30 November 2006
The Insite: Mayor wants to change law regarding special election
Isiah Carey posts an interesting bit of news tonight: Mayor White plans to ask the state legislature for a change to the law that requires a special election to fill the Council seat formerly held by Doctor-Congresswoman Shelley Sekula Gibbs. The Mayor would like to let the seat remain vacant until the regular election in November.
Carey further notes that Councilmember Anne Clutterbuck thinks Mayor White should appoint someone to fill the seat until an election can be held.
UPDATE: Here's a link to the report Carey did for KRIV-26.
UPDATE (12-01-2006): Kristen Mack comments in her Chronicle column.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/06 10:46 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)
KTRK Political Blog: City tows legally parked vehicles
KTRK-13's Miya Shay reports that under Houston's parking laws, metered parking spots may actually be "rented" by citizens for the price of $11.50 per day. Interestingly, if a car is parked legally in a "rented" parking spot when the rental time begins, the meter is bagged and the car may be towed.
This isn't just a hypothetical. It happened downtown Tuesday, and Shay has posted photos of cars being towed on her blog.
That's ridiculous.
Here's hoping that Parking Management Busybody Liliana Rambo reads Shay's blog, and is already working to resolve what must be an infuriating situation for the poor people whose legally parked cars were towed.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/06 11:05 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Bundle up and protect your pipes!
It's that time of year: Local media gone wild because a cold front is blowing through today with the promise of freezing temps tonight. We find local news highly entertaining when this happens (like the KHOU-11 reporter standing somewhere on SH-249 this morning, waiting for the wind to change), and it's especially amusing to hear endless warnings to protect your pipes.
Here's the Chronicle:
And with temperatures today and this weekend expected to dip into near freezing numbers, talk turns to protecting the plants, pipes and, of course, people.
Plants, pipes and people? What about our little four-legged friends? Pets begins with a "p"!
Here's KPRC-2:
Tips To Prevent Frozen Pipes
Frozen pipes can be a household nightmare. A few inexpensive items and a few preventive steps can help you avoid the problem.
Follow the link for instructions on how to waste spend an afternoon. And here's KHOU-11's cold weather page with a link to pipe preps.
Anyway, hang in there folks. Temperatures are supposed to be more pipe-friendly next week.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/30/06 08:29 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (17)
29 November 2006
Checking in with TSU
Former President Priscilla Slade's grand jury testimony won't be unsealed so Slade's former assistant can review it for inconsistencies, although the testimony will be available for a grand jury review.
TSU has a new interim president -- retired Air Force Brigadier General James T. Boddie Jr. The Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue has more:
James Timothy Boddie Jr., who once led NASA's Aircraft Management Office, will assume the top job at the nation's second-largest historically black university upon finalizing an employment contract, officials said.
The regents turned to Boddie, 75, after firing Priscilla Slade in June on the grounds that she misspent $286,000 of the school's money to furnish and landscape her house. Slade and three former aides now face criminal charges.
"Right now TSU needs someone who is rigid, and he fit the bill," board Chairman J. Paul Johnson said.
And then there's the matter of TSU's head tennis coach, who is accused of stealing scholarship money and more (via KHOU-11):
“The only thing I know is that I’m here without money and with an apartment to pay and he won’t care,” said Roxana Martinez a TSU tennis player.
He is Alberto Rojo Jimenez, head tennis coach at TSU.
He also teaches classes at a private club.
“He said I was going to be living in apartments that I shouldn’t be worried about anything he was going to give me clothes, and shoes and rackets and everything,” said Martinez.
Everything a student could ask for except that never happened.
The players who were recruited from countries like Poland, Mexico and Egypt, accuse Rojo Jimenez of taking part of their scholarship money.
“I was evicted because he owes rent for a whole month,” said Christopher Gloc.
Gloc came all the way from Venezuela.
He said his coach not only took his scholarship check but asked him for more money so he reluctantly gave him a credit card. “There was 2000 dollars paid towards the university.”
Yet there’s no record the university ever received that money.
There’s another $500 to an auto repair shop but Gloc doesn’t even own a car.
TSU tells KHOU it's investigating the situation. A retired brigadier general could be just what TSU needs!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/29/06 02:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Where is the Insite?!
Anne Linehan and I have been wondering what happened to Isiah Carey's Insite. And so has Mike McGuff.
Instead of serving up Isiah's blog, the web address has been serving up ads/gibberish for the past couple of days.
We finally broke down and used an old-fashioned telephone (okay, a text message) to try to figure out what's up.
It turns out the site has apparently been hijacked AND poor Isiah's battling the flu right now. He's trying to get well and get the domain name back, but in the meantime, he's moved everything here:
Get well soon, Isiah!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/06 08:52 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
28 November 2006
Feds bust two Taliban sympathizers in Houston
The Chronicle's Cindy George reports that two men living in Houston have been accused of helping funnel money to the Taliban:
One of two Houston men accused of training to fight with the Taliban pleaded guilty this afternoon in federal court.
Kobie Diallo Williams, 33, a U.S. citizen who was a student at the University of Houston Downtown, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist a terrorist group. His help included withdrawing cash from an ATM to send to the Middle East.
Another man, Adnan Babar Mirza, 29, a Pakistani national who was in the country on an expired student visa, faces similar conspiracy charges as well as three federal weapons violations. Mirza appeared today before a U.S. magistrate judge.
Mirza became illegal when his visa expired. Someone holding a student visa or in the country illegally is not allowed to have firearms.
They sound like two absolutely charming young men.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/06 11:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
HISD responds to Westbury shooting via automated phone system
Following the fatal drive-by shooting at Westbury High School earlier today, HISD deployed its automated phone system to contact over 1,000 parents almost instantaneously, according to HISD spokeman Terry Abbott.
Here's the message that went out:
This is Westbury High School Principal Eric Coleman calling with a very important message.
We had a tragedy outside of Westbury High School, not on the campus, Tuesday morning. A ninth grade student was in a street off campus after school started when he was shot.
The Houston Police Department is investigating this off-campus incident, and our HISD Police Department is assisting. I wanted to call you right away and give you this information because it is important that parents be kept informed.
We kept all the students inside the school and safe during the school day. I’m very proud of how well our students behaved in class while the investigation was going on. We’ve had extra counselors at the school to assist any student who needs it, and HISD Police have increased police patrols around the school before and after school.
Westbury is a safe school. We take pride in giving our students a safe learning environment every day inside the school. And we will do everything we can to work with the community to keep the neighborhoods outside the school safe every day.
Again, this is Eric Coleman, the principal of Westbury High School.
The Houston Press blog HouStoned was quick to praise HISD for their smart use of technology. Chron.com's education blog called attention to the call's emphasis on the location of the shooting (off campus).
Both the message and the rapid response via the automated phone system seem appropriate to us. The overnight note from the principal (or the overnight printed newspaper!) just seem like relics in comparison.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/06 11:08 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Best to stick with the leftovers
The Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists tossed a little chemistry at readers today:
There is no evidence that Putin or anyone in the Kremlin had Litvinenko killed. The radioactive material, polonium-120, must be produced by a nuclear reactor or research lab, but could have come from anywhere and been acquired on the black market.
Actually, as Matt Bramanti suggested in an email earlier, Polonium 120 might well have been created by those mad-scientist Editorial LiveJournalists/Leftover Physicists down at 801 Texas Avenue, but it was the radioactive Polonium-210 isotope that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/06 10:34 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Park and Pillage lots get security cams and call boxes
Yesterday Rad Sallee gave us new details of Metro's Park and Pillage security system. Whereas the Metro Police Chief said he ended the security guard program because the $1 million price tag was too steep, almost two years later he's coughing up $16 million to put state-of-the-art security cams, call boxes, and remote controlled gates in the lots. So state-of-the-art, in fact, Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts notes that spare parts can be bought "off-the-shelf, making repair easier," presumably in case someone decides to disable the surveillance cameras.
