31 August 2006
West Houston residents blast MayorWhiteChiefHurtt on crime
MayorWhiteChiefHurtt were grilled by West Houston residents on Wednesday night, as 1,700 people turned out to a public meeting on (what else?) violent crime and inadequate policing. Here is an excerpt from the Chronicle's reporting:
Katrina fatigue erupted into anger and frustration Wednesday night, as more than 1,700 west Houston residents urged Mayor Bill White to send evacuees home to New Orleans.
One year after the city of Houston welcomed at least 250,000 evacuees, more than 100,000 New Orleans natives still remain. West Houston residents who gathered Wednesday at Grace Presbyterian Church to address increases in violent crime over the past year in their community said evacuees are to blame.
White and Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt had come to the church to discuss details of a new police division on the west side that will add 140 officers to the streets, increase investigative strength, bring gang activity under control and enforce traffic laws.While residents welcomed the news, many who filled the sanctuary to overflowing Wednesday night wanted to know when the city planned to cut assistance to evacuees through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There are about 3,000 Katrina evacuees who reside in the apartment complexes near Westheimer and the Beltway 8.
As KTRH-740's Chris Baker pointed out earlier, HPD's manpower problem predates Katrina. Although it is true that Katrina refugees figure prominently in the recent rise in violent crime, the fact is that HPD's worsening manpower problem and leadership issues predate Katrina, and until recently nobody in the White Administration or on Council was even talking about hiring more officers.
One councilmember (who, incidentally, is one of the sponsors of tomorrow's event honoring Houston's bumbling police chief) actually tried to deflect blame for HPD's manpower shortage from Mayor White and Council to President Bush! Here's KTRK-13's reporting from tonight:
By 2008, Mayor White and Houston's police chief hope to bring the ranks up to 5,000 officers. It's achievable, but what happens the year after that or five years after that? With another 600 officers expected to retire over the next three years, Mayor White says he's committed to a long term hiring program.
The plan calls for seven cadet classes through June 2007. That's an addition of nearly 500 officers, assuming those classes are at capacity. It also calls for more aggressive overtime programs using the nearly 30 million in federal monies and various recruiting programs. How realistic is this?
Houston city councilmember Adrian Garcia said, "It was realistic until President Bush signed a pension reform bill."
Garcia estimates that 40% of HPD's workforce is eligible for retirement. But that's not his only concern.
He said, "Filling those classes is going to be a challenge. The type of officer that we are hiring today has a job waiting in corporate America and we don't offer corporate America salaries."
As the recruiting wars continue, Garcia says he and the mayor, along with the police chief and other city leaders, are now working on a long term solution to the current crisis.
Councilmember Garcia, Mayor White, and other councilmembers preferred to ignore the problem until recently (not that someone watching KTRK would know from that weak reporting), and it's only gotten worse. The current leadership at HPD, which has produced widespread dissatisfaction among the rank and file, doesn't exactly provide the city a recruiting edge, either. But maybe the crew that gathers to honor Chief Hurtt with cajun appetizers tomorrow will find a way to blame dissatisfaction with HPD's leadership on President Bush also.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: KHOU-11, KPRC-2, KTRH-740.
BLOGVERSATION: Lou Minatti, Polimom.
UPDATE (09-01-2006): Councilmember Michael Berry is discussing Houston's "public safety crisis" on his show on KPRC-950 today.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/31/06 11:22 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (27)
A helpful PSA from HPD
Look what HPD posted today:
License Plate Obstruction Information
August 31, 2006 -- Recently there have been some questions regarding State of Texas traffic laws. The below information may be useful:
[snip]
QUESTION 2: Is it permissible to have protective material covering a license plate or to have a frame around the license plate?
ANSWER: The law prohibits protective material to cover a license plate. The law also prohibits a license plate frame from obscuring the plate number or the wording “State of Texas” or “Lone Star State.”
Texas traffic code, section 502.409 state in part:
“A person commits an offense if the person attaches to…a number plate…decal, emblem or other insignia that is not authorized by law and that interferes with the readability of the letters or numbers on the plate or the name of the state in which the vehicle is registered…”
These laws were passed to simplify identification of license plates by citizens and the law enforcement community from both the front and back of the vehicle. The general public needs to be aware that they must have a license plate on the front and back of the vehicle. The public also needs to know that any material that covers or blocks any portion of the license plate needs to be removed. This includes most dealer, sports and school alumni license plate frames. This law originated with state toll road authorities experiencing an alarming degree of violations at toll facilities due to the use of devices that render the characters and state on the license plate undetectable to toll road cameras.
Red light cameras begin generating revenue tomorrow!
You'll be relieved to know that all money from camera fines will go toward police overtime. I still think all revenue should go to public schools instead. And I certainly hope City Controller Annise Parker adds this program to her audit list.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/31/06 06:18 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (10)
30 August 2006
Chief Hurtt to be honored on Friday
There's an email making the rounds that a fair number of readers have forwarded to me, and maybe other readers will be interested in it:
You Are Invited To A Reception Honoring
Harold Hurtt - Chief Of Police, City Of Houston
Friday 1 September 2006, 6-8 PM
at the
Red Cat Jazz Cafe - 924 Congress - 77002
(between Main and Travis Streets)Hosted by:
Houston City Councilmembers
Jarvis Johnson - Peter Brown - Adrian Garcia - Ronald Green - Sue LovellHouston Citizens Chamber Of Commerce
Marlon Barabin, PresidentHouston Lawyers Association
Latasha Lewis, PresidentAfrican-American Police Of?cers League
Mitchell Ruf?n, PresidentComplimentary Cajun Hors D'Oeuvres
Valet Parking AvailableRéspondez S'il Vous Plaît: [email address removed by blogHOUSTON]
Sadly, the blogHOUSTON crew did not receive the email, so we apparently are not invited to honor the police chief.
Two things do stand out in the email, though.
First, it's interesting to see which Councilmembers actively support the bumbling, soft-on-crime police chief.
Second, they are holding the event from 6-8 pm on a Friday night. That's going to make it tough for Chief Hurtt to blast out of Houston and off to Phoenix for the weekend. That doesn't seem very accommodating of the organizers!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/30/06 11:08 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (17)
METRO generates familiar complaints on southeast side
In departing from the METRO Solutions plan approved by voters in 2003, METRO is having some familiar problems on the southeast side:
More than 120 people attended the formal public hearing, which was held to elicit comments for the final impact statement and as a precursor to the Metro board's selection of an option which considers local preferences.
The Southeast corridor is part of Metro's plan to link destinations throughout the city to the existing Main Street rail line.
The draft statement analyzes two proposed routes for the corridor: one that would turn on Scott Street from downtown before turning on Griggs and ending near the Palm Business Center, and another that would turn off of Scott onto Wheeler and again onto Martin Luther King Boulevard, before ending somewhere near the Palm Center.
The Scott/Griggs alignment was the route chosen by southeast area voters in 2003 when they approved Metro's plan for light rail line in the area, and some say the transit company ought to stick with that.
Anitra Brown's story for the Chronicle may be found here.
As we have noted before, METRO is on the most solid ground when it closely adheres to the METRO Solutions plan approved by voters in 2003, and gets into shakier territory when it chooses to depart from that plan.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/30/06 10:20 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
KHOU: TXDOT will consider Camacho I-45 tunnel proposal
KHOU-11's Wendell Edwards checks in on Gonzalo Camacho, who apparently has managed to get TXDOT at least to listen to his proposals to use tunnels to expand I-45:
When he heard TxDOT was studying how to expand the North Freeway Camacho developed his own concept.
He designed what he calls the 1-45 Parkway, complete with two underground, double-stacked tunnels.
“I wouldn’t call this a light idea. If you go onto the website you can find a lot of information. It’s probably close to a year of research. And I’m talking 24/7,” said Camacho.
[snip]
“We are going to take a look at that and study that as one of the options that might be permissible within the confines of the space that we have and perhaps the economy that we will have as well,” said Norm Wiggington, TxDOT spokesman.
TXDOT will surely look at many proposals it receives, but it remains to be seen if the tunnel concept (which we have discussed before) is viable.
Camacho's tunnel proposal is located here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/30/06 09:11 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
Chron.com editorial page linkblog goes stale
Earlier in the week, we read with some dismay on Dwight Silverman's blog that he would be taking off for the week.
Apparently, there is only one person in the mighty Chron.com empire capable of updating the link blog, so when Silverman is unavailable, it just sits there, stale. So, in case anyone wants to check out what local blogs caught Silverman's eye last Friday, they're right there for the clicking. Still.
But who knows -- given the timely Editorial LiveJournalists, we could possibly see a staff editorial over the next few days on one of those very topics that a blogger hit last week. So it kind of works on one level.
UPDATE (09-01-2006): Chron.com has made what we hope is a permanent change to the page, replacing Silverman's whimsical linkblog with the Blogburst widget that was previously located on the metro/state page.
BLOGVERSATION: Isolated Desolation.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/30/06 08:58 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
Banjo Jones: Hearst targeting free community newspapers?
Banjo Jones calls attention to what appears to be an online survey intended for employees of the Houston Chronicle. Here's the intro screen:
Welcome to the Houston Chronicle Community Newspaper Survey. We're gathering information on local publications and need your input. Please provide as much information as possible. Responses will be tabulated by the Market Research Department.
All Chronicle employees who return a completed survey will have the chance to win some great prizes!
I don't receive any community newspapers where I live, but I filled out the survey anyway, just in case the Chronicle wants to toss some of those great prizes (!) towards non-employees.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/30/06 08:37 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Kashmere principal unwelcome at meeting to save the school
Isiah Carey posts a report of how some in the Kashmere High School community are working hard to save the school:
The Insite was at a meeting of African American ministers who came together to hammer out a plan to save Kashmere High School. It was held at New Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist church on Kelley. But the meeting went really wrong. Attending the meeting were Carol Mims Galloway, Rev. Willie Jones, Senfronia Thompson, Shelia Jackson Lee, Kevin Hoffman and a host of others. But things went sour when the principal of Kashmere, Dr. Charlotte Parker, showed up. Apparently, she was invited by HISD Board Member Kevin Hoffman.
[snip]
Dr. Parker was recently appointed to the school - replacing the former principal...Some community leaders were very upset with that decision. So, when Hoffman had his turn to speak to the group he also invited up Principal Parker. She gave the group a folder of information on how they can help improve the school. But after about 15 minutes Pastor Jones got up and abruptly told Parker her time was up and to leave. He also told her the meeting wasn't about what they could do at the school but what HISD should do to save the school. Pastor Jones also chastised HISD Board Member Kevin Hoffman.
Well, okay. They aren't really working so hard. This group of community activists had a high profile temper tantrum because they think HISD hasn't poured enough money into Kashmere. Never mind that HISD has poured tons of money and resources into Kashmere over the past couple of years and is doing even more this year. No, that's not enough.
At this point HISD is doing all it can for Kashmere. HISD cannot force students to learn. HISD can make sure it has everything in place to facilitate learning and provide extra help and tutoring, but Kashmere High School is now at the point where the students and parents will decide if the school succeeds.
Meanwhile, one person leaving the meeting told The Insite she didn't believe the gathering of ministers produced any results to help Kashmere.
That's not surprising. Disappointing, yes, but not surprising.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/30/06 07:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
City controller's audit plan for FY 2007
Controller Annise Parker has posted the Fiscal Year 2007 audit plans on the city's website. Notably missing from the list are any operations of the Housing and Community Development Department, which have proved to be so embarassing in the past, despite the evidence that little has changed. (Item #40)
Just as an aside, you know things are bad when the Federal Government thinks you're wasting its money and starts cutting back on the money flow.
The City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department has decided to delay issuance of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for Neighborhood Facilities Renovation. The reason for this delay is that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has reduced the City's Community Development Block Grant allocation by $3,630,000 for Fiscal Year 2006 (July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2007). The Department does plan to issue the RFP in December 2006 for funding in Fiscal Year 2007 (July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2008).
One would think that maybe the $750,000 in city funds that went to propping up Metro's ridership figures buying bus passes for city employees would be audited, or LARA would be checked over, or maybe even someone would follow up to see if HOH has reimbursed HUD -- but then again, the city would rather spend $200k and try to get out of it entirely (see item #48), so why bother?
What's Ms. Parker auditing in FY 2007? A whole lot of "safe" things:
- Some Aviation Dept construction contracts
- HFD's fleet maintenance
- City-wide Purchase Card activity (Well, that was fun over at TSU--who knows what we'll find here?)
- PW&E's Landscaping and Beautification projects
- Vehicle Maintenance: Did you change the oil?
Exciting stuff, eh? Certainly nothing that's going to cause problems for the mayor or the folks lined up at the trough labeled "Houston Development." Well, there are three items on the list which might prove interesting:
- Taser Acquisition, Distribution, & Use. I'm not holding my breath on that one, as most of the criticisms of the idea have to do with law enforcement issues, not cost effectiveness.
- Long-Term Contract Relationships: An examination of whether the city is really saving money by skimping on hiring employees and contracting out jobs instead. Of course, I would be interested in that. :)
- Parking, Car Rentals, and Hotel Concession: Checking up behind the entertainment industry in this city to make sure they've remitted the taxes like they should have. Hmmmmm... see item #19.
There's more; you may want to check it out, but my read of this is that in an election year (most of these will be completed in the first half of 2007), Controller Parker isn't going to risk causing any problems for Mayor White's last re-election bid.
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 08/30/06 01:35 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
29 August 2006
HPD's manpower shortage, leadership continue to raise concerns
KTRK-13 ran a story earlier that's become all too familiar. As Kevin Quinn reported, a Houston man was involved in a non-injury traffic accident and called 911. He suspected the other driver was intoxicated, which he reported. He and the other driver waited for a cop for two hours. Additional calls were made to 911. Finally, he gave up on an officer showing up, and informed 911 that he would file a report with a substation. The driver suspected of being intoxicated drove away.
Here is HPD's response to KTRK:
HPD says it does take drunk driving very seriously, but these 911 calls were considered a lower priority because no one was hurt in this accident and the man who was allegedly driving drunk was not causing any sort of disturbance. They say simply that other calls with higher priorities were handled first.Police say they can only cover so much ground these days. They note again that they are short staffed by about 600 officers.
For all their talk of public safety, MayorWhiteChiefHurtt seem to deliver much more in the way of excuses.
Meanwhile, KRIV-26's Isiah Carey reproduces an email from a police officer describing his experience in the immediate aftermath of Chief Hurtt's now-suspended chase policy. We can expect more stories like this when Chief Hurtt's no-chase policy is eventually reinstated (and if Mayor White's praise of Chief Hurtt yesterday is any indicator, the policy will eventually be reinstated).
HPD is short on numbers, and the bad guys increasingly seem to perceive MayorWhiteChiefHurtt as soft on crime. That's really not a very good mix.
UPDATE: KTRH-740's Chris Baker has this to say on his page on KTRH:
I watched CH13’s report and at first I shook my head then I got mad and now I am furious.
I wonder how many arrest for drunk driving this guy has? Is it none? Is it three? We will never know because there were no cops available to arrest him. How embarrassing for a city of this size to not be able to investigate a drunk driver for two hours.
It is embarrassing.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/29/06 10:39 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Priscilla Slade is now teaching accounting...at TSU!
This is one of those stories where all you can do is shake your head and wonder at the sheer stupidity and incompetence that is out there:
Priscilla Slade, the former Texas Southern University president fired for her spending of school money on personal expenses, is teaching accounting courses on campus this semester.
Her return to the classroom comes four weeks after a Harris Country grand jury indicted Slade and three aides for allegedly violating the university's policies and state laws in paying for household furnishings and landscaping, among other things.Although the university's governing board fired Slade in June for her spending as president, she remains a tenured professor in the Jesse H. Jones School of Business, officials said today.
Slade's decision to resume teaching came as surprise to some administrators and faculty members, who assumed she would prefer a lower profile while facing criminal charges.
Noooo! Now why would anyone assume she would lie low while facing criminal charges???
She's probably just a victim of...something and, you know, it's not her fault. Ergo, there's no shame in her teaching accounting at TSU. Why, next thing you know, she'll be teaching ethics classes.
(via the Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue)
BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers, Lone Star Times.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/29/06 08:50 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (14)
Who needs consistency?
In one of their two editorials today, the Editorial LiveJournalists criticize the United States for allegedly disrespecting the sovereignty of Nicaragua (with regard to upcoming elections).
In their other editorial today, the Editorial LiveJournalists criticize the United States for not disrespecting the sovereignty of other nations (the Editorial LiveJournalists insist the U.S. should make other countries equip their airports with more advanced explosive-detection equipment).
The headline for the second editorial is "Dumb and dumber." Insert whatever quip you'd like in the comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/29/06 08:46 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (8)
Chron profiles new MediaSource boss
Yesterday, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles posted a nice profile of Fred Fichman, the new executive director of Houston MediaSource.
This excerpt seems worth highlighting:
[Fichman] said he sees MediaSource as a training ground, where budding producers and nonprofit groups can show their work.
He wants them to have better equipment and hopes to upgrade the channel's existing system to a video server, which would allow on-demand access to shows online.
"Because the technology is marching so quickly to improve the image, people really do have some power in their hands to be able to contribute," he said.
Fichman, who'll be paid $65,000 a year, said he doesn't know much about the controversy last year over a few shows among the scores of others on politics, neighborhoods and religion that don't raise concerns.
He doesn't think racy programs should be on a public channel.
"Somebody has to take responsibility for this," he said. "Somebody has to be the determination point if something comes close to crossing the line."
By the end of the Patti Garlinghouse/Garth Jowett era at MediaSource, the channel seemed to be more about the contempt of those two figures for anyone on Council who might criticize and attempt to regulate vulgarity on the channel than actually running a quality organization that could serve as a training ground for amateur A/V buffs and a respected community forum of sorts (we'll leave aside the question of whether user fees ought to support such entities in the first place). Fichman sounds a little different.
Fichman's comment about video-on-demand is interesting. Given the popularity of YouTube and podcasting, perhaps MediaSource (if it's going to exist at all) does need to consider using the web as well as its cable channel to promote the work of local audio/video (and maybe even blogging) buffs. Perhaps under the right leadership, MediaSource could even eventually serve as the local "web" hub that some local bloggers/podcasters have suggested would benefit the Houston web scene.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/29/06 08:28 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)
28 August 2006
Mayor White puts his Chief's new chase policy on hold
Apparently, police union chief Hans Marticiuc and Councilmember Michael Berry weren't the only ones who didn't take kindly to being blindsided by Chief Hurtt's decision last week radically to change HPD's chase policy, without input from Council or the public. As multiple news sources are reporting, Mayor White has put the whole thing on hold. Here is an excerpt from Reggie Aqui's reporting for KHOU-11:
Days after the police chief announced that chasing suspects would be limited, Mayor Bill White on Monday announced that the city needs to take a step back.
HPD Chief Harold Hurtt did not want officers to chase people allegedly involved in minor offenses. That was HPD's policy until Monday morning.
"We have decided to hold the pursuit policy in abeyance until we can get it on the agenda of the public safety subcommittee, and we'll have discussions where we'll allow officers as well as citizens interested, individuals, to have additional comments," Chief Hurtt said.
Mayor White, who said he supports the chief's policy, asked the chief this weekend to suspend that policy.
"I think there was a ... breakdown in a process of reviewing that policy with council members and the union before it was announced," Mayor White said.
The mayor said he fully supports the chief and his autonomy. He also said he believes Chief Hurtt should be able to make his own policy but in this case, he believes the chief should have come to both his office and City Council.
Mayor White can make it sound as nice as he wants, but this amounts to a (needed and welcome) slapdown of his bumbling, handpicked police chief.
Of course, leave it to the Chronicle's Editorial LiveJournalists to come out solidly behind the Chief's now-aborted policy today. Way to be timely and relevant there, guys!
Yesterday, KRIV-26 reporter Isiah Carey posted on his blog that Hurtt and Marticiuc were meeting with their babysitter this weekend. It now seems likely that the babysitter informed the two that Mayor White would now be taking control of the issue, and that they should stop their attacks on each other.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: KPRC-2, KTRH-740, Chronicle.
