31 July 2006
Sallee: Best to mind your speed on Spur 527
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee ran the questions I emailed him last week in his transportation column today:
BlogHOUSTON editor and Midtown resident Kevin Whited recalled that Quincy Allen, the TxDOT engineer in charge of rebuilding the Southwest Freeway and Spur 527, had said the spur's previous speed limit would be restored once reconstruction was complete.
"I drive on the spur every day and haven't noticed any changes from 35 mph," Whited said. "However, as I exited on Louisiana today, guess what was waiting? An HPD officer with a radar gun."
(Photo added, 8-8-2006)Whited didn't get stopped, but the driver behind him did. "So here are my questions — what's the speed limit? Is HPD still enforcing 35?"
Allen says the new signs are on order and the speed limit will be returned to 50 mph on the spur within two weeks.
The exit ramps typically have 35 mph limits posted, but these are advisory, he said.
Drivers are supposed to exit at safe speeds, which can be a judgment call for police.
In other words, watch yourself at the Spur 527 exits, and slow down on the spur itself until they get the other signs changed.
UPDATE (08-01-2006): A reader emails the following:
I too drive the 527 Spur every day. Outbound in the morning and Inbound in the evening. A few days ago the cops had a radar trap setup right on the Outbound spur. Fortunately, I was going pretty slow and did not get stopped. The guy behind me did. Enforcing 35 MPH is ridiculous. There were 2 or 3 cops with their radar guns just waving them over. I already got caught in another of their radar traps a couple of weeks ago coming off the Pierce exit from I-45.
And Mike McGuff notes his experience with the Spur 527 Confusing Speed Trap Revenue Stream here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/06 11:33 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
Heights residents save two old oak trees
Look what some Heights residents did:
A group of homeowners in the Houston Heights district is claiming victory after it managed to save several 150-year-old oak trees.
The seed, you might say, was planted last April when a grass roots movement to save the pair of trees and its resident night herons confronted a developer over a double lot on Ashland Street destined for town homes.
The Houston Heights Association ended up buying the property. Over the past year, it carved out a contract to save the lot, but with a custom-designed set of deed restrictions.
"That would protect trees," said Joellen Snow with the Heights Association. "Those restrictions have been recorded and now we've found this wonderful young family to purchase the property and build their dream home."
Outstanding! Just think what a River Oaks association could accomplish!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/31/06 08:28 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chron continues killing trees to print these editorials
This is Chronicle editorial number FOUR on the meanies at local school districts who don't feed children every single day of summer vacation:
The U.S. government pays for 100 percent of these meals. But school districts — among the few groups allowed to access this program directly — often waste their chance to keep students fed and healthy throughout the year.
By now it's a truism that ill-nourished children are less docile, less teachable. That's why the federal government bankrolls both breakfast and lunch for students in need during the school year. Commendably, HISD is taking the job further: This year it will offer free breakfast to its entire 208,000 student body.
Yet some school districts — HISD is one — cut off these same youngsters when summer school ends. It's fairly simple to switch from their own kitchens to contract vendors, or transfer their federal contracts to other nonprofits, as San Antonio schools do. But most Harris County schools just lock the door.
That not only turns away federal tax dollars that could be returned to the community. It also saps opportunities to make neighborhoods safer. "Kids don't just need to be fed; if their parents are working they need someplace to go where they are safe and supervised," Hagert said. "If a nonprofit with a budget of $1,000 for summer has to buy summer meals, it limits how much it can spend on other activities."
The editorialists helpfully point out that the U.S. government pays for the meals, as if the money just grows on trees in Washington D.C., and it's therefore free money. Hello! It's OUR money! Taxpayers' hard-earned money! And this taxpayer gets a little peeved that other parents out there are unwilling to feed their children, so the government uses my money to do it!
Recall the inability of many Katrina evacuees to do for themselves. They just wait for their government handouts. The Chronicle's editorial board is encouraging a whole new generation of people who expect government to do everything for them, including provide food.
I'm going to repeat myself: At Walmart, a loaf of bread costs $.60, a jar of peanut butter costs $1.70, a jar of jam costs $1.50, and a bag of fruit costs less than a couple of dollars. There are parents out there having kids who can't afford that, for a week's worth of lunches? Come on!
But on top of all this stupidity, the oh-so-enlightened editorial board is upset because HISD's program has ended two weeks before school starts. Do they think parents won't feed their children for two weeks? And if this two-week gap is that critical, why doesn't the Chronicle help facilitate a two-week feeding program? (Because they aren't do-ers, that's why.)
The thinking that goes on in that boardroom is absolutely mind-boggling.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/31/06 06:39 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron reporter discovers Marfreless (eight days later)
The Chronicle runs one of those "it's not news until WE say it's news" stories today about the rumors surrounding Weingarten's stewardship of the shopping center at West Gray and Shepherd:
IN the recent controversy over the possible demolition of the River Oaks Shopping Center, including its classic art deco theater, the fate of one of the best-kept secrets in Houston has been overlooked.
Overlooked by whom?
Here's what I posted on July 23:
While it is not an architectural landmark, the mysterious Marfreless lounge also resides in the Shepherd/West Gray shopping complex, and would presumably be affected by Weingarten Realty's big plans.
In addition to being eight days late, the Chron version also contains an editing error.
To paraphrase a longtime blogger, Advantage blogHOUSTON!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/06 06:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
30 July 2006
City of Houston Agenda 8-1-06
Once again, it's time to check up on our hirelings, and see what they're doing with the fine city we entrusted to them.
Readers are cautioned that I delete what I judge to be extraneous text, and often paraphrase in order to make the legalese a lot more readable; also that comments added are a mix of my own opinions, best guesses, snarking, and judgments, and therefore may not be entirely accurate. Such deletions may accidentally result in a key omission; if you wish to read the original text, please read the posted agenda on the city's website. Beginning with this week, I'm dropping the practice of including both the Tuesday and Wednesday date in the title; it's just confusing.
Public Comment, 8/1/06, 2 pm:
Citizens desiring to address the council must register in advance with the City Secretary.
This week, no fewer than nine people have signed up to speak to the council regarding the River Oaks Theater or shopping center. Nice to know that citizens understand what's important in Houston, and that preservation of old properties is definitely important. Even movie theaters and warehouses.
Action Meeting, 8/2/06, 9:00 am:
MAYOR’S REPORT - Charter Amendment Issues
I don’t know what this is about, but since the charter is essentially the constitution of the city, the most basic of laws governing Houston, we’d better pay close attention to this because it may mark an attempt to alter fundamentally some portion of the power balance in the city. Given the last few mayors' penchants for placing governance of the city into the hands of unelected and unaccountable boards and authorities, we should be watching this item. Given that it is at least two weeks before the minutes of any given council meeting appear, if the local media do not do their job of alerting citizens to questionable dealings at council, there's little chance most citizens will ever notice anything in a timely manner.
9:00 A.M. - Report from city controller and the city administration regarding the current financial status of the city including but not limited to, a revenue, expenditure and encumbrance report for the General Fund, all special revenue funds and all enterprise funds, and a report on the status of bond funds and a Quarterly Investment Report by the City Controller
Head below the fold for the rest. There are some interesting items in there, as always.
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 07/30/06 11:34 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Alvarado fails to raise level of sanctuary debate
Councilmember and temporarily-former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado decided to try her hand at blogging on Friday, and her post at Charles Kuffner's blog is quite a debut.
Here are a few choice excerpts from Alvarado's blog post criticizing those who favor ending the sanctuary directive issued by Houston's police chief in 1992:
The goal is not to make our city safe from the supposed scourge of illegal immigration, nor is to help the police solve crime. The goal is to increase turnout at the polls among this thin slice of voters - turnout that supporters calculate will benefit one political party over another.
I like to call this scapegoat politics. In scapegoat politics, you designate a certain group of people as somehow inherently evil and responsible for all the ills facing society. You then persuade your targeted voters that they must rush to the polls to support a ballot item that will eliminate this scourge and, while they're at it, vote for certain candidates who are on the right side of this pressing issue.
In 2005, Republicans did this with the Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage in Texas. To this day I do not believe the Republican leadership gives one whit about gays who might wish to enter into legally binding monogamous relationships but by scapegoating monogamous gays they were able to persuade numerous conservative voters to come to the polls who might otherwise have stayed home.
This year, in Houston, the scourge of the moment is the illegal immigrant. And, let's be honest, it's not the illegal Canadian or British or French immigrant. It's the illegal Latino immigrant (the one that doesn't sufficiently "look" American). There is no need to have a real debate about the issues facing our community when you can persuade people that our crime and our economic challenges are all a result of our tolerance of this evil group and if we just get tough on them our city will, once again, be the land of milk and honey.
For evidence of just how cynical this is I need only to look to my immediate left when I am sitting at the City Council table. There sits an elected city council member who has long been either neutral or even somewhat sympathetic to the city's immigrant population. Suddenly, she is one of the most ferocious supporters of this petition drive. It is merely a coincidence, she says, that her position radically changed at the same time that she was launching a bid for Congress the success of which requires the support of the very same people who will be inspired by this anti-Latino anti-immigrant effort.
