30 November 2005
SEIU wins over janitors, sets sights on city employees
The city's local media have engaged in a fair amount of cheerleading over the fact that the Service Employee's International Union will be moving into Houston in order to better the lives of janitors citywide through the power of the union.
KHOU-11's Jason Whitely cuts through the proletarian celebration and reports on SEIU's bigger goal:
SEIU said it's already working to recruit thousands of other Houstonians. It has its sights set on the city next. SEIU told KHOU it is looking to recruit the 14,000 municipal employees.
"It's a hope for all workers here that if the janitors can do it other workers can do it as well," Weintraub said.
If you think the city is working well now, just wait until it's an SEIU shop!
In an important column from a couple of weeks ago, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack reported that SEIU has taken a keen interest in the City Council At-Large Position 2 race, heavily (and possibly illegally) backing Sue Lovell, who faces Jay Aiyer in a runoff:
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) contributed $10,000 to Lovell's campaign and sent three mailings on her behalf. Aiyer said the mailings and automated phone calls by SEIU violate a city ordinance prohibiting "coordinated campaign expenditures" — direct work on behalf of a candidate by an organization whose expenditures aren't listed on the candidate's campaign finance reports.
Lovell's campaign didn't send any direct mail and she said it was not expecting SEIU to send mailings on her behalf.
"We were just as surprised as anyone else," she said. [Sure! -editor] "They wrote a check for $10,000 and that was the last communication we had."
SEIU, the nation's second-largest union, is battling the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to organize city workers. Aiyer's campaign says SEIU's effort fits its national pattern of trying to gain a foothold in local government.
"No one entity should be able to influence the outcome of a race like that," Aiyer said. "They effectively were trying to buy a council seat. It allowed her to use her resources in other places."
It is rather surprising that the Chronicle editorial board, which has been highly vocal about money and politics when Republicans are involved, has had so little to say about SEIU's apparent efforts to skirt the city's campaign finance laws and swing a municipal election.
RELATED: ORGANIZED LABOR / Union has sights set on Houston / SEIU pumps resources, efforts into organizing (L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle)
UPDATE: L.M. Sixel notes the coming battle between unions over city employees in an article today:
The janitors need a union, said Richard Shaw, secretary-treasurer of the Harris County AFL-CIO. But he said SEIU, which left the federation in July along with three other unions, is betraying the labor federation in its efforts to recruit city government workers who have long been represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/05 11:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Law enforcement links MS-13 to organized crime in Houston
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg and KHOU-11's Amy Tortolani seem to have attended the same briefing on shoplifing and MS-13.
Here's an excerpt from Oberg's reporting:
Organized crime is active in Houston and police say the crooks are everywhere. They're ripping off stores, driving up prices and then selling the loot right back to the victims -- with the profits paying the bills for groups like the violent gang MS 13.
It's shoplifting, but on a scale never before seen here. Police say the scheme costs Houston businesses a million dollars every month. It is a problem so widespread that law enforcement is at times helpless to stop it. A million dollars a month in Houston means $30 billion a year nationwide. Chances are it's going on right now and costing you money every time you buy over the counter drugs.
[snip]
We're told the thieves work six days a week. They told cops they take Sundays off for religious reasons. Go figure.
[snip]
Detectives tell us there is little, if any, risk to the public. The crime rings apparently don't tamper with the medications at all. This is a money maker for the crime rings, and tampered products can't be sold.
Here's an excerpt from Tortolani's reporting:
Shoplifting may seem like a relatively small crime, but Houston authorities say the gang of shoplifters they've arrested had links to organized crime and possibly even terrorists.
[snip]
"Nationwide criminal enterprise operates with Houston as hub," said Sgt. Johnnie Jezierski with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
[snip]
Investigators say those captured admit ties to notorious gangs.
"We know because of the interviews with some of these people, pressure put on them by MS13 members to go out and commit these offenses," said Detective Frazee. "And, according to what they told us, part of the money they make is funneled into MS13 area."
[snip]
We contacted the FBI about these crimes and local agents tell us they are aware of the ties to MS13 but can't comment on any ties to terrorism.
HPD doesn't much like to talk about MS-13, and it's not clear from the reporting if HPD was part of this briefing. It does seem clear that other law-enforcement agencies believe MS-13 is operating an organized crime ring in our city, however.
UPDATE (12-01-2005): KPRC-2 covered the apparent briefing also.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/05 10:52 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Council tables latest MediaSource vote
KHOU-11's Carolyn Campbell reports that Council today tabled a vote on a new contract for MediaSource, the controversial custodian of the public access cable channel.
The contract apparently will impose (minimal) new screening requirements on the entity:
On Wednesday, the Houston City Council tabled a vote on new regulations for the city’s public access channel.
...Mayor Bill White asked City Council on Wednesday to consider a revamped contract that will require MediaSource staffers to review any potentially obscene or indecent shows before they air.
MediaSource has operated the channel since the mid-1980s, some of its board members have questioned whether pre-screening programs amount to a violation of First Amendment rights.
Under the mayor’s proposed plan, MediaSource staffers could ask a judge to decide if a program meets the often elusive definition of obscenity.
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported on the proposed requirements this morning:
The proposed contract, which city officials released late Tuesday, would require Houston MediaSource staffers to watch potentially obscene or indecent shows before they air....
[snip]
The plan calls for MediaSource staffers to ask a judge to determine whether a questionable program meets the hazy legal definition of obscenity — a method city lawyers don't think violates the rights of those who produce the channel's programs.
Channel officials previously have resisted prescreening of programs and restrictions on those with controversial content for fear of encouraging First Amendment lawsuits.
"The concept of prior constraint is something we're trying to grapple with," said City Attorney Arturo Michel.
As we've suggested previously, the notion that the city cannot set guidelines for programming appearing on a public access channel because of "prior restraint" concerns is really stretching First Amendment theory to its limits.
Still, a better proposal might simply be to require ALL programs to be pre-screened, and to be labeled with ratings and content warnings, not unlike commercial television programs. Require content of certain ratings to be shown only during certain hours, and the problem is solved.
Mayor White and his new MediaSource board should hire us as (expensive) consultants!
Speaking of the MediaSource board, this little snippet from the Chronicle story caught us by surprise:
MediaSource board member Garth Jowett said the proposed plan likely would pass legal muster, but he thinks that a producer might intentionally test the rules out of principle.
He said the contract is a "compromise that will please people who are concerned that Houston MediaSource hasn't had the proper oversight," said Jowett, who resigned as chairman recently after a confrontation with a White appointee on the board.
First, what principle would be served by a producer intentionally violating the minimal rules that are being proposed? The principle of getting the channel shut down for good?
Second, why exactly did Jowett step down, and why wasn't this reported anywhere? That could be juicy enough to require the services of a gossip columnist!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/05 10:34 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)
Mayor comments on HPD's manpower problems
Nothing causes the White Administration to swing into action like negative reporting, and so several media reports on HPD's worsening manpower woes and four hours of criticism from Chris Baker yesterday in response to Chief Hurtt's "solution" to the problem was sure to provoke a rapid response. The mayor's communications team certainly had to be pleased with KPRC-2's coverage:
The Houston mayor's office fought back Wednesday against charges that a staffing shortage at the Houston Police Department has resulted in crime victims waiting hours for help.
The Houston Police Officer's Union said Tuesday that for lower-priority calls in October, some crime victims waited up to 12 hours and 39 minutes for an officer to arrive.
The mayor's office and the union agree that response times are good for Priority 1 calls, which are the highest-level calls for violent crimes in progress.
But they disagree over the response times for the lower-priority calls.
City leaders said they are also concerned over reports of slow police response times.
But Mayor Bill White referred to a report compiled by the FBI that ranked HPD as No. 1 with a response time of less than five minutes for Priority 1 calls.
"I think there's no crisis citywide, although there's some real problems in certain neighborhoods that we're having in crime," White said.
What was that we were saying about gaseous emissions from downtown pols just a few days ago?
Mayor White's proposal doesn't sound bad, at least for something that seemingly was crafted overnight:
The mayor proposed several changes that could put more Houston police on the street, including moving up cadet classes, and reassigning officers who work in low-crime areas to high-crime neighborhoods.
The mayor also proposed recruiting retired officers to help fill in the gaps. But that idea was shot down by the union.
"If it's merely a support position, then that doesn't give me too much heartburn. But I'm going to have to see details," said Hans Marticiuc, with the police union.
Marticiuc said the city should focus on hiring new officers instead of recruiting retirees.
"At some point, the city is going to have to face the fact that in order to provide the necessary public safety that I think everyone wants and needs, it's going to cost a little bit of money," he said.
