31 July 2007
Corrections from the Editorial LiveJournalists?
We were a little shocked to see the following corrections in the Chronicle today:
• An editorial on Page B8 Monday inaccurately referred to San Jacinto College and North Harris Montgomery College District.
• An editorial on Page B8 Monday incorrectly stated that eucalyptus, which is chiefly Australian, was unique to that continent.
It is rare that the Editorial LiveJournalists correct factual errors, even if newspaper personnel acknowledge the errors via email. I wonder what led to the prompt corrections today?
It would probably be picking nits to note that the correction STILL got one name wrong.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/07 09:24 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Nice park or expensive boondoggle?
The Chronicle's Lisa Falkenberg doesn't like Steve Radack's Soapwood Derby park.
Lou Minatti doesn't like Falkenberg's characterization of the park project.
We link, you decide.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/07 09:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (23)
30 July 2007
Chron profiles Sidney Berger, one of UH's many gems
This weekend, the Chronicle ran an interesting profile of Sidney Berger, the renowned chair of UH's school of theater, who is stepping down after 38 years at the helm:
When Sidney Berger became chairman of the University of Houston drama department in 1969, it had a three-person faculty and 30 students with that major.
Today, as the UH School of Theatre and Dance, it boasts a faculty of 15 and 300 majors and a higher national profile — an enduring legacy as Berger steps away this week from a tenure of nearly four decades.
When Berger came aboard, there were no opportunities for UH students to absorb lessons directly from the theater's greatest talents.
Today, because of the celebrated artists Berger has attracted here, hundreds of alumni can include on their résumés that they studied with such renowned figures as playwrights Edward Albee and Lanford Wilson, producer Stuart Ostrow and directors José Quintero and Sir Peter Hall.
When Berger moved here, there was no professional outlet in which theater students could hone their craft.
Today, thanks to the two professional summer projects Berger founded in the 1970s (Houston Shakespeare Festival and Children's Theatre Festival), students have the opportunity to work with theater pros from across the city, as well as guest artists from elsewhere.
Peter Sargent, dean of the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts at St. Louis' Webster University, deems Berger's leadership at UH "visionary and successful." Sargent was one of three prominent figures in theater education contracted in 2003 to give an objective evaluation of the UH School of Theatre.
"He is going to leave quite a legacy," Sargent says. "He has attracted nationally significant theater artists and professionals to present a thorough perspective on theater education. His leadership of HSF and its partnership with the school is an excellent example of how two institutions can work together successfully. He has moved the UH school to a position of national recognition. And he has done so with a sense of what is best for the institution and the students."
Thankfully, Berger will be staying on at the fine department he built, as a faculty member and as director of the annual Shakespeare Festival held at Hermann Park every summer.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/07 09:21 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (9)
Interest groups promote interests (updated)
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee today wrote about his field trip to look at freight train operations with the Citizens' Transportation Coalition.
This blurb describing the group (the third graf) caught my eye:
Self-described as an "all-volunteer grassroots transportation advocacy organization," the group has worked to give residents a stronger voice in the planning of major projects that affect their neighborhoods.
The first clause in that paragraph seems fair enough. How groups describe themselves is, in some ways, preferable to journalists actually trying to put labels on them. The problem is in the second clause, which is Sallee's description of the group, and which really seems to downplay (nay, omit) the group's advocacy on transportation issues.
Far from being a group that simply fosters public debate and attempts to empower neighborhoods on transportation issues, the CTC frequently takes stands on issues. Most notably, members of the group have long argued for a specific rail alignment on Richmond, even as they publicly said they merely wanted all options on the table. Interestingly, even as the group was talking about "all options," key members of the group were corresponding with METRO on how best to promote the Richmond alignment. Since quite a few people who actually live/work along Richmond oppose that alignment, it's not really accurate to suggest that the group is giving those residents a stronger voice in this instance. Rather, the group is arguing for its preferred position.
This is not to suggest there's anything wrong with that. Interest-group pluralism depends upon informed groups putting their views out into the marketplace of ideas for debate, and the Citizens' Transportation Coalition is an interest group that certainly adds an intelligent voice to the local conversation. But it does take stands on transportation issues (rather than simply empowering neighborhood residents or promoting discussion), a point that did not seem adequately conveyed by Sallee's column.
To his credit, Sallee did respond to the discussion on the article with a comment on my Chron.com message page, and said he didn't mean to suggest that CTC doesn't take positions on issues.
UPDATE (08-01-2007): Lo and behold, here is the most recent example of the CTC empowering neighborhoods instead of promoting an agenda, as Rad Sallee would have it. A more objective view, of course, is that the formulation should be reversed.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/07 09:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
29 July 2007
Marvin Zindler, 1921-2007
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/07 07:36 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (16)
Cragg Hines has left the building
Today, Chronicle DC columnist Cragg Hines turns in his last column -- fittingly, a reflection of his career and himself:
I thought about going quietly, just a couple of sentences toward the end of a regular column noting that after more than three decades of writing about politics and government for Chronicle readers that I was pulling the plug.
I decided that approach, however elegant and restrained, was sort of chicken and not actually my style. There would be a summing up, a possibly self-indulgent coda to my current career. I knew I'd have fun doing a wrap-up, and I have.
The Chron's veteran columnist has seemed bored for quite a while now, turning in either predictably lazy blasts at Republican pols or, worse, dispatches on his C-SPAN viewing or his take on Washington Post architecture columns. In many ways, he had come to epitomize a largely irrelevant D.C. bureau that never breaks news or offers fresh, well-sourced insight. We can't help but think that at some point, the accomplished journalist simply grew bored with the routine at an irrelevant bureau.
It's tempting to suggest that the Chron DC bureau may benefit from addition by subtraction, but as we have seen from the Plagiarist's hiatus from the newspaper's metro/state pages, that's not necessarily the case. Indeed, if it means the DC bureau will be featuring more of Julie Mason's editorial rambles, then it certainly won't be a case of addition by subtraction.
In any case, the Coven wishes Hines well in whatever comes next. Personally, I'd like to see him continue writing about travel in some capacity. He's an avid traveler, and that has been some of his most interesting, compelling writing in recent years.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/07 02:20 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (9)
LA Times profiles Quanell the Tenth
Houston's own Quanell the Tenth was profiled this week in the LA Times. Here's an excerpt:
Quanell X was once just Quanell Evans, a Houston street urchin from a shattered home who was slinging crack and staring at a future he knew would put him in prison or a coffin before age 25.
He sought a new start through the Nation of Islam, but his hate-filled diatribes against white America — which have included anti-Semitic remarks and exhortations to "mug you some good white folks" — proved too much even for a black Muslim organization used to helping angry hoodlums out of the gutter.
So he left to join a splinter group of gun-toting black separatists, and he advocated racial justice by any means necessary in a misguided fantasy that he was the new Malcolm X — a self-aggrandizing pose that brought him more ridicule than respect.
Now 36, Quanell X is morphing again, this time into a self-appointed spokesman for the black underclass that he came from, and his services are in high demand.
"They come to me because they know I am not afraid to challenge the powers that be," he said. "I'm not tiptoeing through the tulips and pussyfooting around. I'm saying what other people think but don't have the courage to say."
RELATED: Who is Quanell X? (Owen Courrèges, Chronically Biased).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/07 01:41 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (9)
Peter Brown fights for better streets around the Menil
Last week, the Chron ran a This Week story about how Menil officials and Councilman Peter Brown want the City of Houston to repair the streets around the museum:
The city of Houston is working on patching up the pothole-filled streets surrounding the Menil Collection, 1515 Sul Ross, while museum officials and Peter Brown, an at-large city council member, are seeking a longer-term fix.
The Menil and Brown's office said they believe repairing the streets around the facility is important because of what the museum does for Houston's image. Streets affected are Branard, Mandell, Sul Ross and Yupon.
"We appreciate the positive attention the Menil receives for its art collection," said Jonathan Fong, Brown's personal assistant. "(But) if people can't get down those streets, then they're not going to go."
Said Vance Muse, the Menil's communications director, "The Menil gets a whole lot of visitors from out of the city and out of state and we want them to get the best possible view of the city."
Muse said the museum began complaining to various city departments about six months ago at the beginning of its 20th anniversary year about the surrounding streets.
[snip]
Wes Johnson, spokesman for the Public Works, explained the financial situation.
"All the money is committed for a certain period of time," Johnson said. "You can't just suddenly start reworking streets — it's not that easy to do. In the meantime, we send people out to do some patchwork."
We imagine if Mayor White really WANTED those streets fixed, he'd find a way to make it happen.
By the way, as a commenter on the Chron story pointed out, Councilman Brown is somewhat connected to the Menil Collection by marriage -- his wife is Anne Schlumberger. Perhaps that should have been disclosed?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/29/07 09:59 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (10)
28 July 2007
City looks to buy former Hackberry Golf Course
The City of Houston is purchasing a new park (via KUHF-88.7):
In a $5 million deal, the city is about to purchase 22 acres of land in the heart of Alief. Houston Parks Department Director Joe Turner says the Houston Parks Board, a non-profit organization, identified the site a while back as a potential park. It's a chunk of land that used to be a 9-hole golf course.
"It actually has three or four water features in it. We know the cart paths are going to need some repair work, but we know they'd be wonderful walking trails. It's a small clubhouse but we should be able to use it for some meeting space type facilities and it has a nice parking lot. Long term plans would be to be able to put a playground at it and possibly maybe even a sprayground. It's just going to be a wonderful neighborhood park."
The Parks Department will present the purchase proposal to Houston City Council next week. The city will put up $3 million toward the purchase. The remaining funds will come from the Houston Parks Board, including money to refurbish the buildings and turn the golf cart paths into walking trails.
Just wondering if Houston has made any progress toward purchasing the $150 million emergency radio network it needs?
PREVIOUSLY: City surplus jumps to $33 million
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/28/07 06:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chron: Everything's fine in Tilman-land, really!