So, folks who profess to want something done about illegal immigration are just intolerant, racist Republicans, akin to opportunistic homophobic Republicans! And one such Republican is a particularly naughty word!
After that nasty vitriol, Councilmember Alvarado (or whatever communications consultant who might have been the shadow writer) concludes:
I firmly believe our community should be engaged on the issue of illegal immigration and members of the community from all perspectives should be working together to discuss and debate it. But that is not the debate we have today.
Sorry, Councilmember Alvarado, but insinuating that those who support positions you oppose are racists, homophobes, and political opportunists isn't exactly raising the level of debate.
If Councilmember Alvarado were serious about a debate over the sanctuary directive issued by the police chief in 1992, then she could encourage Mayor White to bring the policy to Council for a conversation among our elected officials and interested members of the community. But neither she nor Mayor White appear interested in that, preferring instead to hide behind a directive crafted by the police chief in 1992 (which seems like a long time ago). Indeed, Mayor White actually seems to be channeling Councilmember Alvarado's rhetoric in an AP story posted at Chron.com today:
Mayor Bill White and police department officials deny Houston is a sanctuary city, saying officers will arrest anybody, including illegal immigrants, as needed. But White added that officers would be diverted from priority calls if they had to check the citizenship status of every person they dealt with.
"People are frustrated about the lack of a federal policy on immigration," he said. "But citizens should not allow their frustration on this issue to handcuff our law enforcement so they cannot respond to the complaints of citizens."
As explained several days ago when Councilmember Alvarado complained that ending the sanctuary policy would "tie the hands" of law enforcement, the more appropriate characterization would be that removing a ban on citizenship inquiries by police officers is untying their hands, or taking off the handcuffs. Whoever is crafting the rhetoric for these two Democratic nonpartisan municipal officials really needs to rework that comparison, which keeps falling flat.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/06 11:04 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (38)
The CTC is standing tall for Greenway landowners
Last week the Chronicle's Tom Manning filed this story on the final Metro University line meeting:
Tuesday's third and final public meeting on the Metropolitan Transit Authority's revised options for the University Rail Line did little to bridge the gap between advocates for a Richmond Avenue line and its opponents.
[snip]
Metro has faced strong opposition to the plan from business owners and residents who live along Richmond west of Shepherd, most notably residents of Afton Oaks, just west of the Loop. While a crossover at Greenway Plaza or other locations would keep the line from traveling through Afton Oaks along Richmond, those opposed to having any portion of the line run along Richmond remained vocal Tuesday.
Metro plans show that eight properties along the route would be absorbed into the project, with 82 other instances of right of way widening.
Daphne Scarborough, who owns a business in the 2000 block of Richmond just east of Shepherd, said the Mobility Coalition for Quality of Life polled 204 residents and business owners along Richmond between Main Street and Shepherd, and that 200 of them opposed a Richmond line.
[snip]
Christof Spieler, a board member of the Citizens Transportation Coalition, a group that has supported the Richmond rail line concept, said that while a Greenway Plaza crossover may seem like a logical crossover spot, the line would better serve the Plaza if it remained on Richmond past it to the tracks.
"If you want to truly serve the Greenway Plaza area, you've got to go (along Richmond) to the railroad tracks," he said. "Landowners in the Greenway area want it on Richmond."
If that's the standard, then residents of The Woodlands should be able to overrule Heights residents, in the ongoing I-45 widening debate, right? And those who hanker for the Grand Parkway's F-2 segment to be completed so their trip between Katy and The Woodlands will be a breeze, should be given the final say over any objections Spring residents might have.
As for Metro's eminent domain plans, how many of those "right of way widening" opportunities will practically destroy the property? If the main part of the property is a business and Metro takes the front parking lot for "right of way widening," what does that do for the business's future?
Maybe folks who are outraged about what might happen to the River Oaks Theater could get a little worked up about what surely will happen to businesses along Richmond. And the trees, too.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/30/06 07:59 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
Campbell: Acrimony between Chief, officers nothing new
Chronicle reader representative James Campbell expands on an earlier blog post in his weekly column for the Chronicle today:
LONGTIME residents of Houston have seen this dance before: Mayor hires a new police chief — Harold Hurtt — from out of town. On arrival, the new chief and the police union join hands for a brief chorus of Kumbaya and pledge cooperation in the interest of maintaining law and order and keeping the citizenry safe from the bad guys.
Then the honeymoon ends. Katrina happens and brings New Orleans' bad to mix with our bad. Crime seems out-of-control — or at least, in some areas. Manpower is lacking. The already sagging officer morale sours more when the chief issues a decree that has more to do with professionalism than fighting crooks. The backbiting starts. The union claims the troops have no confidence in the chief. The chief claims the union's charges are unfounded, and so on and so on ... To borrow a Yogi-ism, "It's déjà vu all over again."
The rest of the article recaps past tension between police chiefs and officers in Houston, with the implication that the current acrimony is nothing new.
The one thing missing from the column is any assessment of the past performance of the Chronicle editorial board, which has been strongly supportive of the current bumbling police chief and runs an editorial today that parrots Chief Hurtt's comments from a few days ago (it doesn't take into account the Chief's new babysitter, since that happened on Friday afternoon and "today's" editorial was surely written by then). Has the editorial board been as supportive of other police chiefs under fire? That would have been a handy addition to Campbell's column.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/06 04:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
How about a look at the Chronicle's property tax appraisals?
Today Rick Casey looks at Mayor White's efforts to get local refineries to pay more property taxes:
More than a year ago [Mayor White] came to the conclusion that refineries in the area were very undervalued and began discussing with appraisal district officials the reasons. He said he found them to be "hardworking and honest" but understaffed.
What's more, the big oil companies with virtually unlimited budgets had them outgunned in legal talent and testifying experts when disputes ended up in court.
White and Robinson worked out a strategy. Part of it was for White to arrange meetings with top executives of the companies.
"Top executives will meet with the mayor of Houston," Robinson said. "They send a lower level to meet with the chief appraiser."
[snip]
The appraisal district and Shell did come to an agreement last week. Shell refining facilities in Harris County will jump 64 percent in taxable value, from $586 million to $960 million.
Bettencourt estimated that will raise Shell's property taxes between $9 million and $10 million. He said if the other four companies reached similar settlements, local governments will receive about $50 million in new revenues.
Two notes:
1. Wouldn't it be great for local homeowners and small business owners if Mayor White was doing this to help relieve their escalating property tax burden? But we know that's not the reason for these arm-twisting meetings. Local little folks will not see any property tax relief, but Harris County/Houston will see more tax revenue.
2. For Casey's next column, he and his research assistant should check into the Houston Chronicle's property valuations. We've heard rumors for a while now that the Chronicle breaks out its big legal guns at appraisal time, and has been successful at fighting its appraisals. Maybe Mayor White can arrange a meeting with Jack Sweeney and Jeff Cohen to reach an agreement.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/30/06 11:15 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
29 July 2006
Chron neighborhood section recaps crimefighting-by-acronym initiatives
Jennifer Friedberg's recent article for a Chronicle neighborhood section was inadvertently amusing for its recap of MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's various crimefighting-by-acronym initiatives:
The first phase of STOP began in early June and lasted about eight days. Uniformed overtime officers were in marked vehicles, patrolling the streets.
Phase two is now under way. Overtime officers patrol hot spots and run warrants on suspects.During a journey through some of the more dangerous apartment complexes in the area earlier this month, officer Edgar DeJesus of the Fondren Patrol Division said he has noticed the streets have been quieter since the programs started.
"It's zero tolerance to let people know we're out there and we're not going away," he said.
The problem, DeJesus said, is the programs are not a long-term solution.
"Once you clean up one side, they go to the next one," he said. "They just go elsewhere to do whatever mischief they're going to do and come back home."
The other three overtime programs that began earlier this year are the Crime Reduction Initiative, where uniformed and undercover personnel patrol the southwest corridor; a Neighborhood Enforcement Team Task Force, where patrol divisions deployed personnel to respond to calls for service; and a Unified Neighborhood Enforcement Team Task Force, where tactical teams worked with investigative personnel such as the homicide and robbery units.
The initiatives don't have an end date, Cannon said. HPD recently received $18 million in federal funding that will help pay for the overtime.
Let's not leave out the Fear Reduction Initiative or the Crime Van.
If MayorWhiteChiefHurtt don't exactly have the city's bad guys on the run with the acronyms, just wait till they break out Hooked on Phonics for the next wave of crimefighting!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/06 02:28 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Local media ignore gaffe by Quannel the Tenth
One of the reasons we like KRIV-26 reporter Isiah Carey's blog is that Carey dishes out information as news is being made, instead of either holding it for his reports (not yet available online) or having it never see the light of day because of editing.
