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 (M