Today, the Chronicle affords Tilman Fertitta the opportunity to assure readers that his operation is fine, in response to recent reporting on his company's refinancing woes:
Landry's Restaurants Chairman and CEO Tilman Fertitta said Friday the company is financially sound and that its current debt problem is easily solved.
"It's no big deal," he said. "I can solve it tomorrow by writing a check, but I'm negotiating."
[snip]
Landry's said [recently downgraded] ratings should improve once the debt issue is resolved.
In addition to the notes, which are held in trust by U.S. Bank, Landry's has a $450 million credit agreement with Wachovia Bank with a similar stipulation regarding its filing of financial statements.
Landry's said Wachovia could require immediate payment of the $97 million it owes on the credit agreement, but it hasn't and it doesn't expect the bank to.
"Nothing is wrong with the company," Fertitta said.
Well, if Fertitta says so, allrighty then!
One Chron.com commenter had an amusing take on the story and Fertitta:
I'm going to sell my Enron stock and buy some Landry's stock. I beleive him.
Ken Lay
Nice.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers (and here), Liberty's Blog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/07 01:44 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 July 2007
Chron scaffolding is not world class
KTRK-13's Miya Shay blogs about the eyesore that just won't go away at 801 Texas Avenue:
If you've walked by the Houston Chronicle's building downtown in the last.. oh.. FIVE years, chances are you've either seen or had to duck through some sort of scaffolding. It seems like the City of Houston is getting a bit frustrated with the lack of progress to repair the Chron's building facade.
The city's Public Works director says the project has sped up noticeably recently.
Strange, but we hadn't noticed. And apparently Miya Shay hasn't either.
Surely Hearst could move this project along, if only in the interest of projecting a world-class facade to the rest of downtown!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/07 10:26 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Who can blame them for being concerned? It's Metro, after all
KTRK-13 has another story on residents in southeast Houston who aren't pleased a light rail line is coming to their neighborhood:
For more than 30 years, Rutha Hymon has lived in MacGregor Place.
"This is a quiet neighborhood, it's close to downtown, you know it's nice," she said.
She lives just a half block from Martin Luther King Boulevard. It's a long a stretch that METRO has selected for construction of a 1.2 mile light rail line between Old Spanish Trail and Griggs Road.
Hymon fears the line could leak stray electricity into the neighborhood and could endanger children who cross MLK to Peck Elementary.
"I don't welcome more problems," she said.
Others agree and say it is risky for METRO to put in a line near where children gather. There is fear that children don't always look both ways before crossing the street.
"They don't do it," said Baba Shango of the Sehah Youth Center. "Some will do it, some won't do it and that is too much of a chance."
Shango is one of a half dozen people who pled with METRO's board to move the route behind their neighborhoods. They also accused the board of not notifying the neighborhood residents concerning public meetings on the issue.
METRO's CEO says 14,000 door hanger meeting notifications were sent out before 140 meetings on the issue which took place over a six year period. He says METRO has been sensitive to the homeowner's concerns and laments that there is no way to please everyone.
"So it is our responsibility to make sure we disrupt the community as little as possible," said METRO's David Wolff. "We're sensitive to safety concerns and we make sure businesses continue to prosper and we are committed to that."
Certainly there is enough of a track record (literally!) along the Danger Train line that residents have plenty of valid reasons to be concerned. Metro's competence to build light rail is not a given.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: KHOU-11 also has a story on this topic. Unfortunately, we will continue to see these sorts of stories so long as we are determined to build light rail at grade, down busy streets and along busy intersections. It's a dangerous, short-sighted way to build transit, and hardly world-class (when compared to the great transit systems of the world, which are not run down busy streets).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/27/07 05:01 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
26 July 2007
KHOU: Mobile food vendors protest new regulations
KHOU-11's Karla Barguiarena reports that some mobile food vendors are unhappy with new regulations that will go into effect in September:
On the corner of Airline and Aldine Mail Road, Rosario Torres' fajita recipe has become a hit.
But come Sept. 1, Torres fears her success will hit a roadblock.
New state regulations that will force her to change the way she's run her business.
"It's very, very confusing for me. It's very problem,” said Torres.
Right now, Torres pays a company to come in and clean her stand three times a week.
With the new regulations, she'll have to drive it 20 miles to the nearest commissary every night.
"My business is not a big one to pay every day,” she said.
She'll also have to add extra insurance to cover the vehicle. It's time and money she says, she can't afford.
"It's really difficult to be moving the stand every single day,” said fellow taco stand owner Jose Lara.
Other taco stand owners are calling the changes monumental and unnecessary.
It strikes me that a "mobile" food stand that never or rarely moves isn't really a mobile food stand any more, and probably should meet the same standards as any non-mobile food stand.
So are the new regulations a legitimate attempt to hold non-mobile "mobile" food stands to higher standards, or just a thinly veiled effort to reduce the number of mobile food stands?
Please leave your thoughts in the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/26/07 08:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
25 July 2007
Chron Eye for the 100th Harris County Death Row Killer Guy!
A three-reporter Chronicle story today notes the indifference over what the reporters (or at least their editors) probably thought would be a much bigger, much more exciting story:
Lonnie Earl Johnson, convicted of the 1990 robbery-murder of two Magnolia teenagers, became the 100th killer sent to Texas' death house by a Harris County jury on Tuesday.
The execution took place without the street theater and bullhorn-amplified protests that normally mark such events.
No television cameramen jockeyed for position as witnesses marched into the Huntsville Unit.
Seven death penalty opponents watched wordlessly from a distance.
Little emotion was displayed, either by Johnson's sole witness or by relatives of the victims, who declined comment Tuesday.
Maybe there's a lesson for the Chronicle's editors, who chose to devote three reporters to this latest Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy.
Like most people (apparently), Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal did not seem to regard 100 as any sort of magical number:
Johnson's status as the 100th killer executed at the behest of Harris County juries since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1982 caused little stir at the district attorney's office.
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal dismissed it as "insignificant."
In the story, the three reporters note that #101 is scheduled for August.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/25/07 08:52 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
Just be honest and say they are lifetime benefits
Every few months, local media treat us to the latest story of how Hurricane Katrina victims will have their housing aid extended. Here's KTRK-13:
Families that received federal housing assistance before getting displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita will get extensions of up to nine months on their disaster benefits, government officials said Monday.
About 11,400 families have been part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Disaster Voucher Program, which was scheduled to end Sept. 30. About 3,500 of the families are in the Houston area.
"What happened two years ago had a devastating affect on people's lives," HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson told a group of Katrina evacuees at an apartment complex for seniors that still has 80 relocated families. "We can't change what God does, but we can make the best of it."
Katrina hit Aug. 29, 2005, devastating a large swath of the Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana coasts and flooding 80 percent of New Orleans. Rita hit southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas less than a month later.
At its peak, 30,700 families were using the Disaster Voucher Program to cover their housing costs.
On Jan. 1, 7,600 of the remaining families will go back to HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, which they were on before the storm. Under this program, participants get help paying their rent to a private landlord.
"Extensions of up to nine months." Please. We all know whatever "deadline" is given will be extended...and extended...and extended.
In effect, two years later nothing has changed, except how the housing assistance is coded. It's still taxpayer dollars taken from hard-working folks in order to subsidize others.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/25/07 06:47 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (7)
24 July 2007
Infernal Bridegroom Productions shuts down
The Chronicle's Everett Evans reports some disappointing news about the Houston stage scene:
Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Houston's foremost avant-garde theater company, has ceased operations because of "insurmountable financial difficulties."
The news was made public late Tuesday in an e-mail released by IBP board president Chet Farmer. The company's own phone line was disconnected.
Tamarie Cooper, a founding company member and IBP's acting artistic director, could not be reached for comment.
Founded in 1993, IBP specialized in Houston premieres of bold works by such cutting-edge playwrights as Richard Foreman, Maria Irene Fornes, Sarah Kane, Heiner Müller and Wallace Shawn, mixed with avant-garde classics by such masters as Samuel Becket, Bertolt Brecht, Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco.
For its often rough-hewn yet usually potent renditions of daring fare — as well as its troupe of original and idiosyncratic writer-performers — IBP attracted a loyal following locally and, in recent years, increasing national attention.
IBP drew the most notice with its world premieres, including Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks' ****ing A, Brian Jucha's We Have Some Planes and Lisa D'Amour's Hide Town, all featured in American Theatre magazine.
By all accounts, IBP did some truly innovative stage work. Sadly, Houston tastes tend towards shops that mostly put on musicals, or the high-end see-and-be-seen productions downtown. Smaller, innovative companies tend to struggle in such an environment.
BLOGVERSATION: Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, and Hell Storms, Arts Houston, Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/07 11:22 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (7)
Chron and Comcast: Everything's great!
The Chronicle today reports that Comcast thinks its takeover from Time Warner is going very well:
Some customers may have noticed temporary outages during the transition in recent weeks, but spokesman Ray Purser said the problems have been minimal.
"It's all gone very smoothly," Purser said. "I think it's been a lot easier than people thought it was going to be."
Customers get the faster Web-surfing speeds without having to do anything, but those who used Road Runner e-mail — houston.rr.com — need to register comcast.net addresses.
Just one quick correction -- at the very least, users had to reboot their modems after the switch, in order to sync up with the Comcast network, so users DID have to do something. [Update: Dwight Silverman informs that his setup did not require a reboot, so some (but not all users) apparently did not have to do anything].
Quite a few commenters on Chron.com seem to disagree with Mr. Purser that the transition has gone smoothly. Indeed, I'm among those who don't think it's gone smoothly. My television service became so bad (intermittent outages and snowy picture) that I switched to Dish Network and couldn't be happier. My internet download speeds are one-third to one-half what they were, so DSL may be my next switch.
For those of you who have experienced the transition from Time Warner to Comcast, what do you think?
BLOGVERSATION: About: Chron, Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/07 11:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
HISD abandons absurd legal position on baseball stats
The Chronicle's Ericka Mellon reports that HISD has now backed away from its absurd legal contention that baseball stats are private, protected data under federal law:
The Houston Independent School District agreed Monday to release high school baseball players' statistics to a parent after a federal official confirmed the information can be made public.
