28 February 2005

City closes First Ward streets to reduce train noise

This is interesting: Houston has closed some residential street railroad crossings in the First Ward to reduce train noise:

Neighbors got the city to close three streets that have railroad crossings.

"As long as it doesn't impede public safety and doesn't provide any detriment to traffic flow then I think we're on to something innovative here," said Houston Councilman Adrian Garcia.

The closings will keep cars from racing through the streets, trying to beat the trains.

Perhaps more than anything it will reduce noise.

Engineers don't have to blast their horns if cars can't cross.

"Of course we'll all appreciate less noise pollution and it being quieter, but I think the overall benefit for the community will be from the safety perspective," said Allison Plantz, First Ward resident.

The street crossing will be closed for 90 days to see if it works. If so, three other street crossings a little farther down the tracks will close as well. Not a moment too soon for long-time residents like Margo Childs who has lived along the tracks for years.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/28/05 06:05 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

Gilley's property to become a middle school

Pasadena ISD is buying the old Gilley's property for a future school:

The Pasadena Independent School District bought the nearly 15-acre site where the club -- which with its mechanical bull ride became an international tourist draw after it was featured in the 1980 movie "Urban Cowboy" -- once stood in this Houston suburb.

The club, named after country singer Mickey Gilley, shut down in 1989 after Gilley and partner Sherwood Cryer feuded over how to run the place. A fire destroyed it soon after.

The Pasadena school district agreed to pay nearly $440,000 in back taxes to purchase the property.

"We plan to, someday, build a middle school on that site that will serve the Park View Intermediate School attendance zone," said Kirk Lewis, deputy superintendent for the school district.

A pavilion remains on the property but Lewis said it would probably be cleared when the new school is built.

"I think that all of the kids that will go to school on that property will have a lot to talk about," said Gilley, who still lives in Pasadena and runs a restaurant there.

Do you think they'll have a mechanical bull in the gym for P.E.?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/28/05 01:23 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

MAP in Montgomery County

South Montgomery County has its own Motorist Assistance Program:

The function of the taxpayer-funded program, which costs about $130,000 per year in salaries and fuel, is to reduce auto accidents caused by rubbernecking drivers distracted by motorists stranded along roadways in South Montgomery County.

The program also is an alternative to compulsory towing programs, like the hotly-debated Safe Clear program started in January along Houston freeways.

"We try to do whatever we can to get you down the road. And if we can't accomplish that, we've got a cell phone so you can call someone," Gilchrist said.

[snip]

The motorist assistance program came about as a partnership between the Precinct 3 Constable's Office, Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner's Office and Buckalew Chevrolet in Conroe, which provides the vehicles at no cost to the county.

"(An auto) dealer agreed to help with a program to keep our roadways and our highways open and free of obstructions and stranded motorists," Holifield said.

Two constable's deputies — one who works the day shift from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and one who patrols from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. — monitor Interstate 45, Texas 242 and local roadways.

[snip]

"I'd like to see it expanded countywide. They work Interstate 45 from Spring Creek north to the San Jacinto River, although they'll go further if they get an emergency call, and (Texas) 242, Rayford/Sawdust Road, and some on the more major streets that carry 40,000 cars, like Woodlands Parkway," [Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner Ed] Chance said.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/28/05 11:57 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

Spur 527 and Houston signage

Outbound Spur 527 will be closed this weekend, and when it reopens, drivers will notice some changes:

This weekend, the Texas Department of Transportation enters the last step of the final phase of rebuilding the spur and the Southwest Freeway section it connects to south of downtown Houston. Crews will close the outbound spur at 9 p.m. Friday. It will stay shuttered all day Saturday and reopen early Sunday.

When the weekend's traffic shift is complete, commuters will notice several changes to the outbound spur. Vehicles will travel on the new inbound lanes. Two entry ramps will be closed for this last step of work, estimated to be complete in summer 2006.

The biggest potential headache will be the reduction of spur traffic from two lanes to one approaching the merge onto southbound Southwest Freeway. That potential chokepoint — the spur had three outbound lanes before work began in February 2004 — has downtown leaders and transportation officials advising commuters to think about other routes.

Also, Laurence Simon has come up with some alternative Houston highway signs.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/28/05 10:29 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

Heavy trash zero-tolerance

Mayor White's heavy trash policy, where people who put it out too early get cited, has some residents complaining:

"I've lived here 39 years and in that time, I've set my heavy trash out twice, and I get a ticket," he said.

He wasn't alone. Several of the mostly senior residents at the recent Kashmere Gardens Super Neighborhood meeting expressed uncertainty about Houston's new heavy trash schedule.

But confusion about their trash day — and how early they can place it in front of their residences — won't keep them from being ticketed under Mayor Bill White's zero-tolerance policy under which citations are liberally handed out to people who set tree limbs, tires, furniture and other big items early.

[snip]

Ignorance of the schedule or absentmindedness will not prevent tickets ranging from $50 to $2,000 for schedule violators, he [Houston Police Officer Tony Emanuel] said.

I wonder how much money the city has collected so far?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/28/05 08:41 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)

Metro needs help figuring out why ridership is down

In today's Chronicle is a short bit with highlights from the latest Metro Board meeting. In addition to authorizing extra money for MAP and agreeing to sell surplus trolley cars to Austin, the board discussed the smart card system, which still isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing, and then there's this:

The board authorized spending $250,000 for a survey firm to research why transit ridership has gone down in recent years and what Metro can do to attract more passengers.

Shoot. For a lot less than $250,000, blogHOUSTON's writers and readers could give Metro a list of reasons why ridership has gone down. If you'd like to give the Metro Board some hints, fire away in the forum.

UPDATE: Owen Courreges has his own (smart) thoughts on why Metro is having a problem attracting riders:

Metro has shown that it doesn’t care about its actual ridership base, and instead is fishing for yuppies.

Yep.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/28/05 07:55 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)

27 February 2005

Chron editorialists want new privileges for "journalists"

Today's Chron editorial advocating new privileges for journalists based on a mischaracterization of the Plame affair seems once again to take the editorialists far from the ideal state the opinion page's interim editor has previously glorified.

The editorial begins with an overblown assertion:

Two news reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, face going to jail for 18 months. Their crime? They agreed to listen to what a senior administration official had to say on the condition that they would not publicly connect the information with the official's name.

No, that's not their crime. Local blogger and attorney William Dyer has knocked down similar contentions effectively (most recently here), as has Orrin Judd. The First Amendment does not, and should not (they contend) bestow any privilege on a journalist or anyone else to withhold information related to a crime.

City should focus on loan-default "revenue stream"

On February 23, Anne Linehan called attention to a KHOU-11 report by Mark Greenblatt on the city's seeming indifference to multimillion-dollar defaults on city loans made to various downtown developers.

Readers of the Chronicle found out about this news in February 26 print editions of the newspaper.

Apparently, city officials were able to get their talking points in better order for the Chronicle story. Recall the statements of John Walsh, the city's point man on this matter, to KHOU's reporter:

The Defenders couldn't find a single payment that the Magnolia Hotel has ever made to the city of Houston. When asked if that surprised him, Walsh said, "No. I can't vouch for the reason why it has taken so long for us to pursue the collection of these loans."

But Walsh says the city might not be able to collect.

"Then if we can't collect it, we'll just take our lumps and do the best we can."

After a few days, though, the mayor's spin machine has Mr. Walsh sounding much better for the Chronicle:

The city intends to "aggressively pursue" repayment by the owners of the Magnolia Hotel and the Crowne Plaza Hotel, said John Walsh, Mayor Bill White's deputy chief of staff for neighborhoods and housing.

Tom Kirkendall calls these defaults -- along with the city's partnership in the Hilton Americas hotel -- "two more examples of why the City of Houston should not be in the business of financing redevelopment projects."

It is worth noting that Mayor White effectively used the Hilton America's hotel to collaterize part of the city's underfunded obligations to the municipal employees pension fund, and that even with optimistic assumptions regarding that hotel's performance (which may not pan out), that pension fund remains underfunded to the tune of some $850 million dollars.

Clearing up matters with such short- and long-term revenue implications for the city deserves much higher priority than revenue-enhancement efforts such as red-light cameras, expansion of downtown parking meters hours and coverage, or parking authorities.

RELATED: Hyatt Regency in Foreclosure.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/27/05 05:54 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Political consultant's accountant accused of embezzling

On February 18, KTRK-13's Miya Shay reported that an employee of Allen Blakemore's political consulting firm had been accused of embezzling at least $100,000. Chris Elam noted the news on his blog.

The "olds" appeared in print editions of the Houston Chronicle a week after the KTRK story.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/27/05 04:32 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

KHOU introduces new executive news director

KHOU-11 has a new executive news director:

KHOU-TV Channel 11 has named Keith Connors Executive News Director. Connors comes to KHOU from Belo owned WCNC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina where he has been Executive News Director since March of 1998.

[snip]

In 2004, under Connors’ direction WCNC-TV won a number of prestigious national journalism awards including the George Foster Peabody award, the DuPont-Columbia award and the Scripps Howard Foundation award. In the three years prior, the WCNC newsroom earned three regional Edward R. Murrow awards for overall excellence.

Prior to serving as Executive News Director of WCNC-TV in Charlotte, Connors was Executive News Director of Belo’s WVEC-TV in Norfolk, VA; News Director for WOKR-TV in Rochester, NY; Executive Producer at WTOL in Toledo, OH and held several news management positions with WKRN in Nashville, TN.

Connors replaces KHOU Vice President News, Mike Devlin. Devlin will become station manager of Belo owned WFAA-TV in Dallas on February 28.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/27/05 04:23 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

Chron editorializes on Woodfill

The Chronicle ran a predictable editorial on Friday blasting recent comments by Jared Woodfill, Harris County Republican Chair.

What was predictable about the Chron's editorial was not that it blasted Woodfill. Rather, it's that the Chronicle editorialists denied that political perspective has any role to play in policy formation:

Houston's nonpartisan municipal elections were designed from the start to keep partisan ideology and antagonism at bay. Mobility, garbage collection, parks and libraries defy pigeonholing by party. There is no Republican sewer line, no Democratic pothole. Opposing a solution just to score points against the official proposing it hurts everyone who lives in the city.

We agree with that last sentence. However, that's not the same as saying political ideology can't inform and lead to very different policy choices.

What happened to the downtown trolleys?

Just under a year ago, Kevin Whited posted, on his personal blog, this news story about Metro's plan for its transit services to better serve the light rail:

Laid out in the presentation are pages with maps of transit services that will be eliminated, or modified so that the routes feed into the METRO rail.

"The plan is designed to integrate the rail system with the overall transit system, to make the maximum use of both buses and rail," said METRO spokesperson Ken Connaughton.

Part of the plan is to eliminate all of the routes of the downtown trolleys.

Then yesterday Lucas Wall told us this:

Metro has sold six surplus trolley buses to Capital Metro in Austin, illustrating the waning of downtown circulator routes served by the special vehicles designed to resemble old-fashion streetcars.

Well, what happened to the trolleys?

The passenger count has waned in recent years, however, despite the continued churn of street and light rail construction. Last June, with boardings down to about 3,200 per weekday and trains running on Main Street, the authority decided to consolidate the trolley routes from six to three and remove night and Saturday service.

Even fewer riders used the new routes. On Nov. 1, Metro cut them down to two and reduced the hours even further. For the first time, a fare was established — 50 cents, exact change only.

Those curtailments have produced lower ridership figures, and all downtown trolleys are now on the chopping block as the long-awaited end to transit-street construction nears.

Gosh, that's strange: cut routes, cut service, add a fare and the people aren't flocking to it. Go figure.

And does Wall ask Metro about the plan from a year ago to eliminate the trolley? It doesn't look like it:

"The downtown trolley program was designed to compensate people downtown for the disruptions caused by reconstruction of the transit streets," said Metro Chairman David Wolff. "The trolleys might not be a permanent fixture."

Wolff described the recent passenger counts as "really anemic." Under Metro's business philosophy, routes low in demand will be slashed.

"If the demand were there," Wolff said, "people would be on them."

Metro's chairman just says that ridership is anemic and demand isn't there.

You know, if the average Houston reader hasn't been paying attention to the MetroRail story in great detail, he or she might assume that trolley ridership has just mysteriously dried up. Because Wall sure doesn't let on that eliminating the trolleys was actually a part of Metro's plan.

CALLIE MARKANTONIS ADDS: Why does it seem as if the Chron unquestioningly accepts Metro's account--unquestioningly accepting ridership figures, unquestioningly accepting statements about the lack of usage of the new, Metro-Rail-inspired trolley routes--to the point where it will even erroneously attack local elected officials on its behalf (Culberson and Delay) when the agency is clearly culpable, etc., but does take HISD and CPS and the District Attorney's office to task on matters large or small, imaginary or real?

No other governmental entity garners such cushy coverage. Why?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/27/05 09:54 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

26 February 2005

There's more to the story of Texas defying NCLB

Both the Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News have the story about the Texas Education Agency not following a federal rule, regarding special education testing, in the No Child Left Behind act. That allowed many Texas school districts to achieve an "adequate yearly progress" grade, instead of being placed in the "needs improvement" category.

I think it's worth exploring a bit more what is behind the TEA's decision and why it does not mean that Texas schools are poorly educating their students. Between the two stories, the DMN's has better background and details to understand what happened and why.

Press tackles "evil Republican" developer

This week, the Houston Press passed up an opportunity to do some balanced, interesting journalism on the massive redevelopment going on inside the loop.

Instead, Josh Harkinson took the easy, predictable, boring approach:

Few businessmen provoke sharper differences of opinion among Houstonians than Bob Perry. The founder of Perry Homes is the largest private political donor to Republican causes in the nation. Writing checks from his modest home in Nassau Bay, he gives voice to conservative suburbia and inspires nightmares among the left-of-center politicos in the city's urban core.

And he's no less controversial within the camps of his own industry. University of Houston architecture professor Tom Diehl speaks for many in his profession when he describes the 72-year-old former schoolteacher as, simply, "the enemy."

Standing with Diehl in the lounge of the Gerald D. Hines School of Architecture, Celeste Williams giggles. A native of Manhattan who teaches courses on the history of design, she grapples for her own words to describe Perry's town houses. "I can't even call them plain vanilla," she says, "because I love vanilla so much."

Williams climbs into her blue Audi and drives through the Third Ward. The architect has agreed to tour several Perry developments and apply an informal "good neighbor test" -- a measure of how the town houses interact with their surroundings. She comes to a stop at Baldwin Park, where old oaks are hemmed in by a young wall of identical brick facades.

Walking out of the park and into the street, Williams catches simultaneous views of two sides of a new Perry town house. "It looks like two different buildings," she says. The bricks on the front of the house peter out halfway along the side, in favor of siding. Windows are scarce, and their sills don't line up with those fronting the park. It's a classic example of squandering a valuable corner lot: "If you're facing the corner, you have an incredible opportunity to gather both streets to you," she says as a car whizzes by, "and as you can see, that's pretty much lost."

The explanation for the disjointed corner house is simple: Perry has surrounded the park with tract homes. "They're just stamping and then they're just building," Williams says. "It has no site-sensitivity."

Part of what we like to do with this blog is offer some balance to the formulaic approach of this town's tired legacy media (yes, the days when the Press should be considered substantively alternative journalistically have long passed).

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/26/05 03:39 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (6)

25 February 2005

Food and drink roundup (02-25-2005 edition)

The output from Houston's food and drink reviewers was hit and miss this week.

Alison Cook visits Miguelito's, a small Venezuelan restaurant that seems to be quite a little find.

Robb Walsh plays political commentator and food critic, and his review of Bistro Moderne suffers as a result. Unfortunately, too many of Walsh's columns lately seem to reflect the general decline at the Press.

Ken Hoffman says Quaker Rice Cakes aren't as bad as they once were.

The best bet might be to use the things as coasters at Bluto's Sports Bar, reviewed by Gracie Ochoa.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/25/05 11:57 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (3)

Chron Corrections

Yesterday we commented on the Chronicle's editorial expressing concern about Tasers. The editorial also said there are no guidelines in place on how Tasers are to be used.

Today, a little something appeared in Corrections:

A memo by Houston Police Department Chief Harold Hurtt, circulated Jan. 19, warned officers to use Tasers only on combative suspects who posed a danger to officers and citizens. Nonviolent suspects fleeing or passively resisting arrest are not to be Tasered. HPD Lt. Robert Manzo said academy training materials discourage officers from using a Taser on children, the elderly, the disabled or the mentally ill, except in the most extraordinary circumstances. An editorial on Page B10 of Thursday's City & State section urging HPD to develop detailed, written guidelines didn't mention the existence of the memos.

Also, I noted a couple of days ago that a Chronicle editorial contained a couple of misspelled names. Those have been corrected; and in that stealth way we love so well, no hint of the fixes appeared in Corrections. There is a precedent for a misspelled name being mentioned in Corrections, because Drayton McLane merited it once.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/25/05 06:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

Is there a new residential toll road on the horizon?

I have posted on the Grand Parkway project that is a hot topic up where I live. Now Charles Kuffner receives word that there is another toll road being proposed, and it too would run through a residential area:

Boy, that Houston-Galveston Area Council 2025 Regional Transportation Plan sure is a gift that keeps on giving, isn't it? I've got a note from Andrea Warren, the Public Relations Committee Chair for the Oak Forest Homeowner's Association, informing me that the latest proposal is a toll road from Tomball to 610 at TC Jester, cutting through the Oak Forest neighborhood along the BNSF rail line.

Please follow the link to read all the details.

I am particularly concerned about the Harris County Toll Road Authority, which has phenomenal power to build at will, regardless of community concerns. Something needs to be done to change the way the HCTRA works.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/25/05 01:38 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)

Mayor White really, really wants red light cameras

According to this Chronicle story, Mayor White says he will not give up the fight for red light cameras even if the state Senate passes the bill closing a loophole that would allow the city to use the cameras:

White said he believes the city may have the authority to use red-light cameras despite Thursday's House vote.

[snip]

Houston City Attorney Arturo Michel said state law does not preclude municipalities from using cameras to issue criminal citations.

White said that may be an option, but acknowledged it would be difficult.

Under Texas law, running a red light is a Class C misdemeanor that can be regulated only by the state, even though local governments are in charge of enforcement.

Drivers who run red lights would have to be identified to issue criminal citations, but intersection cameras typically photograph license plates and don't clearly show the driver.

I don't know. The Legislature seems firmly against cameras. If the city can come up with another way to do it, my guess is the Legislature would tackle the issue again.

Then the mayor gives us a little pro-camera spin:

"I think the public overwhelmingly wants us to use the technology," White said after a lopsided vote in the House to ban camera enforcement.

I didn't know the city had done some polling on the issue. I would love to see the poll particulars, and not the mayor's interpretation of the results.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/25/05 12:42 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)

HISD received good news, but the Chronicle buried it (updated)

The Chronicle's headline at the top of today's City & State section is: Half of high schools miss U.S. goals, and the first paragraph of the story is:

Half of HISD's high schools failed to meet federal goals showing academic progress last year, though more schools than the year before met expectations in the U.S. Department of Education's second annual grading.

That sounds fairly alarming, but if you check HISD's press release, you'll come away with a different take: the feds released No Child Left Behind results for 2004 and HISD did very well -- 91% of HISD schools are meeting federal education standards.

To that end, HISD spokesman Terry Abbott forwarded a letter he wrote to the Chronicle editors protesting the paper's coverage of what should be a good news story:

We're so disappointed this morning by the Chronicle's incredibly biased coverage of HISD on the important story today about progress under the Federal No Child Left Behind law.

Yesterday, HISD announced that 91 percent of its schools -- 9 out of 10 -- made adequate yearly progress in 2004 under NCLB, and that HISD as district made AYP as well. Yesterday also, the Dallas Independent School
District announced that 88 percent of its schools made AYP.

Here is the headline and lead of the Houston Chronicle this morning:

Feb. 25, 2005, 12:16AM

Half of HISD's high schools fail to meet U.S. goals
By MELANIE MARKLEY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Half of HISD's high schools failed to meet federal goals showing academic progress last year, though more schools than the year before met expectations in the U.S. Department of Education's second annual
grading.

Not only does the Chronicle story focus on the 9 percent of schools that failed to make AYP and not the 91 percent that made AYP, the story doesn't mention a single name of an HISD school that made AYP. The story doesn't even report that HISD as a district made AYP. The story also failed to compare HISD with other school districts around the country, when just yesterday, the Associated Press reported an average of one third of schools nationwide failed to make adequate yearly progress.

Now, keeping in mind that Dallas ISD did not do as well as HISD, here is the headline and lead in the Dallas Morning News this morning:

Most DISD schools making grade
Almost 9 of 10 have adequate progress under No Child law

10:01 PM CST on Thursday, February 24, 2005
By TAWNELL D. HOBBS / The Dallas Morning News

Nearly nine out of ten Dallas schools made adequate progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, DISD officials said Thursday.

Why can't the Chronicle simply play the story straight like other media? 9 out of 10 schools making AYP -- and the district making it -- is a significant accomplishment for HISD -- for any urban school district.

Is there anything we can do to appeal for fair coverage from the Chronicle?

Sincerely,
Terry Abbott

I'll be the first to admit that I am often critical of HISD, but I try to base it on facts and reasoning. When there is good news, it should be reported -- fairly. HISD parents, students and employees deserve to know that their school district is meeting the tougher NCLB standards. And I can guarantee you that there are many school districts across this country that would love to have HISD's results.

24 February 2005

Hoffman: Faxas and Boudreaux on the move

Ken Hoffman, who always seems to have the scoop on local media personalities, reports that Eileen Faxas will be leaving KHOU-11:

Channel 11 reporter Eileen Faxas is leaving TV news to concentrate on her singing career.

"You only live once, and you can't go through life without jumping off a few bridges," she said. "This is my destiny."

Quitting your day job is a pretty big gamble. She may be singing a different tune later.

Also, he reports that Bob Boudreaux is hitting Ireland this spring:

"I've acquired the rights to the musical Always ... Patsy Cline, and we're presenting it in Dublin, Ireland, for six weeks starting March 26," said Bourdreaux, who is producing the play. Boudreaux said he drew the Patsy Cline and Dublin connection a few years ago while on his honeymoon in Ireland.

"The Irish are very musical and lyrical people," he said. "They like good storytelling. Country music is very big there, and Patsy Cline is hugely popular. I remembered the play Always ... Patsy Cline from when it debuted at Stages in Houston and figured the Irish would love it."

Boudreaux and business partner Charles Simmons bought the rights to the play by Ted Swindley from the estate of Cline, the country legend who died in a 1963 plane crash.

Boudreaux is producing every nut and bolt of the play, from hiring the director (Scott Fults) to casting to securing work permits to buying commercials on an Irish country music station. He's even putting together a travel package with Absolute Adventure Travel for Houstonians who want to attend.

Although they currently have the rights only for the Irish production, Boudreaux said, "Our ultimate goal, if we're successful in Dublin, is to move the play to London's West End."

Even if they don't make London, the post-production nights at Dublin pubs should be interesting.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/24/05 11:43 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

Woodfill comes out swinging.... but at what exactly?

The Chronicle's Ron Nissimov devotes a surprising amount of space today to Harris County Republican Party Chair Jared Woodfill, who is highly critical of cooperation by city council Republicans with Mayor Bill White:

The executive committee of the Harris County Republican Party has voted overwhlemingly to support Proposition 2 and to repeal Safe Clear. The local party's Web site has links to council voting records maintained by the city.

Woodfill said the Harris County Republican Party has a good relationship with Republican council members and is not planning immediate action against them.

But he said the party is keeping a closer eye on them and may take more aggressive stances if they continue to vote for what he called liberal positions.