UPDATE: KTRH and KPRC web reports are misquoting Chief Hurtt, who clearly says "interested individuals" and not "arrested individuals" in the video that is posted on the KPRC website.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Isiah Carey's Insite.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/28/06 02:27 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Metro tells bike riders to take a hike
As the City of Houston and Metro continue to rake in windfall sales tax revenues month after month (we know this thanks to the tireless efforts of Tom Bazan), Metro is refusing to honor another of its 2003 referendum promises (Rad Sallee's Move It! column):
Last week, Metro officials told biking advocates that the agency has no immediate plans to put bike racks on all its buses — as called for in the 2003 transit referendum — but will consider phasing them in through 2008.
A perennially hopeful suitor, the city's biking community is accustomed to disappointment from Metro. There are far more bus riders than bikers, and when money is tight, guess who loses out?
Both sides were all smiles in 2000, when the agency said it would have all its buses equipped with racks the following year. The money went to Park & Ride expansion instead.
Hopes flourished again in 2004, when a $1.5 million to purchase and install racks was expected to be in the agency's 2005 budget. But a slumping economy and falling sales tax revenue hit Metro with its first annual shortfall, and the item disappeared.
As recently as May, a Metro spokeswoman said "we're reconsidering our timeline" based on cycling advocates' request that racks appear sooner than the 2008 time frame envisioned now.
At Wednesday's Metro board meeting, BikeHouston chairman Woody Speer made the perennial plea. He added that the newest bumper-mounted racks can be locked and unlocked quickly, minimizing bus delays, and do not interfere with automated bus-washing equipment.
Speer said the Houston-Galveston Area Council has $1.2 million in federal air quality funds that Metro could use for the program, but the money runs out this month.
[snip]
After Speer's remarks to the board, Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson responded that the agency would consider phasing in bike racks through 2008. But he said bike fans have taken an "all or nothing" approach.
"We look at this like we look at any other expenditure of funds, an investment in service," Wilson said. "We've heard all the arguments, we've done all the research, and to summarize as best I can, we're going to spend a significant amount of money to carry very little ridership in our estimation."
Oh gosh, I thought Frank Wilson was talking about light rail there for a moment.
So sorry bike riders, Metro has screwed you again. But you all must be used to it by now, since Metro has been breaking its promises to the biking community for five years now. Bus riders in poor communities feel your pain -- instead of that 50% increase in bus service that was promised in 2003, Metro has been slashing and rearranging bus routes right and left since the Main Street Line began operation.
As any kid will tell you, when Mom says "maybe," she means "no." The same is true with Metro -- when Metro says "we'll consider it," that means "forget about it."
MORE: Mayor White's a big biking enthusiast...I wonder what he thinks of Metro's unwillingness to put bike racks on buses?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/28/06 03:03 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (23)
27 August 2006
City of Houston Agenda 8-29-06
Normally, I delete what I judge to be extraneous text, and often paraphrase in order to make the legalese a lot more readable; also, comments added are a mix of my own opinions, best guesses, snarking, and judgments, and therefore may not be entirely accurate.
The council meeting on Wednesday should be starting with another deceptively simple "Mayor's Report"; this one titled "Creation of Metro." Since it's been quite a long time since Metro was actually created, and I don't think Mayor White is going to waste time with a history lesson, this is either a song-and-dance celebrating what a wonderful organization Metro is to have around, or another major power play on the level of gutting Proposition 2. In other words, either he's going to put on a show to help Metro, which is beginning to flounder in the face of public opposition to rail, or he's about to try and make Metro completely unaccountable to anyone except the Holy Disciples of the Church of Smart Growth.
Following that item, the Controller and "city administration" will be delivering a report on the financial status of the city. Hopefully, we will find out then whether or not the city is sitting on a surplus, and how far over the trigger levels of Propositions 1 and 2 we are. At the very least, we will likely find out just how independent Controller Annise Parker plans to be of Mayor White. She was pretty slow to pitch in during the Bonusgate scandal, so this might be only a terribly boring recitation of numbers. On the other hand, if there are a lot of inconvenient figures laid out, with bold talk about required tax rollbacks, things could get interesting for Mayor White in the next few months.
Also see item #s 5, 19, 23, 24, 29, 32, and 40. I recommend taking your blood pressure medicine before #5. Be sure to visit regularly this week for follow-up on several of these items.
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 08/27/06 10:40 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Alvarado: I'm as powerful as ever!
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that temporarily-former Mayor Pro-Tem Carol Alvarado may have lost her title following her ineptitude in overseeing the office's finances, but she still enjoys considerable political clout with Mayor White:
A payroll-padding scandal six months ago cost Carol Alvarado her job as mayor pro tem, but she kept a coveted piece of real estate along the horseshoe-shaped City Council dais.
It's a green, high-back chair just off center — the spot right next to Mayor Bill White.
The seating arrangement is just one example of how Alvarado has retained her City Hall clout six months after a scandal seemed destined to imperil it."Nothing's changed," the third-term councilwoman said in a recent interview. "I just don't have that title. Everything else remains the same."
Despite a cloud of uncertainty about an ongoing investigation by local prosecutors and the negative news about her employees taking unauthorized bonuses, Alvarado still has more access to White than her council colleagues.
She's the only member with an open invitation to attend his thrice-weekly senior staff meetings, and Alvarado remains a regular on the mayor's weekend bicycle rides through city neighborhoods.
He also lets her spearhead complicated issues, such as studying a tougher ban on workplace smoking, responding to a grass-roots effort to change a police immigration policy or modernizing the city's campaign-finance disclosure system.
And she's still performing many of the historical duties assigned to the mayor pro tem. She advises the mayor, helping advance his agenda. She also works with his staff to gauge the moods of council members on emerging issues.
It's not unusual for Houston mayors to designate one member of Council as their "go-to" member, and certainly Alvarado continues to serve in that role for Mayor White, who nevertheless does seem more inclusive of all councilmembers than his predecessor.
Ultimately, though, one has to wonder about Mayor White's political judgment with regard to his close allies. Alvarado's lack of oversight in the Pro-Tem's office combined with her occasional lack of decorum really seem to contrast with Mayor White's efforts to portray himself as a financially-oriented mayor who likes to lead by building consensus, and Mayor White's handpicked police chief (who reportedly spends lots of his weekends in Phoenix) isn't exactly establishing White as a mayor who's serious about crime. The mayor's judgment in these matters will surely interest opposition researchers if, as expected, Mayor White eventually does run for higher elected office.
UPDATE: Of course, this and another recent story do illustrate that it's very helpful to have Rusty Hardin on your side!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/27/06 05:57 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (12)
Just because she doesn't have to resign from Council...
Today, the Chronicle ran the inevitable fluff piece on the write-in Congressional campaign of doctor-councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. This snippet caught our eye:
Sekula-Gibbs said from the start that she would play by the party's rules, formal and informal, as she sought a place on the ballot and, when courts ruled against that, the party's blessing as a write-in.She has little to lose politically because she doesn't have to resign from the Houston City Council to run and is term-limited after next year anyway. Even if she falls short in the write-in effort against Democrat Nick Lampson, she has a chance to prove her political chops and emerge as the front-runner for the GOP nomination to reclaim the district for the party in 2008.
She doesn't have to resign, but given the fact that many people in Congressional District 22 do not know the Houston councilmember, she could certainly have resigned her Council seat to show she was serious about introducing herself to the people of the Congressional District and trying to make a real race of it (not to mention to show she was serious about not shirking her responsibilities as an elected member of City Council while busily campaigning for another office).
It's clear that the doctor-councilwoman intends this write-in candidacy to give her a leg up for 2008, with the grassroots and party elites. Still, it would be nice if just one journalist in this town would get doctor-councilwoman Sekula-Gibbs to answer the question of why she's not resigning her Council seat, for the record. Our local journalists sometimes seem much too "nice" to ask hard questions, but this is a reasonably straightforward question that deserves an answer (as we pointed out twice in this post from nearly two weeks ago).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/27/06 12:49 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (4)
A tuna fish sandwich to meow for!
Did you read L.M. Sixel's column from the other day, on disappearing office lunches? It's laugh-out-loud funny.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/27/06 08:19 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (10)
26 August 2006
More Metro math
A light rail tidbit from KHOU-11:
These are the first cost and ridership estimates: The Richmond allignment [sic] in this section would cost $90 million to build, $9.8 million for property and generate 1600 riders; The so-called Clutterbuck alignment would cost $215 million, require $17.3 million for property and generate 700 riders. That's more than double the cost of the Richmond alignment with less than half the riders.
If those are Metro numbers, it would be wise to take them with a grain of salt. As we know, Metro has a tendency to be dishonest when it reports ridership. If one person makes multiple boardings, Metro counts each of those boardings as riders. That's how Metro comes up with fantastical announcements like this:
Sometime Friday, August 4, the 25 millionth passenger will board a METRORail train, marking yet another milestone in the history of the 2 1/2-year-old light-rail line.
And this:
MetroRail officials say they could easily use 15 more cars because Houston has reached its capacity, transporting about 12 million passengers a year. They didn't expect to reach that level of ridership for another 20 years.
Using Metro math would get my kids an F in school.
ADD ON: Following up on Matt's doing-the-math comment here, a big gripe of light rail proponents is the Katy Freeway expansion. But let's do the math on that: if the Katy expansion cost is close to three billion dollars, and there are 220,000 drivers per day on the Katy, that's a per rider cost of around $13,600. Using the figures (of unknown origin) in the KHOU story, Matt's math says the Richmond line would have a per rider cost of $62,000.
Now, wouldn't it be interesting if Metro had started off with two commuter rail lines -- one along the Katy Freeway, and one along the Hardy Toll Road (with a little something that could service IAH), both ending at a transit facility near downtown. Riders would then take buses to their final destinations. That's the type of rail I used when I live in the S.F. Bay Area, and commuted to San Jose. And that's a rail plan I could support -- getting serious numbers of drivers off the freeways, and putting a serious dent in congestion.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/26/06 05:31 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (12)
"Distinguished" visitors address City Council (2006-08-22)
Senator Robert Horton and President Joseph Charles both addressed City Council this week at the end of the public comment session. This week, President Charles disputes that Senator Horton is actually a Senator, and chides the city secretary for the way the names are listed!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/06 12:26 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
Luxury sports venues for public schools
via the Chronicle, your tax dollars at work:
With the opening of several multimillion-dollar arenas, so-called minor sports such as volleyball and basketball are stepping into the spotlight at schools across the Greater Houston area.
Three new facilities, built in the past two years, are setting a standard for school districts throughout the state. Katy ISD's Merrell Center, Cy-Fair ISD' s Berry Center and Clear Creek ISD's Bill Krueger Field House are state-of the-art venues that are placing focus on the sports and the teams that play in them.
In addition, they show the growth of girls sports, even in a state where football rules.
"The greatest thing about it is that it shows the students on the volleyball and basketball teams that this district really embraces them and cares about what they are out there doing," Clear Lake High School girls basketball coach Terry Farrell said of the 2,800-seat Krueger Field House.
The fieldhouse was approved by voters in 2004. Though there had been talk of making major improvements to the football stadium, when the fieldhouse appeared on a single ticket at the bond election that year, it was strongly supported. The vote was a victory for the "other" sports.
Multi-million dollar arenas for public school sports. Maybe the Dynamo can begin stadium talks with these districts which are so flush with tax dollars, instead of bugging HISD.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/26/06 09:28 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
25 August 2006
Residue magically becomes a half stick of dynamite
Several hours ago, Chron.com and other news organizations reported that "dynamite residue" was found on baggage on a flight that arrived at Intercontinental airport. References to "dynamite residue" in those early versions of the story can be found via Google News searching, but they won't be found in the current version of the story posted on Chron.com (even if one follows the Google News link), which just changed without any indication that the earlier version of the story was either in error or was being supplemented by new information.
The current version of the story on Chron.com now indicates that half a stick of dynamite was found in the bag, and the earlier references to "dynamite residue" (not to mention a statement by the owner of the bag that he works in mining, with explosives) are excised.
It's understandable that when a story is evolving, new facts will sometimes emerge, and news organizations need to roll out those facts in new stories. It's nice, though, when news organizations offer some explanation when they update reporting with newer, better information. Chron.com has had the annoying habit of not doing so for a long time.
As of the time of this post, the early version of the AP story may still be found on the New York Sun website.
Making things even more interesting, KHOU-11 is currently reporting that a fertilizer-based explosive was also found in the luggage!
Maybe all the editors and fact-checkers will get it straight by the morning -- and then Chron.com can paste over the old stories with the latest versions.
UPDATE: KTRK-13 has the following headline and information:
Bomb-making items found on Continental jet
(8/25/06 - HOUSTON) - Eyewitness News has learned that a passenger on board a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina was carrying more than just half a stick of dynamite as first reported this morning.
We first broke exclusive information on this story around 3pm when we learned what else was on board.
The passenger, identified as Howard McFarland Fish, 21, is a U.S. Citizen from Connecticut. Law enforcement sources at the airport say not only did they find a quarter-pound stick of dynamite in the checked luggage, but in other checked luggage belonging to Fish, they also found a blasting cap, a homemade fuse, and a quarter-pound of ammonium nitrate.
Note that KTRK provides new information, makes the point that these materials constitute a potential bomb, not just dynamite or residue, AND points out how the new information supersedes earlier reporting. THAT is the way to do it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/06 08:57 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)
Food and drink roundup (08-25-2006 edition)
It's time for a quick and sweet food and drink roundup. The weekend's a-wastin'.
Robb Walsh samples the "organ meats" or sweetbreads offered up in tacos at Taqueria Tacambaro.
Peggy Grodinsky heads out on the Gulf for a closer look at a day in the life of a shrimper.
Andrew Guy Jr. samples some pricey tequilas.
Ken Hoffman goes to Domino's for brownies. Yes, brownies. Free ones, at that.
And Lance Scott Walker checks out Woodrow's on Chimney Rock.
World Class, all of it. Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 08/25/06 06:45 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)
24 August 2006
500 strong and growing
At some point this week, the number of registered members on the message board shot over 500. That seemed like a number worth noting.
Thanks to the hundreds of you who visit the little blog and offer your perspective in the forum. It certainly makes the whole thing a lot more fun and interesting. And it's quite rare that there's ever a problem in the forum, so give yourselves a pat on the back for being such good commenters! It's appreciated.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/06 10:14 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (23)
Lightning knocks KSBJ down to very low power
Listeners who have tried to tune in to KSBJ 89.3 in the past couple of days have likely gotten silence. As KHOU-11 reports, that's because lightning hit the Christian station's tower earlier this week:
A Christian radio station was knocked off the air after its tower was hit by lightning earlier this week.
The station, KSBJ 89.3 FM, has a main tower in Plum Grove, near Cleveland. It was hit at about 8 p.m. Tuesday and is operating at reduced power, the station said.Typically, the station, which has a contemporary Christian music format, broadcasts at 100,000 watts, but is currently operating at only 50 watts.
The station said that crews are working to repair the problem, but that it will be several days until it will be completely fixed.
The station said that listeners can instead hear programming on their website, at www.ksbj.org.
We presume God is still listening, and doesn't need the full 100,000 watts.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/06 09:39 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)
Jordy Tollett back in the saddle of GHCVB
Tollett had asked for the leave of absence back in July to attend to "problems in his life." He recently led the annual "state of" the bureau luncheon, suggesting his return was imminent. The unanimous board action suggests that Mayor White hasn't made much headway in his efforts to dislodge Tollett, following the KPRC-2 hit piece on Tollett that put this whole recent chain of events into motion.
UPDATE (08-25-2006): The Chronicle picks up the story today.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/06 03:31 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (13)
Surprise! Mayor's anti-Prop. 2 initiative(s) gets through Council
It seems many important people don't like what the voters said a couple of years ago, so Mayor White wants to make the voters say something different. KHOU-11's Jeremy Desel has the story:
Houston voters will decide in November whether to basically roll back part of Proposition 2, a limited government city charter change supported by anti-tax activists.
Mayor Bill White, who spent much of Tuesday afternoon meeting privately with conservative backers of Proposition 2, passed through city council a measure that will put a new proposition on the ballot this year.
The council vote came during an unusual meeting at Houston City Hall. White, backed by a majority of councilmembers, basically split the usual Wednesday meeting into two parts. As councilmembers wandered off to lunch and other business, the mayor talked privately with conservative anti-tax activists. The council reconvened late in the afternoon and, following White's lead, voted to put his proposition on the November ballot.
Proposition 2 basically restricts the growth of city government, establishing a complicated formula tying city revenue increases to population growth and economic inflation. If the city's revenues exceed the formula's restrictions, Proposition 2 requires the city government to somehow refund money to taxpayers.
Do you think when Jeremy Desel discovers he has overpaid for something, he expects a refund of the amount he overpaid? Do you think Mayor White expects a refund when his insurance company overcharges him? Or a utility company? What about when he looks at his bill from a store and sees he has paid too much for something? Does he expect to be refunded what he overpaid or does he just tell the company to keep the money?
White's plan would exclude from the formula so-called "enterprise funds," such as the Aviation Department, which generate their own streams of income. The mayor argued that Proposition 2 could needlessly force cuts in essential city services that aren't linked to the "enterprise funds." For example, the mayor suggested, after a good year at the airports, Houston might be forced to cut public safety expenses.
Continental Airlines actively supported White's position, arguing that Proposition 2 could restrict the growth of Houston's airports and eventually cost airline employees their jobs.
[snip]
In addition, a separate proposition will allow the city government to spend up to $90-million beyond Proposition 2's limits, provided the money is spent on public safety.
So, what's Mayor White doing with that big surplus the city is sitting on? Is it going to public safety? Or is it going to an African-American Cultural Museum? Maybe it's going to pay for anti-panhandling ads. What else has the city been wasting money on lately that just can't possibly be refunded back to taxpayers? I doubt much has gone toward road repair or graffiti abatement.
RELATED COVERAGE: Chronicle.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/24/06 06:42 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
23 August 2006
Council committee considers expanding smoking ban
KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports that on Thursday, a Council committee will take up discussion on a broader smoking ban.
Councilmember Carol Alvarado is quoted in the story. She favors a broader smoking ban.
Doctor-Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who spearheaded the current ban despite early resistance from Mayor White, is not quoted in the story. She has long favored the broader ban on smoking.
Perhaps she was just too busy campaigning for Congress for Miller to find her for a quote. Surely he had a good reason for omitting her.
UPDATE (08-24-2006): KTRH-740 included a soundbite from Doctor-Councilwoman Sekula-Gibbs in its on-air reporting this morning. And the Chronicle's Alexis Grant managed to get a quote. Perhaps Doug Miller was on deadline, and didn't have time to get a quote from the Councilmember who has pushed hardest to ban smoking in Houston.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/06 10:24 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Council considers expanding civility ordinance
KTRK-13 reports that City Council is considering expanding the so-called "civility ordinance" that targets homeless squatters.
"It's amazing to me that here in 2006, that we're still doing the same type of thing, just prohibiting people from existing," said Houston City Councilmember Ada Edwards. "I didn't know it was against the law to sit in a public space in America."
If the ordinance passes, perhaps violators can be transported to "exist" on Ada Edwards' sidewalk. Heck, maybe she'll even invite them to "exist" on her front lawn! That would mark her as a true progressive.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/06 10:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
Where is the Hurtt/Marticiuc babysitter?
KRIV-26 reporter Isiah Carey has been downtown covering the HPD chase policy story that he broke yesterday.
The video isn't available yet on the KRIV website [UPDATE: It's now posted here], but on the 9pm broadcast, Carey covered Chief Hurtt's comments to the media on the chase policy. He then asked union chief Hans Marticiuc to comment on some of the specifics, and Marticiuc responded by calling Chief Hurtt a "liar," more than once!
We're thinking that both bad boys are going to get called into the babysitter's office tomorrow.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/06 09:29 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
Local bloggers amaze Chron cartoonist!