HISD's attorney, Chris Gilbert, informed Scott Rothenberg that the district will give him the statistics for last year's Bellaire High School baseball team "as quickly as possible."
Rothenberg, whose two sons played on the team, requested the data in April and again in June under the Texas Public Information Act.
Gilbert informed Rothenberg last week that the district believed that statistics about individual players — such as their batting averages — were private under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The federal law protects student records such as grades and discipline history.
LeRoy Rooker, whose office oversees the law for the U.S. Department of Education, told Gilbert on Monday that the district can share the statistics if it wants to, Gilbert said.
"It was never the district's desire to keep this stuff private," Gilbert said. "This was just something we thought we had to do."
Well, you were wrong. But at least that conclusion was reached before a federal court smackdown of HISD's legal position was required.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/07 10:52 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
23 July 2007
Is Michael Berry about to blow up KPRC-950? (updated: yes!)
At the end of last week, some interesting (and seemingly accurate) rumors began spreading about major changes that will be coming soon to KPRC-950.
Mike McGuff has posted about those rumored changes on his blog this morning.
If it's all true, then it seems as if radio programming neophyte Michael Berry is determined to blow up what was once a powerhouse talker in Houston and start all over with something hardly recognizable.
In two years, we'll either be talking about Berry as a new-generation programming genius, or as an unemployed radio guy who helped hasten the decline of Clear Channel in Houston.
Which do you think it will be?
UPDATE: Local radio personality Chuck Tiller is already, er, singing Berry's praises (so to speak).
UPDATE 2: KTRH-740 has posted its revamped schedule here. It's set to launch July 30. Interestingly, San Antonio talker Joe Pags is being given the 9-11 am slot leading into Limbaugh/Hannity (it will be kind of like the radio version of Chief Harold "Arizona" Hurtt!). Chris Baker will move back to 4pm. And Michael Berry, whose ratings on KPRC-950 mornings are rumored to be terrible, will move to 7pm.
UPDATE 3: Here's the new KPRC-950 lineup, as posted on the just-revised "The 950 - Radio MOJO" website:
5:30-10 a.m. — Walton & Johnson
10 a.m.-Noon — Mancow
Noon-2 p.m. — Dave Ramsey
2-4 p.m. — Baker & The Hunt (Chris Baker & Cynthia Hunt)
4-5 p.m. — Mancow Happy Hour
5-8 p.m. — Michael Savage
8-10 p.m. — Phil Hendrie
10 p.m.-Midnight — Mark Levin
Midnight-2 a.m. — Bill O’Reilly
2-4 a.m. — Jerry Doyle
4-5:30 a.m. — Glenn Beck
BLOGVERSATION: Pat Gray, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/23/07 08:04 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (16)
22 July 2007
An opening for Tollett?
On Friday, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack speculated that the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau's inability to fill its top job could open the door for the return of Jordy Tollett:
The Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau has not been able to fill Jordy Tollett's spectator shoes after six months of searching.
It extended an offer to Stephen Perry, the president and CEO of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, last Friday. He turned it down.
Now the search committee must regroup.
There's at least one person who is interested — Tollett.
"You don't know what that would mean to me, to be able to return and sell the city," Tollett said. "It was my life. I lived and breathed it every day for 35 years. It's all I've ever known."Mayor Bill White made it clear it was time for Tollett to move on by insisting the board search for new blood when Tollett's contract expired. Rather than reapply for his job, Tollett stepped down from the position in January.
Tollett, ever the dealmaker, views this week's events as an opening. And even though he has "no knowledge that they are even interested in me," he wants back in.
"Jordy wants the job back. Of course he does. He doesn't like the way everything went down when he lost his job," said Don Henderson, chairman emeritus of the board, who along with the current chairman Doug Horn, has been running the bureau's daily operations until a replacement is chosen.
"I was one of those guys that did not want to begin this search. I wanted Jordy Tollett to remain in the job. I lost that vote. So now it's a question of where do we go from here."
It doesn't sound like Mayor White is clamoring for the return of Tollett, which pretty much renders the speculation moot.
While it's always easy to write about the colorful Tollett, this seems more like a case of wishful thinking on Tollett's part than any sudden change of heart by the mayor who effectively removed him.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/07 10:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
Bolsover appraisals raise questions over abandonment process
Quite a bit of reporting has been done this week on two appraisals of the 2400 block of Bolsover in the Village area, a tract of land being sought for development by Lamesa Properties from the City of Houston. As reported by the Chronicle's Jennifer Friedberg, the City of Houston had previously opposed release of the information:
Houston city officials released the appraisal of the 2400 block of Bolsover on July 11, after attempting to exempt it from public disclosure.
The block has been valued at $913,171 and $1,460,340, respectively, in two different appraisals obtained by the city from independent appraisers.
Lamesa Properties is attempting to buy the street from the city to create a pedestrian plaza called Sonoma in the middle of a mixed-use condominium and retail development the developer plans to build in Rice Village.
The Houston Chronicle submitted a request for the appraisal documents on June 26. After receiving the Chronicle's request and those of several other interested parties, the city responded by submitting a letter, signed by Assistant City Attorney Rashaad V. Gambrell, on July 5 to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, saying the city believes the appraisal is excepted from public disclosure.
It cites section 552.105 of the Texas Code, stating information is excepted if it relates to "appraisals or purchase price of real or personal property for a public purpose prior to a formal award of contracts for the property."
Before the attorney general's office could make a ruling, however, the city released the appraisal documents..
Julie Tysor, vice president of the Appelt Co. and general partner of Lamesa, said she is pleased with the appraisal price.
"I got the appraisal documents at the same time everybody else did," Tysor said.
The city previously gave Lamesa an asking price, which has not been released to the public.
Wouldn't it have made sense to have the appraisal(s) before giving Lamesa a sale price?
More on the process momentarily. But first, let's turn back to Friedberg's reporting, which dives into the appraisal numbers in a way that may explain why city officials might have preferred less sunshine:
The first appraisal of $913,171, submitted by Vannessa Hendrickson, an appraiser for Jo Vann Appraisal Co., was dated May 2.
The value was based on a $35 per-square-foot pricing arrived at by considering the sales of four similar properties: the 3000 block of Milam Street in 2006 for $42.99 per square foot; the 6600 block of Harwin Street in 2005 for $22 per square foot; 1512 Alabama in 2004 for $40.19 per square foot; and 1919 Mason in 2004 for $38.50 per square foot.
The second appraisal of $1.4 million, submitted by appraiser Travis R. Cooper, was dated May 18.
The value was based on $60 per square foot pricing arrived at by considering the sales of three similar properties: 4020 U.S. 59 in 2006 for $69.79 per square foot; 4100 U.S. 59 in 2006 for $56.58 per square foot; and 3135 U.S. 59 in 2006 for $55.01 per square foot.
According to HAR.com, the Web site of the Houston Association of Realtors, the median price per square foot in nearby subdivisions, based on 2005 data for residential property, is $220.03 in West University Place, $203.05 in Southampton Place and $206.77 in Southampton Place Extension.
How interesting that a journalist used common sense to choose properties for evaluative purposes that seem much more similar than, say, 2400 Bolsover and 6600 Harwin. As Friedberg demonstrates convincingly, the properties chosen as "similar" for appraisal purposes really affect the bottom line!
When Matt Stiles posted on this topic during the week, one of his blog commenters made an interesting point:
A Half Million Dollar difference!
Now, let us see how prudent Mr. White is with City funds.
Remember, not long ago he wanted to kick MHMR off the West Dallas tract. All for the City coffers he said. Now that he's got these appraisals it will be interesting to see if the developers "bought off" the proper parties and gets the lower price.
Actually, as Friedberg's reporting illustrates, the "difference" in the two appraisals is a bit of a red herring, since both appraisals appear to undervalue significantly the property being considered. But the commenter's larger point is a good one: If Mayor White was willing to engage in a dubious financial shakedown of a nonprofit center that houses retarded people over the value of the property, then he certainly ought to be just as diligent (even more so!) in securing the very best possible price and improvements from Lamesa in exchange for the property at 2400 Bolsover.
Presumably, that should involve at least one appraisal that takes account of land values in the proximate area (rather than dissimilar strips of property along Harwin or the Southwest Freeway), and plenty of transparency and public discussion.
RELATED REPORTING: The selling of Bolsover Street: tale of two appraisals (Michael Reed, ExaminerNews.com), Bolsover cloak doesn't surprise reader (ExaminerNews.com), Why Bolsover’s true owners among last to know (Michael Reed, ExaminerNews.com).
BLOGVERSATION: Inside Central Houston.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/07 01:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
21 July 2007
METRO: "We just can't get it done" (cont'd)
KTRK-13's Katisha Cosley reports that Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee's recent meeting with METRO workers turned into a big gripe session over workplace safety and security:
In the past few days, two drivers have been attacked on their buses. One woman driver was raped. And as police look for who was responsible, some METRO drivers are sounding off.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee called a meeting with the Transport Workers Union to talk about security training with the drivers, but ended up getting an earful about their own safety concerns.
"The bus radio is a joke," said one driver.
"METRO needs to better equip these buses with cameras, so we can feel a little safer on buses," said another.
Another driver voiced her concern, saying, "I shouldn't have to sit there 40, 45 minutes waiting on METRO police to come to my aid."
One by one, METRO bus drivers took turns telling the congresswoman about safety flaws on their buses.
"I think it's appalling," said Jackson-Lee.
Several drivers who spoke said they've had their own run-ins with passengers before.
"It took about 14 minutes, 12- 14 minutes, for METRO police to get there," said a driver during the meeting. "We finally, in the process of struggling with him, had to call HPD."
METRO, whose PR spokesmen are usually quick to respond to criticism via their expensive (but little-read) blog and the traditional media, had no comment for KTRK:
We did talk to METRO police Friday and they said they aren't available for comment. However, they say they are trying out a new camera system. Right now, they have 10 cameras on 10 buses.