There are conservative alternatives to Mayor White's approach to municipal government, which may fairly be characterized as a technocratic-progressive approach that relies heavily on the mayor's considerable interpersonal skills, but Woodfill and the Harris County Republican Party haven't been been presenting them effectively (if at all). Woodfill has admitted he supported the SAFEclear program initially, and seemed only to get worked up over it about the time Mayor White gave in to public pressure and decided part of the $1 million windfall could pay for tows so that poor people wouldn't have their cars impounded and sold; Doctor-Councilwoman Gibbs deemed this "socialized towing," but after a motorist died while seemingly trying to beat a SAFEclear wrecker, Council finally stopped playing games and passed the changes. As for Proposition 1, there are probably many Republicans who wish that Woodfill had been more proactive when councilman Ellis actually helped write the legislation with the mayor.

Smoking ban advocacy journalism, Chron style

The Chronicle's Dina Cappiello reported the following in yesterday's Chronicle:

Testing for 31 different chemicals at nine city watering holes, a University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center doctor — who is also an anti-smoking advocate — found that customers are likely getting a breath of carcinogenic benzene along with their beer, and nearly a dozen other chemicals from cigarette smoke.

Most of the levels detected were higher than those found in 10 smoke-free restaurants, 10 eating establishments with smoking sections, and outdoors during the eight-hour test on a Saturday evening in January.

"There is a measurable line that goes from smoke-free restaurants to smoking restaurants to the bar," said Dr. Joel Dunnington, an associate professor at M.D. Anderson. "The bar is really out there."

The results, requested by the Houston Chronicle, have not been reviewed by other scientists. But they come as the city is weighing a nonsmoking ordinance that would ban smoking in indoor dining areas but allow it in bars and restaurants with bars.

[snip]

Dunnington's research, one of the first local studies on the chemicals released from smoking indoors, lends some scientific support to an all-out ban.

The concentration of benzene, a carcinogen, was twice as high in bars as outside and in smoke-free restaurants. Bars had nearly five times more methyl ethyl ketone, which can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, than outside, and twice as much methyl ethyl ketone than smoke-free restaurants. Some of the other compounds, such as limonene and pinene, which could come from scented cleaners, were not higher in bars and are not harmful.

From the information presented in this article, one cannot reach the bolded conclusion of the reporter (who should stick to reporting, not analyzing). That's because the Chronicle reporter did not give any detailed concentration data, or any benchmark data. To wit, a concentration of methyl ethyl ketone that is five times greater than a trivial amount might be significantly harmful -- or it might just be a trivial amount. Likewise, a concentration of methyl ethyl ketone or benzene two times greater than a trivial amount might be significantly harmful -- or it might not. We can't decide without raw numbers and benchmark data, which aren't provided.

The reporter probably doesn't understand environmental science well enough for the point I've made to register. The reporter's editors should have, though. The result is that the reporter presented information that probably seems ominous to the average reader, but isn't robust enough to draw any health-related conclusions. It's not the first time the newspaper has sensationalized data in advocating for a smoking ban, although at least it did so on the editorial page last time.

UPDATE: Relative to the first sentence of the last paragraph, a reader points me to this biographical information on the reporter, which I had not seen. One would think a reporter with those credentials would understand environmental science well enough not to make an elementary mistake. Still, the mistake was made. I was mistaken and perhaps overly generous in speculating it was made out of ignorance. There was no intent to disparage or discredit the reporter's credentials in the previous paragraph.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/24/05 10:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

Vonage VoIP and personal responsibility

The Chronicle begins a story on VoIP coverage and 911 service in the following ominous manner:

Lured by low phone rates, Peter John's family found that saving money could endanger their lives after learning the one number they cannot dial: 911.

John and his wife, Sosamma, were attacked by two men at their southwest Houston home earlier this month. As they struggled with the intruders, John was shot in the right thigh and torso. His wife was wounded in the left thigh.

But when their 17-year-old daughter Joyce, who was in the house at the time, tried 911, the call would not go through.

The attackers fled, leaving a shaken John wondering whether to reconsider his money-saving phone plan.

"It's scary," John said.

Note how the issue is framed from the very beginning to cast doubt on whatever company might be offering such service. The article goes on to suggest that various governmental authorities might get involved in the problem thus framed.

Fortunately, Laurence Simon has provided some additional insight on one aspect the Chron coverage downplayed: personal responsibility.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/24/05 09:18 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

House passes red light camera bill

The Texas House has passed the bill that would most likely end Houston's planned red light camera program:

The 109-30 vote came after minimum debate in the House, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, said today that he expects that chamber to "look favorably" on the measure.

[snip]

The Legislature voted in 2003 to ban camera enforcement of criminal red light sanctions, but Houston proposes to issue civil citations to red-light violators caught by cameras.

The measure approved by the House today would close that loophole.

"The will of the House shows we are still adamantly opposed to the use of red light cameras," said Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, sponsor of the bill.

If the city really wants to address red light runners, lengthening yellow light times is the way to go.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/24/05 01:22 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

A kinder, gentler police force

The Chronicle's editorial today is, "Tasers in responsible police hands are valuable law enforcement tools, but guidelines for their use must take into account a careful assessment of the risk."

Shocking someone with 50,000 volts of electricity is neither harmless nor painless, and should not be the first resort when officers are not threatened with deadly force and can protect themselves by other means, such as a tactical retreat to await backup.

Okay, so tasers should not be first resort. And we know the Chronicle doesn't want guns to be the first resort, so I have to conclude that Chris Baker was onto something yesterday when he said the Chronicle would prefer that police officers subdue bad guys by asking them to cooperate, politely of course; and if a bad guy doesn't cooperate, then officers should protect themselves by tactically retreating.

That sounds very effective and should be quite a boost to police morale.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: When I read that editorial, I couldn't help but wonder if the Platonic editorial idealists at the Chronicle ever descend from their cushy offices at 801 Texas Avenue to the real world that our undermanned police force deals with every single day.

I'm not one of those law-and-order types who say the police are always right. I do think citizens have to guard their rights diligently against all institutions of government. But for the editorialists to embrace the original Taser policy on the grounds that guns kill people, and then to advocate restrictions on Taser use because the ACLU says Tasers hurt people -- one just wonders how in the world they would have police do their jobs.

Maybe we need to extend Laurence Simon's advice -- do away with confronting any lawbreaker in favor of taking surveillance photos of everyone who does anything bad in the city and then sending a crack addict hobo over to their place to burn it down. That would be at least as effective as the Chronicle's approach to policing.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/24/05 12:36 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (9)

Councilwoman has a question; blogHOUSTON has an answer

On a KTRH-740 newsbreak this morning, I heard Councilwoman Carol Alvarado complaining about the state Legislature stepping in to close the loophole that would allow Houston to install red light cameras. She wanted to know what the state would suggest Houston do to prevent red light runners.

Well, we can help with that. If Houston wants to reduce the number of red light running motorists, it should lengthen yellow light times.

blogHOUSTON is happy to provide this PSA (public service answer) at no charge to Councilwoman Alvarado.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/24/05 10:21 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

Mayor contemplates parking authority

KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports that Mayor White is contemplating the creation of another unnaccountable government "authority":

Now, just as Houston has a Metropolitan Transit Authority and a Houston Port Authority, the mayor's thinking about setting up a Houston parking authority.

"You really need an element, an entity, an authority that focuses strictly on parking, on enforcement, on the meters, making sure that they're all working, responsible for valet zones, cab zones, and enforcements of those ordinances," said Carol Alvarado, Houston Mayor Pro Tem.

A parking authority could take over much of the job now done by the city's municipal courts division, the people who write parking tickets.

And in the shadow of downtown high rises, city officials suggest this authority could build another government-owned parking garage.

The city already runs some garages, like the spaces beneath Tranquility Park.

"It's not clear what the mayor is talking about here, but parking authorities are a widespread function. In fact, I actually looked at the number. Of cities over 100,000, about a third have some type of parking authority," said Bob Stein, KHOU political expert.

This idea is still just that -- an idea, very much in its formative stages. And there are still plenty of unanswered questions, like, 'Who would run this authority?' 'What exactly would it do?' and perhaps most importantly, 'Would it really be an improvement?'

Here are a couple more questions: how much will this new authority cost, and how much of a "new revenue stream" is the mayor hoping to create with it?

As for Professor Stein, KHOU might have also mentioned that he has advised the mayor on at least one traffic issue (SAFEclear) and that his wife serves as a fulltime mayoral aide. Indeed, perhaps KHOU should find a political expert less connected to the policies he is evaluating.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/24/05 12:57 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (10)

23 February 2005

Why can't the ideal state be filled with copy editors?

I thought about dissecting today's Chronicle editorial on the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal, but it would be more work than it's worth. The editorial is, well, classic Chronicle, written in the editors' "ideal state," I suppose. Someday maybe they'll join us in the state of Texas, but until then...

I do however have to point out that Benon Sevan's name is used twice and spelled correctly once. Also, Paul Volcker's name is misspelled both times it is used. And these misspellings are in the paper, too.

I just don't know about this "ideal state" newspapers are in. blogHOUSTON's copy editor works hard to keep us out of there.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS (02-24-2005): The Chronicle has updated the online version, fixing the mistakes outlined above, sans any notification of the correction (aside from a time stamp suggesting changes were made this morning). Correcting mistakes is good. However, the correction of the gaffes should have been noted. And we hope print subscribers will get a correction in tomorrow's editions.

ANNE ADDS (02-24-2005): This Chronicle editorial caught the eye of the bloggers who run the U.N.'s new blog. If you are wondering why the U.N.'s blog would highlight an editorial on the oil-for-food scandal, it's probably because the editorial is so forgiving of the U.N.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS MORE (02-24-2005): The original, mistake-riddled version is still available in the Google cache.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/23/05 09:01 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

Anti-Semitic crimes strike Houston

Various media outlets are reporting that Houston experienced a rash of anti-Semitic vandalism towards the end of last year, including the painting of swastikas on the large red balls along the artsy bridges that cross the Southwest Freeway near the Montrose/Rice/Museum areas (KPRC-2, KHOU-11, Houston Chronicle).

Anyone with information on the crimes is encouraged to contact Houston Crime Stoppers, 713-222-TIPS.

The Chronicle coverage points out the last reported incident took place on December 30. The blogHOUSTON crew can't recall much coverage of these ugly criminal acts when they took place. Here's hoping the coverage now will help put an end to them.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/23/05 05:06 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

Chron eye for the homeless (alleged) arsonist guy

Captain Grady Burke (May He Rest In Peace)

Today, thousands of firefighters and citizens paid tribute to fallen firefighter Captain Grady Burke (KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KPRC-2).

Burke died while battling a blaze in a structure that has been characterized as an abandoned crack house.

Police have arrested a vagrant, one Jack Cordua, who is suspected of starting the blaze. Arson investigators have stated that they believe Cordua started the blaze while trying to light a crack pipe.

One would think that today's news coverage might have been devoted to Captain Burke or to the ongoing investigation.

But the Chronicle, in an apparent effort to be "evenhanded," saw fit to break out a new feature that we're dubbing The Chron Eye For The Homeless (Alleged) Arsonist Guy (keeping in line with another series). Much like their Death Row Killer Guy series, the Chron goes to great lengths to portray this vagrant and accused arsonist sympathetically:

Arson investigators say Cordua lit a small fire so he could see his crack pipe, but it blazed out of control.

From the Harris County Jail Tuesday, Cordua told a different story.

He admitted he did light a small fire in a glass bowl that cracked, but said he snuffed it out with his fingers.

"I put out all the little embers," he said. "I could see them in the dark. By the time I left, there were no flames, no embers, not even any smoke left."

Cordua said he saw people running toward the house as he walked away.

"Anybody else could have started that fire. I'm being railroaded. I'm being crucified," he said.

[snip]

Behind the glass at 1200 Baker Street, Cordua leaned on a crutch, his left arm in a sling and a collarbone bulging beneath the skin. He had not shaved in days.

He seemed a different person in early November, after a free breakfast provided by a homeless program operated by Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church that was the subject of a Chronicle story. Then he was relatively clean and neatly dressed, and he said he was looking forward to Thanksgiving and the possibility of seeing his mother and three brothers.

Who knew the vagrant the Chron was celebrating in November would be suspected of arson connected to a firefighter's death just a few months later?

Obviously, there's no way the newspaper could have known then what would transpire months later. However, they might have had better sense than to run this new Chron Eye on the day this city honored Captain Burke.

UPDATE: Another curious part of the same story is the effective reproduction of a press release from Michael Cordua, brother of the alleged arsonist:

Michael Cordua released a short statement: "As does every Houstonian, my family sends our condolences to the Burke family. As for my brother, I care about him very much. He came to Houston only about two years ago and has never been involved in the business."

How accommodating of the Chronicle to give Cordua an opportunity to point out the alleged arsonist has never been affiliated with the Cordua restaurants (Churrascos, Americas and the Amazon Grill for those who are wondering). It's a crassly opportunistic press release indeed that can weave together sympathy for the late Captain Burke, sympathy for one's brother, AND attempt to protect the family business from any association with the tragedy.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/23/05 03:15 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)

Scooped by the Abilene Reporter-News

Banjo Jones points out that the Chronicle fell down on some important local political coverage last night.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/23/05 01:25 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

HPD's "productivity policy" begins

HPD's new "productivity policy" (wink, wink) is now a pilot program, according to KHOU-11:

11 News obtained a memo Tuesday that read, "The minimum average of tickets written by an officer must be one per day to be acceptable."

According to the memo, officers found to be non-compliant could face being assigned to Ben Taub Hospital to guard a prisoner, assigned to Tele-Serve, meaning taking reports by telephone, lose their ability to work extra jobs or even be terminated.

[snip]

It appears that it is going to be a pilot program in the southeast and northeast parts of Houston. They will try the program for a month to work out any problems, then most likely will implement it throughout the city.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/23/05 01:07 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)

Chronicle edited Culberson's response, leaving out important facts

When the Chronicle ran a letter to the editor from Rep. John Culberson in Monday's paper, what we didn't know was that it was originally submitted as an op-ed, and some key parts were left on the editing-room floor.

The full op-ed is posted on the Congressman's official website, including the three missing sentences, two of which were very important to the facts of the story. Here's the first important sentence:

If Metro had gotten its way, every other transit agency in the country would ask for 100% federal funding up front and our record deficits would skyrocket.

When we are talking about millions upon millions of taxpayer's dollars, it's not a good idea to be setting new funding precedents.

And here's the second sentence:

Although it was not reported in the Chronicle, I have put language into the transportation reauthorization bill making Metro eligible for federal funding once their application is approved by FTA.

That sentence is critical, because it makes the Chronicle's hyperventilating moot. Rep. Culberson DID look out for Metro's interests, and when Metro's application is approved, Metro will get federal funding -- funding that follows federal guidelines, thanks to Rep. Culberson.

It is stunning that the Chronicle edited that last sentence out. It changes the whole focus of the Chronicle's coverage!

The third sentence that was edited out was from the beginning of the op-ed:

As the only major daily newspaper in Houston, the Chronicle has a responsibility to print the facts so that voters can make informed decisions.

Dumb question: why do you suppose that wasn't included?

This is the second op-ed submission that blogHOUSTON is aware of (here is the first), that ended up being a pared down letter to the editor, with key facts left out. Both of these submissions were in response to what the writers felt were errors on the part of the Chronicle.

The Chronicle should be welcoming of alternate points of view in its Outlook section, especially if the alternate view is in response to Chronicle news reporting. At the very least, Rep. Culberson's fact-correcting column deserved to be a full, unedited op-ed, and it could have easily replaced this or this.

(I wonder if HISD superintendent Abe Saavedra will soon have a letter to the editor in the paper.)

Click "Read More" to see the full op-ed. I have bolded the sentences that did not appear in the Chronicle.

Repetitive voices: the series

On February 13, the Washington Post ran a short editorial criticizing the Bush Administration for not proposing enough (in their view) funding for improvements to state capital defense systems.

Given the Chronicle's anti-death-penalty editorial board, it was hardly a surprise to find a condensed version (approximately 340 words) of the old Post editorial making an appearance as "Another Voice" on the Chron editorial page yesterday.

We've previously noted that the editorials chosen by the Chron rarely represent other voices, but instead represent affirmation of Chron editorial board views (although usually they are written better) -- making the snippets repetitive (not other) voices. When the newspaper starts pulling in short editorials from the Washington Times, New York Sun, or the Washington Examiner, then we can talk about other voices.

Still, one wonders why they waste precious print editorial space with this practice in the first place. Savvy news consumers read a variety of news sources online, and saw that Washington Post editorial in its entirety (sans the Chron chopping) over a week ago. Why clutter the print editorial pages with such "olds"?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/23/05 11:05 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

Chronicle adds RSS feeds

Those who like to scan their favorite blogs and news sites via RSS should be pleased to see that the Chronicle is now offering a variety of RSS feeds (thanks to Laurence Simon for the tip).

The Chronicle joins KTRK-13 and KHOU-11 as the major local news outlets with RSS syndication of content.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/23/05 10:03 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)

Tax-free holiday may be extended to two weeks

Here's a great idea: extend the tax-free holiday from three days to two weeks:

Texans who cram in as much shopping as possible during the annual sales tax holiday each August may be able to spread their money-saving routine over two weeks.

Houston Democratic Sens. Rodney Ellis and Mario Gallegos have filed a bill to extend the tax-free period from three days to 14.

Another bill filed by Ellis, Gallegos and Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, would add school supplies to the tax-free umbrella.

[snip]

But no matter what is included in the exemption, Strayhorn said extending the holiday would control the crowds of people who now rush to stores during the three days.

"Right now, you have a traffic jam in places like Houston and you have merchants and folks who are working around the clock," she said. "It's hard on people who are working to shop during that time. This would be customer and consumer friendly."

Strayhorn isn't kidding about those lines. It takes careful planning and coordination to get what you need, and survive the crowds and lines, especially with kids in tow.

Of course, there's a party-pooper:

But some say extending the holiday to two weeks could cost cities and the state too much revenue.

"We're not terribly excited about it," said Texas Municipal League Executive Director Frank Sturzl. "In a three-day period, it's very hard to prove there is a loss at all, but two weeks is a whole different story because lots of people are going to do lots of shopping during that time."

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the Texas Municipal League isn't generally in favor of tax breaks or cuts that might take revenue away from cities or the state. Hopefully legislators will ignore the TML and show a little love to the citizenry.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/23/05 09:24 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

Businesses not repaying Houston development loans

It seems the city of Houston has loaned millions of dollars for private development projects that's not being repaid:

It starts with the Magnolia Hotel, downtown's self-proclaimed new standard for luxury complete with a lavish lobby, a beautiful billiards room, and rooms that can rent for $200 a night.

"Our mission is to revitalize downtown with beautiful new hotels," says the owner Steven Holtze.

He's a hotel tycoon.

"We have three: Denver, Dallas ...," he says.

But at the Houston location, it turns out he had some help -- a $9.5 million dollar loan backed by the city three years ago. The only problem? In all that time, the Magnolia hasn't paid a dime of it back, missing payment after payment even though Holtze says the hotel's making a profit.

"We actually had a pretty, real good year last year," says Holtze.

So, why not pay the loan?

"Well I don't want to get into all the details of exactly what the circumstances are," he says.

[snip]

Take the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Smith Street.

It received got a $5 million loan, but they haven't made a payment since the middle of 2003.

[snip]

The general manager of the Crowne Plaza Hotel told 11 News they're not having money problems either, but said for now their lawyers have advised they don't have to pay the loan.

But there is another problem tied in with the hotel loans:

It turns out Houston put up grant money it uses for its poorest neighborhoods as collateral on both loans putting more than $14 million dollars at risk.

"If this hotel doesn't pay its money, then that comes out of the future money the city of Houston has to provide playgrounds, daycare centers, homeless shelters," says the advocate [John Henneberger].

And how big a problem is loan repayment?

But the city's problems with bad loans don't end with luxury hotels. The Defenders discovered nearly $40 million dollars worth of loans, in default, that have to do with development. They were all issued by the Houston Department of Housing and Community Development. And some have been in default for longer than 10 years.

It would appear that Mayor White inherited this problem and, according to KHOU's story, he has appointed John Walsh to handle it. Unfortunately, the story doesn't explore in further detail what the city is doing to get the loans repaid, which would be nice to know as that's a huge amount of money the city could be putting to good use.

UPDATE: Banjo Jones has, uh, a rather succinct thought on the problem.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/23/05 08:02 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

22 February 2005

Activists, councilmembers want tougher smoking ban

KHOU-11 is reporting that anti-smoking activists and some city councilmembers are lobbying for a tougher smoking ban than the one Mayor White is proposing:

Anti-smoking activists are showing their strength at Houston's City Hall. They're pushing political leaders to ban smoking at all of the city's bars and restaurants.

Some City Hall insiders say councilmembers are beginning to push for a tougher ordinance against public smoking.

[snip]

Down at Houston's City Hall, the mayor wants to ban smoking in the dining areas of Houston restaurants. But some councilmembers are lobbying for even tighter restrictions on smoking.

"To try to make Houston a smoke free city," says former councilmember Felix Frag, who lobbying for a stronger anti-smoking policy Tuesday.

And smoking opponents have been crowding council chambers.

"Prefereably, on my own, it'd probably be a total ban, which they've done in so many other places," says Quan. When asked if he'd favor a ban on smoking in all bars and restaurants? Quan said, "Yes."

If a restaurant wants to market itself as a non-smoking restaurant, that's great. But it's discouraging to see government stepping in to tell restaurants they have to be non-smoking.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/22/05 05:35 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)

The "privatizing schools" meme

Chronicle headline: Privatization is put on hold

There was no plan to privatize three HISD schools, except in the Chronicle's sloppy reporting from last week.

But once a story gets started -- even one that's inaccurate -- it's hard to stop it, and this one has taken on a life of its own. So much so that Superintendent Saavedra had to go so far as to assure community leaders that the three schools wouldn't be closed! Now where does anyone see THAT in last week's State of the Schools speech?

This is what can happen when inaccurate information isn't corrected in the same manner it was originally reported -- top of page A1 with a nice big headline.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/22/05 04:19 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)

Does downtown's growth need to slow down?

Last week we learned the Hyatt Regency was in foreclosure, and now KHOU-11 has a bit more on the problems facing downtown hotels:

Experts point to the downtown Hyatt as a casualty of a saturated market. In the third quarter of 2000, it had a 79-percent occupancy rate. During the same period last year, it was only 40-percent full.

It was no surprise to analysts last week that lenders foreclosed on the property, though the Hyatt will continue to operate there.

The number of hotel rooms in Houston has doubled in the last five years.

But consulting firm Source Strategies says the supply of rooms is far outpacing the demand.

Source Strategies guesses it's only a matter of time before hotels close or are converted into residential condos. The city is much more optimistic, saying we're only experiencing a bump in the road.

"I think we've got a bump in the road in downtown but across the community it's better and looking a lot better in the future, said Jordy Tollett with the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. "So I think it's a short-term problem."

Also, Tom Kirkendall has some thoughts on what the Hyatt Regency foreclosure might mean for downtown:

[...]there is no Super Bowl in Houston during 2005 and, thus, occupancy rates this year will be a better barometer of the overall health of the downtown hotel market. Thus, the foreclosure of the Hyatt is another sign of increasing troubles in the Central Houston, Inc.-coordinated redevelopment of downtown Houston over the past decade. Inasmuch as downtown restaurant and bar business has also slowed recently, it is beginning to look as if the supply of new amenities in downtown Houston needs to slow down and catch its collective breath to allow the demand for such amenities to catch up.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/22/05 07:33 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)

21 February 2005

Chron editorial page more erratic than ideal of late

The Chronicle editorial pages have seen an erratic few days.