He recently posted on Quannel the Tenth, who consistently gets local media and law enforcement to jump when he snaps his fingers:
Phones in newsrooms all over the city rang as Quanell X hit his speed dial. He told news managers that he had the man wanted in The Acres Homes serial killings. Every major news operation headed over to the 6500 block of W. Montgomery where X said the man was supposed to be hold up in a church. Quanell said everyone should get there before he calls HPD to come and get the suspect. When The Insite arrived the man Quanell X had identified as the serial killer was sitting in the church with HPD, Pastor Chris Wright and X. Crime scene and more detectives later arrived. A reporter who was also on the scene then announced this wasn't the guy.
[snip]
X was wrong even though the man looked a whole lot like the sketch that has made its rounds in the area. But missing was the bald head and the scales of justice on the suspects arm. The man had a lot of tattoos but no scale of justice. Then when the detectives from HPD confirmed they didn't believe that was the man - the press conference by X changed. He said the man came forward because he and his family didn't want to be harassed by HPD anymore.
It sounds as if plenty of media types were there and could have reported on Quannel the Tenth's deception, which wound up wasting the time of media and law-enforcement professionals alike. However, the only reference to it I could find was this whitewash by KHOU-11's Jeff McShan:
Houston police have taken a DNA sample from another person of interest in the Acres Homes murders.
A crime scene unit with a camera and equipment for DNA testing arrived at an acres homes church late Thursday afternoon.
That’s where a man that police had been looking to question about the recent murders of six women agreed to meet with them.
The meeting was arranged by activist Quanell X.
“He understands that this sketch looks like almost his kissing twin brother if he ever had one, but absolutely this brother is saying its totally not him,” said Quanell X.
That's it. If a news consumer only saw that, and not Isiah Carey's background, it would change the impression quite a bit, no?
UPDATE: Jeff McShan emails the following:
Quannel X did NOT call our station to tell us he had the serial killer. He and Pastor Chris Wright told us that HPD had been looking to interview the guy for weeks and he was arranging the meeting. You called my story "whitewash" However - Isiah Carey's info about Quannel X calling KHOU to say he had the serial killer would be incorrect. I checked with HPD sources and they confirmed to me that they had been looking for this "person of interest." Unlike Isiah Carey at FOX26, we did not show the man's photo or mention his name to protect him. Just thought I would tell you what really happened. So Quannel X's statement that the man was most likely innnocent and wanted to talk with police to try and clear his name was correct. The man voluntarily gave up his DNA. In fact, to date, 24-men have come in and given DNA samples. No one has been arrested.
PREVIOUSLY: Who is Quannel X (Owen Courrèges, Chronically Biased).
BLOGVERSATION: Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/06 02:08 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Another FEMA deadline extended
Katrina evacuees enrolled in a program that pays their rent and utilities will now have more time to recertify for that housing assistance. As Houston Public Radio's Jack Williams reports, FEMA has extended a deadline three months in order to clear-up confusion.
The extension affects thousands of evacuee families in Houston who qualified for emergency housing assistance after last year's hurricanes. Typically, families have to prove that they're using the assistance money to pay their rent and utilities every three months in order to continue in the program. FEMA's Franchesca Ramos says many evacuees didn't realize they had to recertify.
"We understand that many people had July 31st and August 31st deadlines to recertify and we understand that this can create confusion for evacuee families on the different government programs, so we have provided this extended period to allow them time to provide to us the necessary documentation in order for them to recertify."
FEMA says thousands of evacuee families received letters informing them about the recertification requirements, but only about 10-percent responded. The agency feared that almost 30,000 evacuees would have to be recertified at the end of August, but because of the extended deadline, that's no longer the case.
(Professional sensitives should not read any further.)
Unbelievable. Evacuees were sent letters from FEMA telling them to recertify and 90% ignored the directives? So now they will get three more months to ignore more letters? How do they function if they can't follow basic directions?
Their rent and utilities will be paid through next February and we all know what will happen then -- another extension. How long will Houston have to provide a home for those who will not get jobs and support themselves? Even Mayor White's patience is running out (AP story via CBSNews.com):
Houston Mayor Bill White, standing beside newly re-elected New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, said evacuees could answer Nagin's plea to return home, or they were welcome to stay in Houston, if they got jobs.
And in Houston, finding a job just shouldn't be that hard:
Job counselor Ayodele Ogunye of WorkSource, the city's employment assistance program, said jobless evacuees complain about the overwhelming bus and rail systems that make navigation difficult, or the bureaucratic holdups like professional licenses that are invalid in Texas.
But some of it, Ogunye said, is in their heads.
The fear of a new hurricane season worried one of her clients so much that "it was like it set her back 10 months." Others do not know how to market themselves or lack confidence, which Ogunye thinks is traced to feelings of isolation in the "evacuee" corner of their apartment complexes, where no one socializes like their lifelong neighbors in New Orleans.
"I cannot help to wonder if (the unemployment) has anything to do with the uniqueness of the community," Ogunye said. "It seems like some have never had to make choices or decide for themselves."
This is what dependence on government will get you. It is not compassionate to continue to let taxpayers foot the bill for those who can do for themselves but refuse to do so. That is what fosters an entitlement mentality, and it does not promote self-worth.
Asked if there was any reason why a person who wanted a job in Houston could not find one, Ron Rodriguez, director of operations for WorkSource, said, "No."
That sentiment is shared at WorkSource's southwest office, where about seven of every 10 clients Ogunye meets is a Katrina refugee. The WorkSource building conspicuously stands out on a street of fast-food restaurants and strip malls, some with "Help Wanted" on the marquees.
Ogunye said "one does begin to wonder" why so many are still jobless after 10 months. Fellow counselor Melodie Lee was more blunt: "(Katrina) was awful, but let's move on. It is time you had a Plan B."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/29/06 08:17 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (4)
28 July 2006
HISD's Reach Out to Dropouts effort is August 26th
HISD is gearing up for its third annual Reach out to Dropouts walk:
Called "Reach Out to Dropouts," this year's door-to-door walk will be held Saturday, August 26. For the effort to be successful, the district needs both volunteers to participate in the walk itself and to assist with making telephone calls prior to the event.
The Reach Out to Dropouts walk is part of a continuing effort to support "expectation: GRADUATION," a citywide initiative to increase area graduation rates by visiting students who have not yet returned to class to persuade them to complete their studies and graduate.
A number of dedicated people and organizations participate in HISD's walk each year including Houston Mayor Bill White and his wife Andrea, and Houston A+ Challenge, a nonprofit education organization and the district's partner in the walk since its inception.
[snip]
During last year's walk, more than 700 students committed to return to school, and of the 1,311 students recovered throughout the remainder of the school year, more than 200 graduated in May.
For this year's walk, HISD will again step up its effort by increasing the number of participating campuses from 16 to 20 and attempting to recruit more than 2,000 volunteers.
Follow this link to HISD's press release for more information on how to get involved.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/28/06 08:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Mayor gives Chief Hurtt, Union a babysitter
The bad feelings between Chief Hurtt and the HPD officers' union continue to manifest themselves.
As noted in an earlier post this week, Chief Hurtt lashed out at the union survey that found fault with his leadership, claiming bias and complaining about the city's recently enacted revenue caps.
The head of the police officer's union responded by sending a letter to Chief Hurtt, as reported by the Chronicle's Anne Marie Kilday:
A letter this week to Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt from the president of the Houston Police Officers' Union strongly suggests the chief should resign.
HPOU President Hans Marticiuc blasted Hurtt in the letter Wednesday for expressing doubts about the scathing results of a recent union survey of 2,200 veteran officers.
In an interview Tuesday with the Houston Chronicle, Hurtt questioned the survey methodology and suggested it had "some biases." He also said he'd like to see a second survey conducted by a disinterested party.
Marticiuc agreed to Hurtt's idea for an independent third-party survey in his letter. But he asked: "If an independent survey, by a mutually agreed party, corroborated the lack of confidence among supervisors and first responders at HPD, would you agree to resign immediately as chief and leave HPD to pursue career opportunities in a department more suited to your abilities?"
The sentence Kilday used to set up that excerpt isn't quite right, since the suggestion is that Chief Hurtt should resign if a followup survey confirms the first survey's finding.
The Chronicle's Kristen Mack followed with a column today that's worth reading in its entirety. Here are some key excerpts:
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt is battling an increase in violent crime, open rebellion among union police officers and concerns surrounding his ties and commitment to the city [editor's note: a veiled reference to the Chief's trips to Arizona?]. The combination of the three has kept Hurtt in the cross hairs of his critics.
So far he still has the support of Mayor Bill White, at whose pleasure he serves, and the sharpest barbs are coming from the union, which not surprisingly is often at odds with police management.
Still, the appearance that the top cop is in conflict with the ones on the street can't help the chief's job security when residents are worried about their own safety.
[snip]
Speaking with the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday, [Union chief] Marticiuc also had a message for White: "The mayor, though I consider him a friend and ally, needs to pay attention. He has to take some responsibility."