10 cameras on 10 buses (out of hundreds) and a slow-to-respond police force with a bumbling chief -- no wonder bus drivers are concerned after recent events!
KPRC-2 could not get a comment from METRO for their story either:
KPRC Local 2 called METRO several times on Friday for a response. The calls were not returned.
It all seems in line with our suggested new METRO motto: "We just can't get it done."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/21/07 02:40 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (10)
HISD: Sports stats protected private information under federal law (?!)
The Chronicle's Ericka Mellon reported earlier this week on a parent who is being denied access to student sports statistics by an HISD attorney who insists they are private information under federal law:
An attorney for the district informed Scott Rothenberg this week that federal law prohibits giving him documents showing the statistics of players on the Bellaire High baseball team.
"This is just ridiculous," said Rothenberg, a civil attorney. "I expect the people that we pay our taxes to to exercise some common sense in the application of these rules, and it seems like they're bound and determined not to."
An official with the U.S. Department of Education bolstered Rothenberg's claim Wednesday, saying athletes' statistics do not have to be kept confidential and are routinely released to the public.
Rothenberg filed a formal request with HISD in April, asking for all Bellaire baseball players' statistics, such as hits and home runs.
His son Daniel played at Bellaire before graduating in May; son Jared still plays and will be a senior this fall.
On Tuesday, Rothenberg received a letter from HISD attorney Chris Gilbert of the firm Bracewell & Giuliani, telling him the information is private under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
The law generally is viewed as covering students' educational records, such as grades and disciplinary history. HISD contends, however, that it also covers such records as how many hits a student-athlete got in a baseball game or how many touchdowns a player scored in a football game.
When I lived in Missouri, my undergraduate institution routinely tried to avoid releasing aggregate campus crime information (no doubt over concerns of the university's image). After the student newspaper won a federal court decision against the university -- the reasoning of which was decidedly critical of the university's arguments -- the university was forced to back down from its position.
The refusal to release sports statistics is an even more mind-boggling stance by a local educational institution. Here's hoping some grownup will resolve this one before it comes to the trouble and expense of a federal judge slapping down HISD. There surely must be better uses for HISD funds than this sort of legal activity.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/21/07 01:34 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
19 July 2007
Enrollment decline concerns UH officials
The Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue reports that University of Houston officials are concerned about recent attendance trends:
Fewer students are attending UH than three years ago. The enrollment slump is a growing concern among campus leaders, and the numbers raise questions about the effectiveness of efforts by the aspiring research institution to recruit and retain more students.
After peaking at 35,180 students in fall 2004, the university's enrollment has slipped by 2.4 percent. The 846-student decrease contrasts with 2 percent growth in enrollment statewide over the same period.
Some say the current size of the student body already is too big, placing considerable pressure on limited resources. But size matters, campus leaders say, because Texas funds colleges and universities using a formula based primarily on enrollment growth.
What's more, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has set a target of 36,346 students at UH by 2010 — an increase of about 2,000. The push is part of a statewide effort to promote greater enrollment in higher education, especially among Hispanics, the fastest-growing ethnic group in Texas.
Just a minor correction -- the University of Houston is a major doctoral granting research institution. North Texas (mentioned in the story) may be an aspiring research institution, but the University of Houston already IS such an institution. It's indicative of the difficulties UH faces that a story that gets so much right nevertheless gives the wrong impression about the institution.
UH certainly has problems of perception that work against it, not to mention the fact that it remains a commuter school (the story missed an opportunity to discuss Jay Gogue's efforts to remake the university into more of a residential campus, and the impact his departure may have on the plan). But the main issue it faces is one of funding -- the state's flagship institutions (A&M and UT) command the bulk of educational resources, and everyone else gets to fight over the scraps. The current plan of raising standards (and fees) may well have the short-term effect of hurting enrollment, but could have a payoff down the line. That's the choice UH officials have to make, since they don't have huge financial endowments at their disposal.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/07 10:40 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Local color on Lower Westheimer
The Chronicle has posted a nice story by Ashley Harris on the (walkable!) shops of lower Westheimer:
Buffalo Exchange is one of a cluster of resale or vintage product shops on lower Westheimer.
The grouping helps draw buyers and sellers to the stores, some of which have operated for as long as 15 years.
"I come here because it has a lot of nowadays fashions that are really trendy and not that expensive," said Hultman, 15, a student from Cypress.
"I don't mind traveling out here to get what I want because it's the only one in town."
Besides customers like Hultman looking for bargains, the area also draws people in the market for something exotic, perhaps white linen men's Prada shoes from Leopard Lounge or the Big Boy statue outside Flashback Funtiques.
The shops, nestled among tattoo parlors, where burly men sport colorful sleeves of body art, and small clothing boutiques, rely on a central location with a Bohemian reputation.
Bill Howard, owner of Flashback Funtiques, said he benefits from that. "Being on Westheimer, you don't have to pay for advertising."
That must be one of those parts of Houston that "urbanist" Andres Duany missed while he was in town visiting fellow elites and complaining about Houston's faults.
Then again, it may be hard to see all that Houston has to offer when your destinations are 801 Texas Avenue and the residence of Peter Brown, Architect.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/07 10:13 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
18 July 2007
HPOU publication endorses CompStat; Hurtt repeats 2005 rhetoric
Back in May, Alan Helfman, Jay Wall, and William A Wolff penned a Chronicle op-ed making the case for CompStat, the statistical tool for fighting crime employed by William Bratton when he was police chief in New York (and now in LA).
In the June/July issue of Badge & Gun, the publication of the Houston Police Officers' Union, Helfman, et al., again make the case for CompStat in Houston (no online version is available yet). The Badge & Gun editorial page also endorses the concept:
In today's Houston, law-abiding citizens experience nothing but frustration when they want the latest crime statistics. As the trio of writers pointed out, they take almost six weeks to reach Hurtt's desk. In a communications age as sophisticated as ours, information becomes outdated and as stale as last week's bread loaf. How then can it be effectively used? We know the answer: It can't.
With CompStat, NYPD's website (check out www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/) shows crime precinct by precinct and allows crime complaint data to be examined on a week-to-date, prior 30 days and year-to-date basis, with comparison to previous years' activity. New York Blue is able to establish crime trends and commit to the ways and means needed to fight them.
Houston needs to refine and re-establish its methods for capturing crime statistics and build a system as unique and effective to Houston as CompStat is in the Big Apple.
Chief Hurtt, who previously pooh-poohed the CompStat notion, visited with the Chronicle editorial board recently. Here is his preferred approach to crime:
In a presentation to the Chronicle editorial board Monday, Hurtt outlined initiatives he believes will improve the department and help bring down crime rates in the city. One of them hinges on building a state of the art records management system to get and share data essential for good law enforcement decisions.
Violent crime continues to be a major problem, though it is declining from last year's high pace. According to Hurtt, burglaries of homes and motor vehicles are a major concern of the public, but one that citizens can combat through common sense preventive measures. He described one community meeting where residents complained about car break-ins. In a demonstration, officers checked the attendees' parked vehicles and found that 70 percent were either unlocked, had valuables visible or had other vulnerabilities that would attract and enable burglars.According to Hurtt, the best defense against such crimes is a mobilized community with members looking out for one another. "That seems to be missing somehow here," he said.
So, is Chief Hurtt now endorsing CompStat or not?
Because while the first quoted paragraph is promising, the last paragraph sounds a lot like Chief Hurtt circa 2005, when he effectively announced to Houstonians: "Good luck protecting yourselves!" (and crime continued to surge).
Our catty side can't help but wonder if his notion of a "mobilized community" is one that flees to Phoenix on the weekends (and if any Chron editorial board member was bold enough to ask).
RECENT: Burglary rates in Houston on the rise (Jeff McShan, KHOU-11 News), KTRK: Good news on crime (blogHOUSTON).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/07 11:59 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (17)
HBJ: Muni channel undergoing changes
The Houston Business Journal's Christine Hall reports on several changes coming to the municipal channel currently seen on Houston cable television:
The Municipal Channel, broadcasting on Comcast channel 16, has renamed itself HTV-Houston Television as part of a push to get the station in front of the mainstream audience.
The station's rebranding includes a new logo, graphics, tagline -- "Where Houston Watches and Change Happens" -- and new promotional programming aside from its live coverage of city council and mayoral press conferences.
[snip]
New programming includes "Eye on Houston -- Where Community Begins," a Frontline-type documentary show; two shows that will follow fire and police cadets: "Firehouse Houston," in partnership with the Houston Fire Department; and "Academy 193," with the Houston Police Department; and a continuation of the station's history show, "Houston As We Know It."
[snip]
HTV will also bring its programming to the World Wide Web -- streaming on the Internet later this year.
While it's another overdue technological development, web streaming will be nice, especially since the municipal channel isn't available on Dish Network (to which I subscribed after just a few days of bad Comcast cable TV service). We do need to keep up with President Joseph Charles, after all!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/07 10:52 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)
Express-News notes Miles shooting, neglects Ninja copper thieves angle
The editorial board of the Hearst-owned San Antonio Express-News takes aim at one Borris Miles over his shooting incident and opposition to recent "Castle doctrine" legislation:
The Senate passed the new law by a vote of 30-0. The House followed with a 133-13 approval.
One of the 13 opponents of the castle doctrine in Texas was Rep. Borris Miles, D-Houston. Miles was inspecting the construction site of his new house last week when he heard some noises downstairs. When he went to investigate, he discovered two men trying to steal copper from the work site.An altercation ensued during which, according to the Houston Chronicle, one of the thieves threw a pocketknife at Miles. The lawmaker, who has a concealed weapon permit, opened fire. One of the pilferers received a non-life-threatening wound.
The news accounts don't seem to suggest Miles made any effort to retreat from the dangerous situation. A jury of his peers would surely judge that Miles, fearing for his safety, acted in a reasonable way. The law that Miles voted against will erase any ambiguity.
An old saw suggests that a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality.
With regard to the castle doctrine, perhaps Miles will now agree with 163 of his legislative colleagues.