We've pointed out a number of mishaps. Over at the Lone Star Times, Owen Courreges has pointed out a couple more.

Yesterday, the editorial page tackled Mayor White's proposed smoking ban. The newspaper ran two editorials -- a staff editorial contending that the proposal does not go far enough, and an op-ed from Elouise Adams Jones (owner of Ouisie's Table, which, seemingly miraculously, was able to ban smoking without the aid of an ordinance) arguing in favor of the ordinance. As Owen put it,

Instead of taking the opportunity to explore both sides of the issue, though, the Chronicle simply made both articles pro-ban. Needless to say, this smacks of bias and laziness.

He didn't mention the headline for the staff editorial, which included the following dubious assertion: "Tobacco smoke is a greater danger to air quality than industry."

So much for the Chronicle being a forum for debate, as recent radio ads assert.

Today, Owen takes issue with another staff editorial that condemns recent class-action lawsuit legislation on the grounds that libertarians, conservatives, and other followers of Ronald Reagan should be opposed to the legislation's alleged betrayal of "federalism." As Owen points out, it's a pretty weak argument against the legislation. Indeed, local attorney and blogger Tom Kirkendall provided additional insight in a post dated February 10:

A few exemptions remain that would allow primarily local controversies to remain in state court, such as cases in which at least two-thirds of the class members are from the state of the state court in which the class action is filed. A similar exemption exists for cases involving injuries that occurred primarily in one state.

The theory behind the legislation is to prevent class action plaintiffs' lawyers from forum shopping class actions in the state courts to find the most "damages friendly" venue for such cases. However, class action plaintiffs' lawyers have forum shopped class actions in federal courts for years, so the main impact of the legislation is simply to reduce the supply of available courts in which plaintiffs' lawyers can initiate a such a lawsuit.

The rest of the political debate regarding the bill is largely partisan drivel.

So, purely local matters can remain in state courts, but matters that extend across state lines shall now have federal jurisdiction. Thanks to Counselor Kirkendall for framing the matter so eloquently! We highly recommend that the Chronicle editorialists bookmark him.

As for his comment on partisan drivel -- that characterization seems to apply to the Chronicle editorial, which reached (and missed) with this not-so-subtle effort to call out Republicans as hypocrites.

Indeed, when further taking into account the Gibbons response to Tina Benkiser's letter this weekend, one sees an editorial page that seems to resemble a sloppy partisan blog more than an editorial page in an "ideal state."

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/21/05 03:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

Walton and Johnson set to return Tuesday

KTRK-13's Michael McGuff reports that Walton and Johnson will make their return to Houston airwaves tomorrow, February 22.

McGuff also posts an interview with the duo, who seem fired up about their rocking new home on the FM dial, 97.5.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/21/05 01:42 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)

Maybe L.A. needs SAFEclear

Houston's traffic isn't bad enough to make AAA's newest list of the nation's worst traffic bottlenecks, according to this Chronicle story:

When it last came out in 2000, the list included the epic confluence of the Southwest Freeway and West Loop near the Galleria, which holds the unofficial title of Texas' busiest interchange.

It is being rebuilt, with continuous frontage roads and redesigned connector ramps that will give some relief. But that's not why it missed the cut.

"The only reason you weren't on the list is that we had to cite something in Los Angeles that was a lot worse," said AAA spokesman Montill Williams. Texas' best candidate was bumped by the interchange of U.S. 101 (Ventura Freeway) and Interstate 405 in the San Fernando Valley north of downtown LA.

"That one is a monster," Williams said. The evening rush lasts about five hours.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/21/05 10:48 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)

Culberson responds to Chron's charge that he derailed Metro funding

In our forum, commenter rorschach points out that the Chronicle is running a letter to the editor from Rep. John Culberson criticizing the Chronicle for the way it reported and editorialized Metro's federal funding delay:

Move It! tackles SAFEclear and AAA

Nearly two months into SAFEclear, Lucas Wall's Move It! column today covers the issue of motorists who already pay for a roadside assistance program like AAA. Houston bloggers were covering this early on, with Houston Metroblogging posting a link to AAA of Texas' website's SAFEClear information page, which blogHOUSTON then linked, too.

Wall points out that with the two SAFEclear program overhauls, groups like AAA have been scrambling to keep up with the changes that affect members, but a quick check of Wall's columns since the beginning of the year shows that this is the first time he has covered this SAFEclear angle. Early on, when SAFEclear was being dissected on other local media outlets, the subject of what to do if a motorist had an auto club membership was often a topic of conversation.

Also, in his column, Wall writes this:

All of this has auto-club members wondering what to do if they break down on a Houston freeway. AAA has posted guidelines in its Web site, www.aaa-texas.com.

That should have been a hotlink to AAA of Texas' website and it should have gone directly to the SAFEclear page. We have seen the Chronicle include hotlinks in online stories, columns and blogs, so we know it's possible.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/21/05 09:10 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

20 February 2005

Chron editorial page editor invents new "ideal" practice!

We've noted that the Chronicle occasionally has problems with its letter page.

However, one problem we've never noted before is the newspaper's editorial page editor taking space on the editorial page to contest a letter written by a political partisan and published in the same day's letters section.

That's just what happened on Saturday, when the newspaper published a letter from Texas Republican Party Chair Tina Benkiser, "Dean's a gift to Republicans," a response to an op-ed by an Austin political partisan that ran over a week ago (an op-ed that was not matched by any critical comment from the Chron editorial board the day it ran). Benkiser's letter, however, was countered by an "editorial journal" from James Howard Gibbons that attempted to counter Benkiser.

Gibbons is interim editorial page editor, and if he wants to take up space by personally countering a political party chair who took the time to write his newspaper instead of soliciting a response from the other party's state chair, that's certainly his prerogative. It strikes me as poor editorial judgment, however.

Chron letters: Revisiting an old problem

Normally, we don't have much to say about the letters that appear in the Chronicle. However, it does occasionally raise an eyebrow when the newspaper decides to publish letters with inaccurate facts or dubious assertions, as we've pointed out before.

On Wednesday, a blogHOUSTON reader called my attention to one such letter that appeared in the newspaper. Here is the text:

Why Dems left party
Phil Beeson's Feb. 14 letter, "It won't be Dean's personality," pointed out that in the 1960s many Democrats abandoned the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party did some repositioning of itself. But this shift had nothing to do with socialism or overtaxation.

I have found that those who shifted parties agree with Democratic programs such as Social Security and Medicare. They also agree with the Democratic Party's environmental policies.

However, they also find the Democratic Party to be associated with and supportive of racial and ethnic minorities. This sole issue drove them out of the party. The Republican Party has used these prejudices to dominate politics in the South.

RICHARD MANNING
Houston

As I read that letter, Mr. Manning is asserting that the SOLE ISSUE that explains Republican ascendance in the South is that the party is racist and has exploited racial prejudice in the South. Of course, I was curious as to why a responsible newspaper would choose to print such a dubious assertion, so I emailed the reader representative and Judy Minshew, the letters editor, the following on Wednesday afternoon (I attached the letter in question, which I am omitting here):

San Jacinto Monument's observation deck is closed

The San Jacinto Monument's observation deck has been closed while officials find the money to repair a major safety problem:

Perhaps the biggest draw of the San Jacinto Monument is the observation floor where visitors take in breathtaking views. At 570-feet, the San Jacinto Monument is 15-feet taller than the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. But the deck is temporarily closed.

[snip]

Recently engineers discovered a problem with the monument. In the event of a fire inside the museum, smoke would rise up the monument trapping everyone inside the observation deck.

The fire safety concerns came to light during a recent study of the monument. State park officials are now hoping Texas lawmakers will give them the $2 million they say is needed to fireproof the monument from the observation deck to the elevator shaft.

"It's a fairly big loss, yes," says David Avila.

Monument officials expect the deck to be closed for up to two years until those repairs can be made. It's a decision that is all in interest of safety, but to the disappointment of visitors.

That's a shame, because the view really is spectacular up there. The marsh around the battleground is being restored to its original condition when the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto took place, and in addition to walking along the marsh boardwalk, you could see the restoration progress from the observation deck.

Last September we learned that the nearby Battleship Texas needs some serious repairs. It would be nice to see private donors step up to help fund the repairs for both the battleship and the monument.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/20/05 11:19 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Now the Chronicle's garage needs a makeover

Check out the very last letter to the editor today:

Garage is eyesore

The Chronicle has been an avid supporter of Houston's downtown renaissance. I think it would be wonderful if it would go the next step and do something — anything — to clean up its parking garage. It's located in the Theater District, surrounded by beautiful new or renovated buildings, but it is one of the biggest eyesores in the area. Please at least consider a good power-washing — and then send those power-washers over to the Alley Theatre.

Downtown's looking great. Let's keep it going.

DEBORAH KEYSER
Houston

Maybe the Chronicle should encourage employees to park at MetroRail parking lots and take the light rail to work. Lucas Wall could moderate an in-house, educational seminar for employees, since he rides light rail almost every day, and then that parking garage eyesore wouldn't be needed. What a great way for one of the city's biggest light rail supporters to set an example for other downtown businesses.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/20/05 08:41 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

19 February 2005

Trying to decipher the Chronicle's Texas Poll story

Today's Chronicle has a story on the latest Texas Poll results. The story, by Don Jordan, reports on how Texans responded to questions regarding terrorism and the Iraq war. Unfortunately, the story left me with a couple of nagging questions.

But first, here's some background on the Texas Poll: it is conducted quarterly by Scripps Howard out of its Austin bureau, and is available to subscribing news organizations which can report the poll's results. However, the internals of each poll are not available to the general public, except for whatever particulars a news outlet might provide within the context of a story. (I learned this last November when I spoke to Ty Meighan, the Scripps Howard Austin Bureau chief who is in charge of the Texas Poll. I had emailed several Chronicle reporters, inquiring about the poll, and could not get a response, but Mr. Meighan was gracious enough to take my call and answer some questions.)

The "outsiders" outrage that won't die down

We previously noted the Chronicle's inaccurate coverage of HISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra's State of the Schools speech last week, where Jason Spencer mischaracterized what Superintendent Saavedra said, by writing that "outsiders" would be brought in to fix three underperforming high schools. The story's headline and subhead were also rather dramatic. What Saavedra really said was that HISD would seek applications from "reform providers" -- community organizations, educators—including current school leaders—and other interested groups. On Thursday, the Chronicle offered a small clarification but it wasn't on page A1 with big headlines like the original story was.

We can only imagine the headache that HISD officials are now enduring as they attempt to set the record straight. All over the media on Friday we saw outraged community leaders complaining about Saavedra wanting to bring in for-profit, private companies to take over the schools and taxpayer dollars. On KRIV-26, I heard one man threaten to sue HISD to keep private companies out of those schools.

Then in a really ironic turn, this morning I see the Chronicle has a story about Houston minority leaders decrying Saavedra's plan to bring in private contractors -- a story that, at least partially I would argue, the Chronicle helped create! This time the story was written by Allan Turner, and in it HISD spokesman Terry Abbott tried to clear things up:

Terry Abbott, spokesman for the Houston Independent School District, said indignation over the plan, which was outlined earlier this week by Superintendent Abe Saavedra during his annual State of the Schools address, is misplaced and based on media accounts that he contends are inaccurate.

While contracting with for-profit entities to run the schools is a possibility, Abbott said, the district also welcomes reform proposals from district employees and community groups. Texas education officials have decreed that the schools, which have been deemed "low-performing" for two consecutive years, must be dramatically improved or closed.

Do you think Abbott said "media accounts"? Nah, neither do I, because this is what a KPRC-2 story on Thursday said:

Saavedra insisted Thursday that the Houston Chronicle improperly reported his plans for Yates, Sam Houston and Kashmere high schools.

Anyway, there were a couple of interesting points in today's Chronicle story:

Yates Principal George August has advised HISD that his school's administrators, teachers, parents and other community members will offer trustees a "bold, innovative redesign and restructuring of the entire instructional program at Yates to improve student achievement."

[snip]

Abbott insisted the district has not neglected community opinion.

"Nothing has been done," he said. "We've begun at the beginning and we're asking the community for ideas. Mr. Saavedra announced the plan in front of 2,000 people that he was going out to the community for ideas. I don't know how he could have told more people at one time."

But they're sandwiched between plenty of dramatics:

[Rep. Sheila] Jackson Lee admonished HISD to seek more community input before making a decision to privatize the schools.

Private contractors, she suggested, would "dumb down" the schools, first making cosmetic improvements to gain favor, then cutting back on less visible but important educational programs.

Jackson Lee complained that representatives from her office had to "wear pajamas" to attend a 7:30 a.m. Thursday school board meeting in which trustees authorized Saavedra to pursue his plan.

Her staff had to wear their jammies to a 7:30 a.m. meeting? Maybe she needs to get them some alarm clocks. In the real world, it's not unheard of to be at work by seven in the morning.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/19/05 04:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

18 February 2005

Food and drink roundup (02-18-2005 edition)

Heading into a three-day weekend for some, Houston's food and drink reviewers have several articles for your consideration.

Alison Cook finds the atmosphere at Smith and Wollensky to be impressive, but the food is another story:

[T]the food at our Houston branch — while it has its impressive peaks — can disappoint more than is seemly at these breathtaking prices.

Nearly a year ago, Robb Walsh had a similarly mixed review for the place.

This week, Walsh visits Bistro Calais, which Cook hit last week.

Dai Huynh posts her roundup of restaurant happenings, including the notable news that Felix, which many people contend has the best enchiladas in town, will remain open.

Ken Hoffman has the lowdown on the Red Robin Roast Burger, which he contends isn't a burger at all.

And Sara Cress checks out Reno's in Webster, apparently the bar for pool and karaoke along a desolate stretch of road.

Happy eating and drinking!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/18/05 05:53 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)

The new and (re)improved SAFEclear

Mayor White has formally announced the SAFEclear changes that we have been hearing about for the past week:

The proposal focuses on several areas of cooperation. They are:

• A single MAP dispatching system in the TranStar facility with the Houston Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department, Metro Police patrol units and SafeClear tow operators.

• Increasing the number of MAP patrols from the current nine vehicles to 19. Initially Metro Police will staff the 10 additional vehicles during peak traffic shifts of 5:30-9:30 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. weekdays. Metro Police and HPD will work together to ensure that this additional deployment will be on those freeway segments with the highest volume of traffic incidents and responses.

• Vehicles will be donated by the Houston Automobile Dealers Association, as they have done in the existing MAP program.

• Implementing a towing assistance program funded by Metro for $30 per tow, not to exceed $442,000 per year within the SafeClear service area. Additional funding to bring the total up to $600,000 will be available for similar services outside the city limits based on agreements with those jurisdictions. Metro will also partially fund the free tows provided in the city under the SafeClear program. These tows will be limited to the peak periods of Metro’s increased MAP deployment. They will include short tows to a safe location off the freeways and assisting motorists with minor problems.

KPRC-2's story says that Metro Police will help staff the extra MAP vehicles, along with Harris County sheriff's deputies:

"The additional money that METRO will put in will amount to about $1 million per year. $400,000 of that will be salaries for the METRO officers," METRO spokesman David Wolfe said.

And the Chronicle's story has more information on the Metro funding:

The money would come from the portion of Metro's one-cent sales tax that dedicated for Houston mobility improvements. Houston officials have sole discretion as to how to use that pool of money, which totals $80 million, said White spokesman Frank Michel.

As for the unseemliness of making money off the forced towing program, the mayor agreed to put all money generated by SAFEclear into what was called mobility projects. In Sen. Whitmire's op-ed today he shed some light on what that means:

In regards to my concern that the city was using state highways as a revenue source, we concluded that the money raised through towing fees and bids will not go to the city for general purposes but will instead be applied to the expansion of the Motorist Assistance Program (MAP) and will fund an incident management program that will be placed under review by the Texas Department of Transportation

Therefore, in the spirit of the new and (re)improved SAFEclear, blogHOUSTON has made the momentous decision to stop using using the $ in SAFEclear. No doubt this is a huge relief for city officials.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/18/05 02:57 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)

Wanted: a policy of clear and transparent corrections

Following up on this tortuous clarification post from last night, I see that the Chronicle's Jason Spencer has written a story about HISD employees submitting proposals to take over management of three underperforming HISD high schools. It appears to be in response to yesterday's KPRC-2 story. In an eight paragraph story, here is paragraph seven:

Saavedra blamed a front-page Houston Chronicle article that said he wanted to bring in outsiders to fix the schools for throwing parents into a panic.

Just for the record, I emailed Jason Spencer and the Chronicle's reader representative, James T. Campbell, yesterday when I saw that Saavedra had issued a clarification and had criticized the Chronicle's coverage. In my email, I asked for any insight regarding the superintendent's criticism, in case there were other facts, from the Chronicle's point of view, that we should take into consideration.

I have yet to receive a response from either of them.

I noted yesterday that a paragraph in Spencer's original story had been changed in the online verson, from what was in Wednesday's paper. Today I went back and looked at the rest of Spencer's original Wednesday story, and I found another change. Here's what the first paragraph said, in the print newspaper version:

The Houston schools chief announced Tuesday he wants outsiders to take control of the city's three lowest-performing high schools to accomplish what the school system hasn't been able to do on its own.

Here is what the online story now says:

The Houston schools chief announced Tuesday he would consider giving outsiders control of the city's three lowest-performing high schools to accomplish what the school system hasn't been able to do on its own.

Some professional journalists have shown a tendency to be dismissive of blogs for not following their standards of "journalism." This is a perfect example of where professional journalists could take a lesson from bloggers, since responsible bloggers aim for clear and transparent corrections and clarifications.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/18/05 12:35 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

Congratulations, Chief Hurtt!

KHOU-11 reports that police chief Harold Hurtt has finally fulfilled the requirements necessary to wear the HPD uniform:

After almost a year on the job, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt will finally be able to put on his uniform.

Until now he has had to wear business suits in public.

The reason for the change is that Hurtt took, and passed his state certification exam a couple weeks ago, which finally giving him official police authority.

It's not clear why the police chief took so long to gain his certification, especially given how quickly he was able to move on matters like Tasers and red-light cameras.

Whatever the case, we suspect that the HPD rank and file are pleased that their chief can finally don the uniform they wear every day. And so are we.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/18/05 12:20 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (4)

Sen. Whitmire explains why he pushed for $AFEclear reform

Sen. Whitmire has written an op-ed in today's Chronicle about why he fought to change $AFEclear:

My involvement will also have a positive effect on the Safe Clear program. What my critics fail to realize is that it was my aggressive legislative approach that led to the meeting with White, resulting in these numerous steps toward our common goal of safer freeways in Houston.

It is my belief that with continued modifications, Safe Clear can become a model for traffic management not only for Texas, but for the entire country. I am proud to play a small but necessary role in fine-tuning this worthwhile program.

We have pointed this out before -- Mayor White really wanted to save $AFEclear, somehow, and with Sen. Whitmire taking a hard line the mayor was forced to make some changes. It just so happens that in this case the changes turned a terribly heavy-handed and punitive program into a much more citizen-friendly program. Would it be better not to have $AFEclear? Maybe, probably, and we can certainly debate that. But Sen. Whitmire's firm stand helped make it a better program, and now we have an expanded Motorist Assistance Program, to boot. That benefits everyone, and Sen. Whitmire deserves praise for helping make that happen.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/18/05 09:09 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (10)

Pedicures and mammoths

MeMo alerts us that she's going to be on the radio again:

MeMo is here for another NPR stint on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Anne Linehan of BlogHouston.net can feel free to schedule an emergency pedicure for 10 a.m. Saturday. Really, we think it's best for both of us.

Will do! Or I maybe I'll go check out the new mammoth donation at a Houston museum. The last time I saw a mammoth was during an elementary school field trip.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/18/05 07:56 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)

Hyatt Regency in foreclosure

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Houston's Hyatt Regency is in foreclosure:

A year after Texas' biggest city opened a municipally financed convention center hotel downtown, the city's former flagship hotel – the Hyatt Regency – is being posted for foreclosure, officials confirmed Thursday.

"I can tell you the hotel's in foreclosure," general manager Don Henderson said.

The hotel will continue to operate. "Hyatt has a lease on the building well into the future," Mr. Henderson said. "We'll be around for a long time. This is a piece of real estate. It has absolutely no effect on us."

The news comes a little more than a year after the opening of the 1,200-room Hilton Americas adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center, and after a couple of years of low hotel occupancy rates in downtown Houston.

[snip]

The convention center hotel – a $285 million city-owned project – was not the only new hotel built in downtown Houston recently. Several properties opened in advance of the Super Bowl of 2004, raising downtown capacity from 1,800 rooms to 5,500 rooms.

Hotel occupancy rates averaged 52.9 percent in downtown Houston last year, well below the 60 percent that is considered healthy. The Hyatt, built in the 1970s and one of the older hotels downtown, reportedly had rates below 50 percent.

(Emphasis added)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/18/05 06:54 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)

17 February 2005

Motorist Assistance Program receives huge equipment donation

KPRC-2 reports that a private group has boosted its contribution of vehicles to what should be an expanded Motorist Assistance Program:

A local group gave a green light Thursday to the mayor's plan to save the Safe Clear towing ordinance by donating vehicles to a motorist assistance program, Local 2 reported in an exclusive story.

The Houston Automobile Dealer's Association said it would provide 10 new trucks to MAP -- Harris County's Motorist Assistance Program. MAP, operated by the county and funded through donations and grants, provides assistance to stranded motorists on freeways for no charge.

"This is a really quantum leap. This will double the size or more of MAP and more people on the freeways are going to be assisted," said Walter Wainwright, with the Houston Automobile Dealer's Association.

On Tuesday night, Houston Mayor Bill White and State Sen. John Whitmire reached an agreement to link the two programs and end the fight to have state lawmakers stop Safe Clear. Details are still being worked out. An official announcement is expected within the next several days.

Wainwright said the Houston Automobile Dealer's Associated helped create MAP in 1986. Since then, deputies have helped 600,000 motorists.

That was some quick, substantive action as a result of the agreement between Sen. Whitmire and Mayor White.

We would suggest that Rick Casey, gossip columnists, and bloggers who constructed Republican conspiracy theories about Sen. Whitmire rather than taking him at his word that he preferred an expanded Motorist Assistance Program (a view he offered on KSEV-700 on January 6) deservedly look foolish about now. In retrospect, Sen. Whitmire's threat of state legislation to kill $AFEclear seems to have provided Mayor White the incentive needed to transform the program from its revenue-enhancement origins to a more motorist-friendly assistance and mobility program. Houstonians -- not a political party -- benefit from this improvement to the program.

Early on, blogHOUSTON noted its support for an expanded Motorist Assistance Program.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/05 07:45 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)

HISD: two teachers will be fired for TAKS cheating

An HISD investigation has determined that two teachers did help students on a TAKS test:

The two fifth grade teachers were fired after a two month investigation at Sanderson Elementary School for cheating on the TAKS test. The principal at that school has been demoted to an assistant principal, and will be relocated to a different school.

HISD began the investigation after it was brought to their attention that Sanderson Elementary fifth graders had the highest math scores in the state after the TAKS test last April. After checking the scores from the year before, it was found that students on average had gotten 12 to 13 questions wrong out of a total of 40 questions. Many of the students at Sanderson this year got perfect scores. HISD says that was statistically improbable.

HISD Spokesperson Terry Abbott explained, "That means that many of the students in those two classes got every single question on the TAKS test right, which is virtually impossible for that many students to get every question right. That raised a red flag that someone might have been helping them."

RELATED COVERAGE: KHOU-11, KPRC-2, Chronicle

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/17/05 06:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

A clarification regarding underperforming high schools (with an update)

KPRC-2 has a story up that says HISD superintendent Abe Saavedra is clarifying his plans for seeking help to improve three underperforming high schools:

[...]the superintendent clarified Thursday that the district has no definite plans to bring in outside contractors as a way of improving three underperforming schools.