Amusingly, less than two months ago, Chief Lambert repeated his assertion that the security guards were cost-prohibitive. Let's see: $1 million vs. $16 million. I dunno. That government math is sure different.
Anyway, I'm late to the story, but Laurence Simon and Matt Bramanti tackled it yesterday, so go read their takes if you haven't already.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/28/06 03:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Pat Gray is podcasting
For those of you who are missing former KPRC-950 talker Pat Gray following his abrupt departure from the station, there is good news: He's now offering a podcast at PatGray.com.
Judging from his commenters, it seems to be a hit.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/06 08:45 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (7)
At least they're persistent
The Chronicle runs an amusing correction today:
Stewart & Stevenson, an integrated oil-field services company based in Houston, plans to raise up to $300 million by selling shares in an initial public offering. A report from Bloomberg News on Page D1 Saturday incorrectly stated that Armor Holdings was selling the shares. Also, an item correcting that mistake on Page A2 Sunday incorrectly described Stewart & Stevenson's business.
Here's hoping they've got it straight now.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/06 08:07 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
27 November 2006
You knew the mayoral press conference was coming
After several weeks of bad press on the rash of copper thefts across the Houston area, you just knew it was about time for a mayoral press conference to address the bad PR problem.
Right on cue, here's the Chronicle's coverage:
"The theft of copper and (other) metal drives up the cost of living for all Houstonians and all Americans," said Mayor Bill White, who attended a news conference announcing the sweep for thieves who have stripped huge air conditioners of copper content at churches and other buildings, sometimes working boldly in daylight hours. "All consumers are victims."
White said copper theft drives up home construction costs and prices on other products that contain the metal, which police said is selling for more than $4 a pound.
Metal thieves have formed elaborate trading systems in Houston and other cities that have developers thinking twice about building new subdivisions where police are not making special efforts to control the problem, White said.
"These are not easy crimes to solve," White said. "We can't be in a situation in which people cannot build houses."
Thieves have "cannibalized" residential and commercial construction sites and even invaded an unused police department building to take metal, police said. Thieves also have stolen the nozzles off of city fire hoses, [assistant police chief Vicki] King said.
This week's crime sweep is just one step in trying to reduce metal theft in Houston, King said.
Perhaps the lack of visible police presence because of the manpower problem helps embolden thieves and other criminals? Just a guess.
Chief Hurtt presumably is enjoying an extended Thanksgiving weekend in Phoenix. Otherwise, the latest crimefighting initiative would have gotten the proper acronym treatment!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/27/06 12:53 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
Hoffman: Sometimes Houston is like living in the Bizarro World
Chronicle columnist Ken Hoffman ran this missive from a reader over the weekend (Hoffman's response is italicized):
Regarding your column about the restaurant being told it can't give away free french fries to motorists during rush hour — we can disrupt traffic to take something (panhandling), but we cannot disrupt traffic to give something away?
Bob Cress, Houston
Maybe the restaurant should have given the french fries to panhandlers. Sometimes Houston is like living in the Bizarro World.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/27/06 09:44 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
26 November 2006
Is it legal...
...to rollerblade along a feeder road?
Yesterday as we were driving from one shopping establishment to another, we saw a guy rollerblading against traffic on the (very busy) I-45 southbound feeder road near FM 2920.
That's just nuts.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/26/06 08:35 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
"Six in the City" is all about reviving Houston's "cab culture"
The presidents of Yellow Cab and Liberty Cab got together and penned an op-ed for today's Chronicle extolling the virtues of the city's new $6 downtown fare program. You know, the one the cab drivers didn't actually know anything about.
We believe The new $6 go-anywhere cab program that went into effect last week is a big step toward improving circulation downtown and promoting a more vibrant, healthier central business district.
For six bucks, those who live, work and play downtown can now hail a cab for door-to-door service to more than 100 locations for dining, business meetings and errands. (The $6 fare can be shared by multiple riders.)
Dubbed "Six in the City," we think this program will prove to be a convenience and a time-saver for the rider, an economic stimulus for downtown merchants and add energy to Houston's downtown street scene.
Wasn't the ($500 million, 7.5 mile) Danger Train supposed to accomplish all that?
Since Houston City Council approved the flat rate in October, a host of entities has been working to establish the infrastructure for this program. The city has doubled the number of taxi stands at curbside, where cabs can wait for passengers, and established 30 cab-hailing locations (marked with curb signs and street decals) where passengers can be picked up and dropped off.
While those locations were identified, street lanes were striped and public awareness programs were ramped up, Houston's cab companies were bringing their drivers up to speed. With more than 2,000 taxis on the street, this is no small feat. Houston has about 150 cab companies, many with fewer than five vehicles. Each is responsible for communicating objectives to its own drivers.
In other words, it's not easy to get the word out to far-flung taxi drivers, even on a major initiative. But we're making good progress, contrary to the impression that may have been created by uninformed drivers recently quoted in the Chronicle.
We estimate that 90 percent of all cab drivers are aware of the program at this initial stage.
Rest assured, downtown folks, there are only about 200 cab drivers left who don't yet know about the $6 fare.
Yellow Cab and other companies gave informational rack cards to their drivers and Liberty Cab sent a memo to each of its drivers. Last week Yellow Cab began putting decals on each of its taxis and installing signbacks on 100 of its vehicles.
The city of Houston is providing printed collateral materials to cab companies for distribution to drivers and for the past week has been passing out rack cards and flyers to drivers at all downtown cab stands.
The program began on November 15th and a week later (after the Chron's embarrassing story), an information drive began in earnest to educate local cabbies about the new program.
"Six in the City" is the perfect opportunity to revive Houston's cab culture. The $6 fare is attractive to drivers and riders, and the new infrastructure allows cabs to operate in a feasible manner.
It's all about reviving Houston's "cab culture." Because that's something the city should be doing.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/26/06 06:53 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
25 November 2006
Get outside (and work off that dressing!)
The Chronicle's Lisa Viator checks in with a couple of Houston outdoor attractions.
The first is the new Greenway Pedestrian Trail at Hermann Park, which connects parts of the park that haven't been connected for nearly a hundred years:
Funded by a $1 million appropriation from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Greenway trail connects the 80-acre Bayou Parkland area to the heavily attended Heart of the Park, the Japanese Garden and Carruth Playground.
"The main purpose of the trail is to connect the 85-acre natural area on the eastern side to the center of the park," conservancy executive director Doreen Stoller said. "The Greenway is an integral component of the conservancy's ongoing Lake Plaza project, which will create a new 8-acre public space adjacent to McGovern Lake, the Houston Zoo, and the home of the much-loved Hermann Park miniature train."
Stoller said the total estimated cost of the project, including a redesigned miniature train station and pedal boathouse, public restrooms, a café and public art components, is about $8 million, including $1 million for the Greenway trail.
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said the 415-acre park is a unique urban anomaly — vast green space in the heart of a major metropolitan city.
It really is a lovely park.
For a different perspective on the city, Viator calls attention to monthly pontoon boat tours of Buffalo Bayou:
When the Sabine-to-Bagby Promenade debuted in June, about 10,000 Houstonians gathered to celebrate the opening of the 23-acre waterfront park along the downtown banks of Buffalo Bayou.
"And we want people to continue coming," said Trudi Smith, spokesperson for the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, a nonprofit organization that coordinates the integration of major amenities into the bayou greenbelt. It also seeks ways to increase community involvement in bayou-related activities.
Smith said one idea to get people to the bayou was offering them a way to get on the bayou. With the help of the Bayou Breeze, the partnership's pontoon boat, the Buffalo Bayou boat cruises have set sail the second Saturday of each month. Smith said the 30-minute tours are held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with limited capacity of 10 people per trip, and begin and end at the Sabine Street Bridge on the north bank of the bayou.
The next tour is December 9. While we would not characterize the park as better than the River Walk, it is a lovely green space in its own right, and the pontoon boat twist sounds fun.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/25/06 07:58 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (5)
24 November 2006
KHOU: City housing repair program raises questions
Earlier this week, KHOU ran a story by Dan Lauck on one of those public-private partnerships designed to help low-income people that hasn't exactly worked out:
Six years ago the feds, the city and two non-profit agencies jumped in to save the homes of senior citizens many of whom now feel ripped off.
“And the house is unlevel. You can see that. It’s just a mess. I don’t understand it,” said Williams.
Neither does Pauline Banks, who watched from across the street. She’s in the same mess.
“This happened before I got here,” said Milton Wilson.
Wilson was brought in as the Director of City Housing, to fix the program.
He says the quality of the work was bad enough that the feds shut off the money and told the city to go back and re-inspect the work.
People who question such programs in the first place are generally labeled meanies (since the programs are designed to help the poor, the reasoning seems to be that they must not be questioned). And then, we sometimes learn years later that people with the right connections to the city seem to have benefited more than some poor people -- which doesn't really help the poor people or the taxpayers all that much.
It's worth keeping such stories in mind when we hear of the latest, greatest public-private initiatives to help the poor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/24/06 12:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
23 November 2006
Happy Thanksgiving!
As is the norm for our family, my husband does almost all the cooking (life's good when the hubby is a chef), while we enjoy the end result, then take turkey-induced naps. =) He stuffs the bird with oranges, onions, and fresh rosemary. Oh my -- it makes for one delicious turkey!
Here's wishing all of you a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving Day.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Of course, the Editorial LiveJournalists couldn't resist a lecture on politics on a day when even those of us who follow politics prefer to concentrate on loved ones, turkey, and football. Pathetic.
UPDATE (11-24-2006): Don Mason, the Chronicle's Assistant City Editor--Government/Politics, emails the following:
And after starting off with a pleasant Thanksgiving posting, bloghouston couldn’t resist a shot at the Chronicle even on a day when our front page contained two powerful stories about families and blessings (not to mention a giant picture of a turkey).
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, or whatever seasonal greeting you prefer.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/06 08:45 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
22 November 2006
Thanks for thinking of us!
Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal visited with Isiah Carey recently and mentioned this little blog:
Even though he didn't indicate he reads the Insite - Chuck Rosenthal - The Harris County District attorney came pretty close. When I went to interview him this week he had a question for The Insite. He asked me if I've ever read a website called Bloghouston.net...I said yes. Rosenthal replied by saying The Insite is quite often mentioned on their site. So I'm sure at some point Mr. Rosenthal clicked the link my fellow bloggers Kevin and Anne have included. [...]
We are fans of the no-nonsense, law-and-order DA, and not just because he's a Chron "bad guy," although it is a bonus that he isn't swayed by those who aim to teach Houstonians how to be proper liberals. ;-)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/22/06 05:53 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (7)
Medical Center investigating "9-volt battery" leakage
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts may not be concerned with stray current, but Texas Medical Center officials are concerned enough that the foundations of several hospitals and related buildings are being checked for damage (in a KHOU-11 follow-up story):
“The thing is it’s relentless,” said Stephen Swinson, President of Thermal Energy Corporation. “It’s like shore erosion. It’s like every day. Every wave.”
Since Metro revealed its electrical problem 18 months ago, the Texas Medical Center is conducting its first comprehensive test to see if hospital foundations are now in trouble.
Swinson and the Thermal Energy Corporation are leading this investigation for a number of clients in the Medical Center. He says tests show above average levels of stray current in the area when Metro’s light rail is in operation.
Over the last couple weeks Swinson says engineers have tested almost a dozen medical buildings including foundations of the Texas Children’s Hospital, Methodist Hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Tower, and the University of Texas Health Science Center among others.
“Today there’s not danger of a building collapsing,” Swinson said, “But is there going to be future significant cost associated with having to reinforce structural members and things like that? It’s a possibility.”
And then Roberts' dismissive quote is used again, about the electricity leakage being akin to what a 9-volt battery would discharge. Uh huh. If that were true, Centerpoint Energy wouldn't be spending money replacing metal pipes near the Danger Train line, and Metro wouldn't have already spent close to $1 million trying to determine the extent of the problem.
And now the TMC is having a look at its buildings' foundations.
PREVIOUSLY: TMC: Metro needs to fix "stray current" problem
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/22/06 04:35 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
21 November 2006
Doctor-Congresswoman goes to Washington (cont'd)
Doctor-Congresswoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs' (mis)adventures in Washington have inspired some biting commentary from Austin American-Statesman humorist John Kelso. Here's a snippet:
About 24 hours after she took over Tom DeLay's office, seven staff members walked out and quit.
Now that's what I call a mean case of halitosis. Time to dive for the Listerine jug, lady.
Actually, it wasn't her breath. The staff members left because they reportedly didn't like the way Sekula-Gibbs was treating them. Did I mention she's a dermatologist? That's not surprising, considering how fast she got under these people's skin.
Ouch. There's more.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/06 10:50 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)
Changes at KPRC-950
There are changes this morning in the lineup at KPRC-950.
The Michael Berry show greeted me this morning on my drive in. Councilmember Berry seems now to be occupying the slot previously filled by Pat Gray.
Michael Garfield, the High-Tech Texan, will apparently fill Michael Berry's old slot.
So far, there's no answer to my inquiries about what will happen to Ken Hoffman's regular gig on Wednesdays. I hope Clear Channel isn't messing with Hoffy!
UPDATE: Clear Channel's Ken Charles informs that Hoffman will still make his regular Wednesday appearance. Crisis averted!
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff, Isiah Carey's Insite, The High Tech Texan.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/06 08:23 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (21)
20 November 2006
Vote for America's Worst Newspaper
Power Line Blog has posted its nominess for America's Worst Newspaper. Second on the list, our beloved Houston Chronicle:
The Houston Chronicle: A reader who worked for the Chronicle for “quite a while”: “Its main problem is not even its liberalism, which it suffers from, but its vapidity. On top of that, the editor from Hearst Corp. is trying to teach Houstonians how to be proper liberals. The fact that no one ever hears about the newspaper at America’s fourth largest city should tell you a lot.”
The editorial leadership at the Chronicle is atrocious. Plain and simple.
You can vote for your favorite worst newspaper at Power Line News.
BLOGVERSATION: Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/20/06 06:03 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (18)
SEIU declares victory (but was it really?)
KTRK-13's Miya Shay blogs that the SEIU/janitors strike has come to an end, with SEIU pronouncing victory.
Here's an interesting tidbit from her blog post:
You saw it first here on the KTRK political blog! SEIU and the cleaning companies reach preliminary agreement. Sources say Mayor White made many phone calls over the past several weeks behind the scenes.
It's good to know that Mayor White views it as his job to play mediator for private firms and a labor union that shipped professional protestors in from out of town to disrupt life in Houston and break our laws. Obviously, all of the pressing problems in the city are solved. Well, except for the renegade Animal Cracker snacking, but METRO's working on that!
Anyway, look for SEIU to spin this as a big labor victory. And maybe it was. Or maybe SEIU decided that it wasn't worth paying big bail bonds to beat this dead horse of a strike.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/06 03:23 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
19 November 2006
METRO: Don't worry about stray current
Local watchdog Tom Bazan has long been warning about the still-unresolved stray-current issues along METRO's Main Street light-rail line.