Will the local Hearst daily's Editorial LiveJournalists have anything to say about this?
Stay tuned, as the cool bloggers like to say.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/07 10:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Sunshine: Searchable muni campaign finance database launches
As the Chronicle reported yesterday, Houston has officially moved to electronic campaign finance reporting for municipal elections (thanks in large part to one Chronicle reporter's efforts to move the city into the computer age).
Today, people have already begun to analyze the campaign finance reporting for items of interest.
For example, Matt Stiles reports the following today:
Two council members spent more than $100,000 from campaign accounts to pay legal bills related to an ongoing investigation by the Harris County District Attorney's office, records show.
Since January, council members Carol Alvarado and Michael Berry have paid lawyers $70,000 and $45,000, respectively, according to campaign filings made public Monday.
Berry and Alvarado, both of whom declined comment Tuesday, have been subjects of a broad inquiry into city officials and practices launched by District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal's office last year.
Rosenthal also declined comment, referring calls to a prosecutor in charge of the probe who was out of town Tuesday.
And Douglas Britt reports on Chron.com's East End blog that one Council candidate may have tipped a Tejano Democrats endorsement his way by buying memberships for supporters:
By my math, [James Rodriquez' report] shows $400 of expenditures spent on Tejano Democrats memberships in mid-June, right around the time eligibility to vote on endorsements was winding town.
To double-check my numbers, pull up Rodriguez' report and do a search on "Tejano."
Here's what I found:
Two entries for a $25 "HCTD membership pd by Nick Hellyar and will be reimbursed" dated June 14.
One entry for $225 toward "HCTD memberships pd by Joe Alanis and reimbursed" dated June 16.
One entry for $125 toward "HCTD memberships pd by Cathy De La Cruz and reimbursed" dated June 16.
That adds up to $400 in Tejano Demcrats memberships, which cost $25 apiece for regular members and $10 for students.
At a minimum, $400 would buy 16 memberships -- more if some of the members were students.
Rodriguez won by 12 votes.
Feel free to offer your thoughts on both matters in the comments.
I'll just conclude with, sunshine is great.
BLOGVERSATION: NewsWatch: City Hall, Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/07 04:34 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Houston area getting more Homeland Security funds
Anne Maria Kilday and Matt Stiles have the story for the Chronicle:
The federal government will boost anti-terrorism funding for the Houston area this year by about 50 percent, providing $25 million locally, officials were scheduled to announce today.
[snip]
"Between the Port of Houston, chemical and oil industries and the fact that Houston is one of the nation's largest cities, I am very pleased the (agency) increased the amount of money for the city since last year," said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, whose district includes much of west Harris County.
[snip]
The city of Houston received roughly $8 million in such grant money last year, and spent it completing a study on how to make emergency radios operable with other entities such as Harris County.
The money bought the first stages of a video-monitoring safety program designed to pipe camera feeds from roadways and other public locations to a central command center for monitoring.
In past years, the city used the money for a police helicopter, patrol car computers and suits to protect first responders from a chemical attack.
Dennis Storemski, who directs Mayor Bill White's homeland security office, said this year's funds would help buy a radio tower, more camera infrastructure and staffers at a new intelligence "fusion" center where databases from various law enforcement agencies can be analyzed.
KHOU-11 previously reported on HPD's outdated emergency radio system, when it discovered a taxpayer-funded study the city had not released to the public. The 2003 study noted that the city's aging analog radio system was inadequate and needed replacing at a cost of $150 million. Using Homeland Security funds to purchase a new radio tower would seem to check one item off that list.
It's been a while since we've heard anything more on where the city stands regarding the purchase of the (much-needed) digital emergency radio system, a system the county already has in place, but it should definitely be one of the city's top priorities.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/18/07 04:14 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
17 July 2007
City and Metro sales tax revenue up four percent again
It is sales tax-reporting time:
As part of the July disbursement of sales tax allocations, Houston received $36.3 million, up from $34.85 million a year ago -- a 4.1 percent increase. But Sugar Land saw its allocation fall by 1.67 percent to $2.8 million from $2.84 million last time.
Very disappointing, folks! I thought last month's four percent increase was an aberration. After all, we've seen much more robust performances; for example, April was a fine month, with a thirteen percent increase for the City of Houston.
And what's up with you Sugar Landers (Landians?), anyway? No wonder your city is having to install red light cameras to drum up some revenue.
According to this handy link HBJ provided, we can see that Metro's allocation was also a paltry four percent. Shoot. These days Metro really needs to stockpile funds for new rail lines. Thankfully, back-to-school spending is right around the corner, except that some people will insist on taking advantage of the sales tax holiday weekend (which this year includes backpacks -- woo!).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/17/07 02:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
16 July 2007
Blog Interview: Mike McGuff visits with Ken Hoffman
KTRK's Mike McGuff scored a lengthy interview with Chronicle columnist (and future KILE radio personality) Ken Hoffman, and has posted it to his blog.
Hoffman carries on about local TV weathermen, his new radio show, Michael Berry's intro song, and more.
Check it out.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/07 10:17 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (12)
Mack: Just say no to the World-Class-pursuing Houtopians
Kristen Mack's Friday column was an entertaining read.
Although a friend of ours is right to suggest the lede could use some editing (newspaper columns really should not begin with contractions), the conclusion sounded familiar:
[P]eople who try too hard or politicians that desperately strive to make Houston "world class" are just plain tiresome.
Houston may never be a tourist city, but it is a fine city with occasional self-esteem issues (and a handful of busybodies who think one more mall or one more hotel or even apartments on top of a CVS Pharmacy remake Houston).
Here's hoping that eventually shuttling back and forth between the Pavilions and Discovery Green will help some of the busybodies take more pride in their already-world-class city!
BLOGVERSATION: The County Seat.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/07 10:06 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Diversity is beauty, METRO edition
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports that diversity is somewhat lacking at METRO, but that President and CEO Frank Wilson is working on the problem:
In 2005, the most recent estimate available, Hispanics made up 30 percent of the area population, but they still are just 16 percent of Metro's work force.
In 2003, the Houston Chronicle reported the Hispanic work force at Metro, then 14.6 percent, had risen by less than 1 percentage point in the previous decade.
In the three years since President and CEO Frank Wilson was hired, it has risen by 1.2 points, and more Hispanics have penetrated the upper job levels.
The hiring gap is notably larger in Metro's work force than in those of the city of Houston (21 percent Hispanic), Harris County (20 percent) or the Houston Independent School District (22 percent.)
[snip]
[Janie Palomo] Reyes and others said they do not think hostility or discrimination against Hispanics is a problem at Metro. The work force is 60 percent black; that rises to 80 percent among the ranks of bus and light rail operators.
[snip]
"We have an obligation, not only to get the best talent we can find, but to make sure it reflects a good, diverse mix of people," he said. "That's what we're held accountable for when we contract with our vendors and suppliers, and that's what we hold ourselves accountable to."
Metro's new human resources director, Helen Cavazos, said the agency's priority is to increase the number of Hispanics in its work force. The question is how.
"We had 250 spots open for operators (drivers)," Wilson said. "I told HR and operations that they could not hire anybody but women and Hispanics until we righted the imbalance, or at least we had to make a good-faith effort to do so.
"We advertised in the newspaper and on the radio. We went to every job fair. We created job fairs. We went on Spanish-speaking television. Finally, they came back to me and said, 'Frank, we just can't get it done.' "
It took a few seconds to absorb President Wilson's hiring edict. Once we moved on, we decided that "We just can't get it done" seems like an appropriate motto for the regional transit organization.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, The County Seat.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/07 09:25 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
13 July 2007
Slow blogging...
This doesn't happen very often, but things might be a little slow around here, as Kevin is already off on a (long) weekend adventure, and I'll soon be heading off on a (long) weekend adventure.
Y'all enjoy whatever weekend adventures you have planned, and see you soon!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/13/07 01:11 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (9)
The Seven Wonders of Houston?
Claudia Feldman has written a piece today for the Chron, listing the Chronicle's picks for Houston's Seven Wonders:
The Astrodome, 8400 Kirby
Beer Can House, 222 Malone
Houston Ship Channel
Interstate 10 and Beltway 8 interchange
Menil compound, the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Sul Ross and Branard
Saturn V rocket at the Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway
Quan Am sculpture, 10002 Synott Road
What do you think? Like some of the comments on the Chron's story, we are perplexed at a couple of the choices. A freeway interchange? Really?
I think the Williams Tower and Waterwall should be considered for the list. What about the tunnels? And can we throw in an honorable mention for any of sculptor David Adickes' works? Feel free to offer your thoughts and suggestions in the forum.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/13/07 08:08 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (22)
12 July 2007
Mayor and Council excel at regulating, fail at implementing
Remember last fall when Mayor White, (temporarily not mayor pro tem) Carol Alvarado, and the rest of City Council beat their collective chest and passed an expanded (but with exemptions) smoking ban?
Yeah, well, it's almost time for the law to go into effect, and you'll be so surprised to learn that the city isn't ready to handle the exemptions:
At his family-run bar in downtown Houston, Mike Shapiro relies on a strong base of cigar smoking customers. So ever since the city passed the no-smoking ordinance, he's been trying to apply for the cigar bar exemption.
"I tried going down there to find out when I can apply, and all you get is a run-around," he said "They're not ready. Well, we're in the middle of July and they're still not ready."
Even though the ordinance passed last fall, the health department still hasn't come up with a permitting process.
"Is this a little late?" we asked Kathy Barton with the Houston Health Department.
"I'm a little disappointed this didn't happen quicker, but it is a small staff over there that works on such an operation," she said.
But no worries because the small staff has things under control:
Barton says staffers are working on a preliminary list of eight possible cigar bars they found from an article on the Internet, including Bossa, Downing Street and Crofts. But we found the list not very reliable. One of these so called cigar bars even isn't in operation. Paesanos shut down more than a year ago. It's now called Shadow Bar.