[snip]

Saavedra insisted Thursday that the Houston Chronicle improperly reported his plans for Yates, Sam Houston and Kashmere high schools.

The superintendent clarified that what he said during his speech was that the district is currently taking proposals from teachers and administrators already in place at the schools, as well as nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

I wrote about the possibility of HISD bringing in some outside help for those schools, and I relied on the Chronicle's editorial. Here is what that editorial said:

Saavedra's boldest proposal is to replace the management of three academically low-performing Houston high schools with outside "reform providers" to raise academic standards and revamp management.

However, the Chronicle's news story by Jason Spencer more accurately (now that I look at it) characterizes what Saavedra said, I think:

Saavedra said he is open to offers from nonprofit and for-profit groups, and HISD employees. That could include universities, school reform companies such as New York City-based Edison Schools, or local nonprofits, such as the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) or Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams), both of which have a presence in HISD.

The editorial uses the words "outside reform providers" which does not clearly convey that HISD is open to proposals from inside HISD as well as from outside non-profit and for-profit groups. And since I didn't do my homework by reading Spencer's story, I also placed an emphasis on outside groups. Sorry about that, folks.

UPDATE: My clarification needs clarifying. You see, Jason Spencer's story wasn't accurate either. In Wednesday's paper, Spencer's story is the Big Headline Story on the front page. See where I bolded "and HISD employees" in the quote above? His original story in the paper doesn't have that. He did not say that HISD employees were being allowed to offer proposals, like I gave him credit for. But instead of doing a correction that one might expect out of a professional media outfit, the Chronicle decided to just add those three words to the online story. You know, a little airbrushing. Then in the online Corrections section is this:

•A story on Page A1 Thursday about the Houston Independent School District's plan to seek new management for Yates, Kashmere and Sam Houston high schools should have stated that HISD employees will be allowed to submit takeover proposals.

And the Chronicle couldn't even get the stupid "clarification" right, because the story ran in Wednesday's paper, not today's.

For an example of what a responsible correction looks like, here's what the Washington Post does. That paper notes the correction at the top of the story, and the story and the correction stay together. No hiding, no obfuscating.

So, my clarification stands front and center. We don't have a "Corrections" section where we hide our oopses. And my clarification isn't even right because of the way the Chronicle likes to hide its mistakes.

I don't think that's the mark of a paper in its "ideal state."

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/17/05 06:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

A rumor to give the Chron editorial board a stroke

Chris Elam posts an interesting rumor regarding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) to his weblog.

Whether the rumor turns out to be true or not, DeLay would be wise to take Elam's advice on constituent services and campaign strategy.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/05 02:52 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)

Mammoth ponderings

An online Chronicle headline has caught the eye of Laurence Simon:

I've never seen a mammoth up close. Although the last thing you'd want from a First Mammoth Experience is some rich person's used-up ratty old mammoth.

We could have a whole category on funny headlines, and not just from the Chronicle.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/17/05 01:26 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

Things that make Houston great

Alex Whitlock has posted a list, "Ten Things I Believe Makes Houston Great."

What about it, folks? Agree? Disagree? Your own additions?

Feel free to add to Alex's comments and/or to discuss on our message board.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/05 10:48 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (9)

HISD trains testing monitors to prevent cheating

HISD has trained 600 people to be TAKS test monitors, to help prevent cheating during next week's TAKS testing:

They'll fan out across nearly 300 Houston Independent School District campuses in teams of at least two to look for problems, including teachers who hover over particular students as they take the test, answer booklets stored in unlocked filing cabinets or multiplication tables written on classroom chalkboards.

The goal, according to HISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra, is to prevent the kinds of cheating allegations that have prompted ongoing investigations at two dozen schools that posted statistically improbable gains on the state exam last year.

HISD will have two monitors per campus. I am assuming all students are not taking the test in one big room, so the two monitors at each school will have to go from room to room, looking for anything suspicious. In fact the story says, "Some students, for example, are allowed to take the test orally. Others must be tested in private rooms." That's going to be quite a feat for the monitors.

It's better than nothing, but maybe next year HISD can have one monitor for each classroom.

UPDATE: A reader emails that a monitor in each classroom would require 13,000 monitors. I can understand that would be rather unwieldy. My point, though, is that if there was an effort at cheating going on, it wouldn't be hard to wait til the monitor left the room, since two monitors per school would have to cover a lot of territory.

Of course, maybe just knowing there are monitors will help curb any cheating tendencies...

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/17/05 06:39 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

16 February 2005

Behind-the-scenes with White and Whitmire

Rick Casey's column today provides some details about the behind-the-scenes efforts between Mayor White and Sen. Whitmire to save and fix $AFEclear.

The whole column is worthy of excerpt, so I'll just encourage you to go read it. Casey kept his opinion on the subject of Sen. Whitmire's legislation to a minimum in this one.

UPDATE: Kristen Mack now has a news story posted on this, and two things stand out. First is this:

The most significant change is that a driver can request that a law enforcement officer be present for any tow. This could delay tows, which now can be ordered remotely by officers at the TransStar traffic control center.

If MAP is to be expanded and coordinated in conjunction with $AFEclear, then in most cases a law enforcement officer would be first on the scene, right? I suppose when specific details are released we will find out.

And second:

Any revenue the city raises through the Safe Clear program will go to mobility projects. Tow truck companies pay the city for exclusive rights to tow on certain freeway stretches.

Wouldn't you like to see the definition of "mobility projects"?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/16/05 11:17 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

Clarification: The James Guckert/Jeff Gannon saga

On Monday, I took the Chronicle to task for an editorial that made claims about the association of one James Guckert (Jeff Gannon) with "a number of sexually oriented Web sites." At the time that editorial was written, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz had written that domain names had been registered, but the sites had never been hosted. The Chronicle reprinted that Howard Kurtz column. Thus, I criticized the Chronicle editorial board for not having its facts straight despite having posted those facts elsewhere.

That criticism was valid based on knowledge available at the time (and available to a Chron reader). However, Howard Kurtz corrects his earlier column with the following update today:

The problem for Gannon, whose real name is James Dale Guckert, is that he told The Washington Post and CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week that he never launched the Web sites whose provocative names he had registered, such as hotmilitarystud.com. But a Web designer in California said yesterday that he had designed a gay escort site for Gannon and had posted naked pictures of Gannon at the client's request.

Further details of the "gay escort site" are available here.

As the story has developed, it appears that the Chronicle editorialists were actually right in their assertion, at least about one website -- just not at the time they made them and not according to "facts" available to their readers at the time.

We do thank the "big media" journalist who called this development to our attention (said journalist asked that we not share his/her missive). Further, we'd like to suggest this clarification as the sort of clarification/correction that bloggers (and other savvy news consumers) find useful, not corrections that obscure the original mistake or updates that refuse to acknowledge obvious error.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/05 08:41 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

Loading zone parking restrictions/revenue stream to start soon

People who park in downtown loading zones have been given two more weeks to pay the proper permit fees:

Vehicles illegally parked in downtown commercial loading zones were given a two-week reprieve Tuesday when city officials extended a grace period to March 1. Officers had been scheduled to begin writing tickets for loading-zone violations Tuesday.

But according to the mayor's press release, the program wasn't supposed to begin until March 1 anyway. Maybe those would have been warning tickets only, to make drivers aware of the program.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/16/05 07:37 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

Saavedra's battle to fix what ails HISD

After a couple of days of exceedingly bad editorials, the Chronicle's editors appear to have regained their composure and written one for today that is not only good, but it's timely, too:

If Abe Saavedra makes good on the initiatives pledged in his State of the Schools speech Tuesday, the next 12 months will usher in dramatic changes in Texas' largest and the nation's seventh-largest school district. The challenge to the new superintendent will be to translate his words into action while correcting deficiencies and maintaining the support of the diverse communities whose children attend school in the Houston Independent School District.

The editors are on target. And so is Superintendent Saavedra. Yes, it will be a huge challenge for him to change the entrenched bureacracy at HISD and get everyone to focus on the needs of students instead, as evidenced by the latter part of the editorial:

Saavedra's boldest proposal is to replace the management of three academically low-performing Houston high schools with outside "reform providers" to raise academic standards and revamp management.

As reported by the Chronicle's Jason Spencer, the three high schools targeted are Sam Houston, Kashmere and Jack Yates. The latter two are tradition-filled institutions in the African-American community. Radical changes in school leadership are certain to be resisted by many members of that community.

State Rep. Garnet Coleman's district includes Yates High School, and his late father was a prominent alumnus. Other high-profile graduates include city of Houston Chief Administrative Officer Anthony Hall, state Rep. Al Edwards, actress Phylicia Allen Rashad and dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen.

Coleman said he would be "totally against" a move to bring in a for-profit group from outside the district to manage the school. He said the district had enough talent to solve problems in its schools.

And there you have it. It is frustrating beyond belief to see a reaction like that. How long does Rep. Coleman think it's acceptable to let the students in those schools get a sub-standard education, all so we don't bring in a for-profit group? Who the heck cares what the past was like? It's the now that counts! And the now isn't cutting it. Would Coleman rather have the state take over those schools? I doubt it, and neither does Saavedra.

The process of choosing a company to improve those schools should be made carefully and whatever company is brought in should be watched closely, but HISD has had many years to get it right with those three schools and hasn't done so. The students deserve much better.

RELATED: HISD can't fix 3 schools, Chronicle

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/16/05 07:07 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

15 February 2005

Will Onstead put the Randall back in Randalls?

The Chronicle's David Kaplan reports that rumors are swirling that Safeway, which purchased the Randalls grocery chain in 1999, is furiously trying to unload the stores following consistently declining performance.

One potential purchaser is none other than former owner Randall Onstead, Jr.

Tom Kirkendall welcomes that bit of news:

Having the Onstead Family reacquire the Randall's chain would be a welcome relief to Safeway's mismanagement of the stores.

I couldn't agree more.

As a personal aside, I used to be a regular shopper at the Randalls on Shepherd in Montrose. It was once such a busy store that parking could get difficult. It hasn't been difficult for several years now. The place seems more like an abandoned warehouse than the old grocery store. Indeed, I skipped into the place on Monday to pick up some steaks to grill and roses for Valentine's Day. There was not even a line for roses. I made my selection, paid for it, and was out of there. While that was certainly convenient, I can't imagine Safeway can keep the place open much longer if the floral department is empty on one of the busiest days of the year.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/15/05 10:12 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (9)

No more taxpayer-funded stadiums, please

The Chronicle is really pushing Major League Soccer. A little over a week ago, Glenn Davis wrote a column about Houston Sports Authority chief Oliver Luck dreaming of a soccer stadium.

Today we have a story by Dale Robertson letting us know how swell it would be to have a professional soccer team here:

Major League Soccer realizes it should be in Houston. Houston believes it should have an MLS team. Philosophically, all parties are in accord. But without an economically viable soccer-specific stadium, a solution remains elusive, and one isn't imminent.

Stop right there. If MLS has had this Houston epiphany, then MLS should buy some land and build a stadium, with private money. Houston is really tapped out right now:

The cost of building Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium and Toyota Center rose by $37.2 million this week when the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority voted to issue new bonds.

Issuing the bonds was necessary to persuade one of the three major investment rating agencies, Moody's, not to downgrade the authority's bonds from investment grade status to junk bonds, said Ric Campo, chairman of the authority's finance committee.

The new bonds were needed to make up for declining hotel and car rental tax revenues, which the authority receives to pay off bond debt. In 2002 and 2003, the revenues sagged 10 percent.

To meet the annual payments for $900 million in previously issued bonds, the authority had projected annual 3 percent increases in hotel and car rental tax revenues.

"September 11 came and the recession came, and the hotel and car rental taxes have not been growing 3 percent. They're declining," said Oliver Luck, sports authority executive director.

The three sporting venues cost $1.036 billion to build. (Reliant Stadium cost $500 million, Minute Maid Park, $286 million, and Toyota Center, $250 million.) With the bond issuance, the price tag has now risen to $1.073 billion.

No more taxpayer-funded stadiums. If it's such a great idea, MLS can raise private funds to do it. That's the way all these stadiums should have been handled, frankly.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/15/05 04:24 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)

House committee approves bill to stop red light cameras

Here's a Chronicle story on a state House committee approving legislation that would end Houston's planned red light camera revenue stream:

Under Texas law, running a red light is a Class C misdemeanor that can only be regulated by the state, even though local governments are in charge of enforcement. In 2003, the House overwhelmingly voted not to allow cities to use cameras to issue criminal citations to red-light violators.

But state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, inserted an amendment in the 2003 transportation bill giving cities the right to regulate transportation matters civilly or criminally.

Houston proposes to issue civil citations to red light violators caught by cameras.

Elkins' bill would eliminate the civil loophole.

We posted on this discrepancy before. The problem is that if a driver ran a red light at an intersection without a camera, it would be a criminal violation. At intersections with red light cameras, it would be a civil violation.

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt appeared before the committee (no word on if he was in uniform) and came away an unhappy police chief:

"I did not recommend this as a revenue enhancement for the city,'' Hurtt said. "We want to use cameras in the city of Houston to protect and save lives.''

Oh yes, it's all about safety:

Houston is expected to start installing intersection cameras this spring, and has budgeted to collected nearly $700,000 in fines by the end of June.

Or not.

UPDATE: During newsbreaks on KTRH-740 this afternoon, it was reported that the committee meeting, where Chief Hurtt was testifying, was rather contentious. KTRK-13 has some details:

Both [state Rep. Gary] Elkins and Chief Hurtt testified in front of the Urban Affairs Committee Tuesday morning, with the police chief facing tough criticism.

State Representative Kevin Bailey said, "Your department is one that had a leaking roof in the crime lab for seven years and couldn't fix it. So, right off I wonder, if you can't fix a leaking roof, how are you going to run this program efficiently?"

[snip]

Elkins said, "Let's just be honest. Let's expose this for what it is. It's the biggest money generator in the history of the planet. We're for public safety. We just think there's a better way, an engineering solution."

Chief Hurtt insisted, "This was not recommended as a revenue enhancement device for the city."

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/15/05 03:55 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (14)

Chronicle editors: give Metro whatever it wants

After yesterday's stellar editorial effort, the Chronicle editors follow up today with a light rail "bad guy" editorial. This one actually has two "bad guys," Rep. Tom DeLay (of course) and Rep. John Culberson. We dealt with the particulars of this manufactured controversy the other day and pointed out that Metro officials caused their own problems and should not be looking to elected officials to give them an out.

The last two paragraphs of the editorial are especially...strange:

If Metro's proposal would produce public benefits faster and less expensively, why would anyone object? Here is a chance to reduce the government waste that frugal taxpayers decry.

The voters have spoken. Houston needs mobility improvements that include an expanded rail transit component as well as one of the nation's better bus systems. The next time Metro and the majority of voters in its service area say "Jump," their representatives in Congress should ask, "How high?"

Professional journalists wrote that.

There is no MetroRail proposal that equals a less expensive public benefit. The first phase cost one third of a billion dollars and moves less than one percent of Houston's population. Plus it has snarled traffic all around the rail lines downtown. Plus it has a world-class accident rate. Plus bus routes have been cut to force people to ride the dang thing. Plus it's $93 million in debt.

"Why would anyone object?" It's a mystery.

Next the editors say (apparently with straight faces), "Here is a chance to reduce the government waste that frugal taxpayers decry." Oh my! Taxpayer-financed light rail practically defines government waste.

And then the editors want two elected representatives to bend over whenever a taxpayer-funded, unaccountable, special interest group -- that is run by unelected officials -- snaps its fingers. And why should two elected congressmen do that? Because Houston-area citizens gave (the unaccountable, special interest group known as) Metro a mandate, the editors say. So apparently when it comes to Metro, everything MUST be approved, federal laws and guidelines be damned.

Let that sink in for a minute. And remember it the next time the editors are whining about Republicans being the pawns of special interest groups.

(Wouldn't it be interesting to see Metro have to go back to voters for funding approval? Knowing what we know now -- about what Metro has built, how "well" light rail has worked, how Metro management has handled things like bus routes, etc -- do you think Metro could get voter approval for more rail lines?)

Once again, it's important to remember that Metro has not been denied funding. Metro's funding approval has been delayed because of Metro's own arrogance. We know the Chronicle is fond of light rail, but the folks over there need to take a deep breath and gather themselves.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/15/05 01:51 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)

Chron correction glosses over original mistake

Today, the Chronicle runs one of those deceptive corrections that appear too frequently:

Oklahoma State basketball coach Eddie Sutton has not said this is his final season in the profession. A column on Page C1 of Sunday's Sports section implied otherwise.

Actually, the column by John Lopez didn't imply otherwise. It stated otherwise:

But these Cowboys are arriving to a special place in college basketball this season — Sutton's final one after 35 years of rubbing his face and stomping his feet on NCAA sidelines.

[snip]

Sutton's final basketball team might not be the most talented one he's had, but rest assured these Cowboys are going deep into the NCAA Tournament.

Chronicle editors may think they are protecting their newspaper's credibility with less-than-forthcoming (even misleading) corrections like this, but in reality, the inaccuracy and lack of transparency only further damage the newspaper's credibility. Any reporting enterprise will make mistakes; how it handles those mistakes over time determines whether it retains credibility (and reader loyalty), even when the reporting entity is the only game in town.

Bloggers aren't perfect, but the most reputable and credible bloggers quickly post corrections and updates in a transparent manner, because they realize credibility in the realm of open-source journalism is something that must be earned from readers. Professionals in journalism (this problem of corrections is not limited to the Chronicle) might take a cue from bloggers in this respect.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/15/05 08:31 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

Christo's next project? Houston road construction

We try to keep an eye on transit issues, so I found yesterday's MeMo very amusing:

1. The following is not quite true. OK, I completely made it up.

(AP) Artists Christo and Jeanne Claude, fresh from the artistic and logistical triumph of their saffron-hued "Gates" installation in New York City's Central Park, have announced that their next large-scale project will be (drumroll) in Houston.

Called "The Road to Now Here", the installation, scheduled for Spring 2006, will consist of a total of 5.9 miles of gray and white silk streaming from southbound Texas 249 to the westbound Beltway 8.

"Our goal eece to create the artistic illusion of a -- how you call it? -- a ramp from zee 249 to zee 8," Christo said at a press conference at Cafe Complique in downtown Houston. The artistic installation will be funded privately, a spokesman for TxDOT said, but will be part of the massive interchange project, which does not include a ramp along that heavily traveled portion of the route.

Jeanne Claude, despite her narrow frame, tossed back gobs of chicken shwarma as she discussed the controversial artistic venture. "Eet ees to be the essence of the experience of Houston," she said, her burgundy mane tossing. "What ees more Houston than the creation of a highway that ees not to exist?"

The artists estimated the cost of the thousands of yards of silk fabric, similar to parachute fabric, which would remain in place until air and rain conditions caused it to rot (an estimated lifespan of 12 days) at $5.8 million, with the remainder of the $5.9 million -- some $100,000 -- to go to hiring 1,000 laborers of uncertain immigration status to complete the potentially dangerous laying of the fabric across thin air.

Local traffic officials expressed some concern, given the experience with light rail crashes in downtown, that motorists might try to drive across the silk fabric to get from 249 to 8. "Signage will be crucial," an unnamed offical said. "These crazy people would drive across their own dear mommas at rush hour."

In a statement, Mayor Bill White expressed support for transportation and for the arts.

It's perfect, right down to Mayor White's statement.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/15/05 07:33 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

14 February 2005

Another editorial in a less than ideal state

The Chronicle penned yet another house editorial today that took what could have been reasonable points and veered right off into fringe territory.

Criticizing the process that bestowed press credentials on one James Guckert is reasonable enough, although Laurence Simon reminds us that Helen Thomas still enjoys credentials despite being a frothing lefty partisan who launches into long lectures during her "questions."

It's also reasonable enough to criticize the Bush Administration for funding a handful of friendly opinion columnists (although they ARE opinion columnists, and one should always read opinion columnists with a discerning eye).

What isn't reasonable is to take these few instances, and conclude it's a propaganda effort designed to subvert the free press in the country. There's no whiff of the gas chamber here, and it's hardly a new development that a Presidential Administration is attempting to manage its media coverage.

However, if the Chronicle editors need an example of why savvy news consumers AND pols are looking for alternatives to traditional media, they need look no further than this line of their own editorial:

His identity was exposed by bloggers, and he turned out to be associated with a number of sexually oriented Web sites.

That's flat out wrong. Sunday, Howard Kurtz's column in the Washington Post pointed out,

They discovered that he had registered such Web addresses as hotmilitarystud.com for a previous business, though the sites were never launched...

Thus, there were no "Web sites" as the Chron editorial asserts, but merely domain names. There's a difference. One supposes the Chronicle editors might have read the Kurtz column, since a reprint was posted to the Chron online edition yesterday.

As another example of why savvy news consumers and pols might look for alternatives to traditional media, there's also this line:

A journalist familiar with the process says it's likely Bush was tipped by his press staff that "the bald guy would lob him an easy one."

It seems to me that editorials that rely on hearsay aren't exactly in an ideal state!

We've said it before, but we'll say it again -- the Chronicle editorial board desperately needs to come up with some mechanism that exposes the members to some new worldviews, to act as a reality check and to moderate their rhetorical excesses, as well as to save them from embarrassing gaffes. One such mechanism would be a blog -- with comments and trackback -- so that readers and other bloggers could help them work out the kinks of some of these editorials before they are committed to print.

ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: That was a jaw-dropping editorial. The Chronicle editors decided to cover the scandal of a journalist writing under a different name, but so far haven't felt the need to cover the CNN executive who resigned over the furor raised by his assertion that the US military had purposely killed journalists in Iraq. The editors cover the Bush Administration funding several columnists who then expressed opinions favorable to administration policies, yet the editors have not covered the very same problem that goes on with environmental groups and lobbyists. Many receive taxpayer dollars, get opinion columns published in newspapers and don't disclose the taxpayer funding they receive.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/05 10:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (19)

KTRK jumps on HPD manpower shortages

Following the lead of the Chronicle, which buried the news in its Saturday edition, KTRK-13 devoted a news segment tonight to HPD's looming manpower shortage.

This isn't exactly a new issue, as we've been pounding on it about as long as we've been in existence, and other people have been discussing it somewhat longer, but good for KTRK for giving it some coverage in a week when Mayor White and his council are concentrating on banning smoking.

The coverage sort of blows away a recent contention of one self-styled media watcher that local media outlets bury stories broken by their competition all the time. If anything, they all fall over themselves to report the same news. Unfortunately, they're all a little late to this party, but we welcome them just the same.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/05 09:28 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)

A new revenue stream possibility?

KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports that Mayor White and council will take up the apparently pressing issue of smoking in restaurants later this week.

Dermatologist-Councilwoman Gibbs has led the charge on this matter, calling for an outright ban.

We think Mayor White could reclaim this issue, and give it his signature touch. That's right -- why not turn it into a possibility for a new revenue stream?

Ban smoking outright for now. Allow restaurants that meet certain specifications to allow smoking in designated parts of their restaurants. Create a new "Smoking Establishment Permit" and accompanying bureaucracy for the thing! There you go -- a new revenue stream AND cleaner air!

Mayor White's thinking small on this one. In a city that has a sign inspector and that requires delivery trucks to pay for loading zone permits, surely our creative mayor can figure out a way to squeeze restaurants that would like to allow patrons to smoke.