[snip]
The union is part of the city political fabric. It gives campaign donations to city officials it deems "friendly incumbents," executive director Mark Clark said.
Hurtt, by contrast, is a bureaucrat who has not shown much political acumen under fire.
As if to prove the point, the conclusion of Mack's column is a quote from the Chief that demonstrates his lack of political acumen:
He said he is not going to address the union's survey specifically until he is furnished with a copy of officers' individual responses.
"I'm disappointed. I thought they would have been more professional. The character they displayed is not what I would have expected," Hurtt said of the union, while facetiously acknowledging, "when I was a police officer, I was a much better chief than I am today."
I'm not even sure what that last fragment means (feel free to interpret it for me in the comments), but it doesn't seem like a good idea to blast the rank and file because they filled out a survey honestly.
Finally, since the Mayor's press shop is adept at burying news that he prefers to avoid on Fridays, we learn today from KTRK-13's Miya Shay that Mayor White has appointed a babysitter for the Chief and the Union:
Now Mayor Bill White has stepped in to try to get Hurtt and the union to work things out. Some city leaders are calling the ongoing battle between the chief and the union a growing distraction. So in a move to try to bring both sides together Mayor White has appointed an independent liaison, hoping to find some middle ground.
"Mayor White called me, and asked me if I would help bringing a better understanding between Chief Hurtt and the Houston police officer's union," said Mike Nichols.
Nichols last worked on the police pension problem. The corporate executive says he believes he can effectively bring both sides to some sort of an agreement. The union is skeptical, but willing to try.
If Mayor White were really serious about appointing a babysitter who would scare the two sides into "better understanding," he might have considered Andrea Yates!
BLOGVERSATION: Isiah Carey's Insite (I, II).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/06 08:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
New director chosen for MediaSource
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that Houston MediaSource has hired a new director:
Fred Fichman, who has experience in both public and corporate television, was selected last week to lead the nonprofit that manages the operation.
Scheduled to begin his new job Aug. 28, Fichman will inherit an organization plagued last year by complaints over a few programs with nudity and profanity. Channel officials also have seen cuts in their budget and decline in staff morale.
Fichman, 59, said Thursday he's eager to start the new job and isn't focused on past controversies.
"I'm looking forward to meeting everybody, all the stakeholders — the people who approve the budget and the people who have contact with MediaSource," he said. "I would like to see it used as a resource for them."
Stiles informs that he's working on a profile of Fichman for next week.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/06 07:08 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)
27 July 2006
Houston's a selling point for Austin's red light cameras
Austin city councilmembers are discussing how to get red light cameras operating in their city. Here's one selling point:
Council members say traffic enforcement cameras are being used in other Texas cities like Houston and Plano and are effective.
That's some high-quality journalism, courtesy of KXAN!
What's the definition of effective? How much revenue is generated, no doubt. And how long would a city's cameras need to have been operating for them to be called effective? Er, no longer than the trial run, apparently, since that's about all Houston's done so far.
I imagine someone in Austin (Austin's police chief, perhaps?) called someone in Houston (Houston's police chief, perhaps?) and Houston's go-to person praised the (trial run) cameras' effectiveness. Why, red light running is a thing of the past here in Houston, thanks to the (trial run) cameras!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/27/06 08:24 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)
Editing errors make reporters look bad
One of those pesky "editing errors" has reared its head again in the Chron's Corrections box:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority is considering routes along Elgin, Alabama and Wheeler for the eastern segment of its University light rail line. Because of an editing error, a story on Page B5 on Wednesday stated incorrectly that Metro prefers one of the routes.
The correction is for this part of a three-reporter story:
Debate focuses on whether the segment west of Main should run on Richmond or Westpark or both, and whether the eastern leg should be on Wheeler or Alabama. While Metro has not committed to any route, officials say they prefer using Richmond and Wheeler, which are different ends of the same thoroughfare.
Did Metro protest the story? Did Third Ward residents? What about the reporters? It certainly would not be the first time a Chron reporter has been on the wrong end of some editing "help."
UPDATE: The story to which the correction refers was incorrect in an initial version of this post. The reference has been updated.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: That's odd. The three reporters on this story are good ones, so it's hard to imagine them mischaracterizing quotes from METRO officials. This is another of those instances where the correction really doesn't shed much light on what was wrong.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/27/06 07:28 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
USA Today notices Chron's lack of Olympics coverage
Amusing: USA Today's On Deadline blog has a post about how the newspapers in cities contending for the 2016 Olympics handled yesterday's news:
[...]as articles in Chicago (Tribune story, Sun-Times story), Los Angeles (Times story) and San Francisco (Chronicle story, Examiner story) find joy over their 2016 Olympic bids advancing to the next round of consideration, papers in Philadelphia and Houston have bad news to report. Their bids are dead, failing to make the U.S. Olympic Committee cut.
The Philadelphia papers, the Daily News and the Inquirer, lead their joint Philly.com site with the story this morning. "Reading between the lines, it's clear that our international reputation was our main flaw," the cochair of the local organizing committee tells the Inquirer. "And it was the one thing we had no capacity to address in the time frame that was available." A sidebar talks to fans and finds them naming "crime, congestion, and lack of amenities" as reasons their city didn't go further.
[snip]
Meanwhile, in Houston, there's zero mention of the news right now of the Chronicle's link-packed homepage. The Chronicle's print-edition gives the story a tease at the very bottom of its front page.
The inside story takes a procedural tone: "Houston's elimination hinged on the fact that, based on the USOC's survey of 58 members of the International Olympic Committee and 42 leaders of international sports federations, it lags badly behind Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco as a perceived center for international sports."
That paragraph is one of only a few that ask why Houston lost out.
Ahhh, our beloved Chronicle. USA Today's blogger, Patrick Cooper, might like to know that the Chron doesn't rush into these things willy nilly. Editorial decisionmaking at Houston's Daily Information Source is like wine -- it needs to age.
And don't even get us started on the editorials. News isn't editorial-worthy until it's olds. Senior citizen olds!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/27/06 05:45 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
26 July 2006
Chron headline writers strike again
The Chronicle is running an AP story with the following headline:
Here's the lede:
Allowing another Republican candidate to replace former Rep. Tom DeLay on the November ballot would promote voters' interest by giving them a choice, GOP attorneys argued today to a federal appeals court.
In short, the headline doesn't match the story. Republicans were arguing that the party should be allowed to replace DeLay on the ballot.
The erroneous headline must have been supplied by the AP, because other state newspapers ran with it. One would have thought an editor at the Chronicle might have caught the error, though, given the location of the district.
UPDATE (07-27-2006): Cheers to KPRC-2 for getting the headline right on their newly redesigned site, and cheers to the KHOU news blog for getting it right. Chron.com has not bothered to correct its erroneous headline.
UPDATE (07-27-2006, 2:40 pm): The Chronicle finally corrected the headline.
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Safety Forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/26/06 10:11 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
The Press likes Cohen
The campaign of Democrat Ellen Cohen must be very pleased with the fawning coverage Cohen gets in this Houston Press article (contrasted with the negative coverage of incumbent State Representative Martha Wong).
The article also includes a very positive assessment of Cohen's chances by none other than Houston bicyclist Bob Stein:
"Like the Spanish Civil War," Stein says, "this may be the race the people watch to see if Democrats can break through in Harris County."
"At the rate Cohen is going," he adds, "I think she has much better than a chance of winning."
It's an urban, largely inner-loop, swing district that could very well go to the Democrat, but it's not necessarily a barometer for Harris County.
Bicyclist Stein's political affiliation is not mentioned in the article.
BLOGVERSATION: Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/26/06 09:33 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (5)
NYC has the solution to Houston's "explosive crime situation"
KUHF-88.7 ran a story yesterday about Houston Police Officers Union President Hans Marticiuc asking Mayor White and City Council to referee a meeting between the union and HPD Chief Harold Hurtt. This, of course, was a result of the union's survey which showed a large number of HPD officers don't have confidence in Chief Hurtt's leadership.
City Council members suspended the time rules and held a lengthy discussion over Marticiuc's request. Councilmember Shelley Sekula-Gibbs came to the chief's defense, saying the complaints from the officers are probably due to stress from difficult situations which started before Hurtt was hired.
"But now we're looking at having six new police cadet classes, we're trying to reinvigorate and reinfuse quality individuals into your department and take some of the stress off, because I can only imagine what's going on where you're having 300-400 too few officers to take care of this explosive crime situation that we have. So I can imagine that that would be also a morale buster."
You know, HPD's manpower shortage was not a secret. For years there have been warning signs that HPD was going to get hit hard with retirements -- warning signs that Chief Hurtt failed to act upon. Acting as though Chief Hurtt has had no time to address the problem is downright dishonest.
Whatever. The hot air that comes out of City Hall...
On a very related reading note: the latest City Journal has a very interesting story by Heather MacDonald about why New York City's crime rate keeps dropping. DROPPING!
