31 August 2005

Hurricane Katrina: How Houston-area residents can help

The following local organizations will be helping hurricane refugees in the Houston area, and can use our help.

If you know of other local organizations that are helping out and could use help themselves, please send an email (bloggers @ bloghouston.net) or leave a comment in the forum. The Chronicle's SciGuy also has information on how to help here.

We'll continue to update this page as we get more information.

Thanks!

Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and Society of St. Vincent de Paul
They are accepting food and material donations at various locations. Information on needed items can be found here. Monetary donations can be made via Catholic Charities USA.

Communities in Schools Houston
John Wagner points out that CIS is mobilizing to help refugee school children by providing free immunization shots, clothing, school supplies and food. Please read John's post for more details.

Emergency Animal Rescue Service (EARS)
Laurence Simon reports that EARS is looking for Houston-area residents who might be able to "adopt" a pet temporarily while their owners resettle (since many shelters will not allow pets). Follow the link for details.

Fellowship of the Woodlands
This large church has a page devoted to ways in which area residents can help the victims of Katrina.

Greater Houston Area Red Cross
They can use monetary donations, and of course blood. There's a list of locations to donate goods here.

Greater Houston Restaurant Association
If your restaurant is a member of this group, they have information on how you can help.

Harris County Citizen Corps
They need current members to assist with preparation of the Astrodome. The website has a link so you can become a volunteer.

Houston Food Bank
This invaluable local organization can always use a monetary donation, but they also list specific items that that can be donated for disaster relief.

Houston Independent School District
HISD is opening its doors and resources to provide schooling for displaced students. The district can use some help from the public and this link provides details.

Star of Hope Mission
This great local organization is going to be really taxed by this catastrophe. The linked page provides information on how to donate goods and money.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/31/05 06:19 PM |

Hurricane Katrina open thread

Due to the rapidly changing nature of news and events related to Hurricane Katrina and Houston, here's an open thread post. We will be adding updates as we run across them, and we are encouraging our commenters to add to it in the forum.

We are interested in local venues, attractions and entertainment that are offering free or discounted admission to stranded refugees, and also ways to help Houston-area refugees and relief agencies.

We'll start it off with a link to this KTRK-13 story that lists many entertainment options for displaced residents from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. For example, Thursday's UH game versus Oregon will be free at Reliant Stadium for stranded hurricane victims.

Also, KPRC-2 has more information on two new shelters that have opened.

And KHOU-11 has teamed up with KTRH-740 for a Hurricane Relief Fund Drive.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: If you own a business or know of other local businesses and/or organizations offering a helping hand to Katrina refugees who have now become members of our community, please feel free to leave that information in the forum or (if you don't want to register), drop us an email: bloggers @ bloghouston.net

We'll update the thread periodically, and perhaps make it sticky at some point. Let's show our hospitality and generosity, Houston.

UPDATE (12:26 p.m.): Judge Eckels and Mayor White are giving a press conference now. They said they are being inundated with people asking how to donate. Judge Eckels said the best way to help is to donate to the Red Cross or the United Way.

A Red Cross official says the Dome is being organized to accommodate the diverse needs of the people arriving. Cots have been ordered; a triage will be set up to assess the medical condition of the refugees; a nursery area will be set up and a mental health area will be set up. He says the Dome is being prepared more as a place for long-term temporary living, as opposed to a shelter.

Mayor White says the Medical Center will play a big role in helping with medical needs, and in helping with the psychological needs of the SuperDome refugees, many of whom have been traumatized.

UPDATE 2: In the forum, Laurence Simon notes an important announcement, for Houston-area residents to help prepare the Astrodome.

UPDATE 3: The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has useful information for those displaced and those who want to help here. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has additional information.

ANNE ADDS (9-1-2005): Regular readers know that I live in far North Harris County and up here Spring Tabernacle has opened its doors as a Red Cross Shelter. It is located on FM 2920, between Falvel Rd. and I-45. The fine folks there are seeking volunteers. Also, our local Wal-Mart and Chili's, both located at FM 2920 and Kuykendahl are helping with volunteers, supplies, food and donations.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/31/05 10:01 AM |

Open the dome (updated)

Banjo Jones has a really good idea how our community might help our friends and neighbors in New Orleans:

An unprecedented disaster calls for an unprecedented response.

That's why the Harris County Domed Stadium, known to most of the world as The Astrodome, should be opened up as a shelter for the people of Louisiana.

The air conditioners work, the toilets work and the roof doesn't leak. The same can't be said for the Louisiana Superdome, where estimates say up to 30,000 are living with no A.C., no working toilets and holes in the roof.

Fly 'em to Houston on C-130s. FEMA can help foot the expenses and Reliant Energy might be persuaded to provide free electricity to make up for price gouging California consumers during their energy crisis.

The rest of his post is here.

That sort of generosity would truly be world-class.

What do you say, Houston/Harris County leadership? Can we pull it off?

UPDATE: Question answered.

Chron.com is now reporting that the refugees from the Superdome will be bused over to the Astrodome:

As Army engineers struggled without success to plug New Orleans' breached levees with sandbags and water continued to rise, Texas officials have worked out a plan to bring more than 23,000 refugees from the Superdome to Houston's Astrodome.

The Houston Chronicle has learned refugees huddled in the Superdome — which had become a shelter of last resort for about 20,000 people — will be bused to the Astrodome in Houston under plans being put together by state and local officials, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry said today.

Kathy Walt said Texas still hasn't received a formal request from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who also could be seeking alternatives to the Astrodome. But, Walt added, the Louisiana secretary of state requested Texas's help in a phone call late last night or early this morning.

Walt said arrangements were being made for more than 400 buses to transport the refugees, who have been without power or adequate sanitary facilities since the hurricane struck New Orleans on Monday.

Officials from both states and Harris County were discussing logistics in a conference call early this morning, Walt said. She said that the governor's office has been told the Astrodome's events schedule has been cleared through December.

Good. Let's make it happen, Houston and Texas.

UPDATE 2 (10:15 am): Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has announced the plan to evacuate Superdome refugees to the Astrodome, thanking Texas Governor Rick Perry, Houston Mayor Bill White, and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels for their help (via the internet stream of Belo's New Orleans affiliate WWL-TV). Louisiana officials say the buses are now rolling.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/31/05 06:22 AM |

30 August 2005

HISD steps up to provide schooling for hurricane refugee students

HISD has announced that it is ready to accept students who are stranded in Houston due to Hurricane Katrina:

HISD officials contacted the Texas Education Agency Tuesday about guidelines for temporarily accepting the storm refugees as students. Students living in temporary living arrangements due to loss of housing will most likely qualify as “homeless” students and may enroll in the school district where they are physically present without proof of residence. Parents temporarily housed within HISD’s borders can go to the school nearest their temporary residence to enroll their school-age children.

Homeless students who are 4 years old on September 1 qualify to attend pre-Kindergarten. In some HISD schools, pre-Kindergarten classes are also available for homeless students who are 3 years old on September 1.

Parents will be asked to complete a Student Residency Form to document where they are currently residing and verify that they qualify for “homeless” status under federal law. State and federal guidelines permit enrollment of these students for 30 days pending initiation of vaccinations or receipt of vaccination documentation and school records. HISD will seek further guidance from the Texas Education Agency for helping the children after the 30-day period.

Also, Dr. Saavedra announced a district-wide fundraising drive for the American Red Cross, and the establishment of a team of technical experts to assist New Orleans schools as they begin the process of disaster recovery.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/30/05 08:43 PM |

Chron editorial board reverses position on Elllington

Today, the Chronicle editorial board laments that it's likely Ellington Field will lose its fighter jets:

Houston is the nation's fourth-largest city and home to one of the world's greatest industrial complexes. Houston warrants a robust defense against airborne terrorist attackers. Unfortunately, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Base Closing and Realignment Commission disagree.

Unless President Bush cares more about defending the largest and most strategic metropolitan area in Texas than his defense secretary, Ellington Field will lose the 147th Texas Air National Guard fighter wing and its 17 aging F-16s.

That's right, idealists. The Secretary of Defense doesn't care if "airborne terrorist attackers" wipe out Houston. He's indifferent. You've exposed him. (Yes, that was heavy sarcasm in case it didn't come across).

And the editor of the editorial page has the audacity to lecture bloggers on elegance, wit, and insight? Laughable.

And it's even more laughable because the idealists were singing a completely different tune just a few weeks ago:

The only city with all nine types of terrorist targets identified by the FBI, Houston deserves its share of homeland defenses. However, the F-16 fighters of the Texas Air National Guard stationed at Ellington Field would seem to have limited utility in deterring or attacking today's terrorists.

Well, which is it, idealists?

Is the Secretary of Defense derelict in not recognizing the importance of the F-16s for defending Houston from terrorists (as you suggest today), or are the F-16s of limited utility in the war on terror (as you wrote in July)?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/30/05 07:23 PM |

The Houston welcome mat (updated)

Here's a bit of good news for our Houston visitors:

While evacuees of Hurricane Katrina are waiting to return home, the Houston Comets and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, are trying to give them a break from their worries.

The Houston Comets are offering free tickets to Tuesday night's first-round playoff game against the Seattle Storm.

If you would like to attend, the game starts at 8:30 p.m. at the Toyota Center. Evacuees will be required to show a valid state driver's license from Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama.

For more information, call the Comets box office at (877) COMETS-WIN.

Team officials said seats are limited and advise patrons to arrive early.

Also, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has opened its doors, free of charge, to evacuees through Oct. 29.

Evacuees must show a Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama driver's license at the visitor's desk in the lobby of the Caroline Wiess Law Building or the Audrey Jones Beck Building.

For more information, call (713) 639-7300.

Also, Banjo Jones has a post about Louisianans heading to the Galleria for necessities, where they were treated to a special deal at Nordstrom's.

Local news broadcasts last night had many tales of local charities, businesses and churches helping out anyway they could, by contributing water and other supplies to shelters.

And the Houston SPCA took in more than 260 dogs and cats from the Louisiana SPCA, all of which are ready to be adopted. KHOU-11 has a nice story on the plight of these little critters and how Houston-area residents can help.

UPDATE: Laurence Simon reminds us to donate to the Red Cross. I'll add the Salvation Army as another very worthy cause in the relief efforts.

UPDATE 2: Chris Baker (KTRH-740) is running down a list of Houston attractions that are offering free or reduced admission to Hurricane Katrina refugees, including the Childrens Museum, the Hermann Park paddle boats, the Houston Zoo, the Museum of Natural Science, the Laff Stop, and even the Astros, which are offering half-price admission.

UPDATE 3: The Hilton Americas is making up for yesterday's bad press:

Houston-area hotels have relaxed their policies to allow Katrina refugees to keep their pets with them. For example, a Great Dane, a poodle and a hound dog roamed the lobby of Houston's downtown Hilton Americas hotel yesterday.

Hotel spokeswoman Anna Drake estimated more than 100 animals are hotel guests, including birds, hamsters and rabbits.

That's the spirit.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/30/05 09:52 AM |

29 August 2005

Chronicle: Day laborers are afraid

The Chronicle's Edward Hegstrom reported over the weekend that the Minutemen are already having an effect on Houston day-labor sites:

The Minutemen aren't scheduled to patrol the streets of Houston for another month, but already they're having an effect among day laborers

A day labor organizational meeting scheduled for Saturday had to be closed to the media because the workers are afraid, organizers said.

The leaders also say they have noticed that fewer contractors are picking up workers from the corners where day laborers, most of them undocumented immigrants, gather, which they also attribute to fear of the Minutemen.

"They're very scared," Maria Jimenez, a leader of the Coalition Against Intolerance and for Respect, said of the workers.

Why?

Official HPD policy is not to enforce immigration law, and the existing infrastructure couldn't handle enforcement in any case.

All the Minutemen project is really going to do is call attention to these facts and maybe spark a debate on immigration.

Is that really something to fear in a democratic republic?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/29/05 10:06 PM |

Will the peace caravan make it to the Houston area?

Chris Elam called attention to a weekend Reuters (?!) report in the Chronicle that Cindy Sheehan might pay a visit to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's local office:

Sheehan has been demanding a [second] meeting with Bush to discuss the U.S. presence in Iraq, where her son Casey was killed in 2004.

She plans to launch a bus tour Thursday from Bush's ranch to the White House to campaign for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

One of DeLay's Houston-area district offices likely would be the first stop, she said.

"I think our first stop might be Tom DeLay's office" in the Houston area, she said., surrounded by supporters. "I just wanted to let him know so he'll be in his office when we get there."

"The president is not going to meet with us, probably," Sheehan said. "We the people need to influence our congressional representatives, and I hear he's pretty close by," said Sheehan, referring to DeLay.

A spokeswoman for DeLay said his schedule already is set and he does not plan to change it to meet with Sheehan.

"Mr. DeLay disagrees with those who believe we should give the terrorists the timeline they want and simply cut and run from the war in Iraq," said DeLay spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty.

Awww, that's no fun Miss Flaherty. Please invite Cindy Sheehan to a local office. That's one the blogHOUSTON crew might just have to request press credentials to liveblog!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/29/05 09:49 PM |

Sale of city parking garage stalled

The Houston Business Journal's Jenna Colley reports that the city's effort to sell a parking garage is being held up by one member of Council:

A potential brokerage contract between the City of Houston and real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. has been stalled for two consecutive weeks over concerns by at least one City Council member that more minority firms should have been given a shot at the deal.

Council member Ronald Green claims that the city's proposal to hire national brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield to sell a 13-level downtown parking garage owned by the city is indicative of the municipality's overall disregard for minority- and woman-owned businesses for high-dollar deals.

"When we only look to our circle to find vendors, I find that insulting," Green says of the deal.

Although a formal asking price has not been set, Green estimates that the sale of the parking facility, known as the Fannin Garage, could bring in as much as $15 million. A 1.25 percent brokerage commission would bring the value of the contract with Cushman & Wakefield to $187,500.

Shouldn't the new Parking Bureaucracy be handling matters of this nature, thereby removing the tendency to play politics with what ought to be the simple business of selling off surplus city property?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/29/05 08:55 PM |

The recipe for friendly Chronicle editorials

The Chronicle's editorial board decided to throw some praise HISD's way today, but first the reader has to make it through a scolding from the idealists.

That's typical for this editorial board.

However, we think we know how HISD can get a little Chronicle-love: blame the dropout problem on Halliburton or Big Oil, allow high schools to hold anti-war rallies and invite Cindy Sheehan (aka Rosa Parks) to speak at those rallies, teach anti-death penalty and pro-abortion classes, and convince Metro to be an HISD sponsor.

That should do it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/29/05 09:56 AM |

The four mile, forty minute bus ride

Rad Sallee's Move It! column details one Metro bus rider's particularly bad experience:

Jamie Maring writes that a 4-mile ride on a Metro bus "took 40 minutes and every part of the experience was unpleasant."

For context, remember that she transferred from MetroRail to the 10 Willowbend bus at the new Texas Medical Center Transit Center and it was the evening rush hour in this extremely congested corridor.

The bus is small, runs at 28-minute intervals, and it fills up. "We all piled in, found a place to hold on ... and off we went," she said. But not far: It took 10 minutes just to turn left onto South Main because the signal gave traffic on Pressler a very short green light. And standing for much of the ride was both uncomfortable and unsafe, she said.

Metro spokesman Ken Connaughton said the route is assigned a 29-foot bus because it has low ridership compared with other routes. On a recent Metro check, he said, there was just one trip in which riders had to stand for numerous stops.

"We will examine recent data ... to see if this was a unique or regular occurrence," he said.

But if it does not happen regularly, he said, short buses are appropriate.

As for the stoplight, Connaughton said Metro helped the city evaluate its timing when the transit center opened, but he noted that since then, Pressler has become a through street east of Fannin.

The resulting traffic may be delaying buses as they wait to turn left onto Main, Connaughton said, and Metro has asked the city to re-evaluate the timing.

We can add this to Laurence Simon's firsthand accounts of nightmarish bus rides. And here's the point: Metro can justify, excuse and talk in circles all Ken Connaughton wants, but as long as bus rides are inconvenient, time-consuming and uncomfortable, people will often do whatever it takes to find other transportation.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/29/05 07:09 AM |

The welcome mat isn't out at the Hilton Americas

Last night during KHOU-11's Hurricane Katrina coverage, it was mentioned that many Houston hotels have put up their no-vacancy signs, with a notable exception: the city-owned Hilton Americas still had 600 rooms available (out of 1,200) and the going rate was $250 per night.

Of course, the first thing that popped into my mind was that Louisiana residents fleeing to Houston should go to PriceLine.com to get the $50 room rate at the Hilton Americas.

Then I wondered why the hotel wouldn't knock down the room rate for what is clearly an emergency. KHOU also had a brief soundbite from Mayor White saying that Houston would be very welcoming to fleeing Louisianans; the city-owned hotel sure didn't put out the welcome mat, as of last night, with $250 room rates.

UPDATE: KTRH-740's Chris Baker reports that the Hilton Americas has indicated they've offered evacuees a $109/night rate, but the rooms are all booked up now.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/29/05 06:30 AM |

28 August 2005

Casey LiveJournal: The waiting room

Today, Chronicle metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey gives us one of his occasional LiveJournal accounts:

With two patients ahead of me I walked out on the dermatologist after waiting 30 minutes.

This time it was, again, a dermatologist. I over-exposed my Irish skin to the South Texas sun in the years before sunblock was invented, when Coppertone had us broiling our skin in oil.

So I periodically get spot-sprayed with liquid nitrogen to remove lesions darkly identified as precancerous carcinoma.

But this time, to my chagrin, I lasted a full 90 minutes before marching out.

Who cares?

Is this really the stuff of a good metro/state column?

It is preferable to Casey's prior column, which followed up on an earlier gossip column on a discussion group at an area community center with this fine bit of work:

At least one member of the group, however, had a historical reason to feel fear.

"This incident really had me very depressed and somewhat frightened," wrote Lindmuth Fuller in an e-mail. "You have to understand that I was born in Germany, lived as a child during the Nazi area, then afterwards under Communism in East Berlin. It is amazing how past events have imprinted on your mind and come back to the forefront at certain times."

One of America's strengths is that our "past events" encourage us to stand up to our officials, not fear them.

Yes, in case you missed it the first time (we read Casey, because somebody should!), that was the Chronicle's metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist using an e-mail to compare Steve Radack and certain county employees to Nazi and Communist totalitarians.

Amazing!

Sedosi Alhambra sums it up well:

It's a cheap shot that doesn't have ANY place in a major metropolitan newspaper, I don't care which side of the aisle you are on.

Alhambra's right.

Casey's work really detracts from a metro/state page that has seen improvement in its metro coverage. Perhaps he should be moved to the mediocre editorial page, which is a better fit substantively and stylistically.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/28/05 11:35 PM |

Busy doing nothing

Wednesday, Mayor White and his Council approved a new Parking Authority Revenue Stream/Bureaucracy, thereby solving a pressing problem that nobody had noticed until Houston's technocratic/progressive mayor and possible aspirant for higher office bounded onto the local political scene.

As was to be expected, the Chronicle editorial board praised their man for his foresight today, in what was actually a pretty timely editorial turnaround for the idealists (we usually expect them to take a week to react to local news):

The Public Parking Commission should provide business owners and other stakeholders a valuable input into planning for parking in the city. Downtown residents and nighttime visitors will benefit from an upgraded, cheaper parking system and increased security provided by Rambo's newly trained corps of traffic enforcement officers.

Mayor White is swell! His new bureaucracy is swell! He's beating back "curbside chaos" (as the subheadline put it)!

Houstonians should keep in mind that Mayor White, his Council, and the city's only English-language daily all seem to be under the impression there are no major problems facing the city, and therefore the city's pressing non-problems must be addressed via new bureaucracies.

Here's hoping Mayor White and his accommodating Council will create even more bureaucracies that promise to get non-problems solved within five years!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/28/05 11:13 PM |

"Reach out to Dropouts" day success

The Chronicle's Jennifer Radcliffe has a nice write-up of yesterday's efforts by HISD to convince dropouts to return to school:

All told, 49 dropouts re-enrolled in school Saturday and another 657 committed to returning to school.

Excited by last year's success, HISD leaders ramped up efforts Saturday, nearly tripling the number of volunteers to 1,400 and doubling the number of schools that would be covered in the canvassing to 16.

With 2,400 homes to visit this year, the volunteers had their work cut out for them.

[snip]

Weaving through streets and across railroad tracks, Saavedra's caravan made its way to a rundown apartment, where 17-year-old Julian Duarte has been living since he moved from Mexico City in April.

The boy said he's been working in a nearby factory to help support his sick father.

He said he'd would like to go to school but doesn't know any English.

Saavedra recommended HISD's Newcomers Charter School and the boy agreed to try to enroll.

[snip]

Across town, teams from Lee High School worked to track down 400 students who hadn't yet reported to school. Many of the students moved over the summer or enrolled in other schools.

Some had babies or started working full time. One was just discouraged by math.

The home visits are legwork that principals and the district's 10 dropout specialists do year-round, said Principal Steve Amstutz,who was thrilled to have the help of volunteers and students Saturday.

"Many hands make light work," he said. "This would take me forever."

Amstutz's team persuaded two students to re-enroll.

"The fact that we found two girls that I think we can get back is so exciting. If we save just one ... ," volunteer Alice Fite said.

All we need now is an editorial from the Chronicle, acknowledging HISD's efforts to convince these young people to return to school, but I won't hold my breath.

KRIV-26 ran a story on this last night which mentioned that the business community also participated in the reachout effort, highlighting (I assume) its concern about young adults coming to them without an adequate education.

And now I am guessing that HISD principals and dropout prevention specialists will be busy, busy, busy, helping these students follow through on their commitments.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/28/05 08:06 AM |

27 August 2005

The twelfth annual Theater District Open House

On Sunday, downtown's Theater District will hold its annual Open House:

The Theater District in downtown Houston hosts its annual Open House, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. The free event features backstage tours, live performances, a petting zoo, refreshments and information booths about the arts in Houston. It takes place at the Alley Theatre, 615 Texas; the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby; Wortham Theater Center, 500 Texas; the Angelika Film Center, 510 Texas; and Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana. Visitors can also sample diverse fare at Taste of Downtown restaurant stations. For more information, call 800-4-468-7866 or access www.houstontheaterdistrict.org.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/27/05 08:55 PM |

Houston to host 2011 Senior Olympics

Houston will be hosting the Senior Olympics in 2011, Mayor White announced Friday:

"We have a good six years to prepare," White said. "We want to be in good shape and get as many people competing from Houston as possible."

The Senior Olympics is one of the largest multisports events in the United States and the largest multisport event in the world for seniors. The 2005 games recently concluded in Pittsburgh, and Louisville and San Francisco will host events in 2007 and 2009, respectively.

Philip Godfrey, COO of the National Senior Games Association, said Houston was selected for the 2011 games because "we were impressed by the enthusiasm on the part of the city. They wanted us to come, and the venues will be outstanding."

Athletes compete in age group events in archery, badminton, basketball, bowling, cycling, golf, horseshoes, race walk, racquetball, road race, shuffleboard, softball, swimming, table tennis, tennis, track, triathlon and volleyball.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/27/05 08:30 PM |

Remembering John Jenkins

Earlier in the week, the Chronicle's Dale Robertson checked in on former UH football coach and offensive guru John Jenkins.

Here's a teaser:

Once, John Jenkins was convinced he'd die a Houston Cougar, taking with him every college football offensive record worth owning.

But this was not how things worked out for the cocky, often controversial coach whose frenetic tenure on Cullen Boulevard has been judged both the best and the worst of times in UH's checkered football history.

It's a good profile of the controversial coach. There's no doubt that since the start of Bill Carr's tenure as athletics director at UH and Carr's effectively dumping Jenkins as head coach of the football program, the athletics department has been mired in a downward spiral.