Or maybe not so under control. Meanwhile, Councilwoman Alvarado, who had this big idea in the first place, is on top of the situation:
"They need to get busy on that," said Houston Councilmember Carol Alvarado. "I had hoped they would have had that worked out."
Outstanding! Her management skills are still in top form, as we can see.
So let's recap: Mayor and Council enact a new ordinance, leaving all the pesky details to some overworked, understaffed city department. And no one bothers to check periodically on the process of ensuring a smooth implementation.
The problem is, Houston has a history of not being ready when new regulations go into effect.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: City Council suffers from Pass-a-Law Syndrome
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/12/07 09:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Local Ethiopian group complains about science exhibit
The Chronicle's Cynthia Leonor Garza reports that one group of Houstonians is critical of the fast-approaching Lucy fossil exhibit:
Don't count on too many local Ethiopians getting in line to see Lucy, the superstar fossil from Ethiopia, when she makes her international public debut in Houston in late August.
The Ethiopian Community Organization in Houston recently announced its position against the Houston Museum of Natural Science planned exhibit of the 3.2-million-year-old hominid.
The group blames museum officials and the Ethiopian government for what it says is a politically insensitive and profit-driven decision that could damage the fragile fossil during its trek to America. Museum officials and other exhibit supporters, however, said bringing Lucy to the U.S. is about cultural exchange — not politics.
"We have to be able to differentiate bad government and good government — government that has engaged in massacre, illegal election fraud, imprisoning people," said Dula Abdu, one of the group's board members. "As an institution, it would have been unheard-of for them to do business with the Khmer Rouge or Hitler or Mussolini."
Museum officials defended their decision, saying their job is to display artifacts for the public. The country's current political state is beyond the exhibit's scope, said museum president Joel Bartsch.
Whatever the objections to the current government of Ethiopia, the Lucy exhibit truly is a coup for Houston (no pun intended). The Houston Museum of Natural Science exhibit will run from August 31 to April 20. Advance tickets are available on the museum website.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/12/07 09:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
11 July 2007
Don't worry, trust METRO (or not)
KHOU-11's Jason Whitely reports that a private firm hired by the Texas Medical Center has found worrisome stray current levels related to METRO's Main Street light-rail line:
In an eight page executive summary of a report prepared by Corrpro for the Texas Medical Center, and reviewed by 11 News, experts discovered worrisome levels of stray current in the foundation walls of the Meyer Building, part of Texas Children’s Hospital, and the Thermal Energy Corporation’s piping system, which supplies water to the all of the hospitals and medical buildings.
Corrpro said these two facilities “had stray current effects sufficient to warrant continued surveillance to detect and respond to possible increases.”
Electricity can corrode the steel rebar enveloped in concrete which is used in foundations and over time could eventually compromise structures.
Inconsequential effects of the leaking current from the light rail line were found at Methodist Hospital, UT Medical School, St. Luke’s Medical Tower, Memorial Hermann Professional Building, Fannin Holcombe Garage, Ben Taub Hospital and Parking Lot E of the Meyer Building.
No stray current was detected in other areas at Texas Children’s Hospital, Memorial Hermann Hospital and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Prevention Center.
Over time, corrosion experts said, all of these facilities could see stray current levels increase.
“Transit system rail stray currents tend to increase as the system ages,” the report stated. Corrpro said the Texas Medical Center “should expect to continue a monitoring program for the life of the rail system.”
METRO's response, as reported by Whitely, is that only a few testing locations had stray current issues that warranted any concern whatsoever.
Previously, METRO's PR representative had assured that the problem posed no more concern than a nine-volt battery, an assessment apparently not shared by the professional engineers hired by the Medical Center to perform independent testing.
UPDATE: The Chronicle posts a catch-up story by Rad Sallee on the topic. The Froot Loops editor must have departed for the day, letting the actual news staff swing into action.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/11/07 12:20 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
10 July 2007
Local state rep takes on Houston Mutant Ninja Copper Thieves!
On Sunday, State Rep. Borris Miles shot one of two apparent thieves at his under-construction mansion on MacGregor and Scott. We've been hesitant to comment on the news, as the story seemed still to be "evolving" (as the newsies like to say) yesterday. Today, the Chronicle ran this fairly comprehensive account from reporters Kevin Moran and Kristen Mack:
A Pasadena man who was shot and wounded Sunday by State Rep. Borris Miles at his Third Ward home under construction is in custody.
Bruce Anthony Toler, 55, was charged Monday with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He remains at the Harris County Jail with bail set at $30,000.Miles found water problems about 6:15 p.m. when he stopped by the construction site in the 3700 block of South MacGregor Way. He left to change clothes, then returned about two hours later to clean up the water, said Donald Fields, the representative's spokesman.
While upstairs, Miles heard noises and went downstairs to investigate, a Houston Police Department spokesman said. Fields said Miles saw two men cutting and stripping pipes in an attempt to steal the copper.
"He (Miles) yelled at them and one threw a small pocketknife," HPD spokesman Victor Senties said. Miles pulled his pistol and shot the man in the lower left leg, Senties said.
What a bizarre story. Various accounts (KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KPRC-2, earlier Chron, AP, Miles press release via Isiah Carey) had Miles heading to his under-construction property to do plumbing (odd, but maybe he's just really emotionally attached to his huge new mansion and doesn't trust his contractors to get things right), had the thieves after copper wire or after copper pipes that they were "stripping" (whatever that means), had Miles leaving and returning to the property (but NOT, as his spokesman said, to "leave and retrieve a gun"), only to be surprised by a pocketknife-throwing bad guy (Houston Mutant Ninja Copper Thieves, anyone?). Definitely an odd tale.
But hey, in Texas, a man's home is his castle (literally a castle, in this case!), so probably not many people are going to question if Miles followed the relevant laws to the letter in this instance (or instead went looking for trouble to teach a lesson). And the state representative had the good sense not to issue a press release along the lines of, "Everyone knows HPD is too short on manpower to deal with these sorts of problems, so I decided to deter future thieves by breaking out a little whoop-ass." That wouldn't be politically prudent.
Even so, that was sort of the message conveyed. We hope it will deter any other members of the Houston Mutant Ninja Copper Thieves! Let them move on to Dallas.
BLOGVERSATION: Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee, Lone Star Times, Red Ink: Texas, Greg's Opinion, Off the Kuff, Texas Rainmaker, ABC-13 Political Blog, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/10/07 10:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (29)
09 July 2007
Pushing aside the poor for the New Urbanist's dream community
Following up on yesterday's Chronicle editorial extolling the great vision of New Urban planner Andres Duany, the Chron's Mike Snyder has a story detailing what Duany has been doing in Houston (designing three projects), and more on what Duany thinks Houston needs to do to stay relevant.
A funny thing happened in the story, though. Thanks to Mike Snyder's fine reporting, a little bit of truth leaked out:
It's unclear, however, whether residents of the Fifth Ward — still a predominantly poor area — will be able to afford to live in the project Duany designed. New Urbanist projects have a reputation for high costs, and Duany, in his meeting with the Chronicle editorial board, said the only way he could reduce costs would be to compromise on the quality of his design.
How un-diverse! So Duany and his fellow planning enthusiasts want to create high-end neighborhoods. But where will the poor go when they are pushed out to make way for Duany's new developments?
Providing affordable housing, Duany said, is chiefly the responsibility of the federal and local governments rather than developers. His projects for Liu will include garage apartments, with some houses, which will provide an affordable rental unit as well as generating income that owners can apply to their mortgage payments.
No, it is absolutely not the responsibility of government to provide affordable housing! Government already sticks its nose in all kinds of places it doesn't belong and often makes things worse in the process. All around Houston developers are building affordable housing, sometimes even in those (gasp!) suburbs Duany so abhors.
Duany, 57, acknowledged that the style of living he prefers, and that his developments provide, need not be everyone's choice. His first book, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, written with his wife and a colleague from his firm, focused largely on his ideas for better design in the suburbs.
And even though he found much of the development in Houston appalling, Duany said he found its people to be friendly and unpretentious.
"I really like Houstonians," he said, "but I could never live in Houston."
Thank goodness. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/09/07 08:33 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
Breaking news you CAN get elsewhere (07-09-2007 edition)
The weekend is over, but the Chronicle city desk isn't quite back to full speed this morning. Fortunately, the Chron.com Froot Loops bureau has things covered:
A man was shot after he and an accomplice tried to steal building supplies from the home of State Rep. Boris Miles in southeast Houston on Sunday night, according to televised reports by KTRK (Channel 13)
Authorities gave a reporter this account: The representative was working at his home that is under construction on South MacGregor and Scott about 7:30 when he had a noise in the structure.
Miles, who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun, went to inspect the home when he discovered two men inside.
He opened fire at the suspects, after one of the men allegedly threw a knife at him.
One man was wounded and taken to the hospital. The other was arrested. No charges are expected against Miles.
Way to stay on top of the TV news there, guys!
UPDATE: Two hours after the Froot Loops story first posted, the Chronicle actually has replaced it with a version by reporter Kevin Moran. It's not clear why the Froot Loops versions of these stories continue to appear in the first place. All it does is make the Chron city desk look silly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/09/07 07:34 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
08 July 2007
Is Lee Brown in charge of this bank also?
Here's some news courtesy of KPRC-2 that might concern people who bank with the Harris County Federal Credit Union:
More than $100,000 disappeared as it was being transferred from a credit union to an ATM, but thanks to a couple of Good Samaritans, the money was returned within 15 minutes, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.
The money was supposed to be delivered to Harris County Federal Credit Union ATMs around the country.
But Harris County sheriff's deputies said the six boxes of cash fell off the back of a pickup truck when they were being transferred by two off-duty Houston police officers.
The officers realized the money was gone when they arrived at the courthouse annex on Wallisville Road.
Authorities said two men found the cash while driving on Normandy Drive and picked it up. Because the boxes were engraved with Harris County Federal Credit Union and the address, the men returned it to the rightful owners within 15 minutes, officials said.
"The money rolled out," said Susan Roberts, the credit union president.