The dimensions of New York’s crime rout are breathtaking. From 1990 to 2000, four of the seven major felonies—homicide, robbery, burglary, and auto theft—dropped over 70 percent. Crime fell across the country during this period, but in New York it plummeted at twice the national average. By 2000, New York’s crime profile looked more like that of a small suburb than a big city, notes University of California sociologist Frank Zimring, whose forthcoming The Great American Crime Decline is the only major study so far that acknowledges the significance of the city’s crime turnaround. Gotham’s homicide rate in 2000 was half that of the big-city average; its robbery rate, which started out 50 percent higher than that of other big cities in 1990, was 10 percent below the average.
The national crime decline flattened out as the new century began. Some cities that were darlings of the media and the criminologists in the nineties have seen sharp increases in murder. Boston, lauded by the New York Times and others as the kinder, gentler corrective to New York’s allegedly overaggressive policing approach, has suffered its highest murder rate in a decade this year. Milwaukee and Memphis had double-digit homicide spikes in 2005. Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, and Kansas City are also seeing their nineties crime gains erode.
Not New York. From 2000 to 2005, the city’s crime rate fell another 30 percent.
What accounts for New York City's success?
That difference is policing. Throughout the nineties, critics of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the assertive policing that he championed [see here for description of Broken Windows policing] tried to explain away the New York crime turnaround as a mere reflection of the national crime picture. That effort wasn’t persuasive then and has been even less so since 2000.
Community policing is singled out as especially ineffective. And who's a big proponent of community policing? Houston's own Chief Hurtt, of course!
For once, maybe Houston SHOULD look to New York City. A continually dropping crime rate is very world-class!
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The Chronicle reports that the increasingly befuddled police chief has tried to change the topic, with clumsy talking points:
Hurtt said questions still remain, however, about the manner in which the survey was conducted.
"I think there were some biases as far as the presentation," Hurtt said.
[snip]
The shortage of officers on the street, Hurtt said, is a major morale issue for the department.
"We realize that we need to hire new people. We started that process, and we're very aggressive," he said.
As the city continues to grow, however, Hurtt said HPD will be hard-pressed to continue adding officers under a 2004 cap that limits the overall increase in city revenue.
"You can't do that," Hurtt said. "I think we have legislated ourselves into a position that's impossible for us."
The presentation didn't seem to be a problem, but there may be some sampling issues. Very well. If the Chief thinks he has the money to commission another survey, then by all means commission another survey. Speaking of money...
As for the 2004 cap -- We know that the Mayor now opposes the revenue cap that he once thought was a very clever way to blunt a citizens' revenue-limitation referendum. As the city's top elected leader, he should make that argument himself, instead of sending his befuddled police chief out to scare citizens. MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's questionable priorities on spending/policing are much more of a concern than the revenue-limitation measures.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/26/06 08:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (13)
KTRH: No 2016 Olympics for Houston
KTRH-740 just reported that Houston's bid for the 2016 Olympics didn't make the cut.
San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago remain in the running.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/26/06 04:10 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (11)
Yates: Not Guilty
Andrea Yates was just found not guilty by reason of insanity.
This is an obligatory acknowledgment sort of post, because I'm honestly sick to death of this topic.
So, we'll have an open-comments thread. For those of you interested in and following this topic, what do you think?
Please play nice with each other, the blogHOUSTON way. :)
UPDATE: Dissonance seems tired of the media circus as well.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/26/06 12:08 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (35)
25 July 2006
KTRH: Councilmembers balk at Bromwich funding request
Back in June, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported that some members of City Council were balking at the latest request for funding from Michael Bromwich, who is heading the investigation of the HPD crime lab.
Today, KTRH-740's Brent Fuller reports that Bromwich has suspended his work while a City Council committee considers the request for funding:
The independent investigator looking into decades of problems at the Houston Police Department's troubled crime lab is asking for an additional $1.5 million to finish his work.
If approved by Houston City Council, that amount would roughly double what was first approved for Michael Bromwich's review. It would bring the total cost of the investigation to $5.3 million. As of today, Bromwich said he'd spent $3.6 million, and has about $200,000 left in the bank. That's not enough to finish the job, so Bromwich has temporarily stopped his probe of the lab.
"We decided the prudent thing to do would be to cease work for now until we could see where this was going, and make intelligent decisions about where to go next," said Bromwich.
Fuller's lengthy story goes on to note that some councilmembers continue to balk at Bromwich's request for funds.
While costs have certainly spiraled beyond initial estimates, the Bromwich team seems to be doing an extremely thorough job that needs to be done. The city ultimately isn't going to have much choice but to approve his final funding request, however much posturing is done in committee.
UPDATE (07-26-2006): Alexis Grant covers the story for the Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/25/06 11:34 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Pray if you like, but also put together a hurricane kit
The Chronicle's Alexis Grant reports on a Third-Ward community initiative to help prepare the community for emergencies:
It may have been fun, but the drill behind a community center in south Houston had a serious purpose: to let members of the Third Ward's Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, practice using a fire extinguisher so they would know how in an emergency.
More people are becoming familiar with the CERT acronym in Harris County, where the number of volunteers has doubled since last year, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and Hurricane Rita threatened Houston.
Through the federally funded program, neighbors organize into teams and attend a free, eight-week course to learn how to respond to emergencies.
"This program is about being able to take care of yourself and the people around you so you don't become a statistic or part of the problem," said Regina Chapline, manager of Texas Citizen Corps, which includes CERT and several other volunteer programs.
Professional fire and EMS workers teach members hands-on skills, such as basic first aid, light search and rescue and fire suppression. Volunteers also prepare mentally for man-made and natural disasters, and learn how to organize a group should a catastrophe strike.
The purpose is to make communities self-sufficient if they become cut off from emergency personnel and to teach them how to cooperate once professionals arrive on the scene.
A recent survey completed by researchers at Texas Southern University suggests that the city's African-American population isn't buying into such efforts:
Blacks living in Houston are far more likely to count on faith for protection this hurricane season than government agencies that most blacks see as dishonest and unprepared, according to a university study released today.
Eighty-three percent of blacks surveyed believe the city is only somewhat or poorly prepared to handle an ordeal such as Hurricane Katrina, the aftermath of which led Texas Southern University to conduct the telephone poll of 404 blacks in Houston.
Fifty-six percent of those polled said they don't trust the government to tell the truth about disasters, while 55 percent said they believe the government uses disasters as an excuse to remove the poor and minorities from their neighborhoods.
But when asked whether God would protect them from harm if a hurricane hit Houston, nearly eight in 10 of blacks surveyed said they believed that was true.
Not to downplay the role of God or the government, but neither one is a good substitute for a hurricane kit, planning ahead, and a little old-fashioned self-sufficiency.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/25/06 11:20 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Alvarado defends sanctuary policy
Councilmember and temporarily-former-Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado was able to speak to reporters yesterday, instead of using her spokesperson, on the topic of the city's sanctuary policy:
Nearly a month after a Houston group announced a petition drive to require a citywide vote on whether city police should be able to question people about their immigration status, leaders in the Hispanic community gathered Monday evening to discuss how to thwart those efforts.About 200 elected officials, organization representatives and residents strategized at downtown's Communications Workers of America Union Hall under Councilwoman Carol Alvarado's leadership.
"I do find it very ironic that a group called Protect Our Citizens basically is trying to tie the hands of our police officers and make it less safe for all of us," said Alvarado, who asked the dozens of organizations represented there to pass resolutions opposing the change in policy.
Wouldn't the order of the police chief in 1992 (Sam Nuchia) that forbids officers from inquiring about immigration status technically be tying the hands of police officers? Wouldn't lifting the order of the police chief in 1992 be the equivalent of untying their hands, technically? Maybe temporarily-former-Mayor Pro Tem Alvarado should let her spokesperson handle her speaking duties full-time.
Substantively, if the order of the police chief in 1992 is good policy, then why shouldn't Mayor White bring it before Council to reaffirm it? Aren't those the sorts of decisions that elected leaders should be making?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/25/06 10:49 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Third Ward residents oppose rail through TSU
Some Third Ward residents attended last night's Metro (New and Improved) Solutions meeting to protest Metro's desire to run light rail through the TSU campus (Rosanna Ruiz, Chronicle):
Dozens gathered around aerial maps at the Third Ward Multi-Service Center, which outlined the proposed paths of its University corridor rail line. Many were focused upon the plan to build a rail line from Wheeler to Scott, which requires reopening a portion of Wheeler on TSU's campus that was closed in 1984 and converted to a pedestrian mall, now known as "Tiger Walk."
"Wheeler was closed because students kept getting hit by cars," explained Gabrielle Green-del Bosque, a TSU student. "Students would have to cross the rail line to get to classes and I'm not too thrilled to have to wait on a train."
Wheeler is closed at Ennis, where the TSU campus begins, and reopens at Tierwester, on the east side, and continues to the University of Houston.
"The train line will destroy the sense of community that the closure of the street has generated inside the campus," TSU's acting president Bobby L. Wilson wrote in a letter to Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson. He also cited safety, noise and interference of ongoing campuswide renovation and landscaping projects as other reasons for the opposition.