If Art Briles can recapture the magic of his first season and Tom Penders can build on his strong first season, perhaps that spiral will finally be reversed. Until then, it's kind of fun to reminisce about the Jenkins offensive fireworks.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/27/05 01:03 PM |

26 August 2005

Sorting out Army recruitment

Recently, an internally contradictory Chronicle editorial noted the following:

OF the many institutions buffeted by the controversy over the war in Iraq, the U.S. Army has been one of the more bruised. For the first time since 1999, officials announced, the Army expects to miss its yearly enlistment goals. As of June, only 47,121 recruits had signed up to fight — just over half the number needed to meet the annual quota.

This week, the New York Post ran an op-ed by Ralph Peters that made the following claims:

* Every one of the Army's 10 divisions — its key combat organizations — has exceeded its re-enlistment goal for the year to date. Those with the most intense experience in Iraq have the best rates. The 1st Cavalry Division is at 136 percent of its target, the 3rd Infantry Division at 117 percent.

Among separate combat brigades, the figures are even more startling, with the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division at 178 percent of its goal and the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Mech right behind at 174 percent of its re-enlistment target.

This is unprecedented in wartime. Even in World War II, we needed the draft. Where are the headlines?

* What about first-time enlistment rates, since that was the issue last spring? The Army is running at 108 percent of its needs. Guess not every young American despises his or her country and our president.

* The Army Reserve is a tougher sell, given that it takes men and women away from their families and careers on short notice. Well, Reserve recruitment stands at 102 percent of requirements.

* And then there's the Army National Guard. We've been told for two years that the Guard was in free-fall. Really? Guard recruitment and retention comes out to 106 percent of its requirements as of June 30. (I've even heard a rumor that Al Franken and Tim Robbins signed up — but let's wait for confirmation on that.)

Whenever people start throwing numbers around, it's always a good idea to go right to the source. NRO's Stephen did that, and discovered that Peters' numbers are slightly off:

I spoke with Peters, and it turns out he was most likely the victim of a bureaucratic mix-up. The year-to-date numbers are here. According to a Pentagon spokesman, Peters apparently got the overall Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard re-enlistment numbers instead of the first-time enlistment numbers. In other words, the re-enlistment rates for those three organizations are 108 percent, 102 percent, and 106 percent respectively.

The Army, Army National Guard, and several reserve branches are falling short of their annual quotas, as the official DoD numbers demonstrate. However, the Chronicle's characterization of the recruiting effort is somewhat deceptive, since it gives the impression that Army recruiting is off by nearly 50%. That impression is wrong. As of June, the Army was at 86% of its quota (the other branches were exceeding their targets). With a strong July recruiting effort, the Army was at 89% of its quota. It's not clear why the Chronicle chose to cite the June 2005 numbers when the July 2005 numbers were readily available.

In any case, Army recruiting is off, but it's entirely possible that the branch could finish within 90+ percent of its quota. That's not the impression the casual reader would likely reach from the Chronicle's formulation.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/05 10:20 PM |

Thanks, Hugh (and Chris)

Hugh Hewitt tossed a link to blogHOUSTON earlier, in a "best city blog" post about LA Observed.

We're honored to be mentioned with Kevin Roderick's compelling blog, and by the author of Blog.

Locally, Hewitt's syndicated radio program can be heard on KNTH-1070, Monday-Friday from 5-8 pm.

We're also appreciative of local talk ratings leader Chris Baker, who has kindly sent new readers this way for quite a while now. As he has said, the new media marches on!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/05 09:19 PM |

DeLay hangin' with Elvis in the district

The Chronicle's D.C. bureau seems to be trying to make amends with the governing majority (and perhaps improve access and ensure its own survival). Thus, today we have a story from Samantha Levine on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's recent activities in the district:

Tom DeLay at a senior citizens' sock hop that featured a DJ dressed as Elvis? You betcha.

You betcha? That's really in a newspaper?

The article is slightly less fawning than Levine's recent piece on the Majority Leader's dreamy new communications director. Perhaps at some point, some of these good-press chits will be cashed in, and the D.C. bureau will actually get to break interesting political news that goes beyond Elvis and Mad Dog Madden.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/05 09:05 PM |

HPD officer suspended for alleged Taser abuse

KTRK-13 reports that an HPD officer is in trouble for alleged Taser abuse:

A Houston police officer accused of using his Taser for intimidation has been fired.

Officer Seong Kim was suspended indefinitely Friday. Kim had worked an extra job at a Wal-Mart in southwest Houston. It was there, according to police records, Kim used his Taser to intimidate three customers.

He's been fired.

No, he's been suspended.

Which is it?

KHOU-11's Jeff McShan says the officer has been suspended:

Kim, who has been with HPD since June 2002, was immediately suspended. If the allegations prove to be true, he could be fired.

Maybe KTRK will get that corrected for the 10 pm broadcast.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/05 08:38 PM |

Saturday is "Reach Out To Dropouts" day for HISD

Saturday is HISD's big day to get dropouts back in school. HISD's press office has sent out the following information:

On Saturday, August 27, 1,262 volunteers and HISD teachers and officials will go door-to-door in neighborhoods around 16 high schools to find dropouts and get them back into school. The teams, which will include former dropouts who turned their lives around by going back to school, will gather at the high schools at 8 a.m. and stream out into the neighborhoods to catch kids at home early on a Saturday morning.

The massive dropout recovery effort – called “Reach Out to Dropouts” – is believed to be the largest of its kind ever attempted.

HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra and Houston Mayor Bill White will go to Milby High School, 1601 Broadway, at 8 a.m. to greet volunteers. Then Dr. Saavedra will lead a team into neighborhoods around Milby to search for dropouts. One of Dr. Saavedra’s team members will be Emmanuel Miranda, a former dropout who came back to Milby last year and then graduated in May. Another of Dr. Saavedra’s team members will be his 22-year-old daughter Elizabeth.

Last year, HISD and its volunteers went to homes around eight high schools and convinced about a hundred dropouts to come back to school. Then HISD hired 10 dropout prevention specialists and started going after even more dropouts. Eventually, 291 dropouts were convinced to come back to school, and last May 48 of those former dropouts graduated from high school.

[snip]

The effort already is paying off – even before the first door is knocked. In the days leading up to Saturday, HISD has received more than 100 telephone calls from parents and dropouts about getting kids back into school.

HISD will try to contact hundreds of former students Saturday in hopes of persuading many of them to come back to school. Every high school in HISD – not just the 16 targeted Saturday – will be open for business Saturday to receive dropouts who want to re-enroll. The HISD teams will encourage the dropouts to drop what they’re doing that Saturday morning and go right to the school to re-enroll.

Every dropout who comes back to school will get school supplies donated by Wal-Mart. To make sure the students don’t drop back out again, HISD will create individual graduation plans for every student, and will assign an adult advocate to monitor the progress of that student. The dropout prevention specialists also will be assigned to make sure the former dropouts stay in school.

(Someday I would love to tag along with a dropout prevention specialist and see what the job entails. I'll bet it's very interesting.)

Every student who graduates from high school has a much better chance of leading a productive and independent life, and we wish everyone involved the best of luck.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/26/05 09:19 AM |

Chron editorial board acknowledges Metro's bus service problems

The Chronicle's editorial board has written a (mostly) good editorial on Metro's continuing ridership woes. The editorial glosses over the fact that Metro inflates light rail ridership, but it does take Metro to task for the way it's handling bus service:

As the Chronicle's Rad Sallee reported, the Metro evaluation counted ridership losses from bus route cancellations and adjustments earlier this year as one time events, and then deducted those same totals from the previous year's ridership in order to come up with the increases that Wilson touted. The unadjusted figures indicate actual ridership for the entire system dropped 1.5 percent, with the bus component down 9 percent. Since commuter traffic grows at approximately 3 percent a year in the Houston area, Metro is actually losing more ground than those figures indicate. If fewer people are taking advantage of the agency's most basic service, adjusted statistics can't hide the fact that mass transit in Houston has a serious problem.

[snip]

According to a performance audit of Metro by consultants Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., passenger fare revenues plunged more than 14 percent during the last four years while operating expenses per passenger rose 35 percent.

The audit found that passenger complaints increased significantly last year. A majority concerned driver behavior. The study recommends that Metro consider factors other than route changes for the decline and identify potential bus riders.

Metro's bus program needs fresh thinking and new strategies. Instead of ending low-performing routes and isolating low-income communities such as Acres Homes, planners should consider contracting for low-cost private van service.

It's refreshing to see the Chronicle begin to acknowledge some of Metro's problems, but inexplicably the editorial comes days after Rad Sallee's excellent reporting.

One more point the Chronicle should consider: most people don't WANT to use public transportation. Once someone has the ability to own a car, that person doesn't want to depend on Metro for transportation, especially if the transit options are inflexible (light rail) or require a one- to two-mile walk to reach it (bus service). That's just a fact of life.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/26/05 07:34 AM |

Solving a downtown parking problem without help from parking authority

Following up on Mayor White's successful creation of a parking commission, the Chronicle reports that a downtown group has come up with a solution for evening parking, without the help of the new parking authority:

[T]he Downtown Entertainment District Alliance, which includes downtown merchants, has come up with a parking alternative aimed at eliminating parking woes: Those going to restaurants and clubs can now park free, with validation, at the JPMorgan Chase Center garage and Market Square Garage. "It's a win-win situation all around," said Bob Eury, president of Central Houston.

"It's a way to promote more convenient parking and promote downtown establishments that need more business."

The program takes advantage of an underutilized evening resource: parking garages.

"Now you know where to go and what to expect. It's like having two beacons," said Joe Martin, owner of El Centro and M Bar and a member of the alliance's board.

Parking lots in prime locations have been charging from $10 to $30 on weekend nights, he said, and there is gridlock caused by drivers waiting to get into lots.

Using the validated parking program, on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., drivers can park at the Chase or Market Square garages for $5. Eighteen bars, clubs and restaurants will credit a person's bill with the $5 fee.

[snip]

Early in 2005, the alliance conducted a survey to learn of any perceived problems among Houstonians when they come to downtown on weekends.

By far the biggest complaint among the 1,500 e-mailed responses was parking, Martin recalled.

"People were passionate about it. We got responses like, 'It's horrible,' 'Much too expensive.' 'I don't know where to go,' " he said.

In May, Councilwoman Carol Alvorado convened a group of stakeholders, including downtown merchants, Eury and Jordy Tollett, president of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, to address the parking issue.

Liliana Rambo, assistant director for the parking division of Houston, was brought in.

Their solution, the validated parking program, had a soft rollout on July 22 and 23.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/26/05 06:42 AM |

25 August 2005

I-10 to be closed near 610 West Loop this weekend

Houstonians should avoid I-10 near the 610 West Loop starting Friday evening.

KHOU-11 has the details:

Eastbound and westbound lanes of I-10 will be completely closed from Washington to Silber. This closure includes the main lanes and HOV. Eastbound traffic will detour to the West Loop southbound to U-turn at San Felipe, then take the West Loop northbound to I-10 eastbound. I-10 westbound traffic will exit at Washington Avenue to access Old Katy westbound, then connect to the I-10 westbound frontage road to re-enter I-10 just west of Silber.

Four of the eight ramps connecting I-10 and the West Loop will also be shut down. They are:

• I-10 westbound to West Loop southbound: Drivers will detour to Loop 610 northbound, exit at 18th street and U-turn to Loop 610 southbound.

• Loop 610 northbound to I-10 westbound: Detour to Loop 610 northbound, exit at 18th Street and U-turn to Loop 610 southbound.

• I-10 eastbound to Loop 610 northbound: Detour to Loop 610 southbound and U-turn at San Felipe to access Loop 610 northbound

• Loop 610 southbound to I-10 eastbound: Detour to Old Katy Road and travel east on Washington Avenue to access I-10 eastbound.

More information is available on TxDOT's Katy Freeway construction website.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/05 11:04 PM |

HPD brass, union bicker over arbitration policy

KHOU-11's Jeff McShan reports on HPD's arbitration process, which seems to have made both officers and the brass unhappy.

HPD officials contend that officers suspended or fired for good cause are being reinstated:

"It's very troubling for this Chief and any chief to then have an arbitrator say, 'Well, you've proven this violation but take the person back', " says HPD Director Of Legal Services Craig Ferrell.

He says officers have a right to appeal the decision by going to arbitration.

Ferrell says it's a system that looks good on paper, but often give officers their jobs back. That includes officers like Butler, who, he says, doesn't belong.

"It ought to concern the citizens. I think it concerns the officers as well. I know it concerns our management here and I'm not sure the union would agree or tell you they agree," Ferrell says.

The union's spokesman does not agree, and takes a shot at Chief Hurtt:

The union's president, Hans Marticiuc, says officers are getting their jobs back because Police Chief Harold Hurtt should not have fired them in the first place.

"I don't know if he is making bad decisions or if he is just reading summaries and getting advice, or just getting bad advice on some of the decisions that he has made. I think we are seeing some sort of pattern that he also had in Phoenix, where many of his cases were overturned. Maybe he is just a bad decision maker," says Marticiuc.

[snip]

"And it concerns me. I think officers tend to lose confidence in a Chief when they hear the wining and complaining. We lose cases and the city doesn't hear us wining and complaining," says Marticiuc.

Actually, if there were more wining, everybody at HPD would probably be happier.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/05 10:58 PM |

Firefighters, city reach tentative agreement

KTRK-13 is reporting that Houston firefighters may have come to a contract agreement with the city:

Houston firefighters have never stopped fighting fire, even as their contract negotiations sputtered on and off. But negotiators on both sides reached a tentative agreement Thursday.

"The increase in hours is no longer there. The increase in days we will work is no longer there and there is a considerable amount of lesser money," said Roland Chavez with the Houston Firefighters Union.

Among the agreement's main points are the following...

# There will be no additional work hours or shifts
# Firefighters will get a 26 percent raise over 3½ years
# There is a promotions compromise through formation of blue ribbon panel.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS

Here's my favorite part from the KTRK story:

Mayor Bill White says a committee won't solve everything.

"Committees are good, but we need to figure out what happens if the committees don't act," said Mayor White. "I think most of us want progress."

A committee won't solve everything?

Isn't this the man who just gave us a Parking Commission when Houston never needed one before?

Committee won't solve everything?

What has KTRK done with our Mayor?! This guy sounds like an imposter!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/25/05 08:51 PM |

Chron eye for the death row killer gal - 2

Just a few days ago, the Chronicle ran a Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Gal on Frances Newton, who is scheduled to be executed on September 14.

We noted that Mr. Kathryn Kase's newspaper was starting early with its anti-death-penalty advocacy this time, and that probably was an indication that we'd get many more Chron Eyes on Newton.

Today, there's a new Chron Eye about Newton. Here's an excerpt of the effort to humanize Newton:

Along with his drug usage, Adrian Newton's infidelity and his contrite confessions and pledges to reform were hallmarks of the couple's marriage. On the day of the killings, Newton said, the couple had reconciled and agreed to eschew extramarital affairs.

Newton, who became pregnant with the couple's first child at 14, said she loved her husband and children.

Occasionally pausing to wipe away tears, Newton recalled that Alton was "definitely all boy" and often protected his younger sister.

She recalled one incident in which the little girl mischievously took single bites out of apples displayed in a fruit bowl.

"Alton took the apples and turned the bite marks to the back so I wouldn't see what she had done," Newton recalled. "Farrah was very loving."

The substantive portion of the story focuses on a theory advanced by defense attorneys about the presence of a second gun, which Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal characterizes as pure fiction.

The story also includes hearsay in support of the arguments advanced by defense attorneys:

Dow said the parents of Newton's husband have voiced support for stopping the execution, but that claim could not be verified Wednesday.

The attorney also said a one-time prisoner in the Harris County Jail, a former husband of one of Newton's cousins, claimed that another prisoner boasted of killing the family. Dow conceded that claim has not been verified.

So, it's unverified gossip. But hey, this is Mr. Kathryn Kase's newspaper -- if it helps the anti-death-penalty cause, why not disregard journalistic standards and run with it?

Unsurprisingly, the story completely ignored one salient bit of news in this case from yesterday. As the Dallas Morning News reported,

The Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday rejected claims that Ms. Newton was ineffectively represented at trial and ruled that re-testing of the skirt would not establish her innocence.

The Associated Press, LA Times and the New York Times also reported the Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that the Chronicle ignored.

Will the newspaper manage a third Chron Eye on Newton in Sunday's edition, or will the next effort be some sort of smear of Chuck Rosenthal's office by Metro/State editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey? Stay tuned.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/05 06:11 PM |

24 August 2005

Another "world-class" boondoggle to boost downtown?

In a clumsily edited piece, The Chronicle reports on the latest grand plans to boost downtown:

Details of two projects that officials hope will reinvigorate key areas of downtown were unveiled Tuesday when a group announced its plans for a "world-class" park and developers said they will construct a three-block retail, condominium and office complex.

The $81 million park, which will be designed by a San Francisco firm that worked on sites for the Sydney Olympics, would be built on 12 acres in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center. Officials hope that its amenities — including a restaurant pavilion, jogging trail, dog run and an area for wedding receptions — will lure people downtown and draw conventioneers.

Memo to the San Francisco firm: Your PR people need to ditch the references to "world-class."

That is a term that politically savvy Houstonians use with derision, to refer to the inferiority complex that so many Houstonians seem to have about a city that's a fine place to live even if it's not a tourist destination. Indeed, "world class" is a term that pretty much went out with Lee Brown, as he managed to preside over "world-class" messes like huge unfunded liabilities in the municipal employees pension plan, HPD manpower shortages, official corruption, and more. World-class has lost any positive connotation it might once have had here.

Moving on, the Mayor's office thinks the proposal is great:

"One of the things that makes a great city great is that there are multiple places where citizens can gather just to enjoy life in the city," Guy Hagstette, Mayor Bill White's special assistant for urban design, said of the park. "And it needs to be a place where you don't have to buy a ticket. And this park must be one of those places."

We concede that it sounds like quite an improvement over the Bill White Vermin and Solid Waste Memorial Park.

Shifting gears, the reporters turn to the proposed Houston Pavilions:

Houston Pavilions would offer 365,000 square feet of retail space on three levels. It would replace three blocks of surface parking lots. Skywalks over Fannin and San Jacinto would link the retail pavilions.

Rising from the pavilions would be a 194,000-square-foot office tower and a taller, sister tower with more than 200 condominiums.

[snip]

[Developer William] Denton said Houston Pavilions can't be done without TIRZ status because downtown land values make it cost-prohibitive to build a major retail complex.

[snip]

Houston Pavilions developers have asked the city and county to allow a downtown TIRZ — a separate entity set up with the local governments' permission — to float $14.3 million in bonds for infrastructure improvements.

Those include $639,000 for curbs, pavement, sidewalks and landscaping; $685,000 for upgrading the garage; and $4.2 million for elevators, escalators, walkways, landscaping, decorative lighting and graphics. Another $8.8 million has yet to be earmarked.

Apparently, the "world-class" developments known as the George R. Brown Convention Center, Hilton Americas, Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center, the Main Street Rail Line, the revamped Jones Plaza, and Mayor White's new Vermin/Homeless Park just aren't enough to attract the throngs to downtown and allow our municipal leaders to impress out-of-town visitors that we really are world-class. Another $14.3 million in bonds ought to do the trick, say the self-interested developers to the local media.

Being "world-class" doesn't come cheap.

RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13.

RELATED COMMENTARY: The definition of insanity, Part 2 (Isolated Desolation).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/05 11:43 PM |

Health reports finally online

Back in late 2004, then-KHOU-11 Consumer Reporter Eileen Faxas took the city to task for doing away with easily accessible online restaurant health inspection results. At that time, Mayor White seemed to side with Houston Restaurant Association Director Juli Salvagio, who contended that the reports weren't needed. The weekly reports were ordered removed, even after the city had paid $217,000 for a computer program designed to post results online in detail. Ms. Faxas ended her report:

The mayor's spokesman did say the city will reconsider its position -- if the public complains.

Almost a year later, the city seems to have gotten enough complaints. Both KHOU and the Chron are reporting that the new restaurant health inspection site is up and running.

PREVIOUSLY: Phoenix, Dallas, and Decatur have world class health inspection priorities (bH), The relevance of Marvin (bH).

Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 08/24/05 11:01 PM |

City finally to move forward with Bromwich investigation

KTRK-13 reports that Mayor White and his Council have finally approved funding that will allow the Bromwich investigation of the HPD crime lab to proceed:

The city of Houston has found the money to pay for an extensive investigation of HPD's crime lab and property room.

On Wednesday, the city council OK'd an additional $1.1 million to pay for phase two of the crime lab investigation. The probe had been on hold for the past several weeks because of funding problems and HPD warned it might have to cut a police cadet class to pay the bills.

Wednesday's vote means that won't happen.

In a just world, the Chronicle editorial board would plant a big smooch on the cheek of Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who showed up a footdragging Mayor White by offering to fund a large part of the investigation from his discretionary budget, and got this investigation moving again.

RELATED COVERAGE: KUHF-88.7.

UPDATE (08-25-2005): Additional coverage from the Chronicle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/05 10:58 PM |

Council approves Parking Commission Revenue Stream

KHOU-11 reports that Mayor White and his Council have approved a Parking Commission:

Wednesday morning, Houston's City Council approved the formation of a public parking commission.

One of the commission's duties will be deciding where to put about 1,500 new parking meters.

Council members said the commission would target busy areas and try to relieve their parking problems.

What about it, blogHOUSTON readers?

Do you feel better knowing that your Mayor and City Council are tackling the city's most pressing problems?

UPDATE: KTRK-13's Ilona Carson has a quaint take on the Parking Authority Revenue Stream. She seems to think that even though the city's current bureaucracy can't seem to correct the problems with parking meters near UH Downtown, the new parking bureaucracy will:

But help may be on the way. On Wednesday the Houston city council voted unanimously to form a parking commission. Its job -- to solve some of these problems.

"Bringing parking into a new era. We're bringing new technology, customer service," explained Liliana Rambo, the assistant director of the parking administration.

In the future, Rambo says you'll be able to pay meters with dollar bills, credit cards and cell phones, and dispute tickets online. For now, frustrated students can contest tickets at the municipal court administration building at 1400 Lubbock.

Rambo said, "We go and we check the meter, and we get back to the citizen about whether the citation was upheld or was void."

Those tickets typically run to about $25. Problems won't be solved overnight. The parking commission hopes to have a contract this fall, and roll out changes over the next five years.

This city's media are so accommodating when it comes to Mayor White's efforts to build new bureaucracies and new revenue streams.

Fine. We're with Miss Carson. Here's hoping the new parking bureaucracy gets the problems with the parking meters near UH Downtown solved in five years!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/05 10:17 PM |

Bloggers can do better than that

The Chronicle editorial board can hardly contain its glee at the prospects of a GOP gubernatorial slapfest as the primary slowly approaches:

Over the weekend combative Texas Comptroller and gubernatorial challenger Carole Keeton Strayhorn lobbed electronic grenades at incumbent Gov. Rick Perry, accusing him of trying "to tax rather than lead." She even employed one of the worst epithets in the conservative Republican playbook, comparing Perry to a "Washington liberal." Perry's campaign folks did her one better, likening Strayhorn's tactics to those of banker Tony Sanchez, the Democratic nominee Perry handily defeated in 2002.

That's a little boring, though. In The Pink, clearly lacking the "elegance, wit and insight one looks for in ... editorial pages in their ideal state" has a lot more fun with the Republican candidates.

The editorial board repeats the newspaper's tired act of citing Democratic activist and UH Professor Richard Murray without identifying that he's now out of the closet as a Democratic partisan:

"We're in uncharted waters here," University of Houston Center for Public Policy Director Richard Murray said. Since the Republicans last held sway in the state during Reconstruction in the 19th century, there's little precedent for what happens when a new majority party emerges and encounters a contest for leadership. Murray wondered whether the fight between a sitting governor facing a formidable challenger would return primary voting turnout to high levels.

Murray likened the developing Texas situation to Kansas, where Republicans have split into moderate centrists and Christian conservatives. Occasionally a Kansas Democrat wins statewide office because the moderate Republicans refuse to back the conservative nominee.

Murray's partisan preferences should be identified when he is commenting on political parties, so readers will have enough information to decide if he's speaking as a partisan, as a professor, or both.

