30 April 2007
ABC: Chron circulation down again
The Audit Bureau of Circulations has released its latest figures, and once again the news is not very good for the local Hearst daily (or very many other newspapers):
Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.
1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent
5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent
6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent
7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent
As always, we'll be looking forward to seeing Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney's spin in the Chron press-release-posing-as-news article that should follow shortly.
UPDATE (05-02-2007): And here's Sweeney's spin:
The Houston Chronicle's daily circulation dipped 2 percent and Sunday circulation declined 2.2 percent, but the Chronicle remained the seventh-largest daily metropolitan newspaper and is eighth-largest on Sunday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported.
The Chronicle's daily circulation is 503,114, and Sunday circulation is 677,425.
Nationally, weekday circulation at U.S. daily newspapers fell 2.1 percent in the latest six-month reporting period. Comparable figures for Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group.
Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said most of the decline in Houston was in "other paid circulation," which includes third-party sales sponsored by advertisers, hotels and educational programs.
"We needed to shift the bulk of our resources to the all-important home-delivery area, and we had our second straight gain on Sunday," Sweeney said. "There's still plenty of demand for a compelling local newspaper delivered to your door every day."
No author is listed on the reporting. Presumably, no decent reporter wanted to be associated with what amounts to a press release posing as news.
BLOGVERSATION: Slampo's Place.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/07 10:51 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (12)
Changes at KILT-610
The Chronicle's David Barron has been keeping track of John Granato's ongoing legal dispute with KILT-610, and tonight reports on his blog that Granato and the station have reached an agreement that ends Granato's employment at the radio station.
Barron reports that afternoon host Marc Vandermeer will team with Granato's longtime morning partner Lance Zierlein on KILT Monday.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/07 12:01 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
29 April 2007
Ch-ch-ch-changes at Clear Channel
Kristen Mack, the Chronicle's one-woman Michael Berry Bureau, writes about the councilmember-talk host-radio programmer's newest job:
City councilman and talk show host Michael Berry, who has filled in as mayor pro tem for the past year, is adding another title before his name: operations manager for Clear Channel's three Houston AM radio stations.
Berry started calling the shots at news radio KTRH-AM (740), news talk KPRC-AM (950) and sports talk KBME-AM (790) on Friday.
Berry, who has hosted a morning talk show on KPRC for nearly 18 months, has little background in radio. Eddie Martiny, vice president and market manager for Clear Channel Houston, said hiring Berry was a departure from the norm.
"As far as industry standards go, the move I made is about as unconventional as it gets," Martiny said. "Michael is less of an expert and more of a leader, who can understand what it's like to embrace change and evangelize change. We can teach him radio fundamentals."
Berry characterized his role as more strategic than detail-oriented.
"It will entail positioning us in the market, considering new programs, contemplating how to expand our product so the user can use it in more ways."
Berry will continue his morning talk show and will serve out the remainder of his final two-year term on City Council. Berry, who has served as an at-large city councilman since 2002, will step down from City Hall at the end of the year.
"I'm near the completion of my term. If I was in the middle of it, I wouldn't have taken it and they wouldn't have asked me," Berry said, adding that he planned to set politics aside for the foreseeable future.
[snip]
KTRH's news director Bryan Erickson was promoted to program director this week. Berry replaced Ken Charles, who left Houston to take a similar position with two Clear Channel stations in Miami.
Here are a few thoughts (for further discussion in the comments):
1) The Clear Channel email announcing this move spoke of change and new directions, and this story speaks of change also. That sounds great! But what does it mean? Will details follow at some point?
2) The operations manager job sounds like a full-time gig, in addition to the show-hosting duties. Serving as councilmember and mayor pro-tem is also a full-time job. I didn't like Doctor-Councilwoman pretending to be an engaged councilmember during her full-time write-in campaign for Congress, and (likewise) I don't like the pretense here that there's enough time in the day to learn the radio business, run a talk show, and serve the public as a councilmember.
3) Eddie Martiny's splitting the power formerly held by Ken Charles (before he was deposed) across two positions, and naming two people who are not regarded as talk-radio programming gurus to those positions, is interesting, in a Machiavellian-corporate sense. The pattern of regime change in corporate America has become utterly predictable.
4) What are the ratings of Berry's show? Isn't that somewhat relevant to the story of his emergence as a talk-radio ops guy?
Feel free to offer your thoughts in the comments.
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff, Radio-Info, Pat Gray.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/07 11:52 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
One Casey replacement adopts his art of the smear
Last weekend when I was in New York, the Chronicle ran a revealing column by new metro writer Lisa Gray. Here's an excerpt:
Just before 12:30 p.m. almost every Tuesday, Judge James Squier leaves his 312th Court and heads upstairs to the seventh floor of the Harris County Family Law Center.
There, in an associate judge's chamber, he joins 15 or 20 other courthouse Christians — lawyers, bailiffs and clerks — for Bible study. The group spent about two years combing through the book of Matthew, and another two on Acts. Right now, they're about a year into John.
"Isn't that a problem?" I asked Squier recently. He knew I wasn't talking about the study group's less-than-blistering pace. I meant the very existence of courthouse Bible study. To me, Bible study sounds like "church," and the Harris County courthouse sounds like "state." Aren't church and state supposed to stay separate?
The family-law judge, who has a reputation for fairness, is a funny, folksy guy, and he sounded almost amused by the question. "Is there a problem with people praying and practicing their faith, reading the Bible, on their lunch hour?" he said. "I don't think what people do on their lunch hour has to be government-sanctioned."
The judge knows his law. I checked Squier's interpretation with Martin Cominsky, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, and with Gerald Treece, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law. They both said that Squier is right: It's perfectly legal to convene a Bible study in the courthouse as long as no one feels forced to attend and it's not presented as an official government activity. According to the nation's highest courts, the law doesn't prevent religious gatherings in public spaces such as courthouses, libraries and schools.
But just because something is legal doesn't mean that it's good.
The First Amendment, some might recall, forbids Congress from establishing a religion. The constitutional intent was to head off sectarian religious battles (of the sort that had proven so divisive in the old world) by explicitly denying the national government the power to establish a national religion. The intent of the framers of the Constitution was reflected pretty well in the words they carefully chose. That various government institutions required a Bible oath or entertained an opening prayer or made reference to "God" was not, in the early days of the Republic, thought to raise any Establishment concerns.
Now, to anyone who's thought very much at all about American constitutionalism, Judge Squier's lunchtime Bible study doesn't really raise any substantive constitutional Establishment concerns, as Ms. Gray's two legal sources confirmed.
Nonetheless, Judge Squier's lunchtime study habits make Ms. Gray squeamish. And so she concludes her column with a suggestion, with no evidence at all, that attendance at the judge's Tuesday study group might somehow... improperly... influence... something.
It's unfortunate that one of Rick Casey's two replacements has, so early in her tenure, seemingly mastered one of the plagiarist's favorite rhetorical devices: the smear.
See Greg's Opinion and Houston Consigliere for additional criticism of this column.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/07 11:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
28 April 2007
City has admitted murderers on its payroll
KHOU-11 had a couple of stunning stories last week, reporting on the City of Houston's employment of ex-convicts. First, Jeff McShan's story uncovered that admitted murderers are not only not in prison, they are employed by the city:
Take for example Jermaine Keith Broussard. In 1993, he admitted to killing a man and was charged with capital murder, but pled out to aggravated robbery.
He works for the city's parks and recreation department and was ironically arrested two weeks ago at this park for an alcohol violation.
He is still on the job.
Then there is Tremayn Givens. Recently he was picked up by HPD and charged with possession of crack. He was wearing a city of Houston maintenance uniform.
He told police he was convicted of assault and murder back in 1999 and like Broussard was on parole.
Both criminal records were confirmed by 11 News.
But not to worry! The city says it is very careful about where the ex-convicts are placed.
Then, Jason Whitely followed up with this added information:
11News discovered the City of Houston regularly goes to job fairs at local prisons, including the Lynchner Unit in Humble and the Darrington Unit in Brazoria County.
They advertising [sic] low-level opportunities within city government like street repair, ditch and storm sewer maintenance.
Or the Parks Department, as in the case of an admitted murderer.
Problem is, the city doesn't keep track of how many ex-cons it employs or where they work.
Unbelievable.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/28/07 06:40 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (13)
Museum of Natural Science to host Terra Cotta Warriors in 2009
Houston will be one of only three stops in the nation for a future exhibition featuring the famous Terra Cotta Warriors from Xi'an, China.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science will host the exhibition from May 18 to Sept. 25, 2009.
Among the items on display will be 20 life-sized terra cotta figures and two recently discovered, half-sized bronze chariots and life-sized bronze animals found inside the tomb complex of China's first emperor, Quin Shi Huan, who lived from 259 B.C. to 210 B.C.
The History Channel recently aired a show -- Engineering an Empire: China, I think -- that detailed some of the amazing things found in that tomb. This should be a fascinating exhibit, and is quite a nice catch for the Museum of Natural Science.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/28/07 05:35 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (4)
27 April 2007
The return of Froot Loops!
We've been missing the Chron.com Froot Loop Bureau of late, so it was amusing to see this dispatch today:
A tanker truck exploded on the Interstate 10 exchange near downtown around midnight, according to reports this morning from KTRK (Channel 13) and KHOU (Channel 11).
Authorities gave reporters this account: A tanker carrying diesel fuel was traveling from the U.S. 59 South ramp to Interstate 10 eastbound when the driver lost control. The crash sparked an explosion, which shook homes nearby.
Just in case you missed that news on the television this morning, the Froot Loop Bureau has you covered!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/07 07:35 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
26 April 2007
From Councilmember to radio programmer?
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles posts the news that Michael Berry will be the new top dog for Clear Channel's AM stations in Houston. Radio-Info also has the news.
So, the lame-duck councilmember is effectively the new Ken Charles. That's certainly... different.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how Berry's morning show is doing in the ratings, compared to the Pat Gray show it replaced and the Pat Gray/Edd Hendee show it currently competes against?