The Chronicle's Nick Anderson sure can dish out the criticism with his editorial cartoons, but it seems he doesn't much like criticism in his blog comments.
Matt Bramanti posts the details over at Lone Star Times.
Alternative media like blogs and talk radio must be very frustrating for editorialists in mainstream media who have grown accustomed to having the last word always. But, time and technology march on, whether professional editorialists do or not.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/06 08:51 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Is Houston allowed to celebrate its birthday?
Isn't that, you know, insensitive? But KTRK-13 is out there with a story saying there's a big to-do planned this evening:
ZZ Top will be inducted into Houston's Hall of Fame Wednesday. It's part of the city's 170th birthday bash. The band formed in Houston back in 1969 and has always kept a base here in the Bayou City.
Houston's 170th birthday party will happen at the Wortham Theater on Texas and Bagby downtown. It gets started at 6pm. Mayor Bill White will be there to give out the honors.
Hopefully Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and UH Professor Raul Ramos don't know about the shindig.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/23/06 07:04 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (8)
Hurtt revises HPD chase policy, doesn't inform public/media
Beleaguered police chief Harold Hurtt has approved a revised policy on chases, a policy that is not going over well with officers on the street (many of whom have already expressed their concerns with Hurtt's leadership).
KHOU-11's Jeff McShan has also posted a report.
UPDATE (08-23-2006): The Chronicle apparently threw together a story at the last minute. It does not quote any member of Council.
UPDATE 2 (08-23-2006): KPRC-950's Pat Gray is jamming on this topic today.
UPDATE 3 (08-23-2006): KTRH-740's Chris Baker is blasting on MayorWhiteChiefHurtt as well.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee, TBIFOC, Lone Star Pundit, Houstonist.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/06 12:12 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (47)
22 August 2006
Editorial LiveJournalists tackle geopolitics of energy
The Chronicle's Editorial LiveJournalists crept up on genuine insight today before quickly veering off:
In February, President Chavez, contrary to Citgo's pledge, threatened to cut off all crude oil exports to the United States if the U.S. government went over the line in its opposition to Chavez' leftist regime. Chavez could not make good on his promise, though, without depriving Citgo's refineries of their raw material and high profits.If Chavez means what he says, perhaps more of Citgo's assets will go on the block. That would unlock billions of dollars in cash that Chavez could use for his political ambitions without fear that the United States could seize Venezuelan assets here following some outrage Chavez might be plotting.
"It's not where we've been," Citgo proclaims. "It's where we are heading that can make a world of difference."
That's what we're afraid of.
Chavez likely won't make good on his "promise" because, as the Editorial LiveJournalists seem to understand, he really needs the hard cash from crude exports to the United States (to fund his domestic social welfare utopia, not to mention his foreign policy initiatives). In addition, he needs the United States to import his oil (because our refineries can handle Venezuela's heavy, sour crude, not a trivial consideration). Chavez might still wield the crude-oil weapon one day, but if he does, he will hurt himself in the process; so far, he seems to understand that.
Whether Chavez's whims result in the selloff of Citgo assets in the United States is sort of a tangential concern (so the Editorial LiveJournalists focus on it). The bigger concern is that Chavez's whims have resulted in the politicization and de-professionalization of PDVSA, hindering the once-respected state company's ability to manage Venezuela's exploration and production for years to come.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/06 10:59 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
Isiah Carey tries out the Mayor's new policy
KRIV-26 reporter Isiah Carey tried out Mayor White's preferred approach for dealing with street beggars Monday.
BACKGROUND: Homeless court, panhandling campaign kick off this week.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/06 10:03 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
Astrodome convention center proposal creeps forward
KTRH-740's Brent Fuller was early to report that Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a letter of intent by a private group that hopes redevelop the Astrodome:
Today, commissioners formally approved a letter of intent which allows the corporation to begin design work. They must present final plans to commissioners within the next six months before construction can start.
The outline of the deal includes a "convention-oriented hotel" with at least 1,000 rooms, entertainment attractions, restaurants and other amenities. A 2,100 space parking garage would be included.
The Chronicle's Bill Murphy adds these details:
The letter of intent states that by March 2007, Astrodome Redevelopment must obtain financing and the approval from Reliant Park's tenants, the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Hotel construction would begin at the earliest late next year.
The county would lease the Dome to Astrodome Redevelopment for 50 years and give it an option to extend the lease another 20 years.
Astrodome Redevelopment would pay the county $2.5 million in rent annually and 2 percent-3 percent of gross revenues.
The letter of intent prohibits Astrodome Redevelopment from operating a casino or sexually oriented businesses.
That bolded portion remains the key. Public money has been ruled out, and it is difficult to imagine that sensible investors will want to have anything to do with this highly questionable venture.
Of course, it was also difficult to imagine that anyone would let Lee P. Brown run a bank after his disastrous reign as Houston's mayor, so perhaps we'll be surprised in this case also.
Tom Kirkendall has previously expressed skepticism about Astrodome Redevelopment's fantastic plans.
BLOGVERSATION: Lou Minatti.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/06 09:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
Veterans Day Parade will be held after all
KTRK-13's Miya Shay reports that the Veterans Day Parade that was under threat of cancellation will be held after all:
The fate of the annual Veterans' Day parade was decided Monday morning at Houston City Hall.
The Veterans Cemetery Council recently announced it will not hold its annual Veterans' Day parade, but at least one city council member wants the group to change its mind.
A large group of veterans met with the city special events department as well as Councilman Michael Berry. They worked to reach a mutual decision about how to handle the Veterans' Day parade this year.
Veterans' Day this year falls on a weekend. Unlike weekday parades, people generally don't make it to downtown Houston. The veterans said they didn't want to go through the expense, time and planning to hold a parade that would be just for them.
However, since they have brought up the issues, Berry and other council members have said they believe it's important for the veterans to hold a parade and they've promised to help with fundraising and community support.
The parade will be held on November 11 at 9:30 am. As we get closer to the event, we'll be sure to promote it, and hope the city's leaders (and our fellow bloggers) will also.
Kudos to Councilmember Berry for taking the lead on this issue, instead of simply criticizing Mayor White (like some Clear Channel talkers who split time on the Houston and San Antonio airwaves).
RELATED COVERAGE: Chronicle, KPRC-2, KRIV-26, KTRH-740.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/06 09:12 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
21 August 2006
Get your name on a downtown park poopie station!
KHOU-11 reports that Mayor White is asking for help raising money for the new downtown park and giving it a name:
on the open land in front of the GRB, civic leaders picture a dozen acres developed into a unique urban park. A place with everything from restaurants to water fountains, underground parking and special programs designed to draw visitors, day and night.
“We really want this to be a place that captures the spirit of the city and is a place that kind of reveals the city to visitors and to Houstonians, a place we can all really be proud of,” said park director, Guy Hagsette.
Sort of like New York city’s Bryant Park.
But a park like this costs a lot of money.
So, Houston’s Downtown Park Conservancy plans to raise funds by naming attractions after donors.
“Everything in the park is for sale,” said Nancy G. Kinder with the Conservancy. “The fountain, the promenade, the dog runs, even the dog benches and the poopie stations. So we have something for everyone at all different levels.”
But one name that’s not for sale here is the name of the park itself.
“We want the people of Houston to participate in the naming of this park. So beginning today, for the next several weeks, we’re going to invite Houstonians to give us their names for the downtown park,” said Mayor White.
Oh heavens. What an opportunity! How expensive do you think it would be to "buy" a poopie station? And who could we name it after? This could be fun!
As for the name of the park, I nominate Kevin Whited's suggestion. =)
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Further to Anne's bolded excerpt above -- can we expect the Chronicle's lefty Sunday editorialist and six-days-per-week objective Austin bureau chief to condemn the plans of Mayor White (a Democrat) to commercialize this park, since Clay Robison recently blasted state government (largely in Republican control) for daring to consider such ideas?
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Isolated Desolation, Lone Star Times.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/21/06 06:22 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (21)
City of Houston Agenda 8-22-06
Curiously, this week's Requests for Council Authorization and backup to the Agenda were ready and posted before the Agenda itself. Normally, I copy the Council Agenda from the city's website, and then add notes from the backup. The .pdf file that includes the RCAs and other information includes a copy of the Agenda. This time, for whatever reason, the agenda was not posted online (as of Sunday), nor is a a copy available in the backup, although the backup itself is available. Since the backup is often missing certain items, this means that for now, the public has no easily available record of what Agenda items 24, 29, 49, 51, and 52 are. Nor do I, even though I have access to the city's intranet. I can only hope that the Agenda is posted prior to Tuesday's meeting, and I can update this article.
Readers' attention is directed especially to items 5 (oopsie!), 46 (what loan?), and 62 (we have always been at war with Oceania) of the agenda. In particular, item 62 is one of the most reprehensible pieces of Orwellian doublethink from any recent administration, and I am just suspicious enough to wonder if it is the real reason the agenda was not online at the usual time. If you read nothing else of the agenda, read that one.
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 08/21/06 01:03 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
20 August 2006
Homeless court, panhandling campaign kick off this week
This week, Mayor White's two latest initiatives for dealing with Houston's homeless/street beggars will go into effect.
Second, Mayor White's advertising campaign to discourage people from donating to street beggars is set to begin tomorrow (Monday).
It's doubtful that the mayor's advertising campaign or homeless court will have much of an impact. Unfortunately, HPD just doesn't seem to have the manpower to deal with the problem of street begging effectively.
UPDATE (08-21-2006, 9:07 am): Councilmember Michael Berry is discussing the new homeless court on his radio program on KPRC-950.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/06 10:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
KTRH: Curfew efforts stall
KTRH-740 reported on Friday that efforts to enact a more restrictive curfew have stalled. According to KTRH, however, Mayor White says the issue will likely return.
Maybe. Or maybe Council is finally getting over Pass-a-Law Syndrome.
PREVIOUSLY: City looks to discourage panhandlers, tighten curfew.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/06 10:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron misses badly on latest abortion editorial
The pro-abortion Chronicle editorial board took up its pet topic on Friday, with an editorial slam directed against State Senate candidate and KSEV-700 talker Dan Patrick, who has recently touted a "trigger law" that would restrict abortion in Texas in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned.
"Upon reversal of the 1973 Supreme Court decision, abortions would immediately be banned," [Dan Patrick] wrote in a recent press release about his plan. Perhaps because he hasn't actually been elected, he didn't offer much detail. But he praised a similar trigger law in South Dakota — one that requires every female to carry a pregnancy to term, even if she is a child, a rape survivor or an incest victim.
Errors #1 and #2: The South Dakota law to which the Editorial LiveJournalists are referring in this instance is not a trigger law. It does not take effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Rather, it is a ban designed in defiance of Roe v. Wade, with the anticipation that the Supreme Court will use the law to reconsider (and overturn) Roe. In 2005, South Dakota also enacted a trigger law, which is what the Patrick press release (pdf) referred to. The Editorial LiveJournalists apparently got very confused with these facts.
Error #3: The South Dakota ban does not require "every female to carry a pregnancy to term." There is a provision that exempts those who would perform an abortion to save the life of the mother. That may be a narrow exemption, but it's still an exemption.
Finally, the Chronicle's contention that Patrick has offered this proposal in order to attract conservative voters so he can win his election is just bizarre. Patrick is a longtime advocate of the pro-life cause, so this proposal is consistent with principles he's talked about for years. Furthermore, if this were politically motivated, Patrick would surely have come out with it during the primary, which was when the real race for his Senate district occurred. He is running as the Republican nominee in an overwhelmingly Republican district against token opposition, and will win handily in November. He doesn't need to craft a pro-life proposal to cultivate conservatives to win. The better explanation is that he's a pro-lifer who believes in the proposal, and plans to introduce it when he eventually takes his seat in Austin.
UPDATE (08-21-2006): A Patrick spokesman emails that nobody from the Chronicle editorial board contacted Patrick or the campaign to inquire about the details of the "trigger-law" proposal. We presume that would make it rather difficult to write about those details intelligibly, but then again, the Editorial LiveJournalists don't always let facts get in the way of their story line.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/06 10:01 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
KTRH: New population estimates affect crime statistics
On Friday, KTRH-740 reported that the release of new, lower-than-expected population figures for Houston affect recent crime statistics that assumed a larger population:
Last month, the Houston Police Department released estimates of the rate of violent crime in the city based on an assumed population of about 2.2 million. But data from the American Community Survey this week said Houston's population is more like 1.9 million — 300,000 fewer.
The city planning department's Margaret Wallace says the numbers weren't fudged — the federal survey was simply done at a different time.
This is why it's important to consider both raw crime figures and statistics that take population into account, rather than just one or the other.
There was some reason to believe that Katrina evacuees had boosted the population, so I don't think the planning department was engaged in any effort to deceive. But now that we have the ACS numbers, the estimates should be adjusted accordingly.
PREVIOUSLY: Fuller: Latest population tally doesn't trigger redistricting.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/06 09:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Paper trails for electronic voting machines?
There's some balance on the Chronicle editorial page today on an important issue -- paper trails for electronic voting machines of the sort that we use in Harris County.
The Editorial LiveJournalists make the case for paper trails, a case that a number of local bloggers have been making for quite some time now.
Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman makes the case against paper trails, or at least the case against rushing to implement a paper-trail system and mucking things up in the process.
My notion is that paper trails would be a nice reform, along with reforms designed to enhance the integrity and security of elections (like photo identification), and that the experienced and respected Kaufman ought to be deeply involved in any such discussions in Austin.
What do you say?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/06 07:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (42)
"Distinguished" visitors address City Council
So, blogHOUSTON joins the YouTube fun with this video capture from the public comment session of the most recent City Council meeting. A president and a senator address Council! Too fun.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/06 02:04 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (8)
Spur 527 speed limit update
Heading into midtown via Spur 527 today, I noticed that the old 35 mph speed limit sign had been replaced with a (tiny) 50 mph speed limit sign.
Perhaps complaints over the sneaky Spur 527 speed traps finally motivated TXDOT to get the new signs up.
Most of the exits are still 35 mph, so watch yourselves.
UPDATE: On the side of the Spur heading ON to Southwest Freeway, the posted speed limit is still 35 mph.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/06 11:24 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
19 August 2006
Chron endorses decision widely criticized for its reasoning
The New York Times ran an interesting story today on the recent decision by a federal judge on the NSA's warrantless surveillance. Here's a key snippet:
Even legal experts who agreed with a federal judge’s conclusion on Thursday that a National Security Agency surveillance program is unlawful were distancing themselves from the decision’s reasoning and rhetoric yesterday.
They said the opinion overlooked important precedents, failed to engage the government’s major arguments, used circular reasoning, substituted passion for analysis and did not even offer the best reasons for its own conclusions.
Discomfort with the quality of the decision is almost universal, said Howard J. Bashman, a Pennsylvania lawyer whose Web log provides comprehensive and nonpartisan reports on legal developments.
“It does appear,” Mr. Bashman said, “that folks on all sides of the spectrum, both those who support it and those who oppose it, say the decision is not strongly grounded in legal authority.”
The main problems, scholars sympathetic to the decision’s bottom line said, is that the judge, Anna Diggs Taylor, relied on novel and questionable constitutional arguments when more straightforward statutory ones were available.
Unsurprisingly, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists, who also sometimes rely on novel and questionable legal arguments, just loved the decision.
Thanks to Orrin Judd for the New York Times link.
BLOGVERSATION: WILLisms.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/19/06 05:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Largest muni wifi project in the U.S. and world class parking meters
It looks as if the supplier of the city's $10,000 parking meters has been chosen:
Digital Payment Technologies Corp., a leading supplier of revenue-management solutions for the global parking industry, has been awarded a three-year contract by Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS) to supply 750 LUKE Payment Stations for deployment throughout the City of Houston, TX, starting in September.
There is an option to supply up to another 750 LUKE Payment Stations before the end of the contract to make up a city-wide total of 1,500 stations.
[snip]
The awarding of the contract caps a two-year evaluation period by the City of Houston to investigate general system integrators, on-street payment station manufacturers, and WiFi network suppliers for its on-street parking system. ACS was awarded the general system-management contract based on its ability to deliver the best overall integrated solution. In addition to supplying the LUKE payment stations, ACS has been contracted to install the meters, build a municipal WiFi network throughout Houston's central business district, and install the pavement markings and signage. Among other firsts, this is the largest municipal WiFi project awarded in US history.
PREVIOUSLY: Council approves "cutting edge" parking meters
RELATED: Does Muni Wireless Really Work At All?, Out of Control
UBU ROI ADDS: Lest anyone be confused, the company that got the red light camera contract was ATS, not ACS. The latter had been in the chase for the red light camera contract also, until questions were raised about exactly how ACS came to be the original front-runner. ATS, on the other hand, had friends in high places.
ATS' ties are through former Texas Land Commissioner Gary Mauro, a good friend of White. Mauro, though, says he was hired to consult ATS, not to lobby City Hall.
Of course, some consultants are even more in the loop than the land commissioner.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/06 03:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
West Houston crime takes center stage
Over at Cigars...Donuts...and Coffee, Jason says that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have quite a predicament on their hands -- appeasing different parts of the city, while dealing with limited police resources:
Earlier this year residents and business people from the southwest portion of Houston went to city council to air their complaints about the rising crime rate. For a while that part of town was in the news everyday. As a result, the news was filled with HPD's fear reduction initiative, or the crime van, or mounted officers (in the daytime of course when the crooks are asleep) walking through apartment complexes. Many town hall meetings were held in which citizens asked questions (some venting their frustrations on the officers who had no idea what their specific situation was) and wanted to know what the police and city government were doing to solve the problem. The message basically was the police are stretched too thin as they are (which has earned the mayor and chief a lot of criticism).
[snip]
Now, the more affluent west side of Houston is airing the same complaint.
Crime may not have been on the official agenda at this week's Houston West Chamber of Commerce luncheon, but it seemed to be on everyone's mind.
"This concerns all of us, especially when I've had my own businesses broken into," said chamber president Jeannie M. Bollinger.
And when Bollinger asked Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale to discuss the issue, McIngvale recalled that the subject came up at an Astros game while he was talking to former President Bush and his wife. Barbara Bush, he said, asked: "What are they going to do about Westside?" Her hairdresser, McIngvale said, is afraid to go out at night.
"When the first lady says something about it, we got a problem," McIngvale said.
(Tom Frechette, spokesman for the former president, said the Bushes were vacationing overseas, so "I can't confirm nor deny" what Barbara Bush allegedly said.)
Whether or not one puts any importance on the opinion of McIngvale and Mrs. Bush, it surely adds to the heat the mayor and police chief are feeling:
To address crime, the chamber and other groups formed the West Houston Security Coalition, which has a Web site, www.westhouston coalition.com.
Bollinger said Mayor Bill White and HPD Chief Harold Hurtt will speak at a coalition meeting at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 30.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS (08-20-2006): KPRC-2 reports on the Westchase district's hiring of a private police force, which provoked an earlier, bizarre, debate in our forum, the point of which was/is unclear to me. Here is an excerpt from the KPRC story:
The 25-person force consists of off-duty HPD officers, so they have full arrest powers.
Businesses in the area along Westheimer and Beltway 8 spent $300,000 a year for the extra patrols.
Westchase is trying to combat car thefts and break-ins in parking lots, among other crimes.
"You look for stolen cars, suspicious activity or something," an officer said.
When the off-duty officers respond to calls, they can report the crimes to on-duty officers on HPD radios.
"By having extra officers here, we can relieve officers to protect the neighborhoods around us, so it really does help the communities around us," said Jim Murphy, the Westchase Business District president.
The officers are also patrolling the parking lots in the area, looking for people who are crawling around between the parked cars trying to break into them.
They're doing the routine patrols that HPD officers do not have as much time to do anymore because of a manpower shortage.
"There is a lot of crime on the west side of Harris County and the west side of Houston, so our customers feel pretty happy about seeing them riding around," restaurant owner Rick Forester said.
One suspects the good people of Westchase do appreciate the police presence, although it's a little embarrassing that they have to resort to private cops because the city is failing a public safety.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/06 02:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
HPD applicants should shave and wear long sleeves
HPD is looking for new police recruits:
On Thursday, August 24, 2006 the Houston Police Department and the City of Houston will administer the 2005 Civil Service Examination for Police Officer Trainees at the George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas, Exhibit Hall B at 9 a.m.
[snip]
Here are some other details about the application process:
- Applicants must have sixty (60) semester hours from an accredited college or university with a 2.0 GPA or above in a 4.0 system (or the equivalent) or military service with an honorable discharge as stipulated on a DD214
- Must be at least twenty-one (21) years of age at the end of their probationary period and less than forty-five (45) years of age before receiving the oath of office.
- Passing applicants will be referred to the Houston Police Department to continue processing. Any falsification in the application process will result in disqualification.
- Applicants must pass all phases of the recruiting process
- First year officers can earn up to $46,000 including benefits, equipment allowance, shift differential pay, weekend pay, a bachelor's degree and bilingual pay. For those considering a career change or just want to serve the community, this is an excellent opportunity to apply.
- Bilingual applicants in all languages are encouraged to apply
What's missing from the list? Chief Hurtt's grooming standards!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/06 11:31 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
The education system we have is of our own making
The Chronicle has a new education blog called "School Zone" with multiple contributors, including Jason Spencer and Jennifer Radcliffe. Currently the two top posts are about parental involvement in schools (written by Ericka Mellon), and the excuses schools give when they don't meet state standards (written by Spencer). Here's a bit from Mellon's post:
So, my first question is, do you think parents are crucial to improving schools, or do you think educators blame parents when poor teaching is really the culprit?
And question two: If you think parents are crucial to bettering schools, how do you get them involved? (I'll offer one suggestion: Free pizza.)
And from Spencer's post:
Around this time every year we hear the same excuse from school principals who have learned their campuses didn't make the grade under the state or federal accountability systems.
The explanation is usually something along the lines of: "Our whole school came up short because four Hispanic third-graders failed the math test." Or maybe: "We're a great school, but we're rated unacceptable because two low-income students couldn't pass the reading exam."
[snip]
Just think if your own kid tried using this logic on you to explain why he failed an exam. How would you react if your son said he scored a failing grade of 69 on a 100-question exam because of one question? Wouldn't you ask about the other 30 questions he missed?
Two interesting posts that are not completely unrelated.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/06 08:46 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
18 August 2006
Harris County GOP picks Sekula-Gibbs as preferred write-in candidate
The Chronicle's Eric Hanson reports today that Harris County precinct chairs have selected one Republican candidate to rally behind as a write-in candidate for Congressional District 22:
Republican Party precinct chairs endorsed Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs on Thursday night as the write-in candidate for the congressional district vacated by Tom DeLay.
[snip]The precinct chairs, who met behind closed doors, chose Sekula-Gibbs over a handful of opponents, including Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace and former state Republican Party executive committee member Tim Turner.
"Tonight was an opportunity for the Republican Party in Congressional District 22 to come to some healing," Sekula-Gibbs said after the group's decision. "We have come together and there is now a consensus, a majority, and we are going to go forward and win against the Democrats in November."
Apparently, Hansen did not ask doctor-councilwoman Sekula-Gibbs if she would be resigning her City Council seat so that she could concentrate on mounting a vigorous write-in candidacy while introducing herself to the voters of the district, many of whom are unfamiliar with her.
Of course, she will not be resigning her Council seat, because she cannot win as a write-in candidate regardless of how vigorously she campaigns. This is much more about the Congressional race in 2008, when she will no longer be a member of Council.
Chris Elam's blog remains the indispensable source for the latest goings on and comments on the big fun in CD-22.
UPDATE (08-19-2006): A Chronicle story today includes the thoughts of Houston bicyclist Bob Stein on the "race." The two journalists who wrote the story apparently did not think to ask the doctor-councilwoman if she would be resigning her council seat to focus on this uphill race.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/18/06 06:14 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)
17 August 2006
Councilmember Berry to speak to HPRA Friday
Since we're speaking of Houston personalities who have burgers named after them tonight, it's worth noting that Councilmember Michael Berry is scheduled to speak to the Houston Property Rights Association tomorrow. The promotional email suggests that Councilmember Berry will address proposed changes to the Houston preservation ordinance, although we suspect he'll be discussing all manner of things during the Q&A.
The session will be at the Courtyard Restaurant at 1885 St. James Place, Friday (Aug. 18) at noon. Lunch is optional, and is $14.
The Michael Berry burger, by the way, is available at Jim Goode's Armadillo Palace on Kirby.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/06 10:38 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (12)
Hoffman gets no respect from Demeris patron
Chronicle columnist Ken Hoffman has a burger named after him at Demeris barbeque.
At one time, another restaurant had this burger named for Hoffman. That restaurant closed. Somehow, Demeris came to have the Hoffy burger.
In today's column, Hoffman tells an amusing story about a guy waiting for food at Demeris who started arguing with Hoffman and crew that the burger is really named for "John Hofheinz."
It's a fun read. Houstonians can be a hoot when they're armed with a few incorrect notions and a full head of steam (hmm, I wonder.... nah, surely James Howard Gibbons knows that the burger is named after his newspaper's columnist; it had to be someone else).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/06 10:18 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
Civic Strategies urban journalism ranking has Chron at #19
Banjo Jones calls attention to the fact that an organization called Civic Strategies has issued its rankings of 22 urban newspapers, and that the Chronicle is at #19.
So, what is Civic Strategies and why should we care what they think about our newspaper?
Here's the group's self-description:
Civic Strategies is a strategic planning firm that structures public policy solutions for cities and regions. We do this by helping our clients make the right decisions in the right ways....
[snip]
At Civic Strategies, we bring a unique set of strengths to this work. First, we understand cities and what makes them tick. (In fact, Civic Strategies publishes a widely read newsletter on urban issues.) Second, we are deeply experienced in managing decision processes. Third, we know how to engage the public in constructive dialogues on important issues. Finally, we understand public policy — and which decisions are sustainable in the long run.
Well, they certainly make themselves sound important enough to critique my local newspaper. Let's see how they went about it:
All right. But how do we judge journalism? When we say that the New York Times produced 100 examples of good urban journalism in 2003, how do we know that? Simple answer: We clipped 100 articles from the Times and stuck them in our files for use in understanding urban trends in general or the New York area in particular.
Specifically what are our criteria for clipping an article? In general, we ask:
* Does this article help us understand this city or region?
* Does it point to an emerging urban trend?
* Is it so bizarre or funny that Tom Wolfe might work it into one of his novels?
It's not at all clear to me that these criteria really establish whether a newspaper is doing what we here would think of as quality urban journalism, but then again, we're just lowly local bloggers and not bigshot urban trends consultants (although we do like Tom Wolfe). For what it's worth, five Kristen Mack articles have been "clipped," and two Matt Stiles articles have been "clipped." Perhaps if the newspaper devoted serious coverage to Harris County government, that beat writer could get some clips and boost the Chron's ranking, but alas, that beat goes undercovered.
The New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times finish at the top of the ratings, no doubt because those places have lots of urban-trendy things going on. Some might even say they're world class!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/06 09:57 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
Food and drink roundup (08-17-2006 edition)
The weekend is upon us. Maybe today's food and drink roundup has something you'd like to try.
Alison Cook heads over to lower Westheimer to try Chez George and loves what she finds. Humble's Rockin' Baja Lobster doesn't fare so well, but she does find some things to recommend at this new eatery. As an aside, if you aren't regularly reading Alison Cook's Chron blog, you're missing out.
Robb Walsh tries Bombay Brasserie, one of the bH crew's favorite places to eat Indian. Oh my, he's condescending about chicken tikka masala, but it's SO good there, as is the lamb saagwala. And they're never afraid to turn up the heat. The original Kelley's Country Cooking gets a few visits too. Since it's just a few exits further down the freeway from the Dot Coffee Shop, I wonder if some of the bH crew will ever get around to trying it (Dot's is hard to beat).
Mary Vuong gets adventurous on us and hits the cafeterias at local hospitals.
And Lance Scott Walker reviews "one of the biggest clubs in downtown."
World Class, all of it. Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 08/17/06 09:42 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)
16 August 2006
Weingarten speaks (briefly) to WSJ reporter
Since rumors started flying about the future of several landmark buildings owned by Weingarten, the firm has pretty much stiffed local reporters looking for comments. In a subscriber-only Wall Street Journal story by Thaddeus Herrick today, the company offers slightly more of a response than local reporters have managed to get:
Patty Bender, director of leasing for Weingarten, said the company doesn't yet have a "definite plan" for the shopping center but that the Alabama Theater could pose a "challenging situation" should Barnes & Noble pull out. Still, Ms. Bender said the company has long sought to be faithful to the architectural style of the three landmarks.
Weingarten seems to be trying to prepare people for the bad news, which comes in the following paragraph:
David Deason, vice president for development at Barnes & Noble, said the New York-based company intends to close the Bookstop in favor of a "state of the art" facility. But Mr. Deason said the fate of the landmarks is in the hands of Weingarten.
Folks who hope actually to persuade Weingarten to preserve their historic properties might consider calling or writing the company. While petitions are an easy, feel-good form of activism, nothing gets the attention of businesses and/or politicians like swarms of calls and letters.
BLOGVERSATION: Houstonist, Mike McGuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/16/06 11:39 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
City Council suffers from Pass-a-Law Syndrome
A few days ago, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles wrote quite a story on the seemingly endless stream of ordinances passed by City Council which are not enforced:
The object of concern was "pocket bikes" — speedy midget motorcycles that Houston City Council deemed a growing hazard and nuisance.
Council members spent three meetings discussing them. They debated for hours and added multiple amendments to a proposed ordinance. Finally, in May 2005, they banned the bikes from city streets.
Riding a pocket bike on a public road already violates state law. City officials said they were giving police and prosecutors a specific tool for a crackdown.
But the Houston Police Department hasn't issued a single citation.
"Unless they're getting calls, I can't imagine officers going out there and actively looking for it," said Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union. "There's no time."
Ah yes, the pocket bike crisis. Remember that one?
But it doesn't stop there:
It's a trend. City Council creates new misdemeanors amid fanfare and debate, and sometimes nothing much seems to happen.
In recent months, the panel banned parking on esplanades and restricted roadside vehicle sales. Those rules also haven't produced a ticket, according to Municipal Court records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act.
The council's still going strong. It is considering an earlier juvenile curfew, tougher smoking rules and a ban on homeowners parking in their yards. Meanwhile, the city's health department has a single, part-time smoking inspector. And police are struggling with an officer shortage and an increase in violent crime.
"We spend so much time on all these ordinances, and they are just sitting on the books," said Councilman M.J. Khan, who raised concerns recently about curfew enforcement. "What's the point?"
Well, apparently the point is to make councilmembers feel like they are doing something, accomplishing some good. Call it therapy for civic-minded city officials. So the next time some public uproar comes about, councilmembers can say, "Don't look at us -- we passed a law against that!"
Well, Matt Stiles wrote his story too soon, because City Council is ready to take up another pressing city problem:
Downtown boosters have complained about it for years. Now a city council committee has come up with a proposed ordinance that would regulate news boxes on Houston streets.
[snip]
Councilmembers who generally like the ordinance showed off pictures of how it’s done in other cities and wondered whether Houston’s going far enough.
“I just want to go one step further and really include aesthetics, really see what individual businesses want,” said Councilmember Toni Lawrence.
Aha. The city may not be able to figure out how to get rid of graffiti, but Council is ready to pass a strict ordinance against newspaper boxes. And lest you worry there'll be no one to enforce the new ordinance, Lilliana Rambo, the city's Parking Manager, says her folks can handle the menace of non-color coordinated newspaper racks.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/16/06 08:59 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (17)
Councilman Berry: Tow the uninsured
I just caught a portion of a KPRC-2 on-air news story that said Councilman Michael Berry is proposing towing the cars of drivers who are uninsured.
Since I didn't catch the whole story, I'm not sure what details I missed, but I did hear Councilwoman Ada Edwards protesting that towing the uninsured is akin to towing the poor. The voiceover on the story (perhaps Bill Balleza's voice) said that Councilman Berry would settle for towing only drivers who have been in an accident.
UPDATE: It's unusual for my memory to fail me, but it did today. This towing proposal was first floated in February by Councilman Berry.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Councilmember Berry passes along the following note:
My comment to the news station was that I’d LIKE to impound cars who are even stopped for a violation and lack insurance. I don’t know that I can get that passed through council, though. I may have to settle for impounding cars which are involved in accidents when the driver lacks insurance, if I can’t get full support on the broader measure.
Richmond and Rosenberg do that, and some other major cities have done so as well.
Quite simply, if someone can’t afford insurance or fails to get it, then they can’t operate a motor vehicle on the public roads. It’s state law.
There will be those who’ll throw up roadblocks, like “what if law-abiding citizens don’t have their insurance with them, but they have it?” Call the insurance company. That is simply no excuse for ... cars driving with no insurance. HPD’s policy has been to let those lawbreakers drive away from an accident to go do the same thing again somewhere down the road. Then again, we won’t know how many of these offenders are illegal, since we of course handcuff our officers by preventing them from asking this important question.
Agreed on all counts!
UPDATE (08-17-2006): As expected, Councilmember Berry is talking about this topic (and the Veteran's Day parade, and the new Homeless Court) on his KPRC-950 talk show today. Email/Call him and let him know what you think!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/16/06 05:50 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
Fuller: Latest population tally doesn't trigger redistricting
Last week, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported that Mayor White was spreading the word that the city might need to take up redistricting due to population growth.
KTRH-740's Brent Fuller reports that it does not look as though redistricting will be necessary:
The Houston city charter requires the creation of two new council positions, Districts J and K, after the city's population goes over 2.1 million. However, the [American Community Survey] released today estimated Houston's population at only 1.9 million.
Earlier estimates said the city actually went over 2.1 million residents late last year, with the influx of hurricane evacuees into town.
Mayor White and his Council can now focus their attention on really pressing issues, such as pocket bikes and newspaper racks.
UPDATE: Matt Stiles reports on the story for the Chronicle.
BLOGVERSATION: Isiah Carey's Insite.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/16/06 12:19 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
15 August 2006
Will the Veteran's Day Parade be canceled?
News (KTRH-740, KHOU-11) that Houston's Veterans Day parade might be canceled this year prompted lots of talk on the Houston airwaves today.
On KPRC-950, Councilmember Michael Berry faulted US for the possibility, suggesting that nobody downtown wanted to cancel the parade, but rather the veterans themselves were considering cancellation because of fears of low attendance (in other words, most of US staying home).
Later on KTRH-740, San Antonio talker Joe Pagliarulo criticized Mayor White for allegedly trying to cancel the parade. In the final few minutes of the show, Pagliarulo brought on Susan Christian of the Mayor's Office of Special Events, who said that nobody from the city wants to cancel the parade, and that indeed, city officials just want what the veterans want. With that, the show ran out of time, and "Houston" talk radio shifted back from San Antonio to the latest sub for Chris Baker.
I emailed the Mayor's communications team for comment, but [See Update] they ignored my email as they have ignored every single email I've ever sent them. Nevertheless, while we have our disagreements with Mayor White on any number of policy issues, we tend to agree with Councilmember Berry (as opposed to the Clear Channel guy from San Antonio talking about Houston) that neither Mayor White nor other politicians are to blame here. Rather, our general lack of interest seems to be most at fault.
Councilmember Berry pledged that he and early-morning KPRC talker Pat Gray would be gauging listener interest in the parade, in the hopes of persuading the veterans that they should not cancel it. Berry asked for emails from people who would pledge to attend the parade. I emailed Councilmember Berry that I thought a number of local bloggers and blog readers would make such a pledge. What do you think?
UPDATE (08-16-2006): This morning, Jessica Michan with the Mayor's office replied to my email from yesterday:
The decision has not been made as to whether we will host a Veteran's Day parade this year. One of the most respected veterans organizations in the city, the Veteran's Cemetery Council, will take the lead in the decision-making. The City is cooperating with the Council.
It was city employees who re-instituted the Veteran's parade.
The discussion on whether or not to hold a parade was being discussed by the Veteran's Council based on the experience of that group several years ago when Veteran's Day fell on a weekend.
I appreciate that information from the Mayor's office. It seems clear to me that Joe Pags was mistaken in beating up Mayor White on this issue. That can happen when people who live in San Antonio are asked to talk about Houston issues.
BLOGVERSATION: Easter Leeming Liberal News.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/15/06 11:44 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (28)
Houston has a surplus and Mayor White doesn't want to share it
As noted in Ubu Roi's City Council agenda post, Mayor White is attempting to gut Prop. 2 (item #47). On KSEV-700 this afternoon Harris County Tax Collector/Assessor Paul Bettencourt said the same thing -- that Mayor White plans to gut Prop. 2. He said that if Mayor White gets to rewrite the proposition, 87% of all city revenues would not be subject to a revenue cap.
KSEV host Chris Begala also spoke with Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs who said she is voting against the measure (that is, voting against the mayor bringing this reworked proposition before the voters). She also mentioned that the city is sitting on a surplus of $34 million!
Bettencourt confirmed that the city has a large surplus to go along with its record-breaking tax collections, and yet, it appears Mayor White doesn't want to give back anything to the taxpayers.
PREVIOUSLY: City, METRO are enjoying sales tax windfall
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/15/06 07:57 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
Important fact nestled within Chron's Richmond rail rant
The Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists are raging predictably today about an old "bad guy," Rep. John Culberson. They're so wound up it could almost be described as the LiveJournal equivalent of a hissy fit!
Still, one lone snippet from the rant caught our eye:
In 2003, Metro area voters narrowly approved an ambitious plan to expand both bus and rail transit. The ballot initiative referred to a proposed light rail line along Westpark.
Westpark.
Not Richmond.
That wasn't so hard.
METRO runs into problems when it acts (arrogantly) as if Westpark really meant Richmond, or other ballot language really meant something else. Such departures from the METRO Solutions plan approved by voters in 2003 may be preferred by some bloggers from the Heights and architects who hope to benefit from certain types of rail development and Galleria real-estate developers and the Editorial LiveJournalists, but those departures from METRO Solutions inevitably result in neighborhoods and elected officials and activists all shouting over each other, and insisting that proposals that suit their personal preferences are much better than proposals that suit some other group's personal preferences.
One purpose of the METRO Solutions vote was to remove such interest-group pluralistic deadlock by establishing community approval for or rejection of the METRO Solutions plan. Rail skeptics did insist that METRO put alignment language on the ballot. Rail opponents ultimately lost the vote. The community approved rail, with that alignment language.
METRO is on firm political ground when it closely adheres to METRO Solutions, and can wield the club of popular support against anyone (rail opponents, Rep. Culberson, pols, activists) who might object. As METRO departs from METRO Solutions, however, it invites the very interest-group acrimony that the community vote was intended to head off.
UPDATE: Blind rage sometimes leads to mistakes:
"Metro created this dilemma," said Culberson, the man who for a decade helped to block all federal aid for rail transit in Houston....
Rep. Culberson has not been a member of Congress for a decade. He first began serving in Congress in 2001. Whoops!
UPDATE (08-16-2006): The Chronicle issued a correction today:
An editorial on Page B6 Tuesday mistakenly implied that U.S. Rep. John Culberson had served in Congress for a decade. Culberson is serving his sixth year as a member of the U.S. House.
They did not add, "This fact severely undermines our rant that he's stood in the way of federal funding for Houston rail for a decade." They also did not add that he's been a member of Appropriations for only three years.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/15/06 08:33 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (20)
14 August 2006
A favorite Houston tow-truck urban myth returns
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports on a new collection of SAFEclear data compiled at the request of a federal judge. Houston bicyclist Bob Stein even makes an appearance:
While the city has released information about crash reductions since the program went into effect in January 2005, the report offers some new details about what Mayor Bill White has touted as a key to increasing safety and reducing congestion on Houston's freeways.