Alabama and Elgin are also among the alternate streets also being considered for the east-west line, but only Wheeler, which becomes Richmond west of Main, would provide a direct connection.
Minister Robert Muhammad, of the Nation of Islam's southwest region and a TSU graduate, said a rail line would be beneficial to the Third Ward neighborhood, but he favors Alabama or Elgin as alternate routes rather than cutting through his alma mater.
After the new Metro Solutions plan was announced last year, Robert Muhammad wrote an op-ed for the Chronicle that denounced Mayor White and Metro officials for their arrogance in changing the original plan without consulting anyone in the affected communities:
Let me be clear, it is not just the revised rail plan, but the way the mayor and the Metropolitan Transit Authority communicated the rail plan changes to the community that opens them to criticism. The community's angst is rooted in what appears to be the arrogance of power.
The citizens of Houston elected White to be the mayor — not their father. The title of the popular television show was Father Knows Best — not mayor, congressman or transportation planner knows best. In his op-ed, Mayor White stated, in the future tense, that he and Metro will listen to the community and will explain the transit plan to them. If the listening and explaining would have been in the past tense, the mayor and Metro would not find it necessary now to be defensive about the plan.
Similar to the fallout from the implementation of the Safe Clear program, it appears that the community is a public policy afterthought with White's administration.
That's basically how Mayor White operates. When he wants something, he makes it happen, no matter what. It would appear from today's Chronicle story that Mayor White has smoothed things over with Muhammad, and if Metro takes Wheeler off the table, Third Ward opposition may fade away.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/25/06 06:30 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (10)
Is the city cranking up the Spur 527 revenue stream?
As Spur 527 was slowly re-opened, the speed limits were set at 35 mph on the road. Back at the end of May, project engineer Quincy Allen told the Chronicle's Rad Sallee that speed limits would be raised in short order:
Lee Hudman and Ed Truitt wondered about the 35-mph speed limits posted on the new Spur 527. Hudman said they are too low, and Truitt said the bus he was riding in had to "undertake some quick lane-changing to avoid a rear-end collision" when a driver ahead apparently saw the speed sign and slowed down.
The 35-mph limit was just for the construction period and new signs should be posted this week, said Quincy Allen, TxDOT engineer on the project. The initial plan was to set a 45-mph limit where the spur lanes exit onto Brazos and Bagby and a 55-mph limit elsewhere, Allen said, but that will be lowered to 50 mph for safety.
As far as I can tell (and I take the Spur almost every day), all of the old 35 mph speed limit signs are still in place, over two months later.
That's relevant, because immediately upon exiting the Spur onto Louisiana a little after 4 pm today, I encountered an HPD officer with a radar gun. I was going well under 50 mph at that point, but was probably somewhat over 35 mph. He didn't seem concerned, but he motioned the next car over. I thought about going back to take some photos, and then decided to leave well enough alone.
I've emailed Rad Sallee, who is very good about getting answers to these sorts of questions, and asked him if he can find out what HPD considers the speed limit there: the posted 35 mph limit, or the 50+ mph limit that the Chronicle publicized. Obviously, it's a confusing situation. I'll post any information that Sallee passes along.
In the meantime, if you travel that stretch of road, be aware that HPD is now watching speeds.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/25/06 04:53 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
24 July 2006
City of Houston Agenda 7-25(26)-06
It's time for the weekly City of Houston Council Agenda post, and it's the first one to appear here at blogHOUSTON! There was no council meeting last week, so I was able to devote more time to the Danger Train outing, then goof off for the rest of the week (Sorry all, I got a little burned out, and still am). No rest for the weary though; I'm back with more!
Readers are cautioned that I delete what I judge to be extraneous text, and often paraphrase in order to make the legalese a lot more readable; also that comments added are a mix of my own opinions, best guesses, snarking, and judgments, and therefore may not be entirely accurate. Such deletions may accidentally result in a key omission; if you wish to read the original text, please follow this link to the posted agenda. For a permanent link to the backup, go here.
This week, the RCA and backup were not available on Friday, so this post was delayed considerably. The agenda length is also backed up a bit, possibly due to the extra week off, and the backup ran some 210 pages, which is another reason I'm late with it.
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 07/24/06 10:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
It took three TXDOT representatives to say that?
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee investigated a reader complaint at the end of today's Move It column:
Speaking of Richmond, Dave Waltrip and Tracy Ferguson wondered when work on the road near the West Loop will end.
"In March they put up concrete barriers blocking out the inside lane going west," Waltrip said. "This was supposed to be for a month, according to the electronic sign.
"So each afternoon the traffic going west must squeeze down to three lanes, and it backs up. Work started in earnest, and they did repave two turn lanes. However weeks went by and no work was done. Now it is like they work on this project periodically."Ferguson also had a safety concern. "They have turned four lanes into three, two straight-ahead and one left-turn. Those in the left-turn lane seem to ignore the arrow and go straight ahead," she said.
Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Janelle Gbur says workers were installing a water line at the site when they ran into a storm sewer line not shown in the plans. "The unexpected utility and the work associated with it did extend the contract duration," she said.
TxDOT engineer Doug Stephens said the intersection is being repaved and should be finished by mid-August.
As to safety, TxDOT spokesman Norm Wigington said a traffic study indicates that "additional signage and lane modifications may be needed to enforce the mandatory left-turn lane."
Interestingly, as of this morning, TXDOT's solution was to steal another lane from Richmond and exacerbate the problem described by Sallee's correspondent (see photo). That was a curveball we didn't see coming after the comments from Gbur, Stephens, and Wigington.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/06 10:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Richmond/Westpark rail debate continues
Over the weekend, the Chronicle's Rad Sallee checked in on business owners along Richmond near Shepherd, who are opposed to METRO's plans to lay rail down their street (as opposed to Westpark, the street approved by voters in 2003). Here's an excerpt:
"According to the drawings Metro released last Tuesday, what you're seeing is an 86-foot right of way they will require — and that line is the edge of the street," said gallery owner Robert McClain.
He was pointing to a blue line on the driveway of McClain Gallery on Richmond between Kirby and Greenbriar. About 80 residents and business people from the neighborhood gathered there Friday for a rally and news conference.
If McClain was correct, construction of the line in the segment between Kirby and Main would not only take the median but also parts of some front yards, some trees, and some of the already reduced parking space in front of businesses, which owners say is needed for deliveries and customers.
"I can read a tape measure. All you have to do is measure the street, and (room to accommodate the rail) is not there," sald Daphne Scarborough, who operates the Brass Maiden, a metal design and fabrication shop.
When METRO officials assure Richmond stakeholders that all will be fine, and METRO has a plan that will preserve trees and existing traffic lanes and protect property owners, they are simply misleading the public, as these photos I took of the general area this weekend illustrate.
Of course, that's leaving aside the question of voters approving rail on Westpark, not Richmond. As Richmond rail critic Ted Richardson pointed out in an email over the weekend, that's an important question. Here is an excerpt of an email he sent to H-GAC (cc'ed to me and others) in response to recent rhetoric used by METRO to describe the METRO Solutions vote:
As I mentioned to you at the last TAC meeting on July 11, 2006, I take exception to [METRO executive vice president John] Sedlak's response to Mr. Crossley as recorded in the Minutes of the TAC, June 14, 2006, page 4, paragraphs 5 and 6.
In response to Mr. Crossley's question "about the mention of Westpark in relation to the University corridor"' in the ballot language, "Mr. Sedlak responded that the information on the ballot indicated the Westpark Corridor."
There is absolutely no support for that statement in the METRO NOTICE OF SPECIAL ELECTION, nor in METRO RESOLUTION NO. 2003-77, nor in the EXHIBITS - including the PROPOSITION and the BALLOT, and I formally challenge METRO to identify specific 2003 election language that supports the statement attributed to Mr.Sedlak.
The term used in the Special Election documents was "Westpark", and METRO is obviously attempting to translate "Westpark" to mean "Westpark Corridor or "travel corridor" which then opens their door to study "Richmond Avenue" as being located in what the NOI describes thusly: "The University Corridor extends approximately 10 miles east to west and includes the Greenway Plaza, the Uptown/Galleria, the University of Houston--Central Campus, the Texas Southern University, and the St. Thomas University areas."
"Westpark" does not mean "Richmond Avenue" and it never will!
Richmond rail enthusiasts can continue to contort themselves with "corridor" rhetoric, but the fact remains that voters approved rail on Westpark (and on North Hardy) in the 2003 vote. Over the weekend, the Editorial LiveJournalists tried to gloss over that fact:
It's time to replace heated rhetoric and scare tactics with a review of the facts regarding how best to secure the greatest good for the greatest number of Houston residents.
[snip]
Against the opposition of some residents who don't want to endure the construction, the new line offers a $1.2 billion economic boom that directly and indirectly will generate 60,000 jobs over six years — fully 10 percent of the Greater Houston Partnership's target of boosting employment by 600,000 in the same time period.