All solutions need to be on the table, and city leaders should have been thinking about this problem years ago. Still, it's good that the local media and Mayor White are beginning to think about it more seriously now.
RELATED: HPD considers rehiring retirees to ease staff shortage (KHOU-11).
ARCHIVES: HPD's manpower shortage.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/05 09:55 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Rick Casey: telephone-challenged AND school voucher-supporter?
The New York Times has had an ongoing problem with its star columnists either getting their facts wrong or making up facts out of thin air, and then refusing to issue corrections.
The Chronicle's Rick Casey (whom Kevin affectionately calls a "gossip columnist") often seems to be striving for New York Times columnist-status, and continues with today's column. The last paragraph is especially egregious:
Though HISD forwarded its investigative report to the DA's office, I suspect it informally agreed not to press the case in exchange for the resignation and compensation.
Casey is referring to the Margaret Stroud case.
That is a very serious charge Casey is leveling at HISD. Does Casey have ANYTHING to back it up? Did Casey or his research assistant call anyone to check out his suspicion? (Here's the contact information for HISD's press office, in case Casey and his assistant couldn't find it.) If Casey did talk to someone at HISD, did he confirm his suspicion?
Or does Casey just assume the worst about HISD, kinda like the rest of the Chronicle's leadership and staff? Will Casey issue a correction? Not that it matters -- Chronicle corrections are buried so deep an undertaker would have trouble finding them.
HISD has been open and transparent about the Stroud case, and in contrast to how public school scandals are often handled, Dr. Saavedra's actions against Stroud were swift and firm. What Casey does do in this column is echo the Chronicle's editorial board members, who think Dr. Saavedra was too lenient with Stroud.
All this venom toward HISD makes me wonder if the Chronicle folks are secretly in favor of school vouchers. What else can explain the paper's determined campaign always to cast the district in the worst light and turn the parents of HISD students against the district?
RELATED: Rick Casey: Plagiarist, Poor Journalist, Or What? (Kevin Whited, PubliusTX)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/30/05 10:25 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
29 November 2005
When definitions are inconvenient, change them
The Chronicle business section picked up an LA Times story on the sorts of raises workers might expect next year.
The following line made it into the story:
The salary increases reflect a continuing push by corporations to control costs after the reversals many experienced during the 2001 recession, said Charles Peck, a compensation specialist at the Conference Board, a New York business research organization.
For many years, economists commonly defined a recession in terms of two or more consecutive quarters of declining GDP. By that standard, there was no recession in 2001.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/05 10:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Houston ranks 53rd in "literacy" study
The Houston Business Journal reports that Houston didn't rank very highly in a study designed to measure overall literacy:
A national study has placed Houston 53rd out of a total of 69 cities in a ranking of "America's Most Literate Cities."
The study released by Central Connecticut State University develops a statistical profile of 69 cities with populations of 250,000 or more. This is the third year of the study, and introduces a new factor -- Internet literacy -- to measure the expansion of literacy to online media.
[snip]
Other Texas cities on the list include Austin (16), Dallas-Fort Worth (44), Arlington (57), San Antonio (64) and Corpus Christi (67).
[snip]
The 2005 edition of the study ranks cities based on six key indicators of literacy: Newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.
Dallas-Fort Worth isn't really a "city" but I guess we can let that slide. Much like the variables in the "Fattest City" rankings measured something other than fat, the variables in this study may not be the best surrogate measures of "literacy."
Still, we post, you decide.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/05 09:53 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (6)
Public Works: You citizens should be more insistent we fix things!
KHOU-11's Carolyn Campbell reports on a problem with Houston Public Works:
He warned them. A Houston man said he called the city to tell them about a destructive problem, but believes his words fell on deaf ears.
The pressure was so strong it broke the back windshield of Bothe's Mercedes.
Jason Bothe's car was not in a flood, but it certainly looks like it was.
"Even the windows, you couldn't see anything. It was just a wall of water," he said.
Jason Bothe thought there might be trouble when he spotted a water main leak Monday afternoon. So he called the city.
"They said, "Well it's a minor, it would take up to 72 hours to respond,' is what they said. It went on through the night. No one showed up to do anything. And this morning I woke up to do breakfast and it's Niagara Falls outside," Bothe said.
Houston Public Works seems to be responding about as well as HPD, although at least HPD has the excuse of being undermanned.
Unfortunately, the following attitude is becoming more prevalent in the city government headed by Mayor White:
"We always get the bum rap," a Public Works employee said.
But this time it wasn't the city's fault. A private contractor said it was tapping into the city water line for new townhouses.
However, Public Works spokesperson Wes Johnson said the city is responsible for shutting off the water if there's a problem. But that's not simple either.
"We get anywhere between 50 and 60 water main break calls every single day," Johnson said. "If the response you're getting is not satisfactory, ask for a supervisor."
Here's a novel thought for Mr. Johnson -- perhaps the city needs to be more responsive to citizens, and he needs to take steps to ensure that his department will be more responsive in the future!
Mayor White's department heads -- Johnson and Chief Hurtt -- need to stop trying to pass the buck, and stand up and be accountable (or be replaced). For that matter, Mayor White is always talking about running the city like a business. This doesn't seem very businesslike.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/05 09:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Continuing the discussion of HPD's woes
Chris Baker (KTRH-740) is asking listeners, "How safe do you feel?," as he discusses the state of HPD and Houston crime. (Here's the link to Kevin's excellent post from last night.)
He also wonders why the city won't do anything about graffiti, another topic that bH has covered, since graffiti is symptomatic of gang activity, and gang activity breeds crime.
Also, Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, is publicly criticizing HPD Chief Hurtt:
Hans Marticiuc, President of the Houston Police Officers' Union, analyzed data from a sampling of police districts and charged that some citizens telephoning in emergency calls for, even the most violent of crimes, had to wait hours before an officer was even dispatched to help.
“And these calls ranged from burglaries, burglaries of motor vehicles, shootings, robberies, robberies with weapons, sexual assaults, assaults, disturbances,” Marticiuc said.
The police union president had harsh words for Chief Harold Hurtt, whom he implies is incapable of leading the city's police force.“If this is the best police chief in the country, then I think the country may be in trouble,” Marticiuc said.
According to Marticiuc, during a heated discussion with the police chief, there was some mention that Chief Hurtt might lose his job over the data.
Marticiuc forwarded his data to Houston City Council members who are expected to raise questions at Tuesday afternoon's City Council meeting.
Marticiuc said the city should immediately increase police presence by instituting and overtime program similar to the plan introduced in the 1990s by former Mayor Bob Lanier.
To date, the most lip service MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have given to HPD's manpower shortage is to say that the city's new red light cameras will free HPD officers from traffic duty.
So, as Chris Baker asks, are Mayor White and Chief Hurtt fufilling the oaths they took?
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I heard an ad on KTRH that KTRK-13 will be running a story on HPD's manpower woes on the 6 pm broadcast.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS MORE: KHOU's Janice Williamson has a story tonight on MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's ridiculous "response" to the murder wave:
In the past three months, half the homicides in Houston took place in apartment complexes.
That has Chief Hurtt calling for change. "You know, you get in and you talk to the residents, you talk to management and you encourage people to get to know their neighbors to get to know who belongs in the area," he said.
Chief Hurtt also wants to force apartments that have too many calls, to hire their own security.
[snip]
Chief Hurtt is to meet with Mayor Bill White Wednesday
An ordinance requiring apartments to have extra security could be on the City Council agenda within the next couple of weeks.
That is absurd. It's bad enough that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are not doing their jobs. Council must stop rolling over for them, and insist they deal with HPD's manpower problem.
KPRC-2 also decided to report on the manpower shortage tonight:
"How many of those murders, before they ended up being a murder, was called in as a disturbance that we didn't show up at?" said Hans Marticiuc, with the Houston Police Officer's Union.
Marticiuc said the department is incapable of providing basic police services.
To back up the claim, the union analyzed police calls for the month of October in three high-crime districts. The analysis found that in over 500 calls for service, victims waited up to 12 hours and 39 minutes before dispatchers sent a patrol car. It took 8 hours and 29 minutes for an officer to be dispatched to a robbery, and a sex assault victim waited 5 hours and 23 minutes for an investigator to arrive.
The union puts the blame on HPD Chief Harold Hurtt.
"That is simply unacceptable," Marticiuc said.
Hurtt has not yet responded.
But the union took its complaints to Houston City Hall and to Mayor Bill White.
"This issue of people holding calls from intake and dispatch -- that's an issue that I think is a serious issue that I haven't quite got the right answer yet about what is going on there," White said.