On Friday, KHOU-11's Jason Whiteley reported the latest on the problem:
Metro's light rail line is leaking electricty into the ground and has been for 18 months.
The problem is stray current is corrosive. And Bazan fears it's eating up the steel rods in the concrete foundation of the I-45 Pierce Elevated bridge.
Over time, Bazan believes the freeway could collapse.
"It's inevitable. If they don't cure the problem. It will collapse," he said. "I don't know when, but it will."
TXDOT told 11 News it hasn't checked the foundation of the Pierce Elevated. There's no need to, it says, unless engineers find evidence there's a problem. But Metro was concerned enough to ask if it could take a closer look itself.
Metro hasn't done that yet, but a spokeswoman said the public shouldn't worry about the leaking electricty. [sic]
If there's nothing to worry about, then METRO ought to be happy to perform testing ASAP and reassure the public by sharing information promptly.
The video version of the story (but not the text posted online) mentions that Centerpoint Energy has been concerned enough about the problem to replace some metal gas pipes (which are susceptible to stray current) with plastic pipes near the rail line. Their engineers must not have consulted METRO spokeswoman Raequel Roberts on the matter, or they would have known not to worry.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/06 09:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Will Council's apartment ordinance reduce affordable housing?
Today's Chronicle carried an op-ed on the topic of City Council's plan to fine the owners of apartment complexes that suffer from too much crime. The point writer Teresa Lowery makes is that the costs incurred will increase rental prices, thereby impacting Houston's affordable housing market:
Even if the apartment owner is a faceless institution, it is not immune to simple math. The apartment owner who is required to make significant capital improvements and maintain a large force of security personnel will have greater expenses that must be covered by rent revenues. The rent situation is complex and the upward pressure on rents is multi-faceted.
The crime ordinance is not the only thing that will force rent increases in Houston apartments. In the aftermath of the hurricane devastation on the Gulf Coast in 2005, insurance companies have imposed very large increases on apartment landlords.
Insurance for apartments has more than doubled in many cases. The new insurance policies often carry higher deductibles and more risk for the landlords.
With insurance costs rising and the impact of the crime ordinance looming, apartment rents in Houston are going to rise significantly. This will diminish one of our city's greatest assets — affordable housing.
[snip]
When the evacuees arrived in Houston, the Houston apartment community responded like the rest of the city — by opening our arms, hearts and doors to the victims of this most horrible natural disaster. If a small segment of the evacuees is responsible for an increase in crime, as the police claim, then one must ask why the landlords are now being criticized. One could reasonably argue that the apartment landlords should be praised for reaching out to evacuees, instead of being subjected to laws that make it harder to realize a profit.
The debate over this ordinance has successfully shifted the focus away from HPD's manpower shortage onto apartment owners who responded to the city's request to take in Katrina evacuees. It doesn't seem fair, but in the end, apartment owners will pass the costs on in the form of rent increases.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/19/06 08:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Mayor Bill vs. Jordy (cont'd)
Mayor White's quest to oust Jordy Tollett from the position as president of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau took yet another turn on Friday, as the Chronicle's Kristen Mack reports:
The executive board of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau voted Friday to search for a possible replacement for bureau president Jordy Tollett.
Considerable pressure was applied on the board's 28 members, who cast secret ballots when deciding whether to follow up on Mayor Bill White's recommendation to enlist a national executive search firm to find candidates when Tollett's contract expires next year.
The board also passed a unanimous measure asking Tollett to reapply for his job."We asked that Mr. Tollett participate in that search as a candidate we have a lot of faith in," board President Doug Horn said. "Jordy has considered that position and will get back with us. He is taking it into advisement."
Greater Houston Partnership CEO Jeff Moseley will head a search committee to be formed next week. It is expected to submit candidates in 60 to 90 days.
Tollett's five-year contract is up in February.
Apparently all of Houston's problems -- skyrocketing violent crime, congestion, potholes, a bumbling police chief who spends much of his time in Phoenix -- pale in comparison to that pressing problem of a Non-Friend-Of-Bill heading up the allegedly independent Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: Houston Business Journal.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/06 05:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
Maybe the LiveJournalists should stick to leftovers
The great economist Milton Friedman passed away several days ago, and the Editorial LiveJournalists decided to offer their opinion yesterday.
Unsurprisingly, their editorial missed some of the more important aspects of Friedman's life and work, despite seeming to crib from a well-crafted obituary in the New York Times.
Also unsurprisingly, there were a few missteps in the Chron editorial. To wit,
Known for his love of laissez-faire economics and an adviser to leaders from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to Margaret Thatcher, Friedman perhaps was most influential in his recommendations for government control of the money supply, which he believed was crucial to economic growth.
Compare to this, from the New York Times:
Though he had helped ignite the conservative rebellion after World War II, together with intellectuals like Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley Jr. and Ayn Rand, Mr. Friedman had little or no influence on the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. President Nixon, in fact, once described himself as a Keynesian.
It was frustrating period for Mr. Friedman. He said that during the Nixon years the talk was still of urban crises solvable only by government programs that he was convinced would make things worse, or of environmental problems produced by “rapacious businessmen who were expected to discharge their social responsibility instead of simply operating their enterprises to make the most profit.”
It's a shame that the newspaper of record in the nation's fourth largest city can't have a better editorial page.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/06 02:53 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
18 November 2006
SEIU's arrested protestors socked with large bond
SEIU seems to be discovering that the local judicial system is not overly impressed with the organization's shipping in professional protestors to break our community's laws:
In an unprecedented transparent attempt to severely limit the right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech of low-wage Houston janitors and their supporters, a Harris County District Attorney has set an extraordinarily high bond of $888,888 cash for each of the 44 peaceful protestors arrested [Thursday] night. Houston janitors and their supporters, many of them janitors from other cities, were participating in an act of non-violent civil disobedience, protesting in the intersection of Travis at Capitol when they were arrested in downtown Houston Thursday night.
Breaking our community's laws with imported protestors and annoying the people who actually live here is starting to get expensive! Maybe that (along with Thanksgiving) is another reason that SEIU wants to go back to the bargaining table?
Incidentally, we're under the impression that courts set bail, not the district attorney. At least that's how it works on Law and Order: Criminal Intent!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/06 12:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
Doctor-Congresswoman goes to Washington (cont'd)
Doctor-Congresswoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs' great comic (mis)adventure in Washington shows no signs of letting up!
And for Sekula-Gibbs, it's just one week down, seven to go.
"I'm a very small part of a very big team," she said. "I don't want to overstate that."
I think she meant "understate."
Certainly, her seatwarming in D.C. for a few weeks has been anything but understated!
It's bad enough when your abrasive manner leads professional staffers to flee. It's worse when you make reckless accusations about those professional staffers. It's worse still when you persist, generating headlines like this one:
Nope, not understated. At all. But definitely comical.
Interestingly, Isiah Carey has posted that Mayor White is already moving to erase Doctor-Congresswoman from the city payroll. That didn't take long!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/06 12:13 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (5)
Borders to open megastore in Galleria
Borders has announced plans to open a two-story store in the Galleria mall:
Borders will open a two-level, 27,000-square-foot store in Houston, Texas, in the middle of December. The new store will be in the Galleria Mall, located at 5061 Westheimer Road.
The store will feature 200,000 titles, a Seattle's Best Coffee cafe, and internet access via T-Mobile HotSpots.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/06 11:48 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (3)
Mrs. White's Multiple Intellect Disorder (cont'd)
The blogger formerly known as Sedosi has caught Mrs. White in what appears to be a another case of Multiple Intellect Disorder.
Matt Bramanti over at Lone Star Times piles on.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/06 11:19 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
SEIU demonstrates downtown
I saw Miya Shay's 6pm KTRK-13 news report that the SEIU/janitor people were planning to demonstrate downtown last night, so I decided to go down and check the thing out.
What appeared to be a few hundred people were gathered outside the Chase tower.
They were making quite a racket, whistling and beating drums and playing music and occasionally breaking into chants.
All of the chants were in Spanish. That doesn't seem like a very effective way to communicate the message, whatever that message was. All I understood was, "When?! NOW!" a couple of times.
The demonstration seemed lawful. Unlike their previous protests, there was no attempt to disrupt traffic or otherwise interfere with the normal goings on downtown. Of course, there wasn't actually much foot or vehicular traffic downtown at 7pm on a Friday (can we say deserted?), so it's not clear that much would have been disrupted anyway.
Maybe the SEIU organizers shipped in from out of town to handle these matters are from cities where downtown is actually busy in the evening, and the protests therefore might get noticed.
There was quite a police presence, though. Given the previous protests, HPD obviously had to deploy manpower to handle any illegal nonsense. Unfortunately, that's manpower that's pulled away from fighting real crimes in the city during a crime wave. Thanks, SEIU! We appreciate it.
BACKGROUND: An L.M. Sixel column earlier this week made clear that SEIU is importing lots of outsiders to help with these protests:
Dozens of union organizers have come to Houston to participate in nearly nonstop protests, and more are coming.
[snip]
About 50 out-of-state union officials and janitors are to arrive in Houston this week to participate in an escalating series of actions, Tran said.
As Callie notes in the comments, some SEIU people are now indicating they want to go back to the negotiating table. That can happen when all you've managed to do with your imported protestors is annoy people (and when the freeloaders you've imported from elsewhere want some of mommy's Thanksgiving cooking!).
PREVIOUSLY: If a tree falls in the forest....
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/06 11:06 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (11)
17 November 2006
Doctor-Congresswoman goes to Washington (cont'd)
During her short tenure in Washington, D.C., Doctor-Congresswoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs continues to spread the charm that made her such a hit among some former colleagues on City Council.
Meanwhile, a grown-up political reporter (the Washington Post's Charles Babington) dug up what seems like a pretty benign explanation for the "mysterious" computer activity:
Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs (R-Tex.), who is warming the 22nd District seat for only a few weeks, said that former DeLay employees apparently deleted the office's computer files shortly before they walked out, en masse, on Tuesday.
The records dated from her assumption of the office Nov. 8 and did not involve matters related to the former majority leader, Sekula-Gibbs said in an interview in her unadorned office in the Cannon Building. Those who erased the records, she said in a statement, "have harmed the 22nd congressional district" and "brought shame to this office." She has asked for an investigation.
David James, DeLay's former chief of staff, who stayed to work for Sekula-Gibbs -- until Tuesday's walkout -- said last night that the office computers "were scrubbed and reconfigured by an outside vendor in the days immediately prior to her assuming office," as House policies require. The new congresswoman was given a copy of everything "electronically or in hard copy, or both," James said in a statement.
Whoops! Maybe the Doctor-Congresswoman and her former city council staff were too busy flying off the handle as if still in campaign mode to familiarize themselves with House policies. Of course, as Doctor-Congresswoman has been known to say, we're not (medical) doctors, so maybe we just don't understand.
In the KRIV-26 interview taped segment, Doctor-Councilwoman also complains about all the work that has gone undone while the office has been unfilled. While it is unfortunate that the Congressional seat has been unfilled for so long, it is worth noting that the professional staff had continued to be fully engaged in constituent service work -- at least up until something about the Doctor-Congresswoman led them to resign en masse.
In other news related to the Congressional district, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack reports today that popular Harris County Tax Collector/Assessor Paul Bettencourt has all but formally announced his intention to run for the seat in 2008:
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collecter Paul Bettencourt said he is seriously considering taking Lampson on in 2008.
Problem is, he would have to resign his county seat as soon as he announced for Congress. He has two years left in his term.
He says he's willing to do that because of the "magnitude of the (Republican) turnover" in Congress.
Bettencourt will be extremely popular among primary voters (and doesn't have the Doctor-Congresswoman's baggage of being a flip-flopper on the key issues of abortion and Houston's sanctuary policy), and a formidable general-election candidate. Jared Woodfill is surely right to call him the frontrunner for the seat in 2008.
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Safety Forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/17/06 08:23 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (5)
Cabbies: What $6 fare?
The city's new $6 downtown cab ride program is underway, and there's even a website up and running with all the details. There's just one little problem:
Someone forgot to tell the cabbies:
City officials rolled out a program Wednesday that they said is "effective immediately" that institutes a flat $6 taxi fare for all points downtown. The fare, being promoted as Six in the City, is aimed at increasing cab use and applies for all trips in the freeway loop formed by U.S. 59, Interstate 45 and Interstate 10.
The word, however, has not filtered down to where it's most needed: Houston cabbies.
At one of downtown's busiest cab stands on Capitol at Milam in front of the Chase Bank Tower, some drivers awaiting passengers had heard about the pending change and some hadn't. All of them still were charging passengers according to the meter.
"I have no idea about the program. I've heard some of the drivers talking about a change coming, but nobody's told us anything yet," said Baraki Mohamed, who has driven a taxi here for nearly two years.
Ha ha ha! That's classic!
As for the confusion?
"We just got started this week," said Ted Bowen, public relations and marketing manager for the city Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
"It'll take awhile for everything to be in place."
Folks who hail a cab downtown expecting to pay $6 and are charged more should contact Mr. Bowen for a refund.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/17/06 06:10 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (10)
16 November 2006
Lose an Eye: Mrs. White's Multiple Intellect Disorder
The blogger formerly known as Sedosi is plugging away again (yay!), with a new blog name and a new focus (and his real name, instead of the old nom de plume).
There's still a little of the old focus, though, hence this fine look at Mrs. White's Multiple Intellect Disorder.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/16/06 11:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Janitors, Chevron, and the Greater Houston Partnership
SEIU isn't giving up on the janitor's strike; in fact, SEIU is determined to be successful in Houston so it can gain "a foothold into the south."
To that end, union organizers and janitors protested yesterday at the Chevron building, handcuffing themselves to the front door:
The SEIU focused on Chevron because it's a market leader in Houston, said SEIU spokeswoman Lynda Tran.
"If they were to instruct their contractors to pay higher wages and benefits, it would go a long way toward moving the business community here to follow suit," she said.
Why yes, Chevron IS a market leader in Houston. In fact, Chevron just won a "Houston's Greatest" award from the Greater Houston Partnership.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/16/06 07:08 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
METRO cops bust elderly Chinese immigrant for consuming animal crackers
KTRK-13's Marvin Zindler reports that METRO's police force is doing its part to keep the city safe from bad guys:
A Houston woman was kicked off a city bus and arrested, and you're not going to believe her crime. You'd think this woman was one of the most hardened criminals of all time because of the way she was arrested.
With the serious crime we have - murders, aggravated assault, burglaries, robberies - a timid woman was arrested for the most horrible crime of all. This woman was arrested for eating animal crackers on a METRO bus. The municipal court ticket even cites her for eating animal crackers.
Li Li Chao, 68, is from the People's Republic of China. She just got her citizenship and was promptly busted on the bus. Her son tells what happened because Li Li doesn't speak English very well. He said two plain clothes METRO cops took her off the bus.
Jimmy Zhou said, "They took her off the bus. They gave her a ticket. My mom just caught the next bus."
Zindler spoke to the presiding judge, who spoke to the prosecutor, who agreed to drop the case:
"I asked the prosecutor to review the case. They reviewed the case, they called the officer and the prosecution has decided not to continue with the case," Judge Mejia explained. "So they have dismissed the case."
Nice. So the METRO undercover cops just wound up wasting everyone's time with this nonsense.
I wonder if the METRO cops were bored members of METRO's Elite Counterterror Force?
AWESOME CHRIS BAKER ON-AIR COMMENT: "I'm surprised they didn't Taser her!"
Us too!
UPDATE: It's worth noting that the same METRO that cut funding for security at the Park-and-Pillage lots apparently has plenty of money to crack down on those renegade elderly transit users who snack on animal crackers! Chief Lambert has his priorities.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/16/06 05:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
15 November 2006
Blown over newspaper boxes? There oughta be a law!
Did we ever find out if City Council passed the ordinance it was considering recently to regulate newspaper boxes? Because KHOU-11 has raw video of today's very windy conditions, and included in the video is a row of news boxes all on their sides, just blown right over.
Since Councilwoman Toni Lawrence was so concerned with the aesthetics of newspaper boxes, maybe she could also consider the dynamics of securing the things.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/15/06 05:20 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Doctor-Congresswoman scares off D.C. staffers
Roll Call is reporting (subscriber-only) that Doctor-Congresswoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs has already managed to rub some people the wrong way early in what will be a short tenure in Congress:
The woman who was sworn in this week as the interim Republican successor to ex-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was, shall we say, not a hit with holdover DeLay aides.
In fact, they showed their feelings about their new boss Tuesday by walking out of the office en masse and resigning, effective immediately.[snip]
She showed up to take over DeLay's old office on Thursday and, according to sources familiar the office dynamics, was "mean" to the staff. On Tuesday, at her new Member's open-house reception in the office, sources charged that she was less than pleased that neither President Bush nor Vice President Cheney showed up with the rest of the welcome wagon, despite the fact that others who stopped by included Texas GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn and Texas GOP Reps. Kevin Brady and Michael Burgess. (Apparently, according to sources, she was under the impression that the president of the United States would be there to greet the seven-week Congresswoman.)
We hope Doctor-Congresswoman enjoys her short stay in Congress. One suspects that some former colleagues on City Council are not going to miss her much, and it doesn't sound as though professional staffers or anyone else in D.C. will either.
UPDATE: Of course, the useless Chronicle D.C. bureau reports nothing of this development in its coverage of the Doctor-Congresswoman.
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Safety Forum, Polimom.
RELATED: The Raw Story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/06 11:05 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (14)
Brent Fuller moves on to the Caymans
A reader passed along word and KTRH 740's crack City Hall reporter Brent Fuller confirms that today is his last day on the job for the news/talk station.
Fuller says he'll be moving to the Cayman Islands, where he'll continue to work in journalism.
We wish Fuller all the best. We're definitely going to miss his City Hall reporting.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/06 09:16 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
14 November 2006
HPD cracks down on rush hour french fry street marketers
The Chronicle's Ken Hoffman noticed that HPD managed quickly to clear the road of people who were obstructing traffic in the Galleria area:
Remember when I wrote about Bistro Moderne at the Hotel Derek giving away free french fries to motorists stuck in traffic at the corner of Westheimer and Loop 610 at Friday rush hour?
I predicted it wouldn't last long. While the fries were freshly made and quite fantastic, I saw a bad moon risin' — traffic jams and road rage and french fries don't mix.It lasted two weeks. The cops told them to knock it off.
It's too bad that HPD can't also efficiently rid the streets of vagrant beggars, protesting janitors, and Chronicle vendors, all nuisances that obstruct traffic without even offering frustrated motorists tasty food!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/06 11:01 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Saves you money!
Last week, the Chronicle's Loren Steffy wrote a nice column on the success of Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale.
Locally, we're so familiar with Mack that we don't always think about how he's built his successful business. As Steffy put it,
Little, though, has been written recently about what's become one of the top 100 furniture businesses in the country as ranked by Furniture Today, an industry publication.Perhaps it's because McIngvale is already an icon of Houston business. He and his story are so well-known that I almost hesitate to write about him for fear of stating the obvious. But his story is worth telling, or perhaps retelling, because it's one of those rare tales in which a small business on a shoestring budget burgeoned into a large and successful enterprise.
Steffy goes on to describe the successful marketer (that we know well) and the successful businessman (that we don't know so well). It's a good read.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/06 07:32 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (12)
13 November 2006
Smile for the cameras!
KTRH 740's Brent Fuller reports that red-light cameras will be clicking away at ten more intersections today.
The new intersections covered by red-light cameras are:
East Freeway westbound service road @ Uvalde
Sam Houston Parkway southbound service road @ Beechnut
Bissonnet westbound @ West Sam Houston Parkway South service road
Hillcroft southeast bound @ Southwest Freeway service road
FM 1960 West westbound @ Tomball Parkway service road
Chimney Rock southbound @ Southwest Freeway service road
S. Gessner southbound @ Beechnut
Southwest Freeway northbound service road @ Fountain View
Westheimer eastbound @ West Loop South service road
Westpark eastbound @ Southwest Freeway service road
And the earlier intersections are:
John F. Kennedy @ Greens Road
Richmond @ Dunvale
Bellaire @ Wilcrest
Elgin @ Milam
Hillcroft @ Harwin
Bay Area Boulevard @ El Camino Real
Travis @ Webster
Hillcroft @ Richmond
Brazos @ Elgin
Pease @ LaBranch
Better stop running those red lights, or you're going to pay!
RELATED COVERAGE: KHOU-11, KTRK-13, Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/06 12:26 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
12 November 2006
Food and drink roundup (11-12-2006 edition)
Let's start the week off with a food and drink roundup, shall we?
Alison Cook visits Catalan Food and Wine, and her inner foodie loves it. She also visits the Memorial Dr. edition of La Vista, which gives her inner foodie even more to celebrate. Read her blog. It's some of the best stuff over at Chron.com.
Robb Walsh also takes a turn at Catalan and explores how authentically Spanish its offerings are. He also partakes of the Polish cuisine at Polonia.
Ken Hoffman goes overboard at breakfast with IHOP's Jumbo Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity. My goodness. 1400 calories. For breakfast. So...if one were just to eat one Jumbo Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity a day and nothing else, would one lose weight? Call it the IHOP diet.
And Lance Scott Walker visits the Outpost Tavern, reportedly the place where the astronauts drink.
World Class, all of it. Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 11/12/06 10:39 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Slampo: You can't break a dog from suckin' eggs
Slampo posted a fun roundup of comments from media and pols after the election.
The whole thing is worth reading, but what Slampo characterized as Rick Casey's early ad copy for Bill White's next campaign caught my eye:
But assuming he is able to keep a lid on crime, White will present something Democrats haven't had in a long while — a formidable candidate for governor with a story to tell and the money to tell it.
The story will be of competence, social progressiveness and fiscal conservatism.
He will be a Democrat who passed his own revenue cap and, if very modestly, cut the city's tax rate.
Maybe Rick Casey will have to be renamed Mrs. White! Then again, copying the real Mrs. White isn't much different from plagiarism, so maybe Casey's own name should remain affixed to the writing.
In any case, Mayor White has been a considerable improvement over the inept Lee Brown, but it is a stretch to call him a fiscal conservative (as his opposition to stringent revenue caps illustrates) and his record on crime is not good thus far (see Hurtt, Harold). The latter could hurt him if he tries to run statewide against a well-financed candidate.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/06 07:23 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (11)
Berlin is not in France
UH Professor David Dow wrote an op-ed for today's Chron bemoaning the fact that Saddam Hussein will likely be hanged for his crimes. What caught my eye, though, is a rather glaring error in the piece:
Like Rudolph Hess, the former Nazi who was the sole resident of Spandau prison in France until he died at the age of 94, these aged monsters can become sympathetic figures, old men with walkers shuffling around prison yards who seem too gray and infirm to have committed the atrocities we know they did.
Spandau Prison was in Germany, specifically, in the Spandau borough of western Berlin. It's such a strange error...does an editor review op-ed submissions?
MORE: Hanging Saddam, The Dow Blog
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/12/06 06:10 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (12)
Mrs. White takes care of her man
The Editorial LiveJournalists, once dubbed Mrs. White by Sedosi Alhambra for their tendency to trumpet the mayor's pet projects and priorities, have offered their unsurprising perspective on the city's new efforts to punish apartments where bad guys live:
The recent spike in violent crime in Houston has its epicenter in so-called "hot spots," mostly apartment complexes in the southwest and northeast sectors of Houston. After more than a year of negotiations and planning, City Council approved a measure that wisely requires those complex owners and others to become crimefighters as well as landlords.
It's a necessary measure. The Houston Police Department still struggles with a manpower shortage caused by the high retirement rate of officers. While expanded cadet classes and increased funding will provide some relief, immediate, additional effort must be made to combat crime in apartment complexes, where more than half of Houstonians reside.
This argument is a variant of, "we can't do what we really need to do (bring sufficient police manpower to bear) and fulfill one of the most basic duties of government, but we HAVE to do SOMETHING!" And so Mayor White and his Council have, to the cheers of the Editorial LiveJournalists.
Incidentally, if there are multiple "hot spots," then is it quite right to refer to them as a singular "epicenter?" Just wondering.
UPDATE (11-13-2006): On his radio program this morning, Councilmember Michael Berry asks if it's appropriate to treat apartment owners as OUTREACH for the Houston police department?
That's exactly how I would frame the question. Your thoughts?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/06 05:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
Radack calls out new treasurer
In her most recent column, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack focused on the Harris County treasurer position that will be filled by former City Councilman and failed mayoral candidate Orlando Sanchez. Harris County commissioners are on the record now for abolishing the office. Amusingly, Steve Radack had a pointed comment about the new officeholder:
Radack said Sanchez's campaign focused on himself and not the position.
"It wasn't about doing a better job," he said. "It was about Orlando needing a job."
Sanchez does seem to enjoy the public trough just a little too much for an alleged conservative. It will be nice if Radack and company follow through on eliminating this office and sending Sanchez back to the private sector.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/06 04:53 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
11 November 2006
The Dynamo's dream stadium
According to the Chron's David Barron, the Houston Dynamo have found the perfect model for their own stadium/complex:
As the Dynamo prepare to play the New England Revolution on Sunday for the championship of Major League Soccer, the apple of every Dynamo fan's eye and the object of his or her fondest flight of imagination is sleek, colorful Pizza Hut Park, the 2-year-old, 20,500-seat stadium that will host Sunday's game.
But as Dynamo president Oliver Luck strolls the grounds this afternoon, he will give equal attention to the 16 soccer fields that surround the stadium on the 118-acre campus. And he will, no doubt, consider whether Pizza Hut Park's combination of professional and developmental soccer venues is, as MLS officials suggest, the ideal blueprint for Houston's future.
The Dynamo have enjoyed instant on-field success in their first year in Houston, where the franchise moved from San Jose, Calif., while playing home games at the University of Houston's Robertson Stadium. The team will continue playing at UH at least through 2008 under the terms of a three-year lease signed this year.
But league and team officials have their eyes fixed on a new, soccer-specific stadium complex for Houston. And officials with Hunt Sports Group, which owns the FC Dallas team in MLS and manages Pizza Hut Park, don't think Houston will find a better example than the venue where Dallas-Fort Worth, at least for the moment, has outshone Houston in terms of stadium and arena planning and development.
Houston-area taxpayers need to be wary of Dallas-envy. It's very expensive:
Located 23 miles north of downtown Dallas, Pizza Hut Park and its surrounding fields were built for $81.5 million, including $55 million from the city of Frisco, Frisco Independent School District, Collin County and other entities. Hunt Sports Group paid for the rest and has a 20-year agreement for $100,000 per year to lease and manage the complex. Pizza Hut will pay $25 million over 20 years for naming rights.
Oh boy. Do you think the city of Houston can get $50 million out of the street and bridge repair fund? Can this be coded as an airport improvement? Will HISD be pressured to give up land or money for the new complex? Will HCTRA funds be raided to help build a world-class soccer complex?
In the end, it is highly likely that elected and unelected officials from local governmental agencies will decide that taxpayers need to pay for a new soccer venue. That's just the way these things seem to go.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/11/06 09:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
10 November 2006
Come out to honor our veterans tomorrow
Tomorrow is Veterans' Day.
We would encourage you to come downtown for the Veterans' Day parade if at all possible.
The event was nearly cancelled earlier this year because various groups were concerned that Houston's turnout would be poor.
Here's hoping that turnout is very good. It's an especially good chance for all those people who "support the troops but not the war" to come out.
Callie and I will be there, so please come say hello if you make it downtown.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/10/06 07:32 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
09 November 2006
WSJ: Midtown development lags
The Wall Street Journal ran a story by Thaddeus Herrick on Houston's Midtown yesterday. Since the Journal is subscriber only, here's a brief (fair-use) excerpt:
For two decades, a group of locals have touted the urban promise of Midtown, some 500 acres of homes, businesses and vacant lots that sit between this city's downtown and the bustling Texas Medical Center.
In 1995 they formed the Midtown Redevelopment Authority, attracting a five-block pedestrian-friendly residential and retail project known as Post Midtown Square that was a considerable departure for car-happy Houston. Light rail service gave the area a further boost in 2004, with Midtown getting three stations along the $324 million, 7.5-mile line.
But today more than half of the 475 blocks in Houston's Midtown are yet to be redeveloped. Perhaps more troubling, about half of the blocks along the light-rail line are vacant. "It's not very encouraging," says F. Charles Le Blanc, executive director of the Midtown Management District and Midtown Redevelopment Authority.
At a time when urban neighborhoods across the country are undergoing revivals, often with transit-oriented development leading the way, Houston's Midtown is a notable exception.
The story hits on points covered by Mike Snyder in the Chronicle nearly two months ago.
Both stories missed some of the more interesting "developments" along the Danger Train line, though!
BLOGVERSATION: Houston Strategies.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/06 09:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (20)
This Chron Eye is full of...
Laurence Simon noticed a new Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy (courtesy of Rosanna Ruiz).
He then compared it to CNN/AP coverage of the same story.
The interesting results are here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/06 11:27 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
08 November 2006
Doctor-Congresswoman-elect-for-a-few-weeks plans tax cuts!
Doctor-Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who won the special election to serve out the last weeks of Tom DeLay's term but mounted an unsuccessful write-in campaign for the full term, told the Chronicle's Alexis Grant today that she will be resigning her Council seat and assuming the Texas CD-22 seat in Washington as soon as the results are certified:
As she prepares to head for Washington, D.C., for a two-month stint in Congress, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs said this morning that she plans to resign her Houston City Council seat as soon as Tuesday's special election is certified."I made a commitment to the voters of District 22," she said at the start of today's regular council meeting. "It would be really wrong of me to say I don't want that vote and that responsibility."
[snip]
"It is a short job and people know that," Sekula-Gibbs said of her upcoming job.
She added that she still believes she can accomplish some improvements such as lowering taxes during that time.
Huh?
Basically, she's going to have time to let in the movers to take measurements in her office, so the new majority can move in. Maybe she'll use her franking privileges at least one time, to send out Christmas holiday cards to the district.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/08/06 01:02 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (21)
07 November 2006
Cantu developments put Pulitzer celebration on hold
Roughly a year ago, the Chronicle's Lise Olsen excitedly concluded that an innocent man had been executed in Texas.
The anti-death-penalty newspaper's editors and executives were, no doubt, looking forward to the newspaper's first ever Pulitzer, which was sure to come after this big story on a pet issue! And a certain editor's spouse was probably excited as well.
Alas, the quest for that Pulitzer has suffered somewhat of a setback:
A private investigator searching for proof that might exonerate a San Antonio man executed 13 years ago gave nearly $2,000 in cash, meals and small gifts to key witnesses who say the man was innocent.
Most of the money, $1,496, was directed toward Juan Moreno, the shooting victim whose testimony almost single-handedly convicted Ruben Cantu in 1985 and whose recantation is the centerpiece of a campaign to clear Cantu's name.
Moreno and his wife were compensated primarily for lost wages when they missed work to meet with the investigator, who was working with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
The authors of the story go on to explain that some people think the payments are perfectly ethical, and no big deal. The tone of this story, however, is certainly more glum than the tone of the story from a year ago. The Pulitzer celebration will have to be postponed, or perhaps even canceled.
BLOGVERSATION: Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/07/06 09:36 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Federal judge rules city must build wheelchair ramps under ADA
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports that a federal judge has ordered the city to construct wheelchair ramps along certain streets in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act:
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ruled last week that the city of Houston must install wheelchair ramps in the curbs of 34 intersections in the Montrose area — and any others where entire blocks of a street are repaved in the future.
The requirement, a provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act, was triggered when the city repaved West Alabama and other streets in preparation for an expected flood of traffic when Spur 527 was closed for reconstruction.
Rosenthal ruled in favor of plaintiff Kristen Jones and her attorney Dan Lundeen in 2004 and last year approved the list of intersections on streets including West Alabama, Fairview and Webster.
The new, permanent, injunction says the ADA requirements apply to any Houston street that gets resurfaced in the future "from intersection to intersection," and to newly constructed streets.
Assistant City Attorney Don Fleming said the city's former policy was not to rebuild ramps if they were still "usable," but to install new ramps if there were none present when a street was resurfaced.
"The mayor, the city and its engineers are committed to full compliance with the court order, the ADA and related standards to ensure complete access," Fleming said.
That's good to hear! But maybe a little more effort towards complying with the ADA would have headed off the need for litigation (and the cost, for that matter).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/07/06 09:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
HPD to take on role of apartment inspectors?
Fresh from punishing property owners who are victims of graffiti, City Council will now consider punishing apartment owners whose properties suffer from crime, reports KTRH-740's Brent Fuller:
The ordinance to be considered by City Council Wednesday has no specific requirement that apartment projects with high crime rates hire more security. The city has also eliminated a system it had first considered that would have ranked complexes by "tiers," or levels 1-4, with 1 being the safest, and 4 being the most dangerous.
Instead of these requirements, the city defines crime as a public health issue, allowing it to fine complexes with persistent violations up to $2,000 a day. It also sets forth how Houston police will inspect apartments, and what actions they can take to correct recurring crime problems.
A complex designated as "eligible for remedial action" by the city is subject to HPD inspection. Depending on what officers find, owners can be forced to take certain actions which will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Owners will also be charged a $400 inspection fee.
One suspects the crime at the more problematic complexes is directly related to the Katrina influx that the City of Houston welcomed once upon a time.
At least the early Rube-Goldberg-like ratings system has been eliminated from the proposal.
UPDATE (11-08-2006): The Chronicle posts more of the onerous details of the proposal, which has been championed by a self-identified conservative on council, Toni Lawrence.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/07/06 08:55 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Proposition G supporter Larry Kellner visits area churches
Isiah Carey has the scoop on what Continental CEO Larry Kellner was doing last Sunday:
The Insite has learned Continental Airlines C.E.O. Larry Kellner found his way to several African American churches last Sunday to get out the vote on Proposition G. The proposition, which has the backing of Mayor Bill White, would amend the charter of the city of Houston to exclude airport revenues and other self-sustaining enterprise funds, from the city's current limits on revenue collection. Kellner was reportedly accompanied by high ranking officials from the Mayors office on a tour of churches that began at 7 Sunday morning. I'm told the churches were: Wheeler Avenue, Good Hope Baptist and St. Anges Baptist. Tuesday will tell if Kellner's efforts worked!
Do you think Mr. Kellner told the folks that the ballot is long and complicated and they should just vote yes for everything? Do you think the ACLU is okay with this?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/07/06 06:34 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
Metro's stray current cost approaches $1 million
Tom Bazan keeps digging and Metro has been forced to release more details of its efforts to fix MetroRail's stray current problem. KTRH-740's Brent Fuller reports that the price tag keeps going up:
The Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority first began repair work last year, after it was notified by Centerpoint Energy that some electricity was escaping from light rail conductors and leaking into the ground.
The problem, known as "stray current", is not a danger to the traveling public. However, sustained exposure to electrical charges can corrode both iron and concrete. In the August 17 letter to Siemens Transportation Systems, Metro said it had already spent $243,000 repairing anchors at rail bridges which had been damaged.
Metro officials have said they expect Siemens to pay for all testing, repairs, management and other costs racked up during the transit agency's stray current investigation. More than $917,000 has been spent from May 2005 to June 2006, according to Metro. Its unclear if Siemens has paid back any of that so far.
More repair costs are expected in the future. For instance, Metro told Siemens in the August 17 letter that an estimated $157,000 would be needed to fix 20 drainage installations along the rail line. The letter also indicated certain "thresholds" installed near the Pierce Elevated downtown would have to be dug up and reinstalled.
We certainly hope that any future light rail will address this problem in the planning stage and not in the post-construction stage.
DOCUMENT: August 17 METRO letter to Siemens (pdf).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/07/06 04:43 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (12)
05 November 2006
Talking to the little people
If you need a good reason to vote for Proposition G, the Chron's editorial board would like you to know that throughout history, the world's great cities have remained great when they remembered to keep taxes high enough to fund airport expansions and water service.
And Mayor White would like you to tell your friends via email to vote FOR all the city propositions, because the ballot is long and complicated, meaning Mayor White thinks your friends aren't smart enough to figure out for themselves how they should vote.
Or something like that.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/05/06 07:03 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (14)
03 November 2006
HPD investigations hampered by equipment failures
Almost two years ago, KHOU-11's Jeremy Rogalski reported that HPD was having trouble getting its officers the equipment and training they needed to perform their duties properly, especially investigations:
"It's just terrible," said Sam, one recent HPD accident investigator, who wished to remain anonymous. "If we ask for equipment they say well you didn't have it last year, why do you need it this year?"
And so Sam says officers are forced to dip into their own pockets to buy cameras, measuring wheels, even laptop computers that work because the city-issued gear often doesn't.
"We're just not in a position right now to buy everything that we need," said Police Chief Harold Hurtt, who took the job in March.
Fast forward two years, and the same problems are still plaguing HPD. This time, KHOU's Jeff McShan reports:
When Sergio Gonzales’ tow truck slammed into a vehicle killing Leon Roberson and his wife Maureen two weeks ago, many believed it was just a matter of time before Gonzales would be charged with a crime, especially after witnesses said he was going 90 mph down Wallisville just before impact.
But 11 News found we may never know exactly what happened that night, because the detailed report taken by HPD’s accident division wasn’t so detailed.
Warren Diepramm is a veteran prosecutor for Harris