UPDATE: It seems I led this post much like Sedosi Alhambra led his related post. I guess we're thinking alike, because I hadn't seen it earlier. But I don't want anyone confusing me with Rick Casey, so I thought I should clarify. :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/05 10:08 PM |

23 August 2005

American Chopper crew delivers shuttle tribute bike

Houston-area fans of the Discovery-channel series American Chopper were in for a treat today:

With a thunderous rumble, the sleek motorcycle, a two-wheeled replica of NASA's space shuttle, roared to life Monday, and American Chopper 's mustached patriarch Paul Teutul Sr. gingerly wheeled his latest theme bike through a tight circle of surging fans.

The rallying point was Space Center Houston, the official visitors complex for NASA's Johnson Space Center and possibly one of the last places someone might expect to go for the unveiling of a one-of-a-kind motorcycle.

But the gleaming $100,000 Space Shuttle Tribute Bike is both a work of art and a spirited form of modern transportation. Surrounded by an Apollo lunar lander and replicas of space station modules in Space Center Houston's large display gallery, the motorcycle seemed as much at home as if it were rolling through the streets of Daytona Beach, Fla., during Bike Week.

"We've been space cowboys for a long time," the gruff-voiced Teutul assured a largely aerospace audience.

More on the Space Shuttle Tribute Bike can be found here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/05 10:59 PM |

Beware I-10/Beltway 8 lane changes

KHOU-11's Jeremy Desel reports that motorists should be mindful of changes to access ramps at I-10 and Beltway 8:

It seems like the on ramp to the Beltway from I-10 has been on the right forever, but not any more.

"Now all of a sudden, you are driving and the only way to get on to the Beltway is to get in the far left hand lane and get going. So it is very confusing," says Russo.

Thanks to the ongoing construction, that ramp will be on the left for the next several months. That will keep plenty of drivers out of step.

"They swerve out of traffic. I constantly have to press on my brakes. It is a dangerous thing," says Ray Mary, "It is completely counterintuitive to have it the way it is. It doesn't make any sense."

George Nino drives the Katy every day and says some of the trouble is because of the signs.

There are some warnings, like two miles out and another one three-quarters of a mile out. The only other warning is a construction sign not far from the on-ramp. Drivers say that's too late for this kind of information.

"You have to worry about the guy that is taking it for the first time and swerving into your lane," Nino says.

That is true for the next time, too.

According to HPD, in July alone, there were 6 accidents within a half--mile of the change. In August, there have been already been 22 accidents.

This location isn't the only other new alignment. The one at 610 and I-10 is confusing drivers too.

TxDOT says the signs are enough and that it just takes time for drivers to adjust.

TxDOT sounds much like METRO in blaming Houston drivers (and not itself) for safety problems.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/05 10:22 PM |

Is a new ad campaign enough to fix AstroWorld?

John Wagner notes a Washington Post story that hints at some changes in Six Flags future. The Post story speculates that Mr. Six may be fired.

Wagner says Six Flags and AstroWorld need more help than just a new mascot or ad campaign:

My last trip to AstroWorld was about three years ago. It was badly in need of paint, repairs and general upkeep. I'm not alone in that assessment.

The remnants of the former themed areas created a weird experience, since the themes are no longer carried out.

The whole place seemed drab, messy and frankly, a little sad.

[snip]

Rather than spend millions on advertising -- at least in this region -- the company would be wise to invest in the park itself. Not on some new ride, but on the general look, feel and approach of the park.

It needs a good housecleaning and a strong focus.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/23/05 09:34 PM |

A world-class downtown requires financial incentives

KTRK-13 has a story up about a developer's proposal to change radically the look of one part of downtown:

There's a bold plan to change the face of downtown Houston. Some developers want to turn three city blocks into a $200 million retail center. Those blocks -- running from Main Street to Caroline, along Polk Street -- are currently parking lots.

[snip]

Three parking lots could turn from a ghost town into a retail mecca, if they're replaced by the Houston Pavilions – a $200 million grand entertainment complex, with condos, office space and lots of shopping.

"Every city's thirsty for something like this," suggested developer William Denton. "This is the last piece of the puzzle – a major turnaround for downtown."

Denton and his business partner were secretive about their plans until Tuesday, when they presented their big idea to commissioner's court.

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said, "We certainly want to support them coming in to downtown Houston and to the city. It would be a great asset for the city. We're just looking through their proposals and what they're asking for and look at where it makes sense for the city and the county to partner together for the infrastructure needs to make a project like this a reality."

[snip]

Imagine a 20-screen movie theater along with shops such as a Virgin mega-store, Barnes and Noble and of course a number of clothing stores all appearing in about two years. It sounds very ambitious. The developers plan to show their plan to city council next week. They are hoping for some sort of financial incentive from the city and the county in order to make this a reality.

There's always a catch. Will the financial incentives be loans, since the Magnolia Hotel loan worked out so well for the city, or will it be tax breaks? Maybe it'll be both! Shall we start guessing what clichés and phrases will be tossed around by city and county officials? "World-class" is a given.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/23/05 09:12 PM |

Maybe Kingwood feeder roads need SAFEClear

KPRC-2 and KHOU-11 both have this little press release story posted about Mayor White taking a helicopter tour of Kingwood with Rep. Ted Poe to look at Kingwood's traffic woes.

The KPRC story adds this:

White and officials are also looking at ways to better utilize the high-occupancy vehicle lanes and expand METRO bus and rail services.

ADD bus service? No, no, no. Metro CUTS bus service. And I didn't know there was a rail line planned for Kingwood anytime soon. Perhaps some developers have land in Kingwood that needs to be...developed.

I saw KHOU's story last night. It included video of the helicopter Mayor White went up in and then a brief interview with the mayor. He said the feeder roads in Kingwood were jammed while traffic on the freeway was running smoothly.

I'm not sure why he had to go up in a helicopter to find that out, but I know how he can fix Kingwood's traffic tie-ups: the Kingwood Feeder Road Traffic Authority.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/23/05 07:17 AM |

22 August 2005

Here comes the Parking Authority Revenue Stream/Bureaucracy

Reader and commenter Vernon Guy alerts us to the following items on City Council's agenda this week:

16. ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 12 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES, HOUSTON, TEXAS, to provide for the creation of a Public Parking Commission; providing for the appointment of the members thereof and prescribing their qualifications; specifying the jurisdiction and authority of the Public Parking Commission and setting forth its powers and duties

[snip]

18. ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CODE OF ORDINANCES, HOUSTON, TEXAS, relating to transferring the Parking Management Division and its functions, personnel and funding to the Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department; containing findings and other provisions relating to the foregoing subject; providing an effective date; providing for severability

Now that Mayor White has solved all of the city's pressing problems, it looks as if he's ready to move forward with his new Parking Authority Revenue Stream/Bureaucracy.

PREVIOUSLY: Mayor contemplates parking authority (bH), Why is the mayor fixated on a new parking bureaucracy? (bH), Mayor White and Councilman Berry in unholy alliance to create bloated parking bureacracy (Lone Star Times).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/05 11:08 PM |

I-45 tunnel concept is far from a "no-brainer"

Patrick Kurp reports in today's Chronicle that Gonzalo Camacho is continuing to push his I-45 tunnel concept:

Gonzalo Camacho remains convinced that running 14.5 miles of Interstate 45 under the ground would cost less, be built faster, displace fewer people and businesses, and create less air pollution than any conventional, above-ground road design.

"It's a no-brainer. It would be a large error that would be with us for a long time if the elected officials didn't get behind the tunnel idea," said Camacho, a transportation engineer and the most public proponent of making Houston home to the longest tunnel in the United States.

Camacho raised the idea in a public meeting in April and since has met with Texas Department of Transportation officials, the city's planning commission and community groups.

Just a few weeks ago, I attended Camacho's presentation of the tunnel concept to the Houston Property Rights Association, and at that time he said that his proposal was in its early stages, and that a $300,000 study would be required to know if it is truly feasible.

It is odd that in a few weeks' time, Camacho has changed his tune and what can only be described as a raw conceptual proposal has now morphed into a "no-brainer" in his mind.

Camacho's enthusiasm for his proposal is admirable, but clearly the proposal is not fleshed out enough at this point to be described as a "no-brainer."

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/05 10:45 PM |

Red light camera revenue stream to be ready by Thanksgiving

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that city officials expect to have the Red Light Camera Revenue Stream supplying city coffers by Thanksgiving.

KHOU-11's Mike Zientek has an amusing quote from HPD:

Police deny charges they'll use the cameras to beef up city coffers.

"We would be happy if we didn't collect a penny in fines once the system goes into place," said HPD Lt. Robert Manzo. "And that's exactly what would happen if everyone would obey the laws."

Right!

It's probably worth repeating our old maxim that when pols and their subordinates say it's not about the money, it's almost always about the money.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/05 10:30 PM |

They are killing trees to print these editorials (cont'd)

Nuevo Laredo is literally beyond effective control of government, and the Chronicle editorial board has wasted 500+ words with a poorly written critique of U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza's recent comments?

I suppose we should be thankful they didn't create a new treaty, which sometimes happens when the editorial idealists tackle international affairs.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/05 10:21 PM |

Rad Sallee exposes how Metro ill-serves those who depend on it

Wow, wow, wow!

Rad Sallee has given us so much truth in one story about Metro ridership. In clear black and white, all of Metro's obfuscation is on full display:

[Metro President Frank] Wilson passed out a quarterly report that says total bus and rail ridership for the nine months through June was 6.5 percent higher than a year earlier. A footnote, however, explains that the numbers are adjusted.

Unadjusted and more recent counts show total ridership for October through July was actually down 1.5 percent, driven by a 9 percent drop in the local bus component that serves many poorer neighborhoods in the inner city — the core mission of public transit.

YES! For all those who say that light rail critics are just anti-Metro, that's the point right there. Metro's core mission as a public transit agency is to provide transportation to those who have no other transit options. I certainly don't mind Metro's sales tax if it's providing the public service it is supposed to and that it promised. But Metro isn't doing that. Metro has decided to change its mission to one of catering to commuters with light rail trains and now (don't say Bus) Rapid Transit.

Jim Archer, Metro's manager of service evaluation, said the raw fiscal 2004 numbers are misleading because of two unusual events that will not be repeated: The agency cut 37 poorly performing bus routes and changed numerous others to connect better with the new light rail line and avoid duplicating service.

So, because of 7.5 miles of downtown light rail, numerous bus routes had to be changed...to feed into the light rail. Which, of course, usually makes getting around much more inconvenient for bus riders.

But Metro's route changes can't explain why local bus boardings have fallen each year since 1999, dragging overall ridership down with them until fiscal year 2004, when it rose 3 percent.

Archer blames the bus problems largely on construction of MetroRail and transit streets in downtown and Midtown that forced many route changes, which typically cause some riders to fall away. Then came the 9/11 attacks and the Enron debacle, which had sharp impacts on downtown trolley ridership, he said.

Metro blames 9/11 for declining trolley ridership? What hasn't been blamed on 9/11?

And what Archer doesn't let on is that eliminating the trolleys was always a part of Metro's (light rail) plan, and Metro was able to do it by cutting back on trolley service and instituting a fare, when previously the trolleys had been free.

There's a pattern here. Metro decides to build the downtown light rail, come hell or high water (or 2 inches of rain). Downtown gets torn up with light rail construction. Metro expresses puzzlement because bus and trolley ridership is down while downtown is torn up. So Metro modifies and cuts services. And ridership still plummets while light rail construction continues. Metro again scratches its head, and finally gives up and cuts bus and trolley service.

Some of Metro's critics accuse the agency of building rail and catering to commuters while shortchanging those who depend on local buses to get to work, the doctor or the grocery store.

"They promised 50 percent more bus routes, but they don't say that. They just say the people voted for rail," said bus rider Mark Smith.

"Metro could have crisscrossed the county with buses for what it will cost to build the rail system."

Yep.

Then we get into the pesky little issues of service "improvements" and per-rider subsidies:

Then there's Terrence Wilson, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident 24 years ago. Wilson, 49, depends on Metro buses and his motorized wheelchair to get around.

Because many streets in his Acres Homes neighborhood lack sidewalks, Metro built a concrete slab on the shoulder for his wheelchair, he said. But over the years, his regular bus was replaced with a circulating shuttle, and then Metro shortened that route. It no longer passes his home, and Wilson said he now rides his chair in the street for a risky 1 1/2 miles to reach the bus stop.

Archer said Wilson's former route, the 64 Lincoln City Circulator, has kept 85 percent of its riders, despite being shortened, and now has more midday service and a more reliable schedule. It's also a good example of a dilemma that Metro often faces, he said.

"In Acres Homes," Archer said, "the customers are spread out, and because so many are elderly, they don't ride the bus every day."

That adds up to a taxpayer subsidy of $7.61 each time a rider steps on board, Archer said. As a general rule, Metro cuts or changes routes when the subsidy reaches $5.90, he said.

We want to see the per-rider subsidy for the light rail. Enough of this crap about per-rider subsidies for buses being too high. Providing bus service that can reach the people who need it the most is what Metro is SUPPOSED to be doing!

It is outrageous that Terrence Wilson has to go 1 1/2 miles in his wheelchair to catch a bus so that downtown residents and workers can look at world-class light rail trains.

Sallee's story concludes with an appearance by Tom Bazan and an admission that Metro has no way to count actual MetroRail riders. In fact, look at how Metro can claim "booming" ridership:

Because Metro has no practical way to count actual riders, it instead keeps track of boardings — usually expressed on an average weekday basis and counted by electronic devices on buses and trains. A single trip involving transfers, like Villanueva's journey to work, is counted as several boardings.

Metro's service area will be lucky to have any bus service left after the next round of rail expansion.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/22/05 07:36 AM |

21 August 2005

They are killing trees to print these editorials

The Chronicle's editorial board recently gave the President and Mrs. Bush a little advice on how to show some Texas hospitality to the Cindy Sheehan anti-war protesters who are just down the road in Crawford.

Bizarre.

And not only that, but the editorial writer shows a total lack of class and respect:

Now that the gathering of antiwar protesters will be just a stone's throw from the president's ranch, perhaps he and Laura should engage in another act of traditional Texas hospitality by dropping in unannounced on their new, though temporary, neighbors with a housewarming gift and a desire to make their acquaintance.

Laura? Is that how the First Lady should be addressed? Mrs. Bush or the First Lady would have been more appropriate, but then again, we don't quite understand the Chronicle's ideal state.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/21/05 10:11 PM |

Mayor changes course; Now there's money for HPD probe

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that Mayor White has stepped up with funding plans for the next phase of the Bromwich investigation of the HPD crime lab:

The investigation into problems at the Houston crime lab, stalled because of rising costs, could resume under a plan Mayor Bill White will present to the City Council next week.

The mayor's spokesman said Friday that the city has the $1.6 million a special investigator says he needs.

"The mayor believes that we have the funding sources to back it up," spokesman Frank Michel said.

That comes after even the Chronicle editorial board had to give some credit to favorite "bad guy" Chuck Rosenthal for offering to fund part of the investigation in order to move it along.

The "public safety" mayor had previously been awfully quiet on the delay in the Bromwich investigation. Perhaps Rosenthal's offer to get it moving again embarrassed him into action.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 10:09 PM |

Steffy hits the "covert hospitality" brigade

On Friday, the Chronicle's L.M. Sixel reported on a gathering by Houston movers, shakers, and spin artists (such as Jordy Tollet, Jeff Moseley, and Frank Michel) to discuss how the city can boost itself to journalists in town to cover the Enron trial in January.

Today, Loren Steffy has a little fun with the entire "covert hospitality" notion.

It might also be useful to recall Ken Hoffman's fine advice after some of these same people failed in luring a future Super Bowl to Houston:

If I were an NFL team owner, and the Houston contingent came to my door, I'd put a piece of candy in their bag and send them away.

What if they came to your door and tried to convince you to write nice things about their shoes?

The national media probably won't cave like some writers.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 10:02 PM |

UH athletics under fire

Earlier in the week, various media outlets weighed in with reports on alleged improprieties regarding some athletes at the University of Houston. Athletics Director Dave Maggard reacted quickly and tried to downplay the allegations, but merely the suggestion of impropriety and the announcement of an NCAA investigation could set back an athletics program that has seen plenty of setbacks since the demise of the Southwest Conference.

Sedosi Alhambra has been tracking the story, and put up these posts.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 09:47 PM |

The "ideal state" of Army recruitment

Today's Chronicle editorial on Army recruitment is more puzzling than the usual fare.

The idealists suggest that highlighting various incentives is a misleading form of recruiting by the U.S. armed forces:

The new ads, however, might confuse some parents with their suggestions that the Army is primarily a job training program, a tuition source or, most worrisome, some kind of personal development retreat. Parents can succumb to wishful thinking when it comes to opportunities for their children. At a time when most recruits are destined for combat, this TV campaign may offer a perilously skewed view of what military service entails.

But the editorial concludes as follows:

In addition to its TV ads, the Army has taken proposed substantive steps to boost recruitment: greatly increasing financial incentives, offering down payments on homes and raising the maximum recruitment age to 42. These straightforward measures would do far more to prompt realistic decision-making than ads promoting wartime military service as a path to self-actualization.

So, some inducements to serve (job training, tuition) are worthy of disparagement from the editorial elitists down at 801 Texas Avenue, but others (financial incentives, down payments on homes) are "straightforward measures" that somehow relieve the original concern of the editorialists (that being the ridiculous assertion that recruits somehow don't understand that soldiers sometimes fight wars, and wars can be deadly)?

Seriously, a down payment on a house makes it more clear for the Chronicle editorial elitists that war can be deadly?

Does anybody at the Chronicle even read some of these editorials before they go to print?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 09:40 PM |

Chron eye for the death row killer gal

The anti-death-penalty Chronicle starts early with today's Chron Eye on a killer not scheduled to die until September 14.

As protesters take to the streets and attorneys launch late-in-the-day efforts to save her from the executioner's needle, Frances Newton's capital murder case promises to pack an emotional punch rarely felt in Texas, a state that leads the nation in putting killers to death.

Newton, 40, is scheduled to die Sept. 14 for fatally shooting her husband and two young children in April 1987 to claim $100,000 in death benefits. She would be the third woman — and the first black woman — to be executed in the state since the Civil War. Her execution would be the 349th since Texas executions resumed in 1982.

Newton and her supporters consistently have proclaimed her innocence, but state and federal courts have on at least 10 occasions rejected motions filed on the Harris County woman's behalf.

With those facts established, most of the rest of the story clearly is intended to provide a forum for defense attorneys and activists looking to stop the execution.

The Chronicle devoted three reporters to this Chron Eye, weeks before the execution is scheduled.

Expect Mr. Kathryn Kase's newspaper to keep pushing hard on this one.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 09:17 PM |

Minutemen: Houstonians with permits may carry concealed weapons

The Chronicle's Edward Hegstrom reports that the organization that calls itself the Minutemen will not require Houston-area volunteers who have the legal right to carry a concealed weapon under Texas law to refrain from doing so.

Hegstrom phrases it somewhat differently:

The Minutemen will come to Houston bearing arms.

Leaders of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas had earlier said volunteers observing Houston's day laborers in October would carry nothing but video cameras.

But leaders now say those involved in the operations targeting local illegal immigrants will be allowed to carry arms as long as they comply with all federal and state laws.

In fact, those who have a concealed-weapons permit are being offered a discount on joining the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. An Arizona-based organization, the Minutemen started out by patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border in April to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing, but the group has announced it will conduct a variety of operations here this fall.

Greg at Rhymes with Right calls attention to the conclusion of the story:

Houston police are aware that some of the Minutemen will be armed, and officers will make sure that all laws are obeyed, said Lt. Robert Manzo, an HPD spokesman.

That isn't quite right, since it is official HPD policy not to enforce some aspects of federal immigration law.

Expect a Chronicle editorial by Tuesday or Wednesday condemning Texans who work with the Minutemen for even thinking about exercising their right to carry concealed weapons under Texas law.

RELATED COVERAGE: Associated Press.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 08:54 PM |

The three stooges of state government?

On Friday, the Chronicle editorial board wrote the following about the close of the latest legislative special session:

Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick come away from this session looking less like statesmen and more like Larry, Curley and Moe.

It is hard to believe a major metropolitan daily would commit such insulting language to print.

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 08:01 PM |

Inner loop, the 'burbs, and the Chron - Take two

A few days ago, I linked to a post by John Wagner that seemed to suggest that the Houston Chronicle pushes an inner-loop bias on its pages.

I wasn't quite sure that Wagner meant to go that far, and wondered if he was merely referring to the editorial page, which does seem to push the inner loop and downtown.

Wagner clarified on Thursday in this post, and made it clear that he did mean to indict the entire newspaper for an inner loop bias.

I think between us, we probably have a decent mix of readers inside the loop and out in the suburbs, so feel free again to add your thoughts here or at Wagner's place.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 07:35 PM |

20 August 2005

Not to worry, a Chron editor is looking into it

Byron Calame, the public editor of the New York Times, admits on his web journal that his newspaper was slow to cover the story of Air America's alleged peculiar financial transactions with the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club:

Readers of The Times were poorly served by the paper's slowness to cover official investigations into questionable financial transactions involving Air America, the liberal radio network. The Times's first article on the investigations finally appeared last Friday after weeks of articles by other newspapers in New York and elsewhere.

The Times's recent slowness stands in contrast to its flurry of articles about Air America in the spring of 2004, when the network was launched. "Liberal Voices (Some Sharp) Get New Home on Radio Dial," read the headline on The Times's article the morning of March 31 when the network went on the air. The article noted that the network had a staff headlined by comedian Al Franken and hopes of establishing a counterpoint to conservative radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh.

Two months later, The Times reported that the network had come close to running out of money in April but had received an infusion of an undisclosed amount of cash from sources that weren't identified. The article noted that Evan M. Cohen, a primary early backer and the chairman of the network, had resigned.

[snip]

It has become clearer in the past week or so that Air America hasn't yet fully repaid the "loans" from the club, and its financial condition remains murky even in The Times's article Friday. So the future of the radio network seems to be a key question for The Times to answer.

Locally, Calame's equivalent at the Houston Chronicle had this reaction to the matter in response to a reader:

I'm not aware of the story regarding the accounting practices used by Air America. I will ask an editor to look into it.

That was posted on August 16.

Apparently, the editors are still looking into it, as we've not seen any stories on the matter posted to the Chronicle, and couldn't find any we might have inadvertently missed in our search of the Chron.com archives and Google news.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/05 06:53 PM |

19 August 2005

More job cuts at the Chronicle (updated)

Matt Bramanti points out that Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney announced the paper will "pare its work force" by seven percent:

In a letter to Chronicle employees released late Thursday, Sweeney outlined the changes, which include involuntary layoffs, open positions that will not be filled, and changes in the use of contract labor and use of outside services.

The restructuring will not affect the newsroom and advertising sales staff, Sweeney wrote.

Unemployment is no fun -- I hope all those who are restructured out of their jobs find new employment as soon as possible.

RELATED: Job cuts at the Chronicle

UPDATE: Editor & Publisher reminds us of the Chron's circulation woes:

The Chronicle is Texas' biggest paper and the ninth-largest U.S. daily. In the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX, the paper reported a daily circulation of 537,744 for the six months ended March 31, down 3.9% from the same period in 2004, and a Sunday circulation of 720,711, down 2.6% from last year.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/05 08:51 PM |

It's just like Monopoly (updated)

On the heels of yesterday's idiocy about the fantabulous Astrodome Hotel, today we learn that the city of Houston may soon take control of a second hotel:

Houston taxpayers have millions of dollars on the line -- money that former Mayor Lee Brown's administration loaned to private hotel developers. Now the current mayor is threatening to foreclose on two hotels that owe the city a small fortune.

As downtown Houston revived, the city government orchestrated a hotel building binge.

Around the same time, the city built its 1200 room convention center hotel. It also helped private developers build two other downtown hotels.

But the 11 News Defenders reported earlier this year that the Magnolia Hotel hasn't paid back a dime of the $9.5 million it owes the city -- missing payment after payment.

[snip]

But the Magnolia is a different story. City officials are already talking about foreclosing on the property and hiring an outside management team to come in and take the place over and keep it running until another buyer can be found.

In effect, the city of Houston would own yet another downtown hotel.

Some downtown hotels managers complain the city government helped flood the market with empty rooms.

"It seems, sometimes, politicians get into the supply and demand business, trying to force supply and demand to balance," said Sergio Ortiz, GM of the Lancaster Hotel. "But there's only one way it is balanced, which is free economics."

Now the city government's playing a different tune, saying it'll never again put taxpayer's money on the line for one of these downtown hotel deals.

It's a little late for that epiphany now.

As Tom Kirkendall has said previously, this is why the City of Houston should not be in the business of financing redevelopment projects.

UPDATE: Tom Kirkendall cautions Mayor White about seeking to foreclose on The Magnolia Hotel:

Note to Mayor White -- before you have the City foreclose its second lien on either of those hotel properties, please check to see whether either of them is generating enough revenue to pay operating expenses, much less debt service on the first lien indebtedness. Hotel properties "eat" money, and if the current owners are at least contributing enough to subsidize negative cash flows to operations, considering an alternative to foreclosure could save the City a ton of money. Sometimes you get more than you wish for when driving a hard bargain.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/05 08:05 PM |

Tom Kirkendall's review of Redstone's new course

Recently Tom Kirkendall noted that Redstone's new Tournament Course was open for business and he promised a first-hand review. Being quite the trooper, Tom found time in his schedule to give the course a try and he has posted the promised critique:

Several days ago, three pals and I teed it up at the Tournament Course for the first time. Although we should have had our heads examined, we decided -- in order to get the full flavor of the course -- that we would walk the course with caddies (in 95 degree temperature with 90% humidity!) and play the course from the tournament (i.e., the longest) tees. Inasmuch as the ground was still quite wet from a heavy rain storm the previous afternoon, we received no roll on our drives and felt like we trudged every one of the 7,500 yards of the course.

I told you he was a trooper!

Overall, the Tournament Course is an outstanding addition to the Houston golf scene. It is already a very good golf course, and has a chance to become a truly superior one. At this point, I would give the course a strong B+, but my sense is that the Houston Golf Association -- which did a wonderful job refining The TPC Course in The Woodlands over the years -- will make the improvements and modifications necessary to elevate the Tournament Course to one of the best golf courses in Houston and Texas. A strong golf course will not be enough alone to attract the best professional golfers back to the Shell Houston Open (a more favorable date help even more), but a strong course is a necessary component of a successful event, and the Tournament Course certainly fulfills that need.

There's much more, of course, and he has posted beautiful photographs, too. Go check it out.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/05 08:10 AM |

Ohio corruption trial wraps up; Houston investigation continues

The Chronicle's Dan Feldstein reports on the Ohio trial of Cleveland businessman Nate Gray that snared several former Brown Administration officials:

The Cleveland, Ohio, businessman accused of bribing two Houston officials was convicted on 36 felony counts in Akron on Wednesday, including bribery-related crimes in four cities.

Federal investigators spent years pursuing Nate Gray, 47, a well-known consultant who was close to Cleveland's former mayor. In the process, they snagged the Houston officials and vowed the investigation is not over here.

Oliver Spellman, who served as former Mayor Lee Brown's chief of staff, and Monique McGilbra, who was the city's building services director, both pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to help Gray or his consulting clients get business in Houston.

They testified against Gray to reduce their sentences.

[snip]

In Houston, the question is this: What did it mean when a federal prosecutor asked FBI agent R. Michael Massie on the witness stand whether the investigation was finished in Houston and Massie testified, "No"?

It probably means that Feldstein is going to be doing some very interesting reporting in the coming weeks and months.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/19/05 07:46 AM |

Metro board meeting topics: "smart cards" and Tasers

Rad Sallee went to yesterday's Metro board meeting and reports that Metro's "smart card" system will soon be back in development again:

The Metropolitan Transit Authority board voted Thursday to hire another firm because the original contractor, Cubic Transportation Systems of San Diego, Calif., was fired in March. The agency is seeking in court to recover the $4.5 million already paid to Cubic for the high-tech system that never met expectations.

Metro consultant Richard Lobron said Ascom Transport Systems products have performed well in New Jersey, Boston, Lyon, France, and elsewhere, and won't have to be redesigned for Metro's needs.

Lobron said sensors can respond to the cards' computer chip in a fraction of a second compared with several seconds to read cards with magnetic strips. This automatically deducts the fare from a prepaid amount, like EZ Tags on the county's tollways, he said.

[snip]

Although the Cubic contract was for $8.5 million and the board voted to spend up to $20 million with Ascom, Lobron said the two deals are very different. He said Ascom is charging $9.8 million for equipment and services that go beyond Cubic's offer, such as helping Metro market the cards and operating a help desk to answer users' questions for a year.

The $20 million is a "not to exceed" sum that Metro spokesman George Smalley said would allow for future expansions of the system not covered in the Cubic contract.

And Metro Police Chief Lambert wants more Tasers:

The board also heard a proposal from Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert to buy 140 Tasers, which shoot electric darts that administer a shock. Metro has had 30 of the devices, which cost about $1,000 each, since 2003 and has used them 20 times without serious injury, he said.

[snip]

Lambert said Tasers are intended for use when the alternative is bullets, but board Chairman David Wolff noted that the nonlethal nature of the devices can lead to overuse.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/05 06:06 AM |

18 August 2005

Fleck knocks down Chron "firewall" between news/editorial

Back on August 4, we noted the delay in the Bromwich investigation of the HPD crime lab, and wrote,

The Chronicle editorial board is really going to have to stretch to blame this on Harris Country District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.

A full two weeks later, the Chronicle editorial board finally got around to commenting on the matter, with a clumsy rhetorical effort that goes pretty easy on Chron "good guy" Bill White while taking shots at Chron "bad guy" Chuck Rosenthal:

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal says he is willing to allocate money from one of several discretionary funds at his disposal to pay a portion of the crime lab probe costs. "I'm a resident of the city of Houston and I don't want the money coming out of HPD's budget," Rosenthal said.

He also says he wants to resolve the crime lab issue quickly because he doesn't feel it's as serious as has been reported. The Chronicle believes the scandal, with its faked or botched lab tests, inaccurate testimony and mishandled evidence pertaining to thousands of cases, some of them capital murder convictions obtained by Harris County prosecutors, is deadly serious.

The scandal IS serious, but until the investigation is complete, we will not know definitively if the crime lab's problems significantly affected the delivery of justice in Harris County.

Today's related "news" story by the Chronicle's Steve McVicker contains an assertion from a defense attorney that Chuck Rosenthal's motives in helping to get the crime lab investigation moving are suspect:

Although he would not say how much money he is offering, Rosenthal said Wednesday that he has contacted city officials about the possibility of using discretionary funds — such as drug-seizure money — to help underwrite the HPD probe.

Rosenthal acknowledged that he has a "selfish" motive for wanting to get the crime-lab investigation back on track: "I'd like to see it done just to get a resolution to this because I don't feel like there's been the immediacy or the problem that's been painted by y'all and the other media as to how bad things are."

To Houston defense lawyer Troy McKinney, Rosenthal's remarks are indicative of the overall crime-lab problem.

"They continue to take the attitude that any problems are isolated, and only anecdotal, even though there is a tremendous quantity of evidence that the problems are pervasive and continue," McKinney said.

If the crime lab's problems "are pervasive and continue," then how in the world has the crime lab under the current leadership managed to gain accreditation in all areas but DNA testing?

In reality, the excerpt we've cited seems intended as a shot at Chuck Rosenthal -- and it doesn't seem fair or accurate in light of the crime lab's recent accreditation. The defense attorney's assertions NEVER should have made it into a credible "news" story without the reporter at least pointing out the crime lab's accreditation (which would go a long way toward refuting the quote, which leads us back to the notion that the quote NEVER should have appeared in a credible "news" story).

But therein lies the problem. Sedosi Alhambra noticed this curious credit at the bottom of the "news" story:

Chronicle staffer Tim Fleck contributed to this report.

Tim Fleck is not just any "Chronicle staffer." Tim Fleck is a member of the Chronicle editorial board!

So, not only did the Chronicle run an editorial today that took a cheap shot at Chuck Rosenthal, it also ran a "news" story in which it used a suspect quote from a defense attorney to take a cheap shot at Chuck Rosenthal, a "news" story to which an editorial board member contributed!

So much for that "division between the opinion pages and the news pages" that one Chronicle editor/blogger once pointed out to us.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/18/05 11:03 PM |

The Astrodome Hotel boondoggle

So, some group has obtained funding to turn the Astrodome into a hotel/village. What a ridiculous idea.

Sedosi, Tom Kirkendall and Owen Courreges covered the main problems of this impending fiasco very nicely. Here's Sedosi:

Why does this strike me as a monumentally bad idea?

Could it be due to the fact that the Hilton Americas Hotel is having trouble maintaining capacity at operating levels?

Could it be due to the fact that there is barely enough convention traffic in Houston to satisfy the current available space?

Could it be due to the fact that the Dome is a County-owned property, and this basically would be another high dollar subsidy for private investment?

It could be!

Tom Kirkendall:

A project of this magnitude would entail working out huge problems, such as how an additional 1,200 rooms can be justified to lenders and equity investors in light of Houston's current glut of hotel rooms, parking woes during football games and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and the dubious nature of the pitiful Astroworld Six Flags Amusement Park across the freeway from the Dome as a draw for the hotel. As a result, my sense is that this deal will never come together, but crazier financial decision have been made -- just look at the Metro Light Rail line!

Owen Courreges:

Houston has waaaaay more hotel capacity than we currently need, or will need for the foreseeable future. We aren’t a tourist destination, and everything beyond tourism – i.e. business travel and conventions – aren’t enough to sustain our current capicity.

Yes, yes, yes. The Houston hotel market is saturated. The LAST thing the city needs is another hotel, let alone another BIG hotel. And let's not forget that Mayor White "fixed" Houston's pension mess by burying it in the Hilton Americas. He certainly can't be rooting for the Astrodome Hotel. Plus, the Hilton Americas is already in iffy shape as evidenced by something the Chronicle's Shannon Buggs wrote in June:

Heywood Sanders recently placed a $50 per night bid for a four-star hotel room in downtown Houston on PriceLine.com. His offer was accepted by the Hilton Americas .

"As the Hilton seeks to fill up rooms by offering low rates through alternative booking channels, it's cannibalizing business from the other hotels," said Sanders, a professor of public administration at University of Texas at San Antonio who studies publicly financed convention hotels.

Fifty bucks. That's embarrassing.

And last April the Orlando Sentinel shared this depressing news:

the Hilton Americas on average had almost as many empty rooms as filled ones -- just like the rest of the hotels downtown.

So, the plan is to build another big hotel. Great! That's a terrific idea! How many tax breaks will be promised to the developers by Harris County officials? Will there be any no-interest or low-interest loans of taxpayer dollars to make the dreamy new hotel/village a reality? Owen's absolutely right that people are not going to decide to come to Houston because of an Astrodome Hotel. It just ain't gonna happen. And few (if any) companies are going to decide to have their conventions in Houston because the Astrodome was remade into a hotel.

The whole idea is a novelty -- a very expensive novelty -- and it will wear off very, very fast.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/18/05 08:01 PM |

17 August 2005

Chron swings, misses on 9-11 march/concert

The Chronicle editorial board almost had it.

They were so close today.

They managed to put out a topic sentence with some potential:

The decision by Bush administration officials to sponsor a march from the site of the 9/11 airliner attack on the Pentagon to a free country music concert in the nation's capital at best exhibits poor taste.

And then, inexplicably, the rest of the editorial goes on to hyperventilate about the war in Iraq and suggest conspiracies.

They just can't help themselves.

A more thoughtful editorial board might have proceeded after that first sentence to question what genius in the White House decided that a march and a Clint Black concert were an appropriate way to commemorate 9-11, a point made by KTRH-740 talker Chris Baker today.

But that wouldn't be our Chronicle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/05 11:34 PM |

Big man: Chron gossip columnist takes on low-level bureaucrat

Chronicle metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey apparently didn't have anything to write about today.

But, he didn't let that stop him. Here's a snippet from today's column of gossip:

May I be so presumptuous as to suggest a topic for discussion at Thursday's weekly "Current Events" group at the Tracy Gee Community Center out at Beltway 8 near Richmond Avenue?

The 30 or so participants in the group at the county-funded center had planned to discuss the newly-proposed Iraqi constitution, but it hasn't quite been proposed yet.

So maybe they should discuss the U.S. Constitution instead. In particular, the First Amendment.

[snip]

Last week, the community center's director, Margaret Patterson, greeted the members before they started their meeting. She had received a complaint about the previous session and needed to lay down some rules.

Bazemore recalls Patterson as saying participants are restricted to two to three minutes each and are not supposed to try to persuade anyone else of their positions.

Bazemore said she asked Patterson if there was a written set of rules. The answer was no.

Later, Bazemore called Sue McDougald, director of all six community centers in Precinct 3.

"She appeared to be aware of the situation and gave me basically the same responses," Bazemore said. "She also informed me that we could discuss current events only if we did not have a 'political point of view' or were not attempting to 'persuade someone toward our position.' "

* yawn *

Was there any kind of point to all that gossip?

Apparently, Casey thought so, as he had to write up his intimidation of a community center director:

I called Patterson at the center to hear her side of the story.

"I'm going to refer you to my supervisor," she said pleasantly. "She may refer you back to me for details, since she wasn't at the meeting."

That's not what McDougald did. She referred me to her boss, Commissioner Steve Radack.

"We don't really respond to the press," she said. "We're not supposed to write anything in the paper without clearing it downtown, so I don't think he wants us to give interviews."

Hmmmmm. The people paid by taxpayers to run our civic institutions are not supposed to talk about what goes on in them?

She's a low-level bureaucrat. She referred a newspaper reporter to a policymaking elected official. Is that so hard to understand?

Let's hope the bigshot metro/state gossip columnist feels better about himself after taking that cheap shot at a low-level bureaucrat.

The Chronicle's metro news coverage has been improving, in my view. It's a shame that some of the good reporting on the metro/state pages has to share space with Casey's columns.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/05 10:25 PM |

Press readers respond to Taste of Texas review

Last week, Houston Press food critic Robb Walsh posted a review of Taste of Texas that took an unusual turn into personal and political territory.

blogHOUSTONians pointed out the problems with the review.

The latest issue of the Press runs several letters in response, including one from co-owner Nina Hendee.

So, will Robb Walsh take up Mrs. Hendee's offer to sit down with Edd Hendee and have a cup of coffee?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/05 10:04 PM |

Does the Chronicle have an "inside-the-loop" bias?

John Wagner makes an interesting point about the Chronicle:

Just about every weekend, you can find an obvious representation of the Houston Chronicle's "inside-the-loop" bias.

It works like this: Anything downtown-related is cool; anything outside the Loop (except for the people who buy newspapers) is lame.

His entire post is here.

I'm an inside-the-loopster myself, and that may color my own perspective, but I expect the city's only major daily to focus on the city's core rather than suburbs (although as Wagner correctly points out in his comments, the This Week sections do provide good neighborhood coverage), so I'm not sure that I would call the newspaper anti-suburban simply on the basis of focus alone. But I think Wagner's suggesting something more along the lines of anti-suburban values, a case that could probably be made about the editorial page at the least.

What do you think? Feel free to join the blogversation at Wagner's place or in our forum.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/05 09:37 PM |

The heat in Crawford's getting to the journalists also

A Crawford dispatch from the Chronicle D.C. bureau's Julie Mason, like much of that bureau's reporting, suffers from some problems.

There's this:

Sheehan's 10-day vigil took its new turn when Fred Mattlage, from nearby Hewitt, walked into the tumbledown Crawford Peace House on Monday night and offered his 300-acre Crawford parcel for use by the protesters.

[snip]

Mattlage, who could not be reached for comment, is reportedly a distant cousin to Larry Mattlage, a homeowner near the protest site who last weekend fired a gun in the air near the encampment after expressing annoyance at the roadside activity.

Reportedly?

Julie Mason is a reporter. So is she reporting fact or hearsay? And if it's hearsay (because it could not be confirmed), then wouldn't it have been better to leave it out? Because, as we lowly bloggers frequently hear, professional journalism has editors and research staff and safeguards to make sure unsubstantiated allegations and hearsay never make it into print, unlike blogs.

There's more:

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/05 09:11 PM |

Metro's July revenue plummets more than 50%

Tom Bazan emails Metro's July's farebox revenue numbers:

The METRO fare box revenue for July 2005 DECLINED 56.6% ($1,654,991.17) from July 2004 ($3,817,130.00).

Further, for the pro-METRORail folks, the TVM (Ticket Vending Machine) revenue for July 2005 DECLINED 16.9% ($140,064.50) from July 2004 ($168,507.80).

The combined revenue (excluding the sales tax "windfall") for July 2005 DECLINED nearly 55% ($1,795,055.67) from July 2004 ($3,985,637.80).

Lord have mercy. A 50+% DECLINE in revenue from last July.

If this were a private business...well, we all know what would happen. But this is Metro -- an unaccountable, quasi-governmental agency that has been rewarded for its incredible performance with hundreds of millions more in taxpayer dollars. Instead of planning more rail lines that will only exacerbate the current financial crisis, Metro should focus on increasing its PAYING ridership!

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Commenter Bobby Warren left the following note on Lone Star Times, which posted Bazan's figures today also:

Hmmm… half the fares collected from July 2004 to July 2005. How could this have happened?

MLB All-Star Game in July 2004.
No such event in July 2005.

Then again, I suppose you’ll blame Metro for the lack of a major event to keep up the extraordinary July 2004 numbers.

As Matt Bramanti pointed out to the commenter, a single event doesn't explain an overall decline in system fare box revenue of over two million dollars. And to drive home that point, Bazan's figures comparing June 2005 with June 2004 show a comparable 48% decline in fare box revenue ($3,742,140.00 in 2004 to $1,936,783.06 in 2005).

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/17/05 07:26 PM |

Rep. Noriega is back from Afghanistan -- and the Chron got it right this time

Yep, the Chronicle finally figured out that state Rep. Rick Noriega was in Afghanistan, as opposed to Iraq:

Houston state Rep. Rick Noriega spent a year 8,000 miles away and got a new perspective on his life back home.

Noriega returned this month from a stint in Afghanistan with the Texas Army National Guard's 136th Regimental Training Institute. He and several fellow Texans shared a tent, as well as the frustration of being unable to help much with problems facing their families.

Back in April, the editorial board thought Rep. Noriega was in Iraq:

Temporary Acting Rep. Melissa Noriega, wife of Rep. Rick Noriega, who is serving in Iraq[...]

Ah well, today's story by Kristen Mack and Judith Torrea on Rep. Noriega's return is interesting reading and we're glad he's home safely.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/17/05 06:13 AM |

16 August 2005

HPD announces more property room discoveries

KHOU-11's Jeremy Desel reports that evidence from a number of capital murder cases has recently been discovered in HPD's property room:

Dozens of boxes of evidence were found in the HPD property room last year during the investigation into problems at the HPD crime lab.

Investigators have been combing over each piece of evidence -- 700,000 so far -- and they recently found evidence linked to the capital murder cases.

The findings may have come too late for one person already executed.

Ponchai Wilkerson was sent to death row for a 1990 murder during a jewelry store robbery. The evidence was a car baby seat. It's relation to the case isn't clear. Wilkerson's attorneys didn't request the evidence during the trial.

District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said that at least in the Wilkerson case, the evidence may not have made any impact.

"It appears that it is very tangential. In fact, nonessential to any given matter in Mr. Wilkerson's case, which is good from our standpoint," he said.

[snip]

Evidence also turned up in the 1987 case of Warren Rivers. He lured an 11-year-old boy to his home, sexually assaulted him, mutilated him with a broomstick and stabbed him to death. The evidence found in that case is clothing, a towel and a knife.

The third case of evidence involves Robert Campbell. He kidnapped Alexandra Rendon from a gas station in 1991, raped her, then shot her to death. The evidence is a cigarette butt which defense attorneys had asked for during the appeals process.

The city needs to stop dragging its feet on the next phase of the Bromwich investigation of the HPD crime lab and get it moving forward.

UPDATE (08-17-2005): Steve McVicker and Roma Khanna cover the story for the Chronicle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/16/05 11:38 PM |

Chron slow to criticize abortion-rights group

Sedosi Alhambra was not overly impressed with the Chronicle editorial board's criticism of NARAL today:

You have to feel sorry for Mrs. White. There are eleven minds that share her affections, five of which probably contribute daily to the editorial pages, yet it takes them over a week to drum up a condemnation of NARAL.

Yes, it was a pretty decent rebuke of the organization, which shamed itself by running false ads, but it is also terribly late in appearing, as most Americans have moved on from this issue.

For readers who are not aware (although most should be by now), Mrs. White is Sedosi's nickname for the Chronicle editorial page, because of its frequent Bill White boosterism.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/16/05 11:25 PM |

Metro police arrest tailgate thief

Metro police may have solved the problem of disappearing tailgates:

For months, tailgates were disappearing from Houston area pickups at an alarming rate.

More than 130 were stolen from parked pickups all over Houston. Fourteen were taken in June from Metro's Eastex Park and Ride.

Now police hope they've put a dent in the crime wave by arresting two suspects.

After weeks of investigating, Metro police arrested 48-year-old Larry Joe Faulkner.

Detectives say he confessed to stealing at least 50 tailgates -- a number they figure is pretty conservative -- to support his drug habit.

"He had probably $115 to $120 a day methamphetamine habit. In order to support that habit he was required to steal at least two tailgates a day which he said he was doing everyday for months," said Metro Police Capt. Michael Raney.

Investigators tell us Faulkner would sell the $1,500 tailgates for $50 to $75 a piece to car lots in East Houston.

The story doesn't mention if Metro's elite counterterrorism unit was brought in to help crack the numerous cases of disappearing tailgates. And I wonder if Metro Police Chief Lambert ever found the technology he was looking for to help deter crime at Park and Pillages?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/16/05 06:03 AM |

Thank you Mayor White

Matt Bramanti points to a KPRC-2 story about how the city's forced towing program has another black eye:

Two women from different parts of Houston became victims of identity theft and the only common link between the cases was a towing company with the city's Safe Clear program, the Local 2 Troubleshooters reported Monday.

[snip]

Andrea Anderson broke down along Highway 59 near Collingsworth. A Safe Clear wrecker was dispatched.

"I was hot and sweaty and waiting for a long time," she said. "I was forced to use the Safe Clear program, where I could have used my warranty tow."

A wrecker from Unified Auto Works towed Anderson's car to Humble. She paid the bill with her check card. Several days later, Anderson checked her bank account and found more than $600 worth of unauthorized charges, along with a list of overdraft fees.

Around the time Anderson was trying to figure out who was draining her bank account, a different woman's car broke down along Interstate 10 near Lockwood. Again, a wrecker from Unified Auto Works was dispatched as part of the Safe Clear program.

The woman talked with the Troubleshooters but asked to remain anonymous. She told them she also paid Unified with her credit card. And soon after, she also got hit with hundreds of dollars in unauthorized charges.

Detectives traced some of those charges to an east Houston apartment and a woman by the name of Cheryl Jackson, a three time convicted thief.

[snip]

There's a wrinkle though -- Jackson doesn't work for Unified. But her husband, Huey Hamilton, did work for Unified. He was a dispatcher for the wrecker service and he also has a long criminal record for theft and burglary.

There's more...go read how the city is responding to this. And then, let's all thank Mayor White for SAFEClear.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/16/05 05:32 AM |

15 August 2005

Council considers banning children-beggars

Council may soon crack down on some forms of begging on city streets:

Houston might soon crack down on children soliciting money for charity on city streets.

A proposed city ordinance would forbid charities from using youngsters under the age of 16 to collect contributions. And even 16- and 17-year-olds would have to be supervised by adults.

The ordinance would also require people walking around intersections collecting money for charity to wear high visibility traffic vests.

Council probably has more pressing problems to be solving (say, funding for the HPD Crime Lab investigation that is stalled once again), but here in midtown, I have noticed young children in football jerseys out begging on the streets. Sometimes they've had one adult in the vicinity. Other times they haven't. Every time I've seen them, they've had signs that say "Third Ward Football Fundraiser."

Begging in the streets isn't a fundraiser. It's dangerous, and children ought not to be doing it. It's unfortunate that we have to substitute municipal ordinances for parental common sense.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/15/05 09:17 PM |

HPD warns it may cut services to fund crime lab investigation

KTRH-740's Brent Fuller is reporting that HPD officials are saying HPD may have to cut spending on public safety in order to fund the next phase of Michael Bromwich's investigation into the HPD crime lab.

Mayor White, who likes to wrap himself in "public safety" when it comes to promoting his agenda, needs to head this off by assuring citizens that the City of Houston will find the resources to sort out the crime lab without cutting public-safety services.

Mayor White was not quoted in Fuller's story.

UPDATE: KTRK-13 and KHOU-11 cover the story.

UPDATE (08-16-2005): The Chronicle covers the story. Mayor White is not quoted. Where is the leadership of our "public safety" mayor on this important issue?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/15/05 02:13 PM |

Food and drink roundup (08-15-2005 edition)

It's high time a food and drink roundup made an appearance. And there are quite a few links this week.

Alison Cook loved her visits to Mary'z Mediterranean Cuisine, a restaurant that seems to take love of garlic to yummy extremes. She also does a smaller checking in at Gravitas on Taft.

Dai Huynh checked in with Houston Community College's Pastry Chef Eddy Van Damme, whose cookbook On Baking: A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals beat out 4,000 entries from 60 countries to win the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards' best cookbook for professionals.

Peggy Grodinsky goes Hoffmanesque with her short review of Starbucks' new 500-calorie Green Tea Frappuccino.

Ken Hoffman gorged on Long John Silver's new Popcorn Shrimp that...actually seems to contain...shrimp.

Gracie Ochoa checked out Bond Lounge and found it to be "like New York's boutique-style nightspots." Again, that’s not necessarily a selling point to this sometime bH contributor.

Eliza Barclay examined the booming local market for premium tequilas.

And finally, Robb Walsh had a steak at Taste of Texas and ends his review with these few paragraphs:

Taste of Texas long ago slipped into the second tier. And I say this regardless of my political opinions. Edd Hendee, the restaurant's owner, vents his hatred for Muslims, liberals and immigrants five days a week on his talk-radio show. "They must have failed Bomb Making 101 down at the mosque," he recently quipped about the London terrorists whose bomb didn't go off.

Hendee took over the show when the previous self-righteous far-rightist, Jon Matthews, was arrested for exposing his genitals to an 11-year-old child. Hendee reportedly encouraged listeners to bring letters of sympathy to Taste of Texas so he could deliver them to his fellow conservative. Houston Press columnist Richard Connelly called the restaurant "Dittohead Central, the gathering place for Rush Limbaugh fans and light rail foes" (Hair Balls, May 13, 2004). Hendee is a close friend of Tom DeLay, who is also a student in Hendee's Bible study class at Second Baptist.

Hey, I'm not a big fan of Tilman Fertitta's worldview either. But I give him credit for running some great steak houses. Regardless of his politics, Fertitta is keeping an eye on national restaurant trends and knows what's selling at the butcher shop. Hendee, on the other hand, is running a restaurant that's ludicrously out of date.

I'm often chided by readers to leave the politics out of my reviews. But I don't see how you can leave politics out of a discussion of Taste of Texas -- it's become the restaurant's main attraction. Showing support for Tom DeLay, Edd Hendee and the conservative agenda seems to be the real reason that so many people stand in line to get into this mediocre steak house.

Sadly, up until these last few paragraphs, the review wasn’t that far off the mark. I hope this isn't a new trend for Mr. Walsh: panning a restaurant, panning the owner’s personal political views, assuming and panning the customers' political views, and then tying the restaurant's failures to said views and stands. Let's see, how would this work? It might be difficult to find out the political views of, say, for example, the owners of certain family chain restaurants in town, which also serve mediocre food at exorbitant prices and pack the crowds in like sardines every day of the week, but maybe with a little research...oh. Wait. Mr. Hendee is a bit more outspoken than that. Oh. Now I understand. But does that REALLY have ANYTHING to do with the quality of the restaurant, the food, the service, or the customers?

Regardless, it’s still all World Class!! Even when we include far-rightists, er, conservatives, in the steakhouse business. Enjoy!!

Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 08/15/05 08:41 AM |

Metro asked why new rail line won't go down Westheimer

Rad Sallee's Move It! column covers last week's Metro Mobility Series breakfast meeting:

Afton Oaks residents worried about access to their homes and the fate of live oaks on the Richmond Avenue median aren't alone in asking an intriguing question about Metro's planned rail line to the Galleria area:

If Metropolitan Transit Authority officials really want the train to go where the riders are — the reason given for laying track in the middle of public streets — why wouldn't they want it on Westheimer?

The question was put to Metro board member George DeMontrond several times last week at a breakfast meeting of the Houston Intown Chamber of Commerce at the Briar Club near River Oaks.

Westheimer, which is broad and passes through the heart of the business and shopping hub called Uptown (actually Houston's second downtown), seems an obvious choice. But as one audience member told DeMontrond with emphasis, "It's not on the map."

Indeed it isn't. Metro's map shows two possible routes — Richmond, which Metro prefers, and Westpark. Metro is also considering a combination of the two, with trains coming out Richmond to any of several cross streets, where they would cross the Southwest Freeway to Westpark.

Follow the link to Sallee's story to read the details of what is and isn't being considered for the new rail line.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/15/05 06:18 AM |

CenterPoint getting more heat for its anti-tree stance

Local tree activists (Anne likes those!) are hot about CenterPoint's "zero-tolerance policy" for trees. CenterPoint's aggressive anti-tree policy stems from the massive Ohio blackout in 2003 and CenterPoint says it is following federal regulations that were drawn up as a result of that mess.

Recently Mayor White stepped into the tree fray and his office said CenterPoint had agreed to stop chopping down trees willy nilly, but CenterPoint says no moratorium is in place. So, now CenterPoint is supposed to meet with representatives from some local tree groups:

Company officials are scheduled to meet this week with organizations that have been promoting the "reforestation" of Houston, through citywide tree-plantings, as a way to clean Houston's air and beautify the city.

The groups include Trees for Houston Inc., Scenic Houston and The Park People.

Kathy Lord, executive director of Trees for Houston, said CenterPoint had agreed this spring to postpone any major tree cutting until after a regulatory conference in the fall.

"I think we were moving forward, and somebody screwed up," said Lord. "They just did not honor their agreement not to do anything until the fall."

CenterPoint officials have not offered an explanation about the destruction of the crepe myrtles, which were trimmed down to the ground, or about two live oak trees that were cut down near the intersection of the Southwest Freeway and Shepherd.

Kelly, who is trying to protect the mature live oak trees near his alma mater, Rice University, said that on the same day CenterPoint's contractors cut down the crepe myrtles, other crews chopped down the two live oak trees.

Deborah January-Beavers, of Scenic Houston, said CenterPoint officials repeatedly have cited the 2003 blackout as justification for their policy.

"They need to realize that there is an avalanche of interest in urban forestry in Houston right now," she said. "And they need to realize what bad public relations tree-cutting is for them."

And just a bit up north is an example of how trees and power lines can live in harmony together:

As evidence closer to home that trees and power lines can coexist, Kelly and Lord point to Texas Utilities' recent agreement to plant trees and vegetation under a high-voltage power line in the Dallas suburb of Addison.

In the Dallas area, TXU has cooperated with a citywide plan to develop more hike-and-bike trails near or under power lines. The city has agreements with the utility, as well as the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority, for narrow trails, with lower vegetation such as shrubs, and other amenities such as drinking fountains and benches.

Well, maybe not:

CenterPoint officials have declined overtures from officials of the cities of Bellaire and West University Place to use its transmission right of way along the Union Pacific railroad tracks as a park area. Those cities have repeatedly tried to use the area under the transmission towers in different ways, including a dog park.

Mercado and other representatives have said that those transmission towers need to be maintained, and that access to the towers must be clear so that heavy trucks can reach the towers.

Way to go CenterPoint!

Houston-area residents love their trees; CenterPoint would be wise to get on the right side of this issue.

(Thanks to the Chronicle's Anne Marie Kilday for a terrific story.)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/15/05 06:06 AM |

14 August 2005

Robison: Lege should get out the money catapult

Sedosi Alhambra has previously noted Clay Robison's preferred approach to Texas education reform (get out the money catapult and fling tax dollars).

Today, the Chronicle's six-days-per-week Austin bureau chief and Sunday partisan lefty editorialist tries a sneakier version of the money catapult argument:

There is the real world, where there would be no judges without lots of teachers, helping future jurists navigate everything from nap time and the three Rs to contracts and torts.

And there is the Texas statehouse, where lawmakers, meeting in a so-called "education" session, recently sent Gov. Rick Perry a bill giving judges a pay raise while continuing to reward teachers with compliments and promises.

[snip]

Most judges nevertheless deserve the higher pay, which will be financed with higher court fees. Stemming the turnover of experienced judges taking higher-paying jobs elsewhere in the legal profession frequently was cited by the governor and others as the main reason a raise was needed.

Judicial turnover, however, may be no greater a problem than the turnover of classroom teachers. According to a cursory statewide check, members of both professions are leaving their jobs at comparable rates, but time is rapidly running out for higher teacher pay.

[snip]

Meanwhile, 11 percent of the teachers in classrooms at the beginning of the 2004-05 school year didn't return last fall, said Ed Fuller, an adjunct professor in educational administration at the University of Texas at Austin and former director of research for the State Board of Educator Certification.

Some retired after long careers, but many younger teachers quit for other reasons, unhappiness with their pay being a significant factor. Fuller said a 1999 study, the most recent done on the issue, determined that low pay was the No. 1 reason for teacher turnover.

Even if one accepts Robison's turnover statistics, it's arguably far easier to replace teachers than judges, simply because the talent pool from which to draw is MUCH larger and the required education is much less difficult to obtain. Robison tries to present his turnover statistics as a self-evident reason that the money catapult should be brought to bear on teacher salaries. However, as a matter of public policy, that view is not self-evident at all.

Furthermore, Robison's citation of a 1999 study tells us hardly anything about current conditions and attitudes, and Robison doesn't provide enough information about that study for interested parties to doublecheck his presentation of the facts.

Because the Chronicle inexplicably has its Austin bureau chief double as a partisan lefty editorialist on weekends, such sloppy editorial work of course calls into question the credibility of the news reporting from Austin the other six days of the week.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 09:07 PM |

A little balance on the Sheehan affair

The Chronicle editorial page, which claims to be neither conservative nor liberal, illustrates its notion of balance today on the Cindy Sheehan affair.

There's an op-ed from Cindy Sheehan herself.

There's an op-ed from the usually conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, who points out that President Bush has not behaved as Tony Blair might have.

And there's an op-ed originally published on September 9, 2004 by E.L. Doctorow entitled "Our unfeeling President: Bush cannot grieve because he doesn't know what death is."

In the interest of providing some of the balance that is notably missing on the Chronicle editorial page, here are other perspectives from the area blogosphere: Owen Courreges at Lone Star Times (Days One, Two, and Three), A Certain Slant of Light, Isolated Desolation, and This Blog is Full of Crap.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 08:43 PM |

Why the sudden fixation on Rosa Parks?

The Chronicle, which earlier in the week ran a staff editorial comparing Cindy Sheehan to Rosa Parks, today runs an op-ed by D.C.-area resident Diane Twinam that makes another unfortunate comparison to Rosa Parks:

The trouble is that the law is out of sync with economic and social realities in the United States — especially with the job market. Many of those who decry illegal immigration willfully ignore the economic benefits it provides to much of the society. For most of the 11 million undocumented people in this country, this is the first law they have ever broken — a law that makes no more sense to them than the laws requiring segregated seating on buses made to Rosa Parks.

Her attempt to draw upon Rosa Parks is as silly as the editorial board's earlier attempt. The fact is, Twinam's husband is an illegal alien. That they have a child complicates the matter. But it has nothing to do with the issues or legacy of Rosa Parks.

Incidentally, the op-ed is "olds" that first ran in the Washington Post on Wednesday, so perhaps it inspired the editorial board's own silly reference to Rosa Parks on Friday.

Elsewhere on the editorial page, Councilmember Mark Ellis, who has proposed that HPD's sanctuary policy be terminated, pens an op-ed on the issue of immigration:

Short of throwing out every congressman and state legislator who doesn't seem to get it, we can and should implement policies that at the very least discourage illegal immigrants from calling Texas home. We can do so with effective leadership at the state and local level that accomplishes the following:

• Repeal the sanctuary status granted by cities, including Houston.
• Provide clear legal authority to law enforcement to detain, arrest and prosecute illegals for both state and federal crimes.
• Establish systematic data collection for illegal alien use of public services, including our schools, hospitals and state welfare services.
• Prohibit and/or repeal at the local level the use of matricula consular ID cards.

These policies would benefit all including the communities my liberal friends presume to represent. Our hospital district could provide the care for which it was intended — for the poorest of our communities — and do so without constant fear of bankruptcy. Rather than being overwhelmed by a population that consumes dollars in a disproportionate ratio, our schools could concentrate instead on lifting those children who are at greatest risk — those from our inner cities who struggle in less-than-adequate schools. Our communities would be safer, our law enforcement more effective and our jails less crowded. Last but not least, property taxes would stop growing at exponential rates.

We have a federal system that costs billions and fails, and a state and local system that basically says: If you clear our border, welcome home.

The full op-ed is here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 03:40 PM |

Houston elites: We're not inferior to Dallas! Really!

Back in April, the elites of the Chronicle editorial board insisted that Houston need no longer have an inferiority complex with regard to Dallas because we have... arts!

Today, David Kaplan's reporting for the Chronicle reflects the opinion of elites that Houston need no longer feel inferior to Dallas because we have... upscale shopping!

One wonders if the editors of the city's only major daily realize that these constant assurances that Houston is no longer inferior to Dallas but is indeed world class(!) may not exactly reassure those with doubts.

Besides, normal Houstonians who want a list of Houston's world-class charms surely don't turn to the Chronicle or Jordy Tollett. They go here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 03:20 PM |

KTRK, Kuffner report on I-45 expansion meeting

KTRK-13's Gene Apodaca reports on yesterday's town hall meeting on I-45 expansion.

Thus far, Apodaca's is the only available reporting on the web from mainstream media.

Blogger Charles Kuffner attended the meeting as well, and gives a much richer account.

Neither report indicates whether any attendees were injured by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's usual mad dash for the cameras.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 02:54 PM |

HCAD chief appraiser mischaracterizes critic's complaint

The Chronicle letters page today repeats a past problem of printing letters with factual inaccuracies.

Today's factually-challenged letter comes from Jim Robinson, chief appraiser for the Harris County Appraisal District. Here's an excerpt:

In his July 31 Outlook article, "AN APPEAL / Why we sued HCAD / Legislated rights of property owners are being ignored by appraisal district," local tax consultant Patrick O'Connor commented on the Harris County Appraisal Review Board and the Harris County Appraisal District, suggesting that the appraisal review board consistently rules against him, violates his rights and ignores procedures required by state law. That simply is not true.

What "simply is not true" is the bolded portion of Robinson's letter.

Not once did O'Connor suggest in his op-ed that the appraisal review board consistently rules against him. He did identify himself and his firm, presumably to give readers necessary context about his background, but that's as far as it went. Chron.com readers cannot verify that for themselves, unfortunately, because O'Connor's op-ed has now disappeared. However, a copy is still available in the google cache. As that copy makes clear, O'Connor's complaint is that he thinks HCAD is ignoring taxpayer-friendly sections of state law regarding appraisal protests.

Certainly, Robinson, as chief appraiser for HCAD, is entitled to respond in an official capacity to the op-ed submitted by O'Connor, but he is not entitled to misrepresent the contents of that op-ed.

For those who are interested, a pdf copy of the legal brief filed by O'Connor is located here. That brief covers the issues from O'Connor's perspective in much greater depth than the original op-ed. If HCAD is following state law, as Robinson asserts, then the additional sunshine and scrutiny ought not to be cause for concern (or cause to misrepresent the views of critics like O'Connor).

PREVIOUSLY: O'Connor sues Harris County Appraisal District

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 02:42 PM |

Non-political rats plague downtown

Yesterday, the Chronicle posted a story from Bill Murphy entitled "Part of downtown being plagued by rats."

He's not referring to our elected officials. Here's an excerpt:

As downtown's nightlife grows and residents move into loft apartments, the city is confronting a problem that bedevils all densely populated areas — the difficulty of wiping out rodents.

Beautiful, shady courtyards and attractive restaurant patios don't seem as inviting when visitors are a wee bit concerned that something not very nice at all might be scurrying by.

The county has vowed to tackle the problem around the administration building, the city has added rat bait stations in the area around George R. Brown Convention Center and owners of a private park near the center have hired an exterminator.

Is the rat population growing downtown? "I have seen a slight increase in rats around county buildings," said Marc Burr, a county employee who oversees pest control contracts.

Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department, and other city officials say complaints have not increased and they have no evidence of an uptick in rat numbers. But the city does not systematically track such matters.

"We have been fairly limited in our population," said Bob Eury, director of the Downtown Management District. "I don't think we have ever had an infestation."

No one questions, however, that rats are a problem in the courtyard between Fannin and Main outside the county administration building. Employees have been complaining about them for several months.

Perhaps one solution would be to arm the Downtown Jaywalking Revenue Stream patrols and the METRO Elite Counterterror units with rat poison?

PREVIOUSLY: The Bill White Vermin And Solid Waste Memorial Park.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 02:03 PM |

Copying without proper attribution is a no-no

The Chronicle runs the following Q&A with Randy Cohen on the editorial page today:

Q: I have been translating some articles from Hungarian into English for publication in a historical encyclopedia by a major American research institution. I accidentally learned that one article was copied in large part from a lexicon published in 1929. I am guessing that copyright issues arise here. Should I report my discovery to my employer?

VERA SZABO Ann Arbor, Mich.

A: You should report this. If you do not, who will? Who can? Few English speakers will have read the original Hungarian article; few Hungarian speakers will read the English version.

When it comes to ordinary civilians, both law and ethics impose only a limited duty to report wrongdoing. You need not dial 911 every time you see someone going 45 in a 35 mph zone. But you are not an ordinary civilian; you are part of a scholarly community, and different contexts entail different obligations. Intellectual integrity can be maintained only if members of your community report transgressions. Without this self-policing, the field cannot sustain its own values.

You also have a duty to your employer. Everyone in the publishing process should report a solecism that would otherwise go undetected — a misspelling, a grammatical error. Similarly, all should report a serious ethical transgression. To keep silent would undermine the project on which you are employed.

We agree that such ethical transgressions should be reported.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 01:50 PM |

Credit where it's due

The Chronicle editorial board led a house editorial yesterday as follows:

SOME media observers commented during Discovery's 14-day flight on the morbid nature of much of the news coverage, as if viewers were hyped to rubberneck the fiery launch, the space walks and the tense re-entry to see if the crew made it back alive. After two and half years and $1.5 billion in repairs, the camera images of falling debris fueled a space spectacle akin to a NASA version of the reality show Survivor.

We'll credit the Chronicle editorial board. Since the editorialists celebrated the "nearly flawless" launch of the shuttle the next day (despite evidence it was indeed flawed), they cannot be accused of negatively hyping the space program to generate interest.

Of course, they can't be accused of getting the story right in their original editorial either.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/05 01:25 PM |

Activists try to organize Houston's day laborers

According to this Chronicle story by Edward Hegstrom, local activists are trying to organize day laborers:

Activists circulated among day laborers near Shepherd on Friday, hoping to organize the workers before the arrival of the Minutemen in October.

The leaders said they plan to hold a meeting Aug. 27 to establish order among the city's street labor markets, populated mostly by illegal immigrant workers.

"What we want to do is organize workers on all the corners," of Houston, Maria Jimenez, of the newly formed Coalition Against Intolerance and For Respect, told a group of workers.

The effort to organize the workers comes as the Houston Police Department steps up efforts to prevent day laborers in the area around Washington and Shepherd from trespassing on the property of local businesses.

[snip]

Some of the workers said they welcome an effort to organize, and would like to have a day laborer center. A nearby shelter for immigrants, Casa Juan Diego, operates a hiring hall, but it is open only to men who are staying there.

Borrowing from the Civil Rights movement, when blacks carried signs saying "I am a man," the group plans to distribute fliers with the message "I am a human being with rights and dignity," in English and Spanish.

And then there's this interesting tidbit at the end:

Under pressure from immigrant rights groups, the Houston Police Department agreed earlier this year to review its policy of photographing day laborers. July 27, Chief Harold Hurtt issued a circular reaffirming its policy of photographing trespassers.

Under Texas law, people have a right to be warned once before they can be arrested for trespassing, said Lt. Robert Manzo, an HPD spokesman. Officers who warn the day laborers first ask them for identification. Those workers who lack identification are photographed so that if they are caught again, the officer can prove in court that the worker had been warned, Manzo said.

I'm not sure what to make of that, since previously HPD said officers wouldn't photograph day laborers.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/14/05 08:31 AM |

13 August 2005

I-45 Coalition Meeting Today

The I-45 coalition will be hosting a town hall meeting this afternoon to discuss TxDOT's I-45 expansion plans.

Officials from TxDOT will present their plans, and Gonzalo Camacho will present his alternative tunnel concept that we noted previously.

The question-and-answer session should be interesting, as residents, activists, and various politicians are expected to be in attendance.

The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. at Jeff Davis High School, 1101 Quitman.

RELATED: Meeting on I-45 plan will be held Saturday (Tom Manning, Houston Chronicle)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/13/05 09:17 AM |

Houston is rolling in the dough

Houston saw sales tax revenues jump almost seven percent in July:

Houston's sales tax payment reached $36.96 million in July, a 6.9 percent increase from $34.58 million the same month a year ago, according to Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.

[snip]

Houston's sales tax allocations are up 6.1 percent so far this year compared to the same period a year ago. The city so far has collected $253.37 million in sales tax revenue this year, compared to $238.84 million by this time last year.

Add to that the Operation Jaywalking revenue stream and the future red light camera revenue stream and Houston will be sitting pretty.

Mayor White's first priority surely will be more police officers, since the excuse that Houston lacked the funding to deal adequately with HPD's manpower shortage seems to be evaporating.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/13/05 07:36 AM |

Bob McNair hopes for 2010 Super Bowl

With the news that Houston may have a shot at the 2010 Super Bowl, let's remember what Ken Hoffman said after Houston lost out on the 2009 Super Bowl:

The thing I wonder about is, whenever Houston goes after a major event, we send the same tired group of people to represent us. I've never seen a group less representative of Houston. This is a vibrant, 21st-century, diverse, on-the-move city. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans left town years ago.

If I were an NFL team owner, and the Houston contingent came to my door, I'd put a piece of candy in their bag and send them away.

And who made up the "same tired group of people"?

Texans owner Bob McNair, Mayor Bill White and other city leaders traveled to Washington, D.C., for the league's meeting.

I still think ttweak should handle it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/13/05 07:22 AM |

12 August 2005

Residents fear proposed bike path will lead to crime

Some Southeast residents are fighting current plans for a bike path along an old railroad right of way in their neighborhood:

Along a stretch of MacGregor, just east of Highway 288, state highway officials want to build a new bike path.

It would run through an old railroad right of way, across an old railroad bridge, then through an industrial area leading back toward the park.

Civic activists suggest another path running alongside the bayou is much more practical.

The problem is a lot of people who live in the community just don't want the a bike path. It would run very close to homes in the neighborhood. Many worry the bike path would also become a pathway for criminals to come into this area.

"Crime has been an issue," Lloyd said. "Ever since this fence was put up, crime has pretty much dropped to zero because there was access through this bridge. And they were able to get into the homes and into the school area. And it was just pretty unsafe."