Hasn't "quite got the right answer?!" MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have done their very best to ignore HPD's manpower shortage, and unfortunately the City Council and the city's media have mostly let them get away with it.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/29/05 03:42 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (5)
Metro's world-class fare collection system
The farebox on the 9 bus this morning (#3331) was broken and covered up with a world-class plastic bag.
I see this at least twice a week. Roughly, that's a 10% failure rate.
I was shocked to see a Barneyfife on the platform at the Downtown Transit Center, but he was doing his best to keep warm, not to check fares.
Since it's the Christmas season, Metro should use festive gift bags to cover the boxes when they aren't working.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/29/05 12:15 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Hatfield to step down as Rice football coach? (updated)
KRIV-26 reported last night that Ken Hatfield would be announcing he is stepping down at Rice.
The Chronicle's Moisekapenda Bower reports that a press conference has been scheduled for 11 am. Beyond that, the column is mostly useless speculation:
According to sources, Hatfield orchestrated the news conference on his own and without input from his superiors, fueling speculation he will not resign despite steering the Owls to their worst season since 1988.
[snip]
Hatfield could return with his staff intact, but that scenario would seem improbable considering the Owls have suffered through seven losing seasons since 1998.
Hatfield, initially viewed as an ideal fit for Rice after leading the Owls to a share of the 1994 Southwest Conference title in his first season, has drawn the ire of alumni and supporters.
Many cite his age (62), antiquated option offense and ineffective defense as reasons why Hatfield should resign or be fired.
Maybe Bower should have called KRIV for a quote?
We'll find out if Mark Berman's sports department scooped everyone again in a half-hour or so.
UPDATE: Berman's station swings...
Rice coach Ken Hatfield said Tuesday he was looking forward to next year's opening game against UCLA, denying a local television report that he would resign as head coach.
"I think we're set to have a good football team. I feel good about the youth," Hatfield told a news conference Tuesday. "We'll see where we go from here."
and misses!
UPDATE 2: Bower posted an update following Hatfield's press conference that sounds a little more certain than the earlier Chronicle reporting:
[S]ources indicated that Hatfield is in negotiations regarding a buyout of the five years remaining on his contract. While Hatfield, 55-78-1 at Rice, gave every indication that he will return, it is highly probable that he will resign sometime this week.
Here are two paragraphs that illustrate the ongoing problems at the Chronicle:
But after stating that nothing would change, not his coaches nor his schemes, Hatfield became belligerent and confrontational when asked by a reporter if maintaining a status quo would benefit Rice football.
"Yes I do," Hatfield snapped. "(I base that on) my experience in coaching for 40 years.
The paragraph that frames the Hatfield quote is nonsensical. Imagine this question, as Bower framed it: "Will maintaining a status quo benefit Rice football?" "Yes I do," Hatfield snapped?!
Somebody really needs to read these things before they go to print. If Bower wrote that, then an editor should have caught it. If an editor changed it, that's worse. In any case, it only illustrates the Chronicle's ongoing problem with basic editing.
UPDATE (11-30-2005): Now Bower reports that Hatfield is definitely stepping down:
Less than 12 hours after defiantly saying he and his staff would return for a 13th season on South Main, Ken Hatfield resigned as Rice football coach Tuesday night.
According to several sources, Hatfield and school officials have only the details of the agreement to complete. Hatfield had five years remaining on his contract, with the buyout for his dismissal worth roughly $1.7 million. An official announcement is pending.
It looks as if Berman's station scooped everyone after all. Never doubt Berman.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/05 10:30 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
28 November 2005
Murders skyrocket; HPD Chief says good luck protecting yourselves!
The Chronicle's Mike Glenn reports that the city's homicide rate has exceeded last year's after a deadly Thanksgiving weekend:
Houston had 274 homicides in 2004 and the killings during the four-day holiday weekend brought the figure for this year to 285.
[snip]
Detectives acknowledged that the number of cases they investigated during the four-day period seemed high, but police officials on Sunday could not say whether the figures amount to a dramatic increase from the same period last year.
Why not?
KHOU-11's Amy Tortolani fares a little better:
Houston police said they had 14 homicides to work over the holiday weekend. But is this a true indicator of the city's crime situation?
According to investigators, it was a record number of murders for the city.So far there have been 285 murder victims in Houston this year. That number is 11 greater than the 274 victims in 2004, and there is still one month left in 2005.
Houston police have no explanation for the increase in murders.
Psst... HPD's manpower shortage perhaps? (Mayor White and his Council would prefer the city's journalists not bring up their inadequate response to that ongoing problem).
Chief Hurtt has this useful advice:
"Not only are we going to be doing it from a police department standpoint, I've also been talking to community groups about them becoming more active in crime prevention, protecting their own property as well as looking out for their neighbors," said Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.
Translation: HPD is so short on manpower that it can't provide for the public safety as it has in the past. Good luck everyone!
UPDATE (11-29-2005): In the 10 pm broadcast, KHOU's Jeff McShan addressed HPD's manpower shortage:
Houston just set a record for holiday weekend murders and many want to know why.
Both the police chief and the mayor said they did not think hurricane evacuees factored into the crime numbers
When you call HPD, your calls go to Houston's Emergency Center (HEC).
But before they're dispatched to an actual officer who's working the streets there has to be one available. More often than you may realize, locating someone may take several hours.
This is true especially if you live on the city's west or southwest side.
"Anybody who either lives, shops or works west of the Galleria should really be concerned about this because this side of town is significantly undermanned," said Mike Cummings, Public Safety Director for the Westchase Business District. He is also a former HPD officer.
Now he hires off-duty HPD officers to patrol the 80 businesses in his business district, just to keep them safe.
Cummings spent hours going through public records and putting together a detailed report that shows the lack of police presence citywide.
"I looked at everything throughout the city and basically was able to determine, using several models, that the west side of town is significantly undermanned," Cummings said.
Cummings says to properly patrol the Westside District the department would need 506 officers. Right now they have just 403.
He also looked at numbers when it comes to violent crime.
"Based on the different studies that I did, just using the Westside Patrol area, it is anywhere from 70 to 113 officers down))
His report also shows that the Fondren and Southeast substations are severely short staffed.
A few months ago HPD Union president Hans Marticiuc told 11 News the staffing issue hinders officers' ability to fight crime.
"We're getting calls all the time. We've got officers working in districts by themselves. Sometimes roll calls are just two or three people for the entire roll call," he said.
Mayor White engages in spin at the end of the story, but the fact is that his administration's response to the manpower shortage has been inadequate, and that he's simply had other priorities.
UPDATE 2 (11-29-2005): The Chronicle now says the murder spree wasn't a record:
The weekend slayings, while by far outnumbering those of the past five years, are not the most ever in the city's history. On a single weekend in June 1981, from Friday evening to Sunday night, 21 people were slain in Houston.
Here's Chief Hurtt's proposed solution:
Hurtt said he has talked with Mayor Bill White about adopting an ordinance requiring apartment complexes with high rates of crime to hire security officers.
"We are very much concerned about apartment complexes," Hurtt said. "Anytime you have a large cluster of people living in an area like an apartment complex, there is always the opportunity for conflict, robberies and property crimes."
Frank Michel, the mayor's communication director, confirmed that Hurtt had met with White and discussed the idea of requiring security officers at high-crime complexes.
"The mayor is receptive to that idea," Michel said.
Translation: Good luck protecting yourselves, Houstonians!
MayorWhiteChiefHurtt simply are not serious about HPD's manpower shortage. The problem is not mentioned by the Chronicle. It probably wasn't mentioned in Chief Hurtt's press release or in the conversation with the administration's PR man Frank Michel.
UPDATE 3 (11-29-2005): KTRH-740 posts the following:
Some in the business community say the problem is a police staffing issue. The head of the police union is due at City Hall today to discuss his concern that police academy classes aren't keeping pace with retirements.
Business community? The head of the police union is part of the business community? KHOU (and the bloggers here) are part of the business community? Interesting label.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 10:19 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (6)
Gilley's sign up for grabs on eBay
The Houston Business Journal calls attention to a Pasadena icon that is up for auction on eBay:
The Houston honky-tonk that gained national fame in "Urban Cowboy" is no longer alive and kicking. But the giant sign that drew crowds of kickers to Gilley's is now up for grabs in an online auction.
eBay is taking bids for the Gilley's Club sign, which stands about 30 feet tall and 16 feet wide, and touts the bygone Pasadena night spot's "mixed drinks, beer, wine, Tex-Mex Food, Dining and Dancing."The "Recording Studio" inside Gilley's gets top billing, just below the name of the long-closed and now-demolished establishment that claimed to be the world's largest night club.
Early offers from nostalgic John Travolta and Debra Winger fans who hanker for a memento of Bud and Sissy are circulating faster than line-dancers doing the "Cotton-eyed Joe."
The opening bid was $500 in a 10-day eBay stretch that will end on Nov. 30. And only a day into the bidding, on Nov. 21, the 18th and then-highest offer was $2,750. On Nov. 22 -- with seven days and 22 hours left in the eBay auction -- 30 bids had been made on the Gilley's sign with $6,300 as the one to beat.
The auction ends in a day and a half. As of tonight, the high bid is $10,350.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 10:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Why should City Council legitimize ANY street begging?
Last week, Councilmember Michael Berry solicited input on Houston's street solicitation problem.
Today, KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports further on possible Council action:
At busy intersections, Houston drivers see it all the time -- youngsters raising money for charity.
"Thank you. Have a nice day."
It's a sight so common, sometimes it's scary.
"He's reaching down underneath the car where the money had fallen," said Houston City Councilmember Carol Mims Galloway, who took a photo of a child ducking under a car to grab change.
And then there are incidents like the one in 2004 when a child ended up between the tires of a truck.
"That's when the little boy came up under the truck and he was laying to the ground," said an officer at the scene in southwest Houston.
That child wasn't hurt, but he narrowly escaped death.
Now, Houston is about to change the rules on all of this. If city council approves a proposed ordinance change, nobody under the age of 16 will be allowed to solicit funds on city streets. And anybody between the age of 16 and 18 collecting money on the street would need adequate adult supervision.
Street solicitation ought to be banned outright. Streets are for cars and for driving, not for beggars.
Of course, Council will have to stick with children, since the Houston Chronicle would never stand for a ban on street "vending" -- even though the practice has proven more dangerous to vendors of their product than to children.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 09:49 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)
It's always fun when the Chron Editorial LiveJournalists go international
It's always entertaining when the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists offer their thoughts on international politics.
Today's subheadline was particularly fun:
What will Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon do if his new party wins power?
And for good measure, there are these "probing" questions from the Editorial LiveJournalists:
What is Sharon's real purpose? Is it to consolidate other settlements? Or is it to start productive, two-sided peace talks that would include the fate of Israel's settlements on the West Bank?
Talk about completely missing what is going on.
The correct answer is, Sharon is going to do exactly what he's been saying he will do.
Orrin Judd successfully predicted Sharon's gambit back in 2003.
The Telegraph spelled it out clearly yesterday:
Sixty years after the state of Israel was created, Ariel Sharon is effectively drawing its final borders, say his advisers, diplomats, friends … and the cartographers.
They believe that Mr Sharon, who as a general played a leading role in the expansion of Israel's borders in successive wars since 1948, is now - as a politician - determined to set the country's hitherto elastic frontiers in stone.
What is more, judging by his track record and the way public opinion is shifting, there is a real chance that he may succeed.
The Editorial LiveJournalists really need to expand their reading if they are going to continue to write about international politics.
At least they didn't create a new treaty this time.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 08:49 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Attempting to keep the Big Monster at bay
The Woodlands is having to deal with questions of future governance:
Residents were given their first opportunity to comment on options regarding future governance of the master-planned community during four scheduled public meetings.
The options were presented in four main areas: status quo, annexation, incorporation and The Woodlands solution (a possibility that has not been identified). These possibilities were created by the Governance Steering Committee, a group of appointed representatives created to represent The Woodlands stakeholders.
"We primarily want to hear from you," said Peggy Fiandaca, one of the consultants from Partners for Strategic Action Inc., which is working with the GSC.
The four areas were broken down into subsets.
Status quo was broken down to status quo with improvement or special districts, an extension of the agreement with Houston to delay or prohibit annexation, or the current structure with a district-elected community council.
One of the potential negatives of the status quo option is "the state Legislature has tried to limit the power of homeowners associations over the past few sessions and is likely to continue to do so," Fiandaca said.
According to resident surveys, the community is pretty happy with the current structure, she said.
"We're going to have to continue paying the city of Houston off," resident Barry Dean said.
That last quote appears to reference a concern The Woodlands has that the city of Houston will one day try to annex the large, master-planned community. In fact, the Conroe Courier says many Woodlands residents view Houston as the Big Monster, fearing a Houston takeover similar to what happened in Kingwood almost ten years ago.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/28/05 09:05 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (8)
Looking for that elusive balance on Chron's op-ed page
The Chronicle's op-ed page today is sporting this anti-Wal-mart column by a syndicated columnist named Neal Peirce, who appears not to be a fan of Wal-mart.
If the Chronicle really wanted to be "neither liberal nor conservative," it would have also run this pro-Wal-mart column by the Washington Post's Sebastian Mallaby:
But let's say we accept Dube's calculation that retail workers take home $4.7 billion less per year because Wal-Mart has busted unions and generally been ruthless. That loss to workers would still be dwarfed by the $50 billion-plus that Wal-Mart consumers save on food, never mind the much larger sums that they save altogether. Indeed, Furman points out that the wage suppression is so small that even its "victims" may be better off. Retail workers may take home less pay, but their purchasing power probably still grows thanks to Wal-Mart's low prices.
[snip]
Wal-Mart's critics also paint the company as a parasite on taxpayers, because 5 percent of its workers are on Medicaid. Actually that's a typical level for large retail firms, and the national average for all firms is 4 percent. Moreover, it's ironic that Wal-Mart's enemies, who are mainly progressives, should even raise this issue. In the 1990s progressives argued loudly for the reform that allowed poor Americans to keep Medicaid benefits even if they had a job. Now that this policy is helping workers at Wal-Mart, progressives shouldn't blame the company. Besides, many progressives favor a national health system. In other words, they attack Wal-Mart for having 5 percent of its workers receive health care courtesy of taxpayers when the policy that they support would increase that share to 100 percent.
Next up, Wal-mart critics will go after JC Penney and Kohl's, and be arguing for NO national healthcare!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/28/05 08:23 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Tow truck takes out cop
KTRK-13 reports that a tow truck took out a police officer earlier:
A Houston police officer on a bicycle is recovering after being hit by a tow truck.
The officer was responding to a call about several pit bulls running loose in the Heights when a wrecker truck backed into her bicycle near 22nd and Durham.
Does Traffic Czar David Saperstein require a special permit (à la SAFEclear) for tow trucks that run over cops, or can any tow truck handle that service?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 12:35 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 November 2005
Chron pushes death penalty case hard in leadup to Thanksgiving
The anti-death-penalty Chronicle pushed one of its favorite topics hard as Thanksgiving approached.
In a high-profile story, Lise Olsen concluded that an innocent man had been put to death courtesy of the Texas death penalty:
Texas executed its fifth teenage offender at 22 minutes after midnight on Aug. 24, 1993, after his last request for bubble gum had been refused and his final claim of innocence had been forever silenced.
Ruben Cantu, 17 at the time of his crime, had no previous convictions, but a San Antonio prosecutor had branded him a violent thief, gang member and murderer who ruthlessly shot one victim nine times with a rifle before emptying at least nine more rounds into the only eyewitness — a man who barely survived to testify.
Four days after a Bexar County jury delivered its verdict, Cantu wrote this letter to the residents of San Antonio: "My name is Ruben M. Cantu and I am only 18 years old. I got to the 9th grade and I have been framed in a capital murder case."
A dozen years after his execution, a Houston Chronicle investigation suggests that Cantu, a former special-ed student who grew up in a tough neighborhood on the south side of San Antonio, was likely telling the truth.
As Sedosi Alhambra pointed out, the story was decidedly unbalanced:
The story ... is curiously short on the opinions of those with an opposing view. There is, of course, the silly symbolism that the Chron is rapidly becoming known for (Cantu was refused bubble gum, etc.) but very little examination of FACTS in this case.
Most of the reporting is based on opinion and conjecture. You will read a lot of "I think" and "I could see where" etc. It is, of course, inevitable that all of the thinking and seeing leads to opinions that support the notion that Cantu was innocent.
Given the Chronicle's anti-death-penalty perspective and regular instances of the newspaper melding news and opinion, it's difficult to regard such unbalanced, one-sided reporting as definitive. The reporting at best raises questions about the case that should be examined more closely.
Nevertheless, the Chronicle executive editorial leadership apparently does see it as definitive. Here's the conclusion from the anti-death-penalty editorial board several days later:
An investigation of Cantu's conviction by the Chronicle's Lise Olsen provides persuasive evidence that his execution by the state was a mistake.
The reporting doesn't seem that definitive. The Chronicle editorial leadership certainly wants it to be definitive, although the newspaper's perspective on this topic not to mention its melding of news and opinion suggests that study by more objective analysts is merited before final judgment is rendered.
Speaking of the melding of news and opinion, here's the opinion of Rick Casey, the editorialist/gossip columnist who appears on the news pages:
On the rare occasion, and this appears to be one, when very strong new evidence indicates an innocent person may have been executed, an independent court or some other body should determine the outcome.
We agree with Casey in a sense. We don't think of the Chronicle as an especially independent voice on the death penalty. Still, a broken clock is right twice a day. So we'll be awaiting independent confirmation of the perspective presented by Olsen, Casey, and the Chronicle editorial board, and will be happy to revisit the matter if there is such confirmation.
UPDATE: Olsen has some experience elsewhere in death-penalty journalism, and she has also helped out locally with the Chron Eye.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/27/05 11:57 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Thankfully, it's not called a Holiday Tree
Now that we have survived Thanksgiving, it's time to move on:
The Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Celebration
Join Mayor Bill White welcoming the equally honorable Santa Claus to downtown (Where will he park the sleigh?) and the lighting of the official Christmas tree at City Hall.
Traditionally, the plaza is festively decorated and ringed with booths offering refreshments and holiday arts and crafts. Watch our famous skyline come alive with music, lights and fireworks!
City Hall Downtown, December 10th, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
What about Pancho Claus?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/27/05 08:06 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)
Mayor Nagin holds town hall meeting in Houston
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin held a meeting in Houston today with some of his former constituents:
Frustration, doubt and anger greeted New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Sunday as he implored displaced residents from his city to join in the process of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
Nagin, speaking during a town hall meeting at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Houston, asked New Orleans residents to help him in his efforts to bring the city back to life. The meeting was one of several Nagin has had since Katrina hit New Orleans in late August.
"I greet you all in the spirit of unity because if we don't unify, we will never come back to the New Orleans we all want to come back to," he said. "I know there is frustration out there. I can only do so much. I need your help."
Nagin told the more than 600 residents in attendance that 60 percent of New Orleans has electricity, 50 percent has natural gas service, most of the city has safe drinking water, 911 and police services are operational, debris has been removed from most city streets and jobs that pay well above minimum wage are readily available.
But he also told people that the city is broke with no revenues coming in, the public school system is still shut down and there is not enough housing for people to come back and help with the rebuilding process.
[snip]
Ingrid LeBlanc, a New Orleans resident living in north Houston with eight other family members, told Nagin she wants to return to her hometown and rebuild her home. But she has concerns about the levee system and whether officials have decided some neighborhoods, including her own, won't be rebuilt.
"I want to go back. I need to know where I stand," she said.
Nagin reassured LeBlanc, 54, that all of New Orleans is going to be rebuilt.
[snip]
Arthur Brown, 43, a truck driver, said because of New Orleans' uncertain future, he's decided to buy a home in suburban Houston.
"I'm not sure what (New Orleans) is going to do. I can't put my life on hold," he said. "I have a family. I need to move on."
Ultimately, many New Orleans residents will return one day, but there are many, many others who will do what Mr. Brown is doing -- move on with their lives, in someplace other than New Orleans. Mayor Nagin is going to have a tough sell.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/27/05 07:21 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (9)
26 November 2005
Ellis campaign bungles sanctuary policy, begins to circle drain
Matt Stiles reported before Thanksgiving that the State Senate campaign of current city councilmember Mark Ellis committed a big blunder:
Mark Ellis' state Senate campaign has sent an e-mail to supporters calling two of his Republican Houston City Council colleagues "recalcitrant" and "boneheaded" for not supporting his effort to change the police department's illegal immigration policy.
The e-mail, which Ellis said he did not authorize, calls on supporters to "bombard" the offices of council members Shelley Sekula-Gibbs and M.J. Khan with phone calls, faxes and e-mails voicing opposition.Ellis said the two have not yet supported his effort to persuade Mayor Bill White to allow a council vote on a resolution that would rescind a 1992 order stating that police not enforce immigration laws.
The proposed resolution, which White said he would not support, even if Ellis persuaded a majority of council members to sign on, calls on the police to determine the immigration status of all people arrested on Class B and C misdemeanor charges, such as criminal trespass or failure to pay toll-road tolls. It also would require proof of U.S. citizenship for people to receive "taxpayer-provided social services."
Ellis said he had planned next week to publicly pressure Khan and Sekula-Gibbs to support the effort, which he said reflects his belief that the police should help federal authorities crack down on illegal immigrants.
"Immigration reform is probably one of the biggest issues that's facing us locally, statewide and the country," he said. "I don't think it's appropriate for municipalities to be working against the federal government."
Ellis said he didn't authorize the language in the e-mail, calling it his campaign's first faux pas, and that he admonished 21-year-old campaign manager Andy Seré for sending it. Seré said he didn't want the word choice to distract from the immigration debate.
Seré said? Ha ha ha ha ha. Hasn't Seré said quite enough already?
This is probably the most interest that the Ellis campaign is likely to generate before Ellis faces reality and bows out of the senate race (or loses by a large margin). Like Chris Elam, we can't help but wonder why Ellis wouldn't have more seasoned help working his campaign, which clearly doesn't seem ready for prime time.
Sadly, the bungled opportunism (or general ineptitude, if one prefers) of the Ellis campaign does detract from legitimate criticism of HPD's sanctuary policy. Proponents of that policy (Mayor White and local left-of-center bloggers) continue to insist that HPD can simply ignore federal law if it desires. That policy is not only misguided, but dangerous. It is simply unacceptable that HPD as a matter of policy is banned from enforcing some laws.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/26/05 05:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
25 November 2005
Usually, it's just the downtown pols emitting gas
The Chronicle's Monica Guzman reports on a mishap at yesterday's Thanksgiving Day parade:
A woman watching the 56th annual Washington Mutual Thanksgiving Day Parade passed out after inhaling gas that was leaking out of a manhole at the intersection of Texas and Caroline.
She was transported from the scene with no serious medical problems, police said.
About 500 people were gathered at the spot when the gas began seeping into the air around 10:30 a.m.
That does not seem world-class.
Washington Mutual must be pleased to see its name so prominently featured in the news story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/25/05 10:26 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (7)
24 November 2005
A Chron.com page we would have designed
With the redesign, Chron.com is touting this page as its one-stop headline page.
However, it's not a one-stop page. Unfortunately, only a handful of the day's headlines from each section are contained on that page.
So, we used the Chronicle's RSS feeds to put together our own one-stop page of headlines. Our local focus is reflected in our ordering of the sections.
Unfortunately, some of the Chronicle sections still don't have RSS feeds, so we've simply linked to those pages when there isn't an RSS feed that we can use to pull headlines.
The main reason I designed this page is that I like to open stories in Firefox in tabs and read them all at once. My page lets me read Chron.com the way I want to. Maybe our readers will find it useful also.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/24/05 05:16 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Blood-red cranberry sauce: Thanksgiving celebration of genocide
Chronicle editorial page editor James Howard Gibbons apparently just LOVES Robert Jensen.
That doesn't reflect well on the Chronicle or on Gibbons, given Jensen's position WAY out on the fringes even of the far Left.
But it's great blog fodder.
Matt Bramanti is all over Professor Jensen's latest nonsense.
Professor Jensen, incidentally, is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/24/05 04:23 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Councilmember solicits blogger input on panhandling
Councilmember Michael Berry, who reads this blog among others locally, has circulated an email to various bloggers asking for input on panhandling/soliciting on Houston roadways. He'll be sitting in for Chris Baker on KTRH-740 on Friday from 2-6 (that's not a misprint -- even though Baker's usual time is 3-7, Berry's show will be 2-6 on Friday), and plans on discussing how Council should deal with the issue.
In his email, Berry specifically asked for feedback on:
- ANY panhandling, soliciting at intersections ON THE MEDIAN
- same, in the roadway
- same, by minors
- commercial activity either on medians or in the roadway, whether it be by newspapers or flower salesmen
Unlike many traditional MSM reporters, good bloggers never pretend they're the final authority on some topic, and good bloggers also recognize that among their readership, there are always people who are more knowledgeable and/or insightful on any given topic. So, we're going to turn Councilmember Berry's request over to readers.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the forum, and we'll be sure to share the link to it with the Councilmember. If they're good, they might wind up on the blowtorch that is KTRH. And if not, Councilmember Berry might make fun of this little blog.... so be as smart as always, kind readers! :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/24/05 09:21 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (18)
23 November 2005
Eating turkey results in long naps which reduces one's posting
Following Kevin's lead, this is probably it for me posting-wise, for a couple of days or so. Of course, the forum is always open, ready for fun and frivolity. =)
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/05 10:08 AM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (2)
Council changes SAFEclear...again...sort of
According to this Matt Stiles story, city council has agreed to change the SAFEclear program so it is in line with a judge's ruling:
The council voted 12-3 to do away with the exclusive freeway segment contracts — which paid for about 30 percent of the $3 million program — and some price regulations for motorists who consented to long-distance tows.
Most of the program, which includes the mandatory tows that White says unclog freeways and increase safety, remains.
But the changes expand the rights of motorists to call their own towing companies — through the American Automobile Association, for example — if those wreckers arrive before one designated for Safe Clear.
Maybe it's too early for me, but I'm confused. In the quote above, Council voted to do away with exclusive freeway segments, but then the story says this:
Suzanne Poole, president of the towing association, which filed the suit along with three excluded operators, said the council's vote left her "disappointed and disgusted."
She had wanted all towing companies to have equal access to the program. Despite the changes, she said, they still would be shut out of freeway tows by the program.
"This has not been opened up enough for us or what we feel like the judge wanted it to be opened up to," she said, suggesting that she and individual members might file new lawsuits challenging the updated ordinance.
[snip]
It was that sentiment that prompted Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who has criticized the program's costs, to try to amend the ordinance to allow all qualified wreckers to participate.
She said her measure would add fairness to the process — and save the city money on legal fees from the current or future lawsuits.
"It would not gut the program. It would just satisfy what the judge has said was causing significant concern and harm to the operators," she said. "It would not, in any way, dismantle the point of improving safety or mobility."
The mayor opposed her amendment, saying city-designated towing companies should continue being assigned specific freeway segments to ensure they can respond to incidents safely and quickly.
The council then defeated Sekula-Gibbs' amendment by a 14-1 vote.
So, was the program opened up to all towing companies or not?
[U.S. District Judge Kenneth] Hoyt ruled that city regulation of those prices was pre-empted by federal law. He also held that the exclusive contracts were driven by economics, not safety.
With the exclusive contracts no longer a part of the program, the city loses about $900,000 in revenue paid by those towing companies for access to the freeways.
I am completely lost -- which makes me wonder if a Chron editor got ahold of this story, or if I need another cup of coffee.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/05 07:22 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Seven HISD schools earn higher school ratings
Several HISD schools have successfully appealed their TEA-determined school rankings:
The empty hallways at Johnston Elementary say nothing of the pride this school has -- impressive young artists, state acknowledgements for writing and social studies and an award-winning performing arts program. So how could a school that consistently gets acceptable ratings from the TEA, now be unacceptable?
Principal Linda Balkin said, "It was like having a dark cloud over our heads for a while. It was tough on teacher morale."
But on closer examination, it was discovered the TEA had made a mistake. The agency had given Johnston an unacceptable rating, based on false reports of student dropouts.
"We knew that one of those children, for example, had been away from school getting treatment for cancer," Balkin explained.
HISD appealed, and Johnston, along with six other campuses, got improved ratings. Lanier Middle School moved from acceptable to recognized. And T.H. Rogers moved into ''exemplary status." Five others, including Johnston, were removed from the list of unacceptables.
And what does this mean overall for HISD?
The moves mean that now 88 percent of HISD schools made the grade under the Texas accountability system in 2005, earning ratings of Acceptable or better. The successful appeals reduced the number of Unacceptable schools in HISD from 36 to 31.
Congratulations to the staff, students and parents of those schools!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/05 06:58 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
A close encounter with the Danger Train
Laurence Simon had another Danger Train adventure yesterday.
Someday grownups will be put in charge of Metro. Until then, though...
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/05 06:39 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
22 November 2005
Slow posting over the next few days
Posting will likely be pretty light from me over the next few days.
Here's wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving (in advance).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/22/05 09:47 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (3)
Figuring out Houston highway names
Rad Sallee's Move It! column yesterday dealt with something that has confounded me: Houston-area highway names:
"Why on earth do you use terms like North Freeway, East Freeway, etc.?" Privette asks. "I've lived here my whole life and still to this day have to stop and think what the heck you are referring to! Why don't you use 59 North — 59 South? ... "
"If I can't figure it out — it certainly would be confusing to anyone not from this area," said Privette, who lives in Shoreacres. If we took a poll, he predicted, three out of four people would agree with him.
Maybe so, but consider this.
While the official designation might be clearer to newcomers and people passing through, many Houstonians find "Katy Freeway" more easily recognizable than "Interstate 10 West" — which at first glance might seem to mean "westbound Interstate 10," maybe somewhere near Baytown. What about "eastbound I-10 West." Doesn't that sound like a contradiction?
Things get more muddled with designations such as "Interstate 610 North," which the Chronicle calls the North Loop. But it would be perfectly reasonable to mistake it for the northbound lanes of either the West Loop or East Loop.
Do you know what the "West Loop North" means? Not the northbound lanes of the West Loop, which certainly would make sense. It actually means that part of Interstate 610 on the west side of Houston and north of Buffalo Bayou, says Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Norm Wigington.
The green overhead freeway signs usually designate highways by number, but city of Houston street signs often use the popular local name, such as Katy Freeway or Gulf Freeway.
The name of the Gulf Freeway, Houston's first, resulted from a contest. Then came the Southwest Freeway, "because we were trying to be the capital of the Southwest," Wigington said.
Muddying the water further: Do you say "I-45 south of downtown" or "the Pierce Elevated?" And what do you call those other segments of freeway that border the downtown area, before they define themselves by taking off toward East Texas, Katy or the Gulf?
Wigington says the dividing point is the crossing of U.S. 59 and I-45 just southeast of the business district. "The North Freeway begins at U.S. 59," he said, "and so does the Gulf Freeway." This means the Pierce Elevated is technically part of the North Freeway, "although nobody calls it that," he said.
Similarly, the Eastex Freeway is that part of U.S. 59 north of I-45, and the Southwest Freeway is the part on the other side.
I give up!
Laurence Simon and Charles Kuffner used to baffle me with their talk of the Pierce Elevated. What is it, I wondered, and why is it so important? Obviously, I finally figured out it was a section of I-45. And have you ever listened to local radio traffic breaks? Phew! "There's a broken-down car blocking the HOV lane on the westbound Katy Freeway at the North Loop. And watch out for an accident on the North Loop eastbound at the 59 Eastex in right hand lane with debris," said so rapid-fire that it's almost impossible to figure out where the heck the traffic slow-down is going to be! Throw in feeder roads and Anne is left saying, "whaaaaaa?"
And Kevin would reply, "Transtar!"
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/22/05 09:36 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
Metro's swift, aggressive discipline isn't so swift or aggressive
A while back Metro promised to crack down on MetroRail drivers who were running stop signals, after a KPRC-2 investigation.
The light-rail train ran a stop signal at a busy intersection near downtown -- a horizontal bar meant stop, but the driver kept going.
METRO said the train was also speeding throughout the route along Main Street and near the Museum District. It was clocked going as fast as 48 mph in a 35 mph speed limit zone.
Records showed the train operator was also driving with his cab door open talking to passengers, which is another major violation.
It all happened during one afternoon's train ride.
[snip]
METRORail supervisors agreed and filed paperwork to fire the train operator, Charles Lightfoot, for his "willing disregard for public safety," and said he should never be rehired.
Earlier this year, METRO leaders promised tough disciplinary action after the Troubleshooters uncovered METRORail operators running stop signals at intersections across town.
"I happen to think when a train runs a signal, it's not a casual event, it's a life-threatening event," said Dave Feeley, senior vice president of METRO operations.
So, what happened to Lightfoot? Houstonians are still paying him to work and he's still carrying METRO passengers across town.
The Troubleshooters spotted Lightfoot eating a sandwich in the driver's seat of his new job -- driving a METRO bus. They followed him on his north Houston route to downtown Houston.
In less than one hour, he ran a red light in Midtown, according to the Troubleshooters' video.
Ah yes. Like any good government agency, Metro rarely fires anyone; Metro just shuffles the players around.
"He was never completely terminated because I put him back to work," Feeley said.
Feely is the METRO vice president who promised tough discipline for rail violators.
"We all make mistakes, as long as they're not repeated over and over and over again," he said.
Oh my. Where to begin? It's not okay for private citizens to run red lights, but as long as a Metro driver doesn't repeat the mistake over, and over, and over, it's okay? How many "overs" are needed before a termination WILL be considered? Will VP Feeley get serious when Lightfoot (what a name!) crashes into someone?
By the way, in the latest MetroRail crash data released to Tom Bazan (through an open records request, of course), an accident on September 8, 2005, at Main and Leeland was caused by (in Metro's own words):
Train proceeded through intersection hit by vehicle - not vertical bar.
There was not a vertical bar. That means the MetroRail driver ignored the stop signal. And it should read, "Train proceeded through intersection and hit vehicle," not "hit by vehicle" since the train ignored the stop signal.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: When I crossed midtown starting my commute to work today (a little before 7 am), the lights were flashing at Elgin and Main. Thankfully, there was no Danger Train in sight. Still, I have to say that the situation was pretty scary, and I hadn't even seen this report yet! I hope METRO gets that light fixed ASAP. And the light-running problems too!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/22/05 07:27 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
21 November 2005
Goodbye Oshman's; Hello Sports Authority
The Houston Business Journal's Allison Wollam reports that a longtime Houston merchant was rebranded over the weekend:
The last trace of Houston retail institution Oshman's Sporting Goods Inc. was erased last weekend as the 86-year-old retailer was taken out of the local retail game.
Englewood, Colo.-based The Sports Authority Inc., which inherited Oshman's through its 2003 merger with Gart Sports Co., has converted all nine Oshman's stores in the Houston area to The Sports Authority.Oshman's was founded in Richmond in 1919 and had grown into a publicly traded company -- which was still run by the Oshman family -- when it was sold to Denver-based Gart for $84 million in 2001.
Gart had maintained the Oshman's name during its ownership period.
Tony Patino, district manager for The Sports Authority, says the company did away with the Oshman's name in order to create a national brand.
[snip]
The product mix will remain the same, although the exercise, team sports and golf departments will be enhanced, according to Patino.
John Horan, publisher of industry newsletter Sporting Goods Intelligence, says the removal of regional brands such as Oshman's is a good strategic move by The Sports Authority, which is the largest sporting goods chain in the country.
"It makes a lot of sense," he says. "From the marketing and promotional standpoint alone, it's certainly an advantage to operate under one brand."
Dick's Sporting Goods has already pushed into the Dallas suburbs, and Houston will likely follow at some point. The Sports Authority surely felt it had to bring Oshman's under its main brand before Dick's moves into town.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/05 09:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Southwest Freeway/Spur reconstruction ahead of schedule
KTRK-13's Miya Shay reports that the Southwest Freeway expansion and spur reconstruction project is ahead of schedule:
TxDOT engineer Quincy Allen says the entire project is actually ahead of schedule, though you might not see it in the traffic flow.
"We're about six months ahead of schedule," Allen said. "But we've got a lot of things that's got to be done behind the scenes."
[snip]
TxDOT officials say if they remain six months ahead of schedule, most of the lanes should be open to drivers by late next summer.
We wanted to see how long it would take us to get from the downtown spur through the 59 construction zone. It's just before 5pm and traffic is already backed bumper to bumper Driving through what looked like horrible rush hour traffic only took about 10 minutes, and I wasn't the only driver surprised.
There's a much easier way to find out such information. Just click here (normal) or here (for mobile devices, but more useful in some ways).
I have various urls from the mobile site bookmarked on my cell phone, because I make the commute from the Galleria to midtown on 59 about 4pm each day. Thus, when the morons at Transtar are running this sort of information on their road signs, I'm not left totally blind as a result. For anyone else who's making that drive -- always exit at Buffalo Speedway and take Richmond if the travel time from Newcastle to Downtown is 15 minutes or longer on 59. Research from your blogHOUSTON traffic team has found that surface streets will be faster.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/05 09:25 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
KPRC move: Racist or family-friendly?
Laurence Simon found a post on TVspy that adds a little context to the "controversy" of KPRC-2's demotion of anchor Linda Lorelle.
To quote Laurence: gotta love them archives!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/05 09:04 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)
World Series appearance should boost Astros' value, revenues
The Houston Business Journal's Jim Greer reports that the Astros' successful season should boost the franchise's value:
The afterglow from the best season and first National League baseball championship in the 44-year history of the Houston Astros will likely swing the ballclub further into the black.
"Every revenue stream will be affected and should be affected in a positive way," says Dean Bonham, owner of the Bonham Group, a sports marketing consulting firm based in the Denver area.
Bonham believes that more revenue will flow to the Astros via radio, the Web and television. In addition, sales from sponsorships, merchandising and concessions stand to gain before the 2006 season, or after it starts, according to Bonham.
"It certainly should help the season-ticket sales, and ticket sales next year," says Astros owner Drayton McLane.
The Astros could see their attendance go from 2.8 million in 2005 to 3.1 million next year, with their base of season-ticketholders jumping from approximately 18,000 to 22,000 season-tickets sold, according to Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, an affiliated publication.
Look for the Chronicle's Jose de Jesus Ortiz to write a column that explains that Drayton McLane really lost millions this season, and stands to lose more next season.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/05 08:49 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
African-American museum on city council agenda
Look what's coming before Houston City Council on Tuesday:
33. ORDINANCE authorizing the City of Houston to accept $72,168.00 Economic Development Initiative (“EDI”) Special Projects Grant awarded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) in connection with the Redevelopment of Gregory School in the Fourth Ward as an African-American Archival/Cultural Center; authorizing the Mayor to execute and submit grant documents to HUD - DISTRICT I - ALVARADO
Next up for Mayor White -- the Veterans Museum in Texas. Right?
(Thanks to Tom Bazan for trudging through this week's agenda. And every week's agenda.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/21/05 08:10 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)
Red light cameras are here; are speed cameras next?
Matt Stiles has a story in the Chronicle about the red light cameras that started operating today, and Chris Baker is talking about it on his show (KTRH-740).
The city's spin is that it's all about safety...oh, and helping out an understaffed HPD.
Regular readers will know that my spin is that this is all about revenue. It seems as if at least once a week we see a story in the media about someone running a red light and killing someone. Please explain how a red light camera will stop that. If someone doesn't care what color the traffic signal is, how is the threat of a picture and a $75 civil fine going to deter him or her?
In Matt Stiles' story, HPD's Martha Montalvo says:
"This is about increasing safety, making people more alert and using the technology that is out there," said Executive Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo, who is helping oversee the vendor-selection process.
Since the city and HPD didn't lengthen yellow light times -- which has proven to reduce red light running much more than cameras -- we know this is NOT about safety. It's about revenue. If it really was about safety, Mayor White would have followed through on his promise to two councilmembers to check out yellow light times.
And Montalvo is the HPD person who adamantly refused even to consider the idea of lengthening yellow light times last February. She said, "I don't see the logic of lengthening the yellow light." That's scary. Either she hasn't researched the issue and is woefully uninformed (and the issue is very clear and easy to understand), or she's refusing to consider any alternatives. Or...well, never mind.
Chris Baker wonders if speed cameras are next. Well, last February we learned that camera manufacturers were lobbying city council. Councilman Michael Berry assured Chris back then that speed cameras were not being considered. I don't find Berry's assurances comforting, since Council tends to roll over whenever Mayor White gets a new bee in his bonnet. If red light cameras are successful at generating revenue, you can bet speed cameras will be next.
PREVIOUSLY: Do red light cameras reduce accidents or generate revenue? (bH), WaPo discovers that red light cameras increase accidents in D.C. (bH), Real proof that longer yellow-light times reduce red-light running (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/21/05 03:47 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
20 November 2005
Digging deeper on the Texans' woes
This week, Chronicle sports columnists/bloggers John Lopez and Richard Justice have offered some interesting insight into the woes of the Texans.
Lopez's column from earlier in the week examined Dom Capers' management of his coaching staff.
Today, Richard Justice posted these pointed remarks on his blog:
Has there been a lot of negative stuff published and broadcast about Dom Capers in recent weeks?
Wonder if someone inside the organization is doing a number on Capers in the hope of saving his own job? People aren't like that, are they?
Justice then went on to examine the Texans' draft picks.
While watching the game on ESPN tonight, I noticed Casserly eating and talking to owner Bob McNair while on camera, and Dom Capers wandering the sidelines with mouth hanging open in that befuddled manner he has. It's hard to imagine how McNair can keep either Casserly or Capers when this disappointing season finally comes to an end.
RELATED: Examining the train wreck that is the Texans (Tom Kirkendall).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 10:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Advertising exec explains the decline of Safeway-Randalls
Advertising executive Bill Penczak penned a column for the Houston Business Journal last week on the decline of Randalls supermarkets.
The article doesn't necessarily cover ground that bloggers and commenters haven't already, but the argument is succinct:
Last month's announcement of the closure of 15 Randalls stores was the culmination of a slow descent of one of Houston's most cherished brands. (See "Safeway to can 15 area Randalls stores," Oct. 21.)
But the chain's demise wasn't the result of pressure from Wal-Mart (now the market leader among Houston grocery chains), nor H-E-B, nor Kroger. It was the result of mismanagement of the Randalls brand.
Randalls was the undisputed high-end leader in the 1990s. Randalls enjoyed the highest consumer preference scores for the key "perimeter" sections -- meat, produce, bakery -- that defined the customer experience. Grocery chain management teams from all over the country would visit Houston to marvel at Flagship stores that combined a bigger footprint, "wow" departments, and a profitable business model.
When Safeway bought the chain from the Onstead family in 1998 for $1.8 billion, they bought more than buildings, trucks, and aisles of Little Debbies and mandarin oranges. They bought a brand representing remarkable service and products, delivered with a unique brand personality.
In the subsequent seven years, Randalls/Safeway slid from 20 percent to 10.8 percent market share by violating the basic principals of effective marketing and branding. These include:
[snip]
[T]oday's Randalls is undifferentiated -- the death knell of a brand. Their value proposition -- great service consumers would pay more for -- had been eviscerated over time. Today's Randalls is like every other grocery store, and consumers decided the premium price was no longer worth it.
No matter how much you try to dress up and/or camouflage Safeway, it's still Safeway -- no more worth the premium price than it was the last time Safeway flopped in Houston.
PREVIOUSLY: Will Onstead put the Randall back in Randalls, Randalls shuttering 15 Houston stores, Will "lifestyle" remodel reverse decline in market share?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 09:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Houston's most happening political scientist reappears
One of blogHOUSTON's favorite professional political scientists, Professor Bob Stein, made an appearance in Kristen Mack's Friday politics column (notable for its reporting on the Aiyer/Lovell race -- more on that later).
"I was surprised, not that she [Sue Lovell] was in the runoff, but that she ran ahead of Jay [Aiyer]," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein.
Maybe it had something to do with Proposition 2? And maybe Mack should have asked Stein's opinion on that, since this quote didn't really explain much.
Stein also admitted his lack of insight on the Clutterbuck-Hittner runoff:
Anne Clutterbuck and George Hittner, who will meet in a runoff in District C, ran neck-and-neck Nov. 8. She received 20 percent of the vote to his 19.8 in a seven-way race.
[snip]
Clutterbuck, a lawyer and president of Southampton Civic Club, won the endorsement of Mark Lee, who placed third Nov. 8. She could benefit from her grass-roots contacts as a civic club leader, Stein said, but he's not forecasting the result.
"These are impossible races to predict," he said. "They are really street affairs."
Perhaps since Professor Stein has so little no insight on either seriously contested council race, he really wasn't the person to quote extensively in this story.
Incidentally, since it was not mentioned, it is worth noting that Professor Stein is the spouse of mayoral aide Marty Stein, and he is also an occasional mayoral advisor who helped design the illegal predatory exclusive tow-zone contracts that comprised the original SAFEclear program. Professor Stein also likes biking.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 08:12 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Metro financial news
Yesterday, the Chronicle brought us news that Metro has been granted $12 million in federal funding:
Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority will receive $12 million for two future transit corridors, thanks to a Transportation Department spending bill that the House and Senate approved Friday.
The money will help pay for preliminary engineering on Metro's planned North and Southeast lines, which will connect to the present Main Street line. The agency plans to initially use buses running on their own guideways in the two corridors, then convert to light rail after ridership increases.
All three lines are part of the Metro Solutions plan approved by voters in November 2003, which includes light rail and commuter rail projects as well as bus rapid transit. Congress also approved $2 million to improve the bus system.
The Metro Solutions that voters approved in November 2003 hardly resembles the Metro Solutions being touted now. The new, living and breathing Metro Solutions was not approved by voters -- Metro just changed it, and through Mayor White's enabling, Metro is off on a new, not-voter-approved course. It would be nice if the Chronicle did not regurgitate Metro's version of reality.
Also, here's a Houston Business Journal story talking about all the new debt Metro is taking on:
In conjunction with the light rail expansion, Metro will for the first time in history issue debt to cover future projects. During its Oct. 27 board meeting, Metro approved the issuance of up to $400 million worth of commercial paper through DEPFA Bank Plc, a Dublin-based bank specializing in financing government public projects.
"We're not borrowing because we don't have the money," Wilson says. "We're borrowing because we have to put all this infrastructure in the ground in a short period of time."
According to Metro figures, the total cost of implementing the five new Metro rail lines will be $1.23 billion, with an estimated completion date of 2011. Metro is estimating that $616 million of the cost will come from federal grants, while $616 million will stem from bonds.
"We're building a lot of infrastructure in a short period of time so that causes a cash flow gap, but not a funding or financial gap," Wilson says. "Metro is pretty sound financially, so when we go to the market we're going to wind up with good interest rates because we are a good risk."
The decision by Metro to issue debt didn't come as much of a surprise to most agency-watchers.
Late last year, Metro Chairman David Wolff said, "I hate debt. I have no personal debt. I have no mortgages on my houses, no corporate debt. I have no debt. I don't like debt. But sometimes I guess you have to have it."
Ahhh, but it's not Chairman Wolff's personal debt, now is it? It's debt the taxpayers will be stuck with, so it's no biggie.
Metro's Wilson likens the transit agency's decision to issue debt to purchasing a home.
"It's the same as a person's decision to buy a home," he says. "Eventually you will pay off the mortgage, but when do you want to move in? When you're 55 years old or 25 years old? We've got enough fund flow over the years to pay the mortgage, but we'll never be able to build the system if we want to collect all the money (first)."
Collect what money? Metro's fare recovery ratio (15%) is considered low by industry standards! It's a good thing Metro collects sales tax revenue from most of Harris County, so it'll have something to pay for all its inner-loop projects.
As for Metro being financially sound, well, maybe that depends on your definition of sound. The recently completed state audit of Metro found that most "key performance indicators" demonstrate a "declining performance trend," including a 36% increase in per passenger operating cost, a 19% increase in operating cost per revenue hour, a 17% increase in operating cost per revenue mile, and a 29% drop in its fare recovery rate.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/20/05 07:31 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
HPD: 131 sex offenders in the Houston area (updated)
On Friday, KTRK-13 and the Chronicle both reported that approximately 131 sex offenders from Louisiana are believed to have settled in the Houston area.
The Chronicle's Rosanna Ruiz reports:
Lt. Robert Manzo, a Houston Police Department spokesman, said it now appears 131 sex offenders from Louisiana have settled in the Houston area after fleeing from the recent storms. He said the number could be whittled down further as officials comb through the list.
On Wednesday, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt announced that Federal Emergency Management Agency officials had told HPD that 287 registered sex offenders were believed to be living in the Houston area. HPD officials said they needed to identify those offenders before trying to locate them.
KTRK's Andy Cerota reports:
Texas is now home to 373 Louisiana sex offenders who arrived when Katrina hit. One hundred thirty-one are in Harris County. Along with these offenders, DPS says another 225 evacuees in Texas are wanted on felony or misdemeanor warrants.
[snip]
"What are we going to do?" asked Andy Kahan with the Mayor's Crime Victims Office. "It's like finding where's Waldo."
A member of the Harris County interagency sex offender council, Kahan says the group is looking at what other states have done in similar situations so that what happened in the aftermath of Katrina never happens again. Kahan says Florida's new plan could be a model for Texas. That state now requires sex offenders whose victims are children to report to a local jail instead of a shelter when they evacuate in an emergency.
The Chron's Editorial LiveJournalists are not going to be happy to hear Kahan's comments!
Prior to KTRK reporter Jessica Willey's Tuesday story on this topic, Houston media had been inexplicably slow to show interest.
UPDATE: James T. Campbell, the Chronicle's very own reader representative, writes the following in his Sunday editorial page column:
As many as 287 registered sex offenders from Louisiana may be in Houston, but local authorities don't know where to find them yet.
Nope, James. They reduced that number to 131. It was in your own newspaper. On Friday.
That's okay. We sometimes can't bear to read it carefully either.
There's also this error:
The good and bad news regarding how Katrina evacuees will effect our job market and local economy.
Does anybody read the material on the editorial pages before it goes to print?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 05:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Constructive criticism of the Chron.com redesign
A commenter to Dwight Silverman's blog left this link as an example of how he'd prefer Chron.com to look.
I don't dislike the Chron.com redesign, but I really like this guy's suggested improvements.
Maybe the Chron.com folks should take down his name for the next time they're offering sneak previews of proposed changes. He seems to have a good eye for esthetics and usability.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 11:41 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
City fires HEC employees who fled Rita
Fourteen Houston Emergency Center employees who did not report to work during the run-up to Hurricane Rita have been fired:
More than a dozen employees with the 911 Houston Emergency Center were fired for not reporting to work during Hurricane Rita, KPRC Local 2 reported Friday.
Fourteen call-takers were terminated. Four others resigned.
Frank Bernal was one of those fired. He said he was faced with a tough dilemma when Rita headed toward Houston.
"My kids were asking me, 'Dad, you're going to leave us here? Are you going to go to work and leave us here?'" he said.
He skipped work in order to stay with his family the night before Rita's landfall. That decisi