So, holding METRO to the promises it made to voters in the 2003 referendum is "heated rhetoric and scare tactics" in the view of the Houston Chronicle editorial board? That's typical. "Experts" and elitist editorialists surely know much better than those pesky voters, especially the poor, transit-dependent voters who helped push the referendum to victory.
As noted previously, more meetings on the proposed Richmond/Westpark rail line will be held this week:
A second meeting is set for 5-8 p.m. Monday, July 24 at the Third Ward Multi-Service Center, 3611 Ennis.
From 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, July 25, Metro's open house will be at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 5501 S. Main St.
UBU ROI ADDS: Chairman Wolff opens mouth, inserts foot; accusing residents of "stealing" land from the city. Basically, rail opponents noted that the edge of the pavement was actually not the legal edge of the city's right-of-way:
...governments can take part of "your" front yard without either condemnation proceedings or compensation if it wasn't really yours to begin with. Some lawns, driveways and parking areas extend onto what is in fact city property....So of course the question arose whether Metro was measuring these swaths from the edge of the current sidewalk or from the actual property line, which can be a much bigger bite.
Spokesman George Smalley indicated that they were measuring from the property line, not the pavement edge. And Wolff kicked in with an appropriately diplomatic remark.
"No adjoining property owner has any right to usurp public right of way for private purposes, and if taking something under misrepresentation, it is stealing public property."
So remember, the next time the city doesn't build a roadway right up to the very edge of your property line, you are automatically a thief if your driveway crosses public land to connect to the road. And don't let any blades of your grass get on the city's land! Clearly, people who actually put, you know, landscaping in this publicly-owned territory need to be doing hard time up in Huntsville. They certainly don't have any right to any of Mr. Wulff's, er, the taxpayers' property.
"One of the things we have to communicate is that public right of way belongs to you, it belongs to me, it belongs to all the taxpayers," he told the audience.
(Emphasis added --Ubu)
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Houstonist.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/06 11:03 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
Metro gives CEO Wilson undisclosed raise
This is what quasi-governmental agencies with unelected officials do:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority board voted Thursday to give President and CEO Frank Wilson a raise. But they wouldn't say how much.
[snip]
After the meeting, Wolff was asked why Metro would not reveal a matter of public record.
"I have to work out the final details with him," Wolff said. "The board authorized me to do that."
Asked whether a second vote will be held after the details are worked out, Wolff said it would not.
"It's pretty much done, but I can't give you the full details now," he said. "I will as soon as we have it."
Wolff noted that Wilson had been with Metro two years and did not receive a raise after his first year.
Before the vote, Wolff praised Wilson's "businesslike approach," noting among his accomplishments the cutting of unproductive routes in favor of better-used ones and his supervision of Metro's ambitious plans for light rail and transitway expansion.
Wilson earns $254,000 a year.
After the meeting, the Houston Chronicle filed a Texas open records request for details of Wilson's raise.
Do you think the Metro board talked with Terrence Wilson about Frank J. Wilson's "businesslike approach" to "cutting unproductive routes"?
Then there's Terrence Wilson, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident 24 years ago. Wilson, 49, depends on Metro buses and his motorized wheelchair to get around.
Because many streets in his Acres Homes neighborhood lack sidewalks, Metro built a concrete slab on the shoulder for his wheelchair, he said. But over the years, his regular bus was replaced with a circulating shuttle, and then Metro shortened that route. It no longer passes his home, and Wilson said he now rides his chair in the street for a risky 1 1/2 miles to reach the bus stop.
All for the sake of world-class trains.
Thanks to the Chronicle's Rad Sallee for his perseverance.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/24/06 05:55 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
23 July 2006
Quasi-governmental agencies laugh at public meetings
In the forum here, Neal Meyer comments on something that's been bugging me for awhile now: public meetings. What good are they, really?
We've all watched Metro go through the motions of public meetings, but with the exception of the Richmond Avenue line, Metro has shown no real inclination to adjust its plans to deal with public concerns. Will the poorer sections of town, that don't have the resources and influence of the Richmond Avenue property owners, be able force Metro to change its plans? Doubtful. And Metro probably isn't sweating those little blips on its radar.
At the Grand Parkway F-2 segment public meetings a couple of weeks ago, state Reps. Corbin Van Arsdale and Debbie Riddle demanded to know who in a decision-making capacity was present at the meetings. As they say, crickets chirped and tumbleweeds rolled by. The bigwigs who will determine what happens to the Spring neighborhoods scheduled for demolition weren't even there to hear the public's concerns!
And what about the public comments time at Houston City Council meetings or Harris County Commissioner's Court? Can you recall those elected officials ever actually listening to citizens' concerns and acting upon them?
I just fail to see the point of public meetings if officials can do whatever they want no matter what. Oh, you say, that's what the voting booth is for. But that doesn't apply to a quasi-governmental agency like Metro, whose officials are appointed, not elected. Same with the Harris County Houston Sports Authority. And the Grand Parkway's board is appointed by the Texas Transportation Commission (talk about out of reach!).
Something is seriously out of whack.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/23/06 07:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
Northside residents aren't happy with their new rail alignment
Yesterday Metro held a public meeting for its proposed North Corridor rail line, and not unlike the other proposed rail lines, there were protesters who are unhappy with Metro's New and Improved Metro Solutions.
Let's recall what northside residents voted for in 2003:
1. NORTH HARDY
**A. UH-Downtown to Northline Mall
B. Northline Mall to Greenspoint
C. Greenspoint to Bush IAH Airport
And let's look at what Metro wants to build instead, courtesy of the Chronicle's Anitra Brown:
The North Corridor alignment, part of transit provider's MetroSolutions plan to link routes throughout the city with light rail and bus rapid transit, would began [sic] at Metro's existing rail line at University of Houston Downtown and then either head north on Fulton to the Northline Mall or veer east to take Irvington Street north, turn left onto Cavalcade and then right on to Fulton, where it would continue to Northline.
The problem?
"We voted for North Hardy," said Moses Villalpando, president of the North Lindale Civic Association. "It never said North Main. It never said Fulton. It's going in front of our school. It's destroying our businesses."
The North Lindale Civic Association is especially opposed to the North Corridor alignment because both possible routes would ultimately bring the line down Fulton in front of Roosevelt Elementary, 6700 Fulton, where they say children's safety would be put at risk.
Ah yes. They voted for one thing and are getting something else. That has a familiar ring, doesn't it?
Now, let's look at all the prominent bloggers and citizens groups who are standing up for these residents and their concerns. You know, the same bloggers and activists who cry foul whenever a road project upsets a neighborhood or community. The same bloggers and activists who are coming to the defense of Richmond Avenue folks (not!).
Obviously, the point here is that if property owners' concerns should be considered when a TxDOT or HCTRA project is proposed, then the same should be true for those affected by Metro's rail projects. Consistency helps maintain one's credibility.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/23/06 05:02 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
Serial killer in Acres Homes area?
The city's news outlets have all been covering the story of a possible serial killer in the Acres Homes area, but KHOU-11 posted a particularly informative report on Friday:
During a press conference Friday authorities revealed more about the possibility a serial killer may be in the Acres Home area.
"This is a guy who seems like a decent man, on his initial approach and can be quite engaging. And then he'll turn it off very quickly and the encounter becomes quite brutal," said Assistant Police Chief Vicki King. The officer said, "The surviving victims have all described that he becomes like a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
King said the suspect threatened his victims with a weapon, usually a knife, then either sexually assault them and or rob them.
[snip]
Since January, the bodies of six women have been found in the area.
“These deaths have some very striking similarities,” said an HPD detective.All of the women were found outdoors in secluded areas, not far from each other.
"It shows you that it's not in one particular area. This guy can venture out," said an HPD homicide investigator.
Investigators said the three who had been identified so far were known prostitutes.
[snip]
Police said there may be more than one suspect.
He's described as having a scale of justice tattooed on his left forearm, but police caution, since the crimes have been comitted at night, the tattoo may be something different.
"The suspect is dark complected and it may not be the scales of justice. It may be the zodiac libra sign, or it may be something that resembles that," said Assistant Chief King.
King said it appears women in high risk life styles are the main targets.
The KHOU report also links to video of the HPD press conference, and includes composite sketches of the suspect.
KHOU reports today that a man arrested on a different charge yesterday was questioned in connection with the serial killings, and released.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/23/06 03:00 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Officers end crazy Friday chase with spike strips
On Friday, law-enforcement officers from several jurisdictions were involved in a high-speed chase that finally ended when officers took out the vehicle's tires with a spike strip, and the vehicle eventually went off the road (on tireless front rims) into a bayou:
The chase began around 2:45pm after the driver allegedly robbed a dry cleaning business in Pasadena.. Police said the driver fired shots at authorities after the robbery and allegedly threw a gun from the truck during the chase. About 20 or more police cars were involved in the pursuit.
During the pursuit, the driver often veered into oncoming traffic lanes, forcing other cars off roads to avoid collisions. The fleeing pickup scraped several cars, including at least one police cruiser, and stopped only briefly after hitting a red pickup's passenger side.
