

ON WEDNESDAY, COUNCIL voted to expand the city's curbside recycling program.

We liked the conclusion to KHOU-11's story:

The program is being paid for with federal stimulus money.

That's so... stimulating!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/31/10 12:25 PM | Comments (10)

KTRK-13'S TED OBERG checks in on the City of Houston's backlog inspecting and tearing down dangerous, derelict buildings. Mayor Parker promises improvement, and tells Oberg to check back in a year's time.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/31/10 11:26 AM | Comments (2)

HOUSTON STRATEGIST TORY GATTIS argues that "point-to-point express buses are the future of commuting."

We hope someone in the mayor's office is reading, since METRO seems determined to sink several billion more dollars than voters approved (and probably can't afford) into an at-grade rail system that reduces traffic mobility.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/31/10 11:21 AM | Comments (4)

30 January 2010

AMERICA'S WORST BIG CITY DAILY thinks this "exclusive" content will entice you to purchase their product this weekend:

A Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy certainly plays to the newspaper's strengths (they have mastered the genre), but why would anyone think it would help sell newspapers?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/30/10 08:00 AM | Comments (3)

29 January 2010

CORY CROW highlights the "Houston Way" angle of the proposed Galleria-area/Dynamo stadium complex.

You knew there had to be such an angle, right?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/29/10 08:07 AM | Comments (5)

28 January 2010

THE EXAMINER'S MIKE REED continues his fine coverage of METRO with this story on the "University Alignment" land grab (along with helpful links to various documents).

In other METRO news, the organization was recently ordered by the state Attorney General to turn over information it was trying to hide from an interested public.

It is worth recalling this recent lie from outgoing Chairman David Wolff: