30 September 2005
How about traffic information on the freeway signs?
For the past three days, some version of the above message has been displayed on the TranStar freeway signs for motorists heading inbound on the Southwest Freeway during P.M. drive time.
It's all well and good that Houston is trying to get useful information out to those affected by recent storms, but the signs above were really no help today in notifying motorists that there was an accident in the middle lane near the spur, slowing the drive in horribly. Had the sign been displaying that information -- information one expects of a highway sign designed to inform motorists of accidents and other problems -- some drivers might have been able to exit early and plan other routes.
Instead, we got to sit in a traffic jam that was only starting to build.
That's stupid. TranStar needs to get the problem fixed.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/30/05 05:30 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
HCTRA suspends Grand Parkway project development
In the ongoing battle between far North Harris County residents and the Grand Parkway project, the Harris County Toll Road Authority has suspended all of its development efforts:
In a letter to Commissioners Court dated Sept 21, 2005, Art Storey, PE, wrote:
"Dear Court Members:
As I have reported before, TxDOT has suggested that Harris County join them in a general agreement for sharing toll road revenues when HCTRA constructs a toll road in TxDOT right-of-way or on an alignment within the TxDOT highway system. With the support of county staff and our toll road legal and investment consultants, I have been working on such an agreement for several months.
The negotiations have been difficult, and more time and effort is needed before we can expect to reach agreement. Accordingly, I have instructed HCTRA to stop work on so- called "future" projects until either such an agreement is in hand or the requirement for one is eliminated. Projects affected include the Grand Parkway and the U.S. 290 corridor (Hempstead Road).
And Art Storey wrote this to HCTRA Director Mike Strech:
Please instruct our staff and consultants to suspend immediately all work on the proposed Grand Parkway. That means surveying, right-of-way definition, schematic designs, conversations, everything. We will resume from this point (or from some other one) if and when we have successfully negotiated an agreement with TxDOT to do so. I will inform eommissioners Court accordingly at their next meeting on September 27th."
The suspension may only be temporary, but we'll take it.
Thanks to Connie for the heads up -- and Connie also received a letter from Grand Parkway Association Executive Director David Gornet in which he admitted that residential and commercial development continues at a brisk pace along the proposed Grand Parkway F-2 route with little regard for transportation planning.
Apparently developers haven't been consulting with (soon-to-be-outta-there) state Sen. Jon Lindsay.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/30/05 09:51 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron.com Sports adopts full-screen "hijack" advertising
I appreciate that Chron.com is free to users, and I appreciate that Chron.com has to pay the bills, but it's really disappointing to see that the sports page has adopted those annoying full-screen ads that hijack a browser for a few seconds before allowing a user to see content.
I hope this advertising strategy is not permanent. I think it's a mistake for interactive media to annoy its users.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/30/05 09:21 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron: don't blame media for exaggerated New Orleans reporting
Yet one more example to keep in mind the next time the Chronicle editorial board (made up of, you know, editors) wants a shield law:
Working in a chaotic environment, reporters repeated some of the accounts as fact. The accounts were thoroughly backed, however, by New Orleans' top officials. In a televised interview, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin told Oprah Winfrey that "hundreds of armed gang members" were raping women and committing murder in the Superdome. The occupants, he said, were in "an almost animalistic state." Police Superintendent Eddie Compass — who resigned Tuesday — went further, telling Winfrey, "We had little babies in there ... getting raped."
This week, careful studies are establishing reality. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, officials have found evidence of one murder. No witnesses or victims have substantiated rape claims at the Superdome or convention center. In Houston, only six evacuees have reported violent crimes occurring in New Orleans.
[snip]
But the hyperbole spouted by Nagin and Compass created a special obstacle. Both men were understandably distraught. Both tried wildly to attract attention from a federal government that for days effectively abandoned them. Even so, their reckless words breathed life into the stereotypes that helped make New Orleans a disaster. Perhaps they blindly accepted the worst rumors because they matched their own assumptions about the poor.
First off, Nagin effectively abandoned his own city. The feds are not and never have been first responders. It is up to local and state officials to be ready for the immediate aftermath of any disaster.
Second, the media also "blindly accepted the worst rumors because they matched their own assumptions about the poor," or else the media would have been more cautious about what it put into news stories.
Nope, the Chron can't lay the blame solely on New Orleans' city officials -- the Chron has told us before that it is the media's JOB to be skeptical.
The professional media needs to own up to its own failings in the aftermath of Katrina.
UPDATE: Don't miss Hugh Hewitt's critical take of the professional media's reporting:
There weren't stacks of bodies in the freezer. But America was riveted by this reporting, wholesale collapse of the media's own levees they let in all the rumors, and all the innuendo, all the first-person story because they were caught up in their own emotionalism. Exactly what Keith was praising I think led to one of the worst weeks of reporting in the history of American media, and it raises this question: If all of that amount of resources was given over to this story and they got it wrong, how can we trust American media in a place far away like Iraq where they don't speak the language, where there is an insurgency, and I think the question comes back we really can't.
Hewitt has one of the best talk shows (both intelligent and entertaining) on the radio. In case you aren't already a devoted listener, locally he's on KNTH-1070 AM from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Online you can listen to him live here and then from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. (delayed obviously) here.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/30/05 08:28 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
29 September 2005
Filmed in Texas
KPRC-2 posts an Associated Press report that the date for Rep. Tom DeLay to appear in court has been set for October 21. The story spends a fair amount of time profiling DeLay's high-powered Houston attorney Dick Deguerin:
"I represented Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison 12 years ago, and to me this seems like what Yogi Berra said: 'It's deja vu all over again,' " DeGuerin said. "That was a political prosecution. This is a political prosecution."
Earle indicted Hutchison in 1993 in an investigation into whether she misused state employees and equipment and destroyed state documents while serving as the Texas treasurer.
Hutchison was acquitted when Earle abruptly dropped the case in 1994. Earle said then that he gave up the case because the trial judge would not rule in advance whether prosecutors could use as evidence documents and other material obtained in a controversial raid on state treasury offices. Hutchison's defenders said that his case failed because he didn't have one.
DeGuerin is pushing for a speedy trial for DeLay, a Sugar Land Republican who has stepped aside as majority leader because of the indictment. DeGuerin said he wants a trial by the end of the year.
KTRK-13 posts another Associated Press story that reports on DeLay's active defense of himself today.
Finally, NRO's Byron York posts the news that Ronnie Earle is now a documentary film star. Orrin Judd's reaction to that news is amusing.
Perhaps if the DeLay case craters on Earle like the Hutchison fiasco, he'll at least have a jump start on an acting career.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/05 10:51 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
New crime lab DNA chief on board weeks ago, local media report
Yesterday, KHOU-11 reported that the HPD crime lab had a new director for its DNA section:
The embattled HPD crime lab has a new leader for its DNA section.
A nationwide search for a manager for the DNA section of the lab ended close to home.
Dr. Vanessa Nelson used to work in DNA analysis at the Harris County Medical Examiners office. She was also a section supervisor at the DPS Crime lab.
Nelson has been on the job since Sept. 5.
The Chronicle reported the news today:
A former DNA analyst for the state and Harris County has been chosen to lead the Houston police crime lab's DNA division, which is working to reopen after being shut down almost three years ago.
Vanessa Nelson, who most recently was a senior DNA analyst with the county Medical Examiner's Office, assumed leadership of the DNA lab on Sept. 5, police officials said Wednesday. She is expected to oversee the reopening of the DNA division, the only section in the scandal-plagued crime lab that has not been accredited, possibly by the end of the year, officials said.
Why in the world did it take 23 days for HPD to announce and the local media to report this latest news about the HPD crime lab?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/05 10:18 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Houston Press "Best Of" time
The Houston Press serves up its annual "Best Of" issue today.
Be sure to go check out all the nifty award winners the Press staff have chosen (and if you want some fun, contrast those with the reader picks where available).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/05 09:54 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (20)
WaPo editorializes on DeLay indictment; Chron silent
The Washington Post managed a fast turnaround on the DeLay indictment, with an editorial in today's edition that is somewhat skeptical of Ronnie Earle's action:
Nonetheless, at least on the evidence presented so far, the indictment of Mr. DeLay by a state prosecutor in Texas gives us pause. The charge concerns the activities of Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), a political action committee created by Mr. DeLay and his aides to orchestrate the GOP's takeover of the Texas legislature in 2002. The issue is whether Mr. DeLay and his political aides illegally used the group to evade the state's ban on corporate contributions to candidates. The indictment alleges that TRMPAC took $155,000 in corporate contributions and then sent a check for $190,000 to the national Republican Party's "soft money" arm. The national committee then wrote $190,000 in checks from its noncorporate accounts to seven Texas candidates. Perhaps most damning, TRMPAC dictated the precise amount and recipients of those donations.
This was an obvious end run around the corporate contribution rule. The more difficult question is whether it was an illegal end run -- or, to be more precise, one so blatantly illegal that it amounts to a criminal felony rather than a civil violation. For Mr. DeLay to be convicted, prosecutors will have to show not only that he took part in the dodge but also that he knew it amounted to a violation of state law -- rather than the kind of clever money-trade that election lawyers engineer all the time.
That's liable to be difficult for Earle, and his indictment seems to reflect the fact that he's still trying to build a case (or even concrete charges).
Unsurprisingly, the Chronicle editorialists could not manage a timely comment on the indictment today. Instead, they offer yet another of the "In the aftermath of Katrina" series. But, we'll cut them a little slack, since their reader representative pointed out last week that they all worked really hard to cover a big news event. Anybody who's ever had a long work day will surely sympathize.
The Chronicle did post some legal reporting/analysis from Mary Flood, whose work on the Enron trial has drawn praise. Flood's piece is balanced between skepticism and the notion that Earle must have some "smoking gun" to have brought this indictment. Here's an excerpt:
Most legal experts looking at the conspiracy indictment of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said Wednesday that either an insider has turned against DeLay or the prosecutor may have gone too far.
"I can't imagine indicting a majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives without having a smoking gun, and that means someone who flipped on DeLay," said Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer who filed a related civil lawsuit on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates. "He's got to have corroborating evidence, too, bills and things proving where DeLay was at key times."
Several lawyers and law professors said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle could have talked the grand jury into a questionable indictment if he hasn't secured key witnesses who were "in the room" with DeLay. Otherwise, this conspiracy case could be too hard to prove with just circumstantial evidence, they said.
The indictment's easy. Clarifying the vague charges so that they point to specific violations of law, and then proving them, will be harder. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Every major newspaper in the state managed to comment on the DeLay indictment today, except of course the major newspaper that actually serves DeLay's district. How embarrassing for the Chronicle. Perhaps the editorial idealists will get rested up enough from the hard work of putting out a newspaper during a big news event to work up an opinion for tomorrow's newspaper. In the meantime, here are editorials from the Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and San Antonio Express-News.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/05 08:20 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
28 September 2005
Why hasn't The Queen fixed this?
KTRK-13's Jeff Ehling reports that FEMA's Houston hurricane headquarters experienced some problems today:
There was a long line of people waiting in the heat outside FEMA's hurricane headquarters in Houston Wednesday.
The disaster recovery center opened at 8am for Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Some evacuees camped out the night before just be first in line, but the efforts became chaotic outside the headquarters when the heat became too much for several people. There were some people fainting and one woman was taken away to get treated for heat exhaustion.
Because of the dangers posed by the heat, FEMA decided to shut down the line Wednesday morning. Normally, the line would be open until 7pm.
FEMA officials are hoping that on Thursday, there will be a break in the weather and things will be a little calmer.
Another reason they shut down the lines is because there are already so many people waiting that they wouldn't be able to help any more people if they got in line. They are asking evacuees to come back another day.
In related reporting that is not posted on the website, KTRK's Miya Shay obtained quotes from FEMA's man at the center, who effectively said, "lots of people showed up, what is FEMA to do?"
Frankly, that bureaucrat's attitude needs to improve. The folks standing in today's near-hundred-degree temperatures waiting didn't even have water to drink. We can debate whether taxpayers should fund FEMA to the extent we are, but since we are, is it too much to ask that it work more efficiently, and that it provide constituents standing in the sun some water while they wait?
Furthermore, it's disappointing that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and/or her staff weren't caught on camera intervening on behalf of the people in line. Since The Queen nearly knocked over an exhausted Mayor White to grab the microphone during a Rita press conference last week, her enthusiasm for helping Rita victims must have waned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/28/05 10:02 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
DeLay's tormentor: Partisan or just power mad?
There's a telling line from Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in the Chronicle's reporting of today's indictment of Tom DeLay:
"I have done nothing wrong ... I am innocent," DeLay told a Capitol Hill news conference in which he repeatedly criticized the prosecutor, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. DeLay called Earle a "unabashed partisan zealot," and "fanatic," and described the charges as "one of the weakest and most baseless indictments in American history."
In Austin, Earle told reporters, "Our job is to prosecute abuses of power and to bring those abuses to the public."
Earlier, I forwarded this to friend Orrin Judd, who wrote:
Mr. Earle's statement seems to concede Mr. DeLay's point. Mr. Earle is supposed to prosecute actual violations of the laws.
Yes, the laws.
The indictment is pretty sketchy on DeLay's supposed violation of law. I'm no attorney, but Earle had better go to court with more than that or he could be setting himself up for a repeat of his Kay Bailey Hutchison fiasco.
Earle's nearly messianic view of himself and his strange obsession with "abuse of power" instead of actual violation of law was captured in a December 2004 article in the Christian Science Monitor, which Orrin Judd also highlighted at the time.
The irony is that Earle's obsession with "abuse of power" certainly led him to abuse the power of his own office in the Hutchison fiasco. The court proceedings will certainly let us know whether he's done it again.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/28/05 08:50 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
DeLay indicted by Texas grand jury
The Associated Press is reporting that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been indicted by a Texas grand jury:
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
More details will surely be available shortly.
UPDATE: Here is an excerpt from Laylin Copelin's reporting for the Austin American-Statesman:
A Travis County grand jury today indicted U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on one count of criminal conspiracy, jeopardizing the Sugar Land Republican's leadership role as the second most powerful Texan in Washington, D.C.
The charge, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years incarceration, stems from his role with his political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, a now-defunct organization that already had been indicted on charges of illegally using corporate money during the 2002 legislative elections.
The grand jury, however, took no action against Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond or state Reps. Dianne Delisi and Beverly Woolley, both of whom sit on the political committee's board, for their roles in the election.
The grand jury's term ended today.
Delay's defense team will hold a press conference in Austin later this afternoon. The team includes defense attorneys Bill White and Steve Brittain of Austin and Dick DeGuerin of Houston.
[snip]
[A] conspiracy charge falls under the criminal code, not the election statute that bans corporate money from being spent on a campaign. And Earle has the jurisdiction to prosecute DeLay for conspiring with others to circumvent state law.
In recent days, the broad-based investigation has focused on one particular transaction during the 2002 campaign.
[snip]
As late as Tuesday, Travis County prosecutors were interviewing Republican National Committee staffers about their roles in the transaction.
That prosecutors were scrambling so hard against the deadline and pulled out a conspiracy charge makes one wonder about the likelihood of conviction. Nonetheless, the House leadership will be forced to go to its deep bench now, and partisans on both sides will surely be howling for a while.
UPDATE 2: Chris Elam posts two DeLay press releases (here and here).
UPDATE 3: Coverage from the Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, and Washington Post.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/28/05 11:44 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (12)
27 September 2005
The rush to be world class
Jenna Colley and Jonathan Selden of the Houston Business Journal report on Mayor White and his Council bending over backwards and doing handflips in order to secure the new Houston Pavilions development:
Months of negotiations ended last week as Houston City Council and Mayor Bill White tweaked the rules to provide a tax break for a major downtown development.
The action removed a roadblock to construction of Houston Pavilions, a $200 million mixed-use project planned by the team of Houston developer Geoff Jones and William Denton of California-based Entertainment Development Group.
The developers lobbied long and hard for financial incentives from the public sector to get Houston Pavilions off the ground.
The package approved on Sept. 14 fulfills their requests.
Terms call for an expansion of the Main Street/Market Square Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), which currently encompasses a 65-block area. The 10-year-old TIRZ will be stretched another two blocks to include the proposed Houston Pavilions site.
City officials also will give the developers an $8.8 million development grant to fund infrastructure improvements around the project bordered by Main, Polk, Dallas and Caroline streets. Harris County will kick in another $4.4 million.
In return, a unique financial arrangement will provide a faster public payback than the typical TIRZ.
Mayor White was instrumental in hammering out details of the deal, an apparent departure from his usual policy toward TIRZs.
In recent months, a skeptical White has made greater financial scrutiny of all 22 city TIRZs a hot-button issue.
At the behest of the mayor, City Council is currently debating whether to disband the Hardy Street TIRZ for failing to meet financial obligations.
So while one TIRZ faces possible extinction, another is being expanded with input from White.
After agreeing to an interview on the issue, the mayor canceled, citing time constraints created by the Hurricane Rita emergency.
The mayor obviously has been busy micromanaging the Rita emergency, but if there was time to ramrod this sweetheart deal through Council, the mayor really needs to find time to answer questions about it from the press and public.
PREVIOUSLY: New TIRZ approved for downtown Pavilions development.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 11:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
In the aftermath of Katrina...
The editorial idealists used that phrase yet again today.
It's really past time to retire it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 11:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron editorialists take on gay-marriage amendment (again)
The Chronicle editorialists continue to agitate against the gay-marriage constitutional amendment that goes to Texas voters later this year:
This November, Texans will vote on Proposition 2, a proposed constitutional amendment that would silence further reflection on these important issues. The referendum language defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Texas law already outlaws same-sex marriage. Should voters approve this amendment, it would change nothing in the law. It lacks any purpose other than to enshrine bigotry in the Texas Constitution.
The first of those three bolded sentences is frequently cited by the minority that favors same-sex marriage as a major reason a constitutional amendment is unnecessary.
They can repeat themselves as much as they would like, but the fact is that constitutions and statutes are not the same thing at all.
As my mentor on constitutionalism and political philosophy has noted, one of several purposes of a constitution is to lay out the values (and aspirations) of the people of the polity (in the case of state constitutions, the state). There was never any reason to define marriage in most constitutions because most citizens simply understood marriage to be between a man and a woman. In recent years, however, there's been quite an effort to redefine marriage. Unsurprisingly, majorities in most states do continue to reject that redefinition, and some states have chosen to amend their constitutions to make clear the prevailing view of the citizenry on the matter.
The editorialists are simply wrong when they contend that the constitutional amendment lacks any purpose because there are related statutes on the books. The purpose of the amendment, should it pass, will be to commit to the state's fundamental governing document the values of a majority of Texans regarding marriage, values that only recently have even been challenged (and therefore never needed such codification in the constitution). Because one purpose of a constitution is to enshrine the values of the people, the amendment does have a broader purpose than related statutory law, however redundant it may seem to the Chronicle editorial idealists.
The Chronicle disagrees with what is likely to be the majority view this November (and likely a large majority of its readership), and so it shrieks about "bigotry" and shows a lack of understanding of constitutionalism and popular sovereignty. One would expect better from worshippers of Plato's ideal state.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 10:53 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (12)
Who knew welfare statism created slums and dependency?
The Chronicle editorial idealists certainly are the pessimistic bunch:
Unfortunately, many of the 15,000 sites FEMA has identified are miles away from New Orleans.
Many are located far from schools, stores and work centers, and many evacuees have no car. Without access to jobs and transportation, these campgrounds could turn into massive slums full of hopeless people dependent on the government for every basic need, from food to health care.
What! The editorial idealists are now rejecting the full-blown welfare state as undesirable? That's shocking.
In all seriousness, the suggestion that Tom Kirkendall pointed to earlier (direct financial aid to the recipients, as opposed to government pork-barrel "redevelopment" boondoggles) would be far preferable. Since the Chronicle has rejected the big-government, welfare-statist approach, we welcome its endorsement of the more radically capitalistic approach that Kirkendall noted.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 10:20 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
(HISD) school employees drove evacuees home from shelters
We told you the other day about HISD providing the city with last minute shelters and then HISD driving over 400 of those evacuees back to where they came from. Yesterday Matt Stiles wrote a story about the mayor's last-minute shelter plan and, well, read on:
But at least 400 remained later Saturday at Delmar Stadium Fieldhouse, a domed structure on Mangum road, as school district officials and the American Red Cross decided what to do with them.
They expressed mixed emotions as they waited in the dim, hot high school gymnasium.
A few, interviewed before HISD officials ordered a Chronicle reporter and photographer out of the facility, were grateful they were spared weathering the storm outdoors.
Others felt abandoned at the crowded site, saying they didn't know when they would leave or where they would go.
"These aren't affluent people, and they were treated with less respect than they should have," said Beaumont evacuee Dennis Daniels.
He pointed to people wearing bandages or sitting in wheelchairs, waiting outside the building in the early afternoon as the weather altered between sunshine and drizzle.
He and others at the site said those people had been brought to the shelter on Metropolitan Transit Authority buses from Ben Taub General, the city's largest charity hospital.
Hospital officials said they just couldn't take them all in.
"We were inundated with people who came to Ben Taub thinking it was a shelter," said Carol Oddo, Harris County Hospital District spokeswoman. "No one was discharged from the hospital who wasn't ready to go."
Others at the shelters, officials said, had been stranded on freeways in disabled cars or found wandering the streets in the hours before the storm came ashore.
[snip]
So school employees drove people around the city, dropping them off at their desired locations after clearing out the facility.
School employees? Which school employees? Oh! It must've been HISD school employees!
So let me see if I have this straight: the city's last-resort shelter plan was HISD, and then after directing people to those facilities, the city didn't make sure the last several hundred evacuees had a way back to where they came from. So HISD employees played taxi drivers. That was nice of HISD. Again.
As for the Chronicle reporter and photographer who were shooed away, if I was in a shelter as a hurricane was bearing down, I don't think I'd be too eager to chit-chat with the media. Matt Stiles is probably a great guy, but still...
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: A reporter and photographer were ordered out? My goodness, why didn't Kyrie O'Connor, Kristin Finan, and other Features STAR editors spring into action with a plan to impersonate a refugee? They could surely have smuggled in a small camera, and O'Connor could have praised the whole effort as compassionate and responsible first-person journalism!
Finan and O'Connor, by the way, continue to ignore our emails about that first-person journalism, and the reader representative, who promised to address the matter on his blog, has been missing for some time. Their treatment of the matter has not been what one would expect of professional journalists.
In any case, that stupid stunt of theirs might well have been on the minds of HISD officials, and may well hurt the Chronicle's news gathering efforts in the future. Stupid stunts sometimes have ramifications.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/27/05 08:37 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Rita placeholder (HURRICANE RITA v. HOUSTON)
We're going to follow Laurence Simon's lead and use this post as a placeholder for the Rita announcement that was stuck at the top during the excitement.
ALERT: MAYOR WHITE AND JUDGE ECKELS ASK THAT IF YOU HAVE LEFT TOWN, PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO RETURN NOW. GRIDLOCK IS LIKELY TO RESULT, AND THERE'S NO REASON TO REPEAT THAT EXERCISE FROM THE EVACUATION AND MANY GOOD REASONS NOT TO. TXDOT ASKS THAT PEOPLE RETURNING ADHERE TO THIS VOLUNTARY SCHEDULE.
Laurence Simon has a good list of local Rita-related bloggers and news sources, and the Chronicle's SciGuy and Rita blogs will be good sources of information as well. As Laurence says, if you're getting news about Rita from some national newspaper or out-of-state blogger, you're probably missing part of the story.
Here's a thread in our forum for anybody who wants share his/her Rita stories/thoughts.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 07:35 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
26 September 2005
Taking no chances in Sharpstown
Thankfully, since the worst of Rita missed us, I didn't take many photos of the storm's aftermath.
However, I did get one good photo out in the Sharpstown area of a house bordering sort of a bad area in that neighborhood.
It's hard to be much clearer than that.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/05 04:32 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
More Hoffman fun
Ken Hoffman has been on a roll through the Rita excitement.
I thought I'd throw a few more favorites up from Hoffman. With Chron.com, one never quite knows when entire paragraphs may just disappear after all.
Here was a great observation about the local Congresscritters:
And how come fuel trucks couldn't make it to Houston, but Tom DeLay and Sheila Jackson Lee had no problem getting here? The wrong bags of gas got through.
One local blogger actually implied some of us were racists for noting Queen Sheila's latest mad dash for the cameras (a source of amusement on the Chris Baker show today), although later said blogger wrote that he agreed with everything Hoffman said in the above column. Who needs consistency when the race card can be played, eh? Thankfully, we try to keep things a little more levelheaded here.
In his Q&A column, Hoffman had this good one:
Q: What is to become of all the rides at Six Flags AstroWorld when it closes? Will they sell or give them to other theme parks or will some of them just end up in a pile of scrap metal?
Lori Sloan, Houston
A: The rides will be shipped to other Six Flags theme parks. AstroWorld's problem was, no matter how scary they made their roller coasters, they couldn't compete with the rock 'em, sock' em bumps of Houston's No. 1 thrill ride ... METRO light rail.
Beware of the Danger Train!
There's also this:
I read where Tom Koch is no longer doing a split shift at Channel 13. Now he can spend more time with Tilman Fertitta behind home plate at Minute Maid Park.
Craig Roberts, Houston
A: After 17 years of working the early shift at Channel 13, while pulling double duty at 4 p.m., Koch was given a reprieve. Now he only works afternoons. Tom Abrahams is the new morning guy.
Is that Craig Roberts of Houston sportscasting fame? Probably so. Hoffman knows everybody.
Good for Tom Abrahams getting a crack at mornings. I thought his reporting during the Rita coverage was very steady for KTRK.
I'm sure Hoffman's happy where he is, but wouldn't it be fun if he were to displace noxious Chronicle editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey on the metro/state pages? Hoffman's observations on the local scene would be welcome there.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/05 04:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
Goin' stir crazy
Some of those who ventured out for some shopping Sunday acknowledged that they really didn't need much. But the trip to the store was a good excuse to get out of the house.
"We're going stir crazy," said Eric Shafer of Bellaire, the owner of a software company, as he, his wife, Kimm, their 5-year-old daughter, Katy, and four relatives wandered around the Galleria.
Judy Cole of Spring, her daughter, Tamara Cathey, of Liberty County, and a family friend, Lauren Simmons, of Humble, said they were getting cabin fever after waiting out the hurricane at Cole's house.
"We would weigh 200 pounds if we had to stay in the house another day," Cole said.
Yep, and the kids are out of school for two more days. Sigh.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/26/05 08:34 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
Government agencies need to rework evacuation plans
This Chronicle story addresses some of the issues we have been discussing on Houston blogs -- the massive traffic jam last Wednesday and Thursday:
Hurricane planners have a little ditty that goes, "run from the water, hide from the wind."
It means evacuate if you are in a coastal surge area, but hunker down if you are in an area that will get hurricane-force winds and rain only.
The biggest problem in Houston's painful evacuation last week was that perhaps a million people, almost half of those who left, ran from the wind. To make matters worse, the regional evacuation plan was missing a key element — pre-planned contraflow lanes that are a part of virtually every other hurricane-prone city's evacuation strategy.
[snip]
Counseling people to stay put with a monster storm approaching is a tricky thing. Houston-area officials were stern about evacuations in the surge zones shown on their maps, but became considerably more vague about advice for everyone else.
Houston Mayor Bill White called for residents to use "common sense," but he did implore them to leave early if they were leaving.
Florida hurricane planners have learned to worry about the "shadow evacuation" — residents outside the mandatory evacuation zones who leave.
It is always much larger in the immediate aftermath of another major storm — in this case, Hurricane Katrina.
[snip]
The answer is to respect people's freedom of choice, but make sure they are educated at the beginning of each hurricane season so they can weigh realistic considerations, Baker said. His example: if you evacuate, you definitely will find yourself in a titanic traffic jam; if you stay, there may be only a one-in-five chance the storm will hit your area and, if it does, you will spend a terrifying night in your house, but probably will be fine.
The winds from a strong hurricane can rip off parts of roofs and smash windows, but solid structures stay intact and people are OK if they stay in the center of a home, away from windows, he said.
It is hard to tell an individual to endure that, he said, but from a regional standpoint, it may mean that those in the surge zones can evacuate safely.
Then the story addresses the lack of contraflow lane planning:
On the "capacity" side, not having a contraflow plan may have been a Rita-size mistake.
Harris County and the city simply didn't have them in their official emergency plans, and much of the lane mileage ultimately freed for evacuee traffic was outside their jurisdictions.
Once it became apparent that something had to change to get people moving at the height of the evacuation, the city and county asked about 2:30 a.m. Thursday for the state to open the lanes.
With no regional or state plan in place, officials scrambled to make it happen.
First, they had to determine how and where to redirect traffic. Then they had to make sure it was safe. About 10 hours later, with a long, snaking line of idling evacuees waiting, southbound lanes on I-45 were reversed. Contraflow on I-10 opened later. TxDOT looked at opening both sides of U.S. 290, but decided it would be impractical because the highway has so many entry points.
In all, state officials say, about 400 miles of highway were switched more than a day before the hurricane landed. About 100 highway barriers were needed to block opposing highway entrance ramps to make sure there weren't head-on collisions. The Department of Public Safety had to send 1,300 troopers to southeast Texas, more than a third of its force. An army of local police also helped.
That's a HUGE undertaking. It's one thing to say, "why don't they just open the other side?" and another thing to actually accomplish it.
And finally, Mayor White's complaint that the state should have been prepared for gas shortages:
The jams on evacuation routes have caused some public officials to question or criticize state officials for not providing extra gasoline along the way. White said Saturday that it was "totally unacceptable" that gas wasn't stored across the state.
That is the Texas Department of Transportation's role, White said. The state's emergency plan tasks the agency with helping motorists whose cars are disabled during an evacuation, including making sure that fuel and emergency vehicle repairs are available.
But the agency simply doesn't have the capacity to handle such an undertaking, officials said, because it does not have fleets of tanker trunks and fuel tanks spread throughout the state. Expecting large tankers to be able to stop on roadways and pump fuel directly into vehicles isn't realistic, said Zane Webb, director of TxDOT's maintenance division.
I was disappointed to see Mayor White leveling that criticism. As we learned from news reports, the number of evacuees far exceeded anything city, county, and state evacuation plans had anticipated, and those plans will now have to be reworked.
But if the mayor wants to start blasting the state for fuel shortages, the state could come back and blast the mayor for not clearly telling higher-ground residents to stay put, especially when mandatory evacuation residents hadn't gotten out yet. (The preceding sentence is Anne's opinion only -- not a consensus blogHOUSTON opinion!)
And since human nature will never be predictable, none of that is useful. Have plans ready that address as many scenarios as possible -- that's the best government can do. The rest is up to individual citizens who must make their own decisions and be prepared.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/26/05 06:43 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (10)
Tow fees paid for cars abandoned in Houston
SAFEclear + FEMA = free tows for Hurricane Rita evacuees who abandoned their cars.
On Houston freeways only:
Evacuees forced to leave cars along freeways because they broke down or ran out of gas may face another nightmare — paying expensive tow and storage fees to get them back.
It all depends on location. If the car was left on a highway within Houston, the city will pay the bill.
Anywhere else, you're on your own.
Frank Michel, the city's communication director, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the city $124 for each car towed under its Safe Clear mandatory tow program.
''The tow operators have agreed to do away with the rest of the fees," Michel said.
Chris Streeter, owner of a trucking company, is among the unlucky ones.
She's looking at more than $700 to retrieve her 18-wheeler, which was towed by law enforcement from Interstate 45 in Spring, an unincorporated area, after its alternator went bad Thursday.
Streeter said her towing bill is $633.59 for the cab and $59.54 for the trailer. She also has to pay the impound lot $35 per day, she said.
''I was stunned when they told me," she said. ''It's just unreal. You're gonna have a lot of people upset by this."
Is this SAFEclear's last hurrah?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/26/05 05:56 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
25 September 2005
Capers v. Casserly: A story for the local sports media?
Last Sunday, two players prized highly enough by Houston Texans general manager Charley Casserly that he spent extra draft picks to get them found themselves benched by head coach Dom Capers as a result of their poor play. John McClain noted this in his coverage on Monday:
The defense was so inept that two starters who cost the Texans a combined five draft choices to acquire — outside linebacker Jason Babin and cornerback Phillip Buchanon — were benched.
Michael Murphy wrote the following:
While the Steelers were rolling on the field, finishing with 388 yards of total offense and averaging 7.2 yards per play, heads were rolling on the Texans sideline. Babin and cornerback Phillip Buchanon both found themselves benched and replaced by Shantee Orr and Demarcus Faggins, respectively.
Babin was punished after jumping offside with the Steelers facing a third-and-10 from their 32 with six minutes to play in the third quarter. Babin's boo-boo moved the ball up five yards, and Roethlisberger then hit Cedrick Wilson with a 40-yard pass to the Houston 23.
Three plays later the Steelers scored on Parker's TD run for a 27-7 lead.
"Obviously it upset me, but it sent a strong message to everybody — if you make mistakes, especially at critical times, then something's going to happen," Babin said. "I can't be upset. If I hadn't made the mistake, I wouldn't have gotten pulled. That's the way it goes."
Buchanon, who was yanked for simply playing poorly, shrugged off the benching and the loss.
That was it.
At the time, I wondered if the head coach wasn't trying to send the general manager a message, but no Chronicle columnist really followed up on those observations.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/25/05 05:41 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)
24 September 2005
The New York Times drops in on the West Alabama
At one point, Chron.com had posted the following as part of a Ken Hoffman column, but then it just inexplicably disappeared in that annoying manner that is all too familiar at Chron.com:
You know, I kind of like Houston this way. It was easy getting around. I had the place to myself. It was like sitting in a movie theater showing a Jennifer Lopez movie.
Hard to believe a hurricane was on its way. In fact, it was so pretty outside, I put the top down on my car and drove around Houston for a few hours.
I stopped by the venerable West Alabama Ice House, which was holding on to its "OPEN" sign for dear life.
"We have no idea when we'll have to close, but we know it's coming soon," a bartender said.
The beer joint may have been open, but Free Hot Dog Friday was suspended. That's worse than the end of the world.
That was a fine bit of writing. It's too bad that it just disappeared. *poof*
For the record, Pete Markantonis tells us that hot dog night was suspended because all of the grocery stores were closed, and he couldn't get buns for the hot dogs.
The Icehouse also got a little attention from national media, and I can even link to it since the New York Times didn't obliterate any mention of the place from its web operation:
Michael Marchand, an offshore oil-rig worker, sat at the outdoor bar at the West Alabama Ice House late Thursday afternoon, putting away a string of Budweiser longnecks. He looked incredulous when asked if he intended to flee.
"To go where?" Mr. Marchand said. "Have you been watching the highways on television?"
Still, he said, he will probably stick close to home when Hurricane Rita hits rather than wandering over to the Ice House, his habit in previous storms ("They always stay open"). This storm did not look like one to mess with, he said.
They DO always stay open, which is one of many reasons that they're named Best Icehouse in Houston on most such lists (except of course if we're talking about the Chronicle's sad little "best of" collection).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/05 11:00 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Mayor White takes aim at state for gas shortages
via KTRK-13:
Days after the evacuation that saw tortuous delays on Texas highways, Houston's mayor says the handling of gasoline supplies is "totally unacceptable."
Speaking to reporters, Mayor Bill White says that's a part of the state plan that needs improvement.
People trying to flee north from Houston sat in traffic all day or night, and some ran out of gas. Those who could make their way to gas stations often found the pumps empty.
Texas Governor Rick Perry appeared to be trying to avoid a repeat of the traffic nightmare as he urged those evacuated from the Gulf Coast to hold off returning. Perry says a plan is being devised to stagger their return. He said more time is needed to restock fuel supplies and retailers drained as people headed away from the danger zone.
I don't know the ins and outs of the evacuation plan's fuel strategy, but I still think three big things factored into the massive traffic mess we saw: Hurricane Katrina was fresh on everyone's minds, city and county officials were calling for voluntary evacuations (and as Beldar points out, the media didn't clearly emphasize WHICH areas were included in those voluntary evacuation zones, and city and county officials didn't clearly say that higher-ground residents should stay put), and late Wednesday Rita strengthened to a strong Category 5 aiming right for Galveston.
That's why an evacuation plan built to move no more than one million people instead had to handle almost three million people.
RELATED: Ken Hoffman on local TV news overkill.
MORE RELATED: Tom Kirkendall is pondering evacuation strategy:
[...]if Alicia and Hurricane Carla in 1961 taught us anything, then it's that most Houstonians survived the storms just fine by battening down the hatches and remaining in their homes. Moreover, the recovery from such a storm is facilitated in many ways by having property owners tending to their property immediately after the storm rather than attempting to find the back way home from afar.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I don't get the criticism of "the media" for not emphasizing which voluntary evacuation zones were voluntary. There was a mandatory evacuation map that I saw EVERY media outlet reference that clearly spelled out mandatory evacuation. If people are too stupid to figure out that areas outside that map are therefore "voluntary," then they are just too stupid to figure that out. Let's not go blaming "the media," which I thought did a pretty darn good job in this crisis (and I'll wager that I watched and listened to as many hours of it as anyone).
Two days out, when it was 12 am and I was watching every media outlet say we had a category 5 bearing down for a direct hit, *I* wanted to get the heck out of town. And honestly, I appreciated Michael Berry's candor in saying, "if you can get out, you should consider getting out." Folks sitting 80 miles inland can question my (and his) judgment all they want. And my answer to them will be to stick it up their tailpipes.
We got very lucky, but I don't think any inner loopster who made an individual decision to get out of town needs to answer to anybody in the Suburban Keyboard Corps of Cadets for that decision. Personally, I'm glad all of this new construction in the inner loop (like my home) wasn't tested by a direct hit of a really bad hurricane. And I'm also glad the Alicia-tested home in which I rode out this storm didn't have to take a direct hit.
It's hard for me to question anybody who planned for the very worst to happen. Maybe that's the backpacker in me. I assume the worst will happen, and count it as an outstanding trip to the woods if there are only minor snafus.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/24/05 06:42 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (4)
COH, Harris County and HISD taking care of those in need
Councilman Michael Berry was just on with KTRK-13's Miya Shay saying that many vehicles that had been abandoned on Houston freeways and streets, because they had run out of gas, were given five gallons of gas by MAP trucks, and a note was put on each car's windshield letting them know that the city of Houston/Harris County had provided a bit of gas. Also, many abandoned vehicles have been towed to the North Shepherd and I-45 Park and Ride. People looking for their cars are urged to call (713) 884-3131 (HPD) to find out where their car has been taken.
And in addition to HISD buses helping with Rita evacuation efforts, HISD also answered a request from Mayor White's office and opened 10 short-term, emergency shelters for people who were unable to evacuate or who had special needs:
HISD school principals, regional superintendents and facilities managers quickly set up emergency short-term shelters. Our employees made sure the evacuees had food and water and a place to sleep last night. State Rep. Rick Noriega, who managed the operation for the city, praised HISD for its "great, great work" in running the temporary shelters. The city worked well with HISD in coordinating the effort.
At 9 p.m. Friday, HISD was caring for 4,692 evacuees in 10 short-term emergency shelters, including 2,600 at Barnett Field House, 825 at Delmar and 626 at Sam Houston High School.
According to HISD's press office, by this afternoon about 450 evacuees remained in the HISD shelters with no way to return where they came from:
Although HISD did not transport any of these evacuees into the HISD buildings where they spent last night during the storm, HISD has volunteered to transport them back out again.
“Some of these people are from Galveston, Kemah, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and even New Orleans, and they really have no place to go right now. So we are working with the Red Cross and will transport them on our school buses to Red Cross shelters,” Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said.
Others came to the HISD facilities out of the medical center and other areas in Houston, and HISD will work to return them.
HISD was asked by the city to open emergency shelters for some of the people most in need, people who could not evacuate, or people with other special needs. HISD school principals, regional superintendents and facilities managers quickly set up emergency short-term shelters, making sure the evacuees had food and water and a place to sleep last night.
Yet more examples of the proactive leadership we have witnessed over the past several days.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/24/05 03:36 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (4)
Thankfully, not much to see up here
I braved the (not so fierce) wind and rain earlier, and here is documented proof that we are feeling very blessed this morning:
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/24/05 12:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
White/Eckels press conference (12:10 pm - 12:30 pm)
Here is a liveblog (from local television) of the press conference from Mayor White and Judge Eckels:
White: Please heed the President's request to stay where you are and not try to return to the area right now if you have left. It's critical that emergency providers be able to get to people who need their help.
"Judge and I are asking employers" not to require people to return to work for at least Monday and Tuesday.
School officials are conferring and will make announcement within an hour about closings. NO school district will be open on Monday. Officials are discussing dates and times of reopening.
Eckels: Reiterating -- Please don't try to come back. The city isn't ready yet. Wait until we get power back in the city.
White: No reason to return for fear of security of property. There have been some isolated incidents of misconduct, people arrested, but law enforcement at high level of alert. People's property is being watched after.
[note from Kevin: I did see a high level of police presence on my trip over to midtown, much higher than normal]
Rick Noriega: [Discussion of safe zones]
White: Emergency convoys en route. People please keep off those routes. I-10 and US 71 in particular. "DO NOT COME BACK UNTIL WORD IS GIVEN BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES." Just because some local authorities have said their cities are safe and secure does not mean you should return. Please wait until state authorities give the word that it's okay to return.
Paul Bettencourt: [preliminary assessment of damage]. Call 713 881 3100 to report damage for structures only (for damage assessment purposes).
White: Again, NOT the time to return unless you are essential personnel (medical, emergency).
Will be announcements through the day about fuel and METRO service. WAIT for announcements.
Q: Short of setting up roadblocks, how do you stop the flow in?
White: Confident people who hear will hold back. Have requested appropriate traffic control personnel from the state, but statewide resources are stretched thin with storm.
Q: [Unintelligible]
White: Has been touring bayous and watershed. Water is higher than it was this morning. Don't assume all flooding risk is over. We haven't seen Allison flooding so far, but there's still rain. Don't assume we've seen the worst.
Q: [Unintelligible]
White: [couldn't hear because KTRK stupidly cut away to show the President's jet taking off. STUPID cutaway! Over to KPRC] Something about refining.
Eckels: [More refinery talk].
Sheila Jackson Lee: [Butts her way in] People should stay in place.
[Kevin: How helpful, Queen. Seriously, why is this buffoon in the way of people who have been handling this matter?]
Q: [Unintelligible]
White: "Several breakins at several sites." HPD out in force and highly visible. Vigilant. We don't see the situation that we've seen in many cities in this situation.
Next press availability 5 pm.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/05 12:19 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Quick take: Southwest Houston to midtown and back
We just drove over from the Sharpstown area to check out the townhouse in midtown.
The townhouse was fine -- no flood or structural damage. Electric was off when we were there, but it has been off and on through the day (we know from calling and the answering machine picking up, or not). Frozen goods were still frozen well, so I don't think power has been out much.
Damage we could see from Southwest Freeway was minor -- some debris, and a few billboard signs blown off, but not much beyond that.
From Kirby to West Alabama and the Icehouse, there were a few downed limbs, but not much more damage. That area had electric. The Icehouse also had electric, and hadn't suffered any appreciable damage. Callie's brother sold most of his stock yesterday, and it's not clear that he'll be able to get resupplied and open today, although he does expect to have ice. How ironic that one of the few Icehouses in Houston that really WAS an icehouse back in the day may be selling ice again later today.
Electric around the southern edge of midtown was out, from Elgin beginning a little before main to roughly Jackson. But some parts of midtown did have power, as we could see from the traffic signals, so I wouldn't think it would take too long to get that part of town back online.
We're back in Sharpstown (we'll move back to midtown later), and discovered two businesses open -- a Mexican carniceria/fruteria around Beechnut/Club Creek doing BRISK business, and a liquor store on Beechnut near Braes Bayou that seemed to be doing slower business.
Incidentally, the bayous we checked out have little water in them, so KTRK has probably reassigned Deborah Wrigley to a more interesting beat.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/05 11:39 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Coming home
Up here in Spring, almost to The Woodlands, we have had wind and rain (duh!), but our power is still on. That means we are having good coffee this morning -- mmmmmm!
Since a good portion of the Houston area dodged the brunt of Rita, talk now will turn to how to get almost 3 million residents back home without the terrible gridlock we saw Wednesday and Thursday. I heard one news report (maybe KTRK-13) saying there was discussion of HISD delaying the opening of schools until after Tuesday so there is less rush for people to get back, and contraflow lanes being opened again for the return trip.
I dunno. I'm not sure there is anything that can be done to minimize the returning human crush. But I tend to be a pessimist.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/24/05 07:04 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (6)
Eyewall hits land
Rita's eyewall has hit land, away from Houston and near Cameron, LA.
In the Sharpstown area, we're seeing some decent wind gusts, but not much rain really so far. The rain will probably come later, but so far we've been spared much bad weather. Television coverage suggests Galveston is getting hit hard by wind.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/05 01:31 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 September 2005
Want a beer in Montrose? The West Alabama is serving
We hear the West Alabama Icehouse may be on KTRK-13 later.
Callie's brother is still serving up the brews at the place, and business is booming. This apparently has a chance of being televised "news."
I love the Icehouse, but that's not the place I'd pick to ride out a storm.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 08:55 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (7)
There goes the military convoy
KTRK-13 is showing (via their Traffic Jam Cam) a convoy of 18-wheelers cruising along the 610 South Loop at Fannin.
The anchors say it's a military convoy.
"It's good to see," says Ilona Carson.
Neither she nor Tom Koch seems to know what they might be transporting or where it's going, but the news is slow in Houston at the moment. Radar shows a pretty strong band bearing down on central Houston and beyond, though.
UPDATE (9:01 PM): KTRK's Gene Apodaca reports that the convoy is pulling into Reliant Park, where a command post will be set up. He's talking search and rescue equipment, firefighting equipment, and all sorts of other equipment.
Ilona Carson asks the question I'm thinking: Can they move this equipment easily to the east, where it looks like they'll be needed more? Apodaca says this is just prepositioning of equipment as close to the storm as possible, so they can respond rapidly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 08:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
KPRC: Kemah boardwalk is "bowing"
KPRC-2 just threw it down to Kemah, and apparently the boardwalk is "bowing" just a bit.
Tilman Fertitta's entertainment complex is likely to take quite a hit, even if the storm heads east.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:46 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (7)
So close you could see his nose hairs
The jackal media just interviewed an elderly man on a gurney who survived that bus that caught fire earlier, resulting in the tragic deaths of a number of passengers.
I watched it on KHOU-11.
I thought it was really in poor taste to do that.
What say you, kind readers?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
Isolated reports of looting
Via Michelle Malkin, here's John Little, at Blogs of War, with a report of looting:
Well I just found out why the media was in my parking garage. Looters struck last night and trashed 12 cars. We usually have very tight security but the gates were left open by management due to fears of power outages. I need to go check my car now.
Update:
My car is fine but the mood in the area is tense. I ran across two neighbors carrying hunting rifles who were actively searching for a guy they suspected of breaking into more cars. They agreed to let me photograph them from the neck down. Hopefully, HPD will send one or more officers to our neighborhood. I think there is risk of additional looting or worse.Update II:
Quite a few HPD cars in the area now. It's going to be an interesting night.Update III:
I'm hearing more looter calls on the HPD scanner frequencies. This doesn't seem to approach the level that we saw in New Orleans but I'm worried about this evening.Update IV 6:33pm CST:
Via the police scanner: Looting in progress at South Gessner and Belfort - A Wal-Mart Store.
Also, an HISD school was broken into last night and three juveniles were arrested for looting:
Houston school district police arrested three juveniles Thursday night who were accused of going room to room at Hamilton Middle School looking for electronics.
“They did this because they thought no one would be paying attention,” district spokesman Terry Abbott said. “We are amazed it was happening even before the storm.”
Thankfully, Texas isn't the District of Columbia.
UPDATE: KPRC-2 story on looting
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 07:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Back to the bayou
KTRK-13 just threw it back to Deborah Wrigley at Braes Bayou.
It's still mostly empty, just like it was last time we blogged on this.
That's hardly surprising, since it really hasn't started raining yet in this area.
The news is REALLY slow right now. And honestly, we're thankful for that.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:28 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Beautiful sunset
I'm looking out of a window facing west, and watching a beautiful sunset.
The cloud cover is above, but not that far west just yet.
From earlier forecasts, I expected it to be much worse by now. Houston looks to be spared from the worst-case scenario, but our friends to the east look to be in for a tough time of it tonight.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:08 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (4)
KPRC talks with Judge Eckels
KPRC-2 has Judge Eckels on, and he's answering questions.
Some of these question that people have called in with have been amazing.
Here's one:
I'm in West Houston, and just wondering when I can go back to Clear Lake?
Judge Eckels and Mayor White have been very patient answering questions like this. In contrast, they make me hit my hand on my forehead and wonder just how stupid people can be. That's one of many reasons that I have a little hobby blog and Robert Eckels is running county government. :)
The judge did just praise FEMA for their cooperation with Houston/Harris County authorities.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:01 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Looking dark in Galveston
KRIV-26 just threw it down to a camera in Galveston.
It's looking pretty black down there, resembling dusk. Since it's still pretty light up here in the Sharpstown area, it looks as if the really heavy cloud cover has hit the island.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 06:52 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
KTRK: Hey, lookee here at the empty bayou
KTRK-13's Deborah Wrigley is out on Braes Bayou reporting duty at the moment.
That may become interesting later, but right now there's not much to say. The bayou is at a trickle, the clouds are gray, there's some wind, and there are a few sprinkles.
Houston-area bayous are liable to be much more of a problem tomorrow.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 06:32 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Tim Heller sounds a little sad
KTRK-13 meteorologist Tim Heller seems finally to be conceding that Galveston/Houston probably aren't going to take a direct hit from Rita.
While he's been dutifully putting up the computer models (which started to move impact to the east two days ago), for the past few days he's also insisted on inserting a line that extrapolated Rita's "impact" from the current track and simply "straightlined" the storm right into Galveston/Houston.
It looks as if he's finally going to retire that dotted line. Good riddance.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 06:26 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Crazy: Hanging at a seawall bar, watching the storm
KHOU-11 just showed at least several dozen people in Galveston at some bar near the seawall, hanging out, waiting for the storm to arrive.
I guess if you don't have the good sense to get off the island, you ought to be at a bar having a drink.
I wonder if the bar will still be there tomorrow?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 06:16 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
First rain in the Sharpstown area
We just got a few seconds of really hard rain out in the Sharpstown area.
Now it's stopped, and things have gotten very still.
We're right on the verge of this thing getting underway in a big way.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 05:45 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
Houston Zoo = Noah's Ark
Here's how the Houston Zoo is keeping its residents safe:
The Houston Zoo has turned itself into a type of Noah's Ark.
Animals of all sorts banded together as Houston prepares for Hurricane Rita. Picnic benches, garbage cans and other potential flying objects were fastened and secured. A protective fence is in place around the carousel.
Zoo spokesman Brian Hill says animals have been given some unusual accommodations. Geese, ducks and chickens roomed together in one of the zoo men's rooms, which don't have windows.
Turkeys were weathering the hurricane in a women's rest room.
Maned wolves and ant-eaters were shacking up with the tenants of the Siberian tiger section.
I hope one of our local media outlets will do a more in-depth story after all this is over, because I'd love to know what arrangements were made for the rest of the Zoo's inhabitants.
UPDATE: KHOU-11's story has a couple of pictures.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 05:34 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
HISD assists with evacuations -- again
HISD buses were pressed into service again, this time helping out with Hurricane Rita evacuations:
HISD's school bus drivers volunteered on Thursday, September 22, in Houston to rescue stranded evacuees from Hurricane Rita.
Here are some of the details of the work:
* A convoy of HISD school buses evacuated 400 senior citizens from the Primrose Del Sol nursing home on Aldine-Bender, taking them to the Amtrak station so they can catch a train out of town.
* HISD buses helped evacuate wheelchair-bound veterans from the Union Station Veteran's Center at Preston and LeBranch.
* HISD buses picked up wheelchair-bound patients from Tranquility Personal Care Center on Poco, and Unlimited Care Center on Glen Pines, taking them to Sam Houston Raceway, where they are being organized in the grandstand area and then evacuated from Houston.
* HISD may soon send buses to the George R. Brown Convention Center because of reports that evacuees are gathering there and need transportation.
This came about due to a request from Mayor White's office:
HISD received an emergency call from the mayor's office near midnight Wednesday, September 21, asking for school buses to help in the evacuation. HISD transportation officials quickly contacted the district's school bus drivers, and 150 of them volunteered for the job.
RELATED: HISD buses help with New Orleans evacuation (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 04:37 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
I-45 evacuees sheltering in The Woodlands
Tom Kirkendall posts a plea for bedding for just-opened shelters in The Woodlands:
Because of the traffic associated with Hurricane Rita, our local high schools (McCullough, TWHS, College Park) have opened as shelters. They are in need of bedding. If you have bedding available, please drop it off directly at the schools.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 02:51 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
2.7 million evacuated
On KTRK-13, Tom Abrahams just said that 2.7 million residents moved inland. That's HALF the population of Galveston/Houston/Harris County.
Wow! That explains the gridlock.
UPDATE: KPRC-2 story
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 12:41 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
Local radio simulcasting (updated)
In addition to streaming their feeds online, local TV news broadcasts are available on the radio.
KHOU-11 lists its radio partners as KHJZ 95.7 FM, KIKK 650 AM, KILT 100.3 FM, KRBE 104.1 FM.
KRIV-26 is simulcasting on KSEV 700 AM.
(I'll update with KPRC-2's and KTRK-13's simulcasting partners when I find that info.)
And of course, KTRH 740 AM has been wall-to-wall with excellent Hurricane Rita coverage.
UPDATE: A kindly emailer tells me that KTRK-13 is simulcasting on KUHF 88.7 FM.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 08:40 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
A little pre-Rita levity
Don't miss Ken Hoffman this morning:
It's perilous times like these that make me realize what is truly most important in my life: my big-screen TV.
I'm going to be that knucklehead sitting on the roof with a gun on his lap, surrounded by his 28 cats, perhaps a goat, and his complete collection of Sports Illustrated magazines.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 07:55 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Like clockwork (with updates!)
Guess what useless D.C. politician is posing for photos at the morning press conference of our can-do hurricane-management leaders Mayor White and Judge Eckels?
Yes, that would be Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
One wonders what took her so long, although perhaps she waited until the first day that national media was likely to pick up the press conferences of our local hurricane management team.
The contrast between our local can-do political leadership and the Queen making her usual mad dash for the camera couldn't be greater.
UPDATE: The Queen has returned for the 9:00 am press conference. As in the earlier press conference, the people who are actually doing useful work (the mayor and judge) didn't bother to introduce the grandstanding pol from D.C.
UPDATE 2: KTRK-13's Miya Shay just interviewed Jackson Lee. I wish the local media wouldn't encourage her. At this point, she needs to get OUT OF THE WAY of the Houston/Harris County team that's doing important work.
UPDATE 3 (Anne): KRIV-26 is interviewing her now (9:30 a.m.) and she is saying that she will be asking the state emergency director to get involved. She says she is assessing the situation and is consulting with FEMA to make sure the feds are involved. She is also checking on the status of shelters.
I wonder why Mayor White and Judge Eckels haven't thought of these things? Good to know SJL is on top of the situation. Houston/Harris County residents can breathe easier.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:17 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
22 September 2005
It's about leadership, and we got it (updated)
Hurricane preps are in full gear in the Linehan house. I am not watching too much of the news (and therefore not blogging) because it's so overwhelming. I have decided instead to clean the house, do laundry and dream up things for my husband to do. (Wolfgang Puck's is closed today.)
I also want to add how lucky we all are to have Mayor White and Judge Eckels in charge. Yeah, we have some chaos and problems, but a huge number of people are evacuating and under the circumstances, it's probably going as well as can be expected.
Thanks also to the many other officials, including Governor Perry, who are working tirelessly to handle an extremely difficult situation.
Take care, everyone.
UPDATE: Thanks to Michelle Malkin for the link. I wanted to explain why I think Harris County and Houston officials deserve praise for their efforts, even though massive gridlock is an obviously big problem right now, so I sent her the following clarification:
There are estimates that more than 1 million people are trying to evacuate. It appears that some people are evacuating who really don't need to be -- they are in areas where they could ride out the storm relatively safely, if they have taken precautions (none of Harris County is under a mandatory evacuation order; residents in flood-prone areas have been asked to voluntarily evacuate). But some Houston city officials have gone on air begging people to get out and then late last night the storm track took a turn for a dead on hit at Galveston/Houston. Plus it was a Cat 5 at that time. It scared the hell out of many people (me included!) and many people probably decided at that time to get out.
AND we had the oh-so-recent Katrina disaster on our minds. How much of Houston/Harris County resources are either not here or have been depleted due to Katrina relief efforts?
Yeah, state officials probably should have opened the contraflow lanes earlier and maybe Houston should not have called for voluntary evacuations til later. But I think all these things piled on together to make this a very difficult situation for Galveston/Houston, where 1 million + people are trying to get out on evacuation routes that were not built to handle that volume of cars. City, county and state officials are trying so hard to save lives -- in direct contrast to NO and LA officials -- and I feel like I have to give them credit for that.
I have no doubt that when this is all over, officials will assess what did and didn't work. But, again, they are TRYING to do the right things and trying to save lives.
UPDATE 2: Jonah Goldberg at NRO's The Corner posts a couple of emails from readers who are also not looking to blame Houston/Harris County officials.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/22/05 12:46 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (6)
21 September 2005
Berry: If you can get out, get out
Councilmember Michael Berry is currently on KPRC-2 with Frank Billingsley.
Berry's advice to Houstonians (not just those under an evacuation order) is a little ominous:
If you can get out, get out.
KPRC's round-the-clock coverage, by the way, has been very good.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/05 10:56 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (8)
Let no hurricane get in the way of soliciting
I just got a call on my home phone line from a solicitor with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The fellow asked me if I was still in the Houston area, and if I knew how important it was to support the Texas DPS.
My exact response was, "Dude, are you aware the Houston area is under hurricane evacuation?"
He was, but that didn't seem to slow down his rebuttal or ongoing efforts at solicitation.
It is in incredibly poor taste for the Texas DPS to be pestering Houstonians trying to prepare for a Hurricane, let alone Houstonians on the No Call list.
UPDATE (09-22-2005): I just got this email. Apparently, this telemarketing organization was engaged in fraud:
Hi Mr. Whited,
The Texas Department of Public Safety does not solicit financial contributions from private citizens. DPS is funded from your tax dollars.If you have been contacted by a telemarketing organization representing itself to be the Texas Department of Public Safety, you should know that the DPS receives no financial support from these organizations. Some groups include in their names the terms “Texas Rangers,” “State Troopers,” “Texas Highway Patrol” or “Department of Public Safety.” While some officers may be members of these associations on their own time, these organizations are not affiliated with the DPS. They are private associations raising money to fund their own programs, some of which may benefit officers and their families.
If you have been contacted by an organization that you believe is misrepresenting itself, you can contact the Texas Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division at (800) 621-0508.
For additional information about a particular group, you can contact your local Better Business Bureau, which has information on fundraising organizations and the percentage of donations that actually goes toward helping people or projects.
Tela Mange
Public Information Office
Texas Department of Public Safety
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/05 05:53 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Kirkendall: Don't underreact to Rita
Friend Tom Kirkendall posts some excellent advice today:
As all grizzled veterans of Hurricane Alicia in 1983 know (related Chronicle story is here), this is a serious situation for the Texas Gulf coast and it is time to prepare to batten down the hatches. If you are a relative newcomer to this area and have never been through an intense hurricane before, do not fall into the trap of thinking that the media and others are crying "wolf." This is a deadly serious storm that has the potential to be every bit as devastating to the Texas Gulf coast as Katrina was to the Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama Gulf coast. As destructive as Alicia was in 1983 (it's eye came in on Galveston's West Beach and tore through the middle of Houston on a track that essentially followed I-45), it was a minimal category 3 storm. In comparison, Rita is shaping up to be a much more powerful storm that is comparable to Hurricane Carla, which was a category 4 (winds of 133-155 mph) storm that caused incredible damage to Houston and the upper Texas Gulf coast on September 11, 1961. Carla had the same minimum barometric pressure as the great 1900 storm that killed over 6,000 people in Galveston.
I hope I have gotten your attention.
We're happy to do our part to help Tom get your attention.
Tom's post also contains links to web resources related to Rita, including the Chronicle's excellent SciGuy blog by Eric Berger. Laurence Simon also continues to link to local bloggers at the top of his blog. We'll try to remodel a bit here, and do something similar shortly (probably this evening).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/05 09:08 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (21)
20 September 2005
There they go again
Today, the Chronicle editorial board returned to a favorite topic, Hubbert Peak alarmism, with an editorial entitled "Energy crunch: It's coming, the experts say, and much sooner than you think":
Last week two energy experts addressed the World Affairs Council of Houston. Matt Simmons, a Houston investment banker, and J. Robinson West, founder of a Washington-based consultants group, warned that soon global oil and gas production will be in irreversible decline. The reason an exact date cannot be known is that the data on nationally held fields and reserves, such as those in Saudi Arabia, are kept secret.
Those are two "experts," yet the Chronicle chooses to portray their alarmism as a consensus view.
It's not a consensus view. As I've pointed out previously, a more celebrated authority (Daniel Yergin) has come to very different conclusions than the Hubbert Peak alarmists. And as a result of the IHS Energy acquisition of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Yergin does have access to the world's foremost oil and gas E&P database, so one might regard his perspective more highly than that of two "experts" who admit they don't have access to data on Saudi Arabia.
The Chronicle editorialists may be enamored with the Hubbert Peak alarmists -- just as the editorialists have previously been enamored with nonexistent treaties and a false history of the Middle East -- but their alarmism is hardly a consensus view. It shouldn't be presented as such.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/20/05 11:04 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (16)
Evacuees find Metro's bus service slow, confusing and inconvenient
Check out the beginning of this Bill Murphy story in the Chronicle:
In New Orleans, Earl Kellup lived in Uptown and never had to wait too long to catch a bus.
After about three weeks in Houston, he said he has learned that buses don't run all that frequently on some routes and that he may have to walk a ways to get to bus lines.
"It ain't like in New Orleans. You could get on a bus in 20 minutes," he said.
Mr. Kellup should live downtown so he could use the 7.5 miles of light rail.
More than 100 senior citizens driven from their homes by Katrina have been set up in apartments at the Primrose Casa Bella senior complex on Airline.
A bus runs along Airline, but evacuees are still trying to figure out where it goes.
[snip]
Kellup, 27, who worked at Wal-Mart in New Orleans, was placed in an apartment in the Longboat Key complex in southeast Houston. He said he can walk to a bus stop, but it's a bit of a hike.
How much better would these new Houstonians have been served if Metro hadn't gone on a wild bus route-cutting spree over the past year?
And then we get another example of why Metro counts boardings and not paid ridership:
Metro has provided evacuees at no cost more than 10,000 seven-day bus passes, said the agency's spokesman Ken Connaughton. Another 10,000 passes are available.
Evacuees who ride the light-rail train haven't been charged, he said.
If the buses are inconvenient and slow, people aren't going to want to ride them, especially when the free passes expire.
RELATED: Hello? Anyone home at Metro? (bH), Rad Sallee exposes how Metro ill-serves those who depend on it (bH), Metro's new budget available for viewing; public hearing Sept. 21 (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/20/05 11:44 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
19 September 2005
Envision Houston Region workshops underway
In his Move It column today, Rad Sallee reports on the Envision Houston Region workshop that took place at the University of Houston over the weekend.
Local anti-zoning activist Barry Klein is quoted in the story:
Barry Klein, president of the Houston Property Rights Association, said he is both "hopeful and apprehensive" about such exercises.
"I expect to see recommendations for some land-use codes to be relaxed, which is good from the point of view of a property-rights advocate," Klein said. "But I also worry that we will see suggestions for new controls on property owners to try and push growth next to rail stations.
"That, of course, brings up the prospect for zoning, which our group successfully led the fight to oppose," he noted.
More information on the workshops is available on the Envision Houston Region website.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/19/05 11:47 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Texans dump offensive coordinator Palmer
The Chronicle's John McClain reports that the Houston Texans have fired offensive coordinator Chris Palmer, who has held the position since the birth of the team.
Replacing Palmer will be offensive line coach Joe Pendry, according to McClain:
Pendry, a long-time NFL coach who was previously offensive coordinator at Carolina and Buffalo, will try to develop some consistency in an offense that has been unproductive against the Bills and Steelers, the two best defensive teams in the NFL last season.
Interestingly, Pendry was fired by Capers after the 1997 season at Carolina. Although, it was never confirmed, there was speculation that Panthers owner Jerry Richardson made Capers fire Pendry, who was under fire because his offense was too conservative and unimaginative.
The offense was horrid in the first two games of the season, and it was easy to make Palmer the scapegoat and fire him, but the team suffers from a lack of overall talent (which is Charley Casserly's responsibility) and an offensive line that has been terrible since the team has existed.
Promoting the man responsible for the offensive line the last two seasons and a man once fired for being unimaginative on offense to offensive coordinator is unlikely to result in a team turnaround, but it was the easy move for a team that fans were booing noticeably on Sunday.
McClain writes that the team will not have a comment until Dom Capers' regular 3pm press conference.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/19/05 01:34 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)
Is Rita headed our way?
Laurence Simon, Tom Kirkendall and Eric Berger draw our attention to Tropical Storm Rita which (gulp) could be headed to Galveston after it's done with the Florida Keys.
Often these prediction tracks are off. Let's hope this one is.
But as Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, being prepared is paramount. Every Galveston-Houston area resident should have an emergency evacuation plan (including pets!) and we should also make sure our family and neighbors who are less-mobile are taken care of.
Every household should have a minimum three-day supply of non-perishable food, water and basic necessities, including batteries, flashlights and a battery-powered radio. (I have one of these.)
While we hope Houston-Galveston area officials have a good plan that will work, it's still incumbent upon each of us to take care of ourselves, our families and our neighbors if possible, without expecting government help.
Please add your hurricane-preparation suggestions and thoughts in our forum.
UPDATE: Chris Elam, being the safety-thinking guy he is, points to this site for Rita information. He also has an important hurricane-prep suggestion.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/19/05 12:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (16)
The backlash against school bond elections
Yesterday Jason Spencer wrote an interesting story exploring the changing landscape for school district bond elections. The recent Spring ISD referendum, where the district was handed a stinging defeat, is apparently indicative of a growing homeowner fatigue with school districts constantly asking for more money. School districts are always crying about the need for more money to fund new buildings due to ever-increasing numbers of students, but often included in these referendums are plans for fancy stadiums and buildings and proposed expenditures for luxury items, such as laptop computers.
The story is presented fairly I think. The pro-ISD side complains about conservative voters who are more concerned about property taxes than children (one woman says that Spring ISD voters were lashing out because the Legislature failed to deliver property tax relief which sounds right to me), and the pro-property owners side says that school districts aren't managing wisely the money they have now. Property owners want school districts to fund the essentials first and the luxuries last, if at all.
If this backlash is surprising to school districts, then they should get connected with reality. Those of us who have listened to Edd Hendee's and Dan Patrick's shows on KSEV-700 know that some school district superintendents lobbied against a property tax cap that was (sort of) up for consideration in the last Legislative session. So it shouldn't be surprising that property owners who can't get relief in the Legislature, will decide to go right to the source -- school districts.
The question is, are school districts listening?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/19/05 11:07 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
18 September 2005
Editorialists whitewash mayor's treatment of MediaSource
Yesterday, the Chronicle editorialists engaged in revisionism regarding Council's decision not to renew the MediaSource contract:
Already hit by criticism from both conservative council members and Mayor Bill White for the quality of its programming, the nonprofit Houston MediaSource cable television channel management got another shock. Contrary to expectation, City Council refused to renew MediaSource's $800,000 annual contract, despite the mayor's support for continued funding.
Criticism from Mayor Bill White? That's laughable.
When Councilmember Wiseman first brought the matter to Council's attention, Mayor White and allies on Council acted perturbed. As evidence that Mayor White's attitude really hasn't changed, here is a quote from Doug Miller's reporting on the decision not to renew the MediaSource contract:
"It's not the kind of thing, frankly, that I spent much attention on or stay up worrying at night," White said. "I think if people don't want to watch the public access channel they ought to turn it off. I don't think I've ever watched it."
It seems that Mayor White is still more perturbed with councilmembers who hold different views than of MediaSource itself.
Here is more from the editorialists:
Mayor White subsequently appointed a new majority on the 15-member access channel board. He said he favors new policies to solicit higher quality programming from area organizations to replace the sometimes crude productions the channel features during late night hours. One of the new board members is Mustafa Tameez, who also serves as a political consultant for the mayor's campaign. White supported continued funding of MediaSource while the new board decides whether management changes are needed.
Appointing new members to the board wasn't that dramatic a move for Mayor White, since the terms of the members he was "replacing" had already expired. In itself, appointing new members to the board wouldn't necessarily address Councilmember Wiseman's concerns, which is presumably why she favored tougher contractual language to hold MediaSource to account. And the mayor's appointment of a paid political consultant to the board seems unusual, as did the editorial board's placement of that information in the cited paragraph.
At this point, it's probably time to find a better, less controversial custodian for the public access channel.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/18/05 10:20 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chronicle follows-up on three stories of survival
Melanie Markley and Dale Lezon have written a terrific piece today where they check-in on three groups of evacuees who originally appeared on the Chronicle's pages in the horrifying early days of Katrina's aftermath. What they find is a lesson in the strength of the human spirit. Excerpting cannot do the entire piece justice, so go forth and read.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/18/05 01:18 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
10 lessons the Chronicle's editorial board learned from Katrina
If you click on the "Editorial" link at Chron.com, you'll see that there are only op-ed columns today. That got my curiosity up, so I sent someone to fetch the paper and I turned to the Outlook section. In place of two editorials and some letters to the editor, the second page today is filled with the "Top 10 lessons we've learned from Hurricane Katrina: The disaster that befell New Orleans and the adjacent Gulf Coast teaches us that preparation, early evacuation and rapid response after passage of a storm are the keys to saving lives and minimizing the human damage. One day Katrina's successor will bear down on the upper Texas coast. These are the signposts that can guide our community to safety."
I can't find a link, so I'll reproduce the editorial board's Top Ten. After each entry the board adds some thoughts. That's way too much typing for me to do on a Sunday morning (if someone can dig up a link, I'd be most grateful), but if you want to know what the editorial board said about a specific topic, let me know in the forum and I'll add it there. Here we go:
1. As Mayor Bill White noted, local leaders must presume the worst case scenario.
2. Evacuation orders must be issued early and firmly for threatened areas.
3. Emergency shelters must have auxiliary power and be adequately stocked with water and imperishable food to provide for several days of sustenance in case outside assistance is delayed or can't get through.
4. Houston's prompt and organized relief effort owed much to intergovernmental cooperation, particularly between the city, led by Mayor White, and Harris County, led by County Judge Robert Eckels.
5. Disaster response planners and managers should give high priority to the needs and desires of local residents.
6. Katrina reminded Americans of the pockets of grinding poverty in every U.S. metropolis.
7. A Houston-Harris County task force should immediately study and then implement measures to bolster defenses against flooding.
8. Thanks to the members of the Texas Medical Center, other area hospitals, the Harris County Hospital District and the city of Houston Health Department, this region can provide medical care on a massive scale.
9. Having an adequately funded education system is essential.
10. President Bush showed bold and reassuring leadership in his speech Thursday night from New Orleans.
As you might imagine, the editorial board members used several of these lessons-learned to push their favorite pet causes such as poverty, clean air, public libraries and parks, more funding for schools and "scenic enhancements."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/18/05 08:53 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Diversity can lead to human trafficking?
A Chronicle story yesterday on four Mexican nationals who have been accused of human trafficking, contained a strange quote explaining why Houston has a problem with forced prostitution:
"It's a problem that does happen all over the United States," said Dottie Laster, head of the YMCA Trafficked Person Assistance Program, which works closely with the task force.
"I believe Houston has heightened activity due to our economy, closeness to the southern border and because we have a diverse community," Laster said.
Apparently not all diversity is beauty.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/18/05 07:51 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
17 September 2005
Chron editorial board needs to brush up on Middle East history
The PowerLine guys admit they don't "go after Maureen Dowd anymore, because there isn't any sport in it." The Chronicle's editorial board is fast approaching that point, except that they are the opinion voice for the lone major newspaper in Houston. For example, there's today's editorial on Israel's pullout from Gaza:
With the departure of the last Israeli troops, for the first time in more than a century residents of the oft-occupied Gaza Strip now have a chance to control their communities and destiny as a part of a future independent Palestinian state.
Wham! Right out of the box, the editorial idealists are wrong. Laurence Simon gives them a history lesson:
I'm going to assume that "more than a century" means that the residents of Gaza did not have a chance to "control their communities" since 1905.
There are at least four major problems with this opening paragraph.
The residents of Gaza in 1947, Arabic and Jewish alike, were offered a chance at an independent Palestinian state.
Along with the surrounding Arabic states, the Arabic residents rejected it and engaged in what can only be described as a war to destroy Israel and all Jewish residents within. I say this, because it's what the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the leaders of the Arab armies attacking were calling for.
They were offered it once again in 1994 with the Oslo Agreements. In response, Yasser Arafat started what many call The Oslo War.
They were offered it yet again in 2000 with President Bill Clinton's final attempt at peacemaking between the two sides. Yasser Arafat rejected Ehud Barak's overwhelmingly generous offer and organized the Second Intifada which has claimed thousands of lives of all faiths.
Laurence's entire takedown is here, including his letter to the editor and reader rep.
The other day, Victor Davis Hanson wrote that the media is filled with journalists who are slick but poorly educated. This editorial helps to further that argument.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: This is definitely worse than when the editorialists conjured up a nonexistent treaty in support of some argument they were making. Having spent some time on the Arab-Israeli conflict myself, I was more than a little surprised to see that error. Basic history shouldn't be that hard, even for editorialists with no special expertise on a particular topic.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/17/05 11:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Mack: Patrick's running
Chronicle columnist Kristen Mack devoted Friday's column to KSEV-700 talker Dan Patrick, who continues to sound like he's serious about running for state Senate District 7 seat.
Mack addresses two questions that might potentially have affected Patrick's run:
He would have lost the name ID edge if he had to run under his given name, Dannie Goeb. But Patrick says he legally changed his name last year, when he was considering running in the 10th Congressional District, which extends from Katy to Austin."People have known me by Dan Patrick," he said. "If I run, by what was my other name, no one would know who I was."
Patrick's Montgomery County home, where he has lived for years, is in Senate District 3. That seat is held by Republican Todd Staples, who is running for agriculture commissioner. Patrick said he considered running in District 3 and in District 18, which includes part of Katy and several counties southwest of Houston. He settled on District 7 because of a history there.
[snip]
Within the next two weeks Patrick will close on a condo in Hudson Oaks, a few miles away from the radio station.
The early poll numbers that were leaked actually look decent for Patrick (otherwise they wouldn't have leaked). Patrick has considered several other political races, only to decide no at the last minute, so color me skeptical until he leaves his radio program and files for the office.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/17/05 10:17 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (4)
Let's get some publicity and aid for Vietnamese evacuees
One of the aspects of Hurricane Katrina that is not making big headlines is the large Vietnamese population which has been affected.
Laurence Simon has mentioned this several times on his blog, most recently yesterday when he highlighted a USA Today column:
In the early '80s, Vietnamese refugees started settling into enclaves around New Orleans, Biloxi and Mobile, attracted by the familiar humid climate and seeking to earn livings as fishermen and shrimpers. They learned English and passed citizenship requirements. They worked multiple jobs, put children through school and saved money to buy homes. They established businesses, temples and churches. According to the 2000 Census, more than 25,000 Vietnamese lived in Louisiana, nearly 6,000 in Mississippi and about 5,000 in Alabama. They considered these places home when Katrina destroyed everything.
One advantage in being a former refugee is understanding when help is needed. As news of Katrina's devastation spread, Vietnamese-Americans across the country rallied to contribute to relief efforts. With the help of Vietnamese-language radio stations, newspapers and religious organizations, they donated money, food, supplies and even their homes to evacuees.
About 15,000 Vietnamese have fled to Houston, but instead of heading to the Astrodome, many have sought refuge in Asian-American community centers, churches and temples, straining their resources. Thousands more are expected. There is concern the community might be trying to do too much on its own and that evacuees need government help.
The news media coverage and critique of Katrina response have largely been a black-and-white issue. But the recovery of the Vietnamese-Americans is important too, given their long history of displacement. Their experiences and successes should not be forgotten just because they need to be repeated.
And here's a Philadelphia Daily News story about one woman's efforts to help Vietnamese evacuees:
Word came last week to Au Huynh, a professional Vietnamese translator living in Grays Ferry.
"I thought since I was an interpreter I could help," Huynh said.
But Huynh quickly learned that the bureaucracy was too powerful despite her ambition.
[snip]
[Huynh] went to the hub of the relief efforts for the approximately 15,000 displaced Southeast Asian evacuees - a shopping mall 17 miles from the Astrodome.
Boat People's offices were on the second-floor of the shopping center.
"There are people sitting with all their belongings in a shopping cart," Huynh said, describing to this reporter in Philadelphia what she was seeing as she walked around the Hong Kong City Mall.
"The line here is insane," she said.
During the first few days after Katrina, Southeast Asian evacuees flocked to Houston because the city and its surrounding areas house more than 150,000 Vietnamese-Americans, a community leader said, making it one of the largest enclaves in the country.
Hong Kong City restaurants began to offer free food. Then strangers started dropping clothes, diapers and bottled water at the mall. Yesterday, a Houston councilman's office said a lawyer and a psychologist were at the mall offering their services for free.
But only a handful of Vietnamese evacuees are getting help.
"We are serving the same amount of people held in the Astrodome but with no services," Huynh said.
Before the hurricane, about 30,000 Vietnamese-Americans were living in Louisiana, 5,000 in Mississippi and 5,000 in Alabama. It is estimated that about half of them went to Houston.
As of yesterday afternoon, Huynh said she still had not seen workers from the Red Cross or the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the mall aiding the evacuees who pass through its doors daily.
She was so frustrated that she drove to a Baptist church where Red Cross workers were helping evacuees and demanded to speak with a supervisor. Huynh said the woman refused to see her.
She also sought help from a friend, Jim Kenkelen, in Philadelphia, a Center City stock trader. Kenkelen said he went to the Red Cross office on Chestnut Street near 22nd Tuesday and told several employees about the problems Huynh was seeing in Houston.
"I was just asking them to make a call" to Texas, he said. "I felt shut out."
When this reporter called the press offices of the two agencies, workers said they would notify the officials in Houston about the lack of support at Hong Kong City.
But Huynh's obstacles to help the evacuees never stopped.
Local reporting on the plight of Vietnamese evacuees has been underwhelming to say the least. Local media could make a difference here so this large group of evacuees can get some help.
We would encourage anyone helping Vietnamese evacuees to post in our forum, about how Houston-area residents can help, or send us an email at bloggers@blogHOUSTON.net. Also, if anyone is interested in a blog being set up for the Vietnamese-evacuee community, please contact Laurence Simon (who has offered to make this happen, including setup and hosting) at laurence@isfullofcrap.com.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/17/05 08:30 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
16 September 2005
AP: opening the Dome is Mayor White's "Giuliani moment"
This AP story describes Mayor White's response to the Katrina disaster as his "Giuliani moment":
As the tragedy unfolded in New Orleans, Houston's mayor threw open the Astrodome and the convention center to tens of thousands of Katrina's refugees. Then he did something more remarkable: He essentially told convention groups whose plans were spoiled by the move, "Tough luck."
The decision could ultimately cost Houston a bundle in lost business and burden its social service agencies for many years to come. But so far, this city of swashbuckling capitalism - of self-made oilmen, engineering magnates and real estate tycoons - is backing Bill White in his act of municipal compassion toward the mostly poor, mostly black victims of the storm.
For White, an enormously popular first-term Democrat up for re-election in November, this could very well be his "Giuliani moment" - the moment he, like New York's mayor in the aftermath of Sept. 11, distinguished himself in a crisis.
I would suggest Judge Roberts Eckels is deserving of praise, too, as is Governor Perry.
I'd also like to point out that on the Monday after the hurricane, Chris Baker (KTRH-740) was suggesting that the Dome be opened up for relief efforts.
And of course, Banjo wrote up the idea on the Wednesday after Katrina.
For a bit of added context...
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/16/05 01:56 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
HISD still has its arms wide open
According to this KPRC-2 story about some high-profile visitors to an HISD middle school, there are now more than 4,000 evacuee students in HISD schools.
More than 4,000!
Just think about what it has taken to make this happen: schools reopened, teachers and staff hired, books and supplies ordered, transportation provided, etc.
And still with no guarantee of financial reimbursement. Amazing.
And this is playing out in all Houston-area ISDs and private schools.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/16/05 12:33 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Klein ISD's actions highlight the ugly side of eminent domain
A Tomball family is fighting Klein ISD's efforts to condemn their land, which the district wants for a future high school, and the fight is generating community support for the family:
A Tomball family fighting the Klein school district's efforts to condemn 136 acres of land they have owned for over 60 years pleaded their case before the board of trustees Tuesday night.
Friends and strangers showed their support of the Lewis family, which owns the targeted property on the far northwest border of the Klein-Tomball school district, at the corner of Hufsmith-Kohrville Road and FM 2920, by loudly applauding the three speakers who voiced concerns over the condemnation lawsuit filed by Klein in August.
[snip]
Diana Browning, daughter of E.R. Lewis Jr., who inherited the property along with his brother, Royce, when her father, R.E. Lewis, passed away in the 1970s, asked board members to reconsider condemning land that belonged to her family — land that her family doesn't want to sell to the district.
Browning said the site is not a good location for one of Klein's future high schools for several reasons, including that it is next door to the Tomball school district and could one day be annexed by the city of Tomball.
She said she had researched Klein ISD's building plans and a sixth high school, which the land could be used for, may not be built for 20 years.
"Condemnation is supposed to be used as a last resort — when there is no other land available for the purpose it is to be used for," Browning said. "That is not the case here. There are several other properties available in the northwest part of the district. We are asking you to explore those options."
Browning suggested that the trustees would likely try to find another solution if their families owned the property.
Boy, isn't that the truth?!
Susan Gieseke, a Klein ISD resident who does not know the Lewis family, said many Klein residents and property owners felt threatened by the actions the district was taking.
"This will cause great problems for the district," Gieseke said. "It sends chills through the district.
"If you have not exhausted all other options before condemning this private property, then that flies in the face of one's constitutional right to own property."
Skip Warren, a Klein ISD resident who only recently met the Lewis family, said the district's actions were "just wrong."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/16/05 09:01 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Residents send a clear message to Spring ISD
Spring ISD residents gave three bond propositions a big, fat NO last weekend:
Spring superintendent Ralph Draper, who started work at the district only four days before the election, said the message voters sent the school district is loud and clear.
"This bond election, at this time, was not the way they wanted to go," Draper said. "What we have to do is get everyone back to the table, including those who may not have been at the table before, to build broad-based community support for a plan that will meet the district's and students' needs.
[snip]
Members of the grassroots Homeowners Against Spring ISD Bond Propositions Inc. said they turned out against the three propositions because the Spring school district is not spending existing budget money wisely. Another round of bond debt would send the district's tax rate through the roof, they said.
"I think people turned out in large numbers against the propositions for two reasons," said Tom Matthews, a Northgate Forest subdivision resident and spokesman for the opposition group. "First was the hot-button issue. The propositions included things people just didn't think were right, including the natatorium, computers and new auditorium. The second was a pocketbook issue. The district is going to have to do things to control spending before voters will agree to a tax increase."
Matthews said the group is not opposed to building schools to house students, but members want to see financial reform on the district level before they support future bond issues.
Dr. Bert Williams, an opposition group member, said Homeowners Against Spring ISD Bond Propositions Inc. will not disappear now that the election is over.
"Our next move is to run a slate of officers against the existing school board members in the next election," Williams said. "We would like to see people with a fresh perspective on the board — people who are businessmen and can read spreadsheets."
More and more property owners are questioning these bond elections and for good reason. We have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into school districts with sometimes questionable returns. School district administrators and school boards should start cutting layers of repetitive bureaucracy (translation: too many administrators and staff), quit building fancy shmancy buildings and stadiums, control employee benefits, and, most importantly, focus money on the direct education of students with accountable results.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/16/05 08:48 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
15 September 2005
Notable changes at the Chronicle
A couple of changes at the Chronicle merit an announcement.
First, the newspaper is going to run a regular Sunday column from reader representative James T. Campbell. The first column ran this past Sunday. In this recent post, Campbell also promises to give more attention to his blog, which he admits has suffered from periods of neglect. Campbell encourages readers to interact with him, and I encourage folks to take advantage of the fact that the Chronicle has made its reader rep more prominent (which we encouraged in this old post) and available. I'd further encourage folks to be polite, and to remember that he's not the editor of the newspaper, but the guy who can carry your criticism to reporters/editors if he thinks it's warranted.
Second, Dwight Silverman has been bumped from his position as online news editor to interactive journalism editor. Silverman has been instrumental in the development of Chron.com's blogs, not to mention the online edition's significant development as a news entity. The Houston Chronicle is much more than the traditional fishwrap these days in no small part because of Silverman's work with Chron.com. Here's hoping his new position leads to even bigger things.
CLARIFICATION (09-16-2005): When I used the term "bumped," I meant to convey a bump up, and certainly didn't mean to connote or denote anything negative. As the linked post from Silverman makes abundantly clear, he views the new title and responsibilities highly positively, as do I. My apologies if my language was at all unclear on that.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/05 10:47 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Sam Malone returns September 26
The Chronicle's Ken Hoffman reports that radio personality Sam Malone begins his stint on KTRH-740 on September 26:
Have you seen those stark black billboards around town with the white lettering ... "See ya! ... Soon!" I'm guessing they're designed to get people talking about Sam Malone's new talk show on KTRH (740 AM).
"See ya!" was Malone's catch phrase for 12 years when he hosted a morning show on KRBE (104.1 FM). He left the station several months ago and has been sitting out a noncompete clause in his KRBE contract.
KTRH programming boss Ken Charles wouldn't confirm that he's behind the "See Ya!" billboards, but he sure didn't deny it, either.
"We eagerly await Sam's arrival on KTRH. If those billboards get people anticipating his new show, then I'm very happy," Charles said.
Malone's show will air 10 a.m.-noon on KTRH, starting Sept. 26.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/05 10:25 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
In the aftermath of Katrina (cont'd)
"In the aftermath of Katrina," the same editorial board that has faulted the federal government for its response to the hurricane nonetheless thinks that the federal government needs to subsidize hurricane-related insurance:
[Allstate President Thomas] Wilson proposed a system, not unlike the federal flood insurance program, for insuring against unpredictable disasters: earthquakes, storms or terrorist attacks. The insurance industry would sell the policies, administer the claims and use its actuarial expertise to set affordable prices. Following a disaster, insurers and reinisurers would bear losses up to fixed amount relative to their earnings and capital. After that states would use revolving funds to pay recovery costs, while the federal government would step in following a catastrophe that exhausted private and state ability to cover losses.
Wilson said federal and state taxpayers already pay recovery costs for natural disasters. It makes sense to plan and save for the time when the next disaster occurs, sharing the risk.
If the Chronicle editorialists caught wind of a lobbyist trying to get Tom DeLay to support subsidies for the insurance industry, they would be apoplectic. Yet when the president of an insurance company visits their offices secretly (why not post a transcript of the meeting?), they can't wait to trumpet his proposal?
In early comments on the response to Katrina, Fox News Special Report panelist Charles Krauthammer suggested that as part of the national compact, of course Americans would respond generously to the disaster. But he then suggested that for the future, it was fair to question whether the taxpayers of the Great Lakes region should necessarily be asked to subsidize those who live in paradise on a coast. It seems fair also to ask that question with regard to the Chronicle's endorsement of an insurance-industry proposal.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/05 09:04 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
New TIRZ approved for downtown Pavilions development
It looks as though Harris County and the city of Houston have approved a downtown TIRZ (tax increment reinvestment zone) for the proposed Houston Pavilions:
The Market Square TIRZ, as it has been named, will be used to float $14.3 million in bonds, of which $8.5 million will come from Harris County and the balance from the City of Houston.
Partners William Denton and Geoffrey Jones are proposing to use three city blocks--Main, Caroline and Polk streets--to develop Houston Pavilions. The project is envisioned as having high-class retail, entertainment, condominiums and office space--all packaged in about 360,000 sf. But sources have noted that, due to the high cost of downtown land values and development, a TIRZ creation was necessary to help fund the project and push it forward.
"Yesterday, the commissioner's court approved it and last night, the TIRZ's board of directors approved it," says David Turkel, director of community and economic development for Harris County. The city council also has approved the TIRZ creation. "The next step is for the city and the developers to enter into a formal agreement," Turkel tells GlobeSt.com, estimating that TIRZ agreement could be finalized within weeks.
Jones, senior vice president and managing director of CB Richard Ellis Inc.'s Houston office, and Denton, president of Entertainment Development Group Inc., based in Agoura Hills, CA have formed the Houston Pavilions LP, to move to the next step of the process. If all goes according to plan, the Houston Pavilions will be similar in scope to Entertainment Development's successful 350,000-sf Denver Pavilions, which opened in 1998.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/15/05 07:04 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Reliant clinic closes; Local ERs expect to fill the void
Houston's emergency rooms are expecting to see lots of new patients now that the main clinic at the Reliant shelter has closed:
The main clinic at the Reliant shelter closed its doors on Thursday and for the first time Houston's emergency rooms will be put to the test, to see how they can handle the additional people. Already there are concerns about increased wait times for patients.
[snip]
"We all expect we will be getting lots of patients," said Dr. Joan Shook, Director of Texas Children's Hospital Emergency Center.
With the Astrodome clinic closing, emergency rooms like Texas Children's are bracing themselves.
Dr. Shook said, "We're gearing up for larger volumes. In effect, Houston has a whole new little city transplanted onto it without a whole new healthcare infrastructure, so these families will be seeking care in emergency departments."
Already, the Texas Children's ER has seen a spike in the number of patients. Typically 210 patients a day are treated in the ER. Now it's 260 a day. That can mean long, long waits.
"I think for relatively minor illness, it could be as long as 8-10 hours and not just here -- at other hospitals as well," Dr. Shook explained.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/15/05 06:48 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (6)
Who should investigate Katrina response?
It was hardly surprising that Chronicle columnist Rick Casey, whose editorializing on the metro/state news pages sometimes resembles the editorializing on the actual editorial pages, endorsed the editorial board's position that an independent commission be formed to investigate the response to Katrina.
While Casey did stop short of endorsing Jimmy Carter to head such a commission, he made a point of criticizing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for opposing an independent investigative commission.
Casey neglected to mention that DeLay is on record as favoring a joint Congressional investigation into the response to Katrina. Here's one such statement:
DeLay also said Congress would conduct oversight hearings on the problems with relief efforts at the federal, state and local level. "We need to determine what happened so we can fix it," he said. "It is my opinion that the whole system broke down."
DeLay, however, said calls for an outside commission to investigate the response, similar to the commission created to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was unnecessary.
DeLay has made the point that oversight of the executive branch is a constitutional responsibility of the legislative branch. In that sense, it's hardly surprising that the House Majority Leader doesn't want to cede responsibility for oversight to an unelected commission.
An independent commission may eventually be formed, but nobody should expect it to take the place of Congressional responsibility for oversight, whether Jimmy Carter is involved or not.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/05 05:58 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
But can Bob Stein explain where dust bunnies come from?
Oh, and his wife works for Mayor White.
Anyway, we just wanted to say thanks to the Chronicle's Kristen Mack and Matt Stiles for properly identifying Stein in recent stories. Readers have a right to know of the local expert's mayoral connection.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/15/05 04:36 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
14 September 2005
Council refuses to renew MediaSource contract
Houston City Council gave Mayor White a rare setback today, refusing to approve the MediaSource contract.
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports:
In a confusing and unexpected vote today, a divided City Council refused to renew the contract for the embattled cable public access channel Houston MediaSource.
After months of debate over a few sexually explicit programs, the council split 7-7, with one member absent, on the proposal to provide MediaSource with $800,000 in fees that cable companies are required to collect from subscribers to fund public access programming. Council measures fail on tie votes.
Councilman M.J. Khan caused some confusion with his vote against the contract, saying he supports MediaSource but wants to find a way to put some control on programming.
[snip]
White, who supported renewing the contract, said he expected a close vote, but was surprised that the contract was rejected. He said he still hopes to find a consensus on the council for saving the public access channel, but could not predict whether MediaSource would continue as the contractor.
Councilmember and brand new father Ronald Green was absent and might have provided the winning vote for the mayor. According to Stiles, council can take up the issue again in 90 days.
Voting against the contract were Councilmembers Khan, Lawrence, Wiseman, Holm, Ellis, Sekula-Gibbs and Berry. Voting for the contract were Mayor White and Councilmembers Quan, Galloway, Goldberg, Edwards, Garcia and Alvarado.
Mayor White can probably win this vote in 90 days if he really wants to make it a priority, but at this point one has to question whether he wants to expend the political capital on it.
UPDATE (09-15-2005): Today's account from Stiles offers slightly more detail than the early version linked above.
RELATED COVERAGE: KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KTRK-13.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/14/05 03:12 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (5)
Chron (again) misses HISD editorial opportunity
Yesterday a Chronicle editorial praised some individual efforts during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Singled out for kudos were T. Boone Pickens for flying a planeload of dogs out of Baton Rouge to animal shelters on the West Coast, former Rocket Kenny Smith's benefit basketball game, and former VP Al Gore for arranging to get almost 300 ill patients out of New Orleans.
One of our complaints with Chron editorials is how often the editorial board misses a chance to go local, and yesterday's editorial was a good example. Instead of writing about Gore's efforts (if there was a limit of three things to praise) the Houston Chronicle could have given the editorial a Texas-focus and highlighted what HISD and a large group of its employees did:
More than 300 Houston Independent School District bus drivers, police, and support personnel volunteered to give up their Labor Day weekend to go to the New Orleans area to help in the rescue effort. Departing from Houston between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Saturday, they drove 142 HISD school buses to New Orleans overnight after an emergency appeal from Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
[snip]
HISD’s General Manager of Transportation Services Bonnie Russell said the school district decided to send a number of buses with wheelchair lifts because of news reports from the New Orleans area showing many wheelchair-bound individuals struggling to board regular buses. District officials reported Sunday morning that several buses, filled with wheelchair-bound survivors, were on their way to safety.
Russell reported that one large group of HISD buses was at a docks facility in New Orleans loading survivors from boats and taking them to the New Orleans airport to be flown out of the area.
[snip]
HISD's Assistant General Manager for Transportation Services Phillip Smith reports that he was with a group of buses that picked up evacuees from ferries across the river from New Orleans and took them to the airport. All of them had been stranded in their homes. Some had severe sunburns. Smith said evacuees and the military officials running the evacuations were very glad to see the HISD buses. Officials told Smith that the buses arrived just in time allowing them to evacuate more survivors.
[snip]
District buses were also used to take military troops from an airfield into five parishes in the New Orleans area.
HISD Police reported that several HISD buses took loads of evacuees to Kenner, Louisiana, and also evacuated a nursing home.
It is beyond ridiculous that the editorial board refuses to acknowledge the contributions HISD has made to aid those affected by Katrina -- which includes taking in almost 3,500 displaced Louisiana students with no mechanism in place yet for reimbursement. It has become apparent that there is an undercurrent of petty hostility (based on who knows what) that drives the Chronicle's attitude toward HISD, and that hostility does a disservice to the Chronicle's readers.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/14/05 10:17 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
HPD changes its mind on conducting day laborer stings
One could get whiplash trying to follow HPD decisionmaking. First HPD was photographing "day laborers" (our newest euphemism to describe illegal immigrants apparently) as a means of ID, then HPD said it wouldn't take any more pictures after activists came unglued, and then we read in a story that HPD IS photographing "day laborers" after all!
Well, recently in the news there was a story about a sting conducted by HPD that ended up with thirty "day laborers" under arrest. Of course, all the usual illegal immigrant apologists were horrified at this outrageous act of law enforcement, so today we have HPD's latest cave-in:
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said his department will not do any more day labor sting operations like the one mounted west of downtown earlier this month.
In a meeting with activists Monday, Hurtt said he wants to build trust with immigrants, and he was concerned about the way the operation was handled, according to a police spokesman.
Members of an HPD tactical unit dressed up as contractors and arrested 30 day laborers near the corner of Shepherd and Washington. The men were charged with soliciting work in the roadway, a misdemeanor.
"We will not be doing this again," said Lt. Robert Manzo, an HPD spokesman.
Residents of the neighborhood west of downtown say the area has experienced a quick rise in the number of burglaries, which they link to the immigrant day laborers who loiter on the corners looking for work. Some expressed frustration at the chief's decision.
"It sounds like we need to get together neighbors, the victims of crime, and have a meeting with the chief," said Lisa Flores, who lives in the area. "If he has made a decision like that, he doesn't understand how bad the crime is."
Flores' home was invaded last November by knife-wielding robbers, she said.
Juan Alvarez, leader of the Coalition Against Intolerance and For Respect, said he was pleased with the promise from the chief. Alvarez, who was in the meeting, said the chief explained that the operation was organized by a HPD tactical unit without proper input from the police command.
So there you go. Houston's police chief wants to get along with law breakers. That's nice.
UPDATE: Woops, I missed today's Chron editorial applauding HPD's decision. Dang, that was a fast editorial! We didn't know the idealists had it in them! This must have been a critical issue in the comfy confines of the Chron's editorial board room. I take it none of the editors lives in the area affected by "day laborer" loitering and knife-wielding robbers.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Actually, there's a very simple explanation for the fast turnaround of the editorial. In my masochistic review of a week's worth of Chron editorials, readers will recall I discovered a new Chron approach to editorializing: Simply write, "in the aftermath of Katrina," followed by whatever opinion the Chron previously held on unrelated issues. So, today we get:
In Hurricane Katrina, mistrust of authorities compounded the tragedy that befell New Orleans' poor. Even in ordinary times, citizens who fear police won't report crimes and won't inform on others' illegal behavior. Their silence endangers everyone.
Translated: "In the aftermath of Katrina," HPD should ignore laws it doesn't want to enforce, just as we editorial idealists have advocated previously, because happy criminals are more likely to cooperate with law enforcement.
The idealists really might want to think of a new rhetorical strategy. They've about worn out the aftermath of Katrina.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/14/05 07:41 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
13 September 2005
Citizen-journalists look inside the shelters
Tom Kirkendall calls attention to a blog by South Texas College of Law professors Tracy McGaugh and Kathy Bergin, who are making daily trips to volunteer at the city's official evacuee shelters:
Each day, the profs volunteer at the medical aid table and ask what medicine is needed. Then, the profs go to a local drugstore and buy the medicine needed. The blog has a link where you can donate to the cost of the medicine, which the profs have been largely subsidizing.
The blog also provides somewhat unvarnished commentary on the goings on at each shelter, which is an important component of the complete story regarding Houston's extraordinary effort to provide for the evacuees. It's not all peaches and cream out there, folks.
The blog is called White Washing the Black Storm. Apparently, the law professors have been able both to help out immensely (even spending their own money on medicine) and to play a watchdog role.
Kudos to these citizen-journalists for their volunteer efforts and for sharing their perspective from inside the shelters.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/13/05 09:54 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Blossom likes Dave Ward
Ken Hoffman chronicles the Houston media thoughts of Blossom, a Boston Terrier, in his regular pet adoption column:
"I love when newscasters lose their temper on the air. Dave Ward blew his top when a Channel 13 reporter was told he couldn't report from the Astrodome. Ward is still, day in and day out, the best in Houston."
We like a dog that appreciates Dave Ward on the warpath. :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/13/05 09:13 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)
Hurtt: Crime rates haven't gone up since Katrina
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that city officials are saying that Houston has not seen a spike in crime as a result of the influx of evacuees:
Dealing with the influx of Hurricane Katrina evacuees has been expensive — more than $1 million in police overtime alone — but hasn't caused spikes in local crime or illness, top public safety officials said Monday.
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Fire Chief Phil Boriskie told the City Council's Public Safety Committee that they have had to provide extra staffing to deal with shelter security and emergency calls.
For Hurtt, that meant spending about $150,000 to $200,000 a day more than usual since the storm struck 350 miles to the east Aug. 29.
[snip]
Tom Costello, a coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the committee the city's extra public safety costs are 100 percent reimbursable.
[snip]
Costello's statement is confirmed in a FEMA memo obtained by the Chronicle that lists the numerous expenditures eligible for reimbursement. Among them are shelter security, operating costs and overtime.
Hurtt said that in the past 11 days, his officers have arrested 105 people from Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana, but that overall crime rates have not increased. He doesn't expect that to change.
"I don't foresee, at this time, that there's going to be any significant increase in serious crime," he said.
It does remain a concern, given HPD's manpower shortage and the greater number of people now in town.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/13/05 09:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
More on the DeLay Astrodome appearance
Yesterday, photographer F. Carter Smith emailed me regarding an earlier blog post about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's comments at the Reliant hurricane relief site.
I'm posting his photo (bottom) and email with permission (secured today):
In your blog, you mused that there must have been cameras around during the Bush Economic Team's tour of Reliant Center City. Actually, I was the only still photographer there that day (except for some point and shooters). TV had a pool video camera following Elaine L. Chao at the time.
It happened as you said, pretty much.
Snow spotted the kids on the tour. DeLay told these kids (with no parents in sight) that Secretary Snow was an important man from Washington, then Snow said Delay was an important Congressman. (Modest laughing) The kids were all lying around on a cot and appeared to have no clue who these visitors were. DeLay lightened the subject with the camping out comment. "You gotta admit, isn't it kinda fun, like camping out?" Then Snow gave one kid an awkward pat on the back and they all moved on.
F. Carter Smith
Thanks to Mr. Smith for the photo and for helping us further to flesh out what happened.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/13/05 07:58 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
The Brown Administration legacy grows
With the trip out of town and the Katrina blogging last week, I neglected to mention that the legacy of the Lee Brown Administration managed to grow just a bit more.
The Chronicle's Dan Feldstein, who has provided good reporting on this story, wrote:
Former city of Houston official Monique McGilbra was sentenced to three years in federal prison Friday for accepting bribes from a Cleveland businessman, while former mayoral chief of staff Oliver Spellman got probation for a similar crime.
McGilbra apparently earned the disdain of U.S. District Judge James Gwin in his Cleveland courtroom, insisting that she thought the gifts she accepted from businessmen seeking city work were purely part of dating.
In a trial against the businessman this summer, she testified that she took gifts from five people or companies seeking business with the city building services department she supervised.
McGilbra told Gwin at her sentencing that she was "a woman, a mother and a lover" and that it shouldn't be a crime to have expensive tastes, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
"My involvement with the men in this case was primarily personal that became business. There were personal advances. I never had my position or City Hall for sale," she told the judge.
Judge Gwin apparently was not swayed by that argument.
Later, the Chronicle's Harvey Rice checked in with Houston sentencing:
A former Houston city official was sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison today for accepting cash and gifts from businesses seeking her influence in gaining lucrative city contracts.
[snip]
[Monique] McGilbra, 41, is the second Houston city official to plead guilty in a continuing investigation that began in Cleveland and expanded to include Houston and New Orleans.
Oliver Spellman, 51, chief of staff to former Mayor Lee Brown, received probation and a $10,000 fine Friday in Cleveland federal court for taking a $2,000 bribe from a Cleveland consultant.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore said McGilbra's Houston sentence will run at the same time as the Cleveland sentence, meaning she will spend no more than three years in prison.
McGilbra was more repentant in her statement to Gilmore than in her statement to U.S. District Judge James Gwin in Cleveland, who was unmoved when she told him that having expensive tastes shouldn't be a crime.
"I'd like to say how regretful and sorrowful I am," McGilbra told Gilmore. "I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make amends for that."
[snip]
Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Gallagher and Mary Butler, a prosecutor with the Department of Justice's public integrity unit, told Gilmore McGilbra was cooperating in an ongoing investigation.
"We are striving to discover the extent of corruption and we are not going to leave any stone unturned," Gallagher said outside the courtroom.
The legacy could grow even more.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/13/05 07:47 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
12 September 2005
Yes, the Chronicle can still surprise us
In this blog's first year (yes, it's almost been one year), we've documented plenty of problems in Houston Chronicle copy. We've criticized strange editorial decisions. We've occasionally played a role in getting the newspaper to correct errors.
Frankly, we didn't think that newspaper could surprise us any more.
We were wrong.
A reader called our attention to a "personal essay" by Kristin Finan that I missed while out of town last week. The essay recounts Ms. Finan's impersonation of a Hurricane Katrina evacuee in order to get herself into the George R. Brown Convention Center to observe and later write about the goings on.
Yes, you read that correctly. The journalist apparently passed herself off as an evacuee, actually took up the time and resources of the volunteer effort at the George R. Brown, and later wrote about it. Here is an excerpt of her own words:
I learned a long time ago not to say the words "I know what you're going through" to people who are suffering because, in most cases, I don't.
So in an effort not to wear but maybe take a step in their shoes, I spent Wednesday night at the George R. Brown Convention Center with more than 1,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
My evening began at Intake, where volunteers asked me a list of questions such as "Do you have any immediate medical conditions?" "Are you seeking any family members?" and "Do you know your Social Security number?" and gave me an identification badge.
Another volunteer showed me around the center, which was divided into sections such as a "shopping area" for donated clothing, a medical area and color-coded sleeping areas.
I set up my cot to the left side of the Blue section, which was filled with comforter-covered air mattresses, bags of clothes and children throwing Nerf balls and playing double Dutch.
So, this journalist (I've emailed to ask for her exact affiliation with the Chronicle) took up the time of multiple volunteers not to mention resources devoted to helping the evacuees, and her account gives the strong impression (although it does not come right out and say) that she misrepresented herself in order to get in. Very nice.
As a result, she learned this:
At the end of the day, many would still be exactly where they were when it began — uncertain of how to restart their lives.
I got in my reliable car and headed to my steady job.
I'm glad I never told any of the evacuees I know how they're feeling.
I have no idea.
Unbelievable.
If Ms. Finan lied to get herself into the Convention Center just so she could satisfy her own curiosity and please the Chronicle's editors, shame on her and on them. Perhaps they all need a little refresher on these relevant portions of the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics:
- Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story.
- Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
- Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone’s privacy.
- Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.
Even if Finan didn't lie to get herself in to the Convention Center but somehow wasted the time and resources of these volunteers by convincing them to let her so she could engage her own "lurid curiosity" as a pretend-evacuee, she and her editors still deserve scorn for the decision to tie up those same volunteers instead of engaging in useful volunteer work themselves.
The Chronicle is going to have a hard time topping this one.
UPDATE (09-13-2005): Contrast that reporting with Chronicle all-around good guy Ken Hoffman's account of his own Wednesday night volunteer experience at the Reliant Center. It's good reading from a class act.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/12/05 09:47 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (36)
KTRK unveils new website
KTRK-13 just flipped on a big site redesign.
There are RSS feeds, but they're kind of hard to find now. You might want to use this page to update your feed readers.
Our KTRK-powered headline feed is now updated with the new url, which should eliminate the incomplete loading of the site experienced earlier.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/12/05 08:28 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
Astroworld to close after 2005
KHOU-11 is reporting that Astroworld will close after the 2005 season.
The theme park had suffered from a lack of investment in recent years, and become run down.
Still, it's a landmark that will be missed in Houston.
UPDATE: Related coverage from the Chronicle, KPRC-2.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/12/05 04:50 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (14)
Can commuter rail and Union Pacific share the same rail lines?
Rad Sallee and Patrick Kurp have a story in today's Chronicle about Metro's commuter rail plans:
If everything falls into place, Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson said recently, at least one of three proposed commuter rail lines could be built by 2012, the agency's deadline under a 2003 referendum for completing its next five light-rail extensions.
"The real estate is there. Upgrading the track shouldn't take very long. Depending on what equipment you use, you could get it fairly quickly," Wilson said.
The three commuter rail lines in the Metro Solutions plan are, in order of their likely completion dates: alongside U.S. 90A to Fort Bend County, along Hempstead Highway or U.S. 290 to beyond Texas 6, and along Old Galveston Road to NASA and Clear Lake.
Unlike the light rail projects, none is assigned a date. Each would use right of way leased or more likely purchased from Union Pacific Railroad, Wilson said.
However, there are logistical problems with the railroad's right of way:
But Joe Adams, special representative to UP Chairman Dick Davidson, said the [90A] line is part of an essential freight artery. The single track now carries 25 to 32 trains a day, he said.
Adams said it would be almost impossible to have Metro run trains on the same track.
''Because of their speed and frequency, it is very difficult to mix commuter trains and freight trains," he said.
[snip]
"We are willing to cooperate," Adams said, ''but there are a whole host of issues."
Once again we are left to shake our heads at the short-sightedness that was shown when railroad tracks along the Katy Freeway were torn up instead of used for commuter rail. Now that's a route that's begging for a commuter rail line!
My favorite part of the piece is this:
Although Metro's service area and 1-cent sales tax end at the Fort Bend County line, Wilson said there are ways to get around the border issue. For instance, private investors and public entities, such as the Texas Department of Transportation and cities hoping to benefit from the line, could enter a partnership to pay for track outside Harris County.
Those are two words I would like to see more often in any news story related to Metro.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/12/05 09:50 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Pass the tequila
I guess it's my turn. Kevin is most likely hungover after yesterday's Chron editorial-dissection post, so I'll tackle today's offering. You see, the editorial board wants us to know that journalists are REALLY courageous for demanding that they be allowed to photograph corpses in New Orleans:
Taking a page from the Pentagon's public relations playbook, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials last week refused to allow journalists to accompany rescue teams in search of storm victims in New Orleans and requested that the media refrain from taking pictures of corpses, ostensibly out of respect for the dignity of the deceased victims and the sensibilities of survivors. Journalism organizations immediately criticized the action as an effort to stifle graphic reporting and influence public reaction.
[snip]
Instead of trying to manage the news, FEMA and Homeland Security officials should have been reading and watching it.
Now journalists are performing a difficult and essential role in conveying to the American people the avoidable horrors of Katrina and its aftermath. Instead of obstructing their efforts, FEMA's top officials should instead focus on their own failure to save the people whose dignity in death they now profess to defend.
Phew!
There is no group that is more thin-skinned than the media. Any perceived slight, inconvenience or criticism is called an assault on the First Amendment. At the same time, there is no group in America that is more self-congratulatory than the media. Media elites love to hail themselves as courageous -- as if reporting or offering an opinion (as we know, those are often interchangeable) is somehow dangerous in 21st-century America.
As many bloggers have pointed out, the same media that filed suit in order to show dead bodies in New Orleans refuses to show images from 9/11. And John Podhoretz thinks the media has gone 'round the bend by pursuing this.
But it's Laurence Simon who gets the final say -- News Looters.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/12/05 09:14 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
11 September 2005
Masochism: Dissecting a week's worth of Chron editorials
Last Saturday, I took off for nearly a week of music and down time in the Pacific Northwest. I had wifi and was keeping up with the news back home, so I saw no need to announce the trip here.
While I did keep up with local news and the Chronicle's mostly good coverage of Katrina, I didn't pay much attention to the Chronicle's lackluster editorial page. As I went through a week's worth of editorials this morning, it struck me that perhaps I ought to offer up as a blog post the annotations I was making in my mind. If that sort of thing interests, click on the [Read More] link. If not, feel free to ignore this post, which admittedly deals with "olds" and is not written or edited tightly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/11/05 01:41 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Metro's new budget available for viewing; public hearing Sept. 21
It's a very revealing time of year for Metro:
FY2006 Operating & Capital Budgets of METRO will be the subject of a public hearing to be held on Wednesday, September 21, 2005, at 12:00 noon in the METRO Board Room on the 2nd Floor at 1900 Main Street in Houston, TX.
The FY2006 Operating & Capital Budgets of METRO are available for public review prior to the hearing at METRO headquarters at 1900 Main Street on the 14th Floor by contacting Rose Gonzales at 713-739-4834.
It was about this time last year we learned of Metro's first-ever budget deficit. We'll soon find out if Metro's financial situation has improved since then.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/11/05 10:12 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron: HISD is better than average!
I read today's Jason Spencer story in the Chronicle about the challenges school districts, and specifically HISD, are facing to educate Katrina-displaced students, and I was stunned.
He got it! Or maybe his editors got it...or maybe both!
As urban school systems go, Houston is considered better than average.
Last school year, more than 60 percent of HISD's students in grades three, five and nine scored above the national average on the Stanford Achievement Test. Fewer than one-third of the New Orleans Public Schools students in those grades beat the national average on the similar Iowa Test of Basic Skills during 2003-04.
"Those that ended up in Houston are lucky," said Robert Stockwell, who left a job as HISD's chief academic officer last year and now holds the same position in Baton Rouge. "They are in a system that is well prepared to help students be successful."
Specifically, Houston's reading program for elementary school students is far ahead of practices in New Orleans, Stockwell said.
"Houston is probably at a much higher level of organization and expectations than what would be expected in New Orleans," he said. "Reading, for many pockets of the city, was a major issue."
Wow! That's terrific!
I'll encourage you to read the entire story -- it's worth it. What HISD has done in less than a week, IS amazing, in spite of these educational experts whining that HISD isn't focused on lengthening its summer lunch program.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/11/05 09:28 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron's Lise Olsen shows up New York Times
As I read this Captain Ed post yesterday, a little something he wrote caught my eye:
So why can't the New York Times do some research at least equal to that of the Houston Chronicle[...]?
That's not something we read everyday! But in my humble opinion, some of the Chron's reporting, especially the metro reporting, has improved quite a bit. (I am NOT talking about the DC bureau.)
The story that Captain Ed is referring to is this fine piece by Lise Olsen about how New Orleans didn't follow its own evacuation plan:
It was not the evacuation plan authorities had envisioned for its sick, its elderly and its poor. As the floodwaters recede, serious questions remain about whether New Orleans and Louisiana officials followed their own plans for evacuating people with no other way out.
The mayor's mandatory evacuation order was issued 20 hours before the storm struck the Louisiana coast, less than half the time researchers determined would be needed to get everyone out.
City officials had 550 municipal buses and hundreds of additional school buses at their disposal but made no plans to use them to get people out of New Orleans before the storm, said Chester Wilmot, a civil engineering professor at Louisiana State University and an expert in transportation planning, who helped the city put together its evacuation plan.
Instead, local buses were used to ferry people from 12 pickup points to poorly supplied "shelters of last resort" in the city. An estimated 50,000 New Orleans households have no access to cars, Wilmot said.
State and local plans both called for extra help to be provided in advance to residents with "special needs," though no specific timetable was prepared. But phone lines for people who needed specialized shelters opened at noon Saturday � barely 30 hours before Katrina came ashore in Louisiana.
Congratulations Lise Olsen -- you showed up four of the vaunted New York Times' reporters!
UPDATE: I should have added Laurence Simon's "go-local" admonition.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/11/05 08:08 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
10 September 2005
St. Agnes' Pastor: "This is real church"
KTRK-13's Laura Whitley reports on the pastor of St. Agnes Baptist Church, which recently threw open its doors to evacuees:
St. Agnes' Pastor Gene Moore realizes this isn't home. But he didn't hesitate to let the Red Cross run the operation out of his new sanctuary.
"So, I'm not having church but we are doing really doing church," said Pastor Moore.
Doing church in a building the congregation hasn't even moved into.
"This is real church, this is what church is about," said Pastor Moore.
What a refreshing attitude, considering some churches in town were silent for days as the evacuees started arriving (and that church never threw open its doors to evacuees, lest the television broadcasts be interrupted).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/10/05 10:01 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron editorialists want to run local YWCA chapter
The Chronicle editorial board chose to offer advice to the YWCA today, for the second time in a week:
Leaving public shelters at an impressive pace, evacuees from Hurricane Katrina nevertheless will be reeling for a long time. Among the most fragile may be children — exposed to horrendous experiences in their own city, mere spectators as their parents try to adjust to this one. For all the newcomers, a healthy routine will be key to recovery. In a car-centric city with meager park space, many of the children will lack places to play.
The gorgeous Masterson YWCA off Waugh Drive could be such a place. Filled with rooms perfect for classes and workshops, the gym centers on a junior Olympic swimming pool in a room where huge glass doors can be raised in warm weather. The play area is expanded many times over by the meadows of Spotts Park next-door.
Making this precious resource available to flood victims for six months or a year would harmonize perfectly with the YWCA's overall mission. A vanguard force in the nation's civil rights movement, the YWCA now includes among its goals empowering young women and healing the damage of racism. It could find no better clients than Katrina survivors in Houston. Houston's YMCA has already recognized the need, opening a YMCA for evacuees at Reliant City. But soon the stadium will empty.
Unfortunately, the YWCA last month closed its fitness program as the first step in selling the building.
[snip]
Hurricane Katrina has prompted soul-searching on national priorities — among them, the kind of planning that keeps a city healthy. YWCA leaders should reconsider their priorities, as well.
This is one of the more bizarre editorials we've seen from an editorial board that pumps out bizarre editorials with regularity.
Here's a suggestion for the editorial idealists: If you really feel so strongly (and you must, since this is the second editorial on this topic in a week), then every one of you should round up several corporate sponsors each to "adopt" this pool that you want the YWCA to maintain. Keep a running tab on the editorial page of every corporate sponsor recruited by each editorial member, and the amount of money pledged. Have a column also for the public at large to donate. If it's that compelling, surely corporate Houston and the public will respond. Of course, it would also be an indicator whether anybody is actually paying attention to the editorial page (we have our doubts), so for that reason we don't really expect to see it.
Still, if the editorialists are serious about preserving this swimming pool -- as if it's the only swimming pool in the whole city -- then they ought to get serious about it themselves. Maybe they could even get Hearst to throw in some bucks.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/10/05 08:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
09 September 2005
Chron Dome Blog: How to slant a story by omission
Earlier today, a Chron blogger/journalist managed to please quite a few members of the partisan lefty blogosophere with a post that was notable not because of the information it contained, but for all the information it left out.
Here are the money grafs from Purva Patel's dome blog:
U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's visit to Reliant Park this morning offered him a glimpse of what it's like to be living in shelter.
While on the tour with top administration officials from Washington, including U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, DeLay stopped to chat with three young boys resting on cots.
The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"
They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.
With a group of reporters and press officers in tow, DeLay then moved on, chatting with others, including a local IRS representative. He then visited with job recruiters set up in Reliant Park.
A source I spoke to tells me a little more about the event. Apparently, the cabinet secretaries were a little stiff, for lack of a better term, effectively telling the children that Washington was going to help them. The children didn't react all that well; why would anyone expect them to (go reread, and you'll see we're talking about John Snow)? The source I spoke to tells me that the House Majority Leader then started joking with the kids, interacting with them, with arm around them, trying to loosen them up. And the source I spoke to tells me it worked -- that he put the children more at ease than they were.
I wasn't there. I can't tell you firsthand that's what happened. But I trust my source. And if that's the way it happened, Purva Patel's account omitted important details of the interaction.
Furthermore, Purva Patel's post omitted other important detail. DeLay, for example, works extensively with foster children. People who know him say he's really good around all children. So it's an important matter whether he put the children more at ease than the cabinet secretaries, and how he interacted with the children.
But nobody is going to know any of that from reading Purva Patel's post.
Apparently, there were members of the press trailing the contingent, and that most likely means cameras were around. Perhaps some photos or even video footage can lend some context to DeLay's remarks, since Patel chose not to give them any context.
As context goes, Lone Star Times contacted Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, who was a member of the contingent that included DeLay. Eckels said:
"I don’t remember hearing that exchange, but it wouldn’t surprise me, and I don’t see what the big deal would be if he had said it."
"All of us are down here trying to encourage these kids and get them to focus on the future as much as possible. They’ve been through a severely traumatic event, and all of us are trying to encourage them by talking about their new schools, the new friends they will make."
"Many of us have tried to help them think about sleeping on a cot for a little while by making reference to ‘camping.’ So I just don’t see, unless your motivated by malice, how you could take those sorts of comments and portray them as ‘insensitive.’"
"The kids enjoyed the visit, I haven’t heard from anyone who was offended, and given Tom’s work with abused and neglected kids, I’ve got to believe this is someone trying to make much ado about nothing."
As Lone Star Times further notes, partisan lefty bloggers have worked themselves into a frenzy over DeLay's comments.
While Patel's account was not technically inaccurate, it's a shame that a journalist omitted detail that might have fleshed out the story and provided less fodder for the Lefty Keyboard Corps of Engineers to make a molehill out of nothing.
UPDATE (09-13-2005): Photographer F. Carter Smith was there, and emailed us additional details, posted here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/09/05 10:54 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (12)
Chron: Jimmy Carter should investigate Bush's hurricane-response failings
Let's read today's thoughtful musings handed down from the comfy confines of the Chronicle's editorial board room:
President George W. Bush's immediate reaction to the swelling criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and of his grossly unqualified appointees to manage the agency, was to declare he would personally lead an inquiry into his administration's handling of the crisis. The president should make every effort to educate himself about what went wrong, a list that would include his own failure to perform effectively as commander in chief. However, it doesn't take a doctorate in jurisprudence to realize that a president can't credibly investigate his own administration.
Who would have believed a report by President Richard Nixon on the Watergate break-in, or an examination of the Whitewater land deal by former President Bill Clinton?
A logical forum for delving into governmental shortcomings exposed by Katrina would seem to be a congressional committee such as the one Republican leaders plan to appoint. The problem is that partisanship on Capitol Hill has paralyzed the House Ethics Committee and is already poisoning the effort to examine the Katrina disaster.
[snip]
While not ideal, the most promising option is one suggested by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.: an independent commission along the lines of the Sept. 11 probe. It should be headed by national figures of unassailable independence and credibility, such as former President Jimmy Carter, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Their mission would be to examine the failings of the Katrina relief effort, in a setting open to the public, and to document the facts.
Oh my! Once I recovered from the hysterical fit of laughter that came over me when I read the bolded part, I found Orrin Judd's priceless observation on all these hurricane-response criticisms:
Can't wait to see Democrats in Congress hand the White House power to keep the military poised to sieze and control majority black and Democrat-controlled cities any time it rains hard enough....
This ought to be interesting.
UPDATE: Interestingly, on the page next to the editorial, the Chron runs Charles Krauthammer's column which puts the finger-pointing in the proper order.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Jimmy Carter?! President Bush has notably ignored the meddlesome former president twice now by asking former President Clinton and his father to head high-profile relief efforts. Is the Chronicle editorial board so out of touch with reality that they think the Bush Administration is going to let Jimmy Carter meddle in anything that matters? Apparently so.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/09/05 09:02 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
08 September 2005
KTRK followup on New York Times
We hear from KTRK-13 that the station will be airing an update on the recent story by Tom Abrahams on a couple of articles from the New York Times company that put an ugly slant on Houston's relief efforts.
The update should air on the 6 pm broadcast, and the story should post to the website sometime afterwards. I have another commitment during the broadcast, so I'll be interested in hearing from commenters about the update.
UPDATE: Abrahams' "correction" is here. Still, his broader point about the tenor of the slanted coverage by the New York Times companies remains valid, as the company spokesman pretty much admits to him. They wanted to portray Houston as greedy opportunists, and so they did. And maybe if you're getting your news about Houston from national media or even from "heh, indeed" bloggers you believe them. You shouldn't.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/08/05 10:35 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
"Houston hospitality has been the best"
The Chronicle's Michael Murphy writes about several new members of Tom Penders' Cougar basketball family:
A group of UH basketball players were playing an impromptu pickup game at Hofheinz Pavilion. It was a mix of returnees from last year's team that won 18 games in coach Tom Penders' first season, and several new players from his first recruiting crop.
Among the new players was Corey Bloom, a smooth 6-5 swingman who was showing off his feathery jump shot. As he ran the floor, Al and Jeanette Bloom sat silently in the stands, absently watching their son play.
If circumstances were different, the Blooms would be back home, where Al would be running a pest-control business and Jeanette would be working at a hospital.
But for the Blooms, home is — was — in New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina submerged their home under 14 feet of water.
"We lost everything," Al Bloom said. "I lost my home, my business (Assurance Pest Control) and both of my trucks. I had contracts with the zoo, the aquarium, the nature center and ACRES (Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species).
[snip]
"When you lose everything, what do you do?" Al Bloom said. "You gotta be survivors. ... There's no way to describe this kind of devastation or how frightening that (flooding) can be.
"All I can say is that everyone we've met in Houston has been so gracious, kind and understanding. Houston hospitality has been the best."
The entire story is here.
Welcome to Houston and to the UH Cougar family, Mr. and Mrs. Bloom.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/08/05 10:28 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Mack on the Mayor's technocratic/progressive parking plans
In her column last week, Kristen Mack wrote the following about Mayor White's parking priorities:
Last week, the city created a 15-member public parking commission — composed of nine voting members with experience in the field and six non-voting members representing the city, county and Metropolitan Transit Authority.
The idea is to create a body whose mission will be to create a"forum for input on present and future parking needs and plans for citizens, stakeholders and other interested parties."
But downtown parking is a touchy subject. It doesn't help that parking has been managed poorly for years, and that many residents, and even some elected officials, believe that the city's motivations have more to do with revenue generation than parking management.
White hopes to change that perception, and the City Council apparently is on board. It approved the parking commission unanimously.
Parking is being restructured under one umbrella, moving from municipal courts to the Convention and Entertainment Department, which already manages the 7,500 parking spaces in city-owned lots.
The city has to sell this carefully. Critics will say that the city is creating a new government bureaucracy only to create a new revenue stream.
Hey, that sounds familiar!
Does this mean we've graduated from mere bloggers to actual critics?
And does it also mean that it's now even LESS likely that Mayor White's communications staff is going to honor our repeated requests to be added to their press release email list?
Probably so on the latter.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/08/05 12:12 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
07 September 2005
HISD begins massive enrollment effort (updated)
Today HISD began the tremendous job of enrolling thousands of school-aged children displaced by Katrina:
The massive task of enrolling thousands of displaced children in Houston schools begins in earnest this morning at the Reliant Center and George R. Brown Convention Center.
Many could begin attending class by Thursday.
Houston Independent School District officials estimate they can enroll 500 students a day at each site, giving each a health screening and a wristband indicating their school location and school bus number.
As many as 100 buses could be needed to get the children to and from school each day.
The cost could reach $60 million if an estimated 10,000 students from Louisiana and Mississippi spend the entire school year in Houston, Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said Tuesday. HISD hopes to recoup the cost from the state and federal governments, he said.
"We're going to treat them like they're our own kids," Saavedra told school board trustees Tuesday. "But there is a serious issue of cost to this effort."
[snip]
HISD will open two previously closed elementary school campuses — Ryan and Douglass — for up to 1,350 students.
The rest will be spread among Dodson, McDade, Frost and Anson Jones elementaries. The first group of middle school students will go to Fleming and Black, with Fondren and Holland as backups.
High school students will go to Jones and Scarborough, followed by Kashmere, Barbara Jordan and Sterling as space is needed.
The district has hired 300 to 400 teachers on a temporary basis, and they're ready to start Thursday, Saavedra said.
The new teachers include many from New Orleans, Texas retirees, Teach for America teachers previously assigned to New Orleans and others, Saavedra said.
Also, HISD will be hosting a job fair on Thursday for educators displaced by Katrina.
UPDATE (9-8-2005) Jennifer Radcliffe has a recap of yesterday's registration efforts. She notes that HISD registered another 445 students yesterday, bringing HISD's total number of new students to 1,885. Radcliffe also provides some numbers for other local districts:
Suburban districts in Harris County have taken in roughly 6,900 evacuated students, including 1,148 in Cypress-Fairbanks, 811 in Alief, 404 in Klein and 900 in Katy.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/07/05 12:48 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron: Perry overestimated; No, he underestimated
Tom Tyler calls our attention to a recent article by the Chronicle Austin bureau's R.G. Ratcliffe that can't seem to decide how to attack Gov. Rick Perry's response to the Act of God that devastated New Orleans.
Early in the article, there is this criticism:
The deluge of Louisiana hurricane evacuees has left questions about whether Texas officials had adequately planned to handle the thousands driven from their homes by a major disaster.
The capacity of facilities in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas to house evacuees was far below what Gov. Rick Perry had offered to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco last week. And by Sunday, Perry's office admitted that "unsuitable overflow conditions" may exist at some shelters and began organizing an airlift to other states.
So, Gov. Perry overestimated our state's ability to shelter evacuees?
Except, there's this:
While the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans was massive, the fact Perry and his staff repeatedly underestimated how many people could be housed at facilities in Texas raised questions about how well the state had prepared for a hurricane here or a major terrorist attack that created thousands of evacuees.
So, now Gov. Perry underestimated?
Does the Austin bureau have editors? Or was the bureau chief too busy moonlighting as a weekend lefty editorialist to oversee properly the accuracy of dispatches coming out of Austin?
There's also this bit of underreporting:
Perry had first announced last Wednesday that Texas would house 25,000 in the Reliant Astrodome. But the Astrodome's capacity for evacuees was far below what Perry had offered, so Mayor Bill White had to order other facilities opened to house people.
That conveniently leaves out the facts that the fire marshall stopped evacuees for a time, there was legitimate talk of turning those evacuees away, the Chronicle misreported the number of waiting buses in a manner that interestingly dovetailed with numbers put out by the mayor's spokesman, and the pounding that city officials were taking from live coverage of the potential fiasco by Dave Ward and KTRK-13 finally seemed to get the attention of the mayor's staff and to get the situation under control.
Despite the angles taken by various journalists covering this story, the bigger story remains just how well Houston and Texas have managed the aftermath of this catastrophe. In time, we'll discover mistakes, and we should certainly learn from those. But mistakes aren't the story in Texas right now (except in the editing of this Austin dispatch, one supposes).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/07/05 12:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
KTRK's Abrahams calls out NY Times
KTRK-13's Tom Abrahams engages in a bit of media criticism related to recent coverage of Houston's Katrina efforts by New York Times outlets:
Houston is home to the largest relief shelter in American history. From donating shelter, clothes, and food to making room in its schools, the city and its people have given of themselves.
So who could find anything bad to say about Houston? Apparently the New York Times could, which on Tuesday printed an article about Houston's response to Katrina in two different newspapers. In one, the article seems relatively even handed. But in the other, some say it is overly critical, ill-timed, and in poor taste.
In the Times, there's an above-the-fold article by Houston-based reporter Simon Romero. And apparently what's in the Times is not all the news that's fit to print.
In The International Herald Tribune published by the Times in Paris, Romero's article is on page 15 and it begins with a line not in the Times, which reads "No one would accuse this city of being timid in the scramble to profit from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."
It later contends, "A surge of business activity in Houston might lift the fortune of a city that is still struggling to recover from the collapse of Enron and two decades of job cuts in the energy industry."
As noted here, the New York Times did try to slant their story to portray Houston as crudely opportunistic, but they had to report enough facts that they probably only hurt themselves journalistically by trying to slant the story the way they did. The IHT editing was apparently worse.
Kudos to Abrahams and KTRK for calling them on it.
To echo Laurence Simon -- If you're getting your Houston-related coverage from the New York Times, Washington Post, or national bloggers who refuse to link to some of the fine local resources Laurence links at the top of his blog, you're almost certainly missing parts of the story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/07/05 11:37 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
Chron doing its part to help Katrina evacuees
This is an interesting look at how the (often criticized by us) Houston Chronicle is meeting the needs of Houston's many new residents:
As the population of Houston swells -- it's estimated the city has seen an influx of about 100,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina -- the city's main newspaper has been ramping up to meet the needs of people looking for news and, now, for jobs. It just added a new classified category for people looking for temporary work.
The Hearst-owned Houston Chronicle has been distributing 10,000 “mini newspapers" to 25 Houston-area shelters including the Astrodome. “It's a broadsheet,” said Bill Offill, executive vice president sales and marketing at the Chronicle. "Just above our masthead it says, 'News for Katrina Evacuees.'"
Wednesday's edition will grow from six to eight pages and includes information on how evacuees can locate others, find health assistance, and just “what the heck is going on,” Offill said. Seven thousand copies of the main Chronicle are distributed along with the special editions.
It's unknown how long the Chronicle will hand out the hurricane-related publication. Today the main paper ran a story showing that many exhausted evacuees are hesitant to move to other shelters -- including docked cruise ships -- so soon after landing in Houston. Many are still trying to locate family and friends. “We're not sure how long people are going to be in these mega-shelters,” Offill said.
Beyond providing short-term quarters, Houston will absorb residents looking for either temporary or permanent residence. Offill said the Chronicle, which has a daily circulation of 527,744, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures, can easily produce another 50,000 to 100,000 copies to accommodate new readers.
Already the Chronicle has had to make adjustments. This weekend, the paper produced a new classified category to fill the number of orders for companies looking for temporary workers. “On Thursday we were getting so many calls, we created a new classification,” said Offill, who added that Labor Day weekend is typically slow for help-wanted advertising. This year it doubled.
Additionally, the paper is picking up display advertising from companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil, which are encouraging displaced employees to contact them.
“It's day to day,” said Offill. “We don't know how long we're going to have the influx of people. You hear reports that it could be for a long time. We're already seeing a lot of people that are going to make Houston their permanent home and they are not going back."
(I'll be nice and not make the obvious comment regarding the bolded part above.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/07/05 09:59 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Katrina gives city reprieve from SAFEclear headache
The City of Houston bought itself some time in dealing with a judge's SAFEclear-killing ruling by saying it needs to focus on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:
At the city's request, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt delayed the ruling until November. The move gives the city time to determine whether to change the program to comply with his order or pursue an appeal.
Hoyt ruled Aug. 31 that the city can't give towing companies exclusive contracts to remove cars from Houston freeways or to regulate the fees charged to motorists who consent to long-distance tows.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in February by the Houston Professional Towing Association and three local operators who did not receive exclusive contracts.
The city argued in a court document that, without a delay, the ruling would cause confusion for the city, towing companies and the public at a time when resources are stretched thin as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
The stay, issued late Tuesday, doesn't affect the underlying conclusions in the ruling. A meeting on how to deal with the ruling is planned today, City Attorney Arturo Michel said.
Of course the city is extremely busy with Katrina evacuees, but what I find interesting is that when SAFEclear was implemented there was no grace period for drivers on Houston freeways, despite the confusion and hardship the draconian program caused.
RELATED: blogHOUSTON's SAFEclear archives
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/07/05 07:51 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
06 September 2005
Casey expands on bizarre government/religion theme
Some months ago, noxious Chronicle metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey let slip some interesting observations to the Harris County Democratic Party that promptly showed up on their weblog.
In his most recent column, Casey actually expands on that strange theme that we never expected would appear anywhere but partisan lefty blogs:
Listen to a televised preacher this Sunday or go to a megachurch.The best of the megachurches are great centers of private charity. They are raising vast sums and sending out great armies of volunteers to help with this disaster.
But in many of them you will regularly hear that God wants you to be rich. If you just give yourself up to Jesus, he will reward you not just with spiritual wealth but with monetary wealth as well.
That sounds like a harmless message, but it holds a dark implication.
If you are poor, it is because you are not in God's favor. You lack faith.
It's not that these people don't deserve our charity when their need is dire. God wants us to save the sinners. It's that when we think of our community, they're not in it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/06/05 02:38 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (8)
What makes a world-class city?
The rest of the country is beginning to see what we Houstonians love about our city -- that it may not be full of "world class" tourist attractions, but it's a city that gets things done.
From Orrin Judd come a couple of articles in the national press. First, there's a New York Times article by Simon Romero, "Houston finds business boon after Katrina." Here's an excerpt:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/06/05 01:55 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chron links Katrina, Peak Oil, and mass transit
Unsurprisingly, the Chronicle editorialists have used the Katrina aftermath as an opportunity for a little Hubbert Peak scaremongering and mass transit cheerleading:
Perhaps the shock of Katrina's destruction, the demonstrated vulnerability of the nation's energy supply and the rapid doubling of gasoline prices will move many Americans to ride mass transit, live closer to work or drive smaller cars. History, however, suggests that the moment will pass, things will settle down, and we will be grotesquely unprepared for the moment when there simply is not enough oil to go around and only the wealthy can afford it.
This sort of writing -- not unlike a previous editorial that created a new treaty -- can result when people with no special expertise or knowledge nonetheless try to write authoritatively on specialized topics.
For another view on Peak Oil, see this recent Freakonomics blog post, as well as various work by Daniel Yergin and Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). CERA also has reposted an article on the Katrina crisis by Yergin that originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal. This sort of writing is typical of grownups who know their topic well (as distinguished from the Chronicle editorialists).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/06/05 01:14 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
They are killing trees to print these editorials (cont'd)
The Chron.com blogs are must-reads. The Chronicle's news pages are everywhere, covering the news that should be covered. The Chronicle's editorials...well, some things don't change.
After an incredible week that has seen Houston do the most amazing things, you'd think the editorialists who sit in their comfy offices would have a kind word for one particular Houston entity -- HISD.
I thought so. I expected -- finally -- an editorial that would give HISD credit for an outreach of effort and creative-thinking that is making things happen for Katrina evacuees. I really did.
I was wrong.
Last week HISD opened its doors, hearts and resources to school-aged evacuees, launched a district-wide fundraising drive, offered technical support and help to New Orleans school officials, and district employees volunteered their time to drive 142 buses to New Orleans to assist with evacuation efforts.
And after all that, the Chronicle decides to beat up HISD for not having an all-summer-long lunch program.
Seriously!
Texas school administrators have a saying: Summer starts in December. That's the month when schools start setting up their summer programs. The Houston Independent School System, Galena Park and other districts should act now to fix an inexcusable lapse in their duty.
The only inexcusable lapse I can see is Jeff Cohen continuing to allow the dumbasses in the Chronicle's editorial board room to write this crap.
We've been down this road before with the Chronicle on this topic. I said back then and I'll say it again -- if the Chronicle feels this is an issue that is not being adequately addressed, perhaps the editorial idealists should emerge from their air-conditioned offices and spearhead an effort to make summer lunch programs last all summer. There comes a point when school districts have to focus on the beginning of the school year, and that's when private enterprises should step in, if a need is not being addressed. And for God's sake, when will the Chronicle call on parents TO FEED THEIR OWN CHILDREN?!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/06/05 09:57 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (9)
City Council approves disaster relief funds
Charles Kuffner points to this Matt Stiles story noting that city council has approved $10 million for disaster-relief efforts:
The money, which would come from a street and bridge construction fund, might be used to pay for the personnel, equipment and supplies to help the tens of thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Mayor Bill White said that the city has spent less than $1 million so far on ramping up shelters and other services for evacuees. He said he'd also secured millions of dollars in funding pledges from private sources.
"If something happens, we need to be able to act quickly," he said.
Council members at the mayor said they also expected that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would reimburse the city for most, if not all, of any spending on the evacuees.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/06/05 07:38 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
Restaurant smoking ban is in effect
Houstonians just got healthier (remember Mayor White is looking out for you) as the city's new restaurant smoking ban is now in effect:
Houston's smoking ordinance went into effect Monday, requiring restaurants and other eating establishments to ban smoking from indoor dining areas.
"We're working with the restaurants toward compliance," says Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for Houston Department of Health and Human Services. "If they refuse, then we will look into some disciplinary action."
Under the ordinance, restaurants can be fined $2,000 per violation.
A number of restaurants contacted by the Chronicle didn't realize the ordinance had taken effect.
"Wow, I didn't know," said Beso owner-chef Arturo Boada. "Thank God I'm sitting down. I'll put up a no-smoking sign tomorrow."
At One's A Meal and the Greek Village on West Gray, owner Louis Servos wondered whether smoking is still allowed on the patio.
"Do you know? Some people say you got to be 22 feet from the door. Others say 44 feet," he said. "The problem is, most patios are right there at the front door."
Passed in March, the ordinance does allow smoking in outdoor seating areas and restaurant bars.
The ordinance has "gray areas," El Meson owner Peter Garcia said. "For instance, how should the bar be separated from the dining room? It has to have some kind of separation, but it's unclear as to what kind. It could be a fence. It could be a couple of plants. We're just going to have to feel this out little by little."
But then Garcia, a smoker, decided to stop guessing and made the restaurant and bar area smoke-free. "There's a Spanish saying that goes, 'You can't cover the sun with your thumb,' " he said.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/06/05 06:55 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)
05 September 2005
KHOU Interviews HISD bus drivers
I was hoping for this! KHOU-11 has interviewed several of the HISD bus drivers who have returned from helping evacuate residents of New Orleans. Click on the two video links to hear their tales.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/05/05 12:56 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Important transit lessons from New Orleans disaster
Tom Kirkendall has linked to an important piece that should be mandatory reading for City of Houston and Metro officials:
Those who fervently wish for car-free cities should take a closer look at New Orleans. The tragedy of New Orleans isn't primarily due to racism or government incompetence, though both played a role. The real cause is automobility -- or more precisely to the lack of it.
[snip]
What made New Orleans more vulnerable to catastrophe than most U.S. cities is its low rate of auto ownership. According to the 2000 Census, nearly a third of New Orleans households do not own an automobile. This compares to less than 10 percent nationwide. There are significant differences by race: 35 percent of black households but only 15 percent of white households do not own an auto. But in the end, it was auto ownership, not race, that made the difference between safety and disaster.
"The evacuation plan was really based on people driving out," an LSU professor told the Times. On Saturday and Sunday, August 27 and 28, when it appeared likely that Hurricane Katrina would strike New Orleans, those people who could simply got in their cars and drove away. The people who didn't have cars were left behind.
Critics of autos love the term "auto dependent." But Katrina proved that the automobile is a liberator. It is those who don't own autos who are dependent -- dependent on the competence of government officials, dependent on charity, dependent on complex and sometimes uncaring institutions.
[snip]
Rather than help low-income people achieve greater mobility, New Orleans transportation planners decided years ago that their highest priority was to provide heavily subsidized streetcar rides for tourists. In the late 1980s and 1990s, New Orleans spent at least $15 million converting an abandoned rail line into the 1.5-mile Riverfront Streetcar line. In 2004, New Orleans opened the 3.6-mile Canal Street streetcar line at a cost of nearly $150 million.
New Orleans was planning to spend another $120 million on a Desire Street streetcar line.These tourist lines do nothing to help any local residents except for those who happen to own property along the line.
Sounds very familiar. Tom adds:
If a part of Metro's long-term strategy is to make certain segments of Houston's population less "automobile-dependent," then one of the lessons of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina is that we should make clear in any future Metro referendums that such a strategy can have deadly consequences in the event that an evacuation of Houston is required.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/05/05 11:27 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Move It! covers Metro's "restructuring"
Rad Sallee's Move It! column notes Metro's layoffs, and also a new labor agreement:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority last week approved a three-year labor agreement with the Transit Workers Union, which represents bus operators, mechanics and cleaners. The agency also laid off 77 employees in jobs described as "non-mission critical."
Over the three years, the raises would bring a senior driver making $17.77 an hour to $19.21, a journeyman mechanic to $21.51, and the lowest-paid cleaners to $13.36.
The employee "restructuring" involved slightly more than 2 percent of Metro's work force and was limited to non-union salaried employees in "functions and activities whose value to the authority had diminished over time or become unnecessary," a Metro statement said.
"No additional layoffs are planned," said spokesman Ken Connaughton.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/05/05 09:48 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Labor Day reading
-- Tom Kirkendall writes about the massive relief effort going on behind-the-scenes by a network of local churches and charities. My own church is one of those listed and its efforts to help are extensive. Fellowship of the Woodlands has adopted evacuees at The Woodlands Marriott and is providing for their needs, in addition to hosting a shelter at the church, holding a fundraising concert with Phillips, Craig and Dean this Wednesday, putting on a "Fun Day" for evacuee families in the area and an appearance by Rick Warren today, sending out mobile kitchens to the Gulf Coast areas hit by Katrina, collecting donated items for evacuees, providing childcare for local medical personnel who are working extra shifts, and more.
-- Charles Kuffner has a volunteer and assistance post that is packed with information.
-- Banjo Jones has a third installment of what is becoming a series, "The Kindness of Strangers."
-- Slampo's daughter welcomed a new student to her class this week and that has Slampo thinking about the future for evacuees and Houston.
-- Galveston, Cedar Park and Texas City police officers are taking supplies to police departments in the hurricane-devastated areas.
-- The Houston Humane Society is providing shelter and care for evacuees' pets at no charge and is asking for donations to help offset the costs this will involve.
-- Brennan's of Houston will be fundraising on Friday, September 9. All monies will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Disaster Relief Fund.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/05/05 09:34 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
04 September 2005
Katrina news bites: medication, transportation for evacuees
-- Mayor White has announced that evacuees will be able to get medication, both prescription and non-prescription, free of charge for up to 30 days. Also, people who do not have a doctor's prescription will be able to get their medication based on a pharmacist's judgment.
-- Houston Airport System is assisting New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong Airport in cleaning up and restoring air service.
-- Here's a list of transit services Metro is providing for evacuees:
* Ongoing: providing bus shuttles for patients from New Orleans Veterans Administration Hospital from Ellington Field to the Houston VA Hospital. Transportation is also being provided for handicapped and/or wheelchair-bound patients arriving at Ellington.
* Thursday, Sept. 1: provided transport for passengers arriving on six flights from New Orleans to Ellington, 138 people per plane. They were transported to the Astrodome, Galveston and area hospitals.
* Ongoing: providing two trolleys running a loop from the Astrodome along Kirby, Fannin, Main and OST, every 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., taking refugees to METRORail, area stores and a medical clinic.
* Ongoing: providing four METROLift vans to shuttle people from the Astrodome to a medical clinic in the area, in conjunction with Harris County Precincts 1 and 2.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/04/05 07:12 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
HISD buses help with New Orleans evacuation
This is an incredible story from HISD:
HISD school buses rolled through the waterlogged streets of New Orleans on Sunday morning September 4, rescuing hundreds who have endured the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Many of those rescued were wheelchair-bound residents who had been trapped by the high water.
More than 300 Houston Independent School District bus drivers, police, and support personnel volunteered to give up their Labor Day weekend to go to the New Orleans area to help in the rescue effort. Departing from Houston between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Saturday, they drove 142 HISD school buses to New Orleans overnight after an emergency appeal from Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
HISD Police who accompanied the school buses to provide security reported that scores of people were rescued who were still trying to get out of their neighborhoods in and around New Orleans. The buses arrived in New Orleans at approximately 5:00 a.m.
“We’re incredibly proud of our school-bus drivers and our police officers who volunteered to go into that devastated area to help,” said HISD Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra, who gave Saturday night’s order to send the buses with the volunteer drivers. “These wonderful people didn’t hesitate for a moment to give up their Labor Day weekend because they wanted to do something to help the victims. God bless them for what they have done.”
By 9:00 p.m. Saturday, 142 buses had rolled from all four HISD bus terminals and were on their way to Louisiana, accompanied by HISD Police cars, bus-repair trucks and mechanics, and fuel procurement officials.
HISD’s General Manager of Transportation Services Bonnie Russell said the school district decided to send a number of buses with wheelchair lifts because of news reports from the New Orleans area showing many wheelchair-bound individuals struggling to board regular buses. District officials reported Sunday morning that several buses, filled with wheelchair-bound survivors, were on their way to safety.
Russell reported that one large group of HISD buses was at a docks facility in New Orleans loading survivors from boats and taking them to the New Orleans airport to be flown out of the area.
It is estimated that the HISD school buses will evacuate more than 6,400 hurricane survivors. Each bus will carry about 48 individuals to places to be determined.
Wow. Bravo to HISD and its wonderful employees.
UPDATE: HISD has added an update with this information:
The HISD buses also were used to take military troops from a nearby airfield into five parishes in the New Orleans area.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/04/05 04:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
77230 -- Astrodome's new zip code
KHOU-11 has the details of how Katrina evacuees can get their mail:
New Orleans mail has been diverted to Houston, and evacuees nationwide can restart mail service from the post office nearest where they are staying, the U.S. Postal Service said Friday.
People can resume their mail service by filling out a change-of-address form at a nearby post office, said Cliff Rucker, Houston district manager for the Postal Service.
"This is not just for evacuees in Houston. I want to emphasize that this is for evacuees nationwide," Rucker said.
This will benefit the evacuees in receiving checks and those who need to order prescriptions by mail.
He said that mail is being held in trailers and vans in Houston, and the post office will distribute mail as it receives new information on addressees.
In addition, a general-delivery ZIP code -- 77230 -- has been set up for the more than 11,000 evacuees at the Astrodome.
Astrodome evacuees will get mail that has their name, a "general delivery" designation and the special ZIP code. Those staying in other shelters can have mail forwarded to the shelter, Rucker said.
Officials said they would prefer for recipients to have identification, and they are working on creating some form of ID for evacuees who don't have it.
Officials said evacuees can call 800-ASK-USPS (275-8777) for assistance.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/04/05 04:10 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
Mack: Patrick to run for SD 7?
The Chronicle's Kristen Mack included this bit of news at the tail end of her Friday politics column:
KSEV (AM 700) radio personality Dan Patrick is considering joining the crowded Republican primary race for the seat being vacated by retiring state Sen. Jon Lindsay.
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt is encouraging Patrick to run. "Senate District 7 needs a conservative standard bearer," said Bettencourt.
Patrick said he plans to make up his mind within the coming weeks.
Houston City Councilman Mark Ellis and Republican state Reps. Peggy Hamric and Joe Nixon already have announced their plans to run.
From time to time, Patrick's hyperactivity gets the best of him, and colleagues/friends have to pull him back to reality. That's been true previously when Patrick considered running for office, only to be confronted with evidence that success was highly unlikely. One suspects that associate David Benzion, who knows a thing or two about reading poll numbers, has been too tied up with the Katrina evacuee blogging effort this week to provide sage counsel re: Patrick's political aspirations. We suspect talk of his running for SD 7 will remain just that -- talk.
In case it does not, however, here's just one question for our astute political readers -- will he be able to run as Dan Patrick, or will he have to use his real name?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/04/05 01:30 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
RV's for evacuees
Banjo Jones has a post up about an idea Scott Chaffin has:
Scott Chaffin, who writes The Fat Guy blog up in the D-FW area of the Great State of Texas, is wondering if there are any R.V. owners out there who would lend their rig to be used by folks displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Scott owns an RV park on the Brazos River 90 miles southwest of Dallas.
"Problem is, I ain't gots no RVs. That's where you come in. Being Texans, you probably know some
hayseed (maybe family, maybe not) who owns an RV that will be parked for the next few months as we slip into fall and winter. I'm looking for donations of those idle RVs for temporary housing at my place," he says in an email sent to his blogrollin' buddies."I'm also working with a couple of other folks around the nation to pull together a national dealio of this sort. National attention to this very easy and cheap method of semi-permanent housing will be
important in the long run, I think. But, there's no reason not to start here at home, and learn from it," he adds.
Follow this link if you can help.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/04/05 06:35 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 September 2005
Councilman Garcia organizes luncheon for evacuees
Councilman Adrian Garcia is hosting a BBQ lunch on Monday for evacuees:
On Monday, Council Member Adrian Garcia will host a Bar-B-Que lunch for those who have been displaced due to Hurricane Katrina.
Where: Bella Vista Church, 807 E. 36th Street, Houston, TX 77022
When: Lunch will be served at 1 p.m.
Follow the link for more information, and thanks to Russell Holliman for the information.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/03/05 08:33 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Welcome to Houston...watch out for the train
Sigh -- MetroRail strikes a Katrina evacuee:
An evacuee who was reportedly listening through headphones and looking at the ground while walking toward the Astrodome was struck by a Metro light rail train this morning, officials said.
The unidentified man, in his late 40s or early 50s, apparently didn't see the dropped crossing arms or blinking caution lights or hear officers screaming at him as he tried to walk across the tracks at Fannin and Naomi around 11:30 a.m., said Metro spokesman George Smalley.
"He walked right into the path of the train," Smalley said. "You don't ever want this to happen to anybody. But it's especially painful to someone who's already gone through such trauma."
The man was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital, where he was being treated for an injured spleen and other non-life-threatening injuries, he said.
(Thanks to Tom Bazan for the heads up.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/03/05 08:16 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
The calm that is Houston
Tom Kirkendall, who has shared his keen insight with us on all things related to Hurricane Katrina, has a terrific post up about how Houston is turning out to be a very calming influence in the midst of tremendous chaos and uncertainty:
As bad as this disaster has been, it is difficult to imagine how bad it would have been had Houston's amazing facilities not been available as a transition point for the Gulf Coast region evacuees. Reliant Park is a massive facility that can accomodate huge numbers of people, and it is located near one of the world's finest medical centers, Houston's Texas Medical Center. As large as the loss of life has been in the Gulf Coast region to date, it would have been far larger had not Houston's amazing facilities not been available to accomodate the stream of evacuees.
Within Reliant Park, the Astrodome is filled with approximately 15,000 people, while officials have opened up the the adjacent Reliant Arena and the Reliant Park Convention Center to accomodate another 15,000 evacuees. On Friday, city officials also opened the massive George R. Brown Convention Center near downtown Houston, which was filled with air mattresses donated by a local sporting goods retailer. As many as 7,000 people could be staying there as of today.
The flow of buses to Houston continued unabated as conditions in Louisiana have worsened. Rather than turn evacuees away, Houston has simply opened up more of its resources to attempt to accomodate them all, and without much assistance from officials who coordinating the exodus from New Orleans. Texas officials have not been able to coordinate the departures or destinations of the buses with Louisiana counterparts and, at this point, Texas officials have no control over what happens with regard to the exodus from New Orleans.
Be sure to read the entire post. In another post, Tom notes that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will be relocating to Houston temporarily.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: A few days ago, Chris Elam pointed to an article by Thomas Lifson in the American Thinker that generated some controversy in Elam's comments from the usual argumentative quarter. Regardless, it struck me that the author's observations about Houston were spot on:
Many years ago, an oilman in Houston pointed out to me that there was no inherent reason Houston should have emerged as the world capital of the petroleum business. New Orleans was already a major city with centuries of history, proximity to oil deposits, and huge transportation advantages when the Houston Ship Channel was dredged, making the then-small city of Houston into a major port. The discovery of the Humble oil field certainly helped Houston rise as an oil center, but the industry could just as easily have centered itself in New Orleans.
When I pressed my oilman informant for the reason Houston prevailed, he gave me a look of pity for my naiveté, and said, “Corruption.” Anyone making a fortune in New Orleans based on access to any kind of public resources would find himself coping with all sorts of hands extended for palm-greasing. Permits, taxes, fees, and outright bribes would be a never-ending nightmare. Houston, in contrast, was interested in growth, jobs, prosperity, and extending a welcoming hand to newcomers. New Orleans might be a great place to spend a pleasant weekend, but Houston is the place to build a business.
Today, metropolitan Houston houses roughly 4 times the population of pre-Katrina metropolitan New Orleans, despite the considerable advantage New Orleans has of capturing the shipping traffic of the Mississippi basin.
It is far from a coincidence that Houston is now absorbing refugees from New Orleans, and preparing to enroll the children of New Orleans in its own school system. Houston is a city built on the can-do spirit (space exploration, oil, medicine are shining examples of the human will to knowledge and improvement, and all have been immeasurably advanced by Houstonians). Houston officials have capably planned for their own possible severe hurricanes, and that disaster planning is now selflessly put at the disposal of their neighbors to the east.
That's the Houston I'm proud to call home. The fact that this city has managed to set up what amounts to a second city with hardly any advance warning, and to have done so as well (despite a few hiccups along the way) illustrates the fact that this city just manages to get things done.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/03/05 03:34 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
02 September 2005
Ward on the warpath, part two?
KTRK-13's Dave Ward just threw coverage out to Gene Apodaca at the Astrodome, who said he had secured permission from the Red Cross to report from inside the stadium.
As he was trying to report, hands kept going over the camera. Apodaca announced that sheriff's deputies were blocking the camera, despite his having secured permission for the broadcast.
An annoyed Dave Ward told him to get the officer's name and badge number.
Last night, Ward's criticism and KTRK's reporting seemed to motivate public officials to straighten out a developing mess at the Astrodome. Local officials shouldn't underestimate the power of Dave Ward on the warpath!
UPDATE: Apodaca is back on the air, and the law-enforcement busybodies seem to have found something else to do. They should not have underestimated the power of Dave Ward!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/05 10:53 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Give readers the whole story before editorializing
The Chronicle editorial board wrote the following today:
No good disaster plot is complete without a triumph of individual initiative over unfeeling bureaucracy, and this one's no exception. At the gates to the Astrodome, Red Cross officials initially tried to turn away the bus because it was not part of the officially sanctioned evacuation of the New Orleans Superdome. Earlier, that rationale had led authorities to refuse to help a young mother with five children and a 95-year-old woman passenger in the car when they sought entrance to the relief center.
Luckily, someone with a heart eventually got involved. After a half-hour delay, Jabbar and his plucky band were granted sanctuary inside the Dome.
Chronicle metro/state editorialist Rick Casey sounded a similar theme:
When he arrived at the Astrodome about 10 p.m. Wednesday, 20-year-old Jabbar Gibson modestly confessed that he had commandeered a school bus in New Orleans, then picked up about 70 passengers before heading out for the 13-hour trek to Houston.
[snip]
When they arrived at the Astrodome, Gibson and his passengers raised another moral question. Should they be let in?
It was reminiscent of the Cold War debates over whether a family with a backyard bomb shelter should, in a nuclear attack, let neighbors in knowing that the food and water supply wouldn't support them all.
Officials believe the practical limit for shelter in the Astrodome is 25,000, and they had made a commitment to house refugees from the Superdome who could reach that number.
At first, unidentified officials told the bus refugees no. But about half an hour later, Red Cross officials who are running the shelter operation let them in to sleep on the former playing field, where the Oilers once slept.
Earlier, however, a desperate woman driving a van filled with five children and a crated dog was turned away. A dramatic photo on the Chronicle's front page yesterday led to phone calls to the newspaper, volunteering shelter.
Certainly, some mistakes have been made, but for the most part, the operation has gone pretty smoothly considering the sheer logistical problem and hardly any advance warning that Houston would be hosting thousands of refugees.
One point is worth clarifying, however. According to a media personality present at the Astrodome for the Red Cross press briefings Thursday, the Red Cross fairly quickly came to the conclusion that they would not refuse service to refugees in need, whether they were on the "official" caravan or not, although they would try to redirect the "unofficial" refugees to other existing shelters. Furthermore, according to our correspondent, the Red Cross announced as much to the press at the Astrodome, although they did ask the media not to publicize the fact since the Red Cross feared an announcement might lead to more "unofficial" refugees than could be handled.
Perhaps it's debatable whether the Red Cross made the right call in asking the press to keep quiet about the policy, but the decision was made under pressure and had a certain logic. In any case, media outlets that were informed of the unofficial policy ought to report the entire story before simply accusing Red Cross officials of being heartless and unfeeling.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/05 10:47 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Council approves new MediaSource board members
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that City Council has approved Mayor White's appointees to the Houston MediaSource board:
The new board members, approved by all but one council member, will replace those on the 15-member panel whose two-year terms expired at the end of last year.
The newly composed board now must deal with two months of controversy over the channel airing a few programs earlier this summer that had nudity and profanity. Council has repeatedly delayed renewal of MediaSource's $800,000 contract, which the panel is set to consider next week.
The programs also sparked a debate about whether the city could regulate the channel's content without inviting First Amendment lawsuits.
In response, Mayor Bill White proposed shaking up the board with new members who could offer fresh ideas.
Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs called the new board "a whitewash" that would do little to change the underlying issue: questions about content on the channel.
"I don't see this as any real change," she said, casting a "no" vote. "That's not really what the citizens of Houston deserve."
Councilwoman Addie Wiseman, who first raised the issue and has been the channel's chief critic, voted for the new board members.
It's Mayor White's style to work issues behind the scenes, wait for any controversy to die, and to act exactly as he intended all along. Appointing new board members to replace members whose terms had already expired is about the weakest response one might imagine. It's the equivalent of staying the course and still being able to say "I did something about this!"
The Mayor and his political staff knew well that critics of MediaSource wouldn't be able to sustain criticism and slow other city business for a long time. Mayor White simply outwaited the critics. Councilmember Sekula-Gibbs' solitary "no" vote was more opposition than I expected.
The contract vote itself could still be interesting, but the bet here is that Mayor White will find a way to include language that neutralizes Councilmember Wiseman politically, even if it doesn't truly address her concerns.
PREVIOUSLY: Mayor trying to save MediaSource contract.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/05 03:59 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)
Guest post: SAFEclear ruling buried by other news
Safe Clear Not So Clear? (Guest Post by Michael W. Jones)
Thursday Afternoon, KHOU had a short story buried amongst the Katrina hurricane coverage about another topic of local importance, SafeCLEAR.
Under the ruling, the city will no longer be able to give wrecker companies exclusive rights to sections of Houston highways.
SAFEclear has been a thorn in Houstonians' sides for eight full months. It was revamped twice to try and avoid being killed in Austin. Now when Mayor White thinks that we've all just accepted the fact that his program is here to stay, a judge exposes the truth behind it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/05 03:23 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Judge Eckels: Evacuees are not being turned away
From Harris County Judge Robert Eckels:
The Astrodome site is not turning away evacuees. The gates are open. When a bus arrives, medical personnel board the bus and determine the medical needs of the persons on board. They are then unloaded and given food and water.
We currently have approximately 18,000 evacuees on site- 15,000 in the Astrodome and 3,000 in the Reliant Arena. The Reliant Arena is a temporary shelter, a transitional site. Its purpose is to assess the medical needs of the evacuees and provide food and water. They will be sent to another shelter as soon as the location of the shelter has been determined.
Reliant Center is now being used as a shelter. Reliant Center can hold approximately 11,000 people. The George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston will open as a shelter in the immediate future.
Reliant Stadium is not being used as a shelter. The Houston Texans will play football in Reliant Stadium unaffected by the operations in the Astrodome, Reliant Center, and Reliant Arena.
Dallas and San Antonio shelters are open. Dallas can accommodate 12,500 in several shelters set up in the city. San Antonio can accommodate 25,000 evacuees in several shelters set up in the city.
The Houston area does not expect large numbers of evacuees to continue to flood the area. The Unified Command is currently developing plans to process the evacuees and determine their final destination.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/02/05 01:23 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Displaced children enroll in area schools
Jennifer Radcliffe has an excellent story detailing how local schools are helping meet the needs of refugee children:
Louisiana residents who escaped Hurricane Katrina said they're thankful schools are welcoming the children.
"While they're learning, it's kind of keeping their mind off the tragedy," said Kathleen Sutton, who enrolled her son Matthew, 11, in Galena Park's Cobb Sixth Grade Campus. "Being around other children will give him some kind of happiness."
The Houston Independent School District enrolled 166 evacuee students Wednesday. Katy enrolled nearly 300 students this week. The Fort Bend school district admitted 54 students, and the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District had 16. Figures for other area districts weren't yet available.
The numbers are expected to jump significantly next week, as families get established in Houston and after the Labor Day holiday Monday.
"We've had 200 calls on our hot line just this morning," HISD spokeswoman Adriana Villarreal said.
Will Rogers Elementary School enrolled 10 children Thursday, and Principal Ron Dominy said he has space for dozens more.
[snip]
Families quietly sorted through racks of khaki and navy pants and shirts. Basic school supplies, such as pencils and notebook paper, were also provided.
"You're a godsend," Danny Dinh, 21, told a volunteer.
Dinh picked up clothes for his 9-year-old sister, who started school in Alief on Thursday.
Their mother is still driving to Houston, and their father hasn't been heard from since Monday, when he was repairing the roof of his east New Orleans home.
Here is HISD's "How to Help" webpage.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/02/05 08:58 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Can Houston handle it?
The Chronicle has finally discovered Laurence Simon -- he's quoted in this story about Houstonians who are wary of the mass of humanity Houston is taking in:
Amid the overwhelmingly compassionate response to hurricane evacuees in Houston, a less-welcoming undercurrent is developing among people worried about the impact of thousands of needy, desperate people.
[snip]
Laurence Simon, a tech support employee for a local company, has mixed feelings.
"I'm glad that we're putting out a welcome mat. These people have to go somewhere. But I don't know if officials are appreciating the extent of what it's going to take," said Simon.
"You can hold the door open on the elevator for more and more people but, at some point, the elevator gets too full and the cable snaps."
For what it's worth (probably not much), my own thoughts are that local charities, churches, businesses and school districts will do an admirable job of tending to the needs of the thousands of displaced residents. Most of the problems we'll see will require law enforcement solutions and the big question is whether or not HPD, Metro PD and the Harris County Sheriff's department are up to the task. We'll soon find out.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/02/05 08:11 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
LST reporting from the Dome
David Benzion, Rob Booth, Matt Bramanti and Matt Forge (from Lone Star Times) have done some amazing reporting from the Astrodome. Just keep on scrolling, and don't miss the pictures.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/02/05 07:53 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Fire marshal closes Astrodome?
KTRK-13 news has been live since about 11:00 pm at the Astrodome.
KTRK is reporting that the City of Houston fire marshall has closed the Astrodome to further evacuees. Many buses are still waiting.
KTRK reports that the fire marshal will not have a comment until 10:00 am. Dave Ward has been highly critical of the confusion.
There seems to be no comment either from Mayor White, who announced on KSEV-700 this afternoon that he had to end an interview so he could go watch his son's football game. This was in the 4:00 hour.
Kudos to KTRK for reporting on this story live tonight. KPRC-2 has belatedly begun reporting, but KTRK has owned tonight's unfortunate story.
UPDATE: KTRK's Mark Garay is now reporting that some buses are now being allowed into the Astrodome area.
UPDATE 2: Now an HPD sergeant is reporting that EVERY bus in the vicinity will be processed and allowed into the Astrodome.
It's starting to appear that nobody knows what is going on.
Actually, on second thought, it strikes me that the fact KTRK was on site and Dave Ward was so critical of the confusion may actually have gotten things moving. Again, kudos to KTRK for their work on the story.
UPDATE 3: Dave Ward just called the decision "a stunning reversal" and said "apparently they just booted the fire marshal out of the place!" Ward approves.
UPDATE 4: Here's a Chronicle story from a bit earlier, explaining the now-reversed decision to close the Astrodome:
Officials closed the Reliant Astrodome to further New Orleans evacuees late Thursday, shortly before five more busloads arrived.
Although the passengers initially were told they would have to reboard the buses and go to Huntsville, officials relented and allowed at least one busload of 67 passengers to stay. The fate of the other four buses was still being considered late Thursday.
Houston Police Sgt. Nate McDuell said the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office ordered that no more evacuees be accepted.
"We're at capacity and buses are being diverted to other cities and other shelters," McDuell said.
Thank goodness common sense and Dave Ward prevailed over a bureaucrat. This was a potential fiasco.
Incidentally, there were MANY more than five buses waiting, as the KTRK coverage made clear. The Chronicle needs to be more careful in reporting numbers.
UPDATE 5 (12:43 am): KTRK reports that 108 buses are waiting, as counted by the KTRK helicopter crew. That's 103 more buses than reported by the Chronicle.
UPDATE 6 (12:57 am): The Mayor's spokesman Pat Trahan has been dispatched to conduct damage control with KTRK's Mark Garay at the Astrodome. Trahan just mentioned the "five buses" number, which the Chronicle story picked up uncritically earlier. Isn't that interesting? Trahan says the Reliant Center is being opened to accommodate the latest evacuees.
UPDATE 7 (1:09 am): Dave Ward seems satisfied things are finally under control, and KTRK has wrapped up its coverage.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/05 12:19 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (9)
01 September 2005
Metro restructures; employees are laid off
From a Metro press release:
METRO announced a restructuring to make basic improvements in the way it does business and shape the organization to stay focused on its mission.
Employees were told that a variety of functions and activities whose value to the authority had diminished over time or become unnecessary would be discontinued. A total of 134 full and part-time positions were identified as non-mission critical.
[snip]
METRO President and CEO Frank Wilson told employees that the authority needed to stop doing things with minimal return. "Thanks to a lot of hard work by employees in this and recent years, METRO is in solid financial shape," he said. "To stay financially healthy and build service for customers, we had to examine our business to get better focused on what matters most."
Wilson said METRO is evolving, as most businesses do, by moving into light rail service last year and commuter rail in the not-to-distant future. As Phase 2 of METRO Solutions is implemented, a new design and construction approach will be used requiring fewer in-house personnel. And new technologies and business strategies are being implemented.
For example, 11 positions were eliminated because METRO has a new electronic means of gathering ridership data and no longer needs employees doing manual counting at bus stops. In addition, in METRO Police we are moving to a strategy of crime-focused policing which targets high priority areas. We have invited a number of part-time officers to fill full time positions and they would be deployed using this new enforcement model. A facet of this new model is to utilize intelligent surveillance cameras in priority areas so that officers and resources can be targeted more effectively.
As always with Metro, we must turn on the poo-poo meter and read between the lines. It isn't hard to guess that Metro has some serious cash-flow issues.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/01/05 11:38 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
An amazing Good Samaritan story
Banjo Jones has another must-read post:
A Good Samaritan in Brazosport has leased 17 homes for refugees from Hurricane Katrina.
They began arriving in vans from Houston about 3 o'clock this morning.
There are 84 children of various ages. Most heads of families are single mothers.
All are dirty, exhausted, dazed and very likely in shock. They've had little, if any, sleep for the past three days. They either waded or swam through the floodwaters to survive. All are appreciative of the helping hands that have been extended.
One boy, about 9, took a look at the home he was taken to this morning and asked, "How many families are going to be staying here with us."
When he was told, "It's just for you and your family," his eyes grew wide as he looked around the house. All he could do is look to his mom in disbelief.
[snip]
As much as I'd like to trumpet the name of the Good Samaritan who's leased these homes, that will not be done. The Good Samaritan has insisted on anonymity and I have agreed.
The Good Samaritan, however, agreed to talk to The Brazosport News in hopes that we could get the word out to anyone who wants to help.
[snip]
Since this local endeavor to help just came to my attention this morning, the Good Samaritan asked The Brazosport News to act as sort of a quasi-clearing house to enable those who want to help to do what they can.
If you want to help, send me an email to Banjo.Jones@gmail.com
That's outstanding! And please read Banjo's entire post.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/01/05 12:13 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Thursday morning Katrina links
Here are some local blogging and news highlights this morning:
Tom Kirkendall has two terrific posts up this morning, one about the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based out of New Orleans, and an in-depth post with thoughts about Katrina's aftermath.
Laurence Simon has many worthwhile posts and links. He is highlighting the Hurricane Katrina Blogger Relief Drive and he is encouraging readers to remember the pets and animals who desperately need help, by donating to the Humane Society. He also has a handy post that should help our new visitors understand Houston a bit better.
Yesterday's Spirit of Texas Fund Drive, put on by KHOU-11 and KTRH-740 raised $6.3 million. Wow!
KHOU-11 also has information on HISD and some Catholic schools that are opening their doors to refugee students.
And, of course, the Chronicle has complete news coverage, lists of links to give and get help, and the indispensable SciGuy blog.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/01/05 09:58 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Liveblogging the Astrodome relief effort
David Benzion of the Lone Star Times has been liveblogging the relief activities as the Astrodome since last night.
In an early post, he listed the press-conference schedule. Presumably he'll have nearly instant updates from those press conferences.
It should be useful to visit Lone Star Times periodically for a blogger's account of the goings on at the Astrodome. We presume Benzion will also check in with occasional updates at affiliated radio station KSEV-700.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/01/05 08:59 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (9)
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