One assumes the promotion means it's doing really well, but gossip on the street suggests that may not be true. If you've seen recent ratings, feel free to drop a comment or an email.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/26/07 11:18 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (8)
The $36,000 City Hall reception desk
Back in December of 2005, we noted a city council agenda item:
10. Ordinance 2005-1357
ORDINANCE appropriating $36,893.27 out of General Improvement Consolidated Construction Fund for Construction of a Reception Desk at City Hall for Building Services Department,
CIP D-0113a. Motion 2005-1206
FOUR SEASONS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, INC for Construction of a Reception Desk at City Hall for Building Services Department - $35,136.45 and contingencies for a total amount not to exceed $36,893.27
Now Isiah Carey has pictures of the desk and some additional information:
THE MAYOR'S OFFICE TELLS US HALF THE COST WAS PICKED UP BY THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION - A PRIVATE GROUP. HOWEVER, SOME SAY 18-THOUSAND DOLLARS IS STILL TOO MUCH FOR THE CITY TO SPEND ON A LOBBY DESK. THE MAYOR'S OFFICE SAYS THE DESK IS NOT JUST FOR AESTHETICS BUT PART OF THE BUILDING'S SECURITY SYSTEM. BUT THE 36-THOUSAND DOESN'T INCLUDE THE COST OF THE SECURITY SYSTEM.
Security system not included! No wonder the mayor is pursuing a non-profit revenue stream -- these are important things that need to be funded.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/26/07 05:35 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
25 April 2007
Connelly ponders Chron.commons blogs
In his latest Hairballs column for the Houston Press, Rich Connelly considers some tasteless reader blogs on the Chron.com website.
He asked Chron online guru Dwight Silverman about a couple of them, and got this response:
Blog chief Dwight Silverman says he's fine with what Reyes posted because it was intended to spark a discussion about comics dealing with tragedy, and because commenters took Reyes to task for it.
“You just can't take one comment out of one particular blog entry and say, ‘Okay, that's a bad thing'; you have to look across the whole landscape of it,” he says.
He says the bloggers have to adhere to the Chron's “terms of service,” but he couldn't recall whether those terms included anything about taste.
We pointed Silverman to another reader blog on the Chron page, one which ranked local murderers as potential “Sexiest & Hardest Ghetto Black Male felon.” One candidate got extra points because his victim was a Bellaire teen, whose smiling photo was posted.
That blog then got taken down.
Now, if the blogger had somehow ranked candidates using the “Hokey Pokey,” he might have been golden.
We've long wondered what exactly the proliferation of reader blogs contributes to the newspaper's core mission (not to mention the judgment of Silverman and others as to what blogs will be granted "featured" Chron.commons status). More recently, we've wondered about the point of certain staff blogs.
But it's entirely possible we don't understand "the whole landscape of it" as well as some of the Chron illuminati. What do readers think?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/07 09:51 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (10)
Final weekend approaches for iFest 2007
Many of you probably have already read John Nova Lomax's Houston Press column on the 2007 International Festival, which got underway last weekend (I was out of town).
Houston's best festival, some will recall, nearly died a few years ago, when shortsighted political leaders allowed it to move to the parking lots of Reliant (and the city's parks director at the time seemed to welcome the move, stating idiotically that it is very hard on the city's parks for people actually to use them -- heaven forbid!).
Now, it's back downtown, and no longer on life support. Even better, the indomitable Rick Mitchell is heading up the music end of things. Lomax has more on that excellent news:
This year's model finds the festival in finer fettle than at anytime since the fiasco of '04. As in the glory days, there will be four music stages, as opposed to the measly three of years recently past. Rick Mitchell, the former Chronicle music critic and the owner of one of the more finely tuned sets of ears in town, returns in his role as music curator. (He also did the Ireland-themed fest in '01, '02's French version and Mexico in '03, but has only served in a part-time role once since then.)
Back in those palmy pre-exile days, Mitchell was dispatched to the honored nations to scout for talent, but in the case of this year's honoree — China — he didn't get that chance. “The regional Chinese governments we dealt with this year decided to send us acrobats,” Mitchell says. “With Jamaica, they didn't choose to send acrobats, they sent music. Thank goodness! For China, that's what they are really known for culturally in international circles — martial arts like the Shaolin Kung Fu Spectacular and amazing acrobats like the Shenzhen Acrobatic Circus, so that's what made sense to put onstage.” (Not to mention the fact that the Wu-Tang Clan was too expensive.)
“And this was also the case with India,” Mitchell continues, “but it didn't make much sense that year to put a sitar-based Indian raga out in the middle of a big outdoor music festival. That music takes an hour to build and requires a different type of venue.”
Another of this year's new developments is the late closing time. Look out, Vegas, Bourbon Street, all you other round-the-clock gilded palaces of sin — here comes Git-Down H-Town! For the first time ever, iFest will be running until 10 p.m. on the two Saturday nights of its run.
“This was one of those things we'd talked about every year, but changing the closing time affects not only the people running the stages but also all of the vendors, food vendors and arts and crafts people, too,” Mitchell says. “We'd talked about closing all but one of the zones and trying to drive people over there, but ultimately that seemed like it wasn't going to work. So basically we had to go to all the vendors and say, ‘Look, this is what we're gonna do this year.'”
The festival has always been a fairly PG-rated affair. Mitchell implies that the last couple of hours of each Saturday night this year just might kick that up a notch to PG-13. “The festival takes pride in being a family-oriented event. We want families to be comfortable, we don't want a bunch of drunken people staggering around,” he says. “But if we stay open from eight to ten, hopefully by that time a lot of the families will have gone home, then maybe we can sell some more beer those last two hours and do what every other festival does. And obviously, the acts that we booked on the Saturday nights, particularly George Clinton, show that we had that in mind. We'll still be who we are during the daytime.”
Mitchell has always had a finely honed sense of the “who we are” part, at least in terms of our musical identity. “I've always felt that the Houston International Festival should reflect Gulf Coast Texas music in the same way that JazzFest reflects Gulf Coast Louisiana music,” he says. “Now we can't do the $100,000 headliners like they do in New Orleans, because we don't have a racetrack. Or $100,000. I do think that part of the mission is to bring international music to Houston, but the other half of it is to showcase Houston to the international community.”
The return of Mitchell on the music side of things is the best news for the Festival in ages (or at least since people had the good sense to figure out it belongs downtown). The later hours are another good development, meaning that the Festival is growing up -- and maybe, just maybe, the city of Houston is also.
I'm looking forward to catching the International Festival this weekend, especially the Lucinda Williams show (her last appearance at the Festival was excellent).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/07 09:14 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)
The Editorial LiveJournalists: "Late, emotional, and wrong"
Over at the Lone Star Times, Matt Bramanti writes that an editorial today "nails the Chron trifecta: Late, emotional and wrong."
That's a great motto for the Editorial LiveJournalists, actually!
Bramanti's full critique of the editorial may be found here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/07 12:01 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
It depends on the meaning of "enamored"
Yesterday, KTRK-13's Miya Shay posted that the shooter who sent the Chronicle's Ken Hoffman numerous letters over the years (some of which were published in his columns) was "enamoured [sic]" with the columnist.
On KPRC-950's Michael Berry show today, Hoffman disputed the "enamored" characterization. The podcast is available for download here. KPRC's odd couple discuss the shooting and more this week.
BACKGROUND: Apartment resident kills manager, self (Rosanna Ruiz, Mike Glenn, and Robert Crowe, Houston Chronicle).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/07 11:09 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
24 April 2007
Chron lauds Mayor White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" shakedown
Mrs. White (aka The Editorial LiveJournalists) praises her man's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" shakedown today:
The city of Houston has achieved its goal of ending a nebulous 99-year lease at $1 per year in exchange for services provided to this population. It replaces the lease with a contract that allows the city to account for the value of the land on its books.
Houston residents benefit by the continued availability of residential and other programs for this group of citizens in a central location. Those benefits had been jeopardized by rising property values in the area and the city's decision not to honor the center's 99-year lease. Redevelopment of this valuable property for residential or commercial use would have been a short-term gain rather than a long-term investment in human services.
Under the agreement, which City Council must approve, the center has three years to raise the funds or secure financing privately or with the city at 5 percent annual interest. This is the kind of compromise that reflects well on Mayor Bill White and the center's negotiators, who are to be commended for reaching this accommodation.
Nothing about this episode reflects well on Mayor White and his legal/financial shakedown team.
Let us recall that previous Houston mayors and their legal departments did not regard the city's moral and contractual agreement with the Center as "nebulous." It never even crossed anyone's mind until, for whatever reason, Mayor White and his legal/financial shakedown team decided they wanted money (or else they would boot the center and sell the land).
It's good that agreement was reached, thereby eliminating the potential disruption in the lives of the mentally retarded people housed by the center. The center provides a structured environment that allows its residents to live happily. Many people do not understand just how disruptive (and unhealthy) a forced move would have been for these residents -- which is why it's unconscionable that the city's political leaders and Mayor White's legal/financial shakedown team ever threatened the center. That doesn't reflect well on Mayor White, however the Editorial LiveJournalists and his other apologists try to spin it.
Kudos to advocates for the center for defending a segment of our society unable to defend itself (from out-of-control government of all things). The center surely could have put the $6 million involved in Mayor White's shakedown to better use helping the mentally retarded, but at least the payoff averts the danger of eviction by City Hall. That's about the best spin we can put on this sorry episode (then again, we're not planning a run for statewide office and don't really care who is or might be).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/24/07 08:54 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
23 April 2007
Maybe they have community pride in Phoenix?
In an interview with KTRH-740's Chris Baker this afternoon, police chief Harold Hurtt stressed the importance of "community pride" in policing.
That seemed very strange coming from the transient police chief who spends so many weekends back home in Phoenix.
The Baker/Hurtt interview is available here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/07 09:52 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
City's human resources director leaving after three months
In January, the mayor announced a new human resources director for the city of Houston:
January 17, 2007 --Mayor Bill White today announced the nomination of Norma F. Dunn, an energy company senior executive and former executive director of the M.D. Anderson Center for Cancer Economics, as Human Resources Director for the City of Houston.
Today, the mayor announced she's leaving:
April 23, 2007 -- Norma F. Dunn, Director of Human Resources, will be leaving the City effective Monday, April 23, 2007, to return to the private sector. She will be joining a company in the Houston area and an announcement regarding her position is expected from that firm within the next several weeks.
Candy Aldridge, Assistant Director - Human Resources, will be Acting Director. The City will conduct a national search to fill the Director position, said Mayor Bill White, who thanked Dunn and wished her well in her new position.
As an aside, last month Matt Stiles noted on the City Hall blog details of Norma Dunn's severance package when she left a previous job in the private sector.
BLOGVERSATION: Chron's City Hall blog
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/23/07 07:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Will Houston's wi-fi be "sniffer"-proof?
Thanks to Tom Bazan for the heads up on this Los Angeles Times story that details a problem with public wi-fi -- a lack of privacy:
Public Wi-Fi is very handy for perusing the Internet away from the office or home. Just remember that you may have company while surfing.