"You think that's a good way to transport money?" KPRC Local 2 reporter Elizabeth Scarborough asked.
"Well, ma'am, it falls out of armored cars, too," Roberts said. "The money is fully insured."
Yeah, money falls out of armored cars all of the time. And it's smart for banking establishments to send out a hundred grand at a time with two guys in a pickup truck. Right!
Is Lee Brown now running this banking establishment also?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/08/07 08:12 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
Metro: adding bus service and hiding new maps
Finally! A Metro service improvement than might actually be considered an improvement:
METRO’s August service changes include 14 more local trips on routes that include the 1 Hospital and 85 Antoine, and one new commuter trip on the 221 Kingsland. In total, METRO is adding more than 78 hours each weekday that its buses will be on the street.
It's a small step, but it's a step, one that hopefully signals a rethinking of priorities inside the Lee P. Brown Administration Building.
We also learn that while light rail is Metro's transit backbone, bus service "is the heartbeat of our business,” [Metro President Frank] Wilson said. “We’ll continue to expand and improve that service as this region grows and prospers.” Yeah, well, "continue to expand and improve" are not the best choice of words. After several years of nothing but cuts in bus service, Metro might need a heart transplant.
Then Metro's blogger Mary Sit announced that Metro has a new system map. There's just one little problem:
Those of you who have seen our new system map, now available at our RideStores (behind the counter - you have to ask for one), will see some welcomed changes.
Ha! That's the funniest paragraph we've read in a long time. Unfortunately, she wasn't trying to be funny. Typical Metro.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/08/07 05:05 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Marketing Houston: Breakfast Klub goes on the road
The Chronicle's David Kaplan checks in on the latest efforts to market Houston in New York:
Bureau officials hoped that along with all the other attractions Houston has to offer, having [Marcus] Davis and his staff dishing out Breakfast Klub fare would help dispel such notions.
And so on a wing and a waffle, they flew to the Big Apple.
The theme of the party was "Bringing the soul of Houston to the heart of New York."
The invitation tugged even harder at the Houston-New York connection, noting that "The marriage of wings and waffles has deep roots in New York City dating back to 1938" when the Wells Supper Club in Harlem began serving chicken and waffles as an after-concert meal.
Held at Penthouse 15, a reception hall in Manhattan's Garment District, the event also featured jazz performed by four musicians trained at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts who are now working in New York.
Served along with wings and waffles were strawberry-basil margaritas made from a recipe borrowed from the Volcano, a Rice Village-area bar.
A highlight of the night was a welcoming talk by Davis, who runs the Midtown-area Breakfast Klub with his wife, Mel Davis, and brothers Tony and Jerry Davis.
He spoke of how the Houston Breakfast Klub and the Harlem Wells Supper Club of old share a chicken-and-waffle connection and how this kind of food is able to transcend cultures and bring people together as it does in his restaurant.
A wings and waffle-themed event makes sense because it plays against the Houston stereotype, said John Keeling, senior vice president of PKF, a hotel consulting firm.
"Outsiders think they know Houston, but they don't," he said, "and what they think they know, they don't like.
Houston can't compete with first-tier convention cities Orlando, New York, San Diego, Anaheim, Chicago and Las Vegas, but it can hold its own against its second-tier rivals San Antonio, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Washington, Denver and Seattle, Keeling said.
Although Houston has nice convention facilities, as a tourist destination it probably isn't as appealing to most people as San Antonio, Miami, Seattle, Denver, or Washington. But certainly Houston should be able to compete for scraps in that second tier, along with Dallas and Atlanta.
And that's fine with me. Houston has a lot to offer the people who choose to live here. It's not the end of the world (for me, anyway) if Houston will never, ever be a major convention player.
What say you?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/08/07 02:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Utopians redefine diversity
It's another weekend of urban planning opinion pieces in the Chronicle, including a LiveJournalist editorial on the topic. The headline alone is problematic:
Diverse design
Houston can offer a choice: affordable suburbs and high commuting costs, or improved urban living
How is something diverse if it's an either/or proposition? The correct headline would replace "or" with "and." Not everyone fits into the cookie-cutter mold of wanting to live in a highly urbanized area, and that's what makes Houston so vibrant and energetic. There is growth in the Greater Houston area precisely because we have so many choices.
The LiveJournalists approvingly cite urban planner Andres Duany who spoke to city elites last week about the wonders of New Urbanism:
For Duany, in Houston to coordinate the planning and design of three residential and mixed use projects, diversity is the highest value: diverse designs and land uses combined in a walkable, urban village.
He warns that the worst development danger is the monoculture housing subdivisions that mark the city's periphery. Building hundreds of houses with similar styles and prices that appeal to young parents inevitably causes blight when the style — not chosen to stand the test of time — goes out of fashion and the neighborhood's value declines as its residents age and grow resentful of their lot.
Another mistake was for Houstonians to build their neighborhoods distant from their jobs and their shopping needs. The result is low density but high congestion because nothing can be accomplished without a car.
The arrangement, Duany told a lecture audience at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is highly unfair to the 50 percent of Houstonians who are too young, too old or too poor to drive.
Better planning and design, which the market is beginning to offer in the central city, would at once reduce automobile use, congestion, human stress and the high cost of transportation, a minimum of about $9,000 per car per year.
All that Duany promotes is anti-diversity. Duany, Councilmember Peter Brown, and the Chron's editorial board want to take away diversity by taking away living choices. Right now the market -- not the government -- is responding to the many different wants of consumers: suburban housing, townhomes, city lofts, inside the Loop, outside the Loop, etc. That's diversity.
And Duany seems to blame suburbanists for the plight of the urban poor. Nice try, but don't blame folks who moved away to find a better living environment. Dig a little deeper to figure out why people moved to the suburbs, and go from there.
As for Duany's concerns about automobile use and congestion, there is no way most Americans will give up their cars. Period. With our cars, we have the freedom to go where we want, when we want. However, there are things Metro and TxDOT could do to make a public transit commute more inviting: (1) Instead of expanding freeways out, expand them up. Isn't that what urbanists want us to do anyway, go up, not out? Make I-45 and I-10 double-decker freeways which would create plenty of room for HOT lanes, express bus lanes, and commuter rail lines; (2) make Metro think smarter and plan better: Have commuter rail link up to a downtown transit center where buses and trolleys would meet commuters to take them to their final destination.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: This statement from the elitist/urbanist Duany caught my eye:
Another mistake was for Houstonians to build their neighborhoods distant from their jobs and their shopping needs.
That's all well and good, but one of the benefits of not having zoning is that shops and restaurants and such have been free to spring up in neighborhoods in accordance with market demands (you know, responding to people who live in the neighborhoods, rather than the sorts of all-knowing elitists who gather at cocktail parties with Architect Peter Brown). In my view, it's not a bad thing to live in a city where market demand can drive amenities -- and so CVS can move quickly to build a pharmacy in a developing part of Midtown that is desperately short on amenities, instead of being denied a building permit because some planning bureaucrat might prefer that CVS Pharmacy get into the apartment construction/rental business!
That observation from Duany suggests he doesn't understand Houston very well.
BLOGVERSATION: Did Peter Brown Plan This? (Miya Shay's Political Blog)
RELATED: Five good reasons why quality of life is the issue here, by Ed Wulfe and Richard Weekley (Chronicle Outlook)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/08/07 01:26 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (21)
07 July 2007
Angel-McIver cited for Astroworld hay meadow
The Chronicle's Christina Wright reports that the site of a one-time attraction has become an eyesore:
For many Houstonians, AstroWorld was a place of fun and memories. Now, the 104 acres that once were home to the Serial Thriller, the Dungeon Drop and the Texas Cyclone have been replaced with 3-foot weeds, grass and unkempt shrubbery.
This week, the city gave the owners 30 days to clean up the former AstroWorld location or possibly face fines up to $1,500 as well as a cleanup bill.
Angel-McIver Interests, a Conroe-based land development company, bought the site for $77 million in 2005 from Six Flags Inc. when the property value rose and attendance began declining.
"It's been too wet to mow," said Michael McIver, president of Angel-McIver. "As soon as the weather clears up, we will mow it." He added that the property has been mowed twice since his company bought it.
This week, an inspector from the Houston Police Department's Neighborhood Protection Corps left a notice on the north entrance fence that said the owners are in violation of the "neighborhood nuisances" article in the city's Code of Ordinances.
The code exists to keep up appearances but, most importantly, to keep pests away, according to Jodi Silva, a spokeswoman for the corps.
"When you have high weeds, you are making a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and snakes can live in there, and rats," she said. "It's just a potential health hazard."
Private property owners are required by the city to keep grass or weeds to 9 inches or less and remove any obstructions of the sidewalks and streets bordering the property.
Angel-McIver has mowed the place twice since 2005? Wow, line them up for a corporate good citizenship award!
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/07/07 11:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
KTRK: Good news on crime
KTRK-13 ran a story by Andy Cerota a couple of nights ago with some rare good news about Houston crime:
There's some good news to report about violent crime in the city of Houston. All arrows are pointing down for the first time in a long time.
Here's what we found out when comparing the first five months of 2007 to the first five months of last year. Murders are down nearly 13 percent. Rape is down at more than 33 percent. Robbery is down 6.6 percent. And aggravated assault is down nearly 4 percent.
Overall, violent crime in Houston is down more than six percent.
2006 isn't necessarily the best benchmark, given just how bad violent crime was in Houston last year, but at least the indicators are headed in the right direction.
I contacted KTRK to try and get the raw numbers, which are more useful for purposes of comparison/analysis. I'll add them to this post if/when I receive them.
OTHER RESOURCES: Chron.com's Homicide Watch.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/07/07 01:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
05 July 2007
KTRK's Marvin Zindler diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
Tonight's KTRK-13 news broadcast had some unfortunate news from Marvin Zindler:
We have some sobering news about a member of our Eyewitness News family. Action 13's Marvin Zindler has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
He's been a member of our family for nearly 35 years and in all those years, he's been totally open with all of us about his surgeries, from open heart surgery to cosmetic procedures. And this evening, he wants to share his latest battle with you, too. Below is text and video of what Marvin had to say from his hospital room on Thursday.