Compiled by Bob Stein of Rice University, whose wife works in the mayor's office, and Tim Lomax of the Texas Transportation Institute, the report groups tows into nine categories.
Only 8,670 of the tows — about 15 percent — followed wrecks. Other reasons were more obscure. For example, about 250 stolen, flooded or burned vehicles were removed, less than 1 percent of the total.
The arrest of drivers accounted for 1,517 tows, or nearly 3 percent.
The study also said Safe Clear, which uses selected tow companies, accounts for about 5 percent of all the towing business in Houston.
The judge's request for the data comes because of a lawsuit by tow companies that are not part of the SAFEclear program.
An old red herring makes its way into the story:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/06 11:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
City of Houston Agenda 8-15-06
As always, 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.
Edit: It's an agenda of contrasts. Pay particular note to items #5 & 48; #10 & 33. #45 is mildly humorous and #47 will be the next big city-wide political battle.
AGENDA - COUNCIL MEETING - TUESDAY - AUGUST 15, 2006 - 1:30 P. M.
COUNCIL CHAMBER - SECOND FLOOR - CITY HALL
901 BAGBY - HOUSTON, TEXAS
PRAYER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - Council Member Lovell
1:30 P. M. - ROLL CALL
ADOPT MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
2:00 P. M. - PUBLIC SPEAKERS
5:00 P. M. - RECESS
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 08/14/06 10:29 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
HPD looks to retirees for help
Retired police officers will soon be helping to alleviate HPD's manpower shortage:
The first retirees began training Monday at Houston’s downtown police headquarters.
“We look at the background of the particular retired officer—how long they’ve been retired, what their particular service record is and the like—and find a job suitable for that officer,” said Houston Mayor Bill White.
11 News obtained an internal memo from Chief Harold Hurtt informing Mayor White that, by August 2, 199 retired officers had applied for part-time jobs and that 190 of them were retired HPD officers.
Nine were retirees from other law enforcement agencies.
The retirees will not work on the street like full-time officers.
But city officials said the part-timers will free up police for more active duty.
Jerry Defoor is president, Houston Police Retired Officers Association, “It’s probably going to be a majority of those folks will be in investigations. That’s where there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on the department, because there’s not enough folks available to do the background of the cases that don’t have a lot of detail.”
[snip]
Some officers still on the force privately said they don’t like this idea and think Houston just needs to hire more full time cops.
I'm curious to know what our HPD folks think of this new program.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/14/06 07:15 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
The cost of Katrina crime
In this AP story on Katrina evacuees contributing to Houston's increase in crime (yes, yet another story!), Harris County Judge Robert Eckels tells us the financial cost:
Judge Robert Eckels, chief executive of Harris County, which includes Houston, said Katrina evacuees arrested in the Houston have cost the county's criminal justice system more than $18 million. In June, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent $19.5 million to Houston to help pay for additional officers and overtime to police the city after Katrina.
And the human cost:
Houston police believe the evacuees are partly responsible for a nearly 17.5 percent increase in homicides so far this year over the same period in 2005.
But Judge Eckels is optimistic that the bad guys will soon be leaving town:
Eckels predicted the county's worst guests will go home once their federal assistance dries up. And if many choose to stick around, the county will be ready: "We don't put up with it here. If you break the law, you're going to be prosecuted."
I don't know -- as long as Houston pushes for handout extensions and FEMA grants them, this could go on for a while.
UPDATE: In the comments, Eric C. Carlson calls attention to some meticulous work he has done compiling crime statistics, available here.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS (08-15-2006): This story has reached the BBC. Do you know what that must mean? We are world class!
BLOGVERSATION: Misunderestimation.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/14/06 06:48 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (16)
Spur 527 revenue stream operating today
The Spur 527 revenue stream/speed trap at the Louisiana exit was in full swing again today, just a little past 4 pm.
Be sure to slow it down to 35 mph (even though people will be FLYING by you) if that's a route you travel, or you will wind up contributing to the city.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/06 04:28 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
METRO still looking at some technology for Park and Pillages
Remember back in 2005 when METRO stopped using security staff at Park and Rides, and Park and Pillages predictably ensued?
Back in June of this year, Anne Linehan notified us that the swift folks at METRO were still looking into some technology.
Today, KHOU-11 reports that pillaging is still going on at the METRO lots:
Someone is going onto Houston’s Park n Ride lots and stealing gas from cars.
Metro police have a had a tough time catching the crooks but say that’s about to change.
Thousands of people each workday drive in, lock up and go to work.
“There’s not much I can do once I park my car, engage my alarm and go to work. There’s nothing else I can do about it other than hope when I come back my car is there and in one piece,” said commuter Pearl Lewis.
But there have been thefts at the city’s Park n Ride lots, including what is rapidly becoming one of the most valuable things in the car—gas
Not to worry though, because METRO promises they're looking into -- guess what -- some technology to help them out!
But Metro Police intend to employ some new allies. They call them "intelligent cameras”.
“If there’s any unusual activity on the lot it’ll send an alert to the camera operator who can then zoom in, tell what kind of vehicle it is, what kind of person’s in the car, very high resolution,” said Michael Raney, Metro Police.
They hope to have nearly 350 cameras watching over these lots that will be monitored from a central command 24/7.
[snip]
Metro hopes to have all the cameras up and running by the end this month.
Maybe a year from now, we can put a post up that METRO has actually deployed some of that exciting technology they keep promising. In the meantime, it's good to know that cars still are not safe in METRO's Park and Pillage facilities even as the transit organization continues to rake in windfall revenues.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/06 03:18 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Fuller: Sanctuary referendum will not make it to 2006 ballot
KTRH-740's Brent Fuller is reporting that a group trying to change Houston's sanctuary policy will not be able to place the issue before voters this fall:
The offical deadline to put any City of Houston charter changes before voters this fall is August 29. But, due to city rules and some strong opposition on city council to the proposal, it appears the group really needed to file their petition before August 11.
The Mayor's own proposal, on the other hand, looks set to go before voters this fall. Mayor White hopes to gut certain provisions of the Proposition 2 referendum that was approved by voters in 2004. Mayor White offered his own Proposition 1 as an alternative to Proposition 2, but a judge has ruled that since both passed, the city must abide by both.
Fuller's accurate characterization of the anti-sanctuary-proposal is nice to see/hear:
The petition aims to change a long-standing policy at HPD. Right now, city cops are forbidden from asking anyone about their citizenship status if they're stopped for a Class C misdemeanor offense, like a traffic ticket or trespassing. City cops also can't stop someone and ask about their legal status if they've committed no crime. The petition, if approved, would leave those enforcement issues to officers' discretion.
Too many people continue to assert that repealing the sanctuary directive would turn Houston into a police state, where cops constantly harass citizens for documentation. As KTRH's steady Fuller points out, that's not what is being proposed. Rather, the proposal would simply return the matter to the discretion of officers on the street.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/14/06 01:46 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
13 August 2006
Editorial LiveJournalists defend Texas Futile Care Law
The Editorial LiveJournalists addressed the Texas Futile Care Law on Saturday.
We have previously discussed the Texas Futile Care Law as applied to several Houston cases. Essentially, the law authorizes hospitals to terminate the care of patients if the hospital determines further care to be medically futile. The decision of the hospital may not be appealed or reviewed by another entity, and the family's wishes or financial means do not factor into the decision. Once the decision is made, families have ten days to locate another facility for the patient, or the patient's care is removed. In practice, most facilities are not going to want to take on such patients (if they can even be moved), and so the decision of the hospital is typically final.
Pro-life activists in Texas have recently taken aim at the Texas Futile Care Law, hoping to abolish it or radically reform it. They contend that hospitals should not enjoy the unreviewable power to terminate a life by denying treatment (even for patients that have the financial means to continue treatment). Theirs is principled opposition, regardless of whether or not one agrees with that position.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/13/06 11:27 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
Sallee: METRO forced to ponder Westpark rail options
Rad Sallee assesses the current state of the Westpark rail debate in a Chronicle article today.
No excerpt can really do the article justice, so here's a link.
Earlier today, Ted Richardson (who opposes light rail on Richmond) emailed me, Sallee, and a number of other people a copy of a proposed alignment that he submitted to METRO. Richardson's proposal was referred to briefly in the confusing reporting from last weekend, but no significant details of the proposal were reported. To summarize, Richardson's proposal has the line running along the south side of the Southwest Freeway on an elevated track, then eventually working its way to Westpark. Here is the proposal (pdf) Richardson passed along, and here is a rough rendering (pdf) of the "el" that he also sent.
While I'm certainly a proponent of grade-separated rail if we're going to do rail (and voters decided that we were in 2003), the big concern here is likely to be the cost of elevating a section along the Southwest Freeway, whether on the north or south side. Another potential objection is esthetic, since it will detract visually from the artsy bridges along the freeway.
Getting this line from Wheeler station to Westpark (which begins on Kirby) with minimal use of Richmond (as per Rep. Culberson's request and the Metro Solutions 2003 vote) is going to be a challenge. Feel free to discuss Richardson's proposal and other options in the comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/13/06 09:13 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
Editorial LiveJournalists blast away on "sanctuary" semantics
Earlier in the week, the Editorial LiveJournalists had that gaffe (still uncorrected) on airport security.
On the same day, the Editorial LiveJournalists used the Harris County GOP's promotion of a petition drive to continue a recent trend of insisting that Houston is not a sanctuary city:
The petition drive, which will be mute after Aug. 28 if the signatures have not been verified by the city secretary, rests on two fictions: that Houston is a so-called sanctuary city and that Houston police cannot ask criminals and suspects whether they are in this country legally.
HPD General Order 500-05, issued in 1992, forbids officers from inquiring about an individual's immigration status. The Congressional Research Service has described this as a sanctuary policy. The Editorial LiveJournalists can continue to insist that the sanctuary policy is really not a sanctuary policy, and that the not-sanctuary policy really is a prudent and necessary policy, but it's not at all clear why such supporters of the not-sanctuary policy are so scared of a real Council debate over the policy, instead preferring to treat the directive issued by the police chief in 1992 as some sort of sacred decree.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Pundit.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/13/06 08:59 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
12 August 2006
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston
My eldest son and I spent this morning volunteering at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston Back-to-School Fair held at the Family Christian Center in Sugar Land. It was a tremendous event that began early (very early!) and benefited many children. Organizers said about 6,000 children attended last year and this year they expected more, closer to 8,000.
There were free health screenings, immunizations, dental screenings and ID services. Also free backpacks and school supplies were handed out.
The mentoring relationships Big Brothers Big Sisters facilitates can have a profound impact on the lives of children who are often considered at-risk, coming from single-parent homes. BBBS also provides communication classes for parents and children, and schedules events in which BBBS Bigs and Littles can participate.
Interested in helping out? Here are the links if you'd like to contribute, either by becoming a Big or through a financial contribution. It's a great organization!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/12/06 08:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Double standard on jury-pool pollution?
Yesterday, the Chronicle ran what was effectively a press release from Mike DeGuerin, the attorney for former TSU president Priscilla Slade:
The lawyer for fired Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade accused Harris County's district attorney of making "reckless, political and unprofessional" comments about the indicted former official.
"It has the tendency to pollute the jury pool," attorney Mike DeGeurin said Thursday after Slade made her first court appearance since being indicted last week on two felony charges.
DeGeurin said Slade, who is charged with misapplication of fiduciary property, was "elevating TSU where it ought to be" before she was fired in June.
I'm relatively skeptical about claims that such basic comments on cases significantly "pollute" the jury pool, although I understand why some people might believe it.
However, when Mayor White and his wife Andrea (who is an attorney) very publicly suggested that their daughter was improperly arrested for driving under the influence after earlier deciding to try the case in the public sphere, the same Chronicle reporter did not round up a quote from anyone who thought the couple's public comments might pollute the jury pool.
Why treat the two instances differently?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/12/06 04:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
Bomb scare turns out to be false alarm
The Chronicle reports that a bomb scare at Helfman Dodge yesterday on the Katy Freeway turned out to be a false alarm, although media reports have given precious little information about the device that caused the scare.
Yesterday, KHOU-11 sent out a number of email alerts as the story developed. The last email alert was so terse as to be somewhat amusing (in retrospect -- the threat of a bomb is never amusing at the time):
The bomb scare at Helfman Dodge appears to be over.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/12/06 03:41 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)
Numerous road closures this weekend
The Chronicle has posted a good roundup of what seems like more than the usual weekend road closures.
There is no word from METRO whether double trains will be running to compensate.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/12/06 03:35 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
KTRK's Oberg blogs from London
Oberg is keeping a blog/journal while he's there, located here.
It's not clear if the trip is going to produce much substantive blogging, but here's hoping that KTRK will set Oberg up with a regular blog when he returns, to supplement his local reporting.
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/12/06 03:21 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)
11 August 2006
Revenue stream manpower needs trump west Houston crime concerns (apparently)
The above photo was taken just before 4pm, at the Spur 527/Louisiana exit. Two HPD cops/patrol cars are involved in a speed trap. The officer with the radar gun appeared to be shooting cars while they were still on the Spur 527 proper, then waving them over to the other cop.
So sorry to you folks in west Houston who are suffering from murders and such, but MayorWhiteChiefHurtt really have more important dutie$ for HPD manpower than redeploying it to tackle your violent crime. Good luck with that private police force!
PREVIOUSLY: Sallee: Best to mind your speed on Spur 527, Is the city cranking up the Spur 527 revenue stream?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/11/06 04:31 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (19)
Chron misstates current carry-on rules
The Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists made a pretty big factual gaffe in their statement on airport security measures today:
What followed at U.S. airports is bound to have the public wondering. Security officials canceled some flights and forced airline passengers to discard or repack in checked baggage all liquids and gels, including toothpaste, bottled water, shampoo and the like. Electronic devices, from laptop computers to phones and iPods, were forbidden. The heightened hand luggage checks caused long delays.
Electronic devices have not been forbidden in the cabin on flights originating in the U.S. Yesterday, KTRK-13's consumer blog pointed us to the definitive statement from the TSA:
Media have also reported that laptops, cell phones and electronic items are no longer allowed. Is that true.
No. TSA continues to allow laptop computers, cell phones and other electronic items.
Local media that have erroneously reported that electronic devices are forbidden should issue a correction ASAP.
As substance goes, the Editorial LiveJournalists seem to be ridiculing the current ban on liquids from carry-ons:
Real security requires hunting down terrorists, not looking for bottles of shampoo.
We have begun to see reports of how the UK terrorists planned on concealing their explosives:
The suspected terror plotters arrested in Britain had planned to conceal their liquid or gel explosives inside a modified sports beverage drink container and trigger the device with the flash from a disposable camera.
ABC News has learned exclusively that the plotters planned to leave the top of the bottle sealed and filled with the original beverage but add a false bottom, filled with a liquid or gel explosive. The terrorists planned to dye the explosive mixture red to match the sports drink sealed in the top half of the container.
This, they thought, would ensure that they would be able to pass through security -- even if they were asked to unseal and drink the beverage.
In light of the specific threats that were thwarted by UK authorities, the current ban on carrying liquids into the cabin seems prudent enough, and hardly the sort of measure a major American newspaper -- or even the Chronicle -- ought to be ridiculing.
UPDATE (08-16-2006): The Chronicle finally corrected the mistake today:
An editorial on Page B8 Friday failed to clarify that laptop computers and other electronic equipment were banned from carry-on luggage only on flights originating in Great ritain.
The editorial got the facts wrong. The correction is not entirely forthright.
BLOGVERSATION: Isolated Desolation, Lone Star Times, RAW360.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/11/06 08:19 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
State of the (Convention and Visitors) Bureau luncheon
Yesterday, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau held a celebratory luncheon (via the Houston Business Journal):
During its last fiscal year, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau secured more than 600,000 hotel room nights for future years with an estimated economic impact to nearly $750 million.
That was one of the accomplishments celebrated Thursday at the annual State of the Bureau luncheon held at the Hyatt Regency downtown.
[snip]
During the last fiscal year that ended June 30, the bureau posted a larger membership base than it has had in the last 24 years. The bureau added 153 new members, surpassing the 1,000 total member mark.
The bureau also created a department to focus on short-term bookings, which has booked more than 40,000 hotel room nights to date.
GHCVB and its partners also hosted the largest inbound travel trade show for Latin America, La Cumbre, one week after Hurricane Katrina brought thousands of evacuees to the Astrodome and George R. Brown Convention Center.
In case you were wondering, a certain shoe aficionado was present:
Although Jordy Tollett, GHCVB's president and CEO, is on a temporary leave of absence from his post, he was present in the crowded ballroom to lead the annual meeting.
The story also notes the GHVCB's budget for the new fiscal year: $12.9 million.
Does anyone else find it odd that all these governmental entities have "State of the..." luncheons? Couldn't they just issue a press release? I suppose it's a good excuse to have a party, but how much do these state luncheons cost taxpayers?
UPDATE: The Chronicle coverage is here.
PREVIOUSLY: Tollett takes extended leave of absence from GHCVB, avoids firing, Jordy Tollett, special hunter with very special shoes
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/11/06 06:19 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (12)
10 August 2006
Press releases/appearances don't help much with graffiti abatement
The Chronicle's Tom Manning writes about a man in the Heights who has assumed graffiti-abatement duties because of the inability of the city to handle the task:
ON Sunday mornings, when most people are relaxing and enjoying the weekend, Paul Luccia is hard at work.
Armed with an industrial-sized sprayer, a generator and about 40 gallons of paint, the Heights resident is out on the street, covering every piece of graffiti he can find.It's something Luccia, 43, has been doing since May, when he finally got fed up enough with the increase in graffiti he'd seen in the Heights to do something about it.
"I just got tired of looking at graffiti in my neighborhood all the time," said Luccia, a contractor and seven-year Heights resident. "I noticed a sharp increase last fall in the Heights. I had always seen it in Montrose and it had been a problem there for years, but it was starting to spread into our neighborhood."
So Luccia made a few phone calls, first to Keep Houston Beautiful, which gave him a power generator for his cleanup efforts.
He then contacted the Houston Police Department's Neighborhood Protection Corps, which gave him the green light to abate graffiti in his neighborhood.
Whether it's hiring private policing or handling neighborhood graffiti, it seems citizens and neighborhood groups are increasingly going to have to take on tasks that the city simply isn't handling well.
Maybe I'll just buy some paint and do it myself.
UPDATE (08-13-2006): I stopped at Sears, bought a clearance gallon of gray exterior deck/metal flat paint and some throwaway brushes for under $10 total, and painted over the graffiti this afternoon. It felt good after looking at that garbage for a couple of months.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/06 10:46 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
City asks for nominations for disability advocates of the year
The Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities is calling for nominations for disability advocates:
The city of Houston is seeking nominations for this year's Mayor's Disability Advocates of the Year through Aug. 15.
The award seeks to recognize the contribution of community volunteers who have increased an awareness of disability issues, are working to remove barriers to people with disabilities, or who represent disabled people who cannot represent themselves.
Three awards will be given: for an advocate with a disability; an advocate without a disability; and a junior advocate who is 18 years old and under. Award winners will be announced in September, and the awards will be given in October to coincide with National Disability Awareness Month.
Submit nomination letters and supporting information to:
Jeff Anderson
Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities
P.O. Box 1562, Houston, TX 77251-1562
blogHOUSTON will not be nominating the Mayor's parking director, Lilliana Rambo, for the award. Boo!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/06 10:22 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington comes to Houston
The MFAH is taking care of a famous painting for the next year:
A major portrait of George Washington by the American painter Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) is now on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, courtesy of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. This is the first public presentation of the painting, known as George Washington (The Constable-Hamilton Portrait), since its purchase by Crystal Bridges at auction last year. It is installed in the Kilroy Gallery of the Audrey Jones Beck Building, where it will be on view for the next year.
“The MFAH is thrilled to host this likeness of our first president while the Crystal Bridges Museum is being readied for its public opening,” said Peter C. Marzio, director at the MFAH. “Gilbert Stuart,” said Emily Ballew Neff, curator of American painting and sculpture at the MFAH, “is one of the finest portrait painters of any era. Although the MFAH has two portraits by Gilbert Stuart, both at Bayou Bend, neither is of George Washington, so this is a spectacular opportunity for the public, and schoolchildren in particular, to see an outstanding portrait of Stuart’s greatest subject.”