[snip]
On home Wi-Fi setups, password protection can be implemented on the modem, which offers a lot of security — although some hackers say they can break through the most basic protection regimen, known as WEP.
Public Wi-Fi setups, whether paid or free, don't have the luxury of using passwords. That would defeat the purpose of allowing a great many people to use them.
T-Mobile, which charges about $10 a day for HotSpot use, is working to get more people to use them. Last month, the company finished installing a system at Los Angeles International Airport that covers 3.8 million square feet of space, making it one of the largest Wi-Fi deployments in the world.
Also, free Wi-Fi hot spots are being added to more outdoor areas by cities. Fullerton and Long Beach already have them, and there are plans to install a system at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles.
So, enjoy the freedom of Wi-Fi. But maybe you shouldn't surf to sites you wouldn't want people to know you're visiting.
"If you watch where people go, one site after another," Cheung said, "it's almost like you can read their minds."
So be careful when surfing the web while lounging at Discovery Green!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/23/07 05:43 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
22 April 2007
A two reporter, four contributor Chron story
How loud is the Houston Grand Prix? It took six Chronicle folks to get to the bottom of that question.
Yes, it's local and hooray for that, but come on! Six people to tackle the story?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/22/07 06:51 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Mayor White clears way for Alvarado to regain Mayor Pro Tem title
Last week on the Chron's City Hall blog, Matt Stiles noted a change that's coming to the Mayor Pro Tem office; specifically, administrative duties will now be handled by the city's finance department, as opposed to Mayor Pro Tem staffers. This change comes about as a result of (still temporarily not Mayor Pro Tem) Carol Alvarado's lax oversight of the office while she was in charge:
The idea is to improve oversight by having career finance officials, rather than political appointees, handle the paperwork, payroll and other duties handled by the office. Here's White's take from an interview today:
There is a strong argument and sentiment by council members that there ought to be both responsibility and accountability in a regular city department for the administrative functions in the office.... I don't think any council member welcomes or wants that responsibility.
The plan has the backing of "temporary" Mayor Pro Tem and At-Large 5 Councilman Michael Berry, who outlined the proposed changes in a memo to White [PDF]. He has been running the operation, with the help of an experienced aide from his office, since March.
That's when former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado, who supervised the four accused employees, stepped down "temporarily" amid an investigation. Prosecutors have cleared her of wrongdoing on the bonuses, but a broader probe into other city officials and procedures continues.
The council sets annual budget totals for each of the 14 offices, and the Office of Mayor Pro Tem has allowed council members some freedom in spending that money under Houston's strong-mayor system.
Not everyone thinks the change is a good idea, however:
Former at-large Councilwoman Gracie Saenz, a lawyer who served as pro tem during the Bob Lanier administration, said:
It is a very strong mayoral form of government. Heaven forbid that anybody gets crossways with the mayor, and that this could be used against a council member. I'm sure that would never happen, but it needs to be discussed.
And former Councilman Gordon Quan, who served as pro tem during the Lee Brown administration, said the change might not be disruptive. But he said it would strip the council members' autonomy in monitoring their offices:
I don't know whether one bad episode means we have to change the whole system.
Well, yes, one bad episode DOES mean drastic changes must occur. That's how Mayor White operates, and managerially-challenged Councilwoman Carol Alvarado agrees:
Alvarado, who knows firsthand the difficulties of maintaining a council office while also overseeing her colleagues' operations, said the mayor's change is "the right thing to do."
Which means she could soon be Mayor Pro Tem again, without having any of that pesky management oversight nonsense to bog her down.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/22/07 09:47 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (17)
21 April 2007
For the Chron, all news is not local
Yesterday an unusual item was posted in the Metro section of Chron.com: a directory, which included a listing of the Chronicle's bureaus. Of note are the Chron's international bureaus:
• Mexico City Dudley Althaus, Bureau Chief
Privada Gomez Farias 21, Col. San Angel, 01060 Mexico, D.F.• Bogotá, Colombia John Otis, Bureau Chief
E-mail: jotis@attglobal.net• Europe and Middle East Gregory Katz, Bureau Chief
E-mail: gregory.katz@chron.com
Why in the world does the Chronicle need international bureaus? Who knows. It's certainly a waste of precious resources that would be put to much better use locally...which leads us to Banjo Jones' latest ruminations on the current state of our lone major daily paper, and its inability to keep up with some local publishing upstarts:
We've noticed recently that just cause The Chron is the only daily paper in Houston, it still gets beat to the punch by the little local freebie weeklies.
Case in point: The Examiner News that covers West University, Bellaire, River Oaks and Memorial.
The weekly, a recent acquisition of Houston Community Newspapers, employs, for the most part, young journalists freshly minted from academia who don't make much money and usually could use a shoe shine. They are so new to the business, they have yet to become disillusioned and jaded and hopelessly depressed like their older brethren.
Moreover, even though they only publish once-a-week, they still whup up on the big-swinging-weenie Chronicle on a fairly regular basis.
Here are two examples, carefully documented by our research staff:
Be sure to read the rest, and wonder along with me why our local paper is wasting money on a pathetic Washington, D.C., bureau, and three international bureaus, when much of the time it uses wire service stories anyway.
Wouldn't it be nice to see some local bureaus added?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/21/07 08:23 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
A little revisionist history, courtesy of Metro's Frank Wilson
Here's Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson yesterday, explaining why he delayed putting bike racks on Metro buses (via the Chronicle):
He said he had postponed installing the racks until maintenance crews could bring the aging bus fleet into better operating condition.
Er, that does sound better than Wilson's reasoning last August:
"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."
Whoops!
What's even more amusing is seeing Rad Sallee's bullet-point facts in the margin:
• Cost : $1,580 per device, almost $1.3 million for the fleet of 800 buses.
• Money source : 90 percent from federal air quality funds; 10 percent from Metro funds.
Metro will pay a whopping ten percent??? That's just pocket change for Metro these days! What was Wilson griping about last year? Because we know the fed money was available then, as BikeHouston's Woody Speer (also a commenter in our forum) pointed out to Metro's Board.
At least bike riders can now say Metro followed through on a Solutions promise.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/21/07 06:59 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (12)
20 April 2007
An end to the "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream?
A KTRH-740 newsbreak reported that a settlement has been reached between the city and the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation. Details are to be announced at a press conference this afternoon, according to KTRH.
A Friday afternoon press conference -- of course!
UPDATE (4:20 p.m.): The Chronicle's Melanie Markley has more:
The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation will pay the city $6 million for prime inner city property it now uses in exchange for the services it provides, city officials said today.
Mayor Bill White and officials of the facility are announcing details of the transaction, which involved 6.2 acres at Shepherd and West Dallas, during a news conference this afternoon.
Details of the deal were not immediately available, but it involves a favorable interest rate and a discounted price based on the city's declaration that the land is intended for public service rather than commercial use, according to a news release from the city.
MORE: Don't you love the wording above from the city (which I have now bolded)? It isn't hard to figure out that the "discounted price" is nowhere near as favorable as the previous arrangement, which had been honored for decades, by previous Houston mayors.
Nice going, Mayor White: You've squeezed millions of dollars from the folks who provide a service the city couldn't provide nearly as efficiently or effectively. That's quite an achievement!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/20/07 02:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (17)
HPRA hosts Randal O'Toole today
Here are details of today's Houston Property Rights Association lunchtime meeting:
On Friday, April 20, the members and guests of the Houston Property Rights Association will assemble to hear Randal O'Toole, a nationally known critic of urban planning and urban rail systems, speak against the idea of Houston adopting a General Plan which is currently being drawn up in Houston city hall.
[snip]
Mr. O'Toole's message is that planning brings ruin to much of what is good about city life. He has launched a blog to advance his ambitious agenda for the country:
http://www.ti.org/antiplanner/?p=90
The Houston city council is moving toward creating a General Plan to impose zoning type planning restrictions on our communities that are likely to increase housing costs, taxes, and traffic congestion. Mr. O'Toole will explain exactly why Houston should not do that.
HPRA meets at noon at the Courtyard restaurant, 1885 St. James Place. Cost is $20 and includes lunch. If you attend, please let us know how it went. It sounds very interesting!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/20/07 09:44 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
19 April 2007
Nonprofit fears "Boot The Deaf" revenue stream is coming next
The Chronicle's Melanie Markley reports that another nonprofit organization fears the city may try to scrap longstanding legal and moral commitments in order to squeeze more money out of valuable real estate:
The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation isn't the only nonprofit that faces an uncertain future because of a 99-year lease the city now says is invalid.
Next door, the Center for Hearing and Speech shares a building with the Harris County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority on city property leased for 99 years in 1965. The building sits on a prime 3-acre tract at the corner of West Dallas and Shepherd.
Renee Davis, executive director of the center that teaches deaf children to speak without using sign language, said she has not been contacted by the city, but she worries that her facility could face the same scrutiny as the neighboring center for the mentally retarded.
Representatives of the center for the mentally retarded are in ongoing talks with the mayor's office. The city had threatened to sell the 6 acres that the center leased because the directors would not agree to pay closer to market-value rent for the land near River Oaks.
[snip]
Davis said her lease with the city sets $31,065 annual rent, which is waived if the nonprofit provides at least that much in services to the community.
Davis said her center provides more than $1 million a year in services to at least 1,000 hearing-impaired children. The center is staffed with teachers, audiologists and speech pathologists who help deaf children learn to communicate verbally.
"We believed that this was a partnership with the city," Davis said. "They would lease the land to us and we would provide very difficult kinds of services that need professional expertise for deaf children, and the taxpayers did not have to bear the burden of providing those very specialized services."
Ms. Davis described the utility of such arrangements beautifully in that last paragraph, underscoring the human/moral component of the contractual arrangement.
The following spin is just strange:
White said he wants to develop a uniform policy to reduce the risk of lawsuits against the city claiming the leases are not valid, which could disrupt the nonprofits' operations.
Huh?
Let me take a stab at parsing that: The City of Houston needs to disrupt the nonprofits' operations by breaking its longstanding legal and moral commitment to some of the weakest members of our community (people most in need of a helping hand!), in order to reduce the virtually nonexistent risk of someone other than the City of Houston suing the city, and potentially disrupting the nonprofits' operations.
Well, that certainly makes sense!
Seriously, assuming there is a legal risk of some local developer suing the city over these contractual arrangements (which have never been a problem before), in the hopes of eventually getting hold of valuable real estate -- does anyone think a local developer would go there?
Putting it slightly differently -- can you imagine the firestorm that would erupt in the local media and from bloggers (many of whom have sat this one out) if, say, Perry Homes decided to sue the city in an effort to boot the deaf and retarded and grab their land? That wouldn't fly. That's why it's a virtually nonexistent risk.
But the risk posed by the city under this mayor, for whatever reason, is real.
As we've been saying all along, Mayor White needs to back off on this one.
PREVIOUSLY: City readies "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream, "Please help save my home", If only Tilman Fertitta were on the board of directors..., Baker Botts takes on White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream, Former city attorney elaborates on leases, center.
BLOGVERSATION: Red Ink: Texas, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/07 08:52 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
18 April 2007
Chron.com adds comment functionality to articles
Dwight Silverman pointed out to me earlier that Chron.com has added comment functionality to articles on the site.
That's a nice addition! Well done.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/07 10:59 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Metro's installing bike racks on buses...finally
Since 2000, Metro has been dangling the promise of bike racks on buses before Houston's biking community, but never following through. Metro CEO Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson said last year that there was too little ridership to justify the cost, as if THAT'S ever been a concern of Metro's!
For some reason, Metro has now decided it can spare the funds needed to make buses more bike-rider-friendly, per this announcement on Metro's website:
METRO would like to invite all biking enthusiasts to attend a news conference and celebration for the launch of our new Bikes On Buses program. METRO will soon equip its local fleet with bike racks to help you navigate congested streets on your way to bike trails, work, school or other destinations.
Join us as we kick off this new chapter in METRO transit history.
When: Friday, April 20th
Where: 1900 Main St. (in the lobby)
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.For additional information, please contract the METRO Community Outreach Department at 713-739-4018.
Are there bike racks outside the Lee P. Brown Building, for all the riders who might show up for the big announcement?
And will Metro follow through this time?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/18/07 09:16 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (12)
Chron: Freeway gunbattle ends in death
Chronicle reporters Robert Crowe and Kevin Moran report on a gun battle that took place along the Southwest Freeway yesterday:
One man was killed and at least two were wounded when rival immigrant smuggling gangs engaged in a noontime gunbattle that started on the Southwest Freeway and ended on the feeder road, police said.
Authorities suspect one gang was trying to steal a load of immigrants from the other.
"It's unknown if it was a 'coyote' operation or a rip of some sort," Sgt. C.E. Elliott of the Houston Police Department's homicide division said. " ... We're still looking at that."
Police worked into the evening in an attempt to sort out what happened at the "chaotic" scene, which also ensnared an innocent bystander, left at least one other person critically injured and tied up traffic for hours.
It was hardly the city's first smuggling-related violence. For decades, Houston has been considered a major distribution hub for human traffickers, who sometimes hold immigrants in "stash houses" while family members try to raise thousands of dollars for their release.
Last April 24, one man was wounded in a shootout at a house in northwest Houston in what federal authorities described as an apparent battle between rival smugglers over control of the immigrants. Police found 10 Mexicans, three Hondurans and two Guatemalans in a locked closet inside.
A month earlier, gunfire erupted at a southwest Houston neighborhood, and two men were wounded in an apparent turf war between rival smugglers. Twenty-one immigrants were arrested at that house.
Yesterday's Chron coverage (timestamped 5:15 PM) indicated that the Feds had not yet been called in:
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the federal agency had not received a call from HPD asking for its involvement.
"If they call us, we will respond," said Luisa Deason, ICE spokeswoman in Houston.
Today's story indicates that the Feds have been called in:
A local spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday night that she had no information about whether smuggling was involved, but said the agency will help HPD in the case.
"They have asked us for our assistance," said Luisa Deason, ICE spokeswoman in Houston.
Mayor White and proponents of Houston's sanctuary policy have previously argued that immigration matters are a federal concern (never mind THIS non-federal, city-funded office). KTRH-740's Bill O'Neal reports today that at least one member of City Council seems tired of hearing that canard:
Speaking to that shooting, District C's Anne Clutterbuck said she has reached a very stark conclusion. "I agree with the concerns that we can no longer say it's just a federal problem."
Clutterbuck wants to open a wider discussion on what's being done at the local level to address human smuggling. "It makes people wonder how many other such crimes are taking place, how many other crimes such as this are being addressed that we may or may not know about," Clutterbuck said.
After a gun battle on one of Houston's busy freeways, you'd think it would be at least of as much concern as citywide wifi, hobo parks, renegade downtown jaywalkers, taking care of Yellow Cab, and delivering the land of nonprofit organizations to local developers.
UPDATE (04-19-2007): And now, the first linked Chron story has been completely replaced by a story by two different authors! It's so annoying when the Chronicle does that. In any case, the blockquote above is accurate. And here's an interesting blockquote from the new story:
Houston police tried to handle the immigration issue carefully on Wednesday, declining to answer even basic questions involving people smuggling in Houston.
``We're not going to get into that; it's a federal issue,'' said spokesman Victor Senties.
Obviously it's more than just "a federal issue." It's so nice when public officials stick their heads in the sand. But maybe Chief Hurtt had already retired to Arizona, and couldn't comment himself.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Blogs of War.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/07 02:51 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
What Yellow Cab wants, Yellow Cab usually gets (cont'd)
KHOU-11's Doug Miller shines some light on how the City of Houston bends over backwards to help out big cab companies:
Houston hasn’t handed out any new taxi licenses since 2001.
Mayor Bill White’s administration figures a city ordinance will require the city to hand out another 211 permits this year.
But city officials want to delay issuing those new permits.
Big cab companies do not want new cabs on the streets of Houston.
They argue their industry has barely recovered from the terrorist attacks of 2001.
And they contend that more cabs on the streets of Houston could actually cause a recession in the taxi industry.
“The taxicab industry, the visits to the airport, is really down. Do we really want to throw a lot of permits on them now and cause them to go down more,” said Toni Lawrence who sits on Houston’s city council.
But a lot of smaller cab operators think the city just needs to change the way it distributes permits. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re trying to monopolize the business. They’re trying to run all the mom-and-pops out.”
As we've noted previously on the little blog, what Yellow Cab wants from the Mayor, Council, and/or the Airport Director, Yellow Cab usually gets.
Hey, at least give credit to Councilmember Lawrence for admitting that the interests of the taxicab industry are of greater concern to her than, say, the public interest. And give credit to Miller for running such an illustrative quote.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/07 12:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Beware of loon-induced traffic hazards on Southwest Freeway
The Chronicle runs a story by Eyder Peralta on liberal activists who have taken to making pests of themselves on the Southwest Freeway bridges during the evening rush hour:
Back in the day, many of the activists gathered at the Mecom Fountain, a natural place for a protest: next to a university and a park with plenty of green space.
But here they are today, gathered on the Montrose bridge over U.S. 59 South, one of the most trafficked highways in the U.S.
"I really don't know what else to do," said 60-year-old Robert Graham. "I tried writing our congressmen; I tried having candlelight vigils over at the Mecom Fountain, gone and taking over Kay Bailey Hutchinson's [sic] office. Nothing works."
So he and others stand over the freeway, holding signs about the war, about President Bush, about the environment and about the situation in the Middle East.
It's called freeway blogging, a term that emerged out of California, where protesters hung signs on overpasses and then took pictures to be posted on the Web.
In Houston, where hanging a sign is illegal, freeway blogging has turned six bridges — at Hazard, Woodhead, Dunlavy, Mandell, Graustark and Montrose streets — into Houston's premiere political forum.
"We have to stand here holding our signs," said Don Cook, who organizes anti-war protests. "And people who've seen us from down there stop by to support us or to argue with us."
Peralta's Chronicle colleague Ken Hoffman has complained about the activities in his column and on the radio several times, because of the fact that motorists tend to get distracted by the signs, creating a hazardous traffic situation. Councilmember Michael Berry hinted on one of those occasions that perhaps Council could do something to regulate the signs, on public-safety grounds.
Given the current state of first-amendment jurisprudence, it seems unlikely Council will be able to curtail these activities. And it seems just as unlikely that 60-something hippie activists are ever going to grow up. So, if you're driving on the Southwest Freeway during the evening rush hour, you might want to drive extra-defensively, since some of your fellow motorists may be watching the public spectacle above instead of the road.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/07 11:38 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (34)
17 April 2007
New columnists on the Chron metro/state pages
With Rick Casey finally away on sabbatical, the Chronicle runs a story today by new (temporary?) columnist Lisa Falkenberg.
It's one that should have the right people at the newspaper nodding their heads in approval.
Falkenberg isn't the only new columnist who will be appearing in Casey's place for a while. Lisa Gray will be joining her. Here's the Chronicle's description:
While columnist Rick Casey is on sabbatical for the next few months, we are delighted to bring Chronicle readers two sharp new voices:
• Lisa Falkenberg, a fifth-generation Texan from Seguin who joined the Chronicle's Austin bureau in 2005, will appear on Tuesdays and Fridays. Falkenberg has worked for The Associated Press, where she was Texas AP Writer of the Year, and has covered everything from scandals in the state lottery to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• Lisa Gray, who has been arts editor of the Chronicle since 2005, will appear on Sundays and Thursdays. Gray is a talented columnist and editor who has also worked at the Houston Press, Washington City Paper and Cite: The Architectural and Design Review of Houston.
Here's hoping we eventually get some good, gritty city writing out of the new columnists. Houston is a huge, diverse, quirky city with many stories that ought to be told, but too often with Rick Casey, we got tales from his glory days in San Antonio or tales he ripped off from the Washington Post. The two newbies could benefit from the bar being set so low!
UPDATE (04-18-2007): Today, new columnist Lisa Gray tells us that $1 million won't buy the home it once did in Houston.
Here's hoping the subject matter improves considerably from these debut efforts, or we might actually start missing The Plagiarist.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/17/07 08:25 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
16 April 2007
New county judge wants Grand Parkway to be completed
Rad Sallee's Q & A with Harris County's new (appointed) judge Ed Emmett contained this depressing bit of info:
Q: What projects do you especially want to push through?
A: The completion of the Grand Parkway (outer freeway loop) has got to occur, and the northeast section of Beltway 8, and the Hardy Toll Road into downtown.
That's not going to win him many votes in the Spring/Tomball area. If he even cares.
PREVIOUSLY: blogHOUSTON's Grand Parkway archives
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/16/07 08:06 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
Pulitzers have been awarded
This year's Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced.
The Chronicle still is Pulitzer-free, as no Chron Eyes were deemed worthy of the honor (although a Chicago Tribune series that raised questions about a death-penalty case in Texas was a finalist).
The Chron's Nick Anderson, a winner with a different newspaper, was a finalist in the editorial cartoon category.
Congratulations to the winners (and finalists)! Better luck next year to the newspapers that missed out.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/16/07 02:46 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
15 April 2007
Former city attorney elaborates on leases, center
The Chronicle has published a long letter from former city attorney John Wildenthal, criticizing the White Administration's legal efforts to dishonor an agreement with the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation in order to boost local developers and city coffers.
We're reproducing it in the extended body section in its entirety, since it is likely to disappear from the Chron.com site at some point:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/07 10:29 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
METRO sits and spins recent news stories
Two news items this week gave METRO an opportunity to try to shape views via its $76,622 Sit and Spin blog.
As Rad Sallee reported for the Chronicle, Richmond rail opponent Daphne Scarborough has filed suit against METRO:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/07 10:13 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
The week: People who don't like Dan Patrick still don't
As he promised during his campaign, state senator and Houston talker Dan Patrick made news this week in the capital with his high-profile efforts to draw attention to the growth of state government.
Various lefty blogs have blasted Patrick for his theatrics, which saw the senator release a list of proposed budget cuts to the press, address his colleagues on the floor on the matter of cutting government spending, and ultimately read from his list of proposed cuts when directly challenged by a colleague to pony up.
Now, it's not exactly news that Patrick provokes strong reactions, certainly from his opponents and sometimes from supporters and colleagues (on that last, I have some experience). But that's just the point -- it's not a secret. That journalists seem surprised that Senator Patrick, whose insurgent-outsider campaign was a big story for them in 2006, has taken his insurgent-outsider approach to Austin as promised is... well, surprising!
Whether folks agree with Patrick's political philosophy or not, nobody should be surprised that instead of making quiet backroom deals to cut a few thousand dollars'-worth of spending here and there (as Hart and some lefty bloggers seem to prefer), Patrick took to the floor and the press last week to push his notion of limited-government conservatism in a high-profile, incendiary way.
This probably won't be the last time Senator Patrick upsets the Austin establishment (Democrats, press, and probably even some fellow Republicans) with his insurgent brand of conservatism -- especially since it seemed to work so well this time! We rather doubt that Patrick is overly disappointed that lefty bloggers still don't much like him, but we suspect this played pretty well in his district.
What do blogHOUSTON readers think? Specifically, I'm more interested in your thoughts on the media/blog coverage of the Patrick affair and Patrick's tactics than whether you agree/disagree with Patrick's position on budget specifics (there are many other places where that can be debated).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/07 09:29 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (21)
Chron editorial raises an interesting question
Several days ago, a reader called our attention to the latest foray by the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists into international politics. In particular, this excerpt caught our reader's eye:
Zambia's 11-million population has been decimated in recent years by AIDS and drought. More than 1 million children have been orphaned, largely by AIDS; many adults are too sick to work and feed their families; and life expectancy has plummeted to 38 years, The New York Times reports. The United Nations World Food Program, which struggles to feed about half a million Zambians, is at risk of running out of food in a matter of weeks if steps are not taken to hasten delivery of rations.
Racing against time, the World Food Program appealed in February for cash donations to enable it to buy corn from Zambia itself, which had a bumper corn harvest last season, and has more than adequate supplies warehoused in Lusaka, the capital.
That would seem like a reasonable stopgap measure, but American law dictates that food donated by the United States must, with few exceptions, be grown in America and shipped to its destination, a process that can take up to six months and which adds up to one-third more to the cost. To its credit, the Bush administration has tried for three years to get the law changed, so that in emergencies up to 25 percent of the budget of its main aid program can be used to buy food in developing countries.
Our reader wondered -- and we're inclined to wonder as well -- why international donors need to buy food raised by Zambians and being warehoused by Zambians to feed Zambians. A record harvest nonetheless!
If there's a good answer that we're just missing, please feel free to comment.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/07 03:15 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
COH and Metro thank you for your support!
Via the Houston Business Journal we see that sales tax revenues are flowing in quite nicely:
Houston received a sales tax allocation of $35.7 million for April, a 13.5 percent increase over April 2006. Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority received $36.2 million, an 11.5 percent increase over the previous year, and one of the highest transit allocations for April.
So far this calendar year, sales tax allocations to local governments are up 6.4 percent.
No wonder Metro is confident enough to be venturing into the real estate market!
Meanwhile, with the city raking in lots of money and sitting on a surplus (last we heard), HPD has started a program where citizens can report petty crimes online (via KUHF-88.7):
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt says they came up with the online reporting in an effort to save police man hours. Each report made online will save about 60 minutes of officer time.
"We think that if we can cut the number of responses to these types of reports in half, we will save about 50,000 man hours a year. Which equates to about 48 full-time employees."
That's good news for a heavily overburdened and stretched police force. Officers will no longer go to the scene, take testimony and file a report by hand.
That means on weekends Chief Hurtt will be able to keep an eye on "minor" crimes from his home in Phoenix, just by logging on. And wait 'til HPD expands the online crime reporting -- Chief Hurtt can stay in Phoenix seven days a week!
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/15/07 08:59 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)
13 April 2007
Farewell, Ed Brandon
On the 6pm broadcast earlier, KTRK-13 had a nice farewell to longtime weatherman Ed Brandon, who closed out his career with the station tonight.
Brandon made his blogging debut as a guest on Mike McGuff's blog. Here's something that amused:
Ever tried to not think about something? If I tell you not to think about your mother, doesn't her saintly smile immediately come to mind? The subject arises as I sit here in the early morning hours of the last day of my 35 years at Channel 13. (Station big-wigs prefer that I use "brands" like "ABC13" or "Houston's News Leader." But no-one has ever asked me to tell them about my job at "Houston's News Leader." They always ask about "Channel 13.")
Ha, after 35 years, Brandon has more than earned the right to say to heck with the ABC marketing twits!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/13/07 11:10 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
12 April 2007
HISD officially endorses end-of-course exams over TAKS
As expected, HISD's board today voted unanimously in favor of a resolution that calls on the state legislature to end TAKS testing, and replace it with end-of-course exams.
Here is a snippet from HISD's press release on the vote:
The HISD school board unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling for the Legislature to end the high-stakes TAKS test in high school and replace it with comprehensive “end-of-course” exams. Dr. Saavedra said students need a full, well-rounded education, and end-of-course exams could be used to better determine whether children are learning everything they need to learn.
“We urge the Legislature to take action to replace the TAKS with a strong end-of-course test system that will hold schools accountable and better show what children have learned,” Dr. Saavedra said. “A rich and varied curriculum plays a critical role in developing college- and workforce-ready students. End-of-course exams are better able to reaffirm concepts and knowledge learned in the classroom and to focus teacher efforts on subject areas that have the ability to increase student achievement.”
The resolution, in addition to calling for the replacement of TAKS at high school, calls for the Legislature to develop "a state model of accountability at all grade levels that focuses on student improvement and growth".
Earlier this week, HISD drew coverage from local television stations, the Associated Press, and even ABC's World News Tonight for its advocacy of substituting end-of-course exams for TAKS. Strangely, the Houston Chronicle chose not to cover the matter with original reporting until today, when it ran a story on the legislature's debate over the move. HISD's preference to substitute end-of-course exams for TAKS appears 17 paragraphs into the 26-paragraph story, and gets only superficial treatment.
It's not clear why the Chronicle didn't cover this local angle of the controversial TAKS debate more thoroughly. Sometimes, the Chronicle's priorities are just puzzling.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/12/07 10:49 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
Guillotine type HOV devices are world class -- when they work
KHOU-11's Jason Whitely reports on METRO's latest waste of money:
You likely never notice them driving by. Metal cabinets line the on-ramps to five Houston HOV lanes.
They’re part of a broken safety system in which METRO paid $6,000,000 for in 2005.The metal cabinets used to have red and white arms that swung out to prevent cars from going the wrong way.
A little closer to the actual entrance to the HOV lane are guillotine type devices that cars drive through.
Nets, designed to catch cars, used to lower from them as another back-up measure to prevent wrong-way accidents. Not anymore.
The system just has not worked out.
Shocking!
Just yesterday, of course, our mayor told Chronicle reporter Matt Stiles that METRO is a wise steward of taxpayers' money.
Because, you know, it's wise stewardship to drop $6 million of taxpayers' money on dysfunctional guillotine type devices for the HOV lanes.
In some alternate, not-world-class, universe.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/12/07 09:24 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
11 April 2007
Baker Botts takes on White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream
The Chronicle's Melanie Markley reports that Mayor White's efforts to extricate the city from the legal commitment made by previous administrations to a local nonprofit organization that houses mentally retarded people so that he can sell the land to developers has drawn the fire of some big legal guns:
A major Houston law firm has agreed to represent the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation pro bono in its fight to remain on prime city property near River Oaks.
Baker Botts lawyer Irv Terrell confirmed Tuesday that his firm volunteered to represent the center after reading that city officials had declared the facility's 99-year lease invalid and were considering selling the land.
"We think the center should stay exactly where it is and continue to provide the services it is providing, and we hope the city agrees with that," Terrell said.
Also, a former city attorney who negotiated long-term agreements with other nonprofits in the early 1960s said the city contracts at the time were viewed more as service agreements rather than landlord-tenant leases, which the city charter limits to no more than 30 years.
John Wildenthal, who was city attorney for former Mayor Louie Welch from 1964-66, said he wasn't involved in the 1963 agreement with the center but negotiated others that allowed nonprofits to lease land for $1 a year in exchange for providing much-needed social services.
Wildenthal said the city agreed to long-term contracts to allow the charitable organizations time to invest in facilities.
"My opinion is that these services were much more valuable to the citizens than the rent would produce on a landlord-tenant basis or a one-shot sale where you spend the money and it's gone," Wildenthal said.
The reasoning behind these sorts of agreements was/is sound -- the city gives a break to nonprofit organizations that provide a social good to the community. The nonprofit delivers some services more efficiently than the city ever could, and the city doesn't have to take on directly either the expense or the liability. It's a win-win situation.
It may well be that some technical language in this agreement (and others) is not as legally precise as some bureaucrats would like, but the fact is that this has never been a problem until now -- and the proposed solution (evicting mentally retarded people to boost developers and the city's coffers) seems way out of line with the "problem" that city officials have allegedly identified (legal technicalities).
If legal technicalities were the only concern, we suspect the city's legal staff and the legal eagles at Baker Botts could hammer out a substitute agreement in no time at all. Instead, we think KPRC-2 described the Mayor's gambit fairly accurately:
City attorneys argue the center's lease is invalid under the city charter, which limits leases to no more than 30 years. City officials want the lucrative property developed to generate more revenue.
And, of course, to boost developers who have recently come to covet this land.
It's Houston, after all, and public officials tend to treat developers very well.
But evicting mentally retarded people to benefit local developers really is going too far.
It's not fair, it's not right, and it's not necessary.
Mayor White needs to back off.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/11/07 11:23 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
Council approves $2.5 million deal with Earthlink
Various media outlets note that City Council today approved the wifi contract with Earthlink to construct a municipal wifi bubble that will, according to proponents, bridge the digital divide, improve public safety, make Houston world class, boost economic development, save the city money on communications, AND solve the Darfur crisis (okay, the wifi bubble utopians haven't promised the last one just yet, but sometimes the rhetoric gets nearly that fantastic). Here's a summary from the Chronicle's Matt Stiles:
Downtown likely will have the first access to the planned wireless Internet network system approved today by the City Council, and the rest of Houston will be added in 100-square-mile sections over two years, officials said.
The council unanimously approved the contract with Atlanta-based EarthLink to build and maintain the system at its own expense, charging Houstonians for access to a network that would be the largest of its kind in North America.
The network's first large customer will be the city itself. The council approved spending $2.5 million over five years for access.
In a much-ballyhooed chat with bloggers nearly a year ago, the city's information technology director Richard Lewis responded to a question posed by Larry Hendrick about the cost of the service to the city, basically downplaying the notion that the city would have to pay.
What a difference (nearly) a year makes! About a $2.5 million difference. It's one of those data points that helps to explain why we are frequently wary of fantastic pronouncements from politicos.
That said, it was almost certainly a smart business move by Earthlink to secure the city as a $2.5 million anchor client for this network (never mind that it isn't quite in line with the White Administration's early PR efforts at selling the network as cost free). As Katie Fehrenbacher writes for tech-oriented GigaOM, existing municipal wifi networks are having trouble attracting actual paying subscribers. So, securing a big anchor subscriber/subsidizer makes sense for Earthlink. Perhaps it will make sense for the city eventually (if there are real savings and/or efficiencies for the city that can be measured). And it certainly will make sense as a campaign theme when Bill White starts looking at statewide office!
RELATED COVERAGE: KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KTRK-13, KTRH-740.
BLOGVERSATION: TechBlog, NewsWatch: City Hall, Off the Kuff, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/11/07 10:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
10 April 2007
KHOU announces new co-anchor
Mike McGuff notes this bit of news from the Chronicle's Mike McDaniel:
Lucy Noland, a Saigon native and single mother of three, will become co-anchor of Channel 11's 5 and 10 p.m. news beginning Monday. She replaces Lisa Foronda, who announced in December that she was leaving the station.Nolan [sic] said the beauty of the city, the warmness of the people and the sizable Vietnamese population figured in her leaving her job as co-anchor of the morning show at the Fox affiliate in New York City.
The beauty of the city? Hmm, does this mean they brought her in for an evening interview, got a nice shot of the downtown skyline, drove by the bayou on the way to KHOU, and whisked her away the same night?
Just kidding, folks. Just kidding.
We look forward to Noland's first newscast.
UPDATE (04-11-2007): KHOU introduces Noland here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/10/07 01:24 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (14)
09 April 2007
City tightens parking perks; HISD pushes for end to TAKS
The Chronicle today runs yet another story (35 paragraphs this time!) on the airport parking "scandal" (we add the quotes because we had trouble getting too excited about it when KTRK-13 first reported on it during a slow news cycle).
Rather than the usual excerpt, we'll just let you know that some people abused the perk, and the city now plans on cracking down! Because while we'll tolerate a downtown overrun with pushy vagrants and a city overrun with murders, we will NOT stand for abuse of airport parking by the city's elites. Darnit!
Meanwhile, the same newspaper has not devoted similar space (certainly not 35 paragraphs!) to what is, in our view, an important developing story: HISD's stance on replacing the TAKS test with end-of-course exams. HISD's board is set to take up the issue formally on Thursday, but Superintendent Abe Saavedra's comments in favor of the end-of-course exams suggest that HISD's position on the matter is already developed. Since HISD is the state's largest school district and the TAKS debate has grown contentious in recent years, you'd think the Chronicle would want to own that important story. But so far, an AP story is all we've seen on Chron.com.
Ah well. We're sure the local daily would have reported it if something truly important were happening at HISD -- say, if Saavedra were abusing airport parking privileges!
RELATED COVERAGE: KHOU-11.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/07 10:48 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Another Voice: The Trash-Mongers paradise
So, how many writers do YOU know who can write this well about... garbage collection?!
That Slampo has the gift.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/07 09:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
City ready to evaluate municipal courts' computer system
On the Chron's City Hall blog, Matt Stiles writes that the city is fed up with the municipal courts' underperforming computer system, and Council will consider a contract with MITRE Corp. to figure out if and how the computer system can be salvaged.
MITRE Corp. is the same company that came up with suggestions on improving operations at the Houston Emergency Center.
Stiles also highlights a few items of interest on this week's Council agenda, including the Parking Authority's desire to revamp the city's parking rules (uh oh!).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/09/07 09:07 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Splashtown has a new owner
Here's an AP story (via KTRK-13) that notes Splashtown has been bought by a real estate investment group:
A Florida-based real estate investment trust said Monday it bought seven former Six Flags Inc. properties for $312 million.
[snip]
PARC managers said they want the parks to focus more on regional markets as well as guest safety and satisfaction.
"As we complete the transaction, we are looking forward to the opportunity to refocus these parks on regional economies," said Randal H. Drew, president and CEO of PARC Management.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/09/07 08:16 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)
08 April 2007
NewsWatch: Homicide
Chron.com has made public its NewsWatch: Homicide blog, which will apparently track murders in the city.
Unfortunately, that's likely to be a pretty busy blog, given HPD's manpower problems and the state of crime in Houston.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/07 10:21 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (50)
Clearing out the March tidbits
We're engaged in a bit of spring cleaning, which means tossing out old links and stories that never managed to get full-blown posts.
I couldn't just trash a couple of transit-related March items, though, so here they are:
First, there's Rad Sallee's interview with Mayor White on mobility issues. This exchange was a little surprising:
Q: What was your first mobility initiative?
A: We started retiming the north-south streets in Midtown in January right after I took office. By the end of 2005 we had retimed over 2,000 of 2,400 intersections. Now we're going back and doing it again.
Q: I still get a good many complaints about stoplight timing.
A: We want to know about complaints. I have one myself. I support the Main Street rail line but it's wreaked havoc on some of our signal timing. Also, when there's construction or a change in traffic flow, we need to make sure we go back and retime the signals.
The Main Street rail line has indeed wreaked havoc on signal timing, and (as a result) vehicular traffic flow in that corridor. Sensible people understand the folly of laying light rail lines down busy vehicular traffic corridors, but Houston's light-rail-at-any-cost crowd is not always sensible. Unfortunately, the Mayor's "complaint" doesn't have much teeth, as he seems disinclined to discourage METRO from laying even more light rail down busy streets, some of which have much more heavily trafficked intersections than the Main Street corridor (like Richmond/Kirby).
Second, there's some interesting Congressional testimony from Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson, as reported by Mass Transit:
Houston is now negotiating with a "facility provider" who will, at a minimum, design and build four corridors of guided, bus rapid transit and an intermodal terminal. The agency has selected Houston Transit Partners, a consortium lead by Washington Group International, from three proposals to handle the project. The agency wants the 20 miles of guideways, including stations, to be completed by late 2010 with operational vehicles in place by 2011. Houston Metro hopes to begin construction later this year.
"Our skills lie in providing comprehensive transportation services," Wilson told Congress, "but we are ill-equipped to tackle the large and exceptionally complex system expansion programs needed to meet our future goals. We have neither the skills nor the resources required to execute complicated designs and construction projects that routinely range in the hundreds of millions."
We do not always agree with Mr. Wilson, but we aren't going to argue with that admission!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/07 09:50 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
Mrs. White: Swell garbage tax proposal hurt by poor presentation
Back on April 1, the Chronicle's neighborhood section reporter Seshdri Kumar offered an early report on the city's plans to impose a new garbage tax while simultaneously cutting garbage service. Various blogs began to comment on the matter, and eventually all the news "big boys" reported the story, filling in additional details.
A week later, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists (or, as Cory Crow would have it, Mrs. White) weighed in predictably in favor of Mayor White's new garbage tax. Just as predictably, they don't much like Councilmember Michael Berry's accurate characterization of the proposal:
HOUSTON is a trash-monger's paradise. Unlike other major cities, it doesn't charge for ordinary trash removal. Heavy trash, a $28 million expense, gets whisked away free each month. And though large-scale recycling would create revenue, most residents see little reason to separate garbage. After all, there's no cost if they don't.
There are a few big bugs in this paradise: funding shortfalls for other services such as police, costly trash pickup from ineligible homes, and overflowing landfills. For the past year, a mayoral task force has sifted through these problems. Their well-researched proposals, offered last week to City Council, would keep trash management cheaper and easier for Houstonians than for their Texas neighbors.
However, though the task force was guided by seasoned leaders such as Comptroller Annise Parker, its moderate — even overly cautious — proposals faded next to one clumsily presented idea: a $42 yearly "waste reduction" fee.
Derided by Councilman Michael Berry as "less service, higher cost," the proposal actually would be a bargain. It would create a dedicated fund of as much as $19 million annually to upgrade solid waste services. This otherwise untouchable account would pay for more recycling facilities, cover a portion of heavy trash pickup and launch a composting program for yard waste.
Right now, all trash services are paid out of the city's general fund, which comes from taxes.
If the services are funded by taxes (which the Editorial LiveJournalists concede in the second bolded excerpt), then they are not "free" (as the Editorial LiveJournalists assert in the first bolded excerpt). As Slampo has pointed out, sanitation services in Houston are no more "free" than police or fire protection. Rather, they are basic services funded by taxes in our city.
The garbage tax proponents who briefed the Editorial LiveJournalists may not like Councilmember Berry's characterization, but the fact is that what is being proposed is indeed a garbage tax accompanied by a reduction in city services. That much is really not debatable, although we can certainly debate the merits and demerits of the proposal.
Ubu Roi has been writing quite a bit about the demerits on his personal blog, and Part II of his "Trash the Fee" series is here. He also discusses the (related?) retirement of Houston's solid waste director.
Feel free to offer your thoughts in the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/07 09:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Happy Easter!
I hope you all are enjoying a blessed Easter Sunday. The weather's a bit chilly, but the sun is peeking out -- how appropriate!
Thankfully, the Chron's ed board decided not to insult Christians today, for a change -- they're talking Houston's new trash tax instead. You may recall that in 2005 the editors decided Easter was a comfort to those who were upset about the forced starvation of Terri Schiavo. This year I half expected some "inspirational words" about Christ's Resurrection relating to the British hostages.
I do hold out hope that one day the media won't be so hostile to Christianity.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/08/07 11:35 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
We're #2!
A Houston museum that we discussed recently just got a mention on Gadling, an excellent travel weblog.
The National Museum of Funeral History is #2 on the Gadling list of 10 Strange and Obscure American museums.
The Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa is #3. Thankfully, term limits leave Councilmember Ada Edwards little time to push for such a museum here in town.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/07 11:32 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
07 April 2007
If only Tilman Fertitta were on the board of directors...
On Chron.com's City Hall blog, Matt Stiles posts an update on Mayor White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream: the mayor has sent city councilmembers a five page memo explaining his position.
Stiles points out that a KHOU-11 Defenders story from last year led to this current bit of bad press for the city. In that story, KHOU's Mark Greenblatt reported that city-owned land was being rented by private businesses at rock-bottom prices. After that story, it seems the city did some reviewing. It would be interesting for Greenblatt to go back now and update what changes occurred in the agreements between the city and the businesses in the story.
And note Mayor White's reaction in KHOU's story last year:
“I mean it’s unacceptable,” Mayor White said. “People ought to be paying fair market value for those leases.”
He said a new department will handle the rents from now on. Just a few months ago, the mayor hired Bob Christie, a real estate expert with 30 years of experience in the private sector.
“This is evidence why this management change I implemented already is long overdue,” Mayor White said.
White told us he will ask Christie to give him recommendations on the best way to get top dollar out of the land in question.
Regarding the bargain prices we found, like the property that had not been revalued in 40 years, White said: “Total incompetence on the city’s part. And inexcusable.”
He also told us he’d like to sell off most of those properties that have those bargain leases.
The mayor says he now plans to try and sell off, rather than rent, most of that land we just told you about, assigning that task to an expert in real estate he hired recently.
Certainly with regard to most of these leases, Mayor White's position is right on, but not in the case of The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation.
In his memo, Mayor White says:
I would ask the public to understand that no dedication of taxpayers' property is "free," and that any choice that the City dedicate limited public funds or real estate for one purpose ultimately comes at the expense of some alternative public use.
Ahhhhh, if only the folks at The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation had Tilman Fertitta on their side. He has a knack for getting his hands on prime city-owned land, at less than fair market value!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/07/07 05:10 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
06 April 2007
Chron: Northgate Forest residents are racist
What else are we to conclude after reading yesterday's opening, loaded paragraph written by Ericka Mellon?
Some residents of an upscale subdivision are trying to take advantage of a little-known provision in state law to get out of the increasingly diverse Spring school district and join the more-affluent and higher-performing Klein system.
That's not objective journalism; that's Ericka Mellon's personal interpretation of what Northgate Forest petitioners are attempting to do. None of the stories I have read on this issue have included residents saying they want out of Spring ISD because of the district's "increasing diversity." The issue is better education for two main reasons: for their children, and for their property values.
However, you won't find the above paragraph in the Chron's story anymore. The link to yesterday's story which included that doozy of a paragraph has been modified to reflect Spring ISD's rejection of the residents' request:
Homeowners in a posh Spring subdivision have lost round one of their battle to join the wealthier, better-performing Klein Independent School District.
The Spring school board today unanimously rejected a petition signed by 190 Northgate Forest residents to separate the area from the predominantly minority district and be annexed to Klein ISD.
"Better-performing" is more in line with what Northgate Forest residents are seeking, and Spring ISD knows it can't afford to give up those homes:
The assessed value of the relatively small subdivision — $92.5 million, about 1 percent of the district's tax base — was too much for the district to lose, especially considering that only seven students from Northgate are currently enrolled in Spring schools, according to the district.
So Northgate Forest residents will most likely continue to be forced to hand over their tax dollars to an underperforming district, while most send their children to private schools, a fact that was noted in a previous Chronicle story. I'd look for the link but the Chron's archives suck and I don't have the energy to waste on that effort. However, today's modified story hints at it:
But for Northgate resident Miriam Witt and her husband, Marcos, a Latin Grammy winner, the petition offered a chance at better schools for their children. They have opted for the private Northland Christian school and a homeschooling program.
''I'm not against supporting a particular school district,'' she said, ''but I would personally like to be able to choose where our children go to school.''
Progressive journalists and other public education utopians can wring their hands all they like over what they think is racist behavior by folks who don't want their tax dollars funding poorly-performing schools, but the fact is many public policies have led to this problem. Unfettered illegal immigration combined with a lack of parental responsibility in some communities has led to dumbed-down standards and curriculum in many public school districts.
And folks are getting tired of being forced to pay for schools that continue to underperform.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/06/07 08:07 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (36)
05 April 2007
METRO (nontransparently) makes $7.2 million real-estate deal
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports that METRO is continuing its transformation from regional transit organization to real-estate development organization:
Metro is buying two blocks along its light-rail line in Midtown from a developer the agency expects will buy the property back and build transit-friendly residential and business space.
In a transaction unprecedented in the agency's history, the Metropolitan Transit Authority board voted March 22 to spend $7.2 million for the blocks bounded by Main, Holman, Travis and Winbern, next to the Ensemble station of Metro's light rail Red line.
The idea is to sell the tract back to developer Robert H. Schultz of RHS Interests for at least the same price after Schultz's partnership is ready to build. Schultz approached Metro with the proposal, he and Metro said.
Agency spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said Metro knows of no other instances in which a transit agency has bought land to hold and sell to a private company for what is known as transit-oriented development.
The board did not discuss the purchase publicly when it voted for the transaction, but Schultz and Todd Mason, Metro's vice president of real estate services, since have outlined the plan for the Houston Chronicle.
Recall that METRO CEO Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson recently asserted that his organization operates "in a completely transparent manner." The bolded excerpt must be another example of that transparency at work!
The Chronicle story devotes two whole paragraphs (!) out of 28 to skepticism over the deal:
But City Councilman Michael Berry, who chairs a council committee on transportation and is in the real estate business, disagrees with the whole approach.
"Metro has completely lost focus," Berry said. "They're supposed to be in the business of moving people, and instead they want to be real estate developers."
That's balance, Chron style.
A while back, Tom Kirkendall wrote:
We already know that Metro does not perform particularly well at that which it is chartered to do. In view of that, it's not a good idea for Metro to be getting into the notoriously speculative real estate development business, where it can lose even more money. Indeed, our local government already has a dubious record of boondoggles in that area.
Charter, schmarter! There's world-class light-rail utopia to be constructed here, with just a little (okay, a lot of) real-estate-development help from the regional transit organization. Never mind how many bus routes might not have suffered "service adjustments" (translation: cuts) had this money been invested in bus service (in line with the 50% increase in bus service promised in the 2003 referendum). We want Houston to be world-class, don't we? World-class doesn't come without some costs!
UPDATE (04-06-2007): The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports today that Harris County officials say METRO will not be allowed to hold the property free of taxes:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority will have to pay taxes on property it plans to buy and hold for private development next to its rail line, or provide a good reason why it shouldn't, tax officials said Thursday.
Todd Mason, Metro vice president of real estate services, responded that the project's benefits in increased transit ridership and eventual tax revenue would outweigh costs in taxes or lost interest stemming from the purchase. And if the project falls through, he said, Metro will probably be able to sell the land at a profit.
He declined to speculate on whether Metro will challenge the assertion that it must pay property taxes.
BLOGVERSATION: Lou Minatti, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Houston's Clear Thinkers.
RELATED MATERIAL FROM THE ARCHIVES: Eminent domain power concern local property rights groups, METRO looks to real estate development for revenue, From METRO Solutions to Galleria redevelopment? , METRO to build the Danger Train Hotel, METRO's trying to emulate Dallas with new development, It's full steam ahead at METRO's Real Estate Development Dept., Frank Wilson: This is not your father's METRO, Maybe Tilman Fertitta could build a Park & Ride ferris wheel?, METRO acquires downtown property for future needs, Wolff Cos. frets over government agency's venture into real estate, AstroWorld site developers seek management district designation.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/07 09:55 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (14)
Harris County ends membership in TAC
On Tuesday, both Harvey Kronberg's Quorum Report and the Lone Star Times reported that Harris County Commissioners' Court voted to end Harris County's membership in the Texas Association of Counties.
Here's an excerpt from the update that Phil Magness supplied to Lone Star Times:
The word on the street is that one of the reasons they did it was the Williamson County lawsuit by our good friend David Rogers, ruling against counties using tax dollars for TAC’s political purposes…such as lobbying against the property tax caps.
Harris County was the largest member of TAC....
The Houston Chronicle, which devotes scant resources and attention to the Harris County beat, seems not to have reported on this move (but hey, the newspaper has a D.C. bureau!).
BLOGVERSATION: BoldTexas (Aside: Peggy Venable quoting herself in this blog post is amusing, in a Bob Dole, third-person referential sort of way).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/07 08:43 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
04 April 2007
"Please help save my home"
A few days ago, we noted Mayor White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded Revenue Stream" proposal.
Since then, the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation has launched a website to raise awareness of the White Administration's craven plans: SaveTheCenter.org.
The site details ways in which interested individuals can help the Center on this issue.
Here's a quote from a board member displayed prominently on the site:
We have a 99 year lease on five acres of property, which was signed in 1963, and which is still fully in effect. And, we have a preferential right to a 30 year renewal on the remaining one acre,” states Jack Manning. “These leases have been honored by seven Mayors: Lewis Cutrer, Louie Welch, Fred Hofheinz, Jim McConn, Kathy Whitmire, Bob Lanier and Lee Brown — all of whom were able to guide the City’s financial affairs without seizing properties utilized to serve the City’s retarded population. Only Mayor Bill White has suggested the eviction of the mentally retarded in order to enhance the City’s revenue stream.
Mayor White needs to rethink this one.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Red Ink: Texas, On Message.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/04/07 09:19 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (18)
More taxes + fewer services = Running the city like a business?
Slampo comes out swinging (again) on the city's exciting new garbage-tax proposal.
His earlier post on Mayor White's proposed new garbage tax is here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/04/07 08:00 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
03 April 2007
Mayor White's new tax to be called "waste reduction fee"
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that the Mayor's new trash-tax-revenue-stream officially has the cute name required of all such stealth tax initiatives:
Nearly 500,000 Houston households getting city trash service would have to pay a $42 annual fee for the service, which is now free, under recommendations presented today to the City Council.
A task force appointed by Mayor Bill White to research solid waste policy and funding told the council that the city should, for the first time, charge a “waste reduction fee.”
Just one quick correction to the story: Trash service is not now "free" any more than police or fire service is now "free." Just because there is no direct fee attached to trash collection (or police or fire protection) does not mean they are "free."
To quote Slampo, who put this in terms that even tax-happy politicians should be able to understand:
[W]e’ve never been under the impression that garbage collection (light, heavy, recyclable or otherwise) is a city service that is supposed to pay for itself, anymore than police protection is supposed to be a self-sustaining service. Fact of the matter is, we always thought that municipalities were incorporated mainly to provide for sanitation and public safety....
Exactly.
Houstonians pay plenty in taxes for basic municipal services like sanitation and public safety.
If Mayor White thinks he needs to raise taxes to pay for those basic services (even though he has money to spend on other, not-so-basic priorities), then he needs to make that case to Houstonians.
But the notion that Houstonians are not currently paying for sanitation and public safety isn't true, no matter how many times the Mayor's staffers say it (or it gets repeated in the big newspaper).
UPDATE: Here's an excerpt from a longer story by Matt Stiles in today's Chronicle:
Houston households would pay a monthly $3.50 "waste reduction fee" and eventually would have their heavy trash picked up only twice a year, under a mayoral task force proposal presented Monday to the City Council.
Insisting the new charge — of $42 annually — was not a "garbage fee," task force members told the council that the levy on 450,000 households would increase conservation and boost efficiency in the city's solid-waste practices.
The fee, which would be new for Houston, would generate as much as $19 million that could be used to enhance recycling, launch new conservation efforts and pay for more enforcement of illegal dumping, according to the task force.
A new garbage tax is EXACTLY what is being proposed -- and we don't buy for a minute that it's going to finance any of the promised initiatives (which will likely be as illusory as the 50% increase in bus service METRO promised in the 2003 referendum).
BLOGVERSATION: KTRK-13 Political Blog, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Houblog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/03/07 07:45 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
02 April 2007
And the best Texas newspaper is...
The Texas Associated Press Managing Editors held its annual meeting last weekend and handed out some awards:
The Houston Chronicle won six top honors at the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors' annual meeting over the weekend, including the Headliners Excellence in Journalism Award for its coverage of the Enron verdict.
The coverage included a special edition the day of the verdict, May 25, and extensive coverage in the next day's paper by Mary Flood, Mark Babineck, David Ivanovich, Lynn Cook, Shannon Buggs, Betty Martin, Clifford Pugh and others. The entry also won the breaking-news category among the state's largest papers.
Also winning top honors from APME was the Chronicle's Amy Biancolli, who was recognized in the comment-and-criticism category for two movie reviews and a commentary on movie ratings.
Science writer Eric Berger was honored by APME for best blog, and artists Alberto Cuadra, Ken Ellis, Robert Dibrell and Jay Carr for best infographics for their "Racing Around Reliant Park," a graphic explaining and illustrating the Houston Grand Prix.
Unfortunately for our beloved Chron, top newspaper honors, both print and online, went to the Dallas Morning News. That's a shame because the Chron has some very talented folks on staff, doing fine work; but the Chron's poor editorial leadership tends to overshadow the good.
If there was ever a town just begging for a quality daily paper...
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/02/07 08:27 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
Historic Texas Avenue
Jack Williams of KUHF-88.7 has details of a new addition to a downtown historical tour:
At one point in Houston's history, in the mid-1800's, Texas Avenue was the heart of the city, home to many of the places that Houston was built on. Deborah January-Beavers is the executive director of Scenic Houston, the non-profit organization that put the walking tour together.
"Back when Houston was being founded in the very early 1800's, this was the original dirt road that began Houston. This is where the leaders of the community, the first businesses, the first churches, the first residences, in fact are very close to Hamilton and the areas that now hold the ballpark and other businesses, all started on Texas Avenue."
Now, dozens of those historic sites are commemorated with markers that describe what once stood there, with some of the places, like Incarnate Word Academy near the ballpark, still there.
"Incarnate Word Academy has been on Texas Avenue since the mid to late 1800's and the historical marker discusses aspects of how Incarnate Word has changed since its beginnings."
The first phase of the walking tour, from Bagby to Main, was completed a few years ago. The newest leg, from Main to Hamilton, includes Christ Church Cathedral, the Federal Reserve Bank, William Penn Hotel and Annunciation Church.
It sounds very interesting, and today was the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new tour. Hopefully the Scenic Houston group will be putting more information about the walking tour online.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/02/07 07:43 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 April 2007
City readies "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream
The Chronicle's Melanie Markley reports that the city is proceeding with plans to tear up its lease with a local non-profit group that houses the mentally retarded, so that it can deliver their prime River Oaks real estate to local developers (and enjoy a nice revenue boost):
For more than 40 years, it has occupied a prime chunk of public real estate near River Oaks caring for, employing and housing the mentally retarded.
But now the city of Houston is planning to sell the land to the highest bidder, meaning the nonprofit Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation has to find a new home.
The center's directors do not intend to go quietly. They have a 99-year lease signed with the city in the 1960s that required them to construct buildings and provide services for one of the city's neediest populations.
[snip]
The 99-year lease, signed in 1963 by then-Mayor Lewis Cutrer, is not valid, city lawyers argue, because the city charter limits such agreements to no more than 30 years.
[snip]
Center officials also worry that the move seriously will jeopardize the centrally located services they provide for roughly 600 Houstonians.
Most at risk, they say, are the nearly 200 adults living in a dormitory on the property. The center faces the task of building new living quarters or finding other facilities and homes that can take them.
We're thinking that it's not going to be very helpful to Mayor White's plans to run for statewide office when opposition researchers discover that he was the Houston mayor who booted mentally retarded people out on the street to help out real-estate developers (or, for that matter, that he was the Houston mayor who planned to finance his big freeway towing program partially on the backs of poor people whose cars were towed, confiscated, and sold by favored towing companies).
Here's hoping Mayor White rethinks this one. He can surely find some other ways to generate revenue.
RELATED COVERAGE: Associated Press.
BLOGVERSATION: Slampo's Place, Off the Kuff, Red Ink: Texas, Lone Star Times, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/01/07 09:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
Sixel: SEIU's imported lawbreakers not catching any breaks
The Chronicle's L.M. Sixel had an interesting story last week that took a closer look at the treatment of law-breaking protestors who were shipped in by SEIU last year:
Last month, a Harris County criminal courts judge gave six out-of-state protesters found guilty of blocking an intersection a choice: spend seven days in jail and pay a $2,000 fine or serve probation this summer in Houston.
The protesters opted for the fine and the jail time, which they had already served when they were initially arrested.
After that sentence, the next group, which blocked the intersection near the Galleria in November, opted for a plea deal, $250 each in court costs and credit for their two days in jail.
Other groups also accepted the plea deals, and the last group, which took over the conference room at Transwestern's Galleria-area offices, is scheduled to go before a judge next month.
"The state took a hard stance, a very unreasonable one," said Christian Capitaine, a criminal lawyer with Capitaine, Shellist and Warren who was hired by the SEIU to represent the protesters.
Capitaine, a former Harris County prosecutor himself, said the county wouldn't even offer the protesters deferred adjudication, which allows offenders who successfully complete their sentences to have the charges wiped from their records.
Good.
Breaking the law should have consequences, and organizations that ship in outsiders to make trouble in our city ought to know that it doesn't go over very well.
There's a bit more on the sausage-making aspects of the matter:
Ted Wilson, chief of the professional development bureau for the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said he and representatives of the Police Department made it clear in a meeting with two SEIU officials the day before the downtown protests that they'd be facing a class B misdemeanor if they blocked a road.
The union officials, who laid out their civil disobedience plans, were seeking less onerous class C misdemeanors and traffic-like tickets as the only penalty, said Wilson, who oversees the misdemeanor division and is the point man on protests.
Prosecutors rejected the request and suggested the union warn the protesters of the consequences.
"That's the price you pay," he said. "We did exactly what we said we'd do. Why should people get on a plane from Wisconsin or Illinois with the intent and purpose to violate our laws here and get a break?"
Exactly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/01/07 08:59 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Taggers vandalize Ervan Chew Park
KTRK-13 reports on Houston's ongoing gang activity, in the heart of the Montrose area:
Residents living around a Montrose area park, the scene of a deadly gang fight, want something done to stop gang graffiti.
We're told on Thursday night, a resident saw what he says were several gang members spray-painting graffiti on public property in Chew Park. That's where 15-year-old Gabriel Granillo was killed last June. Seventeen-year-old Ashley Benton is awaiting trial for that murder. Residents are calling for something to be done."I think if they put more lighting up or put little lights up on the sidewalk, then it will deter a lot of crime activity," said Allen Cole, who lives near the park.
I snapped some photos of the latest graffiti over the weekend. The Flickr set can be viewed by clicking the photo above. One resident I talked to in the park told me the problem had improved somewhat, before this latest round. It's likely the same taggers who hit this park also hit the bridges over the Southwest Freeway on an almost nightly basis.
It's a shame that Houston cannot increase police patrols in these known hotspots, but unfortunately the manpower shortage means the manpower we do have must be concentrated on more "serious" crimes. And so these little crimes build to bigger crimes (as the broken windows policing advocates would contend, anyway).
RELATED: Teen killed in broad daylight in Montrose-area Park.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/01/07 04:24 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)
The new definition of "free"
Remember how Houston's wifi was to "be free to city government, as well as Houstonians who bring their own laptops to select hotspots, such as large parks"?
The definition of free is $2.5 million over five years:
24. ORDINANCE relating to proposed Citywide Wireless Network; approving and authorizing two contracts between the City and EARTHLINK, INC for 1) a Wireless Broadband Network License Agreement and 2) a Wireless Services Agreement; providing a maximum contract amount - 5 Years - $2,500,000.00 - Central Service Revolving Fund
Hat tip: Tom Bazan
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/01/07 07:36 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
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