Lest anyone think I'm serious, I don't support any such move. But would it shock anyone at this point?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/05 09:12 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)

Peter Jennings tackles Houston traffic

If you've been listening to local news today, you may know that Peter Jennings has been in Houston and interviewed Mayor White. ABC News has posted a story about Houston traffic and at the end is a blurb that says, 'Peter Jennings filed this report for "World News Tonight,"' so I am assuming this is what ran tonight.

It's a short piece that provides a fairly glowing look at Mayor White's traffic-reducing efforts, including $AFEclear. Sen. Whitmire was quoted for a bit of $AFEclear opposition, but that was quickly brushed aside:

White has considerable public support for most of the other improvements. Houston now does a better job of synchronizing its traffic lights, which improves traffic flow. The hours for loading and unloading trucks in busy traffic areas have been cut back, and road construction crews meet tighter schedules or pay penalties.

Houston's traffic problem is a challenge without end. White says he is encouraged by the commuters he meets — those whom he says thank him for giving them back some of their life, if just a few minutes each day.

Mayor White will be saving that for a future campaign commercial.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/14/05 07:48 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

Silverman resurrects tech blog

Chronicle tech guru Dwight Silverman has resurrected his tech blog.

This is a "big deal" on a couple of levels. First, Silverman knows his stuff, so the blog will be interesting substantively. Second, Silverman is one of the online gurus at the Chronicle, so his tech blog could well serve as an experimental area for things that could eventually work their way into the newspaper's online edition.

I'd encourage folks to bookmark the man, and offer him some feedback. Who knows, you could be helping to shape your future online newspaper.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/05 01:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)

Grand Parkway over I-10 shutting down tonight

Starting at midnight tonight, the Grand Parkway bridge over I-10 will be closed as part of the ongoing Katy Freeway project. The closure should last several weeks:

The northbound and southbound frontage roads of SH 99/Grand Parkway will be reconstructed as part of the Katy Freeway Reconstruction Program.
In the new configuration, the frontage roads of SH 99 will go underneath the mainlanes of I-10.

[snip]

From the north side of I-10 motorists destined for SH 99 southbound will be detoured via the I-10 westbound frontage road to u-turn at Katy-Fort Bend Road onto the I-10 eastbound frontage road to access SH 99 southbound.

From the south side of I-10, motorists destined for SH 99 northbound, will be detoured via the I-10 eastbound frontage road to Mason Road to turn back onto the I-10 westbound frontage road, to make a right on Westside Parkway, a left on Colonial Parkway and a final right onto SH 99 northbound.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/14/05 10:54 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)

Blood donors needed

Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center officials are asking for the public's help in replacing the 500 units of blood lost during this weekend's fire at the Center's warehouse:

Health officials issued a plea for donors this morning to ensure they have enough type O and type B blood to meet the needs of Houston hospitals over the next three days.

Although the Blood Center location with the warehouse in the 1400 block of La Concha remains closed for cleanup and mobile blood drives have been suspended today, donations can be made at the center's other facilities throughout the Houston area.

The Chronicle's story includes this link to area donation centers.

KPRC-2 is reporting that the most needed blood types are O+, O-, B+, and B- .

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/14/05 09:35 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Metro's January ridership numbers

The Chronicle reports the latest ridership figures released by Metro:

January's ridership report shows 32,384 average daily boardings on MetroRail. That is the second highest monthly average reported since passenger service began in January 2004. The record high average was 32,941 in October.

Boardings had fallen to 29,782 and 29,175 in November and December, respectively.

Bus ridership in January averaged 274,328 per weekday. That's down 9 percent from the 300,650 average daily boardings recorded in January 2004, and the lowest January total since 1997.

Metro attributes recent declines in bus ridership to elimination of routes parallel to the rail line. Critics, however, have argued the bus cutbacks have led more commuters to use their cars instead.

Critics have also pointed out that Metro has eliminated other bus routes that have nothing to do with the rail line, except that because of the rail line Metro needs to save money.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/14/05 08:56 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

13 February 2005

Further thoughts on Houston radio ratings

Recently, this blog and the Brazosport News called attention to newly released radio ratings on a public website.

The discussion that ensued prompted KSEV-700's Dan Patrick to post an explanation of those ratings and his programming philosophy on his Lone Star Times website (linked via Google cache because direct link is dead).

He made a number of points, including: 1) KSEV does not attempt to compete 24 hours because of a weak nighttime signal, 2) KSEV competes primarily for the 35-64 demographic, even though many advertisers covet a younger 25-54 demographic, 3) KSEV is highly competitive in those time slots and demographics that it targets, 4a) The person following 800 pound talk radio gorilla Rush Limbaugh on competing station KPRC benefits disproportionately from the strong lead, 4b) When Dan Patrick followed Rush Limbaugh in his days with KPRC, he benefited disproportionately as a result, just as Chris Baker benefited when he was on KPRC; 4c) "I can assure you this," Patrick wrote, "if Rush was in the middle of our day format, the numbers would be dramatically different for everyone."

In the post, Patrick insisted that the 35-64 demographic is most important to his station, but also pointed to December numbers in the 25-54 demographic suggesting his station had surged ahead of the primary competition.

Unfortunately, representatives from KSEV declined my request to share raw Arbitron numbers with us for independent analysis or to post selected raw Arbitron numbers to the Lone Star Times website, making it impossible for interested persons to analyze the data for themselves. However, after quite a bit of poking around and calling in some favors, I have been able to obtain raw Arbitron data for selected demographics and time slots, which I've loaded into Excel spreadsheets and used to compile a number of graphics that show various ratings for KPRC, KTRH, and KSEV. The data entry and subsequent quality control have been tedious and time-consuming. While we believe the data we are presenting is as error-free as possible, we do concede that the human data entry/transcription effort does introduce the possibility for error. It should go without saying (since this is a weblog that takes its reputation and credibility extremely seriously), but we'll say it anyway -- if anyone in possession of raw Arbitron data believes we have made an error in our analysis, please contact us with the specifics so we can correct any errors quickly and transparently. All ratings data that follows is copyright 2005, Arbitron.

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/13/05 11:19 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (5)

MetroRail crash victim speaks out

KHOU-11 has interviewed the driver of the van that was hit by a MetroRail train last week:

"All I could do was close my eyes and say, 'oh my God, oh my God' and I did like that and I said, 'Lord, stop this train' and he did," the driver said.

Driving the white van was 43-year-old Pat. She wanted to keep her last name secret, but talked all about the accident that took place Thursday in the Medical Center just as rush hour began. Pat said she didn't hear the train nor see it until it was too late.

"The only time I saw it was when it made contact. Actually, when it made contact. That's how I knew that train was there," Pat said.

[snip]

Pat said she's blessed to be alive, only suffering minor scrapes and bruises. The passenger in the van, however, was seriously hurt and is still recovering at Memorial Hermann.

Pat calls the accident an error in judgment. "For me to make a misguided turn like that, it was just beyond me," she said.

[snip]

Pat fears there will more accidents, possibly even worse than the one she was involved in, if something isn't done.

"I don't know if it's going to take an instant death before they do something else with the safety of pedestrians and drivers along that railway," said Pat.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/13/05 06:07 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)

Chronicle: Metro's funding problems are DeLay's and Culberson's fault

Today's Chronicle tells us, in a four-reporter story carrying Lucas Wall's byline, that Metro's funding hiccup isn't the fault of Metro's self-described "innovative" funding proposal. It's actually the fault of Rep. Tom DeLay and Rep. John Culberson.

The story's context is a waiver that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison inserted into the Senate's appropriations bill "that would have forced the FTA to accept the Metropolitan Transit Authority's nontraditional financing proposal." A similar waiver was inserted into the House's version, then taken out:

Hutchison's amendment would have authorized 100 percent federal funding for the Northline and Southeast extensions in exchange for Metro funding two later rail lines solely with local tax dollars. While DeLay and Culberson say they had nothing to do with the deletion of the amendment in the final version, they say they opposed Hutchison's rider, which by authorizing full federal funding, exempted Metro from federal law requiring at least a 20 percent local contribution on each rail segment. The typical local share is more like 50 percent.

[snip]

Culberson said Friday that Metro asked him in October to support the amendment. He sent letters to the chairmen of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Don Young, R-Alaska, and the House transportation appropriations subcommittee, Ernest Istook, R-Okla. Both responded they strongly objected to the exemption Metro sought.

Given those reservations, Culberson, the region's only member on the House Appropriations Committee, told Metro he could not endorse the amendment, which he also personally opposed.

"What Metro was asking for is illegal and utterly inappropriate because all 200 rail-transit projects across the country would then ask for the same 100 percent full funding deal," Culberson said. The conferees "should have struck it, you bet."

As Wall notes, DeLay and Culberson have said they will not block federal funding for Metro, but Laurence Simon pointed out last week that's not the same as agreeing to cheerlead for Metro. Metro knew the rules and chose to ignore them. But Wall doesn't focus on that; instead he leads readers by the hand to conclude that Culberson nefariously removed Metro's waiver, while allowing a similar waiver for a San Francisco project to remain. It would have been refreshing if Wall (or someone) had asked Sen. Hutchison how she got the idea to add that waiver. Did Metro officials ask her for a little assistance, to get around a federal requirement? Isn't that a question worth asking?

In spite of all the Chronicle's hand-wringing and hyperventilating, Metro could still get the funding:

Tuesday's report from the FTA is not the final word on which cities obtain $1.53 billion in transit capital grants next fiscal year. The report is a recommendation to Congress, which crafts the transportation appropriations bill later this year.

"They still have an opportunity to receive funding this year as long as their submission is on track and the FTA approves it," said DeLay spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty.

DeLay's office has been informed by the FTA that it received a revised application from Metro in November and is still evaluating it, Flaherty said.

So let's recap: Metro submitted a proposal that wasn't in accordance with federal guidelines, and contained incorrect and unreliable data; the FTA informed Metro that the proposal needed to be redone; Metro has submitted a new one and it's being considered. Metro hasn't been denied funding; no determination has been made.

But the unbelievable part is the Chronicle blaming DeLay and Culberson for this. Metro officials knew the rules and arrogantly decided not to follow them. Now Metro is crying foul because there's a potential delay. Well, whose fault is that?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/13/05 04:40 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

12 February 2005

Chron finally covers HPD manpower woes

Some television stations, talk radio hosts, and this blog have been pointing out HPD's manpower shortages for some time.

The Chronicle finally took up the topic today, in a lengthy article by S.K. Bardwell. Here are a couple of excerpts to put the problem in perspective:

By year's end, the Houston Police Department will have lost an estimated 740 officers — as many as the city of Orlando employs — to retirement in a two-year period.

For comparison purposes, in 2003 the department lost 138 officers through retirement, resignation, termination or death.

And there may not be enough money available in the next two fiscal years to train replacements for even half the officers the department is losing. Or to hire the 1,000-plus civilians the department is missing.

[snip]

Still, there is unquestionably a crisis: HPD is currently authorized to have 6,398 officers. Hurtt's staff is still studying whether a force that size is adequate based on Houston's population and other factors, but the point is moot for now: Only 4,921 of those positions are filled, or about 77 percent.

In the best of times, it would take the Houston police academy three or four years to catch up, by turning out three 70-cadet classes per year.

These are not the best of times. Four academy classes are budgeted over the next two fiscal years, and optimally will bring 280 new officers into the fold.

Mayor Bill White said through an aide Friday that it is possible more money will be found for additional classes during that period.

The second bolded quote from the Mayor's office puts the first bolded quote in perspective.

As we've been pointing out for some time, public safety hasn't been of much interest to Mayor White and the current council unless it's been a matter of constructing a new revenue stream under the guise of "public safety." There is no public safety issue in the city right now that is more pressing than HPD's manpower shortage, yet Mayor White and his council have preferred instead to focus on other expensive, questionable priorities even within HPD.

That's their prerogative as elected officials, but the city's only newspaper -- which we're pleased to see has finally discovered this issue -- need not characterize it as anything but a matter of priorities. As the quote from the mayor's office and the experience with Tasers make clear, the city can find money to fund issues of public safety when officials decide they are a priority.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/12/05 03:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

Chronicle scolds Sen. Whitmire

The Chronicle editors decided to wag their fingers at state Sen. John Whitmire for his bill that would end $AFEclear, the way it is currently structured.

The editorial is vintage Chronicle editors, showing a lack of insight about the topic (maybe they only read the Chronicle; that's a problem). They say Sen. Whitmire hasn't offered up an alternative (he has -- MAP), they say he's acting hastily (one man is dead and blogHOUSTON thinks the draconian particulars of $AFEclear played a part), they say he's trampling on a local municipality's right to govern itself (yet another big city in Texas is looking into a $AFEclear-type program for its freeways), and then the editors give us their big finish:

Whitmire's opposition to the improved Safe Clear program isn't leadership. It's harmful demagoguery by an elected official who has shown the same traits before. Whitmire may know what plays well to his northside district in Houston, but he's doing a disservice to the city's freeway commuters in the process.

(This is interesting to read in light of that last paragraph.)

The editors love it when a Republican follows his or her conscience, especially if it's considered to be a break in the ranks. Remember when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted against one of President Bush's judicial nominees? The editors wrote two editorials cheering on Hutchison. The first sentence of the editorial written before the vote said, "Loyalty to her party and its national leader, President Bush, should not dictate the vote of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, on the pending nomination of a man whose extreme opposition to reproductive rights and gender equality make him unfit to hold a lifetime federal judicial appointment." After Hutchison's vote, the editors wrote, "Although her vote was not decisive, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, displayed proper independence and due diligence in voting against the confirmation of J. Leon Holmes to a U.S. district court judgeship in Arkansas."

I wonder if today's editorial effort qualifies as an example of "the elegance, wit and insight one looks for in magazine commentary and editorial pages in their ideal state," according to interim editorial page editor James Howard Gibbons.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I can't help but note that Sen. Whitmire seems officially to have joined the ranks of Chron "bad guys" (read: Republicans). How has he joined a group of "bad guys" that includes Chuck Rosenthal, Tom DeLay, and John Culberson, among others? I'll let the Chron editors explain:

Whitmire's reappointment to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee chairmanship by the Republican lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, and his "of counsel" association with the well-connected law firm Locke, Liddell & Sapp raise suspicions among Democrats that Whitmire is serving the interests of GOP legislative leaders. The Republican leadership would like nothing better than to discredit Mayor White, a potential candidate for statewide office.

As Anne points out, it's vintage Chron editorializing indeed, with unsubstantiated gossip and shadowy conspiracy theories posing as reasoning! Recall that just last week, we blasted Kristen Mack for turning her municipal politics column into a gossip column that repeated the same unsubstantiated charges. It's the sort of thing I expect to see on partisan, fringe blogs, not on news or editorial pages in an "ideal state."

As for the bolded assertion that the GOP leadership would like nothing better than to discredit Mayor White -- the Chronicle editors really should be mindful of how silly they sound. Given the issues facing the state and the fact that voters will blame the party in charge if things go south, we suspect the GOP leadership has quite a bit on their minds, and that the favored politico of the Chronicle editorial board isn't chief among them. Indeed, it's worth flipping around the question and asking the Chronicle editorial board why they are already acting as cheerleaders for a potential statewide run by Houston's mayor when it would seem Houston's problems should be more than sufficient to occupy his and their attention. Maybe they'll answer that question on their editorial board blog? Oh wait, I've confused them for the Dallas Morning News. The Chronicle has no such blog, and the editorial board does not engage readers or bloggers.

Further, here's a misleading (to the point of being inaccurate) assertion in the editorial:

Then as now, Whitmire linked up with conservative talk radio, blasting the emissions testing program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

What does "linked up" mean precisely? Until his own overblown, whiplash-inducing turnaround on the issue last week, Dan Patrick (and his KSEV-700 crew) opposed Sen. Whitmire's threats to scuttle $AFEclear, to the point of engaging in a screaming match with him on air that prompted the Senator to hang up on Patrick back in January. In the last week or so, Patrick has thrown support Whitmire's way, but ratings leader Chris Baker of KTRH-740 has openly questioned Whitmire's actions in light of revisions to the original $AFEclear program. It's just not accurate to suggest (via the phrase "linked up") that Whitmire and conservative talk radio in this town have engaged in some monolithic effort on this issue. If anything, Whitmire has been more consistent in his opposition to this program than this town's big names in conservative talk radio. Perhaps the Chronicle opposes Whitmire taking his case to alt-media in this town, but in a one-newspaper town with a newspaper of poor quality, it's sometimes the only way to put an issue before the public. Indeed, one wonders if dinosaur print media isn't a little upset over not fully controlling the issue agenda these days thanks to blogs and talk radio, but that's another topic.

Sen. Whitmire has been steadfast in his opposition to this program from day one (we have as well). That may well anger some members in his own party, who may still harbor resentment over Whitmire's redistricting activities, but that's no reason for the city's only newspaper to attack his position based on inaccuracies, gossip, and conspiracy theories. I concur with Anne that such behavior is hardly editorializing in an ideal state.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/12/05 09:02 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (9)

11 February 2005

Mayor White looks to combine $AFEclear with an expanded MAP

KPRC-2 is running a very interesting story about Mayor White, $AFEclear and MAP:

Houston's mayor made plans Friday to expand a motorist assistance program in an effort to save a controversial towing ordinance, Local 2 reported in an exclusive story Friday.

MAP is Harris County's freeway assistance program. A compromise between Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels would expand MAP in conjunction with Safe Clear.

"I think both with Safe Clear's capabilities and with an expanded MAP program, which I'm working on, that there will be a lot of assistance to motorists," White said. "Nobody minds getting some free assistance in the shoulder or emergency lane."

The Motorist Assistance Program has been in place since 1986. During peak hours, deputies patrol in donated vans, providing free rides, gas, jump starts and other services for stranded motorists.

MAP would work alongside Safe Clear wreckers, providing a more driver-friendly approach to clearing roadways.

The current budget for MAP is about $2.5 million. The current plan would triple that budget, with the money coming from the county, city, METRO and private industry.

"We are going to work with the city to try to commit to something with our MAP program and with their program and find something that will resolve the issues the legislature has," Eckels said.

The move comes after a state Senate committee approved a bill that would kill Safe Clear, which requires tow truck drivers to remove disabled vehicles from Houston roadways within six minutes, even without the driver's consent.

I am stunned. Happily so. If anyone can figure out how to make this happen, it is Mayor White.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/11/05 06:31 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)

Increasing light rail ridership during Rodeo

In our forum, one of our commenters, Bill F, mentioned that Metro has stopped providing rodeo and football game shuttles so it can improve ridership numbers on MetroRail instead. That reminded me of a press release I saw on Metro's site today:

Rodeo fans are encouraged to use METRORail or METRO's convenient, reliable Rodeo Express shuttle service to the 2005 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

[snip]

METRO Rodeo Express shuttles will be available at the Maxey Road Park & Ride, 515 Maxey Road at Woodforest. However, patrons using the Maxey Road shuttles will not be taken directly to Reliant Park. Instead, patrons of the Maxey Road site will be transported to the Fannin South Park & Ride lot where they will board METRORail to Reliant Park.

Of course, Maxey Road shuttle passengers won't have to pay extra for the light rail fare, because that's not Metro's point -- Metro only wants to increase body counts (ridership figures). As we all know, fare-checking is random, since Metro operates on an honor system.

UPDATE: I need to be clearer: Metro has not stopped all shuttles from going to Reliant, but is feeding passengers on the Maxey Road shuttles to the light rail. Thanks to Bill F for the heads-up.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/11/05 04:38 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)

Saavedra gets okay for administrative restructuring

The HISD board has approved Superintendent Abe Saavedra's plan to reduce the size of HISD's bureaucracy:

Houston schools Superintendent Abe Saavedra was given the go-ahead Thursday to radically change the district's administrative structure by replacing 13 regional offices with three.

The Houston Independent School District board voted unanimously to approve Saavedra's plan, which was outlined as a way to streamline the administration and trim as much as $4 million from the budget.

[snip]

Under the plan, each of the three administrative offices will be staffed by a regional superintendent, a regional business manager, a regional parental assistance manager and six executive principals.

Each executive principal will oversee one or two feeder patterns, which are made up of all the elementary and middle schools feeding into a high school.

Last night I saw Ted Oberg's report about this on KTRK-13 and I was surprised when he made a point of saying that while this could save $4 million, HISD's budget is over $1 billion so it would have little impact.

Those are taxpayer dollars being saved and just because Oberg doesn't think $4 million dollars is significant doesn't mean it's not. HISD is a huge operation and some streamlining and consolidation are excellent ideas. Oberg should save his personal opinion for the newsroom.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/11/05 09:58 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

Local media covers the latest MetroRail crash -- with one exception

As most people probably know, there was another MetroRail crash yesterday and it's interesting to look at the local media's coverage.

KPRC-2's story immediately places the blame on the van's driver:

A handicap van hit a METRORail train on the tracks near the Texas Medical Center Thursday afternoon, shutting down the rail service for a while, officials told Local 2.

The accident happened on the southbound tracks at Fannin and University shortly after 5 p.m. Officials said the van's driver pulled in front of the moving train, hitting it.

If you look at the picture with the story, it seems improbable that the van hit the train. Yes, it appears the van's driver turned in front of the train, but then the van would have been on the tracks and the train would have hit the van. Maybe someone will get a hold of Metro's on-board video so we can actually see what happened.

KHOU-11 and KTRK-13 have more neutral coverage.

And then we get to the Chronicle where we find -- nothing. Not a peep about yesterday's accident from Houston's one major daily newspaper, self-described as "Your daily information source." What a surprise!

UPDATE: KHOU-11 has obtained the Metro video that was recorded on board the train.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/11/05 09:28 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (5)

State addresses Houston's new revenue generating ideas

State lawmakers are undoubtedly giving Mayor Bill White heartburn. Today's Chronicle reports on last night's news that Sen. Whitmire's towing legislation is zipping through the Senate, and also talks about how the Legislature is addressing Houston's red light cameras:

The city hoped to start using cameras to issue civil citations in at least 10 dangerous intersections by April, and to expand the program to as many as 50 intersections.

Under Texas law, running a red light is a Class C misdemeanor that can only be regulated by the state, even though local governments are in charge of enforcement. In 2003, the House overwhelmingly voted not to allow cities to use cameras to issue criminal citations to red-light violators.

But state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, inserted an amendment in the 2003 transportation bill giving cities the right to regulate transportation matters civilly or criminally.

The bill by [Rep. Gary] Elkins would eliminate that amendment.

"It had unintended consequences," the Houston Republican said. "No one knew it was going to be used as a vehicle to use red-light cameras. No city has the power to override state law."

[snip]

Elkins, who filed the bill in December, said he hopes it is quickly passed out of committee. The earliest he imagines the House will vote on it is early March.

Elkins appears to have wide support. Houston-area representatives co-authoring the bill include Republicans Dwayne Bohac, Wayne Smith and Corbin Van Arsdale and Democrats Coleman, Harold Dutton, Joe Moreno, Melissa Noriega, Senfronia Thompson and Sylvester Turner.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/11/05 06:39 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

10 February 2005

Food and drink roundup (02-10-2005 edition)

Houston's food and drink reviewers head off the beaten path a bit this week.

Robb Walsh likes Sabor for lunch and breakfast, but advises thinking twice about dinner.

Alison Cook visits French Bistro Calais.

Ken Hoffman says to ignore Jared and enjoy Subway's Chipotle Chicken & Bacon Double Cheese Melt.

Mona Shoup has reader recommendations for romantic restaurants, which is quite timely with Valentine's Day approaching.

And Gracie Ochoa reviews the Joia Lounge.

Happy eating and drinking everyone!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/10/05 11:27 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

Senate committee approves Whitmire's towing legislation

A state Senate committe has approved Sen. John Whitmire's bill that would effectively put an end to $AFEclear, and according to KPRC-2, the full Senate is expected to vote on the legislation next week.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/10/05 07:36 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

Public safety priorities

KHOU-11 has reported on two more instances of questionable prioritizing by HPD and the city of Houston.