The Chronicle's AP story is here.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/10/06 08:35 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chron quotes, doesn't identify, admitted thief in North Forest ISD story
A Chronicle story by Cynthia Leonor Garza earlier this week described problems in the North Forest ISD, focusing on the district's controversial superintendent.
Here's an interesting excerpt:
Just two years ago, the newly hired Simpson sat in front of a packed auditorium at Forest Brook High School and said the moment marked "a new beginning" for the district plagued by past problems.
Then, three of the district's schools were recognized by the state, five were acceptable and three were unacceptable.
Since then, things have gone "from OK to bad to worse," said Cynthia Bailey, a parent and executive director of Sure Thing, a North Forest area after-school program. "Instead of going up we're going down."
That wouldn't be the same Cynthia Bailey who pleaded guilty in 2005 to stealing over $200,000 from the district, and the same Cynthia Bailey who is awaiting sentencing that will take place next month?
Why yes, by all indications, it would be the same Cynthia Bailey!
Perhaps Cynthia Bailey wasn't the best person to quote in a story about problems at North Forest ISD.
UPDATE: In the comments, Sedosi points out that KHOU-11 just ran a story on this topic that did include the important facts omitted/ignored by the Chronicle. Here's an excerpt from the KHOU story:
When 11 News checked out a school protest, we discovered that several people are charged in numerous schemes to take money from schools.
It was a small protest, regardless Cynthia Bailey let us know about it.
“The board need to get rid of the superintendent,” she said.
She runs an after school program and is angry at North Forest’s poor academic ratings.
Prosecutors say she has also pled guilty to stealing from the very same district.
When asked if she thought $250,000 was a lot of money, “But that’s not going to educate our kids,” she said.
Although she denied that she took the money, she pleaded guilty.
Officials said Bailey, Louis Lamonte and Laimont Tubbs have all pleaded guilty to theft over $200,000. Bailey will soon testify against Valerie Gibson, a North Forest accounting clerk accused of signing the checks.
“Got about a quarter million dollars, deposited the checks in a bank in Las Vegas then transferred the money little by little, back to themselves,” said District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.
[snip]
“It really makes me mad. I could literally almost have a substation out there,” Rosenthal said.
That seems like pretty important information for the Chronicle to have omitted. The newspaper should at least issue a clarification to the story. Actually, they should have already done so.
UPDATE: The Chronicle's Charles Ward, filling in for reader representative James T. Campbell, emailed this response to my email to the Chronicle suggesting a clarification:
I also checked with the editor who handled the North Forest story. He acknowledged that you are correct about Bailey’s legal status and that the reporter and editors should have made the connection. However, he also felt that Ms. Bailey’s legal status did not affect the substance of her quote, as lots of people in the North Forest district share the same opinion. He said the Chronicle will cover the resolution of Bailey’s legal problem and, in the future, will be sure to note her legal status if it’s necessary to quote her. In essence, it was a judgment call about whether to run a clarification.
It was bad judgment from an inferior newspaper, to be blunt.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/06 02:16 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
09 August 2006
A METRO solution that doesn't affect the problem
Traffic was apparently a problem for the big soccer doubleheader at Reliant tonight:
The sold-out soccer doubleheader caused major traffic snarls on streets and freeways today near Reliant Stadium.
Although the first game kicked off at 7 p.m., a Houston Police Department dispatcher told officers at 8:26 p.m. that the 610 South Loop W. at Kirby was so backed up that drivers "are turning around and driving the other way" on the freeway.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts experienced the soccer traffic firsthand, as she tried to get home from work."Metro is definitely monitoring the traffic," Roberts said. "We will put on double trains as needed...."
Those double trains surely solved the traffic problems on 610/Kirby!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/06 11:42 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
West Houston residents complain about crime, shortage of officers
Chronicle neighborhood reporter Carissa D. Lamkahouan reports on a West Houston meeting on (what else) surging crime:
[A]bout 160 ... west Houston residents had a chance to air their frustrations about area crime at a meeting Monday night with city officials.
District G City Councilwoman Pam Holm, Houston Police Department Assistant Chief John Trevino and Capt. Richard Gerstner were on hand to respond to the concerns.
Many in attendance said they are angry about what they perceive as a lack of law enforcement officers at a time when crime in their area is on the rise, a problem they mainly attribute to Hurricane Katrina victims who fled to Houston when New Orleans was flooded nearly a year ago.
Holm said there were not enough police officers to handle the crime, but said she has no authority when it comes to how many officers are on the beat.
She said that decision falls to Mayor Bill White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt.``I don't have the power that some of you must think I have. I can't walk up to the mayor and say we need our fair allocation,'' she said, earning jeers from the audience.
Several people said they were surprised White and Hurtt have not allocated more officers to the Westside Command Center, which employs approximately 435 officers.
``We need to force the mayor and his police chief to take care of it,'' said Larry Pound, who lives in Walnut Bend. ``Our lives are changing in front of us.''
Trevino attempted to explain the challenges the police department is facing. He told residents that, because the department is in the process of recovering from the loss of about 700 officers in the last four years, police assigned to other areas of town would not be transferred to west Houston.
``The lack of staffing is not just in west Houston, but throughout the city,'' Trevino said. ``We're not going to steal from Peter to pay Paul.''
Trevino's comment isn't very reassuring for those who live in West Houston. In light of skyrocketing crime around the city and responses like that, it should not be difficult to understand why neighborhoods are considering their own police forces.
As this story illustrates, people are beginning to tie the inability to get a grip on surging crime (or even adequately to boost HPD staffing) to both Mayor White and his handpicked police chief. That can't be good for a mayor who many people think has ambitions of eventually running for even higher office.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/06 11:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (25)
Is Lee Brown running the Chronicle's remodeling project?
In this week's Houston Press, Rich Connelly notes that a big downtown booster isn't exactly leading by example:
Just off Market Square, near the center of the area that's supposed to be triggering a downtown revival, one property owner has persisted in keeping up ugly, sidewalk-blocking scaffolding and barriers.
The eyesores have been there for more than two years; the property owner, not satisfied with simply annoying downtown visitors, also at one point failed to pay thousands of dollars in permit fees -- more than a year's worth of payments to the city. When the city asked to see their plans to determine how long the unsightly project would continue, the property owner blew them off and didn't respond.Sounds like a story you'd read about in the Houston Chronicle, which has tirelessly pushed every scheme, no matter how harebrained, to rejuvenate downtown Houston and has been harsh on those deemed insufficiently civic-minded.
But maybe you won't read that story, because the property owner in question is the Houston Chronicle.
The Chron is replacing the exterior facade and modernizing its offices at 801 Texas, a spokeswoman says. The project should take another 14 months "once required permits are obtained," she says.
Wes Johnson, spokesman for the city's public works department, says the paper first asked permission for the "sidewalk covers" in 2004. "About a year later," he says, "we asked them if they were going to continue with this because their permit was running out -- they said, 'Yeah, we are; we'll get back to you' -- well, they didn't."
Maybe James Howard Gibbons could write an Editorial LiveJournal about it!
Of course, the Chronicle editorial page is about as timely as the Chronicle remodeling project, so it may not appear for a while.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/06 10:35 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Pat Gray blasts fellow talker's red-light chatter
On his unblog, KPRC-950 morning host Pat Gray is cracking on fellow KPRC talker Michael Berry for his assertions in favor of red-light cameras. I would link to it, but the Clear Channel non-blogs do not have permalinks. Here's an excerpt:
I've been fascinated by Michael Berry's stance on this. First, by ALL THAT IS HOLY, can we stop with the...'if you don't want these cameras, you must like it when people run red lights'?!?!?!?! That's sheer stupidity! He claimed on the air this morning that he's against "monitoring" cameras, but FOR red light cameras. So I guess this means that these cameras could never be used to monitor? I guess one of his points is that, he's in favor of them because people keep complaining and what else are we going to do? I haven't been complaining! I don't want people to run red lights, but I feel confident that police catch those they can. You want a solution? More HPD back out on the streets? Is there a better deterent to ANY crime than police presence? How about stiffer penalties? $1000 per violation. Mandatory imprisonment for injuring someone in the commission of the offense. But no, we can't take REAL, substantive action. We want something easy.
Adequate police staffing?
What a novel concept.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/06 10:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (27)
Metro's packin' them in like sardines
Either I am really reading this wrong, or Metro's press release needs some proofreading:
METRO will introduce service adjustments starting August 13, 2006.
Most of these adjustments are designed to reallocate service from poorly performing runs to those that are growing or already overcrowded.
Why would you force people onto already overcrowded bus routes?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/09/06 07:36 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)
Debra Duncan's off the (radio) air
And now Isiah Carey is trying to find out what's up.
What happened to Debra Duncan's afternoon KTRH-740 show? A commenter on Mike's blog says she just got tired of doing the morning show on KHOU-11 and then the afternoon gig on KTRH. Joe Pags now has the 1-3 p.m. slot.
UPDATE (08-10-2006): Commenter Rice 88 posts this email response he got from Ken Charles on Duncan's departure:
Sadly, Debra's other commitments with TV forced her to leave the radio talk show.
She will come back and do fill in as her schedule permits and I hope one day she decides TV is not for her and she comes back to radio. She would be an awesome talk show host if she could do that full time.
We miss her too.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/09/06 07:21 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (21)
World class (in serial crime)?
There's been a rampage of serial crime in Houston of late.
We have our serial arsonist.
We have our serial killer.
And we even have a serial robbery location.
How many other cities can top THAT?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/06 12:38 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
08 August 2006
City official spins for hotels that owe Houston big bucks
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that the White Administration is still dealing with another of the Lee P. Brown administration's messes:
Two downtown hotels that have fallen seriously behind repaying $15 million in city-sponsored loans could get a break from Houston City Council this week.
City officials said giving the Crowne Plaza and Magnolia hotels more time to pay was better than foreclosing on them.
"We decided that the better course of action was to restructure the loans," said John Walsh, Mayor Bill White's deputy chief of staff for neighborhoods and housing.
Walsh said the hotels suffered from the economic downturn after the Sept. 11 attacks and the collapse of Enron.
Really, Mr. Walsh?
In February 2005, Anne Linehan linked to a KHOU-11 story with these interesting tidbits:
It starts with the Magnolia Hotel, downtown's self-proclaimed new standard for luxury complete with a lavish lobby, a beautiful billiards room, and rooms that can rent for $200 a night.
"Our mission is to revitalize downtown with beautiful new hotels," says the owner Steven Holtze.
He's a hotel tycoon.
"We have three: Denver, Dallas ...," he says.
But at the Houston location, it turns out he had some help -- a $9.5 million dollar loan backed by the city three years ago. The only problem? In all that time, the Magnolia hasn't paid a dime of it back, missing payment after payment even though Holtze says the hotel's making a profit.
"We actually had a pretty, real good year last year," says Holtze.
[snip]
The general manager of the Crowne Plaza Hotel told 11 News they're not having money problems either, but said for now their lawyers have advised they don't have to pay the loan.
John Walsh's excuses for the hotels simply don't match statements from the hotels' own executives. The hotels may have had problems after Sept. 11, but the hotels' executives admit their finances were fine by 2004, and that they were not paying for other reasons. Perhaps it was unintentional, but it is nonetheless annoying when city officials mislead the public through the news media about public finances.
Tom Kirkendall sums up this mess left behind by Lee P. Brown perfectly:
[T]he Magnolia and Crowne Plaza are poster projects for why local governments should rarely get involved in financing projects that private financing sources will not support. In reality, the City is nothing more than a preferred equity investor in these highly-leveraged properties and, thus, its entire $15 million investment is at serious risk of being lost.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/08/06 11:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
Confusion reigns supreme with Metro's University Line
The latest story on Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck's proposed University line route is a bit strange. Not because of Rad Sallee's reporting, but because of the material he has to work with:
Houston Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck apologized Monday to residents from neighborhoods in the Museum District for the impression that she is pushing a light rail plan that would raze some of their homes for the tracks.
Instead, she said, her proposal would place the tracks outside the sound walls that separate the neighborhood from the north side of the Southwest Freeway, with the tracks overhanging part of the freeway. The plan is an option to avoid laying the tracks on nearby Richmond Avenue.
[snip]
Clutterbuck explained that while driving on Dallas' North Central Expressway she had seen a light rail line suspended over the wall of the freeway and asked Metropolitan Transit Authority officials to consider a similar arrangement here.
"Metro showed me their plan and said 'you'd take all these houses,' but I said, 'You're not listening — that's not what I'm asking. You wouldn't have to take all those houses if it's cantilevered."
Morgan Lyons, spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, said he consulted with a DART engineer and neither of them could think of a DART line suspended as described. Lyons said parts of the system are elevated over freeways at crossings or run parallel to freeways, possibly appearing cantilevered when seen from a car.
[snip]
Glen Eisen, who lives on Castle Court a block north of the freeway, said that even if the rail were suspended, Metro would still have to take some homes to reach Main. Clutterbuck said she had not investigated how Metro might accomplish that transition or how the cantilever technique would affect the signature bridges over the freeway.
Well, this has certainly cleared everything up. Suspend the tracks just like Dallas did...except that Dallas didn't do that.
But this confusion isn't Councilwoman Clutterbuck's fault; it's Rep. John Culberson's fault. Really!
Doug Childers, president of www.richmondrail.org, joked that "when we said put the rail where the people are, we didn't mean this." He blamed the confusion in part on U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, for announcing his opposition to a Richmond route last week before studies were completed.
Speaking of confusion, that would be the same Doug Childers who works for a firm that wants to capitalize on light-rail development. We need a scorecard to keep track of all this.
BLOGVERSATION: The Mighty Wizard.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/08/06 06:19 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
Chron discovers world-class "downtown ambassadors"
The Chronicle runs a happy little article from Alexis Grant on the city's parking enforcement officers, or, if you will, the new "Downtown Ambassadors."
The story line seemed a bit familiar, however, and a little poking around turned up a July 19 story by KUHF-88.7's Jim Bell that covered the same ground. A Parking Management press release dated July 18 seemed to supply much of the information for both stories. Here's an excerpt from Bell's earlier story:
Don't call them meter-maids anymore. Writing parking tickets is now just one sentence in a new and longer job description. Parking Enforcement Assistant Director Liliana Rambo says they're now walking city's customer service reps.
"Parking Enforcement Officers are our daily link to customers. They see and they talk to citizens and residents and visitors every single day. We felt that they needed to be better equipped, and we wanted to give them additional resources to be able to answer the questions that they encounter day in and day out"
Rambo says at any given time, hundreds, even thousands of downtown visitors and newcomers need information and directions, and PEOs are walking libraries of information. They can answer questions about the city and its history, provide information and directions to downtown theaters, hotels, restaurants, and current happenings, but that's only part of their new job.
PEOs are now trained to provide crowd and minor traffic control for police officers when needed, and to respond to health emergencies with CPR and the ability to use Automated External Defibrillators. Rambo says PEOs are in position to be the first responder in many kinds of emergencies and situations.
"They will be the ones that probably witness an accident, a minor accident happen. They will be the ones that notice that there's a traffic light that is not functioning, and they'll be able to serve as traffic management until a police department response gets to the scene."
If the Hearst daily was a little slow to cover this olds, at least some of the Chron quotes were good:
Officers also brushed up on the city's parking ordinances. Several said they benefited from the communication sessions, which included training on how to avoid stereotyping and how to resolve conflicts.
Those skills are particularly important for parking enforcement officers who patrol Houston's streets, since the hardest part of the job can be dealing with angry drivers.
The techniques helped Pedro Santamaria, 25, strike a balance between being friendly and being stern with people he encounters on the street, he said.
Stern? Oh, wait, he must be referring to the planned crackdown on disabled parkers! Sometimes, you just have to let those disabled people know who's in charge.
The Chronicle story also includes this useful information:
The ambassador course, taught at the Houston Police Department Academy, is new for parking enforcement officers. Those who have participated wear a gold cord draped over the right shoulder of their blue uniform to symbolize their additional knowledge and skills.
[snip]
Several of the training hours addressed terrorism concerns, including how to identify and react to unusual activity or vehicles. Rambo said she's trying to organize follow-up training on homeland security.
Once that follow-up training is completed, will the Downtown Ambassadors get to wear a gold cord AND cool uniforms like Chief Lambert's elite METRO counterterror force? THAT would be world-class parking enforcement!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/08/06 12:19 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
07 August 2006
Chron eye for the death-row writer gal!
There's a new book out on the death penalty, Back from the Dead: One woman’s search for the men who walked off America’s death row by Joan Cheever.
The Houston Chronicle, which is rarely subtle in its treatment of the death penalty, devoted lots of space to promoting Ms. Cheever's book on Sunday. Slampo discusses it all in his post, Three Cheers for the Remorseful, Well-Adjusted Inmates of Death Row!
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/06 11:04 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
After many delays, red light cameras begin September 1st
The city is ready to start a red light camera public education campaign, since the cameras are just weeks away from issuing revenue-generating tickets. KTRH-740 reports:
Houston was supposed to have ten intersections monitored by devices which catch red-light runners in the act by mid-July. But KTRH was first to report the deadline had to be pushed back to Sept. 1. Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo says several problems slowed down the camera installation process. One major issue was city engineers couldn't figure out how to supply the cameras with power. She says that's since been corrected. However, Houston is still off schedule because its required to have a public awareness campaign at least 30 days before the devices start taking pictures. Montalvo says that campaign will largely consist of radio ads, mail-outs and public service announcements on the city-owned Municipal Channel. The entire campaign is expected to cost around $200,000.
The Municipal Channel? That's one way to keep the public uninformed. How many people actually watch that channel?
Do you think the ads will include Chief Hurtt's new camera mantra?
"If you don’t run red lights, you have nothing to be concerned about. Red light runners do!"
It's very similar to his surveillance camera defense:
''I know a lot of people are concerned about big brother, but my response to that is if you aren't doing anything wrong why worry about it?"
Very comforting, if a bit un-American. Oh, and all tickets will be reviewed by an HPD officer before being sent out. Because, that's foolproof, you know.
KTRK-13's Consumer Blog has the list of red light camera intersections, and notes the list includes some intersection changes:
· Richmond @ Dunvale
· Bellaire @ Wilcrest
· Harwin @ Hillcroft
· Milam @ Elgin
· Brazos @ Elgin
· JFK @ Greens
· Bay Area Boulevard @ El Camino Real
· Travis @ Webster
· Pease @ LaBranch
· Hillcroft @ Richmond
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/07/06 08:37 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Cutting-edge* advice from the STAR section
Over the weekend, the Chronicle ran a story from features writer and former Katrina-refugee impersonator Kristin Finan on people who cut themselves.
It's an interesting enough read, but the best part is the Tips and Resources sidebar published with the story:
TIPS AND RESOURCES:
If you're a cutter:
• Stay away from books, movies, shows, music and people that might trigger you to cut.
• Find support online. A Houston-area group can be found at www.xanga.com
• Give your cutting materials to a friend or throw them away.
• Try cutting a doll, block of wood or other inanimate object when you feel like self-injuring.
• Talk to your friends about it, and make a list of people you can call when you feel like doing it.
• Keep a journal about your feelings.
• Try to figure out what's causing you to do it.If your friend is a cutter:
• Don't act like the friend is crazy. Let him or her talk to you.
• Confide in a parent or adult you trust.
• Use books and Web sites to learn more about it.
• Encourage your friend to call you when the person feels like cutting and to talk to a parent or school counselor about it.If your child is a cutter:
• Encourage your child to talk to you about his or her feelings and why the child cuts.
• Don't invade your child's privacy to the point he or she stops trusting you.
• Read up on self-injury.
• Speak with a counselor, and consider starting regular counseling sessions for your child.
• Emphasize the good things about your child.
• Frequently hug him or her and say you love the child.
You just have to love that one recommendation to cutters is to get rid of the cutting materials, and the next recommendation is to try cutting inanimate objects when the urge to cut strikes.
* Yes, it is a horrible, horrible pun. I should be ashamed, but I'm not.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/06 09:11 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
06 August 2006
City of Houston Agenda 8-8-06 (updated!)
This week's report is incomplete for now, as the RCA and agenda backup were not available by the close of business on Friday now complete, since I have the RCA in hand... for what it's worth. As a reminder, these are not publicly posted online, but are available only from the city's intranet; I have to obtain them from a computer that is part of the city's network. I should be able to obtain the information on Monday and edit this post late Monday evening to add additional information.
As always, 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.
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 08/06/06 08:04 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Westpark light rail: Who's proposing what? (Update: Culberson comments)
Since the report that first appeared in the Chronicle on Friday night, it's been a little hard to keep track of who is proposing what in terms of the Westpark light-rail alignment.
To recap, on Friday night, Rad Sallee reported that METRO had announced that Councilmember Anne Clutterbuck and Rep. John Culberson had asked METRO to look at several proposed alternative alignments.
Here is the relevant part of the story that carried a Chron.com timestamp of 9:07 pm (copied to my furl archive):
As a result, Tuesday's expected route recommendation by Metro staff has been postponed for several weeks while consultants develop cost and ridership estimates for the proposed alignments, said agency spokeswoman Sandra Salazar.
She said an alignment suggested by City Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck calls for the line to travel west on Richmond from Metro's current Wheeler station near Main, turn south on Mandell or Dunlavy and follow the north side of the freeway to Edloe, where it would cross over to Westpark and continue to the Hillcroft Transit Center.
Salazar said she does not have details of another alignment, proposed by Culberson, but she described it as similar. Because the routes would pass through Councilwoman Ada Edwards' district, Metro said, her approval will be sought.
A Chron.com story at the same url with a timestamp of 10:14 pm revised that account slightly:
As a result, Tuesday's expected route recommendation by Metro staff has been postponed for several weeks while consultants develop cost and ridership estimates for the proposed alignments, said agency spokeswoman Sandra Salazar.
She said an alignment suggested by City Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck calls for the line to travel west on Richmond from Metro's current Wheeler station near Main, turn south on Mandell or Dunlavy and follow the north side of the Southwest Freeway to Edloe, where it would cross over to Westpark and continue to the Hillcroft Transit Center.
Culberson's suggestion, Metro said, would run "from Richmond in the vicinity of the University of St. Thomas to U.S. 59 (Southwest Freeway) to a transition point into the Westpark right-of-way." Other details were not available.
Culberson aide Nick Swyka said the congressman only was asking Metro to look at this proposal, which Swyka said he told Culberson about after learning that Afton Oaks resident Ted Richardson had an idea for an elevated rail beside the Southwest Freeway.
The current Chron.com story (carrying a timestamp of 8:03 am Saturday) contains the same account.
That comment by Swyka makes sense, since Rep. Culberson was adamant at his Richmond/Shepherd press conference that while Richmond was off the table, he was not going to be telling METRO where it should put the line. In short, the Congressman said he would not be proposing alignments, and Swyka's comment to Rad Sallee seemed to confirm nothing had changed.
Nonetheless, Zeke Minaya's reporting for the Chronicle today suggests that Rep. Culberson is indeed proposing alignments, along with Councilmember Anne Clutterbuck:
The idea was floated by Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck, who said she did not want to cause her neighboring district any hardship, but that all options should be explored before a final route is chosen.
"I asked (the Metropolitan Transit Authority) to take a look at the possibility of running the line along the north side of the Southwest Freeway," Clutterbuck said. "And when they looked at that idea, their immediate reaction was, 'We have to take all these houses.' "
Metro's timetable to present a preferred route has now been pushed back several weeks because of requests from Clutterbuck and U.S. Rep. John Culberson for an examination of further options.
Culberson's request, Metro said, is similar to Clutterbuck's.
It asks that a route be examined that would run "from Richmond in the vicinity of the University of St. Thomas to (the Southwest Freeway) to a transition point into the Westpark right-of-way."
I emailed Rep. Culberson's aide Nick Swyka, who is quoted in Rad Sallee's article from Friday night, and asked him if the Congressman's view had changed from his press conference, and if he was now negotiating alignments with METRO. Swyka reaffirmed for me what he told Sallee, and went into even more detail:
[Rep. Culberson] urged Metro to look at other routes based on the public comments they had received and any other ideas their staff could come up with. The concept of elevated rail along the shoulder was one put forth to Metro in the presence of John Sedlak and Anne Clutterbuck by Mr. Ted Richardson, and we think its something worth looking at, as are any other options.
In short, there is no "Culberson alignment" being proposed, and to the extent METRO is suggesting otherwise to Chronicle reporters for whatever reason, it should stop.
In any case, Councilmember Clutterbuck's suggestion seems to have annoyed fellow Councilmember Ada Edwards, as Minaya reports:
Clutterbuck suggested Metro explore the possibility of turning the line off Richmond at Mandell or Dunlavy and following the north side of the Southwest Freeway to Edloe before continuing to Westpark and the Hillcroft Transit Center.
Clutterbuck said she was simply asking Metro to look into the idea.
Determining how many homes or businesses would be displaced or how the line would be situated in relation to the freeway are not questions for her to answer, Clutterbuck said.
"It's up to the engineers to decide," she said.
Edwards, informed by Metro that the route proposed by Clutterback could cost her district dozens of homes, said Clutterbuck should have contacted her before presenting the idea.
"Nobody discussed it with me," Edwards said. "The council member can call it what she wants — a plan, a directive, a good idea. But the point is that, at the end of the day, it would take homes in District D and I am against that."
Edwards said she will be attending hastily scheduled meetings of civic clubs in her district today to discuss the proposal.
She said she did not know how residents will react.
"We have no decision on it, because we haven't seen (the plan)," she said. "But from what we heard of it, I'm not pleased."
The "best" alignment remains the one approved in the referendum, which specified Westpark. Such an alignment makes good use of existing METRO right of way, and gives METRO a broader basis of popular support (a majority of voters in 2003) for its decisions when a councilmember inevitably suggests that changes be proposed to spare one district or another. The devil is in the details, of course, and one such devilish detail is how to get the line from Main to Westpark, since Westpark terminates at Kirby. Just because Rep. Culberson has removed METRO's preferred solution (substituting Richmond for Westpark and saying to heck with the 2003 referendum) doesn't mean that all of the problems are solved.
UPDATE: Rep. Culberson emails the following comment:
I have not offered an alternative rail route because route selection ended on November 3, 2003 when the voters approved the routes and the light rail for those routes which the Metro board had formally approved on August 18, 2003.
These routes are now the "locally preferred alternative" that federal law requires before the funding process can even begin.
The Metro board and the voters approved rail on Westpark, which ends at Kirby. Richmond was not on the ballot.
I opposed the entire rail package and it turns out everything I said in opposition was correct.
Nevertheless, I lost that argument and the voters narrowly approved it, therefore, route selection ended nearly 3 years ago.
Plus Metro has sole responsibility under state law to choose routes.
I have always supported long range high speed commuter rail that is elevated where necessary to avoid losing freeway lanes. One should be on 59 from downtown to Ft. Bend County and another on 290 from downtown to College Station.
By the way the Chron never called me Friday or Saturday or today for the stories they have been running on this alternative route. They never called me for a quote so they are being untruthful when they say I have been unavailable for comment. I have not spoken to Metro since July 18 when Frank Wilson and David Wolfe first showed me their Richmond plans.
UPDATE (08-07-2006): METRO has posted the press release that two Chronicle reporters apparently relied upon for stories over the weekend on this matter. Given the fact that Rep. Culberson was not contacted, it seems that this reporting was not vetted very well, leading it to be less accurate.
UPDATE 2 (08-07-2006): After rereading this post and emails, I think it's probably worth noting that while Rep. Culberson says in his email that the Chronicle didn't contact him, obviously reporter Rad Sallee did speak with Rep. Culberson's staff for the story that was first posted on Friday night. It's not clear if Zeke Minaya attempted to contact Rep. Culberson or staff for the subsequent story. The larger point is unchanged -- METRO put out a misleading press release on a Friday night, when media availability is always poor, and mischaracterized a number of items.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston Strategies, Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/06/06 03:21 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
Westchase hires its own police force
What does an upscale part of town do when it finds HPD's level of protection inadequate? KHOU-11's Dan Lauck tells us:
A call for more police protection has been answered in the Westchase District.
The help is not coming from the Houston Police Department, but rather from a whole new police force.
That force is made up of real life off-duty police officers.
Kenny Smith is an HPD sergeant.
He like other officers is working off-duty for the Westchase Business District.
Not everyone even heard of Westchase, but 25,000 people live here and 55,000 others work here.
It’s an upscale, rapidly growing part of the city and the 2,000 businesses here want more in the way of security than HPD could give.
So, they’ve hired their own.
What people can’t see driving down Westheimer are all the cops, real cops, with badges and guns, who are working inside banks and department stores, hotels and nightclubs.
It’s part of an increasing privatization of policing.
“There’s probably one hundred additional police officers or their equivalents working in the district at any one time,” said Jim Murphy.
By comparison, said Murphy, HPD might have 15 cops out there.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/06/06 10:30 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (56)
05 August 2006
Crash and rob in southwest Houston
KTRK-13 reports another crash-and-rob instance:
Thieves went to the extreme to get inside a convenience store in southwest Houston Saturday. They crashed their car into it! Now, the owner has to deal with a mess.
"We might not know who do it," said Tina Roberts, a regular customer of Waddell's food store. "But God knows who the person is, too."
[snip]
"They bring a big truck, something like that," said store owner Gan Baloch. "They hit this door and came inside and took some money and cigarettes."
Baloch can't believe it. This kind of damage was done for $400 cash, some loose change, and all the Newports in the store.
Given HPD's manpower shortage and the priorities of MayorWhiteChiefHurtt, turning to God for help with security may not be such a bad idea.
PREVIOUSLY: Houston's bad guys grow more brazen.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/06 10:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
KTRK: Barrera to scale back duties
KTRK-13 reports that longtime Houston reporter Elma Barrera is retiring (sort of):
After 34 years of hard work and dedication, reporter Elma Barrera is retiring.
You may already know that Elma is the first Hispanic TV reporter in Houston and one of the first in the nation. She came to Channel 13 in the 70s as a news intern and was hired as a reporter. She's been through just about everything over the years with the Houston community.She has spent her working life chronicling the life and times of Houston. To see those stories now is to see the history of a city. It's also to see a reporter who made history. Elma Barrera was the first Hispanic woman to be a news reporter in Houston TV, if not the country, which is revolutionary in itself. A lot of people remember the first time they saw her on their living room TV sets.
[snip]
Elma helped build the road on which new generations of Hispanic women now travel to jobs in TV, in the media -- a road Elma is traveling still at Channel 13. Now, though, she'll have her own office. She won't be reporting every day, but she'll be as involved as ever. She wouldn't have it any other way. Neither would Houston.
We here at Eyewitness News got a chance to wish Elma the best Wednesday afternoon. You'll still be seeing Elma around. Elma will stay on at the station, working on community affairs projects.
Longtime anchor Shara Fryer left the station altogether earlier this year.
UPDATE (08-06-2006): Laurence Simon calls attention to a Chronicle story on the matter that is just... curious. There has to be more to this story than has been reported so far.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/06 10:29 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
Transition from Foley's to Macy's continues
The Chronicle's David Kaplan checks in on the steady transition from Foley's to Macy's in Houston:
Throughout Houston, a change is taking place. Foley's, one of the oldest and most famous local retail brands, is gradually fading.
On Sept. 9, the 16 Houston-area Foley's stores will officially become Macy's, bringing the retailer's area total to 17. Texas will have 51 Macy's.Nationally on that day, about 400 stores with various names will convert, creating more than 850 Macy's.
Federated, owner of the Macy's chain, is busy remodeling interiors, bringing in new merchandise and tending to a million details.
[snip]
Some of the work started several months ago. Overall, the interior is getting a cleaner, less-cluttered look, Smith said. New fitting rooms will have adjoining lounge areas with benches and TVs. Macy's has also begun bringing in its private-label merchandise.
And recent ads in the Chronicle display the Foley's and Macy's names side by side.
It's good to cover the truly important aspects of the transition.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/06 09:52 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Marticiuc letter criticizes MayorWhiteChiefHurtt
In a letter to the Chronicle criticizing a recent editorial, Hans Marticiuc continues his recent approach of tying criticism of Chief Hurtt to the mayor:
In the survey conducted by the HPOU of Houston police officers, we heard from approximately 50 percent of all officers and supervisors. More than 1,700 of these first responders went on record and said that they are concerned about Hurtt's ability to lead the department. Despite these very serious concerns, Mayor White has continued to defend Hurtt as the "best police chief in the country."
Even if he were the best in the country — and he's not — he still appears to be the wrong choice for Houston at the present time. Houston needs more than Band-Aid solutions and happy talk to solve the current crime problem.
If crime is up and the number of officers is down, something is wrong. HPD officers and supervisors know it, and the public knows it.
When are the administration and the police chief going to do something about it?
The full letter is here.
If he starts referring to MayorWhiteChiefHurtt, we'll know that he's reading blogHOUSTON.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/06 09:43 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Editorial LiveJournalists go bipolar on Lopez Obrador
The Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists wrote the following for the July 7 edition of the newspaper:
IN so-called "mature democracies" - such as ours - watching your candidate lose by a hair's breadth is healthy. Because they trust the system, disappointed voters turn out for the next election in even greater numbers, feistier than ever.
Democracy, in other words, begets democracy. Now Mexico, which shed one-party rule just six years ago, is being tested by its own astonishingly close outcome. So far, Mexico's democracy seems to be mature beyond its years.
[snip]
Now it's up to Mexicans of all parties - and [Andres Manuel] Lopez Obrador especially - to choose the rule of law over political desire. So far, they've shown remarkable maturity.
At the time, of course, there were already warnings from Lopez Obrador that he would contest the results, and rumblings that he and his supporters would take to the streets if necessary to claim their electoral victory. But the Editorial LiveJournalists preferred to ignore that.
The Editorial LiveJournalists wrote the following for July 26 editions of the Chronicle:
Actually, Mexico's conservative, sensible national character makes widespread violence unlikely. "The Mexicans went through the revolution in the beginning of the century, and 5 to 10 percent of the population died or were maimed in that revolution," George Grayson, a political scientist at the College of William and Mary, said. That trauma, and a self-preserving instinct dating from colonial times, leaves most Mexicans with little taste for civil unrest.
That last assertion came in the same editorial that mentioned several acts of civil unrest. More have followed. Indeed, this story by Chronicle staff seems to contradict the all-knowing Editorial LiveJournalists:
Lopez Obrador said he will be among the protesters occupying the Zocalo. Ranking members of his political coalition will take up posts in the plaza and along the Reforma, he said.
He ordered followers taking part in the sit-ins not to damage public property or provoke confrontations.
"All our actions will be based on the idea of peaceful civil resistance, in a framework of nonviolence," Lopez Obrador said.
Such street protests have been a way of life in Mexico City for decades. They often snare the already chaotic traffic, infuriating many residents. Anticipating some negative reaction, Lopez Obrador asked for understanding.
In other words, civil unrest has been a way of life in Mexico's most populous city for decades, according to the Chron staffer on the scene. Maybe the Editorial LiveJournalists meant to suggest that they thought the possibility of violent civil unrest was low. That's not what they wrote, though.
Yesterday, the Editorial LiveJournalists were back on the case:
This week, [Lopez Obrador] — now runner-up to the presidency — forced city traffic into a standstill. Protesting his loss in the July presidential election, Andre Manuel Lopez Obrador for four days has led followers in a massive encampment on the city's main boulevard.
It's a disturbing reflection of how Lopez Obrador's righteous defense of common Mexicans has become a tantrum starting to harm them.
[snip]
What Lopez Obrador has wrong, and gets more wrong by the day, is his growing contempt for the laws and institutions there to defend him.
In recent weeks he has denounced citizen poll workers for fraud, called Mexico's president a traitor to democracy, declared that he is president and, this week, shut down much of Mexico City.
[snip]
For the sake of the followers who need his leadership so badly, Lopez Obrador needs to unblock those streets. The attempt to pressure a legal tribunal with street justice itself betrays democracy, and it betrays all Mexicans who turned out to vote.
It's strange that the Editorial LiveJournalists are now so critical of Lopez Obrador, since he has simply followed through on what he effectively promised supporters when the same Editorial LiveJournalists were praising his "remarkable maturity" and lecturing readers that the United States could learn from Mexico's election!
UPDATE (08-07-2006): Lopez Obrador does not seem inclined to take the latest advice of the Editorial LiveJournalists.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/06 09:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Latest Metro service adjustments start August 13th
It's been a couple of months since Metro last slashed bus routes, so it must be time for another round of Metro Service Improvements!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/05/06 11:59 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
METRO goes into full panic mode
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports that METRO now seems to be in full panic mode with regard to Richmond rail, after initially dismissing Rep. John Culberson's announcement on the same earlier in the week:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority is considering new route options along the Southwest Freeway for its controversial University light rail line, reducing the length it would travel on Richmond Avenue.
Metro made the announcement tonight after a getting a thumbs down from U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, earlier this week on its two other proposed routes, each of which would have traveled on Richmond from Main to Shepherd or farther.
Vocal opposition arose from businesses along the route and from Afton Oaks, a subdivision on Richmond near the West Loop.
As a result, Tuesday's expected route recommendation by Metro staff has been postponed for several weeks while consultants develop cost and ridership estimates for the proposed alignments, said agency spokeswoman Sandra Salazar.
She said an alignment suggested by City Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck calls for the line to travel west on Richmond from Metro's current Wheeler station near Main, turn south on Mandell or Dunlavy and follow the north side of the Southwest Freeway to Edloe, where it would cross over to Westpark and continue to the Hillcroft Transit Center.
Culberson's suggestion, Metro said, would run "from Richmond in the vicinity of the University of St. Thomas to U.S. 59 (Southwest Freeway) to a transition point into the Westpark right-of-way." Other details were not available.
Culberson aide Nick Swyka said the congressman only was asking Metro to look at this proposal, which Swyka said he told Culberson about after learning that Afton Oaks resident Ted Richardson had an idea for an elevated rail beside the Southwest Freeway.
This disarray could have been avoided had METRO not arrogantly decided that the METRO Solutions referendum that described rail on Westpark really described rail on Richmond.
More thoughts to follow in the morning. Night owls should feel free to offer their thoughts in the comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/06 12:28 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (22)
04 August 2006
Bandit sign crisis in southwest Houston
The Brays Oaks Management District in southwest Houston is having a problem with bandit signs.
Bandit signs. Those two words give me a case of the giggles. Perhaps the Brays Oaks Management District should call the Brown International Group for some help with those bandit signs. Goodness knows, Houston's former mayor has experience chasing them down!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/04/06 05:08 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Metro boss gets a $1,000 per month car allowance!
Thanks to Tom Bazan for pointing out Rad Sallee's follow-up story on Metro President Frank Wilson's super-secret pay raise:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority revealed Thursday that the raise it voted for July 20 for President and CEO Frank Wilson brings his annual salary to $279,400, a 10 percent increase.
The raise is retroactive to May 1, the date of his employment in 2004. Wilson was hired at $254,000 a year with a five-year contract that allowed for increases. He did not receive a raise after his first year on the job.
The present contract runs through April 30, 2010, and includes pension and benefits, $1,030 monthly car allowance, five weeks' vacation, two weeks' sick leave and membership in the Houston Club.
Metro Board Chairman David Wolff refused to disclose the pay raise details when questioned by Sallee last month, so Sallee filed a Public Information Act request to get the information.
That's a pretty nice salary for Wilson. It's too bad his contract doesn't stipulate that he should live within walking distance of the Main Street Danger Train line. What kind of a message does it send when Metro's own boss doesn't take the train to work, AND requires a car allowance??! Isn't his car one more that's clogging up the roads??
UPDATE (9:05 am): Michael Berry is discussing Frank Wilson's pay raise on KPRC-950.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/04/06 06:01 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
03 August 2006
KHOU: Many street beggars are scam artists
KHOU-11 posts an interesting story from Jeff McShan. McShan apparently went out on the streets to investigate street begging. Here's a snippet:
It’s been well documented that across the nation that street beggars are becoming creative. Some have been said to make more than $40,000 dollars a year.
One woman, who was soliciting money for her dying child, actually avoided our cameras after we learned her story was a lie.
“Probably most of them are lying to get the money,” said Assistant District Attorney Russell Turbeville.
That captures the general tone of the story, which is worth reading in full (especially the bit about the blind Montrose street beggar).
In June, Mayor White sent out fundraising letters to his supporters urging Houstonians to refrain from giving money to street beggars, and promised an advertising campaign. I never saw/heard any such ads. Maybe instead of giving street beggars money, we should print copies of the Mayor's letter to hand out instead!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/03/06 11:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Mayor White REALLY doesn't like Proposition 2
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that Mayor White, who has suffered legal defeats in his efforts to squash the Proposition Two revenue limitation measure approved by voters, will now focus on trying to neutralize it at the ballot box this fall:
Mayor Bill White said Wednesday that he plans to ask voters to alter the charter again this fall.
White's proposed changes, which City Council must approve before they could go on the ballot, would limit the cap known as Proposition 2 only to revenue in the general fund.
That part of the budget, supported by taxes and other fees, funds public safety, libraries, parks and other core city services.
Proposition 2 mandates that all city revenue collections — including fee-supported "enterprise" funds that pay for airports, water service and convention facilities — cannot exceed the previous year's total plus the rate of inflation and population growth. If they do, supporters argue, taxpayers are due a rebate.
[snip]
White has said Houstonians are worried about slowing the growth of property taxes, but Proposition 2 backers say they included all sources of revenue in their measure to prevent the city from stealthily raising fees instead of taxes.
The concerns of Prop 2 backers seem legitimate, as the White Administration has been creative in pursuing new revenue streams.
If he hopes to convince voters to remove the teeth from Proposition 2 this fall, Mayor White is going to have to make a stronger case than the one presented in this story.
UPDATE (08-04-2006): Right on cue, the Chronicle editorial board comes out in support of the Mayor's proposal, reminding us once again of Sedosi Alhambra's name for the editorial board (Mrs. White).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/03/06 10:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Mayor White: FEMA aid is not an entitlement
Chron.com runs an AP story on yet another so-called FEMA deadline:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been helping thousands of displaced residents pay for temporary housing and utilities. When the storms hit last August and September, most of the evacuees — about 150,000 — retreated to Houston.
About 16,000 families in Texas still eligible for assistance must recertify with FEMA by Oct. 31. They would receive aid until the end of February.
Another 4,000 evacuees now determined to be ineligible for more federal aid have until Aug. 31 to begin paying for their own housing. That deadline was extended last month from July 31.
Houston Mayor Bill White urged evacuees to meet the deadlines or prepare to live without the assistance.
"We all know it will not be forever. It's not an entitlement," White said. "Those who are able-bodied are expected to work, those people who do have plans to return home need to take personal responsibility."
Not an entitlement? That may well come as news to some people!
KUHF-88.7's Jack Williams chimes in with more:
For New Orleans evacuees like Dionne Rogers, the housing crisis is already here. She's homeless after being told she had to leave an apartment that FEMA had been paying for since August. She works as a fill-in nurse, but still can't afford regular housing in Houston.
"It's not the money situation, it's you can't find nowhere to live. Out here, it's too high, it's $875 for a three bedroom. I can't afford that. I'm a single mom with five kids. You know, it's hard right now so I'm just doing what I can do. I'm living in a one bedroom house with five kids with a friend I knew from New Orleans."
Thousands of evacuees are in the same situation. They've either lost their short term housing or face a FEMA deadline early next year when emergency assistance runs out.
The odds are probably good that the latest FEMA deadline will be extended yet again. Indeed, it wouldn't shock if taxpayers are still paying the bills of some Katrina evacuees a year or two from now.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/03/06 09:35 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (6)
A Chron correction on an HISD story (con't)
Long-time blogHOUSTON readers will recall the Chronicle's endless problems with correctly reporting last year's story regarding HISD's efforts to improve three high schools.
As I noted last night, the subject is back in the news. What else is back? A Chronicle correction:
•The number of "exemplary" and "recognized" schools in the Houston Independent School District increased by more than 100 percent this year. Also, Waltrip High School in Houston received an "acceptable" rating for 2006. A story on Page B1 Wednesday incorrectly reported that information. A separate chart that accompanied that story incorrectly labeled some area schools' ratings as being from 2004 and 2005. The ratings were from 2005 and 2006.
Thank goodness that senior copy editor position has been filled!
So, if any Waltrip parents read the Chronicle's initial story, they learned that their school was rated "unacceptable." Except that Waltrip received an "acceptable" rating. Was this correction in a tiny little box on Page 2? Do you think any Waltrip parents knew to look there today?
Congratulations to HISD for a 100% improvement in its number of exemplary and recognized schools. That very good news has certainly been overshadowed by the hysteria over the future of Kashmere High School.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/03/06 07:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Reader participation time: Your favorite thing about Houston?
I'm going to use the start of a Ken Hoffman column today to ask for reader input:
Last week, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau asked me to appear in a short film about our city.
Before it was my turn to answer "so what's your favorite thing about Houston..."
What say you, good readers? What is YOUR single favorite thing about Houston?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/03/06 01:22 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (25)
02 August 2006
Silliest Chron lede in a while
Earlier in the week, the Chronicle's Alexis Grant reported the following:
The fraudulent use of disabled-parking hang tags in Houston is so pervasive that some disabled motorists are supporting a restriction on their parking access to curb the abuse.
As we pointed out previously, cracking down on fraudulent use of disabled-parking hang tags is laudable. However, restricting the parking access of those with legitimate disabilities will do nothing to "curb the abuse," as Grant put it (and is something we find offensive, honestly, although opinions in our forum vary).
Connecting two separate issues in the lede to suggest that cracking down on legitimate disabled parking access will curb the abuse of disabled parking hangtags seems like an unfortunate bit of writing/editing.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/02/06 11:54 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Some Hurtt defenders go to the race card
The Chronicle's Anne Marie Kilday reports that some Houstonians are characterizing the police officer union's criticism of Chief Harold Hurtt as a racist matter:
As the Houston Police Officers' Union continues to question Chief Harold Hurtt's ability to lead, Sunnyside area community and spiritual leaders came out in support of the city's top cop Tuesday.
Community activists gathered at the home of Sandra Massie-Hines, known as "the unofficial mayor of Sunnyside" for her popular National Night Out Party, where some expressed concern that some of the friction within the Houston Police Department may stem from race. Hurtt is black.
"I do believe this is a racist matter," said Ovide Duncantell , executive director of the Black Heritage Society. "I watched the same situation develop", said Duncantell, of former Police Chiefs Lee Brown and Clarence Bradford, who are both black.
Some members the union "just have a little difficulty taking orders from people of color," Duncantell said
Union chief Hans Marticiuc, who is quoted at the end of the story, asserts that criticism of the chief is entirely about his competence, not his race.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/02/06 11:27 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
Calling Republicans liars doesn't make it so
The Chronicle editorial board was in a predictable rage today over Rep. Culberson's decision on Richmond rail:
In letters to Mayor Bill White and Metro chairman David Wolff, Culberson makes the factually unsupported claim that 97 percent of the people who live, work or own property on Richmond strongly oppose Metro's plans. Since the transit agency is considering a number of options for either putting rail along all of Richmond or utilizing crossover routes at various points to Westpark, one wonders what crystal ball the congressman was using to come up with those numbers.
The claim is not "factually unsupported." At the announcement yesterday, Rep. Culberson pointed out that 90 percent of the messages his office received on the topic were opposed to rail on Richmond, and 97 percent of the messages from residents and businesses on Richmond itself were opposed to rail on Richmond. He produced records of the messages, as well as a chart put together by his staff. The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reported those numbers:
Hoisting a box of papers onto the rostrum under a sweltering tent at James Coney Island, Richmond at Shepherd, Culberson told a crowd of about 200 representing both sides of the issue that the box's contents represent "the overwhelming will of the people."
He said 90 percent of the mail, e-mails, faxes and other messages he received on the topic were opposed to rail on Richmond, as were 97 percent from residents and businesses on Richmond itself.
I was there and saw it for myself. They are/were "factually supported," as the Chronicle's own reporting indicates -- making a crystal ball unnecessary! I contacted Rep. Culberson's office today to inquire whether anyone from the Chronicle editorial board contacted them to ask about the "97 percent" reference. Nick Swyka from Rep. Culberson's office told me that nobody from the Chronicle editorial board inquired about the "97 percent" figure, and he pointed out that the Congressman's staffers spent a considerable amount of time collecting and cross-referencing the messages behind the percentages.
Perhaps editorial board member Veronica Bucio, who has previously called the United States Attorney General a liar, crafted the part of today's editorial that effectively called Rep. Culberson a liar. In any case, it is the editorial board's statement that is factually unsupported. A quality newspaper would issue a correction. Will the Chronicle?
RELATED: Rep. Culberson feared a METRO bait and switch.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/02/06 11:16 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Local animal rescue
Please indulge me for a minute for an atypical post about something that's very near and dear to my heart: animal rescue. Following are several links where you can find local pet adoption information.
KHOU-11's Lisa Foronda has a blog devoted to animal news and tidbits. She includes posts about pets needing homes.
Laurence Simon, catblogger extraordinaire, posts cat adoption opportunities when he runs across them. He's currently helping a local podcaster find a home for his two kitties.
And since some blogHOUSTONians have a special affinity for Huskies, here's the link for Houston's own Husky Haven. Look at those beautiful pups!
If you have room in your heart and your home, please consider adopting a homeless pet.
MORE: Torti and Cosmos need homes, Abandoned Animal Rescue of Tomball
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/02/06 08:51 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
Rep. Culberson feared a Metro bait and switch
As Kevin noted here, Dan Patrick (KSEV-700) interviewed Rep. John Culberson yesterday after the congressman announced his opposition to a light rail line down Richmond Avenue.
Kevin recorded the interview and David Benzion at Lone Star Times posted the mp3s so go listen if you missed it.
But there is that little problem of the 2003 referendum.
Rep. Culberson also said that in 2003 Metro adopted a resolution, at his insistence, that said the referendum and the rail lines listed on the referendum were a contract between Metro and the voters, and that Metro could not alter, amend or change what the voters had approved without another election. He said he wanted Metro to honor its word.
That's quite a bit different from what Metro's George Smalley was saying when the New Metro Solutions plan was announced:
Smalley said the changes are covered by a footnote to the ballot resolution that says: "Final scope, length of rail segments or lines, and other details, together with implementation schedule, will be based upon demand and completion of the project development process including community input."
Do you think Metro's website includes a link to that 2003 resolution? I can't find it. If you find it, please let me know.
AUDIO: Culberson interview Part One (Richmond rail), Part Two (November elections).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/02/06 07:48 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
HISD's race to save three high schools
It was more than a year ago that community activists had a collective heart attack when HISD superintendent Dr. Abe Saavedra suggested that drastic measures needed to be taken to improve three underperforming high schools (the outrage was courtesy of the Chronicle's less-than-stellar reporting). The usual suspects all came out of the woodwork to protest the possibility that outsiders might take charge of the schools, to get their performance up to acceptable standards. Even Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee got into the act when she complained that Dr. Saavedra holds his meetings so early, her staffers were forced to wear their pajamas to one. So, Dr. Saavedra's hands were somewhat tied as he attempted to bring positive changes to those schools.
Fast forward to yesterday when we learned that the three high schools -- Yates, Kashmere and Sam Houston -- all retained their unacceptable ratings. HISD saw many schools make gains in the state's accountability ratings, but those three were among a handful that did not.
Now HISD is in a real bind. State law will force the district to take drastic steps to improve the schools, or HISD will have to shut them down. So what do community activists say now? They blame HISD, of course. They meddled last year, the problem isn't fixed and now they say it's all HISD's fault. They say more money is what's needed. Naturally!
So will the blowhards meddle again (with the ever-helpful local media lending a hand), or will they let Dr. Saavedra have carte blanche to see if he can get those schools turned around? We'll soon find out.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/02/06 06:50 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
01 August 2006
Slade and associates indicted
The Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue reports that former Texas Southern University president Priscilla Slade and several of her associates have been indicted:
A Harris County grand jury indicted former Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade today on two charges of criminally misusing university money for her private benefit, officials said.
The grand jury's three-month investigation also led to indictments for three former TSU employees, including Quintin Wiggins, who earlier this year resigned as chief financial officer, for their roles in making purchases of furniture, landscaping services and a security system for her private residences.Also indicted were Bruce Wilson, who was senior vice president of administration, and Frederick Holts, the university's senior safety system engineer.
The charges against Slade carry a potential punishment of five years of probation to life in prison, and a fine of as much as $20,000. A judge has set her bail amount at $100,000.
Slade has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has said all of her spending benefited the university.
Tell it to the jury, Queen Priscilla.
RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13, KHOU-11.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/01/06 11:47 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (7)
Mayor's daughter arrested; Mayor defends vigorously
This morning, various talk-radio outlets took up the topic of the arrest of Mayor White's daughter on suspicion of drunk driving.
We left the topic alone most of the day, because lots of people are arrested every day for drunk driving in Houston and it didn't appear the mayor's daughter sought or received any special treatment. The topic seemed to be one for Mayor White's family to deal with privately, and an early press release from the mayor (as reported by the Chronicle) suggested he would deal with it that way:
The mayor's office released a statement about the arrest this morning.
"Our daughter Elena is a fine young person who we love and who made a bad decision, violating household rules and possibly the law," according to the statement, which was issued before White made his comments questioning the validity of the arrest. "It is good that she was treated with impartiality and we are glad she is safe."
Over the course of the day, though, Mayor White seems to have decided to start defending his daughter publicly. Here are some snippets that came out later:
"My daughter believes that she was not intoxicated and was not dangerous and wouldn't be impaired in her condition to drive," White said, calling her a "good kid" who has "always shot straight with me."
He added, "I personally, based on what I've heard today, think that it (the arrest) may have been a mistake."
The mayor's daughter's car was stopped initially because it was driving without lights and weaving, so Mayor White offered this excuse:
The mayor said his daughter was driving his personal car, a Toyota Prius. He said the vehicle's headlights don't automatically turn on at ignition, like those in the car his daughter normally drives.
Finally, the big gun was brought out:
[Rusty] Hardin, a high-profile Houston attorney representing Elena White, said he is confident the teen will be absolved.
"I'm comfortable, when everything is known, that we're going to find that she was not intoxicated," Hardin said. "I also hope everybody reserves judgment until they hear all the evidence."
This is, and should remain, a matter for Mayor White and his family to resolve. If his daughter was wrongly arrested, then she is certainly entitled to make her case to a court. If she was rightly arrested, then thank goodness nobody was hurt. That being said, the case really does need to be tried in court, rather than by statements from Mayor White and Rusty Hardin.
RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KPRC-2.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Houblog, Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/01/06 11:38 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (36)
KTRK: Time Warner leaving, Comcast moving in to Houston market
Mike McGuff alerts us to this news from Jeff Ehling on the KTRK-13 consumer blog:
The Action 13 Consumer Department has learned there will be a big change coming to nearly every cable customer in Houston. Time Warner Cable is leaving Houston and Comcast is replacing it.
It was an internal Time Warner Cable e-mail that alerted us to the coming change.
While Time Warner Cable employees cannot talk about the details, we do know Time Warner Cable is leaving the Houston market and Comcast cable is replacing it.
Be sure to check out the rest of the post.
The news may make Chronicle columnist David Barron happy, since he has noted that Time-Warner has refused to pick up the NFL Network on its systems.
BLOGVERSATION: Misunderestimation, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/01/06 10:51 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (6)
Rep. Culberson announcement on Richmond rail this morning (updated)
Rep. John Culberson's office sends along word that the congressman will be announcing his position on Metro's proposed Richmond Avenue rail this morning at 10 o'clock at the James Coney Island parking lot, 3607 South Shepherd Drive, Houston.
Metro is set to announce its preferred alignment on Monday.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The Chronicle's Rad Sallee has a story today that covers both anti-Richmond and pro-Richmond groups. The story does not once mention the 2003 referendum on light rail on Westpark, instead focusing on the assertions of those who favor and oppose Richmond rail.
Doug Childers makes another appearance in a Chronicle story:
Doug Childers, president of richmondrail.org, said Monday that he has 1,200 signatures on a petition favoring Richmond over Westpark as the route.
The story does not make clear that Childers is an associate principal at a firm that hopes to capitalize on light-rail development in dense areas, as the Chronicle reported previously:
One proposed Midtown project could have been a model for urban development: Morris Architects planned an energy-efficient new building combining offices, apartments and retail, but because of high construction costs and depressed office rents, the firm is now considering existing buildings on or near light rail, said Morris architect Doug Childers.
Childers is also a member of the Greater Houston Partnership's Transit Committee. As we've noted before, what the downtown establishment wants, it tends to get in Houston, and the downtown establishment seems particularly keen on putting light rail on Richmond. News consumers may find that background on Childers useful, since most reports to date have suggested (by omission) that he fronts just another citizens' group.
Speaking of citizens' groups, the Citizens' Transportation Coalition's Robin Holzer makes an appearance at the end of Sallee's story:
Robin Holzer of the Citizens Transportation Coalition, a volunteer group that analyzes local road and transit projects, notes that some parties have not taken sides on a route but favor "a full, detailed planning process."
"This rail infrastructure will shape Houston for the next 20 to 30 years," just as the Loop and Beltway have, she said. "It's imperative to build the University line and others in the right place, where they will serve the most people. Finding the right place requires detailed, thoughtful analysis."
Holzer questioned why Culberson would announce a decision four months before Metro's environmental impact studies will be completed.
Because of the phrasing, a casual news consumer probably wouldn't realize that "some parties [that] have not taken sides on a route" would not include Holzer's group, which has strongly supported Richmond rail on its website, going so far as to question the accuracy of one anti-Richmond group skeptical of METRO's utopian promises that Richmond rail won't take lanes from traffic, property from landowners, or trees from the environment (see this photo collection, which illustrates that those concerns are real). One could draw the conclusion that perspectives different from those of the CTC are not part of detailed, thoughtful analysis.
In the end, it remains unclear why the preferences of Christof Spieler, Robin Holzer, architects who hope to benefit from Richmond rail development, Galleria/Greenway realtors, and bloggers from the Heights should trump the preferences of 2003 voters and Richmond homeowners and businessowners who oppose METRO's Westpark/Richmond bait and switch.
It will be interesting to see if Rep. Culberson shares that view.
UPDATE (10:59 am): Rep. Culberson announced his opposition to rail on Richmond, citing communications from Richmond constituents opposing rail on Richmond by a margin of well over 90%. That brought cheers from anti-Richmond activists. Pro-Richmond activists expressed displeasure, but were mostly respectful during the Congressman's announcement (interrupting a couple of times). I didn't try to count heads (the professional journalists can do that), but I did get a number of photos that I will post and link after work today.
UPDATE (12:35 pm): Responding to the line that today's story does not mention the 2003 referendum, Chronicle assistant city editor Don Mason emails the following:
True, but the accompanying graphic does mention it under "pros" for the Westpark route, and we've hardly ignored that argument in our coverage.
Those are fair points. The graphic in question is located here.
UPDATE (4:15 pm): Dan Patrick says he will be speaking to Rep. Culberson in the 5:00 hour on KSEV-700.
UPDATE (9:41 pm): Some photos from the event are posted to this Flickr set.
UPDATE (08-02-2006): The good folks at Lone Star Times have posted my captured audio mp3 of Dan Patrick's interview with Rep. Culberson here.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/01/06 06:05 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
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