The proposed bike path would also cut straight through a lot owned by the city which a nearby homeowner has converted into a natural habitat; complete with private security and surveillance cameras.

"There was very little, if any, community input into this," Houston City Councilwoman Ada Edwards said. "It was like, 'We're doing this for y'all. Be happy. And we're gonna move on."

Mayor Bill White is now taking another look at the future of the path and the property.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/12/05 09:26 PM |

Editorials for Dummies

Owen Courreges and Sedosi tackled the Chronicle's oh-so-stupid editorial today comparing Cindy Sheehan to Rosa Parks.

Maybe for their next editorial, the editors could write about the moms in this KHOU-11 story.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/12/05 09:11 PM |

Dr. Saavedra = Al Capone?

What else is one to think after reading the first paragraph of Jason Spencer's story today:

The Houston Independent School District and a former charter school manager have agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit and silence a former employee who's been one of the district's most tenacious critics.

It sounds as if Dr. Saavedra was left to clean up yet another mess that he inherited. I will say I am not sure Spencer's characterization of the Margaret Stroud case is accurate:

A tip from Spuck earlier this year led to a Houston Chronicle investigation into consulting contracts awarded to the son of Chief School Administrator Margaret Stroud, who later resigned and agreed to repay the $63,000 given to her son.

The Chronicle may have received the tip from Spuck and passed it on to HISD, but HISD conducted the investigation -- a fairly aggressive investigation -- that resulted in Stroud's resigning and agreeing to pay back money. I think Spencer takes some liberties there by suggesting a Chronicle investigation led to Stroud's resignation.

Also, this whistleblower had a habit of filing voluminous open records requests (that probably brought HISD to a halt) and passed them on to the media. Part of the agreement is that she'll knock that off now. Along that line, Sedosi has a take that made me laugh:

So the well is now dry for Channel 13 and Jason Spencer....

You can understand their depression over this fact. This does clear up a little about the negative tone that the Com.'s HISD coverage has had of late, as it seems that all the stories were stemming from a single (biased) source.

Adios, Ms. Spuck.

It will be curious to see how the Com.'s education coverage will be affected by this. I'm wondering if they will revert to quoting press releases and chopping up AP articles like the D.C. bureau and the Austin bureau?

Spencer had a terrific story in the paper earlier this week, so we know he can do it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/12/05 07:13 PM |

Metro's ridership is going down, down, down

Tom Bazan has received July's ridership figures from Metro, and they are impressive -- in a declining sort of way:

Total System boardings dropped 7.2% from 7,654,803 in July 2004 down to
7,106,029 for July 2005.

I don't know if I'd call that a "booming" ridership. And just think how much more ridership Metro can kill off with $2 billion!

Also, don't forget that Metro's latest round of service "adjustments" go into effect on Sunday.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/12/05 06:10 PM |

Chron sues for constitutional right to sell papers in streets

KPRC-2 reports that the Houston Chronicle is part of a lawsuit asserting a constitutional right to sell newspapers on League City streets:

The Houston Chronicle and the Galveston County Daily News maintain in the lawsuit filed Thursday that the 2004 ordinance under which the city has ticketed the vendors is unconstitutional. It also alleges that League City is enforcing the ordinance selectively.

[snip]

This is the second lawsuit the newspapers have filed against the city since 2003 about street sales. In the first lawsuit, the city agreed to a permanent injunction prohibiting it from trying to prevent the newspaper sales, said Chronicle attorney Joel R. White.

"Now the city is at it again, ticketing and threatening the Chronicle's vendors with arrest if they sell newspapers on public property," White said.

He argues that the ordinance is selectively enforced "depending on whether (the city) approves of the entity doing the selling or solicitation."

For example, the city allows firefighters and other groups to solicit charitable donations from passing cars but does not allow newspaper sales from roadway medians, White said.

The lawsuit alleges that the ordinance unconstitutionally requires people who want to exercise their First Amendment rights on public streets or by going door-to-door to register with the city secretary, pay a $30 fee and post a $1,000 bond.

The requirement illegally applies to people involved in religious and political activities, the newspapers said.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and order the city not to prosecute or threaten newspaper vendors.

Perhaps the fear of a lawsuit is why Mayor White's "public safety" crusade against pedestrians moving around downtown and trying to tend to their business hasn't been expanded to beggars and Chronicle street vendors, who regularly engage in unsafe street behavior that any reasonable person would regard as jaywalking.

After one such street vendor died, we had hoped the Chronicle might cut down on the unsafe practice. However, the "big business" of propping up circulation (and protecting the constitutional rights of Americans everywhere!) would seem to trump that particular safety concern.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/12/05 09:47 AM |

11 August 2005

Patrick O'Connor to speak to HPRA

The Houston Property Rights Association will feature Patrick O'Connor at its regular lunch meeting Friday.

O'Connor recently filed a lawsuit against the Harris County Appraisal District, accusing the district of not complying "with taxpayer-friendly sections of the law."

The event is at the Courtyard Restaurant, 1885 St. James Place in the Galleria area, at noon. The public is welcome. Lunch is $12.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/11/05 10:40 PM |

Why is the Mayor fixated on a new parking bureaucracy? (Updated)

KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports on a bad idea from Mayor White that just won't go away:

Variety Fair 5 & 10 store customers are guaranteed to find all sorts of interesting merchandise. But there's no guarantee customers can find a place to park -- and no confidence in a parking commission.

"A bureaucracy. I don't know how that's going to help us a whole lot," said Cathy Irby, store owner.

With so many cars and so many drivers looking for parking spaces, the Rice Village is one of the places city officials point out when they say the city needs a parking commission.

"It's fairly common in urban areas that are bigger and smaller than Houston, to have a group of citizens focusing on parking on the long term, as you do in the Medical Center," said Mayor Bill White.

But as people in the Rice Village have learned, messing around with parking can be like playing with fire.

For example, the City of Houston is buying 2,000 new parking meters. The first 500 will replace old meters downtown. But the rest could go anywhere. When you ask people in Rice Village what they think about parking meters, the reaction's pretty negative.

"I don't think parking meters would generate revenue for anyone but the city -- wouldn't generate money for businesses," said Irby. "It would not create and open up more parking. That's not the answer to the situation."

Ms. Irby sums it up pretty well. It's hard to see how a new parking bureaucracy solves any of our city's real problems. But Mayor White seems determined to create yet another revenue stream whether the citizenry wants it or not.

UPDATE (08-12-2005): KTRH-740 this morning is reporting that the parking authority proposal will soon be moving to a council vote. Councilmember Michael Berry, whose committee is shepherding the proposal, was quoted in favor of the parking authority. Perhaps the councilmember or his staff would like to explain to our readers why he supports the creation of another new bureaucracy/revenue stream, at a time when the city is raking in the revenues.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/11/05 09:59 PM |

Chron should shine a light on other "cozy connections"

blogHOUSTON is no fan of the Texas Enterprise Fund, but we think the Chronicle's editorial board has lost all right to be outraged about this.

Where's the editorial board's outrage over hundreds of millions of dollars going to Metro's planned east-west rail extension that is supposed to run through the Galleria -- where Metro Chairman David Wolffe's development company is based? Cozy connections indeed.

Where's the editorial board's outrage over Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas getting millions of dollars in taxpayer funds -- while a former Planned Parenthood board member is an advisor to Mayor White? Cozy connections indeed.

Where's the editorial board's outrage over Houston's new downtown park? We've seen enough snippets in various news stories to KNOW that local media are missing an investigative opportunity. The city forked over $8 million to buy some land and will fork over another $750,000 every year to maintain the park, while God knows what else went on behind the scenes. Cozy connections indeed.

And if the Chronicle is suddenly so interested in sunshine (yeah right) why did the editorial board excoriate Rep. Joe Barton for requesting information from scientists who support the global warming theory? I mean, the editorial admitted that "tracking the use of federal funding is a worthwhile endeavor," but presumably it's not worthwhile for the editorial board's pet causes.

This is far from an ideal state.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/11/05 09:06 AM |

10 August 2005

METROrail suffers 106th collision; METRO calls it #100 (Updated)

There was yet another accident involving the METROrail tram today, and most media outlets reported it as collision #100.

Readers of John Gaver's website and my personal weblog already know that we passed 100 collisions some time ago. The best reconciliation of accidents reported by the media and accidents reported by METRO puts the number of collisions at 106.

Indeed, Rich Connelly of the Houston Press started making a few phone calls last week about the discrepancy in numbers, and got this response from METRO's spokesman:

Metro spokesman Ken Connaughton says his agency's count of 99 includes only incidents where police have been called out, which would include any collision between a train and either a car or a pedestrian. Gaver's count includes "minor derailments in rail yards," Connaughton says, which affect nobody but must be reported to federal authorities. Those incidents then end up on the Metro summary reports Gaver uses.

In the Chronicle, Rad Sallee characterizes today's crash as follows:

A sedan and a MetroRail train made local history of sorts at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday in the Texas Medical Center. Their meeting was the 100th collision by Metro's count since the 7.5-mile light rail line began test runs in November 2003.

Later in the story, Sallee notes Gaver's count:

The Web site www.actionamerica.org, maintained by Kingwood businessman John Gaver, includes an unofficial list of MetroRail collisions on which the latest accident would be No. 106. Gaver says the 100th happened July 19.

Gaver, who describes himself as "a reluctant government watchdog," said he counts "basically any accident that a reasonable person would consider an accident if his car were involved."

Connaughton said Metro logs only accidents that result in a police report. Metro has previously described these as usually involving injuries or property damage over $1,000.

Which is it?

Does METRO only log accidents that result in a police report (i.e. accidents involving injuries or property damage over $1,000, which as Lucas Wall once reported, is how the state of Texas defines a reportable motor vehicle incident)? Or does METRO also log accidents that include "minor derailments in rail yards?" Or does METRO log accidents for FTA purposes when they involve injuries or property damage over $7,500 (as Lucas Wall also once reported)?

It can get so confusing when METRO spokesmen answer questions from the press, especially when the answers don't seem to be consistent!

Perhaps our intrepid local media -- who really have been behind bloggers and citizens availing themselves of public information requests on this story -- could ask Mr. Connaughton which six collisions on Gaver's database should be removed because they aren't "real" collisions, because so far as I know none of them are "minor derailments in rail yards."

We are pleased that Rich Connelly started making phone calls around town last week, and that it apparently prompted Rad Sallee to do a little research himself on the discrepancy in crash figures.

We're not so pleased to see public officials like Connaughton engaged in what seems like deliberate obfuscation.

ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: Is there any better example of the media filter? I don't think so. Here we have a tangible thing -- MetroRail accidents. Yet Metro has decided that its definition of an accident has...conditions that must be met, and local media has followed Metro's lead, instead of just reporting the facts.

News consumers don't want the media to tell us what we should and shouldn't consider an accident. We aren't stupid. We KNOW what an accident is!

Why are blogs and alternative media outlets becoming more popular? Here's a prime example. Local media won't report with any consistency or accuracy MetroRail's accident rate, which makes people start wondering what else local media aren't telling us if we can't even get a correct accident count out of the "professional" media.

UPDATE (08-11-2005): The Chronicle's Rad Sallee emails us the following comment:

I contacted Mr. Gaver before the Press item appeared, but held his comments until the triggering event Wednesday afternoon.

Anyone who has the time and energy to do so is welcome to keep his or her own list, but reporters need a reasonably reliable source to cite. Unless it becomes clear that Metro intends to deceive, it makes sense to me that Metro - which investigates these incidents - should be that source. This says nothing against the validity of other people's lists.

Anybody keeping such a list needs criteria for inclusion, and one can argue legitimately that Metro's are too restrictive, but a 6 percent difference doesn't look like a cover up to me. If they were claiming 40 collisions, that would be a difference worth fussing over.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/05 10:03 PM |

Chron misses true outrage of LITE-UP switcheroo

The Chronicle editorial board writes the following today:

When they go to change public school finance or the state's tax system, or when they need to balance the budget, the leadership in Austin has a uniform policy: Take from the poor and give to the rich. In the latest and most egregious example, state budget writers have broken a pledge to low-income Texans made in 2003 to provide discounts on electrical bills as part of the compromise that deregulated utilities.

In September, when electricity bills are at their highest, about 115,000 households in the Houston-Galveston area will lose those discounts, which amount to an average $17 a month, or $200 a year. The discount program, called LITE-UP Texas, has no funding beyond that point because budget writers took the estimated $200 million collected from rate payers for the discounts and transferred it into the state general fund to pay for other programs.

The editorial board commits a common transgression of ideologues when it tries to impose its preconceptions (those evil Republicans in Austin want to take from the poor to help their rich friends!) on reality (the legislators ended a subsidy to the poor, but left the funding mechanism in place to help fund their bloated state budget).

The real outrage isn't that the legislature is taking from the poor to give to the rich (which isn't especially the case, but makes for nice sound bites), but as Sedosi Alhambra put it yesterday, that it simply engaged in a money grab that most people will never know about in order to fund an obscene spending spree.

For anybody who wonders why taxpayers get apprehensive when Chronicle editorialists/bureau chiefs and local bloggers argue in favor of new revenue streams like an income tax, this sort of absence of accountability (and even conscience) in Austin would be a good place to start!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/05 09:04 PM |

Hines praises a Republican!

The Chronicle's D.C. bureau may be realizing that to be relevant in its reporting (and to stay open), it really needs to work on improving its access to the governing majority in Washington.

That's the best explanation we could come up with for Samantha Levine's fawning piece earlier this week on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's new communications director.

And that's the best explanation we can come up with for a glowing profile of Rep. Kevin Brady (R) by Cragg Hines, the Chronicle's Washington-based lefty editorialist who once whined in a column that he was being maligned by a right-wing coven of bloggers.

When Kevin Brady moved from a suburban Houston seat in the state Legislature to one in the U.S. House as a result of the 1996 elections, his reputation preceded him. Democratic colleagues as well as his fellow Republicans, not to mention Austin lobbyists of various stripe and interests, sent word ahead to Washington that here was "a serious legislator."

That was good news and bad news for a then-41-year-old Brady. Even in the less-seniority-bound House that resulted from the Republican takeover in 1994, moving up would take time and could fuel personal frustration. It would probably be awhile before even the most conscientious talent would be recognized.

Because of the election jumble in Texas in 1996, caused by court-ordered redistricting, Brady arrived later than almost any of his freshman colleagues and drew none-too-inspiring committee assignments.

Brady could have allowed himself to become restive and jaded, but, to use the polite portion of an old Texas political expression, he made chicken salad.

The rest of the piece is really quite complimentary.

We would only note that Mr. Hines and/or his editor(s) might want to revisit the usage rules for "awhile" and "a while."

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/05 08:23 PM |

How'd that make it into the paper?

Every once in a while the Chronicle publishes a letter to the editor that makes one wonder if Judy Minshew went on vacation. Today's an example:

There were two interesting articles in the Aug. 9 Chronicle. The first one, on Page One ["Can Bush sell the nation on prosperous economy? / Challenges for president include gas prices, rising health care costs and wartime jitters"] was about the economy.

This article said that economists are arguing that a large swath of the population has seen its "wages grow by only 2.7 percent, barely enough to keep up with inflation."

The second article, in the Business section, was about home prices ["Home prices outpace wages / Study uncovers trouble in markets across the country"]. It said that housing prices are "far outstripping salary increases for low- and moderate-income jobs."

Considering this information, what is the justification for appraised property values to increase by as much as 10 percent per year?

These unjustified tax increases are fueling inflation, and making it even tougher for families to survive — much less own a home.

The Chronicle should survey the rest of the state's large-city newspapers and start asking the questions.

Why are local governments entitled to such unprecedented revenue growth every year, when the rest of the economy — especially wages — is growing at a much slower rate?

Maybe if people get mad enough, they'll push our legislators to change the 10 percent per year law.

STEVE FRENCH Baytown

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/10/05 11:44 AM |

09 August 2005

Neighborhood uses BBB to battle bandit signs

KHOU-11 posted this teaser for a story about bandit sign eradication to its website:

Neighborhood activists call them "litter on a stick." For years now, they've ripped down and ripped up so-called bandit signs. One northwest Harris County neighborhood found a different solution

It was a disappointment to click over and discover that Lee Brown's consulting firm is not engaged in the bandit sign eradication effort.

The full story is here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/05 10:14 PM |

It's not a figurative black eye?

KTRK-13 is delivering the hard news that discerning Houston news consumers demand:

We noticed Tuesday that Houston Mayor Bill White is sporting a black eye.

If you look closely, and we used our editing equipment to give you a closer look, the area above the mayor's right eye is bruised and swollen.

He hasn't been in a fight. The mayor's office tells us it happened while he played basketball with his teenaged son over the weekend, caused by either a stray elbow, or a head to head collision.

Er, we're left with just one question after this reporting: Was the black eye caused by a stray elbow, or by a head-to-head collision?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/05 10:03 PM |

How would anyone know the economy is booming?

Jessica Holzer of the Chronicle's D.C. bureau seems a little puzzled today:

President Bush will receive an upbeat report on the economy when he meets with his economic advisers at his Crawford ranch today. His challenge will be to sell the good economic news to the public.

Recent polls show people have turned gloomy on the economy despite nine consecutive quarters of solid growth, tame inflation and an unemployment rate that is near its four-year low.

[snip]

In July, nonfarm payrolls grew by 207,000, the biggest jump in three months, and wages, adjusted for inflation, rose at the fastest pace in a year.

Yet approval of Bush's handling of the economy fell to 39 percent last month, down from 47 percent in January, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll.

Despite the impressive economic numbers, virtually the rest of the column -- 500+ words! -- is devoted to criticism of the same robust economy.

That sort of "reporting" could help explain the lagging approval numbers.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/05 09:52 PM |

IAH is tops in on-time performance

Bush Intercontinental has the nation's best on-time performance rate:

As far as on-time arrivals and on-time departures are concerned, no other major airport in the country has a higher rate of on-time performance than the Houston Airport System’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). This, according to the latest On-Time Performance Report released this month by the United States Department of Transportation.

The report, released Aug. 4, surveyed the nation’s top 33 major airports for on-time arrival and departure performances through June 2005 and found that IAH ranked as the #1 performer in all four rating categories: on-time departures and arrivals for the month of June 2005, and on-time arrivals and departures year-to-date through the same month.

The Houston Airport System attributes the top ranking to the recently completed $3.1 billion Capital Improvement Program.

RELATED: Yesterday, Loren Steffy wrote about airline departure delays on his blog.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/09/05 01:13 PM |

Metro's Mobility Breakfast Series

Here's a meeting notice on Metro's website:

Houston-Intown Chamber of Commerce
Mobility Breakfast Series
Connecting the Centers: An Update on the University Line
Guest Speaker: METRO President & CEO, Frank J. Wilson
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
7:30 - 9 a.m.
The Briar Club
2603 Timmons
Ticket Prices: Members $20 Non-Members $30
RSVP 713-524-8000

Also, Metro's next round of service "improvements" is scheduled for August 14 and Metro's next board meeting is August 18.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/09/05 09:56 AM |

Food and drink roundup (08-09-2005 edition)

It's time to gather up a food and drink roundup.

Alison Cook loved her dinners at the no-longer-stagnant River Oaks Grill.

Robb Walsh's meal of Vietnamese fajitas (uh huh) at Nam Vietnamese Cuisine had him wondering where to find authentic Vietnamese cuisine in town.

Ken Hoffman tried some Chicken Fries at Burger King...and liked them?

Lance Scott Walker once again gave Ernie's on Banks a look.

And bH's own Kevin Whited gave Yia Yia Mary's a non-review over at PubliusTX.

World Class, all!! Enjoy!!

UPDATE: The new location of Cyclone Anaya's, which was partly the focus of a recent Robb Walsh review and which is considered a favorite Tex-Mex hangout by some of the bH crew, has finally opened on Durham near I-10. It is now easier for anyone inside the loop to partake of their really yummy Tex-Mex and strong margaritas.

Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 08/09/05 09:00 AM |

Mayor trying to save MediaSource contract

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that Mayor White will again delay a Council vote on the contract with Houston MediaSource:

Mayor Bill White wants to delay again a City Council vote on renewing Houston's cable public-access television contract — the fourth postponement since racy programs sparked a controversy in June.

After a monthlong delay, a decision on Houston MediaSource's $800,000 deal had been scheduled for Wednesday's council meeting. But the mayor's staff announced Monday that he would seek council approval to wait another 30 days.

White, who said recently he wanted a "change in leadership" at MediaSource, wants to win council approval of as many as eight MediaSource board members before the contract vote.

The mayor is expected to announce his proposed appointees to the 15-member board this week.

Translation: The Mayor doesn't have Council support of his proposal yet, but thinks he can get it if he twists arms, obfuscates, and cajoles for another 30 days. And given this Council, he probably will.

But it doesn't sound like he'll have Councilmember Toni Lawrence's support:

"Not too long ago, we turned the board over," she said. "We've shown that this doesn't do it. We need to look at the regulations that we can bring forward."

Despite pointed talk of leadership changes by Mayor White, UH Communications Professor Garth Jowett, president of the Houston MediaSource board, remains intransigent:

Board President Garth Jowett, a University of Houston communications professor, defended Garlinghouse on Monday, saying she's done "a hell of a job" reworking the channel's finances and procedures in her several years at the helm.

"I would hate to see her being sacrificed without a clear justification just for the sake of making a change," he said.

That attitude should make it much easier for Council to buck Mayor White on this one and give stewardship of the public access channel to some other entity.

PREVIOUSLY: Wiseman perturbs the city boss, Wiseman wins converts on the Houston MediaSource controversy, MediaSource to Berry: We know better than you!, Mayor, Chron editorialists now see merits in Wiseman's complaint, White & Edwards: We're tired of this MediaSource topic

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/05 07:52 AM |

On the road to academic health

Remember Gayle Fallon's sneering reaction to Dr. Saavedra's reform plans for three underachieving HISD high schools:

"They backed themselves into a corner on staffing and they don't know how to fix it," said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. She said she doubts Saavedra's offer will lure many good teachers out of their current jobs and into the struggling schools. "I will bet the superintendent lunch, at the restaurant of his choice, that he opens the year with primarily first-year teachers or vacant positions."

And:

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, told trustees the bonus money will not attract better teachers. The union represents about half of HISD's 12,000 teachers.

"Folks, it's not an incentive," Fallon said. "So far, we haven't found a taker. ... We've gotten remarks like, 'You think I'm going to leave Lamar High School for $1,500 a year?' "

Today, Jason Spencer writes a very interesting follow-up story:

English teacher Myron Greenfield says he's never understood why his students at Houston's Davis High School regularly manage to meet state academic standards, while kids from the same types of neighborhoods at Sam Houston High School have fallen short three years in a row.

That, Greenfield said, is why he left Davis this summer after 16 years to be part of the reinvention of Sam Houston, a school where 90 percent of the students are Hispanics from poor families.

"When I started seeing all the stuff about Sam Houston going to hell in a handbasket, I kept saying to myself, 'These are the same demographics as Jeff Davis. Those kids can't be much different from the kids we have,' " Greenfield said recently during a break from a two-day teacher training seminar at Sam Houston.

Teachers from Yates and Kashmere high schools, the other two Houston Independent School District schools undergoing teaching staff overhauls this year, also took part in the training.

Nearly half of them are new to their schools, replacing teachers who were let go in an effort to bring fresh faces onto campuses.

"This is like a blood transfusion," Greenfield said. "What's cool is the mix of people they hired: young kids — like 23 years old — and some veterans."

Second-year Principal Aida Tello said she and her top assistants culled more than 60 new teachers from a stack of 500 applications. HISD is offering Sam Houston, Yates and Kashmere teachers bonuses of up to $3,000 a year if their students perform well on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, the test that helps determine whether a school meets state standards.

"We wanted some experience, but we also wanted some young, moldable minds that are passionate about working with kids," she said while watching her teachers eat box lunches in the cafeteria. "Quite a few of them come from the same background as our students, and they feel like if they could do it, so could the kids. I come from the same background. That's why I'm so determined."

Lourdes Lopez, 22, said she had other job offers but chose to begin her teaching career at Sam Houston because she identifies with the students.

Best of luck to the staff and students of those three high schools.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/09/05 07:19 AM |

Can we get some plain old security at Metro stops? (updated)

The Chronicle and KTRK-13 each have a short story about a woman who was raped at a Metro bus stop Sunday night. KRIV-26's story last night included a look at the empty security guard booth and said there are no security cameras at that location.

UPDATE: KHOU-11's story includes this:

Metro says you can legally carry a gun on a bus if you have a concealed weapons permit for it.

So now Metro bus riders must fend for themselves. It's like the old Wild West!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/09/05 06:58 AM |

08 August 2005

The House Majority Leader's new press man is dreamy!

The Chronicle D.C. bureau's Samantha Levine has posted a fawning profile of Kevin Madden, the new communications director for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Here's an excerpt:

To Madden, the assignment with DeLay is as perfect as it would be for "a stamp collector to get a job at the post office."

Madden is in danger of becoming half of a Washington power couple — his wife, Jaclyn, is legislative director for Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

His nickname also is noticeable: Mad Dog. It's partly a derivative of his last name, given to him by college buddies. It doesn't quite fit his consistently neat hair and crisp suits. But it stuck because he can be aggressive and intense, even when making plans with friends. When they can't decide on an activity, he said, he sometimes abruptly cuts them off and pushes through with a proposal.

"My friends shout out 'Mad Dog!' and we all have a laugh," he said. "It's apropos."

I could barely stop giggling long enough to compose this post.

While this isn't especially newsworthy, it at least is coverage of the local Congressional delegation. A cynic might suggest, however, that the puff piece is an attempt to gain future access to the governing majority that the D.C. bureau has been notably lacking.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/08/05 01:36 PM |

Thank goodness the Tex-Mex is good or else they'd REALLY be ticked off!

Phew! Do you think Julie Mason is a wee bit unhappy about spending August in Crawford?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/08/05 06:48 AM |

07 August 2005

Camacho touts benefits of tunneling for I-45 expansion

Back in June, the Houston Press ran a feature on Gonzalo Camacho, a traffic/civil engineer with a unique approach to TXDOT's announced intentions to expand I-45 -- tunneling. Here's the gist of Camacho's proposal:

There's a little something for everyone in Camacho's solution. Sinking a portion of I-45 into a tunnel eliminates the need for more right-of-way, the primary fear of frontline homeowners. A tunnel could be constructed faster than a typical highway and more cheaply than a depressed or stacked system -- though a traditional flatland expressway is still the cheapest. Eliminating on- and off-ramps would make driving safer. And air treatment would help clean the skies by removing up to 90 percent of the solids in tunnel exhaust.

If all that doesn't sway you, just wait for the colorful PowerPoint presentation. Simply stated: Tunnels look cool. And if you're in the development game, think of those wide swaths of rubble that will need to be transformed after I-45 disappears underground.

After reading the Press present that recap for idiots swayed by the term "world class," I pretty much dismissed the proposal.

That was a mistake. I was able to catch Camacho's presentation myself on Friday at the weekly meeting of Barry Klein's invaluable Houston Property Rights Association, and I have to say that Camacho strikes me as a serious man with a serious proposal.

Camacho makes the case that existing tunneling technology can be used right now to construct a 14 mile I-45 expansion. He claims that it would have a number of benefits to plans currently being considered by TXDOT, including cost (he says tunneling would be cheaper than any traditional road construction except for at-grade construction), the ability to create revenue streams (through traffic could be charged tolls for the convenience of using the limited-access tunnel), aesthetics (obvious), ability to use existing right of way, and limited environmental impact (air would be filtered, so effectively traffic would generate no pollution, not to mention that this type of construction wouldn't cause drainage issues).

Camacho contends that a serious study of the proposal would cost about $300,000. Part of his pitch seems oriented towards generating support for such a study of the proposal. I'm not a civil or traffic engineer, so I can't especially offer a truly educated critique of what Camacho proposes. But he makes a compelling case to a layman.

SUPPLEMENTAL: Camacho's PowerPoint presentation.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/05 11:04 PM |

O'Connor sues Harris County Appraisal District

Recently, Patrick O'Connor brought suit against the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD)and the Appraisal Review Board (ARB). Last week, he wrote an op-ed for the Chronicle explaining the lawsuit. Here's an excerpt:

Our state Legislature enacted the Texas Property Tax Code (TPTC) to ensure property owners are treated fairly and equitably. It empowers appraisal districts to set property values and mandates the ARB to conduct independent review hearings and make final value decisions when taxpayers protest.

Unfortunately, the following legislated rights are being ignored, sometimes blatantly and deliberately, sometimes innocently from lack of knowledge or direction.

• Property taxpayers may protest both the market value of the property, or that their property was not equally appraised compared to similar properties. Further, the ARB must return value decisions on both protests. (TPTC Sections 41.41a(2) and 41.47a and 41.45a)
• Prior to a hearing, taxpayers have the right to receive information on which an appraisal is based. No other information may be introduced by the appraisal district at the hearing. (TPTC Sections 41.461 and 41.67d)
• Appraisal districts must bear the burden of proving that their appraisal is correct. (TPTC Section 41.43 a and b)
• The appraisal districts and the appraisal review boards are separate entities and the ARB shall schedule protest hearings.

HCAD and the ARB management have declined to structure hearings so there are separate decisions on market value and unequal appraisal. HCAD continues daily to present inappropriate evidence at hearings despite multiple requests to remedy this unacceptable behavior.

For those who are interested in the fine details of the case, the O'Connor and Associates brief may be downloaded here (in PDF format).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/05 10:32 PM |

The requirement seems benign for good reason

From time to time, the Chronicle editorialists produce truly entertaining work.

Today's editorial on foreign-aid related to AIDS is a good example:

WHETHER it's creating a nation of orphans in Botswana or widowing women across India, AIDS represents more than tragedy. By destabilizing societies and crippling economies, AIDS poses a threat to international security.

The Bush administration has acknowledged the urgency of the threat; one of President Bush's most admirable policy decisions is his 2003 pledge of $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS worldwide. While Congress has approved that funding, however, the administration and lawmakers have bowed to ideologues who insist those dollars hinge on a written pledge condemning prostitution and promising not to promote it or its legalization.

This requirement might seem benign.

That would have been a good spot to end the editorial.

But our Chron editorialists would have none of that, using 300+ additional words to criticize an unobjectionable requirement for United States aid.

Surely Andrea Georgsson can come up with a better cause for Houston's only major daily than this -- maybe even another leftover crusade.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/05 10:01 PM |

Q and A with Laurence Simon

We don't know why the Houston Chronicle won't introduce its readers to one of Houston's more interesting residents, so in the interest of (fun) public service, blogHOUSTON conducted a little Q and A with blogger Laurence Simon:

Q: Let's start with the required questions: when did you start blogging and why?

A: I was unemployed, unable to find a job post-Compaq/Enron/Continental/911, and had nothing better to do while trying unsucessfully to find a job.

Q: Has your voice evolved over the years or have you always been so...um...irreverent?

A: My voice has evolved. I've gotten angrier and more bitter. I don't like that in me, and it's got to go at some point. Maybe my subdividing myself into multiple sites will allow me to break off and sink that which I don't like.

Q: Amish Tech Support is famous in blog circles. Why did you change the name to IFOC?

A: I was seeking change for the sake of change. Also, I wanted my own domain name, and ATS was taken by then for some weird reason. www.isfullofcrap.com gave me the opportunity to set up various subdomains to keep things popping and lively, always could demolish one site while creating a new one.

Q: How do you see blogs impacting news/information gathering and consuming?

A: Information exists in a global distributed conscious database. Blogs are like the ODBC messages flowing from one medium to another, constant chatter. They are also becoming a repository unto themselves.

Q: Are there any blog trends that you really like?

A: Yes. People rebelling against the A-list and establishing peer-to-peer relationships. Communities and niches are growing in strength, and there's nothing the MSM or the kingmakers can do to stop it.

Q: Are there any blog trends that you don't like?

A: Awards. Just what we need... Pulitzers for Blogs. It fosters arrogance and elitism. Unless NONE OF THE ABOVE is an option, to hell with awards.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do in Houston?

A: Well, it used to be eat, but I think that's changing. Now it's the museums when I have the time. I also like the sculpture garden by the MFA.

Q: What is your favorite thing about Houston?

A: It's nearby.

Q: What is your favorite movie?

A: Memento. How did they write that backwards and still make sense?

Q: What is your favorite book?

A: Alice in Wonderland.

Q: Who is your favorite Muslim?

A: Hakeem Olajuwon. He has the potential to break peaceful African Islam from militant and blame-the-Jews Arabic Islam and establish a peaceful coexistence here in town. Sadly, I think he's blowing it.

Q: What is your favorite weapon of mass destruction?

A: Chuy's Elvis platter.

Q: If you could issue a fatwa against anyone, who would it be?

A: It wouldn't be Ted Rall. He's insignificant.

It would have to be someone significant. I think it would be Kennedy for the murder of Mary Jo Kopechne.

Q: When will you post a video of the Ooogah Boogah dance?

A: Never. Unless Deskmerc points a gun and a camera at me and then says "DANCE, MONKEY!"

Q: Do you feel any pressure to keep on Ooogahing and Boogahing so the Astros will win?

A: I have no choice. The jersey compels me. Until they win it all or trade the chump, I'm stuck.

I should have gotten a Franco jersey. At least I'd be free of this horrible burden.

Q: Do you think Houston's DIS will ever write a story (linking doesn't count) about you?

A: Yeah, when they announce that they're hiring me to do tech work. And in the next column, scientists genetically engineer flying pigs.

Q: Why do you think the kitty cats generate so much interest...from other media outlets?

A: People love their pets. It's a booming business, and it's a common interest. I could probably charge for the catcams and such, but I don't. People need cats in the office. Edloe's capsizing was a great thing for trapped-in-cubeville drones to watch. I am glad it offered an element of escape.

Q: What's your best idea that has later been ripped off from you, without crediting you?

A: You'd have to tell me. I've tracked down and claimed every idea I've ever come up with that I know of.

Thank you, Laurence.

Do you have a question for Laurence? Ask it in the forum -- maybe he'll pop in and answer it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/07/05 07:19 PM |

DeLay criticizes, White/Hurtt support, HPD sanctuary policy

The Chronicle editorial board isn't going to like this pointed criticism of MayorWhiteChiefHurtt from the House Majority Leader, which means they may comment on it in a week or so:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay criticized the city of Houston's "sanctuary" policy toward illegal immigrants in a speech Thursday night.

Speaking to a packed house of Fort Bend County Republican faithful, DeLay said he supported the concept behind legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., that would withhold federal funding from cities such as Houston that refuse to enforce immigration law.

"It greatly concerns me that the police chief in Houston, Texas, has created a sanctuary in Houston by announcing that he is not going to enforce our laws," the Sugar Land Republican said, in response to a question about Tancredo's bill.

"That is unacceptable, and we hope to address it through Tancredo's legislation or other legislation."

Since 1992, a Houston Police Department policy has officially forbidden officers from enforcing immigration laws in most cases.

Mayor Bill White has said he supports continuing the policy, because he believes immigration is a federal matter and he wants to free police up to protect the city from violent criminals.

PREVIOUSLY: Ellis: HPD should stop ignoring violations of immigration law.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/05 09:34 AM |

Comical complaint indeed!

Yesterday, the Chronicle ran an editorial with the headline Comical Complaint.

Since a number of local bloggers and message board netizens refer to Houston's sole English-language daily newspaper as the Comical, that headline prompted a chuckle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/05 09:25 AM |

Creating political cover on the METRO Solutions switcheroo

On Friday, the Chronicle's Rad Sallee reported that some transit agencies obtained exemptions from federal cost-effectiveness rules that have hindered METRO's plans to build light rail.

Culberson, the only local congressman on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, said he would have strongly opposed any request by Metro for an exemption.

He called it "appalling and unthinkable that at a time of record national deficit and debt, any government entity would attempt to exempt itself from the cost-effectiveness requirement."

The Democratic representatives, many of whose constituents were dismayed at the switch to bus rapid transit, said Metro deserved an exemption and could have obtained one if Culberson and DeLay had wanted that to happen.

We have previously suggested that Reps. Culberson and DeLay are eventually going to be blamed for scuttling light rail in favor of buses for those communities that were promised light rail (and a 50% increase in bus service) and helped put the METRO light-rail referendum over the top, even though this revised plan seems entirely a creation of Mayor White and METRO and seems at least partly intended as a Galleria development project.

The comments from Democratic representatives would seem to confirm our view that the creation of political cover for the changes to METRO Solutions is well underway.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/05 09:05 AM |

06 August 2005

Guns, Guns, Oh My (Cont'd)

It certainly took the Chronicle editorial board a long time to react to Rep. John Culberson's border-control proposal, especially given the predictability of the reaction:

The answer to understaffed federal security agencies, including the Border Patrol, lies in allocating federal money to hire more professionals. The answer to our nation's immigration problems is not nearly so plain. Only one thing is certain: It does not involve civilians with guns.

As Sedosi Alhambra explains, the entire editorial basically boils down to the editorialists distrusting civilians (me and you) with guns, leading the editorial idealists (seemingly) to mischaracterize Culberson's program, which would create regulated militias. Whether one thinks that's a good idea or not, the debate over the issue is somewhat more complicated than the Chronicle's "gun guns, oh my!" formulation.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/06/05 09:57 PM |

05 August 2005

Three incidents and not a wrecker in sight

I just drove on the Southwest Freeway northbound from the Galleria to the Main Street exit.

I saw one wreck (involving two cars, with a fire truck on the scene), one broken-down vehicle, and a second broken-down vehicle further down the freeway.

There was not a SAFEclear wrecker in sight of any of the incidents.

Thanks Mayor White, for getting Houston moving and making our lives more convenient with SAFEclear on a rainy Friday!

UPDATE (08-06-2005): In the forum, commenter mwjones offers some thoughts on why the SAFEclear program appears to be operating less efficiently than the mayor once promised (remember the promised six-minute response time?), based upon conversations heard over police-band radio.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/05 05:15 PM |

Because the Jessica Simpson stories couldn't be bumped

Texas blogger Eric Siegmund received a nice write-up recently in his local paper about tomorrow's Blogathon. Cool!

Closer to home, our own Laurence Simon will be participating in the Blogathon (he has generated more pledges than anyone else -- woo!), and here's a link to his nice write-up in our local paper.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/05/05 03:52 PM |

It's time to celebrate the Ship Channel's improvements

The project to widen and deepen the Houston Ship Channel is complete:

Earlier this year, the port had said the $638 million project — which was first proposed in 1969 — was just about finished.

Vessels from around the world already are using the improved Ship Channel, and the longtime project means increased trade, plus a safer channel, port chief Tom Kornegay told the Greater Houston Partnership in his "state of the port" address.

"For example, some ships bringing petroleum to the port prior to completion of this project were limited to one-way traffic due to size constraints," Kornegay said. "A wider channel better allows for two-way traffic to flow safely, which increases shipping capacity and makes us more competitive."

The massive project to deepen the Ship Channel from 40 feet to 45 feet and widen it from 400 feet to 530 feet was overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The port is planning a celebration marking the completion for Aug. 18.

How do you celebrate a ship channel completion?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/05/05 08:38 AM |

The Houston Conspiracy Theory

Sedosi has been ~~drinking~~ thinking, and says he has figured out what's really going on in Houston. My favorite line:

James Howard Gibbons looks terrible in heels.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/05/05 08:24 AM |

CenterPoint's zero-tolerance policy for trees

CenterPoint Energy has been in a tree-cutting mood:

When Bill Coats looked out the window of his law office and saw tree-trimming crews for CenterPoint Energy cutting down more than 20 blooming crepe myrtles, he picked up the phone and called the office of Houston Mayor Bill White.

Coats, a self-identified "tree-hugger," thought there was a moratorium on CenterPoint's zero-tolerance policy for trees in its high-voltage transmission corridors.

There is now.

"CenterPoint has agreed to stop cutting any more trees right now, because we asked them to," said Michael Moore, executive assistant to White. "The mayor understands the need for a reliable transmission system. But the city needs more trees, not less trees."

The 15- to 20-foot-tall crepe myrtles — now poisoned stumps — were located in the 3200 and 3300 blocks of Westpark, near the intersection with Buffalo Speedway. They were directly below CenterPoint's high-voltage lines in the utility's Westpark transmission corridor.

Emily Mir-Thompson, a spokeswoman for CenterPoint, said Thursday that the crepe myrtles were cut down because of the company's new, zero-tolerance policy for any trees taller than 10 feet in its transmission corridors.

A zero-tolerance policy for trees? For 15- to 20-foot trees?

Thank goodness Mayor White has convinced CenterPoint to stop cutting down trees:

"But in the meantime, we are going on with business-as-usual and making sure that our rights of way are clear," she said.

Mir-Thompson said she knew nothing of a new moratorium on tree cutting.

Oh. Maybe another phone call is in order.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/05/05 08:08 AM |

Demystifying the embryonic stem-cell debate for the Chron

Sen. Bill Frist (R), no doubt a Chron editorial board "bad guy" for his role in the Terri Schiavo affair, is now in the good graces of the editorial board for his recent change of heart on embyronic stem-cell research:

Skilled enough to transplant human hearts, Republican Sen. Bill Frist is not the sort to make rash decisions. So when the Senate majority leader and noted surgeon announced support for embryonic stem cell research last week, Capitol Hill watchers scratched their heads.

For four years, Frist backed President Bush's view that research on human embryonic stem cells constitutes the taking of life. Politically, this held some benefit: Frist is considering a 2008 presidential bid. Many of Bush's supporters passionately oppose embryonic stem cell research.

From an ethical and medical standpoint, however, Frist's opposition to stem cell research was mystifying.

Well, let's clear up the mystery for the editorial idealists -- help them ascend from the cave, if you will.

And who better to do that than another doctor in the Senate, maverick Republican Tom Coburn from Oklahoma:

As a practicing physician and two-time cancer survivor, I am intrigued by the potential of embryonic stem cell research. However, liberalizing President Bush's stem cell policy would be both unethical and unnecessary.

The bill Majority Leader Bill Frist recently endorsed would, for the first time, direct the federal government to use taxpayer dollars to destroy human embryos. This proposal is based on a false hope. Not a single treatment has been developed from embryonic stem cells. Yet more than 60 treatments have been developed from stem cells in umbilical cord blood and adult tissues.

[snip]

At the dawn of what will likely be the biotech century, advocating taxpayer-funded destructive experimentation on human embryos that will be "thrown away anyway" would set us on a dangerous course. If human life is sacred, but not worthy of protection when it is unwanted or destined for destruction, then many human lives, like those of the terminally ill or severely handicapped, would be cheapened and endangered.

We can certainly debate Dr. Coburn's contentions, but they aren't mystifying.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/05 07:50 AM |

Best of Westchase

Houston's Westchase District is running a Best of Westchase contest. You can vote here.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/05/05 07:20 AM |

04 August 2005

Chron D.C. bureau: More olds you need to know

Sedosi Alhambra sounds a familiar refrain in response to today's "olds" from Bennett Roth of the Chronicle's lackluster D.C. bureau.

Alhambra does, however, call attention to this amusing paragraph in the Roth reporting:

Deriding the project as a "bridge to nowhere," critics charge that it is one the most egregious examples of "pork barrel" spending that members of Congress stuffed into the $286.4 billion highway bill, the same law funding the Metro's light rail/bus system in Houston.

A transportation bill laden with egregious pork-barrel spending that also funds METRO's light-rail boondoggle?

Do you think there's a connection?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/04/05 11:17 PM |

The Bill White Vermin And Solid Waste Memorial Park

Todd Spivak reports in the Houston Press that one of the stranger priorities of the White Administration, a new downtown park, is off to some kind of start:

We walk the winding pathways together. Most benches are occupied by homeless people, lying on their backs with their shoes kicked off. During the course of a few minutes, we see a half-dozen rats scurry past. Along the sidewalk a large cloud of flies hovers over a pile of [feces].

Is that…from an animal?

"Oh, no," Guidry says. "That's human."

Guidry has a grab bag of horror stories regarding the park. He tells one particularly bizarre tale that involves a penis, a groundskeeper and a shovel.

It's midday a couple of weeks ago, the story goes. Guidry steps outside his building for a break. He watches as a groundskeeper pushes a lawn mower past a homeless man who's asleep on a bench. Apparently angered by the intrusion, the homeless man "all of a sudden pulls out his penis and chases the groundskeeper over the hill." The groundskeeper's supervisor fast approaches holding a shovel over his head and cussing out the homeless man, who yells right back.

"Here it is," Guidry says, "three in the afternoon, and this guy is standing in the middle of the park, for like two minutes, shouting and holding out his penis and shaking it."

It wasn't always this way.

Guidry says the problems began at the park only within the last six months. For years, the park was privately owned and maintained by Crescent Real Estate Equities Limited Partnership, which owns Houston Center. In those halcyon days, Guidry says, the park was clean and peaceful, brimming with strollers and picnickers.

In August 2004, Crescent sold the westernmost parcel to an "undisclosed buyer," according to Crescent spokeswoman Jennifer Terrell. This parcel, which sits adjacent to the Four Seasons, is clearly the most poorly managed of the three and is home to perhaps hundreds of rodents.

Crescent sold the remaining two parcels, which total 5.3 acres, to the City of Houston in a somewhat complicated deal. A group of private foundations ponied up most of the $27 million for the property. About $8 million came from city coffers. The city then transferred the land to the nonprofit Houston Downtown Park Corporation, which holds the titles on the properties, according to the mayor's deputy chief of staff, Richard Lapin.

This fall, Lapin says, the city will unveil design plans to combine these parcels with two nearby city-owned parking lots to create a 12-acre park -- downtown's largest. Meanwhile, before construction begins on the new park, the two parcels are being managed by the city's Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department.

Former Mayor Lee P. Brown had the new METRO building named after him. It will only be fitting if the city's new vermin and solid human waste ecosystem/park is named after the current mayor.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/04/05 11:04 PM |

Crime lab investigation delayed; Mayor won't comment

Michael Bromwich's review of the HPD crime lab has been delayed:

Michael Bromwich, the former U.S. Justice Department official who is leading the investigation, and his panel of experts have been idle since they issued a series of reports in June that exposed troubling faults such as analysts who were accused of fabricating test results. The group began its work March 30.

The city initially budgeted $2.2 million for the first year of the investigation, and a $1 million balance remains. Even so, Houston Police Department officials have told the team it must receive approval from the City Council before it can start the second phase of its investigation — a review of about 3,000 criminal cases that have already been prosecuted.

Although the investigating team is independent, it must rely on HPD officials to carry funding requests to the City Council. Police Capt. David Watkins said he expects to take the proposal for the second phase of the investigation, which includes a request from Bromwich for an additional $1.6 million, before the council in about two weeks, meaning work will be interrupted for a minimum of six weeks.

[snip]

Mayor Bill White's office did not respond to requests for comment.

The Chronicle editorial board is really going to have to stretch to blame this on Harris Country District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/04/05 10:45 PM |

U. S. - Arab Forum coming to Houston

Houston is set to host the second U.S.- Arab Economic Forum in September:

More than 1,500 American and Arab business, political and civic leaders will gather in Houston Sept. 14-16 for the 2005 U.S.-Arab Economic Forum. A biennial event supported by the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce, the Arab League and the Gulf Co-operation Council, the Forum will focus on improving economic ties and economic development as a source of societal change.

"Building on the long history of friendship between America and the Arab world is essential," said George H. W. Bush, former U.S. President and honorary chair of the Forum. "The U.S.-Arab Economic Forum is a great concept that takes a fresh look at our existing ties while working to build new bridges. And during this time of great challenges -- not only for the United States, but the world at large -- nothing could be more important."

Participants will hear from the CEOs of Boeing, Chevron Corporation, Cisco Systems, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the president of Shell Oil Company as well as the Energy Ministers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center President Dr. John Mendelsohn and BBC Global News Director Richard Sambrook.