First, KHOU uncovered a taxpayer-funded study the city of Houston commissioned in 2003, that says the city's emergency radio system, used by police officers and firefighters, has serious problems. According to KHOU, the city has not shared the report with the public.

The report identifies three problems: a crowded radio system, where sometimes police and fire personnel must wait their turn before they can get on the air; dead spots all over the Houston area, for example in shopping malls, the downtown tunnels, highrises and even a large portion of Kingwood; and radio towers that could present a danger to the public because of rust and damage.

Here's the response Mayor White gave KHOU:

"It's not a problem that's going to be solved in one day. It will be over a period of years," said Mayor Bill White.

Of course the mayor's right that the radio system problems won't be solved in one day; however, failing to release such a critical report is not the most transparent way to handle the problem. The public has a right to know what this report said and what the city is going to do to address the problems.

Replacing the emergency radio system is not going to be cheap, but the mayor might win support for the city's numerous new revenue streams if the public could be assured that the revenue generated was actually going toward upgrading emergency communications. Maybe there's even some Homeland Security funding for a program like this.

The second case of questionable prioritizing came to light yesterday, when we learned that HPD had pulled some officers off their regular duty to handle $AFEclear secretarial work:

"We had officers taken from their assignments no matter what they were doing and they went up to wreckers division and they're pulling accident reports," says [Houston Police Patrolman's Union president Johnnie] McFarland.

An officer who spoke to 11 News off camera said these officers were hand copying every accident report from 2004 after which civilian clerks were entering the data into a computer program. The focus, the officer says, is accidents involving stalled vehicles or those on the side of the freeway.

Some say it is in response to the death of a motorist who witnesses say crossed Interstate 10 in hopes of preventing a Safe Clear tow.

The official police response is that with any new program, it is standard procedure to document program statistics and that's what this was.

Okay, the question then becomes, does HPD pull police officers to do this every time a new program is implemented? If that's the case, then maybe HPD has an administrative problem. The skeptic in me wonders if HPD is helping the mayor make his case for $AFEclear, since the uproar over the program hasn't completely faded.

Combine these stories with other recent news -- such as red light cameras, Chief Hurtt's desire for radar cameras to catch speeders, the new productivity policy, and most importantly, the police manpower shortage -- and I think HPD and city officials need to refocus on the city government's primary mission: public safety. Houston police officers are trying to do just that every day, but they need more support from the city's higher-ups.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/10/05 01:06 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

Metro caused its own funding problem

Lucas Wall has written an eye-opening look at why MetroRail's federal funding request was denied by the Federal Transit Administration. It basically boils down to Metro not wanting to play by the FTA's rules.

09 February 2005

Casey muddles through vote-fraud controversy

Charles Kuffner criticizes Chronicle columnist Rick Casey for getting "a bit muddled about the actual fraud that Rep. Will Hartnett found in his discovery process" in the Talmadge Heflin challenge.

I agree that Casey is muddled, but for slightly different reasons.

Chron blows UH coverage, beat writer blames fans

On Saturday, the University of Houston men's basketball team achieved the school's 1,000th victory in the sport.

While the 1,000-win list is not a tiny club among men's college basketball programs, it was an impressive milestone for a relatively young program.

The Chronicle buried the coverage of the game in Saturday editions and coverage of the win in Sunday editions, prompting an outcry from local boosters, several of whom received the following response from the sports editor:

You are absolutely right. We did drop the ball by not having a story in advance of UH going for its 1000th victory on Saturday, and I apologize for the oversight.

Thanks for your interest in the Chronicle sports section.

Dan Cunningham

Sports Editor

Apparently, Cunningham didn't have much of a conversation with UH beat columnist Michael Murphy, who fired off the following blast today in what is supposed to be his column about Cougar sports:

Who is Helflin?

The Chronicle's post-mortem on the Heflin-Vo race is reasonable enough, given the low standards that have been set.

Unfortunately, there's one little error that seems to have gotten by the idealists on the editorial board:

After alleging "massive voter fraud," former Republican state Rep. Talmadge Heflin this week finally conceded the seat to the Democratic victor in the November election, newcomer Hubert Vo. In the end, the Helflin camp was the largest font of disinformation.

Who is Helflin?

The misspelling found its way into print editions as well.

We approve of the local focus, but editorials in their ideal state should get the names of local politicians right.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/09/05 09:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

Getting around, Congressional style

Banjo Jones points to an analysis of privately sponsored trips taken by members of Congress since 2000. The study was conducted by Marketplace, American RadioWorks, and a team of graduate students from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, and computed the total expenses for privately sponsored trips from public records.

Of local interest, Rep. Gene Green (D) ranked the highest among the Texas Congressional delegation, and third overall.

Chronicle "bad guy" Tom DeLay (R), who was referenced in a house editorial for the second day in a row after a period of seeming neglect, came in at 29th overall.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) ranked 162nd.

Rep. John Culberson (R) ranked 515th.

Results for the entire Texas delegation may be found here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/09/05 09:15 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)

Olajuwon's mosque donated to alleged terrorist groups

The AP's Matt Kelley reports some disturbing news about donations tied to former Rocket star Hakeem Olajuwon's mosque:

A mosque established and funded by basketball star Hakeem Olajuwon gave more than $80,000 to charities the government later determined to be fronts for the terror groups al-Qaida and Hamas, according to financial records obtained by The Associated Press.

Olajuwon told the AP he had not known of any links to terrorism when the donations were made, prior to the government's crackdown on the groups, and would not have given the money if he had known.

"There is no way you can go back in time," Olajuwon said in a telephone interview from Jordan, where he is studying Arabic. "After the fact, now they have the list of organizations that are banned by the government."

[snip]

The government shut down the relief agency in October, saying it gave money and other support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

But the agency and its possible ties to terrorism had been in news stories years earlier, before Olajuwon's contributions....

Expect the local coverage -- once there is local coverage that is not simply a rewrite of the AP story -- to emphasize that Islam is a religion of peace, and to emphasize further that Olajuwon didn't know much about the organizations that received so much money from his organization.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/09/05 02:17 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (8)

City Council closes $AFEclear background check loophole

City Council has unanimously approved an ordinance amendment that allows the city to deny $AFEclear towing licenses to tow truck drivers who have felony backgrounds:

In further fallout from public concern about its mandatory freeway towing ordinance, Houston's City Council today authorized the city to revoke the towing licenses of Safe Clear drivers with certain crimes in their background.

Under the ordinance, passed unanimously, convicted sex or violent offenders will never be eligible for licenses to perform non-consent tows such as those under the city's Safe Clear program or others ordered by police.

Anyone convicted of committing other crimes, including fraud, robbery and auto theft, must have a clean record for seven years before being eligible for a license.

[snip]

Besides Safe Clear drivers, the city licenses about 800 tow truck drivers to conduct other police-ordered tows. Mayor Bill White said some violent offenders have such licenses but are not in the Safe Clear program. He could not provide specific numbers.

Drivers who conduct tows at the request of motorists are not covered by the ordinance.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/09/05 01:37 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

TxDOT hears from public about I-45 expansion idea

TxDOT held its I-45 information meeting last night, and Charles Kuffner was able to attend and his question was asked:

The Q&A session was where the action occurred. Well, in the questions, anyway, where the opposition to any widening of I-45 outside the existing right-of-way was a recurring theme. With the huge crowd present, questions were written down and submitted to be asked by a moderator (who I believe was Jim Weston of the I-45 Coalition). My questions did get asked - they were "Why are we widening I-45 when we've already got the underutilized Hardy Toll Road?" and "Won't widening I-45 north of I-10 just make congestion on the Pierce Elevated worse?" To the first, Tello and Kennison more or less repeated what they said up front, which is that the Hardy is an integral part of the overall mobility plan. If they had any figures as to the projected use of the Hardy in 2025 (the benchmark year used in the I-45 study), I didn't hear about them. As to the Pierce, Tello basically conceded that there was no plan to do anything about that, then when pressed on the question Henry got up and suggested US 59 and Spur 527 as alternate routes. I did not find that to be a good answer, but it's what I got.

The full post is filled with details from the meeting, which he thought was an exercise in frustration.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/09/05 12:58 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)

MetroRail's not getting federal funding -- for now

Lucas Wall, in today's Chronicle, reports that Metro has been denied federal funding for 2006, which will impede Metro's planned expansion:

In a report to Congress released on Tuesday, the Federal Transit Administration details rail and bus projects that it believes should get funding assistance for the fiscal year 2006. Houston MetroRail appears in a 55-page appendix listing hundreds of pending projects across the United States not ready for grants.

Of course, Metro is not happy:

"For people who really care about Houston and believe, as I think every intelligent person does, that transit is a necessary part of the solution to our mobility problems, it is frustrating to see the money for transit going to these other cities," said Metro board Chairman David Wolff. "It's not like the money is going to come to this city instead for highways or parks or health care."

Blogger Chris Elam takes exception with Wolff's assertion that if you don't support Metro, you are not intelligent; and with Metro President Frank Wilson's complaint that this potential delay in funding throws Metro off its schedule.

In our forum recently, we batted around the idea that Metro might have been better off starting with commuter rail, rather than what we currently have.

And, out in Orange County, CA, light rail plans are being put on the back burner, if not scrapped entirely, and a new bus rapid transit system will be probably be considered instead.

RELATED: Rode out on a rail (Laurence Simon), Metro funding in doubt again (Charles Kuffner), Feds decline to fund MetroRail expansion (Matt Bramanti at Lone Star Times)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/09/05 11:58 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)

SAFEclear program gets WSJ treatment

Early-bird blogger Tom Kirkendall points out that Mayor White's $AFEclear program has now made the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

The article is subscription-only, and really does not break any new ground over what has been covered already by local talk radio, blogs, and traditional media. Its author, Thaddeus Herrick, does include a quote on Mayor White from Bob Stein, who at least is identified properly:

"This is the first time he's stumbled," says Robert Stein a professor of political science at Rice University, who helped create Safe Clear.

There's also a quote from Stephen Klineberg, apparently just for the sake of including it:

That the experiment is playing out in Houston is curious. "A city built by developers on behalf of the automobile," says Stephen Klineberg, a sociologist at Rice University, Houston is the nation's largest city without zoning -- and a monument to unfettered growth. The metro area, with a population of more than four million, now rivals Los Angeles for the worst air and has legendary traffic jams.

The article quotes KTRH-740 talker Chris Baker, who helped lead the talk-radio charge in winning improvements to the original draconian program:

"For the government to come in and take your car at gunpoint is wrong," says Chris Baker, a radio talk-show host on KTRH, a local AM station. "It's ugly and corrupt."

The one significant weakness of the article is that it does not directly mention the revenues generated by the $AFEclear program for the city -- $1 million in franchise fees collected by establishing exclusive $AFEClear zones -- making unclear the reference at the end of the article to possible state legislative action to curb Houston's ability to use freeways as a revenue source. That's a significant omission for a story that's this old and this developed.

UPDATE (02-10-2005): Today, the New York Times picks up the story.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/09/05 08:30 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

08 February 2005

Homeland security or Lee Brown's consultancy at work?

One of the Houston Metrobloggers had an interesting experience downtown a few days ago:

I was downtown the other day when I spotted a little hidden-away park I had never seen. Being the opportunist, I circled the block - found an open parking meter - grabbed my camera - and headed to take some shots.

While waiting for the light to change so I could cross the street to the park, I decided to check the settings on my camera. I did this by taking a shot of a nearby building and then adjusting the settings. Well, I had just snapped my second picture and was changing the settings when a non-descript black SUV cut across three lanes of traffic and pulled in front of me. The tinted window slid down smoothly to reveal a man holding a badge in my direction asking, "Can I talk to you for a minute?" Well, with a pretty high pucker factor, I said, "Sure."

It sounds like the homeland security people are keeping an eye on things downtown.

Or, perhaps former Mayor Brown's consulting company has been contracted for covert, "neighborhood-oriented" bandit sign prevention.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/05 11:05 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

HGO director leaves for San Francisco

Houston arts took a hit this week with the announcement that Houston Grand Opera director David Gockley will be leaving to head up the San Francisco opera:

Houston will lose its premier performing arts leader when Houston Grand Opera general director David Gockley becomes head of San Francisco Opera.

"He's a star," said Peter C. Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "He's probably the most successful arts person in the history of Houston by any standard, certainly in terms of international fame."

But after 33 years of building the HGO from a small, regional company into one acclaimed internationally for premieres of new works, Gockley will take his talents to the Bay Area to succeed Pamela Rosenberg on Jan. 1 as the sixth general director of San Francisco Opera.

"At some point in the fall, I said to myself, 'I have 10 years left in my career. Why play it safe? Where can I make it count the most?' " Gockley said from San Francisco, where his appointment was announced Monday.

Gockley's last day at the HGO will be July 31. He will begin half-time work in San Francisco on July 15, said Karl O. Mills, president of the San Francisco Opera Association.

A search committee to replace Gockley has been formed.

MORE: San Francisco Opera Names a New Director (Daniel J. Wakin, NY Times), The Opera's Next Director has Big Plans, Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle)

UPDATE (02-09-2005): Tom Kirkendall comments.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/05 09:39 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (0)

Olds from the Chron DC bureau

Last Friday, blogger Chris Elam began a post on the struggling Democrats as follows:

By now, you may have heard about the group of Democrats who held a photo-op in front of a statue of FDR to protest Bush's plans to reform Social Security.

Actually, not if you read the Chronicle, which got around to commenting on the "olds" yesterday.

The "olds" from Gebe Martinez comes in the form of a news editorial of sorts, but the analysis is lacking much insight beyond the notion that the Democrats think they can't just be the party that says "no" to President Bush, but all they can seem to agree on at the moment is that they oppose his proposed Social Security reforms. Frankly, there's better and more timely analysis of the woes of the minority party on any number of political blogs, on the right and left.

Given Stephen G. Smith's credentials, we were hopeful the Chron's new D.C. bureau head would improve the newspaper's national political coverage, or at least begin to justify the bureau's continued existence. Now, we're just hopeful this isn't his idea of improvement.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/05 09:21 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

Limo drivers can access airport gates and make Houston some money, too

KPRC-2 has posted a story about Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports allowing limousine drivers to meet arriving passengers at the gate.

The video KPRC has with the story explains that the drivers had to pass background checks before they could be issued the special badge that gives them access to gate areas. Here's more in a press release from Houston Airports:

The local Limousine Drivers & Owners Association voted unanimously to accept a thorough background and criminal history evaluation that includes fingerprinting before receiving badges that are valid at both Bush Intercontinental and Hobby. Their names are checked against a variety of databases generated by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

A limousine driver who gets a badge must go through the same metal detector and pass his or her belongings through the same screening device as a ticketed passenger.

Criminal offenses within the last 10 years disqualify applicants in accordance with TSA regulations. More than 650 drivers have received badges and only two percent were rejected. Limousine drivers who do not have a badge may drop passengers off at the airport, but may not pick them up, Mancuso said.

“Houston is one of the few cities, if not the only city, that is doing this,” Mancuso said. “It’s in keeping with Mayor White’s commitment to excellence in customer service while remaining as forward-thinking as we can be about security.”

I love that sentence about this program being in keeping with Mayor White's commitment to excellent customer service and forward-thinking security. Mayor White also has quite a commitment to finding new revenue streams!

The KPRC video notes that the badges cost $45 each and are good for two years. So, 650 drivers received badges at $45 each which equals $29,250 for the city of Houston. And that revenue stream is renewable every two years.

And let's all hope that the background checks used on the limousine drivers is more effective than the one used on $AFEclear drivers.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/08/05 01:26 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)

07 February 2005

Investing in MAP would have cost and safety benefits for Houston

blogHOUSTON has written more than once that Harris County's Motorist Assistance Program is the smart, safe, and citizen-friendly alternative to $AFEclear. Recently some $AFEclear proponents have said that MAP is too expensive for the city to participate in because it costs $250,000 per truck, per year.

Since we haven't seen much out of the local media investigating what MAP might actually cost, we decided to ask Walter Wainwright. Wainwright is the president of the Houston Automobile Dealers Association, the group that initially started MAP before Harris County took over the program.

Wainwright graciously provided the following details. First, in 19 years of its existence, MAP drivers have assisted stranded motorists 600,000 times and there have been no deaths. There are nine trucks and two eight-hour shifts every weekday, from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. That means 18 sheriff's deputies are out every weekday helping stranded motorists on Harris County freeways.

Second, Wainwright provided cost estimates. By far the biggest expense is the salaries for the MAP drivers who are sheriff's deputies. Wainwright said when the program was being developed, women made it especially clear they did not want anyone besides a law enforcement officer providing roadside assistance. That is why MAP drivers are sheriff's deputies. The salaries total approximately $850,000 and that amount is reimbursed almost entirely by METRO.

The Houston Automobile Dealers Association donates four new MAP trucks every year, at a cost of $100,000.

Cingular Wireless donates cell phones and phone services for the MAP drivers at a cost of around $70,000.

TxDOT provides office space, dispatchers and coordinating support for MAP out of the Houston Transtar facilities.

Harris County is responsible for gas and truck maintenence costs which ran about $200,000 per year until recently. He said that cost has risen due to increasing gasoline prices and he said it could be closer to $300,000 by now.

If we add all that up, MAP technically costs about $1.3 million. However, the cost to Harris County is under $300,000. So, here's a thought: what if Houston invested the $300,000 that it is willing to use for free tows, into the MAP program; and negotiated with METRO, Cingular Wireless, the Houston Auto Dealers Association and TxDOT to increase their contributions to MAP?

We would then have an expanded MAP program with law enforcement officers responding to stranded motorists who are on the shoulder (no tow truck drivers with felony backgrounds). If the MAP driver can solve the problem, the motorist will be on his or her way rapidly with no towing involved for a flat tire or an emergency gallon of gas. And if a tow truck is needed, then the MAP driver can call for a $AFEclear wrecker and an officer would be there with the motorist when the wrecker driver hooks up the car. See? It's all about safety and a dynamic, customer-oriented government.

UPDATE (02-08-2005): A representative for Mr. Wainwright emails that his cost estimates were somewhat off, as Harris County also kicks in some of the personnel funding. The new estimate given by his representative is $700,000 per year.

ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: This change in math obviously makes a difference, but I don't think it's an insurmountable problem. Mayor White is very good at making things happen.

If we go back to the impetus for this post, it was because someone from the city said that each MAP truck costs $250,000 per year to operate. There are nine MAP trucks, so proponents are saying the program costs $2.25 million to operate per year. Well, we know that the entire program costs a little over $1.5 million and now we also know that Harris County pays approximately $700,000 into MAP, which averages out to about $77,000 per truck (the rest is picked up by donations from the entities listed in the main post). That's quite different than $250,000. And let's not forget the city made $1 million + off the franchise fees paid for freeway rights. If the city has to match Harris County's contribution (and who says it has to be the same?) the city would still have a net gain of around $300,000.

If the city flexed some muscle, I'll bet officials could find more sponsors to help fund the program, more underwriters to contribute resources and apply for a federal grant to help defray the cost. When $AFEclear first hit the news, Sen. Whitmire mentioned that the city received federal grant money from a program called CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program), back during the Lee Brown administration. Houston should apply for some similar funding.

There are ways to do this, if the city was so inclined. It would sure help address the issue of tow truck drivers who have felony backgrounds.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/07/05 08:46 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)

The Chron "bad guy" files

It's been a while since the Chronicle editorial board took a shot at House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R), but the pent-up frustration finally surfaced in a house editorial today.

Here's the best part of the editorial, however:

Humans' long experience on the planet has produced kernels of wisdom that all parents should convey to their children....

You didn't expect that editorial board to refer to man's long experience, did you?

The demands of political correctness trump any concerns over style and grace in prose.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/05 08:45 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)

Houston is looking for input on city budget

Would you like Houston officials to hear some of your thoughts regarding the city's budget? Here's your chance:

The city will conduct combined public meetings on its FY 2006 Annual Operating Budget, FY 2006-2010 Capital Improvement Plan and 2005 Annual Consolidated Plan.

Since 1984, the municipality has held public meetings to obtain citizen input before preparing the operating budget and capital improvement plan. These meetings are designed to provide citizens the opportunity to participate in the budget process through contributing comments and suggestions about needed services and improvements.

Meetings begin Feb. 7 and run through March 5, varying in location by each city district. Citizens interested in commenting at these financial planning meetings are encouraged to locate and contact their respective Houston City Council representative via www.houstontx.gov for specific times and locations.

I wonder if city officials would appreciate input on the numerous new revenue streams that have been implemented recently?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/07/05 02:47 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Hartnett recommends dismissal of Heflin challenge

As savvy internet news readers probably know by now, Rep. Will Hartnett (R), who was appointed special master in the election challenge brought by Talmadge Heflin (R) against Hubert Vo (D), has issued his recommendation that the challenge be dismissed:

Longtime Republican Rep. Talmadge Heflin failed to prove that his November loss to Democrat Rep. Hubert Vo should be overturned, a lawmaker overseeing the House election contest reported Monday.

Republican Rep. Will Hartnett, who was named "master of discovery" in Heflin's challenge of the race, found that Vo's margin of victory was reduced from 33 votes to 16 votes. But Hartnett recommended that the challenge be dismissed.

"Heflin has failed to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the outcome of the contested election ... was not the true outcome of the election," Hartnett wrote in his report to a special committee that will consider the election challenge this week.

Ultimately, the case will go before the GOP-controlled Texas House, which could declare a winner or call for a new election.

Hartnett's report is available here.

UPDATE: KTRH-740 reports that Heflin has withdrawn his challenge, rather than pursue it to the floor.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/05 10:42 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)

Woodlands woman is team mom for son's Army company

KHOU-11 has a very nice story about a Woodlands mom and her support of her son's Army company:

To call Judith Cook's effort a labor of love is almost an understatement. She has transformed one whole room of her Woodlands home into a supply house for 150 troops in Iraq from the Army's 15th Transportation Company, which includes her 29-year-old son Nick.

"I guess I'd always been the soccer mom, the band mom, the football mom -- whatever my children were interested in. And so this is sort of like being the team mom in a different way," Cook said.

Health problems forced her into a wheelchair, but nothing slows down Cook or her service dog Sergeant Pepper.

From breakfast to Tex-Mex to phone cards, the small room is stuffed with just about everything. Cook and her friends bought the items starting back in October.

"I want them to realize how many people here really do care that they're there. That we haven't forgotten what they're doing," said Cook.

The story also says that Cook can use donations to assist with buying more supplies and notes that she has set up a bank account in the Army company's name:

If you'd like to help she has set up an account in the name of the Army's 15th Transportation Company at Bank of America in the Woodlands inside the Kroger store at 8000 Research Forest. The phone number there is 281 296-5570.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/07/05 09:22 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Is there a $AFEclear memo floating around the Chronicle's building?

Kevin Whited mentioned Kristen Mack's column from Friday that focused on State Sen. John Whitmire and his effort to end $AFEClear. The interesting thing about Friday's Chronicle is the concentrated focus the paper had on playing cheerleader for $AFEclear, especially since the city council approved Mayor White's changes.

In addition to Mack's column, there was an amusing column by Rick Casey bemoaning the Legislature's involvement, and an editorial telling everyone to support the new and improved $AFEclear.

I mean, one might think a memo went out, or something.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/07/05 08:01 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

06 February 2005

Chron soccer columnist backs yet another new stadium

Back in August, the Chronicle reported that the Sports Authority had narrowly averted a downgrade of stadium bonds to junk status because of revenue difficulties. Apparently, those of us at blogHOUSTON missed the subsequent press release announcing that the Sports Authority and city are so flush with extra money that it is time to engage in a new stadium project:

Great accomplishments start with ideas. That's what Harris County-Houston Sports Authority head Oliver Luck had when he proposed a resolution that the Houston Independent School District consider redeveloping an existing facility into a professional soccer stadium that also would host high school football and other events.

The resolution passed unanimously, and the dream of a soccer-specific stadium that could serve as a home to a Major League Soccer franchise is a step closer to becoming a reality.

"HISD is excited about it," Luck said. "Trustees loved the idea, they were very supportive. We're a long way from getting it done."

What a nice piece of advocacy journalism from the Chronicle soccer columnist, with not a single reference to anyone concerned over the expenditure of public funds on another sports facility -- and at a time when most Houstonians are probably under the mistaken impression that the Sports Authority has served its purpose and is no longer in the business of funding new projects.

RELATED: Laurence Simon alerted us to this news with this post.

UPDATE: What do you know, we ARE in great financial shape! There's no mention of a soccer stadium or an explanation of why Mayor White needs so many new revenue streams, however.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/06/05 07:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

Mack: Municipal politics or political gossip columnist?

Kristen Mack, who has struggled so far replacing John Williams on the local politics beat, struggled a little more on Friday, as this bit of gossip found its way into her weekly column, which took up the topic of SAFEclear and Democratic Senator John Whitmire:

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, charged that Whitmire is helping Republicans.

"This is moving toward politics and the politics of future elections as opposed to public policy," he said.

That's based on speculation in political circles that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is trying to block White from running for higher office and is using Whitmire to carry his water.

"That's just silly talk," Whitmire said.

Unsubstantiated gossip from ambiguous "political circles" is the sort of thing I expect to see on some blogs and maybe even from some radio talk show hosts, but it's not really what I expect to see in a weekly column in a major metro daily. If this material was going to be included at all, the ambiguous "political circles" and more specific elaboration on the alleged motivation for such behavior should have been provided.

That said, Mack's column last week was somewhat better than recent efforts, as she mainly stuck to reporting facts about who is planning to run in what municipal races. Sticking to facts and trying to avoid unsubstantiated gossip is probably a good idea for future columns.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/06/05 05:25 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)

Houston food and drink roundup (02-06-2005 edition)

Normally, this little roundup of weekly food and drink columns goes up on Thursday, but Thursday of course was when our hosting service decided to give us all sorts of problems, so here it is a few days late.

Robb Walsh visits upscale west Houston Indian restaurant Ashiana, which seems to miss more than it hits given the expense (my conclusion from Walsh's column, not his).

Alison Cook is high on her experiences at Thai Siam.

Ken Hoffman's got the scoop on the new Wendy's Fruit Cup.

Lance Scott Walker checks out downtown bar Clark's Recording Studio (yes, there is a recording studio, upstairs).

And finally, Griff's, a Montrose institution, grabs the #8 spot from Sports Illustrated in recent Super Bowl coverage highlighting their 25 Best Sports Bars in America.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/06/05 12:58 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)

Fund started for wounded HPD officer

KHOU-11 reports that a local foundation has set up a fund to help HPD officer Ron Pinkerton:

Doctors say it may be a year before HPD Officer Ron Pinkerton is well enough to return to work.

Pinkerton was shot in both arms last week. He was approaching a car that had just rear-ended his pickup truck when someone inside opened fire.

A 21-year-old man was arrested a few days later and charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer.

The non-profit group "Assist the Officer" has set up a fund to help pay for Pinkerton's rehabilitation.

To learn how you can give, call the foundation at 713-223-4286.

Assist the Officer is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that assists injured/disabled local officers. Unfortunately, their website does not seem to offer an online donation option.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/06/05 12:12 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

The Chronicle needs an education expert

Yesterday's Chronicle story about parents who are upset that HISD is closing some schools with low-enrollment numbers, and today's Chronicle editorial applauding HISD superintendent Abe Saavedra's plan to reduce testing, highlight a big problem with old media, especially newspapers: a lack of expertise -- in this case, expertise in public education. (blogHOUSTON has mentioned this problem of expertise before.)

Yesterday Jason Spencer missed an opportunity to explore, in greater depth, how the school closings will be handled. Instead, he found a few parents and highlighted their complaints. Here's my favorite:

"It's ridiculous," said 74-year-old Vera Sharp, who lives less than a block from the school her granddaughter attends. "It's ridiculous for poor folks, especially working women."

Even though the school Douglass students would attend, Dodson Elementary, is just a mile away, it is on the other side of Interstate 45, said Geraldine Stafford, who has four grandchildren at Douglass.

"That means I would have to walk them across the freeway," she said.

Please. Even the most clueless school district isn't going to expect students to walk across a freeway! Buses would obviously be provided in that case. It's elementary school children we are talking about here.

And what does Spencer provide to balance that?

HISD officials said they will consider other ways to get students to Dodson.

Spencer should have encouraged HISD officials to explain their gameplan for the transition. Or he could have looked at what other school districts have done when faced with school closures. There's nothing wrong with highlighting community concerns, but why not explore the answers, too?

And then there's today's editorial. The editors praise Saavedra for trying to lessen the time spent teaching standardized testing (as we did), but they don't offer much in the way of how it can be accomplished, except for this:

As one teacher noted, a teacher can take a class lagging far behind and bring it up a full grade level or two in one term, but the students still will not test at grade level. Hardworking, talented teachers such as that deserve recognition and reward that might not be indicated by their students' standardized test scores.

The plan for education success is not a mystery and I've said it repeatedly here (so repeatedly that readers are probably tired of reading it): a school needs well-trained teachers, teaching a solid curriculum, who have good classroom discipline and who are backed by strong support staff. That combination will generally produce students who can pass standardized tests, without wasted time trying to "teach to the test." Cut out the excess fluff, increase the time spent actually teaching, and make that teaching focus on basics.

The fact that this is left unexpressed by the editors leads me to believe they are not well-versed in what successful education requires.

My point here is this: Chronicle reporters and Chronicle editors are not education experts, and that's okay, IF they have access to an education expert who can help guide them in answering questions and understanding the ins and outs of education. I write often about public education because I am passionate about good public education. However, I am far from an education expert. What I do have is access to someone I trust, who IS an education expert, and readers can decide for themselves if the opinions I offer reflect an education expertise worth considering. The Chronicle needs to find at least one education expert (NOT a theorist!) who has experience successfully teaching students, who is familiar with school and school district administrations (and their politics), and who understands the particulars of school funding; and use that person to produce better information for readers. As the one major daily newspaper in town, I think the Chronicle has that responsibility.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/06/05 11:46 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)

Mayor White's been checking things off his to-do list

Mayor White has been very busy lately, bettering the lives of Houstonians, so we thought it would be fun to work up a laundry list of some of the mayor's proposals and programs that have caught our attention:

Proposition 1 -- because the mayor had to come up with something to counter Proposition 2.

Traffic light synchronization

Tasers

African-American history museum

Smoking ban

New Downtown park

Zero tolerance for residents who put heavy trash out early

Bike-friendly program

Regulating farmers' markets

Adding more downtown parking meters, extending parking meter hours to include Saturdays, AND increasing the rates at parking meters

Red light cameras

$AFEclear

Commercial vehicle parking ordinance

Get Moving, Houston and 21 Days of Fitness

Summit on Flexible Work Schedules

Clean Air Accountability Network

Project Houston Hope

That's a pretty ambitious list. And we can probably agree that some of those are good ideas and some of those are head-scratchers. The less-government part of me isn't thrilled with all that nanny-statism, but Mayor White is a Democrat and I suppose he thinks if there's a problem, government must have a solution. It's also interesting to note how many of those programs involve what we might call stealth taxes.

Please use the forum to let me know if I've missed a mayoral idea you feel is worth mentioning and to talk about your favorites -- good and bad!

UPDATE: In the forum, Kevin asks, "Wasn't there a proposal to require off duty cops to obtain a permit in order to direct traffic for private businesses during times of congestion?" Sure enough there was. Here's a Chronicle story, now in archives, but I'll excerpt a small portion and hope they'll forgive us this once. The story is dated 11-02-2004, the permits cost $100 each, and violators face fines up to $500:

A new city ordinance took effect last month requiring all businesses wishing to continue hiring off -duty officers for traffic control during weekday peak hours to obtain a permit from the Houston Police Department. The application process is now under way, with enforcement beginning in phases.

[snip]

White has been frustrated that off -duty officers paid by private entities sometimes disrupt the flow of traffic, especially in light of his ongoing project to synchronize traffic signals and reduce gridlock.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/06/05 07:14 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

05 February 2005

CoogFans aim fire at Chronicle

The fiery UH boosters at CoogFans take aim at the Chronicle today:

Nice job by the Comical of hiding the fact we play Memphis this afternoon! Not near as iimportant [sic] as the featured article on Missouri's assistant, legendary former a$m coach Melvin Watkins. That was even more of a waste of space than Wenesday's [sic] article on Ray [McCallum, former unsuccessful UH head coach].

Normally, I try to confine the Cougar talk to my personal blog, but the boosters have a point on this one. The program was going for victory #1000 (and got it) against a tough conference foe that may well be on the bubble with UH for a tourney spot at the end of the season, and the game was on national television. That was a big game.

The Chronicle dropped the ball with its coverage.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/05/05 06:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)

04 February 2005

Fighting the I-45 expansion proposal

Charles Kuffner notes a Chronicle article about an upcoming TxDOT meeting regarding the I-45 expansion proposal:

The I-45 Coalition will play host to a public meeting Tuesday to address concerns regarding the Texas Department of Transportation's proposed "managed lanes" project for Interstate 45.

The meeting, at 7:30 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 3606 Beauchamp in Woodland Heights, will feature a presentation by TxDOT engineer Mike Tello, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Kuffner also says:

I will try to be there. Maybe I can finally ask my question about why we aren't trying to use the already-existing excess capacity of the Hardy Toll Road instead of expanding I-45.

The I-45 Coalition has a domain name registered, i-45coalition.org, but there's nothing there yet. I'll mention it again when it's up and running. And I want to give props to State Rep. Jessica Farrar and City Council member Adrian Garcia for all the work they've done so far with the neighborhood groups on this one.

His Hardy Toll Road question is excellent and I hope he gets to ask it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/04/05 08:47 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (25)

Audit of HISD food programs uncovers numerous problems

Here's some completely unsurprising news out of HISD:

Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra ordered HISD's "breakfast in the classroom" program suspended indefinitely after a state review found inadequate procedures for accounting for the number of meals served.

Officials from the Texas Department of Agriculture visited six HISD schools last month that serve breakfast in the classroom and found that at five of the schools, teachers and food service staff were not properly accounting for the number of meals received and eaten.

Who would have thought that program might have some problems with it?

"This is a very well-intentioned program that needs stricter controls and better management in each classroom in which it is served," said Dr. Saavedra. "Thousands of children have eaten good meals in the classroom because of this program, and that is important. But the meals must be accounted for appropriately, and we must ensure it does not disrupt learning."

I am not sure why it is so important for students to eat breakfast at their desks, as Saavedra says, instead of the school cafeteria.

The state officials found record-keeping problems in eight of the 22 school lunch programs visited. The state officials said, however, the school meal application process at HISD was very good with few errors.

Now that's funny (sort of). The application process was practically error-free, but the program implementation was error-filled. HISD has its priorities straight -- get the money first and worry about the details...well, they don't worry about the details so much.

State officials found problems at seven of eight after-school snack programs reviewed, and said they have serious concerns about those programs. In some of the after-school snack programs, the officials said snacks were claimed but not served to children.

Dr. Saavedra ordered an immediate review of the snack program and said the problems will be fixed.

After-school snack program??? That means the parents of most HISD students are responsible for feeding their children -- dinner!

HISD will improve training and other procedures during the suspension period. Dr. Saavedra said the breakfast in the classroom program will be suspended beginning Feb. 14, and will only be reinstated at a school when training and procedures have been improved, and only if the school's shared decision making committee wants the program reinstated.

So it's not an immediate halt. I suppose HISD needs time to send a notice home, informing parents that children will have to eat breakfast in the school cafeteria, instead of at their desks.

UPDATE (02-05-2005): The Chronicle's Jason Spencer has a story on this with some more information:

The Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. took over HISD's food services operation in 1997 and turned the money-losing endeavor into a profit maker. HISD billed the federal government nearly $69 million in meal reimbursements last school year, compared with less than $46 million in 2000. HISD paid Aramark $4.75 million last year.

[snip]

"They were not properly accounting for the number of meals received and eaten," said Beverly Boyd, a Department of Agriculture spokeswoman. Boyd said she was unaware of similar findings at any other Texas school district since the department began conducting the reviews in August 2003. It could be several weeks before a final report is written, she said.

[snip]

The Houston Independent School District could be forced to repay the federal government for any meal reimbursements that were improperly charged, Boyd said.

The breakfast program's suspension came as vindication for Orell Fitzsimmons, local field director for the Service Employees International Union. He has been accusing Aramark of overbilling the government for more than a year. Fitzsimmons predicted the investigators would find major problems with the breakfast program before they arrived on Jan. 24.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/04/05 06:15 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Mall demolition -- and resurgence -- is hot news

More mall demolition is in the news, along with what might rise up from the debris:

Ed Wulfe, the Houston developer known for reviving such failing retail centers as Meyerland Plaza and Gulfgate Mall, has purchased the Pavilion on Post Oak with another grand plan in mind.

The mall that once housed a Saks Fifth Avenue department store, along with an adjacent retail center, will be demolished to clear 21 acres of land just north of the Galleria for what could include a new outdoor shopping center, a residential high-rise and a hotel.

"This will change the landscape of the Post Oak/Uptown area," Wulfe said.

Wulfe, president of realty firm Wulfe & Co., purchased the Pavilion from the Radler Limited Partnership. The sales price was not disclosed, but real estate sources figure the property is worth more than $50 per square foot, or more than $28 million.

He and his partner, Bob Sellingsloh, who also bought an adjacent strip center last year that's home to Cafe Annie and Eatzi's, are still working out the details.

The redeveloped property near the corner of San Felipe and Post Oak Boulevard could include up to 400,000 square feet of shops and restaurants developed by Wulfe. The company will likely sell remaining parcels to developers to build several hundred high-rise residential units, a hotel, four-story apartments and brownstones.

It sounds fancy -- and big.

Two days ago we learned that Northline Mall might face the wrecking ball. There's no mention in today's story of a future light rail line benefit for Wulfe's development, but there's probably a plan for it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/04/05 01:43 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)

Let no man come between her and the camera

Due to yesterday's server issues, we didn't have the opportunity to comment on the latest effort by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) to secure national face time for herself.

Fortunately, local bloggers Banjo Jones and Chris Elam have got it covered.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/04/05 10:18 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (6)

Mayor readies his smoking ban proposal

The mayor will soon ask city council to approve his smoking ban proposal according to KHOU-11:

Houston Mayor Bill White wants to ban smoking at the dinner tables of the city's restaurants. He plans to ask City Council to strengthen the city's smoking ordinance -- probably within the next couple of weeks.

[snip]

"We plan to ban smoking in the dining areas of restaurants," said Mayor White. "That'll be a big step, a step forward in recognizing the rights of non-smokers."

The mayor also wants to ban smoking in Houston taxi cabs and at covered Metro stops for trains and buses.

But Houston's rules would still be less restrictive than the broad bans people see in other cities.

Smoking would still be allowed in bars and in the bar sections of restaurants. And if a bar just happens to sell food, but makes more than half of its revenue on alcohol, smoking would still be allowed in the entire establishment.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/04/05 09:14 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

HPD is doing its part to make some money for the city

Is HPD helping generate some revenue for the city? This KHOU-11 story sure makes it appear that way:

Dozens of Houston police officers have contacted 11 News wanting you to know about a new policy they say will hinder their ability to fight crime.

They say the "productivity policy" will force them to bypass calls for help from criminal victims so they can write traffic tickets.

[snip]

Executive Assistant Chief Tim Oettmeir admits the department is close to releasing a productivity standard that he says will be fair but tough. He says if an officer is found to be consistently non-productive, he or she could lose their ability to work extra jobs. Oettmeir says the goal is to make the department more efficient.

But officers believe this is only a money grab -- nothing else.

"If I put a guy in jail for aggravated robbery, the city makes no money for that," said the officer. "If I write a ticket for a seatbelt or inspection sticker, the city makes money off of that.

11 News has obtained documents which show officers' productivity will be based on a point system.

If an officer spends their shift investigating a home invasion, a missing juvenile, an assault and makes an arrest, he might be awarded seven points.

But if the same officer spends all of his time on two traffic stops, his productivity could soar to 15 depending on the number of violations found.

"You're not going to sell me the idea you're trying to make people safe. You're basically telling me you need money," said the officer.

A productivity policy that values writing a speeding ticket over investigating a home invasion or finding a missing child is just bizarre.

Which leads to another story on KHOU last night, this one about radar cameras. (This story isn't posted yet on KHOU; when it is I will add the link) Councilman Michael Berry was on Chris Baker's show Wednesday and he downplayed the idea of installing cameras to issue speeding tickets. On last night's KHOU story, it was made clear that the person who wants those cameras is...Chief Harold Hurtt, who is presumably still unable to wear an HPD uniform.

KHOU's story also talked about red light cameras and pointed out that a study done in San Diego had shown that if you lengthen the yellow light, red light violations decrease dramatically.

Here is an informative look at the "crisis" of red light running. One interesting note is that red light violations have increased as cities have shortened yellow light times, especially at intersections that have red light cameras.

Chief Hurtt's spokesperson wasn't buying the yellow-light-lengthening idea, and she made it clear that the city wants red light cameras. KHOU (I believe the reporter was Dan Lauck) pointed out that lengthening yellow light times would cost the city nothing to implement. But it won't generate any revenue, either.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/04/05 07:44 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)

03 February 2005

Outage

Sorry for the earlier outage.

The server we were on has been experiencing problems for a couple of weeks now.

The host seemed to think some of my sites were causing server loads to spike. The blog software we use is generally resource friendly, so I'm not sure if that was the case. But, we're flipped to another server for now to see if that will help.

Thanks for your patience as we try and get things working smoothly again!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/03/05 09:51 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

Conroe doesn't want Houston's rail traffic

Apparently, there is plan afoot to reroute Houston's commercial rail traffic through Conroe:

A plan being designed to route commercial train traffic around the city of Houston to Montgomery County is meeting some local resistance.

County Judge Alan B. Sadler said having 25-30 trains traveling daily through downtown Conroe is "not acceptable."

The Greater Houston Partnership, Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners and the Center for Houston's Future are developing the plan, in which they hope to detour commercial rail traffic around the outskirts of Houston back to the Port of Houston, the final destination. The plan will cost up to $3 billion to streamline freight rail, Sadler said.

The current Santa Fe line, which runs east and west through Conroe would become upgraded to handle the additional traffic, he said.

[snip]

[Conroe Mayor Tommy Metcalf] said Conroe doesn't need the congestion that would be generated by 30 trains in 24 hours. In addition, he said the noise the trains would generate near the arts and entertainment district the city has been working to rebuild would be a major problem.

"The sound would be unbelievable," he said.

Metcalf said he believes this project is something Houston is attempting to force on Montgomery County to eliminate its commercial rail traffic.

[snip]

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, said there is no question rail congestion is costing the region jobs, driving up prices and discouraging new business.

"What I admire about Judge Sadler and Mayor Metcalf is they want to be a part of the solution, but not at the loss of our quality of life here in Montgomery County," Brady said. "I am asking the Greater Houston Partnership to meet with us soon to listen to concerns and explore other options."

Who can blame Conroe officials for not wanting Houston's rail traffic running through their town? Hopefully, an acceptable alternative will be worked out.

Also, for what it's worth, Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners and the Center for Houston's Future are both affiliated with the Greater Houston Partnership.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/03/05 03:35 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

The Woodlands focuses on its trees

Here's a Chronicle story on a new effort The Woodlands is undertaking to save its wonderful trees:

Trees are the top reason residents cite for living in The Woodlands, and now the community is taking steps to ensure the forest remains part of its legacy.

"The trees are the number one reason that residents live here," said John Powers, director of Parks and Recreation for The Woodlands. "It's what makes the woods in The Woodlands. If we don't properly manage it, we won't have it."

The Woodlands recently kicked off a comprehensive project to save the forest in the community. Called the Integrated Forest Management Plan, the project includes community education, reforestation efforts, hazardous tree removal, insect and disease monitoring, and invader species and brush removal. The effort will enlist staff, contractors and resident volunteers to maintain trees in the community.

The most visible signs of the new program are trucks on many major thoroughfares removing vines and tallow trees from medians and the roadside, particularly along Grogan's Mill. Removing these non-native species will reduce the density of the forest and allow native species to grow.

[snip]

The community also has embarked on an aggressive reforestation effort, especially along Woodlands Parkway, Research Forest, Gosling and Grogan's Mill. Last fall, 35,000 seedlings were planted along the thoroughfares and are doing so well they may need to be thinned out.

This spring, parks will plant 3,500 larger trees and 30,000 more seedlings in the existing areas as well as on Alden Bridge Drive, Cochran's Crossing Drive and the Millbend Loop.

Yes, I know I have a thing for trees. I wish Harris County would have more of a thing for trees.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/03/05 02:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

Sen. Whitmire seeks to end $AFEclear

State Sen. John Whitmire has introduced legislation to end $AFEclear, according to a press release issued by his office:

Whitmire Introduces Legislation to End Safe Clear

AUSTIN, Texas--Today, State Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston) introduced legislation that will end Houston's "Safe Clear" program. A month after the program's inception, problems still plague the program, and officials have yet to develop a viable solution. "I don't believe it can be fixed," stated Whitmire. After a news story Saturday regarding at least 30 drivers with criminal records, the Senator stated he had enough. “As chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, I am concerned that ‘Safe Clear’ is clearly unsafe in forcing the public to ride with wreckers who may have questionable backgrounds.” Whitmire also views "Safe Clear" as a harsh policy that is not only unsafe but placed a costly burden on working families, students, and senior citizens.

Prior to the legislative proposal, Whitmire urged city officials to place a moratorium on the program until it can be thoroughly considered. Senator Whitmire stated the intended goals of promoting safety and mobility are understood. No one has a right to block the flow of traffic, but common sense dictates that a safe and timely repair on the shoulder should be allowed.

As proposed, Whitmire's bill will prohibit cities from enacting mandatory non-consent tows in its ordinances and codes. It will also prohibit cities from essentially privatizing state roads by leasing sections of state highways to tow companies for mandatory tow purposes. State highways and freeways are paid for and maintained by state gasoline taxes and state general sales taxes paid by the same working people that are subjected to this mandatory tow.

RELATED: KPRC-2 coverage

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/03/05 11:04 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Local media drops ball on Mission Bend home invasion

Sadly, there's been another violent criminal incident in the Mission Bend area, this time a home invasion that involved the shooting of a pastor and his wife.

Inexplicably, local media outlets continue to shy away from providing meaningful descriptions of the suspects.

Chronicle reporter Mike Glenn offers this information:

The attack follows a rash of violent incidents in the Mission Bend area, including six driveway robberies last month. Investigators said the description of the two suspects, age 17 to 20, seems to match.

"That's the only thing we have to compare," Pair said. "We don't know at this point whether it's going to be connected to the driveway robberies or not."

Logically, what might one expect to find next? Yes, the descriptions of the suspects! Except that doesn't come next. There is no description of the suspects in the story. Incidentally, Mike Glenn is the reporter whose initial coverage of the recent $AFEclear-related fatality also omitted important details.

Local television coverage is no better.

KHOU-11 reports:

People in the Mission Bend subdivision have been on guard for a while. There have been more than 30 driveway robberies in the area within the last year, including six in the last month. The suspects in all of them match the ones from Wednesday's home invasion as well as the getaway vehicle, a small dark colored car.

There is no further description in the story.

KPRC-2 reports:

The gunmen, described as 17 to 19 years old, escaped in a blue or black compact car.

That's the extent of the description.

KTRK-13 offers no description of the suspects, but gives this titillating information:

Detectives are going through the evidence in the house. There is reportedly a lot of blood.

Entirely too much blood. A description of the suspects sure might be useful to Mission Bend citizens hoping to avoid more bloodshed.

Local media aren't doing their jobs when they decline to report detailed descriptions of suspects, especially given the crime wave that's hit the Mission Bend area of late. Certainly, one can understand that television spot-news reporting at crime scenes may not have detailed information initially, but that information ought eventually to be provided (especially when the television outlet has a website). And there's no excuse for the city's only newspaper to omit such important details.

UPDATE: Careful reader Rob Booth points out that the race of the suspects is mentioned in a quote in paragraph three of the Chronicle story, and he says that KTRK did not mention that detail in its reporting last night. That's still not very descriptive.

UPDATE 2: Banjo Jones shares his thoughts on why descriptive details were omitted.

UPDATE 3 (02-04-2005): The Chronicle has posted composite sketches of the suspects, finally.

Composite sketch 1 Composite sketch 2

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/03/05 08:51 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (9)

02 February 2005

The Chron should post audio/video of Abizaid interview

We previously noted that only two of the state's newspapers chose to run house editorials on Monday on the weekend elections in Iraq.

The Chronicle, we reported, covered other topics that day.

Today, Wednesday, the editors finally got around to penning an editorial on Iraq that begins and ends with positive paragraphs that sandwich mostly dour prose that compares Iraq to Vietnam and reflects seriously on the "exit strategy" bellowing of two Democrats largely irrelevant to American foreign policy at the moment, Senators Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid.

The editorial also refers to the board's "interview" with General John Abizaid, which is condensed to the following:

In a meeting with members of the Chronicle Editorial Board on the Friday before the elections, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, warned that elements of Saddam Hussein's old regime remain an immediate threat. Major, sustained violence in Iraq is not beyond the pale, he said.

"Last year, I would have said I thought the chances of a civil war were almost zero. This year I think that if the exact set of bad circumstances take place, it's possible. But I still don't think it's probable."

Abizaid added that training and equipping adequate numbers of Iraqi security forces is paramount to a successful exit of American forces, noting that 130,000 such troops have been trained so far and that Iraq has plentiful "recruits and AK-47s."

The editorial board interviews the commander of U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the only part of the interview reproduced is the phrase "recruits and AK-47s" and a cherrypicked quote absent context that suggests the situation in Iraq has deteriorated in a year's time?

This is what they've come up with after days of reflection on the elections in Iraq?

We'll expand a suggestion we made in our list of suggestions for improving the Chronicle in 2005 -- not only does the Chronicle editorial board need to place audio/video of its interviews with political candidates online, but it also needs to post audio/video of its interviews with important political figures like General Abizaid.

Let readers see and hear what important political figures have to say to the newspaper's editorial board. Even more importantly, let readers know the sorts of questions on the minds of editorial board members (like Leftover Specialist First Class Andrea Georgsson). The transparency would be highly informative for readers, who can surely figure out what they think without the Chronicle filtering the information, and the feedback from readers couldn't help but improve the final editorial product.

UPDATE: Anne Linehan reminds me that the Chronicle did post this story on Abizaid over the weekend, but is this the full interview, or just cherrypicked quotes? Did he have anything else to add? We aren't idiots -- give us online access to editorial board audio/video and let us make up our minds! This notion of distilling an interview with an important person into a few quotes is SO old media.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/02/05 11:39 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)

Who broke the $AFEclear background check story?

Yesterday KSEV-700 afternoon host Dan Patrick came out against $AFEclear, because of the news that criminal background checks had not been done on $AFEclear tow truck drivers, and when the checks were finally done, it was discovered some drivers had felony backgrounds. Patrick became aware of this development, he said, because of a KRIV-26 story on Monday night.

Today Patrick is indignant because he doesn't think this story is getting the play it should at other media outlets around town. He said KRIV broke this story Monday night, he said the Chronicle hasn't given it the coverage it deserves (although the Chronicle ran a story on it last Saturday), and he said some local radio stations need to talk about it (we can guess what station he's referring to). He said that KSEV, KRIV and Lone Star Times are covering the story.

I must point out that KPRC-2 broke this story last Tuesday and we noted it last Tuesday. Last week, Chris Baker mentioned this topic on his show. It didn't take up an entire four hour show, but I do remember him mentioning it.

We're pleased more news outlets are picking up this story, but let's give credit where it's due, on who's covering what.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Obviously, Dan Patrick is not reading blogHOUSTON! He should give it a try. It's the blog for all the cool political and media types. :)

RELATED: On being a part of the blogosphere (Liberty's Blog)

KEVIN WHITED ADDS MORE (11:49 pm): The web publisher and talk radio host has now expanded today's radio rant to a wild blog post calling out local media for covering up this story. I'll excerpt generously, since this post may well disappear at some point:

However, even more outragious than the Mayor and the council continuing the program under these circumstances, is the fact that most of the media in Houston is ignoring the story. I think the people of Houston have a right to know about the potential danger; my brothers in the media apparently feel differently.

I watched the news last night and scanned the channels. I may have missed a short mention somewhere, but I did not see 13, 11
or 2 even mention the issue of criminals in the program. This story should have been the lead local story. The Chronicle did not even mention this side of the story in their article this morning. How is it that the media is refusing to report on what is clearly a story of public interest and a scandal at city hall?

The answer is troubling by any standard. One answer is they are unaware of the story and it's potential danger to the citizens. The second answer is that they don't want to make the Mayor mad at them because they preceive he will be Mayor for the next 5 years and don't want to make him an enemy. The last reason, which I believe is the biggest reason they are burying the story, is really frightening; they are jealous that a competitor, Fox News 26, broke the story.

KRIV-26 didn't break the story! It's a week old, as Anne pointed out above, and as she pointed out when the story was posted first by KPRC-2.

Indeed, one week ago, Dan Patrick and the KSEV crew were still solidly behind the $AFEclear program, apparently unaware of the problems with criminals they now find so problematic!

Let me reiterate -- some people should include not only blogHOUSTON in their daily news/opinion consumption, but other basic news sources in Houston as well. We recommend it as the perfect preventative to embarrassing experiences like this.

CALLIE MARKANTONIS ADDS: I found this part of Dan Patrick's post interesting:

For the Chronicle and the other local TV stations to report this story they have to admit they missed it. (Channel 11 did do a small report after 26 on Tuesday) They do not want to give credit to a competitor. This is standard operating procedure in our industry.

When I interned in a tv newsroom, it was NOT standard operating procedure to bury news the competition got to first, but to go get it as well if it was important. However, it IS standard operating procedure in the blogosphere to link to blog posts one discusses, and not have those links mysteriously disappear.

ANNE ADDS: I guess I also need to point out that KHOU-11 ran a story on the background checks on Monday. Patrick says in his LST post that KHOU did a story on Tuesday after KRIV "broke" the background check story. You can click on the link and see the timestamp for yourself when KHOU posted its story. I do not recall if KTRK-13 did a story on the background checks and a search of KTRK's site did not produce anything.

Patrick may have just discovered this issue, but most local media outlets have been on top of it for days now.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS (02-03-2005): Patrick has updated his post to explain that he was right all along, and we were wrong. It's telling that he refuses to link to this post in his response. Readers, of course, can decide if this little blog got it right, or not. On two additional points referenced in the addendum -- we're working on getting a set of Arbitrons ourselves and will post raw data when we do, AND if we pull that off, we'll try and secure an interview with Ken Charles on his programming philosophy and ratings. I always intended this blog to run some interviews, but it just hasn't transpired yet.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS (02-04-2005): David Benzion emails that Patrick had instructed him to hyperlink this post, that neglecting it was an oversight, and that the hyperlink has been added. The bloggers here have been clamoring for a layer of management devoted to authoring hyperlinks, but our little blog doesn't generate revenues sufficient for such luxuries, alas, so I hope this news doesn't spark a revolt among the faithful here!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/02/05 05:23 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (14)

City Council has revised $AFEclear

City Council has made a $AFEclear decision:

Houston's City Council decided today to give motorists with flat tires and empty gas tanks a break: Instead of paying $75 for mandatory tows, drivers stranded on the shoulder with easy-to-fix problems will be able to get free short-distance tows away from Houston's busy freeways.

The city will pay for tows under a mile by deducting it from the money that tow-truck drivers pay the city to participate in the Safe Clear program. If the city's tab reaches more than $75,000 for three months or $150,000 for six months, the City Council will have to revisit the issue.

[snip]

Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs failed in her bid to completely rescind the Safe Clear program, garnering only the support of Councilwoman Addie Wiseman.

"We can't put a Band-Aid on this situation, and there is no such thing as a free tow," she said at today's council meeting. "It is not a crime to have a flat, and it is not a crime to run out of gas."

Wiseman failed to push though at least a six-month moratorium, calling Safe Clear an "illegal seizure of people's personal property" and an "atrocity."

"We're toying with people's livelihoods," she said. "I'm offended by that."

Saying that the city government is inciting panic among its citizens, Wiseman cited Monday's death of a 77-year-old man killed when he ran across several lanes of traffic as a Safe Clear wrecker pulled up to his disabled vehicle. Police said Lawrence Kahng had run out of fuel on the East Freeway and was getting a can of gasoline when he ran into traffic.

Wiseman especially objected to towing cars not just from moving lanes of traffic but also from the shoulder. The amended ordinance approved today still requires motorists to pay for tows from lanes of moving traffic but allows the free short-distance tows if drivers manage to get their cars on to the shoulder.

RELATED: KPRC-2 coverage

UPDATE: KHOU-11 and KTRK-13 have posted stories on the city council approved changes to $AFEclear. It appears, as best I can decipher, that if your car breaks down in a traffic lane you will be charged $75. If you are involved in an accident, the tow will cost $124. So, get your car over to the shoulder, for that "free" tow! And as Dan Patrick reminds us, if you have a flat tire outside the city limits, be sure to drive on your rim until you get inside the city limits so Houston will pay someone to change your tire for you.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/02/05 02:08 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

That's what we need -- another revenue generating idea

As if $AFEclear and red light cameras aren't enough, KPRC-2 reports on yet another revenue-generating idea floating around City Hall:

The city is considering installing radar cameras on Houston city streets to catch speeding drivers.

Several manufacturers are trying to convince City Council to buy the high-tech law enforcement gadgets, which snap a picture of a car traveling faster than the designated speed. A ticket is then sent to the car's owner in the mail.

That is simply stunning. But it gets worse:

Some council members said before they consider photo radar, they want to make sure red light cameras at dangerous intersections are effective.

"I think we make daily choices. You know, I allow the ATM company to take a photo of me when I make a withdrawal, but at some point the photo radar seems to go too far in the privacy invasion," councilman Michael Berry told Local 2.

All right. This is ridiculous. The first reaction of several council members is to say "maybe"? The first reaction should be to say "no"! And knowing how city council has looked out for us during the $AFEclear debacle, and knowing what we know about red light cameras, this is not a good sign. Who in the world is looking out for Houston citizens? Because it doesn't appear to be Houston's elected officials.

Or is this how the city plans on solving its police manpower shortage?

UPDATE: In an interview with Chris Baker, councilman Michael Berry (whose committee would presumably shepherd enabling legislation) says there is no serious move afoot to implement this sort of program in Houston, and that he does not support such a move.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/02/05 02:02 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (14)

News-editorializing from the Chron on $AFEclear

Anne Linehan and I both commented on the revenue-enhancement aspects of the $AFEclear story the Chronicle ran today.

Neither of us commented on the substantive problems journalistically in the article.

For starters, there's this sentence:

While most Safe Clear opponents were careful not to link the death to the victim's desire to avoid a tow, they said it illustrates the ordinance's potential for harm.

What opponents? Quotes? Names? Harm, as in death?

One could fairly call two bloggers here critics of the program. Here's what I wrote yesterday:

And Mayor White and his council should be ashamed of this poorly implemented, draconian program that now bears some responsibility for the death of a woman on the east side (we can debate how much responsibility in the comments). [note: the post was updated below after press reports indicated the victim was a man]

KTRH-704 talk radio host Chris Baker put forth a similar view on his radio program yesterday.

Even major media sources (but not the Chronicle initially) reported that the man was hurrying across to his vehicle from across the street after seeing a $AFEclear wrecker about to confiscate it, as we noted in the same post. Here is KTRK-13's original reporting:

$AFEclear math = big bucks for city

In today's Chronicle story about current $AFEclear events, reporter Ron Nissimov includes this:

Councilman Michael Berry, another strong supporter of Safe Clear, helped develop the ordinance last year and predicted the council would approve amendments offered by council members Adrian Garcia and Gordon Quan that modify the mayor's proposal.

Under their proposal, the city would identify "safe drop" locations to be used for short free tows, and it would ask the Legislature for permission to charge city residents a $1 registration fee for each car they own to fund the program.

The fees would generate an estimated $1.5 million a year.

Is Councilman Berry supporting the $1 fee to fund $AFEclear? It kind of sounds like it. Maybe it's just the way the story is written.

Anyway, is there any revenue stream (translation: new tax) that City Council WON'T support? $AFEclear started off as a flat-out, no-doubt-about-it tax on vehicle breakdowns (although not big vehicle breakdowns, because buses and 18-wheelers are not included in the program), and when that didn't go over well it was to become a "free" service for Houstonians, and now the idea is to fund $AFEclear with a new fee (tax) that should generate $1.5 million.

So, let's do the math: the city convinced towing companies to pay out an estimated $1 million in freeway rights, then the mayor said the city would pay $300,000 to fund the "free" tows, and now the city is proposing to offset that with a tax that would generate another $1.5 million.

1,000,000 - 300,000 = 700,000 + 1,500,000 = $ 2,200,000

Wow! It seems the longer $AFEclear takes to be perfected, the more revenue it generates for the city. The mayor is really onto something here.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: We know that Chronicle columnist Rick Casey has had problems in the past with representing the ideas and words of others as his own.

However, we didn't even guess that he was representing the ideas of councilmembers Garcia and Green in his column a few Sundays ago. I guess we know now, but it would have been more above board and useful to readers and citizens if he would have identified the councilmembers floating that proposal in his column.

Of course, Anne's post illustrates a point that we've made all along: this program is as much about creating yet another "new revenue stream" for the city as it is about public safety. It's worth reminding readers once again that when politicians claim it's not about the money, it's almost always about the money.

As an interesting aside, it would be interesting to know how much time and money it will cost Houston taxpayers to lobby the state legislature for these changes that Quan and Garcia would like should their proposal be adopted.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/02/05 09:35 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

Northline Mall may become open-air shopping center (and MetroRail can help)

Nancy Sarnoff writes in today's Chronicle, that the Northline Mall might be demolished to make way for a new open-air mall:

A new ownership group has plans to demolish the struggling mall to make way for an open-air shopping center filled with big-box retailers like Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

By early 2006, the new owners expect to be building nearly 900,000 square feet of new retail space along the perimeter of the 77-acre property. When that's done, they will tear down the mall for parking space.

Before going forward, the new owners need to bring in the new tenants. And some real estate observers say they could have a hard time persuading national retailers to open stores at Northline because many of them already have locations nearby.

[snip]

Home Depot, Wal-Mart Supercenter, Fry's and furniture store the Dump all have stores near the intersection of Interstate 45 and West Road, about seven miles north of the mall.

"There's definitely much more retail competition within the trade area of Northline," Wulfe said.

Still, Wulfe said Northline has "more going for it" than Gulfgate ever did.

And what are some of those things Northline has "going for it"? According to the story the mall is already 70 percent occupied, a Metro transit center is nearby, and:

The redeveloped mall could benefit from a plan to extend the Main Street light rail system to the property.

The question is when light rail service is extended to the Northline Mall, how many bus routes will be cut in order to boost the train's ridership numbers? Also, property owners around the proposed light rail extension should be wary of Metro's new interest in real estate development along rail corridors -- and Metro has the power to use eminent domain:

Metro's eminent domain reach covers a span of five football fields in any direction. The surroundings of a single urban rail station can encompass several square blocks occupied by scores of buildings.

That's one way of reducing Metro's debt.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/02/05 08:31 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

LULAC upset with local talker's "tone"

KTRK-13's Cynthia Cisneros reports some local groups are not happy with KTRH-740 talk radio host Chris Baker:

A controversial Houston talk show host is at the center of his own controversy. Several Houston civil rights organizations are taking a closer look at KTRH talk show host Chris Baker and some remarks he's made on his daily talk show.

Just how far is too far when it comes to talk radio? Isn't it supposed to be outspoken and outrageous? Within reason, says one Houston mother who says Baker has gone overboard.

As painful as that prose is to read, one can only imagine the effect on the ears of KTRK viewers.

So what has the "controversial" host done to merit such criticism?

Johnson says she listened to several of Baker's shows discussing the fatal shooting of 14-year-old Eli Escobar by Houston police officer Arthur Carbonneau and the subsequent criminal trial. Johnson says she never heard Baker make disparaging or racial remarks, but says it was his tone of voice that upset her.

"He was disrespectful, you know," she said. "He had an opinion that, it's up to him to have his own opinion, but he was disrespectful."

So, he didn't make disparaging or racial remarks, but he had a tone? Further, he "had an opinion that" -- that what exactly? Blank out.

Now, we get to the heart of the matter:

Johnson contacted local LULAC President Johnny Mata. LULAC is considering filing a formal complaint against the talk show host with the FCC.

"We can debate. We can argue. I don't have a problem with that," said Mata. "You can have control of the mic. But you don't control the airwaves. That belongs to the public."

It's certainly convenient that Mata, who rarely sees eye to eye with Baker, was contacted, that an accusatory smear with racial undertones backed by no real specifics was manufactured, and that it's suddenly considered news by KTRK.

Now, it's no secret that some of us here at blogHOUSTON listen to Baker regularly. I was listening quite a bit during the Carbonneau/Escobar segments at issue here. I heard a host handle a hot and charged issue with fairness, and cover some ground that, frankly, our local media didn't cover. I did not hear anything I would remotely construe as racist -- which would probably explain why the accusers cannot provide any specifics.

The Carbonneau/Escobar issue is one of the few hot topics in town that those of us here shied away from. None of the bH bloggers was very well versed in the details of the case, and it didn't seem particularly useful to repeat the points made on Baker's show here. In retrospect, it's probably good that we didn't, or Cisneros might also be reporting that LULAC doesn't much like those "outrageous and outspoken" weblogs.

UPDATE: I just remembered one line from Baker's shows on this topic that stood out because he repeated it over and over: "There are no winners here." Baker said this many times in what I thought was a balanced, fair treatment of the issue. I thought it was worth tacking on to this post (that's the peril of late-night posting -- I forget things).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/02/05 12:08 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)

01 February 2005

Eminent domain powers concern local property rights groups

The invaluable Houston Business Journal just ran two articles on development along the rail line and the possible use of eminent domain:

Metro mixes rail and real estate: New initiative raises questions about use of eminent domain, by Jenna Colley

and

First effort calls for mixed-use project over transit center, by Jennifer Dawson.

Metro officials downplay the eminent domain angle, but it's useful to keep this in mind:

The power of eminent domain first granted by the Texas Legislature and approved by local voters in 1978 authorized Metro to seize vacant land, homes and businesses following payment of a "fair market price."

Thirty years later, use of eminent domain in construction of the initial 7.5-mile segment of rail followed the original intent of the state legislation by keeping private property interests from blocking public rail.

Now, Metro is taking a more active role in stimulating real estate development along rail corridors (see related story).

As a result, development activity within the 1,500-foot limit could extend the transit agency's influence far beyond the actual tracks.

Metro's eminent domain reach covers a span of five football fields in any direction. The surroundings of a single urban rail station can encompass several square blocks occupied by scores of buildings.

The potential for more property condemnations not directly related to rail has some local property rights groups concerned.

Given Mayor White's recent mention of eminent domain, local property rights groups probably should be more concerned than usual.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/01/05 11:33 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

Motorist killed trying to beat $AFEclear wrecker

A woman was killed last night after her car broke down on the I-10 shoulder, she abandoned it to obtain gas at a nearby convenience store, and was struck by traffic as she madly rushed back when she saw a $AFEclear tow truck was about to confiscate her vehicle.

Houston's television stations get credit for balanced reporting on this tragedy.

Here is KTRK-13's coverage:

Woman dies trying to stop towing of her car

Eyewitnesses say a driver lost her life Monday night because she didn't want to have to pay for a Safe Clear tow off the East Freeway.

The woman's van stalled on the left shoulder of I-10 near Holland around 7pm. She ran across the freeway to fill up her gas can. But when a Safe Clear tow truck showed up, eyewitnesses say she panicked, dropped the gas can, took off her shoes and ran back across.

The woman was struck several times by passing cars.

The Houston Police Department says this is exactly the type of tragedy Safe Clear is meant to stop. Drivers are not supposed to leave their vehicles once they stall.

KHOU-11 and KPRC-2 also emphasize that the woman had crossed the freeway in an attempt to obtain gas for her stalled vehicle, and rushed back when she realized a $AFEclear wrecker was about to seize her vehicle.

For readers of the Chronicle, why she was running across the freeway is a complete mystery:

Police said it wasn't clear why she chose to risk running back through the speeding traffic.

"Whether it was to let the wrecker know that she was taking care of (the breakdown) or to further seek that wrecker's assistance, we just don't know," Crain said.

The Chronicle's readers still "just don't know," since that's the extent of reporter Mike Glenn's assessment.

That newspaper should be ashamed of itself for its inadequate, and therefore misleading, coverage.

And Mayor White and his council should be ashamed of this poorly implemented, draconian program that now bears some responsibility for the death of a woman on the east side (we can debate how much responsibility in the comments). Attentive readers will recall that mayoral advisor Bob Stein admitted that east side wrecker companies paid higher franchise fees to participate in the $AFEclear program, because they anticipated generating additional revenues from seizing and reselling vehicles of motorists who could not afford the towing/storage fees. It is shameful that this woman died because she was faced with the thought of losing her vehicle to $AFEclear confiscation and exercised tragically bad judgment.

After a month of $AFEclear, we now know that its funding mechanism was built on unfair assumptions that nonetheless amounted to yet another "revenue stream" for Mayor White, that wrecker drivers with criminal records have been a part of it (despite assurances to the contrary from the mayor's office), and that misunderstanding over the six-minute rule and fear of losing her vehicle have now contributed to some extent to a woman's death. And those are just the major problems.

There is no shame in admitting a mistake, shelving the program, and coming back in six months with a better program (say, an expanded and improved MAP). There is shame in perpetuating this mistake, even if it did create a $1 million "new revenue stream" for the city.

UPDATE: Initial news reports misreported the gender of the victim. Updates indicate that the motorist who was killed was a 72-year-old man, Lawrence Kahng. Our condolences go out to the family.

UPDATE 2: Another report indicates that Kahng was 77. Some of the original hyperlinked reports have been updated with the new information. I'm keeping our original post the same, but will post any additional information here or in a new post as needed.

UPDATE 3: The Chronicle has updated its original story, and now includes this snippet:

Houston police said Kahng first pulled his Chevy Astro van to the left shoulder of eastbound I-10, then successfully crossed over the westbound lanes with a gasoline container in his hand. A wrecker participating in the city's Safe Clear towing program then pulled up to the van.

Kahng then dropped the container and ran back across the freeway toward the van but was hit by several vehicles, said Sgt. David Crain.

It's good that someone apparently reads blogHOUSTON, but there's no excuse for that information not being in the original story, which I reproduce below (with the original timestamp)

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