Check out Marvin's message on the KTRK-13 website, where you can also leave a message for Marvin if you're so inclined.
UPDATE (07-07-2007): Commenter FilioScotia just left a great comment about Marvin and his impact on Houston. Be sure to give it a read.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/07 09:13 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron: Some at-grade rail is kind of dangerous
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee today describes some of Houston's dangerous at-grade rail crossings. Here's an excerpt:
Roughly half of the nearly 1,800 at-grade, or street-level, crossings in the Houston area, like the East Archer location where the teens died June 14, have only "passive" safety devices that are not train-activated. These include "stop," "yield" or "crossing ahead" signs, pavement markings and street lighting.
There are 25 crossings in the Texas Department of Transportation's six-county Houston District that federal officials have approved for "active" signalization — flashing lights and crossing arms.
[snip]
Four other crossings, all near downtown Houston, are recommended for closing.
In addition, TxDOT has recommended 12 other crossings in the Houston district for upgrades. If approved, these likely would be completed by late 2009, Gbur said.
Railroads consider at-grade crossings "an opportunity for something bad to happen" and applaud their elimination, Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Joe Arbona said.
[snip]
Arbona noted that installing flashing signals at an at-grade crossing cannot guarantee safety as long as some drivers ignore the warnings.
"More than half of accidents happen at places where you have signal lights," he said.
However, a driver has to go to some trouble to crash through a crossing arm or deliberately go around it. All 25 of the approved upgrades call for gate arms.
As Laurence Simon observed earlier, there's a rather notable omission in this story about the dangers of at-grade rail crossings that have only minimal, "passive" safety devices: The story does not once mention the fact that most of METRO's light rail is at-grade and most street crossings do not have gate arms.
Interestingly, the story notes that TXDOT is trying to reduce the number of such intersections in the Houston area, but makes no mention of the fact that METRO is determined to move forward with more dangerous at-grade madness with the new rail lines it is building.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/07 09:11 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Breaking news you CAN get elsewhere (07-05-2007 edition)
The Chron.com Froot Loops bureau has been watching KTRK-13 again this morning:
An infant was burned during a fireworks accident in Montgomery County late Wednesday night, according to televised reports this morning by KTRK (Channel 13).
Authorities gave a reporter this account: A woman was holding her 4-month-old daughter when she went outside to watch a neighbor set off fireworks on Val Verde and Goliad.
The object launched and hit the woman, and fell onto the baby who was wrapped in a blanket.
The girl was taken to the hospital. About 25 percent of the infant's body was burned.
So, if the Chronicle city desk is going to rely on KTRK for its online morning news coverage, doesn't that make KTRK Houston's actual leading information source?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/07 06:13 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
04 July 2007
A circulating trolley system for the downtown area
In The Woodlands, that is. The Houston Business Journal had the story last week, and the Chron's Rad Sallee covered it Monday. From HBJ:
The Town Center Improvement District said Friday that trolleys will be ready to give free service to destinations around The Woodlands Town Center July 5.
Three trolleys will make daily runs between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Stops include The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Market Street and The Woodlands Mall. In addition to dedicated stops, the trolleys will make stops for pedestrians along the route.
[snip]
The trolleys are a two-year pilot project made possible by a partnership between the Town Center Improvement District and the Houston-Galveston Area Council. At the end of the two-year period, organizers will assess ridership data.
Rad Sallee noted that the service actually begins this afternoon, for The Woodlands' annual Red Hot and Blue Festival.
What a great idea for what has become a thriving area all around The Woodlands Town Center. Weekdays, evenings, weekends -- the place is teeming with people enjoying all the nice amenities that have sprung up. My family particularly enjoys Market Street, what with its great shops, restaurants and park with fountains. Plus, parking is abundant and (mostly) free.
The same cannot be said for Houston's downtown, where Metro got rid of its circulating trolleys a couple of years ago. They actually would have complimented the light rail, but that was not the plan Metro decided to follow.
COMPLETELY UNRELATED: Citizens group in The Woodlands takes action on independence (Houston Business Journal)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/04/07 09:04 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
03 July 2007
Politics and a waffle cone, anyone?
The Chronicle's Ken Hoffman reports that U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson will be making a public appearance in his adopted district today:
U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson has a new program where he "trades places" with a constituent, so he can stay in touch with the mood of his district.
Today Lampson will be scooping ice cream from noon to 1 p.m. at the Ben & Jerry's shop in the Sugar Land Town Square mall.
Lampson wants customers to unload on him. Go ahead — tell him what's making you happy or unhappy about life in these United States.
If you're in Sugar Land today and want a scoop of politics with your dessert, be sure to stop by.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/03/07 10:02 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (22)
02 July 2007
Lanier wins fifth straight debate title, says farewell to coach
The Chronicle's Jennifer Friedberg reports that the Lanier Middle School debate team has just won its fifth straight national title:
The Lanier Middle School debate team spent three days last week preparing for its biggest competition of the school year — the National Junior Forensics League Tournament in Greeley, Colo.
The work paid off as the squad won the three-day event, which concluded July 1, posting its fifth consecutive national title for Lanier debate coach Jim Henley's last hurrah.
"I'm very proud that 65 students took time out of their summer vacation and worked very hard on a tough academic discipline, prepared and were successful in the competition," Henley said. "We just dominated the debate section of the competition."
Henley calls the tournament "the World Series of middle school debate."
[snip]
The team is comprised of 100 sixth-graders and 100 seventh- and eighth-graders. Henley said the squad is the largest in the country.
It won eight out of nine local and regional tournaments this year.
"They compete against high schools here and most of the time they win," Henley said.
The team has lost only one competition since 2002.
[snip]
Henley has taught at Lanier for 20 years — history for 10 years before starting the debate team and moving into teaching forensics full time.
After their win, the team and 90 Houstonians celebrated at Outback Steakhouse. They said goodbye to Henley and hello to the team's new coach, Frantz Hill from Jane Long Middle School, 6501 Bellaire Blvd.
"His students were sad to lose him and my students were sad to lose me," Henley said. "The transition was seamless and wonderful."
Retiring, Henley said, "is the hardest thing I've ever done."
Congrats to the debate team and to Henley for jobs well done!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/07 09:52 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 July 2007
Do editors even read this stuff before it goes out (cont'd)?
The Chronicle led a three-reporter story today on the death of immigration legislation in the Senate as follows:
Many business leaders are lamenting last week's death of the landmark Senate immigration bill and predicting dire consequences for the Texas economy.
Already, labor shortages have caused onions to rot in the fields, delayed wheat harvests and docked Gulf shrimp boats because of a lack of crews, they say.
Already?
If crops are rotting and shrimp is at risk of spoiling, it's not likely that Senate passage of the proposed legislation would have had any immediate effect.
This story, like most in the Chronicle, really would have benefited from good editing.
The reader comments are entertaining, at least!
UPDATE (07-03-2007): Cory at Lose an Eye, It's a Sport finds another example that makes readers wonder if there are any editors manning the S.S. Chronicle these days.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/07 10:21 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (15)
Lambert: Real live police officers ARE better than cameras.
Last week, KTRK-13's Deborah Wrigley took a look at Metro's increasing reliance upon crime-fighting-by-camera, and while the piece isn't terribly skeptical of Metro's approach, there are a couple of tidbits that expose some of the inherent problems:
"If somebody reported someone was messing with this car, I could zoom into it and look at the license plate," [Metro police officer David]Hall said.
That'll scare the bad guys!
METRO is still adapting to a new way of policing. It's caught some crimes in the act, helped investigate others after the fact, but in law enforcement and anti-terrorism says the agency's police chief, there's no substitute for a real pair of eyes and a badge.
And that's the bottom line. Metro's bumbling police chief knows it, but he still pulled security guards out of the Park and Rides anyway, thereby turning them into Park and Pillages.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/01/07 10:53 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Metro: There IS demand for commuter rail.
In last week's Chronicle story about how the Katy Freeway expansion isn't leaving room for commuter rail, Metro board chairman David Wolff admitted there is demand for commuter rail:
Metro vice president Bryan Pennington told the agency board Friday it was "very realistic" to believe Metro could be operating rail in the Katy Freeway corridor within five to seven years.
"I think that's optimistic," Wolff said afterward. "It's intriguing because the demand is there in the I-10 corridor for rail — but the demand is there for traffic, too."
Well, duh! And if this is the plan Metro had run with, instead of its current boutique-y, light-rail-as-taxi-cab-service plan, there'd probably be more support for rail. As we've said previously, a commuter line along the Katy (Metro was offered that rail-line right of way years ago, but declined it), along with a commuter line along the Hardy Toll Road (perhaps with a jog to Bush Intercontinental), would undoubtedly have greater support and ridership. Anyone who has seen The Woodlands Express buses running down I-45 knows what I'm talking about. Plus, a focus on commuter rail means Metro wouldn't have cut bus service so drastically -- the flexible service that Houston's poor, elderly and handicapped have depended upon for years.
If the goal were truly to get some cars off the roads, commuter rail would be the way to go. But that's not the direction Metro is headed any time soon.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: This passage caught my eye:
However, Clark said the toll lanes were not Metro's only option for rail. Besides, he said, those lanes would pose problems getting passengers to and from the trains in the middle of a busy freeway.
The Red line and the Blue line in Chicago both have significant stretches that travel along the middle of busy freeways, and people use crossovers with no problems. The locals who criticize the idea of putting rail lines along freeways might want to look at how it works in Chicago, which has one of the nation's better mass transit systems. They might also consider that the Chicago Transit Authority makes very good use of its bus system to circulate riders from rail (people there don't think of buses as "icky"), and that transit users actually do expect to walk short distances. This notion from some locals that local light rail should be akin to a taxi (i.e. running right up to the doorways of "where the people are" as they like to say), in the middle of busy roads (like Main and Richmond), is just bizarre.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/01/07 08:50 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (19)
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