[snip]

Other speakers include Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa, USAID Director Andrew Natsios, bestselling author Dr. Deepak Chopra, Houston Mayor Bill White, Harvard Business Review Editor Thomas Stewart and Arab International Women's Forum Chair Haifa Al Kaylani.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/04/05 04:16 PM |

Sporting News: Houston is a world-class sports city

A new survey by The Sporting News ranks Houston as the No. 6 sports city in North America:

Houston comes in at No. 6 among the best North American sports cities behind Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Miami and Los Angeles-Anaheim. Rounding out the top 10 behind Houston were Baltimore-Washington at No. 7, Dallas-Fort Worth at No. 8, Atlanta at No. 9, and New York-New Jersey at No. 10.

To be included in the rankings, a city must have at least an NCAA Division I basketball team or a minor-league baseball team, or it must score in certain other ranking categories, such as hosting a training camp for a major-league team or hosting a PGA Tour tournament.

Once a city meets the minimum criteria, The Sporting News takes a 12-month snapshot of its sports atmosphere, putting emphasis on such factors as regular-season records, playoff berths, bowl appearances, tournament bids, championships, overall fan fervor and fan knowledge.

It's fun to have as many college and major professional sports teams as Houston does, but do readers really think of Houston as one of THE top sports cities in the country, based on the criteria in the final paragraph?

Please share your thoughts in the comments. We'd especially like to hear from any transplants who moved here from other large cities with a good sports scene.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/04/05 02:07 PM |

Spoken like someone who's lived here a while

Ken Hoffman is skeptical about a good idea that's being floated:

Problem: People want to go downtown Friday and Saturday nights — to enjoy the restaurants and bars — but parking is a hassle and so expensive.

Solution: How about a deal where parking garages stay open Friday and Saturday nights and charge only $5? Then restaurants and clubs could offer $5 discounts to customers to cover the parking.

Pedicabs could be stationed at the garages to schlep people to Main Street.

Details are being worked out.

This idea makes so much sense, I'm amazed it's even being considered in Houston.

MayorWhiteChiefHurtt needs more potential jaywalkers to ticket.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/04/05 01:54 PM |

Mayor White and the tale of two bridges

While residents in one part of town have been waiting seven years for a bridge to be built:

People living in the Manchester area near the Houston Ship Channel have said they sometimes face a long wait just to get in their neighborhood.

Money just waiting to be spent to solve the train trouble has been left untouched for several years.

[snip]

Congressman Gene Green has now sent a letter to Mayor Bill White, asking him to expedite the bridge over the tracks that congress approved funding for in 1998.

"I want him to do what he does best -- get the bureaucracy in gear," Green said. "The frustration is that it's taken seven years."

"I've been frustrated over half my life because of the bureaucracy," said Councilmember Carol Alvarado.

Residents in another part of town appear to be getting a bridge they don't want -- ASAP:

Construction of a controversial bridge at the end of Rosslyn Road that would link Candlelight Estates to a new 17-acre subdivision should be finished by January, said Alvin Freeman, one of the project's developers.

This is despite the efforts of a group of residents who oppose the construction, saying it would increase traffic, and are continuing efforts to see if they can stop it.

Freeman said he and fellow developer Tom Shepard have been accepting bids from contractors to build the bridge, which will be constructed over a drainage ditch.

It will serve as the entryway for Candlelight Place Section 3, a new subdivision that will be located north of Bethlehem Street and south of Pinemont Drive, he said.

Freeman said he and Shepard have the necessary permits required by the city and the Harris County Flood Control District to build the structure.

"We've got the green light from all applicable authorities," Freeman said.

[snip]

The opposing residents have met with city officials several times in recent months about the bridge, but those talks have yet to produce any delay for the project.

Ray Bush, 72, who lives on the corner of Bethlehem and Rosslyn and is part of the group against the bridge, said they plan to talk with Mayor Bill White about the situation on Monday at 7 p.m. when he appears at Candlelight Park, 1520 Candlelight, for an Oak Forest Homeowners Association meeting.

Mayor White actually sent an email to Candlelight Estates residents telling them the city couldn't stop the bridge from being built.

It's a rather interesting compare and contrast, isn't it?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/04/05 07:55 AM |

An HPD conundrum

If an illegal immigrant minor is riding a motorized scooter, does HPD have to call in the Feds to issue the $500 ticket?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/04/05 07:05 AM |

Unfortunate headline placement

Imagine you are skimming Chron.com first thing in the morning, barely starting on your coffee, and you see these headlines (third and fourth) right below the main page picture:

Some roast highway bill over its scent of pork
South Korea introduces world's first cloned dog

That's most unfortunate.

UPDATE (7a.m.): Awwwww, someone at Chron.com moved the cloned dog headline down to the "World" section. That's a shame.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/04/05 06:24 AM |

03 August 2005

From "nearly flawless" to "seemingly flawless"

We've previously noted the Chronicle editorial board's gaffe regarding the shuttle launch.

The Chronicle editorial idealists seem to be having a little difficulty owning up to their gaffe:

The mission of the space shuttle Discovery to put the U.S. space program back in business has been an emotional roller coaster. The celebration of a seemingly flawless launch faded with photographs of dangerous foam debris spinning off the craft's external fuel tank and the subsequent announcement of a freeze on future flights.

If the editorial idealists had been liveblogging the launch, their calling it "nearly flawless" would not have been a big deal. However, it became evident pretty quickly that the shuttle launch was flawed, and within a day the program had been grounded once again.

The original editorial blew it. Today's editorial pretends it never happened.

Sedosi Alhambra noticed it also.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/03/05 09:55 PM |

Redstone's new golf course is open

Tom Kirkendall points out that the new Redstone Tournament Course is open for business:

Inasmuch as the new course is central to the Houston Golf Association's plan to revive the Shell Houston Open, which had one of its weakest fields in years during this year's tournament -- I am hopeful that the course turns out to be popular among both Tour players and the golfing public. I am scheduled to play the Tournament Course later this month, after which I will post a review, so stay tuned.

The post Tom references above -- where he dissects what went wrong with the Shell Houston Open -- is a great read.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/03/05 03:07 PM |

Chief Hurtt encourages closer bonds between HPD and FBI

Yesterday, USA Today ran a story about how the FBI is working with local law enforcement agencies to thwart terrorism:

Since the 9/11 attacks, more than 6,000 state and local police officers have been granted access to classified material involving terrorist threats, the broadest dissemination of secret information in U.S. history.

The information sharing, which is overseen by the FBI, has been held up as a model of cooperation by law enforcement.

Despite its success, it's unclear whether giving local officials access to classified information has provided them with a direct link to any terrorism suspects.

Even so, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt, one of the early critics of the information-sharing program because of delays in getting secret clearances, says the new access is forging closer bonds between local police and the FBI. And the FBI has grown increasingly dependent on local police to assist in terrorism investigations.

Well, well. Isn't that interesting?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/03/05 08:17 AM |

Local memorial to honor fallen Texans

KHOU-11 reports on a new memorial to honor Texans killed in the Iraq war:

A local monument located in the 6100 block of Fairmont Parkway now displays the names of servicemen and women from Texas who have died in the Iraq war.

In the skies of Pasadena, patriotism is personal.

The men and women who served and died in the war in Iraq are memorialized, alphabetized by first names.

Images of the battles and the fighting are deeply painful for Zaida Walters.

"I just cannot believe he's not here anymore," she said.

Her son Leroy Sandoval became a casualty in March of 2004. The memorial wall is dedicated to him.

"Leroy didn't die in vain. All these guys and ladies, they didn't die in vain," Walters said.

The names of 171 Texas soldiers who were killed in the war in Iraq are inscribed on the memorial wall.

There are no names listed on one side of the wall. Though the reality is, it's not a matter of if, but when.

"Somebody's brother, somebody's uncle, somebody's friend," Edward Amido said.

Edward Amido is a youth pastor for Fairmont Christian Church where the wall was erected.

Marine Corp Private First Class Sandoval was a member of the church. The church and sponsors wanted to give back.

Readers of the old Chronically Biased blog will recall the name Leroy Sandoval, Jr. A dedication service for the memorial is scheduled for August 13.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/03/05 07:55 AM |

An op-ed that lacks elegance, wit and insight

Why would the Chronicle's editorial page decision-makers decide to run this nasty piece of olds, when they could have chosen to run an opinion piece by Mark Steyn or Michael Barone or anything from Townhall.com (especially Thomas Sowell)?

Okay, here's what I'm thinking: I have been critical of the transformation of the Features section into the "star" section, but maybe the editorial pages would benefit from a makeover by Kyrie O'Connor. Those two pages need a serious shake-up and some fresh thinking. Its current ideal state is frightening.

RELATED: Matt Bramanti

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/03/05 07:42 AM |

02 August 2005

Sometimes the ideal state is a confused state

Remember a few weeks ago when the Chronicle editorial idealists ridiculed the notion that the F-16s at Ellington Field had any real role to play in homeland defense or the war on terror?

The subheadline was: Fighter jets are not the most useful weapons in waging today's war on terror.

KHOU-11's Jason Whiteley reports tonight that fighter jets from Ellington Field will be deployed in Iraq:

Members of 147th Fighter Wing, which protects the skies over Houston, will be deployed overseas Tuesday night.

Earlier this year the Pentagon put the fighter wing on its list of bases to close.

The Texas Air National Guard unit has been ordered to leave from the base in southeast Houston and to head to Iraq for its first major overseas combat mission since the Korean War.

This could also be one of its last missions because the base is targeted for closing.

The F-16s at Ellington Field are on standby around the clock, able to be airborne over Houston in minutes.

Perhaps the editorial idealists were watching KHOU tonight and can update their editorial at some point.

For that matter, they might want to update that editorial extolling the shuttle's "nearly flawless launch" (since the flawed launch grounded the program again one day later).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/02/05 11:24 PM |

And the point of that was?

Today's Chronicle devotes a significant amount of column space to a story whose headline suggests problems with race at Katy Independent School District:

Katy schools lagging in diversifying staff: District admits there's a problem but says it must be competitive for top workers

The headline seems to be excessively alarmist. Both Petrified Truth and Lone Star Times offer detailed criticism of the Chronicle (non)story.

One of the stranger twists to the (non)story was the inclusion of a new complaint by unsuccessful school board candidate A.J. Durrani, who has added a racial twist to previous criticism of an email sent by a school official before the election, allegedly to benefit incumbents on the school board. Eriksen doesn't mention the incumbency angle, even though she previously reported on it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/02/05 11:07 PM |

Food and drink roundup (08-02-2005 edition)

Last week's food and drink roundup follows.

Robb Walsh had an amusing review of Nick's Pasta Place last week. It so amused several members of the bH crew that dinner had to be had there Thursday. The bH crew agrees. It isn't bad. Killer spaghetti with meat sauce to be had there.

Dai Huynh gave us a double shot last week. She and Michael Lonsford examined the new popularity of rosé wines one day. The use of exotic fruits in entrées, drinks, and desserts by local restaurants had her attention the next.

Ken Hoffman sat down to a 1414 calorie breakfast at Denny's called the Meat Lover's Complete Bowl Breakfast. 1414 calories...WITHOUT butter and syrup for the pancakes? As if...

Eyder Peralta checks out a movie and grub this week at Star Cinema Grill in Webster.

And Gracie Ochoa found a New York feel to Tribeca Lounge. Not a good way to sell it to this Houstonian.

Regardless, it's all World Class!! Enjoy!!

Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 08/02/05 06:45 PM |

01 August 2005

Hoffman whacks METRO

Ken Hoffman takes a jab at METRO in his Q&A column:

My question is this — why do you never see a Metro bus pulled over getting a traffic ticket? Those drivers perform more dangerous maneuvers on a daily basis than half of Houston combined! I see Metro bus drivers disobey traffic lights, perform lane changes with little regard to safety, and literally running right-of-way traffic off the road! Are they immune to the traffic laws that govern the Hondas and Chevys of Houston or is it just me?

[snip]

A: I've noticed bus drivers driving like maniacs, too. It's almost like one bus driver would have to smash into another bus driver to get a ticket. Uh, wait, that actually happened.

Any vehicle with the METRO logo affixed scares me, frankly.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/01/05 09:37 PM |

City and firefighters resume negotiations

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles does some solid reporting on the resumed negotiations between the city and Houston Firefighters.

Houston firefighters rejected the last deal by nearly a two-to-one margin.

According to Stiles, HFD negotiators have a better grasp of firefighter concerns after polling the rank and file online.

Councilmember Mark Goldberg, who lately seems to enjoy sticking his foot in his mouth, has the following to say about the process:

Councilman Mark Goldberg said he doesn't believe firefighters understood budget implications before the last vote.

"Even if most of the firefighters are expecting a certain amount of pay increase, if it's not within in the city of Houston budget, then we can't agree to it," he said.

Mayor White has been very good about finding money for projects that are a priority for him, so that's not an especially compelling argument. But it's certainly less offensive than Goldberg's echoing the Chronicle in effectively calling out Houston firefighters as stupid. Too bad the Chronicle editorialists aren't bumping up against term limits like Councilmember Goldberg.

Councilmember Adrian Garcia's comments were more reasonable:

Councilman Adrian Garcia, who chairs the public safety committee, said he believes the city ought to leave the shifts alone, even if it means a lower pay raise. The gesture is necessary, he said, to build trust among the firefighters, many of whom believe previous mayoral administrations haven't treated them fairly.

One provision of the agreement that concerned firefighters will apparently be clarified:

[Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Roland] Chavez said at least one other hot-button provision that doomed the last contract has been fixed. Some firefighters thought an ambiguous section of the deal meant the city was retreating from its commitment to staffing trucks and engines with four firefighters.

That commitment, which Chavez said would be explicit in any new deal, is a critical safety issue to firefighters, who've seen five of their colleagues die on duty in as many years.

No agreement is likely to win approval without that clarification.

The city needs to get this deal done. Houston firefighters deserve a raise (and a little more respect from certain people on Council), and an administration that was able to implement Tasers and SAFEclear so rapidly surely can close the deal on a real matter of public safety.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/01/05 09:25 PM |

Chron: METRO's never unreasonable!

The Chronicle runs an editorial with the following headline today:

Metro's willingness to route the track around Afton Oaks is a reasonable compromise

Can anyone recall the last time the Chronicle editorial board deemed any METRO action or position unreasonable?

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that minorities who provided the winning margin for METRO Solutions aren't getting exactly what they were promised (something that we've commented on before and Tom Kirkendall touched on yesterday). The response of the Chronicle editorialists to them?

Frank Wilson needs to convince them that A is not A:

Some black and Hispanic leaders remain distrustful of Metro's motives after its decision to postpone light rail service in the north and east corridors. Wilson must be careful not to give the impression he is providing preferential treatment to an affluent, mostly Anglo neighborhood. He must work equally hard to allay the fears of residents and business owners in the heavily minority East End.

Another paragraph of the editorial hints that federal ridership requirements have driven changes to METRO Solutions. As if on cue, METRO posted the following in a press release today (even though it's dated July 29):

For special recognition, Wilson credited Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Representative John Culberson. Majority Leader DeLay secured the $324 million credit for the Main Street line and demonstrated overall leadership in shepherding the bill to conclusion. Representative Culberson provided significant assistance to insert language on key provisions in the bill, in addition to his important work on the Transportation Appropriations Committee. METRO looks forward to his continued support in the appropriations process that will be critical to further advancing METRO Solutions.

And if minorities actually criticize Mayor White and METRO for cuts (not increases) in bus service and a rerouted Galleria Development Light-Rail Boondoggle), we are pretty sure Messrs. Wilson and White will be sure to deflect that criticism on to Rep. Culberson.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/01/05 08:44 PM |

2005 ISD ratings

The Texas Education Agency has released school ratings information:

The number of Academically Unacceptable schools, districts and charters rose this year as the state implemented tougher standards, but 27.3 percent of campuses and 14.5 percent of districts still managed to achieve an Exemplary or Recognized rating under the more rigorous system, the Texas Education Agency announced today.

Locally, HISD maintained its Academically Acceptable rating, although you have to make it to the fourth paragraph of the Chronicle's story to discover that:

The number of Houston Independent School District campuses considered "academically unacceptable" by the state nearly tripled to 39 this year under school accountability ratings released today.

School ratings were down across the state using this year's tougher passing standards on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam. The ratings are based on TAKS scores, single-year dropout rates and four-year high school graduation rates.

In Houston, unacceptable schools account for 14 percent of the 281 rated campuses, up from 5 percent in 2004. The number of unacceptable HISD schools -- 39 -- outnumbered those that received the higher ratings of exemplary and recognized combined, 34.

Still, HISD managed to keep its acceptable district rating.

"Our district-wide rating held steady," Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said in a written statement. "But overall, these results are not good enough, and everyone knows it. This should be a loud and clear signal that we must do better."

And then there's this good news in the Chronicle's story:

The news was better at Yates High School, which managed to get off the unacceptable list for the first time in recent years. Yates is among three HISD high schools undergoing a dramatic overhaul in its teaching staff this summer in a plan to improve the schools.

[snip]

Principal George August said he still believes the staff overhaul was necessary to continue improving the school.

"There were some people who had become complacent and who had been reluctant to really give their best. There were some excellent teachers and we retained them," he said. "We still have a lot of work to do. Some change has occurred, but it must be sustained."

Here's the link to search school and school district results. Jason Spencer's story includes the status of several local ISDs:

In 2004, only 95 of the state's 7,908 school received the lowest ratings. This year, that number nearly quadrupled to 364, or nearly 5 percent. And the number of regular school districts rated unacceptable now stands at 19, including Galveston, Humble and Beaumont. Four school districts received the lowest rating in 2004.

And several districts that had grown used to their recognized ratings, including Cypress-Fairbanks and Clear Creek, are now lumped together with a big pack of acceptable schools.

And here are some more local results:

Katy ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Klein ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Alief ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Spring Branch ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Spring ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Aldine ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Tomball ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Fort Bend ISD -- Academically Acceptable
North Forest ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Goose Creek ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Galena Park ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Pasadena ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Pearland ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Deer Park ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Channelview ISD -- Academically Acceptable
La Porte ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Sheldon ISD -- Academically Acceptable
Conroe ISD -- Academically Acceptable

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/01/05 05:26 PM |

Wortham Center corrects orchestra pit design flaw

The Wortham Center's orchestra pit is being rebuilt, fixing a design flaw that has provided 20 years worth of headaches for the HGO and the Houston Ballet:

It was built in the mid 1980s exactly the way Houston Grand Opera wanted it, with the back half of the pit under the edge of the stage, much like the pit in the historic world-class Bayreuth Opera House in Germany, because they wanted Houston's opera house to be like Bayreuth. In that arrangement, several rows of musicians sit and play under the stage overhang, and that's how it's been for 18 seasons, for HGO and Houston Ballet, the Wortham's two resident arts groups. Opera Technical Director Greg Weber says they now know that it was a mistake to copy Bayreuth, because Bayreuth and the Wortham are not even remotely similar in design, and, clearly, what works at Bayreuth doesn't work at the Wortham.

[snip]

[Opera Technical Director] Greg Weber says they made some small changes in the pit and stage configuration in 1996, in the hope of improving the sound, but it didn't work as well as they hoped. Then, two years ago, they decided to just scrap the old pit and build a new one. They had two primary considerations.

HGO and Houston Ballet got two million dollars from the City of Houston to pay for moving the orchestra pit completely out from under the stage, farther out into the audience area, and this work is now underway in the Wortham's large hall.

[snip]

Weber says starting this fall, opera and ballet audiences will hear the orchestra better and more clearly than they ever have. Houston Ballet Managing Director C.C. Conner says he's delighted and relieved, because his dancers will finally be able to hear the music without speakers.

Conner says the new and open orchestra pit will make all the difference in the world for ballet performances.

With the larger orchestra pit sticking five feet farther out into the hall, the Wortham is losing two sections of seats on the front row, 22 seats in all. The new and improved Wortham Center orchestra pit will be finished in time for Houston Ballet's season in September. Houston Grand Opera's season begins in October. The $2 million cost is coming from the City's Convention and Entertainment Center budget, which is funded by the local hotel-motel room tax.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/01/05 02:34 PM |

Red light cameras can help with Houston's day laborer problem

The Minutemen sure have stirred things up in Houston.

Oh, and it's not just about diversity, harmony and peace. We forgot about compassion:

A regular police community meeting near Shepherd and Washington last week drew more than 70 residents and business owners, including many who expressed frustration with day laborers.

The problem "is way worse than it was three or four years ago," said Michael Tones, the vice president of New Plan Excel Realty Trust, which owns a shopping center in the area. Tones said customers are frightened by the men loitering along Shepherd near 11th Street.

Juan Alvarez, an activist working to organize the day laborers in that area, asked homeowners to be compassionate.

"I know it is a problem for most of you, but on the other side they are human beings, too," Alvarez said.

So, what's the solution? Why, build more "day labor sites," at city expense of course:

At a separate meeting, Joe Rubio, a representative of Catholic Charities who also heads the Mayor's Office on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, introduced a proposal to place a day labor center in each quadrant of the city. The centers would be located away from residential neighborhoods, and would offer language classes and other education.

Rubio estimates that each center would cost a "minimum" of $150,000 a year. Councilman Gordon Quan said he doubted the council would provide $600,000 to fund the four sites, but Rubio and others said private funding could help offset the costs.

In the East End, a day labor center has reopened using $90,000 from the city, $50,000 from Bank of America and volunteer work from representatives of Exxon Mobil Corp.

That's awfully defeatist of Councilman Quan. Mayor White can be pretty persuasive, and if the mayor decides he wants $600,000 to build centers where "immigrants" can take educational classes, get help with identification papers and find employment, he'll figure out a way to make it happen.

Besides, those red light cameras will have plenty of revenue flowing into city coffers real soon.

UPDATE: Chris Baker is discussing this topic today. He interviewed Joe Rubio (mentioned in the Chron's story) who passed along an interesting tidbit: day laborers have complained about being picked up for jobs and then not paid by homeowners and contracters. So HPD has it set up where laborers can lodge a complaint with HPD about people who don't pay them.

Interesting, huh? Chief Hurtt insists that HPD does not have the resources to ask people if they are here legally, but HPD does have the resources to go after the homeowners and contractors who rip them off.

Of course as Chris points out, it's terrible that anyone would not uphold his promise to pay, but if the people who are here illegally weren't encouraged to be here, maybe they wouldn't be victimized in the first place.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/01/05 10:29 AM |

Bob Stein, Houston bicyclist

Oh look: Bob Stein makes an appearance in today's Chronicle as a Houston bicyclist:

Since moving to Houston in 1979, Bob Stein, a political scientist at Rice University and dean of its School of Social Sciences, says he has logged some 250,000 miles on his bicycle, mostly within the city.

Twenty-six years ago, a bicycle was an economic necessity because Stein and his family couldn't afford two cars. Now he rides seven days a week, logging as much as 200 miles, much of it spent commuting the 11 miles between his house and the Rice campus.

His motives are good health, an aversion to what he calls a car-centric society, and the simple pleasure of riding. Stein, however, is realistic when it comes to biking in Houston and doesn't readily endorse it for children or inexperienced adults.

"It's not a city that's immediately friendly to bicyclists. You have to plan the right way to get where you want to go for that time of day. Not every driver is your friend. They don't move over. I've been driven off the road twice," said Stein, adding that he once broke six ribs when a driver opened his door in front of him.

Of course, Stein is also a regular political expert for the Chronicle and his wife works for Mayor White, two things that were mysteriously left out of the story. We thought the Chronicle had fixed the problem of identifying Stein correctly.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/01/05 08:28 AM |

We are at #105 -- that's world class!

We appreciate Rad Sallee's more objective reporting of Metro since Lucas Wall left, but Sallee's MetroRail accident count is off:

Unless the incidents suddenly stop, the Metropolitan Transit Authority's 7.5-mile light rail line soon will log its 100th collision.

A 61-year-old woman became No. 99 on Thursday when, according to witnesses, she stepped in front of a MetroRail train in Midtown. The impact knocked her to the pavement and caused multiple abrasions, but she felt well enough Friday to go home from the hospital.

Not quite. #100 happened on July 19. The pedestrian accident last Thursday was #105.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/01/05 08:10 AM |

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