A 24-year-old woman and her 7-year-old son in the red pickup were not hurt, police said.
The chase spread from south Houston to Pearland and back, with the driver alternating between Highway 288, rural roads and finally the Sam Houston Tollway south of downtown Houston. At one point, the driver turned off Highway 288 and sped through a golf course before returning to the highway.
The chase ended at about 4:30 p.m. when the driver, who was northbound on the tollway near the Houston Ship Channel, left the roadway and drove into a creek.
Minutes earlier, police had managed to throw down spike sticks as the driver zipped through a toll booth. Shredded rubber fell off the front tires and the driver kept going on the metal rims until veering into the creek.
Former officer Tom Nixon got himself in trouble for criticizing HPD's no-ram policy on high-speed chases. Does anyone know if HPD's chase policy allows the use of spike strips, or if those were laid down by some other law-enforcement agency involved in the pursuit?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/23/06 02:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
Group: Three landmark buildings in danger of demolition
The Chronicle's Lisa Gray reports that several landmark buildings in the Shepherd/River Oaks area have been placed on a local preservation group's endangered list:
Three Houston landmarks, including the Landmark River Oaks Theatre and the Bookstop in the former Alabama Theater, have been declared endangered by the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance.
The alliance has learned, spokesman David Bush said Friday, that two buildings in the River Oaks Shopping Center could face demolition within two years.
The center is controlled by Weingarten Realty Investors, a Houston-based company that owns and manages about 300 retail properties in the southern United States.
A Weingarten spokeswoman would not confirm the company's plans for the shopping center.[snip]
But a half-dozen tenants of the River Oaks Shopping Center told the Houston Chronicle that a Weingarten's leasing agent informed them of plans to raze parts of the historic shopping center.
The first domino to fall, they said, would be the River Oaks Shopping Center building at the northeast corner of Shepherd and West Gray. Erected in 1937, the curved art deco building is "of national significance," architecture historian Stephen Fox said.
Three Brothers Bakery co-owner Robert Jucker said that when he confronted the leasing agent about rumors the building was to be demolished, she confirmed them, and told him that it would remain standing through the end of this year. "But she wouldn't give me that in writing," he said.
[snip]
A number of River Oaks Shopping Center tenants — including owners of Archway Gallery, Chase's Closet and Laff Stop — said that a Weingarten's leasing agent told them the Black-Eyed Pea building would be replaced with a multistory Barnes & Noble.
Archway is located near the River Oaks Theatre on the south side of West Gray. At a meeting with the gallery's owners in March, a Weingarten's leasing agent detailed the company's plans to tear down their entire building — including the theater — in early 2008, Archway co-owner Marsha Harris said.
Speculation (and it is important to stress that it is speculation at this point) is that if Barnes and Noble opened a two-story bookstore in a characterless revamped Shepherd/West Gray strip mall, then the corporation would likely shutter its Book Stop bookstore, an anchor of the Shepherd/Alabama shopping center that resides in the old Alabama movie theater, which would then endanger the survival of that landmark building.
While it is not an architectural landmark, the mysterious Marfreless lounge also resides in the Shepherd/West Gray shopping complex, and would presumably be affected by Weingarten Realty's big plans. Here's hoping that Weingarten can come up with some plan to preserve the character of these properties that still ensures a healthy return on their investment, because progress shouldn't always mean another lifeless strip mall.
BLOGVERSATION: Houstonist, Bayou City History, Off the Kuff, Mike McGuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/23/06 02:04 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Premature infant gets innovative, life-saving procedure
Since the life-denying power of Houston hospitals has been a topic of discussion from time to time, it's nice to see a story on the life-saving power of those hospitals. Here's an excerpt from Eric Berger's story for the Chronicle earlier this week:
Born two months premature, and weighing just 2 pounds, 8 ounces, Kaylin [Baker] had two defects in her aorta, the body's largest artery, which carries blood from the heart to the body.
Two narrowings, one in a valve leading from the heart to the aorta and the other farther down the line, were forcing the heart to work overtime to deliver blood throughout her tiny body. Without surgery, her doctors said, the heart soon would pump itself to death.
Then, said first-time parents Nancy and Chris Baker of Austin, a miracle happened.
Instead of cutting her chest open — a difficult procedure from which Kaylin might never recover — physicians at Houston's Texas Children's Hospital devised a daring, almost certainly never-before-tried procedure in a baby so small.
The rest of the story is here. It's a good read.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/23/06 09:45 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
22 July 2006
Chron: Choose the symphony (over TMI)
The Editorial LiveJournalists today argue that great cities must have great symphony orchestras, lest we all lapse into sloth:
To compete against movies, television, video games and other forms of popular entertainment, the Houston Symphony has added screens on which to project images of the musicians during their performance. It has engaged in marketing programs to bring young listeners to its graying, arthritic audience. It has leavened its core curriculum of 19th century Romantic compositions with scores from contemporary composers, some of whom show an acquaintance with melody and harmony.
In order to succeed, however, the symphony's efforts must be matched by a commitment from every Houstonian who views the performing arts as an essential part of an educated person's life and learning and a refuge from this era's galloping coarseness and vulgarity.
Well, if they're arguing that the Houston Symphony is an escape from the Chronicle's galloping coarseness and vulgarity, we certainly agree with the Editorial LiveJournalists!
Interestingly, the Symphony under Christophe Eschenbach's direction really established itself as a serious, up-and-coming orchestra among the elitists who carefully analyze such things. However, Eschenbach's embrace of the atonality of the Second Viennese School probably didn't win the symphony many younger adherents (it certainly didn't win me over). If James Howard Gibbons and crew are suggesting that the Symphony since Eschenbach's departure has reacquainted itself with melody and harmony, that's welcome news indeed.
BLOGVERSATION: Isolated Desolation.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/06 09:04 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (2)
Houstonist invites readers out for a beer
The crew at Houstonist wants to buy readers a beer:
We're working under the assumption that you haven't made plans for after work Wednesday, Aug. 2, yet (and that if you have, you're about to change them). Houstonist will be having our first happy hour that day — we're calling it "Happyist," because that's how we roll — and you're invited. Did we mention we're buying you drinks?
So, the details: Come by Poison Girl between about 6ish and 8ish, have a drink on our tab (until the tab runs out, that is) and meet us Houstonists.
Full details are on the Houstonist blog here.
We're thinking that Houstonist crew has the blog meetup marketing down. The Houston Metroblogging people have private blog meetups. We offer the possibility of the Danger Train crashing into participants. Houstonist will buy you a brew. We're guessing THAT may be the way to get folks out to these things!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/06 04:46 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (5)
21 July 2006
Chron: Free speech by Harris County GOP is "repugnant"
The Chronicle's Editorial LiveJournalists, who never shy away from offering an opinion on constitutional law (and sometimes create new treaties!), today have decided that it's wholly inappropriate for area Republicans to offer their opinion on constitutional law to the Fifth Circuit:
Unfortunately, some politicians seem to think an appeal to partisanship can influence how the federal courts rule.
A blatant example can be seen on the Harris County Republican Party Web site. It invites viewers to send a petition to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals jurists who will decide whether former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay must remain on the November ballot as the GOP candidate for the 22nd District. The petition declares, "Each day that goes by with Democrats perverting the process and denying the public their choice of candidates is a travesty of justice. This deliberate subversion undermines the will of the people and sets a horrible precedent for future elections."
The petition goes on to urge the justices to remove an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, a Republican appointee, keeping DeLay on the ballot. It also asks the court to declare the Republican ballot position officially vacant and allow district voters a fair choice of candidates.
The notion that judges can be influenced by a partisan petition is repugnant to the concept of an independent judiciary.
Apparently, the Editorial LiveJournalists have never heard of the "switch in time that saved nine" (we will spare readers a long digression about the majority's horrible decision, and Justice Sutherland's brilliant dissent, in West Coast Hotel v. Parrish). And, apparently, free speech is for the Editorial LiveJournalists, but not for Republicans, who might threaten the very existence of the American regime by expressing a political opinion! On a petition. The horror!
Honestly, efforts to influence the federal judiciary through political rhetoric (or other activism) have a long history, and this student of American political thought doesn't view it as any kind of particular threat to the regime. Indeed, political speech -- even political speech by people other than condescending newspaper editorialists -- is sort of a foundation of the regime.
That said, it's long been my view that the online petition is one of the least efficacious forms of political participation, because it's generally more about making the participant "feel" better than effecting some political outcome. For the Harris County GOP, though, such participation is highly efficacious, since it helps to build their contact list (for fundraising) and rile up the base. With their latest ill-informed venture into American constitutionalism today, the Editorial LiveJournalists inadvertently helped out the Harris County GOP, by directing even more Republicans to the Harris County GOP website (where they can get fired up, add their email to a list, and maybe even contribute to the GOP). Doh!
BLOGVERSATION: Isolated Desolation, Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @