30 April 2008
"The dubious nature of municipal stadium subsidies"
Tom Kirkendall highlights an op-ed that goes along nicely with the current debate on the Dynamo's desire for a soccer stadium that is majority city-funded. An excerpt:
Clearly, stadiums built with public funds have evolved over time. No longer are they built to honor the sacrifices of American soldiers. No longer are they built to be flexible venues capable of hosting a great variety of events. And no longer does the public sector determine the appropriate price to charge private enterprise for use of this publicly supplied resource. Today, sports stadiums are largely the private domain of for-profit businesses that the public sector subsidizes, often with special taxes.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/30/08 07:49 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (13)
Headed to Piraeus (and mostly points beyond)
I wanted to put up a short announcement that I'll be headed out of country to Greece for a couple of weeks, and won't be posting here (although I may check in from time to time depending upon connectivity).
If everyone helps to play nice in the forums (which is almost always the case anyway), I'm sure Anne and the other bloggers/mods will be most appreciative. :)
Oh, and Go Rockets!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/08 11:17 AM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (9)
METRO moves to second choice contractor; Solutions cost is a moving target
METRO is no longer negotiating with Washington Group International to build the revised Solutions plan (via the Chron's Rad Sallee):
Metropolitan Transit Authority officials announced Tuesday they have ended talks with Washington Group International to be prime contractor on four planned light rail lines, saying the two sides were "hundreds of millions" of dollars apart.
Metro now will try to reach an agreement with Parsons Transportation Group, which ranked second among three candidates for the job when WGI was chosen in January 2007, Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson said.
Wilson said WGI will be compensated $77 million for design and engineering work to date, most of which has been paid. He said Parsons will build on that head start, allowing the projects to move forward on schedule.
The Metro board last week approved paying Parsons up to $12 million for work it will perform through December.
Metro announced the change at a hastily called news conference.
Tom Barron, the company's executive vice president, said, "Our primary objective is to make sure the program doesn't miss a beat."
If talks with Parsons break down also, Metro could turn to Fluor Corp., whose proposal had been rated third. Wilson said all three companies are competent to do the job. Meanwhile, he said, WGI's subcontractors will remain on the job.
Wilson said Metro and WGI were "hundreds of millions" apart on the cost of the project and on how to share various risks that could affect costs — such as delays, inflation, governmental action and unforeseen environmental impacts. The two sides had been in negotiations for a year.
Then there's this:
Because of the negotiations, Wilson would not reveal what he described as the "constantly moving number" that Metro thinks is fair payment for a contractor to design, build, operate and maintain the North, Southeast, East End and Uptown lines. He also declined to reveal WGI's cost estimate for the four lines and another estimate prepared for Metro by a consultant, although he said both figures were made known to Parsons.
A financial capacity analysis prepared for Metro this month put the cost of the entire Metro Solutions Phase 2 plan at $2.6 billion. However, that includes a fifth light rail project, the University line, which is longer and likely to be more costly than the others.
It's like METRO's pulling numbers out of a hat. For the longest time we heard that METRO solutions would cost $1.2 billion; then it was $2 billion; then recently we learned that the FTA wants METRO to get real, so the number is probably closer to $4 billion (thanks to Neal Meyer's work on the calculator), and now a METRO report says $2.6 billion.
They have no idea what it's going to cost.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/30/08 05:00 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
29 April 2008
Report: Houston should align transit projects with land use planning
The Houston Business Journal highlights a report issued by the Urban Land Institute that says Houston needs to address infrastructure issues related to a car-dependent society:
Houston is one of 23 large metro areas in the United States facing an infrastructure challenge, according to an Urban Land Institute report released Tuesday.
ULI reports that Houston and other Sunbelt areas such as Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix, "choke in suburban car dependence and a history of disconnected regional development just as driving becomes increasingly expensive."
Among the challenges facing these cities are expanding road capacity and retrofitting pedestrian-unfriendly subdivisions with mass transit, the report says.
[snip]
Cities like Houston need to align transit projects with land use planning, or people will remain car-bound, the report suggests.
"Although transit budgets constitute about 50 percent of aggregate expenditures in long-range plans (approximately $610 billion), the expected share of transit commuting averages a measly 5.5 percent," the report says. "Although most plans seek behavioral changes in driving habits, they assume continued growth patterns toward the suburban edge, where car-dependent lifestyles predominate out of necessity."
The Urban Land Institute's website is here, what appears to be a summary of the report is here, and ULI's mission statement is here.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/29/08 06:51 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (21)
What would Richard Vacar do?
Cab drivers who work at Bush Intercontinental have filed a lawsuit in an effort to get the city to improve their working conditions:
Two miles from all the terminals at Bush Intercontinental Airport, sits this massive staging area for taxicabs.
It is a large parking lot where hundreds of drivers sit, wait and even at times sleep for four to six hours.
All that waiting for:
11 News: To pick up one person?
Cabbie: Yes to pick up a fare. Yes sir.
Then they return, just to hurry up and wait all over again.
But attorney Reginald McKamie says his clients; nearly 1,000 independent taxi cab drivers are victims of discrimination.
“These men and women are the ambassadors for Houston,” said McKamie. “They are living or working in deplorable conditions. They are working in conditions worse than Third World country conditions.”
McKamie points to bathroom and shower facilities in the staging area that he says are in horrible condition.
A few years ago, the city added the portable facilities and promised the cabbies they would have running water.
But?
“I assumed at this point that they would get around to it,” said cabbie Tommy Breedlove. “But I have been working out there for 20-years and they haven't done anything.”
And Breedlove says they are forbidden to go to the bathroom at the terminals.
So, to get the city's attention, the drivers have decided to file a federal discrimination suit.
[snip]
“They have had discussions with the mayor. He has ignored it. City council has ignored it. Something has to be done,” said McKamie.
As soon as Houston Airports Director Richard Vacar decides how he wants to handle this, Mayor White and City Council will act.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/29/08 05:03 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (10)
28 April 2008
Covering the news important to...Washington, D.C. journalists
Remember Jeff Cohen's emphasis on the HOUSTON portion of the Chronicle's masthead? Yeah, well, The HOUSTON Chronicle's DC bureau had the annual White House Correspondents dinner well-covered this year:
The White House Correspondents' Association has hosted an annual dinner featuring the President of the United States since 1914. Last night, two tables of Houston Chroniclers jammed into the ballroom of the Washington Hilton with 5,000 of our closest friends. Our special guests included Matt Mackowiak, spokesman for Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Frank Maisano, a Washington rep for Bracewell Giuliani and energy expert extraordinaire, and, bringing the most attention to our tables, "Obama Girl" Amber Lee Ettinger.
That seems like a fine use of the HOUSTON Chronicle's resources! I'm sure the HOUSTON staffers who were in, um, HOUSTON, got a kick out of seeing the Chron's two DC blogs cover the festivities.
COMPLETELY UNRELATED PREVIOUS POSTS: Layoffs at the Chronicle -- both voluntary and involuntary (10/07), Jeff Cohen named NPF editor of the year (12/07)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/28/08 08:08 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
27 April 2008
METRO extends deadline to transfer balances to Q Cards
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports that METRO has extended the deadline to transfer balances from the old stored-value cards to the new Q Cards:
Some Metropolitan Transit Authority riders who had unused balances when their stored-value fare cards expired March 31 will be able to transfer them to new Q Cards despite missing the deadline.
At Thursday's monthly board meeting, several members said users of the old cards ought not forfeit their unused balances just because they were late making the switch.
[snip]
Not everyone will qualify. Here are the guidelines:
• Riders must bring their stored value card. No transfers will be made if it has been lost or thrown away.
• No cash refunds. Unused balances will be loaded onto a Q Card.
• Customers who received stored value cards from employers or other ride sponsors should contact their sponsor, not Metro. This applies whether the sponsor provided the card free of charge or at a discount.[snip]
No new deadline has been set, but [METRO CFO Louise] Richman said Metro wants to complete the changeover as soon as possible.
In an earlier post, we had suggested that the cutoff was a little abrupt. Kudos to METRO for reconsidering, and extending the deadline.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/08 10:13 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Continental calls off merger talks with United
The New York Times reports that Continental Airlines has ended merger discussions with United Airlines:
Continental Airlines said Sunday that it had abandoned merger talks with United Airlines and was planning to remain an independent carrier, a blow to lengthy efforts by United to find a merger partner.
Continental’s decision, announced by the airline Sunday afternoon, will change the complex game of musical chairs that the airline industry is playing after the merger announcement last week by Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines.
Continental’s move was a stunning development for United’s parent, UAL, which had been negotiating in expectation of reaching a deal by late this week. As recently as Friday, it looked as though Continental, based in Houston, and United, based outside Chicago, were on the way to reaching a merger agreement.
Continental decided to drop the discussions after UAL announced worse-than-expected earnings, which sent shares falling last week.
Continental's news release is available here.
As of posting, Chron.com hadn't managed to post this important news -- but hey, we're sure there are plenty of boobie pics and the like!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/08 05:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
Sheriff's office won't appeal email decision
Back on April 8, we noted that KTRK-13 had won another legal round in its effort to obtain emails from the Sheriff's office via public information request, but that the sheriff was considering an appeal of the decision.
KTRK reports that the Sheriff has decided against an appeal:
Harris County taxpayers will have to foot the bill for the sheriff's deletion of hundreds of thousands of emails.
The sheriff decided not to appeal a judge's decision that the emails should be made public. The lawsuit was filed by 13 Undercover reporter Wayne Dolcefino just days after the mass deletion of government records.
The tab for taxpayers comes to more than $30,000.
The emails have to be restored and provided for inspection by Channel 13 for our continuing investigation of the sheriff's office.
That should make for interesting reading!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/08 04:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
City considers heavy-trash changes
We recently noted that the city was considering revisions to the recent changes (read: cuts) it made to heavy trash collection.
Carolyn Feibel reports on some of the details of the possible changes:
Houston could offer citywide recycling of "wood waste" such as tree limbs, stumps and brush as soon as this fall.
The program could divert more than 90,000 tons of trash from landfills, saving taxpayers $1.7 million a year. But residents would have to sacrifice half of their heavy-trash pickup days.
City Council could vote on the proposal in the next few weeks. Under the plan being considered by the Solid Waste Management Department "wood waste" pickup would take place on the scheduled heavy-trash day, every other month. Heavy trash — such as furniture, appliances and some building materials — and "wood waste" would alternate months.
[snip]
The wood will be diverted to a recycling service, LETCO Living Earth Technology Company. The company will chip the wood and manufacture compost, mulch, potting soils and bedding mixes. The Council first must approve a $1.9 million appropriation for three years.
[snip]
LETCO has been recycling Christmas trees for the city of Houston for 17 years. It conducted a six-month pilot program in select neighborhoods for the wood-waste pickup.
LETCO will charge the city $12.45 a ton for the wood. That would save taxpayer money, since the city does not own a landfill and must pay tipping fees of $32 per ton to dump its trash. Officials estimate wood waste makes up almost 30 percent of the solid waste generated by the city.
It sounds like LETCO is set to make out well on this deal -- but is it the best deal for the city? Perhaps subsequent reporting will shed further light on the details.
Councilmember Jolanda Jones says the reduced service is a problem:
"I don't think every other month is sufficient," she said. "On the north side, and especially in Acres Homes, they need more rather than less heavy-trash pickup."
Actually, it seems like many Houstonians liked the old monthly heavy-trash pickup -- and that the "new-and-improved" service will still represent a reduction in service.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/08 04:03 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
DA's office rejects plea request from illegal-immigrant cop killer
The Chronicle's Brian Rogers reports that the DA's office has rejected a plea request from Juan Leonardo Quintero, the illegal immigrant who shot and killed HPD officer Rodney Johnson in 2006:
Just days before his death penalty trial, attorneys for Juan Leonardo Quintero said he has offered to plead guilty and be sentenced to life without parole for the 2006 shooting of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson — a deal prosecutors have rejected.
Quintero's attorney, Danalynn Recer, noted in an e-mail Friday that the 34-year-old illegal immigrant confessed to killing Johnson and cooperated with authorities. She also said Quintero regrets the toll his actions have taken on Johnson's family, as well as on his own family.
"He is profoundly ashamed and deeply sorry for the pain he has inflicted on them," wrote Recer, founder and executive director of a Houston anti-death penalty organization, Gulf Region Advocacy Center.
Prosecutors on Saturday said the Harris County District Attorneys office has given the defense an opportunity to submit all mitigating evidence and, after reviewing that evidence, prosecutors will continue to seek the death penalty.
"We trust the judgment of 12 citizens to determine the appropriate punishment for the man who executed Officer Johnson," said Assistant District Attorney Denise Bradley.
Bradley said Quintero is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity when he is formally arraigned at the opening of the trial Monday in state District Judge Joan Campbell's court.
Because Quintero was in the country illegally at the time of the shooting, the case has become a rallying cry for those advocating stricter immigration enforcement.
The decision by the DA's office was almost certainly more influenced by the fact that a cop was killed than that the cop was killed by an illegal immigrant.
The Chronicle does inform that anti-death-penalty activists are expected to rally around the cop-killer:
Defense attorneys have worked to bury the prosecution in paper before the trial, which is expected to last one month. The team is expected to have access to national experts who oppose the death penalty.
Of course! Maybe the experts will include Kathryn Kase, an attorney and anti-death-penalty activist (who just happens to be married to Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen). Maybe we can even look forward to an installment of the Chron Eye for the Illegal-Immigrant Cop-Killer Guy!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/08 03:35 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
26 April 2008
How sweet it's been
Earlier this week, the Chronicle's Fran Blinebury penned a nice profile of longtime Rockets' announcers Gene Peterson and Jim Foley, both of whom will be retiring at the end of the season.
Gene Peterson has always been my favorite "voice" of the local teams -- so much so that it's really hard to imagine anyone but Peterson doing Rockets' games. Depending on tonight's outcome (it's not looking good at the moment), we may have only one more installment of Peterson's sweet announcing. It's too bad injuries and the Utah Floppers are likely to prevent a deep playoff run, which would be a nicer sendoff than another first-round exit.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/26/08 11:44 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chief Lambert goes to Washington
The Chron's Washington, D.C. bureau finally found something to do: METRO Police Chief Tom Lambert traveled to our nation's capital to tell Congress that transit agencies need more money to fight transit terrorism:
Houston's transit system police chief urged Congress on Friday to boost security assistance to cities to combat the threat of terrorist attacks on public transportation that have claimed 452 lives in three foreign cities since 2004.
Communities such as Houston need more money and greater spending flexibility to protect the tens of millions of passengers nationwide who board subways, commuter rail trains, buses and ferries each day, Thomas Lambert, the chief of police for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, told a House Homeland Security subcommittee.
"Our transit systems are open to the public with many access points," Lambert said. "One can clearly see that our transit systems, left unsecured, are viable and attractive targets for terrorists."
Chief Lambert has covered Houston's 7.5 miles worth of "many access points" with METRO's elite counterterrorism unit. Bus riders, however, are still encouraged to protect themselves.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/26/08 09:20 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Now the Dynamo is hitting up TSU for money
So says this little blurb on KHOU-11:
Texas Southern University and the Houston Dynamo are in negotiations to share the new Dynamo stadium.
TSU would contribute money to the building project in exchange for rights to use it during their football season.
Major League Soccer is threatening to move the Dynamo to another city if a deal is not reached on a new stadium.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/26/08 07:25 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (18)
25 April 2008
KHOU: Precinct 4 deputies altering paperwork, not patrolling neighborhoods
Whoa. KHOU-11's Jeremy Rogalski has spent quite a bit of time uncovering some of Precinct 4 Constable's office shenanigans. It seems that homeowners associations pay quite a bit of money to get extra patrols from Constable Ron Hickman's deputies, but the time spent patrolling contracted areas is often not what ends up being reported in departmental paperwork:
More than 80 homeowners associations and municipal utility districts have signed a contract with Constable Hickman’s office for extra security. They generally pay around $55,000 per year per deputy to patrol their neighborhoods. Deputies are supposed to spend 70 percent of their average monthly time in those neighborhoods or “contracts,” with the rest spent outside in the general Precinct 4 district.
But the 11 News Defenders discovered in some cases, documents were altered and falsified to make it appear deputies were spending more time in those neighborhoods than they actually were. Even worse, former and current Precinct 4 employees say the deputies were directed to do it.
“It looks like someone took liquid paper and whited it out,” Holden said after 11 News showed her some records for the MUD 191 contract deputy, where she lives.
Those records show how daily activity sheets submitted for approval were altered to make it appear the deputy was spending more time in the contract neighborhood than he actually was.
During the month of July 2007, the deputy showed in one daily activity sheet that he had worked 253 minutes -- nearly four hours -- outside the MUD 191 area he was contracted to patrol. But after a supervisor reviewed that document, the time mysteriously was changed to just three minutes, making it look as if he barely left the subdivision. The same thing happened with the activity sheet for the deputy’s next day — 234 minutes away from the contract neighborhood was cut nearly in half to 132. The pattern continued on other days as well — 271 minutes cut down to just 51, and 197 minutes changed to 64.
The end result? The changes made it look like the MUD neighborhood got more protection than it did that month.
“It’s very alarming,” Holden said. “We shouldn’t have to police the police,” she added.
Turns out, Holden said during this very same period, many of her neighbors were hit by thieves.
“We had homes broken into, and I always wondered what made them that comfortable to take that many items,” Holden said.
Constable Hickman's response?
[...]until it’s brought to my attention so I can address it properly, how am I supposed to know?”
But it would be hard not to know, according to one former Precinct 4 employee, who asked not to be identified.
“It’s agency wide, it’s common practice,” the former employee said. “They’re told in their training that they will be altering documents.”
There's much more in KHOU's story. Hickman had a challenger in the primary a while back, but Hickman won.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/25/08 05:08 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (22)
24 April 2008
KTRK: How accurate are HPD's crime stats?
KTRK-13's Tom Abrahams reports that there are more problems with reporting of crime statistics at HPD:
How safe is your neighborhood? You might not be getting the whole story from police, when it comes to certain types of crimes that are going on.
Eyewitness News has spent five months looking into the way the Houston Police Department codes and reports crimes. We asked for an explanation to what we found a week ago, and sent the department copies of what we found. As of tonight we've not gotten any explanation, though the chief did talk about the issue in general.
On a stretch of road a year ago, Houston Police Officer Eric Dargin is accused of stopping a woman and then sexually assaulting her. He's charged with the crime. Prosecutors say they have DNA evidence. His next court date is in June.
But if you check HPD's crime statistics, you won't find his case listed at all. You also won't find at least six other sexual assault cases in which the suspect was charged. And there are another eight listed as less violent crimes, calling into question the legitimacy of HPD's reported crime statistics.
[snip]
Eyewitness News also found 20 charged aggravated assaults that HPD coded as lesser crimes. While coding a crime is not a science, there are the Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines, called UCR, which tell officers to code the most serious crime if more than one is committed.
Are they always doing that? Is the reporting consistent? Without HPD statisticians answering our questions about specific cases, it's hard to know.
Here is Chief Hurtt's response to Abrahams' questions about the coding problems:
HPD Chief Harold Hurtt said, "(They're) as reliable as human beings are, I guess."
That's as helpful as ever. Thanks Chief Hurtt!
When KHOU-11's award-winning reporter Mark Greenblatt reported last year that HPD was underreporting murders, the response from Chief Hurtt (and his ghostblogger) was underwhelming, to say the least.
Maybe this time around, HPD will actually try to figure out these reporting problems, and will get the local media some answers. We do look forward to hearing from Chief Hurtt's ghostblogger, though (and maybe even Martha Montalvo, who is always entertaining!).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/24/08 11:12 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Another Chronicle story missing facts
Mike Tolson gives us this Houston Chronicle piece about a convicted cop killer Anthony Haynes who is trying to play the race card to get out of his murder conviction. The centerpiece to this story is this one liner;
Federal courts have become increasingly sensitive to Texas defendants asserting race as a factor in jury selection.
However, two facts are not included in this story. This is how Mr. Tolson describes the murder of Houston Police Sergeant Kent Kinkaid;
The circumstances surrounding Kincaid's death were unusual. He was driving with his wife in his personal car when Haynes drove past him and appeared to toss something that hit and cracked his windshield. Kincaid, who was not in uniform, followed Haynes until he stopped. When Kincaid approached the car, he identified himself and reached behind him, supposedly for his badge. Haynes, the son of a Houston Fire Department arson investigator, then shot him with a pistol.
There are two problems with this: the first problem is that the object the convicted murderer tossed was a bullet. As stated, Sgt. Kinkaid's wife was in the car and watched Haynes shoot her husband. One of the paramedics on the scene told me his wife couldn't even remember her own name when they were trying to interview her; second, Haynes was in the middle of a robbery spree. Sgt. Kinkaid unfortunately stopped the man at the wrong time. I found a 2001 article that Tolson wrote about convicted murderer Anthony Haynes. Mr. Tolson titled it "Borderline Cases Raise Questions About Death Penalty." This is what Mr. Tolson wrote back then:
Once upon a time he was a model kid whose nickname was Sunshine. Now he frowns much of the time and is bitter over the recent events of his life. A couple of years on death row will do that to you.
Anthony Haynes has no one else to blame, of course. He didn't have to get involved with drugs or the dangerous crowd they often attract.
He did not have to participate in a brief robbery spree in May 1998.
And God knows he did not have to shoot police Sgt. Kent Kincaid. Drunk on the power of a gun and the arrogance of youth, he alone was responsible for his decision, and the series of bad decisions that led to it.
Of course, one is entitled to an anti-death penalty opinion; however, as usual, Chronicle reporters have taken the wrong "poster boy case" without giving its readers all the facts in order to make its point.
Posted by Jason @ 04/24/08 09:54 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Judge Emmett to promote trade with India
At the Houston Politics blog, Liz Peterson notes that Harris County Judge Ed Emmett is beginning a ten-day trip to India to promote trade with Harris County. Accompanying him are officials from the Port of Houston, the GHP and the GHCVB. She includes this at the end:
By the way, Emmett says he's paying for most of his own expenses during the trip, including his airfare.
That's not something you see everyday! Good for Judge Emmett.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/24/08 04:56 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
23 April 2008
Council approves IAH fee, delays action on HPD helicopters
Last week, we wondered if Council might reconsider the big plans to expand Terminal B in light of airline industry merger mania. The answer, as reported by KHOU-11, is no:
Under a plan approved Wednesday by the Houston City Council, IAH will soon impose a $3 passenger facility fee if it’s approved by the FAA. Airport administrators said the approval process typically takes a few months.
Airlines would charge the fee when passengers book tickets that depart from or land at IAH. They would then pass the money on to the Houston Airport System. The funding would help pay for a $1.2 billion reconstruction of Terminal B and its parking garages.
KHOU also reports that Council today delayed action for a week on a plan to purchase new helicopters for HPD:
A proposal to buy six new choppers for roughly $17 million dollars was delayed a week on the request of Council Members Anne Clutterbuck and Pam Holm, each for different reasons.
Holm questioned whether the city needs to spend millions of dollars on relatively few vehicles, when there’s also a need for hundreds of new police cars and money to pay additional officers.
Clutterbuck said she is worried that purchasing six helicopters all at once will only create further problems for future administrations – because they would all presumably need to be replaced at the same time, ten years from now. She urged HPD and the city’s purchasing department to stagger such large purchases to avoid sudden changes in fleets.
[snip]
Currently at least one Houston Police Department helicopter is permanently grounded, and others can only fly during daylight hours. The two choppers the Department uses to train officers can only hold two people, can’t carry spotlights, and were purchased in 1975.
In fact, back in the 1970s at any given time, HPD had 16 helicopters ready to patrol. Today there are four.
This proposed purchase would bring that number up to 12.
In a city as large as ours, helicopters are an important policing tool, and HPD seems to have made a good case that it's time for significant fleet investment. Councilmember Holm is right, of course, that HPD also needs other equipment, not to mention funding to boost manpower. It's not clear, though, that it should be an either-or proposition. Policing is an essential service of government -- unlike trinkets. In a time of record revenues, the city should be able to fund essential services.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/08 10:39 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
22 April 2008
KHOU: Downtown fire station finally open
KHOU-11 reports that on Monday, Houston's only downtown fire station finally opened for business:
Some firefighters are gearing up for their first night in a new fire station.
Station 8 is located in the 1900 block of Louisiana in downtown Houston. It's the only fire station downtown.
Construction started in September 2006, and Monday was move-in day.
The station's opening was delayed a few times due to rainy weather and the discovery of underground chemical storage tanks.
As noted in an earlier post, two other downtown fire stations were vacated so that Tilman Fertitta and Les Alexander could have new playpens.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/22/08 11:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
21 April 2008
METRO balance transfer deadline raises questions
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee runs a sad story from a METRO patron who missed the transit organization's deadline for moving balances from the old stored value card to the Q card:
Karen Clark had a busy lunch hour on March 31, including a birthday and a doctor's appointment, so she put off a trip to a Metropolitan Transit Authority RideStore.
Unfortunately for her, it was the the last day that balances remaining on her stored-value fare cards from Metro could be transferred to a new Q Card.
The next morning, April Fools' Day, Clark received the traditional unpleasant surprise. After standing in line 45 minutes in the RideStore at 1001 Travis, she was told the transfer deadline had passed.
Three of her old cards, with a total of about $200 on them, had become as worthless as Cinderella's coach at midnight.
[The incident] raises an interesting legal question: When Metro sold the old cards, wasn't that an implicit promise to honor them until their balances were exhausted?
[snip]
We asked University of Houston law professor Richard Alderman, who specializes in consumer issues. This one, he said, is: "What were the terms of the contract when the cards were sold?"
Alderman said Clark may be out of luck "if there was something that said they were subject to change in X days' notice or expired at a certain time.
"But if people were led to believe they could use these for a reasonable period of time, such as six months or a year, then Metro could be in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act," he said. "Texas is a state where the fine print matters a lot."
Clark, who still has her old card, fished it out of her purse and read the fine print.
"This card is valid for payment of the base fare on all fixed route service until the value is used up," it reads.
The cutoff did seem a bit abrupt, even though METRO was forthcoming about it.
Here's an interesting question that the intrepid local media might want to investigate via public information request: Just how much money did METRO make from abandoned balances on the old stored value cards?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/21/08 10:16 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (17)
20 April 2008
Adventures in "Ready! Fire! Aim!" governance
Two seemingly unrelated stories this week caught my eye, in terms of what they say about Houston's recent experiments in "Ready! Fire! Aim!" governance*:
First up is the news that the city's heavy-trash collection schedule must be reworked, since the previous (seemingly urgent!) reworking has created problems:
To save space in landfills, a city task force last year recommended reducing heavy trash pickup to once every three months and requiring that only yard waste and other recyclables be put out on the other monthly pickup days. Members of the group, including City Controller Annise Parker, pointed out that other large cities do not provide free monthly residential heavy trash collection.
That may be, but few other municipalities have our sprawling, unzoned neighborhoods that invite illegal dumping in vacant lots and along streets. After several months of experiments with reduced heavy trash service, the volume of resident complaints and accumulating trash and other debris along roadsides prompted Solid Waste Director Harry Hayes to reconsider his options.
Hayes says a common refrain from residents in the pilot project areas was that they agreed with the goal of increasing recycling, but that the new schedule imposed too long a delay. "They said, 'If you do it every other month, hey, I'm OK with that. I don't have to keep that old couch in the back of the house or garage for four months.' "The director expects to introduce the new pickup plan citywide in August or September.
What do you bet it will look somewhat more like the old plan (which was working just fine)? We can hope so.
Elsewhere, KHOU-11's Jeremy Desel took a closer look at the impact of Houston's recent floodway ordinance:
The Floodway Coalition of Houston didn't even exist before October of 2006. But they've been busy since the city of Houston passed Ordinance Chapter 19.
Its no-build provision for structures in a floodway overnight made thousands of properties virtually worthless.
"There is nobody (who) can buy it. That is the bottom line,” said [Realtor Marisa] Talty.
The Floodway Coalition commissioned a study by an appraisal company to try to put a number on the loss of value to both property owners and the city through loss taxable value.
What did it find?
That the city would lose $1.9 to $3.5 billion in property tax value.
On the low end, that would be like totally removing the City of La Porte from the tax rolls or the City of Bellaire's $2.5 billion tax base.
In fact, the loss to Houston could be bigger than the entire tax base of any city in Harris County except Pasadena.
It is an impact that means $38 to $70 million dollars in annual city tax revenue will be gone.
Neal Meyer has been on top of this story for some time now.
Unlike the first example in "Ready! Fire! Aim!" governance, this one may prove tougher to fix.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/20/08 10:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Local busybody says too many of us are driving solo
Last week on METRO's blog, Mary Sit highlighted a recent op-ed in the Houston Chronicle by local bike enthusiast Peter Wang:
Peter Wang, a geophysicist in the oilfield services and a board member of the Citizens' Transportation Coalition, pointed out that with oil topping at $100 a barrel and an apparent recession shrinking our economy, we should consider carpooling or vanpooling if we have a regular office schedule.
Wang said he believes most of us don't do so because of socio-psychological reasons. We adhere to the lone cowboy image - especially here in Texas - and we want to drive alone into the sunset. But that, argued Wang, is not the way to build an efficient transportation system.
In a comment to the post, Wang expands his point in response to a question from Kevin Whited:
Kevin, I don't mean to imply steathily that single-occupant vehicles should be gotten rid of. I myself drive my SOV about 75 miles per week. But I will explicitly and publicly state that SOVs are very much over-used in our society, and this overuse creates lots of problems.
Basically, the current generation of Americans have given their hearts and minds over to the marketing people at the car companies. They really do want to be "Ford Tough" or whatever. They will acquire massive debt and waste all kinds of money and resources to implement the lifestyle that has been hypnotized into their brains.
What kind of lifestyle is it do be perpetually in debt, no cash flow, and no forseeable way to even continue in the current mode into the coming decades?
That's the nightmare we are living. We have to change.
What an astounding mindset.
Who determines what is overuse of single occupancy vehicles? What is the criterion? Why does Peter Wang get to say that everyone is in the grip of automaker marketing? Who is he to say that we all are in massive debt, and that we waste all kinds of money and resources on our lifestyles?
Hypnotized?? Is he serious?!
Who is he to determine what is an acceptable level of debt and cash flow? Does he propose government start monitoring our bank accounts? Does he have a crystal ball that tells him what will happen in coming decades.
Just because Peter Wang wants to ride a bike and use mass transit doesn't mean the majority of us want to. Most of us like to have control of our transportation. We like the freedom of being able to run errands when we want to, pick up the kids when we need to, meet friends for lunch when we like to. If our transportation becomes a hardship, then we will make adjustments.
This whole nanny-state mindset is what eats away at our freedoms, our liberties. For goodness sake, the government is going to mandate what kind of light bulbs we can buy in the future. And the light bulbs the government has chosen are more damaging to the environment, AND give some people headaches! But the decision has been made for us. Soon, no more choice.
If we want to change our driving habits and our lifestyles, then we will change them, but we shouldn't be forced to do so because someone else has set some arbitrary standards. Locally, the real nightmare will begin when Peter Wang and his like-minded friends start running things.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/20/08 07:03 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (60)
Previously incarcerated illegal immigrant murders mother of five
By now, you're probably aware of the story of two illegal immigrants who went on a carjacking spree in Houston. The final attempt ended with the murder of a mother of five - she didn't want her car taken because her baby was in the back seat. Toward the end of the Chronicle's story we learn:
Escoto was taken into custody early Friday morning at the same complex on unrelated traffic charges.
"He's been cooperative," Denholm said.
Escoto, wearing a face mask due to a tuberculosis infection, was led from sheriff's offices, ducking from reporters who asked about Rios' whereabouts and why Davila was killed.
His only response was a one-finger gesture.
Escoto was arrested in September for trespassing and served 75 days in jail.
Rios was charged with possession of marijuana in May 2007 and served 10 days in jail. In June 2007 he was charged with criminal mischief and failure to identify himself to a police officer and served 30 days in jail.
Were those previous run-ins with the law at the city-level or county-level? For years the city of Houston has had an unofficial sanctuary policy in place. It was modified in late 2006 following the outcry over the murder of an HPD officer by an illegal alien. Harris County's position isn't clear, except for this story from earlier this year:
Harris County would be the first law enforcement agency in Texas to receive training from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, joining 34 departments from Florida to California that have undergone the training. Thomas announced Friday that he authorized his department to pursue the program.
The training would give employees the ability to interview inmates more thoroughly about their immigration status and authorize them to detain those in the country illegally.
Bottom line is these two thugs had previously been in police custody, and it appears they were not identified as being in this country illegally. After serving their time, they were let go, free to terrorize local citizens, and in this case, murder a mother of five.
Is it time for that debate yet?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/20/08 12:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
18 April 2008
METRO pays Carol Alvarado $150 per hour!
Right after we learned (permanently no longer a councilwoman) Carol Alvarado had been hired by METRO as a consultant, Tom Bazan filed a TxPIA to find out all the details.
I don't think he's heard back from METRO yet (shocker!!!), but Matt Stiles got a response to his TxPIA request:
Turns out the deal, a copy of which I just obtained under the Texas Public Information Act today, specifically excludes Alvarado from representing METRO before city officials, including Mayor White and City Council members. By the way, the contract is dated five days after Alvarado left the city.
But the agency can ask her for help with various other local agencies, including the Houston-Galveston Area Council and the Gulf Coast Freight Rail District.
The terms? They pay $150 an hour, with a maximum of 600 hours per year. So far she's been paid about $6,000, METRO officials say.
So while Carol was boo-hooing that the city was going to be deprived of her greatness, she was already working on a nice gig with METRO.
As one commenter to Stiles' post noted:
CA has never had a real job her entire adult life. Why should she start now?
She's just serving the public, making sure the Houston area doesn't get shortchanged by losing her talents.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/18/08 04:53 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (32)
17 April 2008
Councilmember Johnson delays vote on IAH fee
KHOU-11's Lee McGuire reports that Councilmember Jarvis Johnson has delayed plans to impose a $3 fee at Bush Intercontinental Airport to finance a Terminal B revamp (in partnership with Continental Airlines):
Wednesday’s planned vote to add a $3 fee to every passenger departing from Bush Intercontinental Airport has been delayed by a week.
Council member Jarvis Johnson called for the delay because he said he is still waiting for more information from the Houston Airport System regarding its plans to finance a $1.2 billion expansion of Terminal B.
Under the arrangement announced last week, the Houston Airport System would pick up roughly half of the cost of the construction, and Continental Airlines would pay for the other half. The Airport System plans to use a “passenger finance charge” for the next 10 years to raise nearly $400 million.
The last time Councilmember Johnson went poking around in Richard Vacar's territory (what, you think Council should have a say in how the Airport is run?!), he lost. Badly. And so did that company Vacar and Yellow Cab put out of business.
However, in light of this week's news of the Delta-Northwest merger, which could well trigger a Continental-United merger, it might be worth reconsidering the whole Terminal B expansion. In the current fuel-cost environment, it's hard to imagine that Continental is going to be in aggressive expansion mode. And if a merger with United goes through, it's also hard to imagine that the combined airline is going to need significantly more capacity right away at IAH. So the issue probably deserves more deliberation at Council.
I wonder how Richard Vacar will ultimately tell them to vote?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/17/08 11:04 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Show bidness, Houston/MLS style!
As we've been discussing already here, Mayor White has taken public the city's previously "private" negotations with the Houston Dynamo, complaining about attempts to "pressure" the city.
Here is the MLS Commissioner's letter (which implies the team will move if a stadium deal is not soon reached), and here is the Chronicle's summary:
In response to a generic question about the state of the negotiations, White told reporters that one of the team's owners recently showed him a letter from Major League Soccer urging a quick resolution to the negotiations. The letter, written by Commissioner Don Garber, hints at the possibility of moving the team from Houston if a stadium deal is not reached with the city.
"It is inconceivable that MLS will allow the team to continue playing as a secondary tenant in a college football facility, particularly after the league moved the team due to the challenges at San Jose State," Garber wrote. "While another relocation would be equally traumatic, we both must consider our options to ensure that the team has a path to economic success."
The Dynamo came to Houston in 2005 after the team was unable to reach a public-private partnership with the city of San Jose, Calif., for a new stadium.
White was blunt in his response to reporters.
"I've gotten a little bit of a reputation, probably deserved, that I don't respond well to threats," he said. "I smiled."
Team officials later held a news conference to explain that they never intended to pressure the mayor.
But Oliver Luck, president and general manager, also reiterated the team's contention that a significant city investment in the new stadium is necessary to make the franchise successful.
"We have made our position very clear to the mayor that we are looking for some public support for that building, and we will do the right thing, which is to continue to negotiate with the city to try to identify any potential revenue streams that may eventually bridge the gap we're now facing," Luck said.
Mayor White is generally the one who plays political hardball when he wants his way on some issue, and as he admits to the Chronicle, he really doesn't respond well to threats.
Since the city is already somewhat committed to this deal, my notion is that much of this was for show. MLS was surely pressuring the city behind the scenes for everything it can possibly get in negotiations it thought were private (lesson: "private" negotiations with Mayor White stay private when that suits him), Mayor White decided to go public with the "private" MLS threats, Oliver Luck goes public to say it's all a big misunderstanding (and privately delivers reduced team demands) -- and voila, everyone's happy and a deal (that is more costly to the city that what had been proposed previously) will be cut in a few weeks!
That's how I see this turning out. What do you think?
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Houston's Clear Thinkers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/17/08 10:44 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (28)
KTRK's Lawson checks in with Priscilla Slade Rehabilitation project
Not even a month since disgraced former TSU president Priscilla Slade copped a plea to avoid prison, her rehabilitation is officially in full swing, beginning with an "exclusive" softball interview with KTRK-13's Melanie Lawson. The text is not available online, but here is the video.
It is not that we were admitting that any criminal acts had taken place.
Rather, she wishes she had communicated better with the regents, because (as she puts it) everything she did was in the interest of Texas Southern University.
Strangely, the "exclusive" interview with Slade also includes a snippet from Slade's attorney blasting Chuck Rosenthal. (It is bizarre that supporters of white-collar criminals like Slade and Jay Aiyer somehow want to blame Chuck Rosenthal and portray these criminals as victims).
However, Slade herself says she forgives Rosenthal. And she hopes to get back into the corporate world or the academic world!
Maybe Slade can even show KTRK-13's "exclusive" uncritical interview to potential employers (and hope they don't deploy the research services of Google.com).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/17/08 10:16 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (5)
16 April 2008
Press: Bus Q Card loaders don't take new five dollar bills
In this week's Houston Press, Rich Connelly reports that some of METRO's Q-Card loaders aren't capable of reading the new $5 bill:
Metro's new prepaid Q Cards are supposed to be the latest thing in convenience. You can even add money to your card while you're riding on the bus!
Unless, that is, you're using one of the new five-dollar bills. The fancy Q Card machines don't take the purple-tinted currency.
Didn't anyone at Metro realize the government was changing the five? It was in all the papers.
"We're aware of this issue," says Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts. "We have software that we're about to install to process the new bills and we should have it in place by May 1, which we understand is the day the new bills will truly hit the market."
(News flash: The bills have already "truly hit the market.")
Roberts says the bus "reloaders" are custom-made; the reloaders on the light-rail platform are not custom-made, and they take the new five-dollar bills just fine.
Buses (not the 7+ mile-long train line) cover the bulk of METRO's service area, so the fact that the loaders work on the train platforms really doesn't help most transit users.
That's our favorite regional transit organization in action!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/16/08 11:29 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
Slumlord-Representative Vo just keeps digging the hole deeper
Yesterday, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles posted that Slumlord-Representative Hubert Vo had hired an alleged "political pro" to help him with his problems:
Glenn W. Smith, a former director at Public Strategies who worked for the late Gov. Ann Richards, is in town now to advise Vo on media strategy.
Smith, also a former Austin Bureau chief for the Houston Post, met with some of us today. The message was pretty clear: Vo's a good person. The apartments aren't that bad. And employees at the complexes do good things for the residents, including organizing health fairs and security training.
"I've met him a few times, and I liked him, so I wanted to help," he said. "I want him to be able to tell the good part of the story."
Cory Crow asks the obvious (and not so obvious) questions:
I'm sorry, WHAT good part of the story? The bit where the children are using dead rat carcases as toys? Or where residents of his broken down apartments are using dead rodents as a hedge against high food prices?
And in the Chron blog comments, I wondered if it might not have been a better strategy actually to FIX the slums.
The "political pro" was apparently not happy today, after Empower Texans released the following video:
Here's what the "political pro" had to say, also courtesy of Stiles:
UPDATE: A response from Glenn Smith, Vo's new spokesman:
"The Houston Chronicle used a false characterization of Mr. Vo that the paper knew was a false characterization. As expected, partisan hacks are now exploiting the Chronicle error."
Smith said he was referring to an adjective - the "s"-word - that appeared in an editorial, and not the paper's coverage overall. He wouldn't comment about that.
What was the error?
If the guy doesn't want to be called a slumlord, maybe he should fix up his properties? Crazy suggestion, I know!
PREVIOUSLY: Stiles: Slumlord-Rep. Vo urged HPD to ease up on his slums, The serial slumlord saga continues, State Rep. Vo is a serial slumlord, Hubert Vo's "next step toward positive change": ridding himself of slumlord status!.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/16/08 10:55 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
DA candidate mockery officially underway
The Houston Press has a nice PDF on the two (unqualified) candidates who are the finalists in the Harris County DA race.
And surprisingly, the Editorial LiveJournalists today said that Clarence Bradford still needs to talk about his role in the botched K-Mart parking lot raid (recently settled by the city) and the HPD Crime Lab:
While Bradford likely will avoid having to testify at trial about the Kmart fiasco, it should and likely will be an issue in his November contest with former Judge Pat Lykos for Harris County district attorney.
As the crime lab scandal also happened on his watch, Bradford must explain what responsibility he bears for these costly blunders and why he didn't prevent them.
The blog declines to make endorsements of candidates, but I have to say that "none of the above" is looking like a really good choice in this race.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/16/08 10:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
15 April 2008
Design finalists chosen for Dynamo Stadium
Wait a minute. I thought Mayor White said there wasn't a particular plan or proposal for the land the city, er, didn't buy for the Dynamo's new stadium. Well, the city DID buy it for the Dynamo, but not really (*wink, wink*). I mean, we all KNOW it's for the Dynamo, but the Mayor doesn't want any public input, so he says there's not a specific plan or proposal for the more than $16 million (speculative) land purchase.
Anyway, the Houston Business Journal reports that five finalists have been chosen to design the Dynamo Stadium that, ummmm, isn't really set to go anywhere because, uhhhh, the city doesn't have any land set aside for a soccer stadium. Really.
And don't miss the last paragraph of the HBJ story:
The Dynamo wants to have an architect in hand as it continues to negotiate the stadium financing package in which the club and the City would share the cost of the project, according to team President Oliver Luck.
"Share the cost."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/15/08 07:55 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (21)
Chron.com keeps it classy
A reader called our attention to the featured story on Chron.com last night.
As this screen capture illustrates, the featured story was about the top stolen cars in Houston, linking to this photo gallery. The link below ("Here's the full list: Are you worried?") goes to a Chron.com forum discussion. And the link below that ("Lost your car? Find another one here")? Right to the Chron.com car section.
Way to keep it classy, Chron.com, way to keep it classy.
As our reader noted with regard to the link to the car section,
I thought, no, no, no…this CAN’T be what I think it is….and it was, indeed, the car ads.
I know, I know, here’s how we can save journalism! Let’s all go out and steal cars so the car ads will increase in the Chronicle! That’s the ticket!
Don't give Jack Sweeney any ideas!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/08 06:44 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
A Klein ISD mandate: Pay up or else!
Parents of Klein Oak High School students received this email yesterday (typos and all):
The following is an important message from Klein Oak administration for all
students that will be attending Klein Oak in the Fall 2008 ~ In the fall of 2008, all klein Oak students will be issued a tablet PC. Students will be required to purchase or place a deposit for their tablet. The tablets will be an educational tool that all students will be expected to utilize
throughtout the school day and at home. Meetings have been scheduled in April and May with more meetings planned fro late summer. All parents are required to attend one of these meetings. The next meeting is Tuesday, April 15h at 6:30 pm in Klein Oak Commons. A meeting is also planned for May 8th. Payments for insurance or deposit will be accepted at this time.
"Students will be required to purchase or place a deposit for their tablet." Please! The correct wording is "Parents will be required to purchase or place a deposit for their tablet."
One bump in the hallway from another student, one little prank that goes awry, some student thievery, or whatever else you can think of...parents will be shoveling money into Klein ISD for these unnecessary toys.
And there's no opt-out.
What will the district do for families who can't afford the tablets? We may be an "affluent" district overall, but the number of families with students enrolled in Klein Oak who aren't affluent is increasing.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/15/08 06:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
14 April 2008
Arrest warrant issued for Borris "Shooter" Miles
KPRC-2 reports that an arrest warrant has been issued for outgoing state Rep. Borris Miles:
An arrest warrant was issued on Monday for state Rep. Borris Miles, accused of deadly conduct, KPRC Local 2 reported.
A Harris County assistant district attorney said that Miles was indicted in connection with two incidents in December where Miles was accused of pulling out a gun in a threatening manner.
A Houston woman and her husband filed suit against Miles earlier this year, asking that he be tested for sexually transmitted diseases and claiming he forced a kiss on the woman at a holiday party.The Harris County District Attorney's Office investigated the complaint that Miles entered a St. Regis Hotel ballroom uninvited, confronting guests, displaying a pistol and forcibly kissing the woman.
He is also accused of pulling a gun on a TSU regent's wife at a Rockets game at the Toyota Center the same night.
He was indicted on two counts of deadly conduct, a Class A misdemeanor, officials said.
If convicted, Miles, 42, faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
The dwindling number of Borris Miles supporters are going to have a hard time spinning the man's buffoonery as merely unsubstantiated accusations by personal enemies or a frivolous partisan vendetta on the part of Chuck Rosenthal. Like anyone who stands accused of criminal behavior, Borris Miles certainly is entitled to his day in court, and perhaps he'll even prove his innocence. And in all honesty, we can't wait to hear more about what sounds like one wild night in the life of Borris "Shooter" Miles!
RELATED COVERAGE: Chronicle, KTRK-13, KHOU-11.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/14/08 09:46 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
13 April 2008
Klein ISD wants Taj Mahal high schools; parents want "underperforming" district to provide a quality education
Today's Chron covers the Klein ISD bond election that we've discussed here several times. In it we learn that if the bond passes, Klein residents will be trailblazers in the Greater Houston area:
For some Klein residents, it was sticker shock of monumental proportions: two $130 million high schools included in the school district's May 10 bond proposal.
Though the Klein schools are on pace to become the most expensive campuses in the Houston area, industry leaders said the hefty price tags are simply a sign of the times: mounting construction costs and the desire of school districts to economize with super-sized facilities.
Welcome to the era of the $100-plus million high school, they say.
Cypress-Fairbanks flirted with — but didn't reach — the $100 million milestone late last year with two high schools planned for 2011. Klein's campuses, however, look to leave that figure in the dust.
The mammoth 640,000-square-foot campuses will include amenities such as natatoriums, black-box theaters, dance areas and extensive career and technology programs to serve about 3,500 students.
"The community expects those programs," said Liz Johnson, spokeswoman for the 42,000-student school district. "And it's really more efficient to build a larger school.
Ack! Yes, it's more efficient for the school district to build a larger school, but if a quality education is what's desired, larger schools are not the answer.
It seems, however, that quality education is not the top priority for Klein ISD these days, as the recent rankings from the non-profit think tank Children at Risk show. Klein High School, which would receive a $130 million rebuild if the bond passes, moved up from #19 to #18, but the other three high schools in the district nosedived. My friend Connie O'Donnell wrote a letter to KISD Superintendent Dr. Jim Cain after seeing the results. With her permission, I'm excerpting a portion of the letter here, and reprinting it in full at the end of the post.
As you are probably aware by now, the Houston Chronicle has published the findings of the Children at Risk group which ranks the Houston area schools. I remember meeting with you and Dr. Robert Sanborn, who heads up this group, and discussing the low ranking of Klein Oak not too long ago. I thought for sure we would see Klein Oak rise up the list since then, but actually Klein Oak has dropped from #40 last year to #74 this year. I am hoping that you or someone in your administration can help me understand why this has happened. As a matter of fact, here's how the other Klein ISD high schools fared: Klein High went from #19 to #18, Klein Collins went from #26 to #47 and Klein Forest went from #73 to #113.
Connie goes on to include this quote from Dr. Sanborn:
"Klein is an under-performing school district. Klein has an affluent population. They have parents who really care. It seems like they're doing all the basic things but nothing extraordinary, and that is reflected in their rankings."
The only extraordinary things Klein officials want to work on are fancy high schools with natatoriums, black box theaters, dance areas, and career centers. All that would be well and good, one supposes, if the district weren't letting the rest of its responsibilities deteriorate. It's outrageous that KISD has only one high school in the top tier! Klein Collins is second tier, Klein Oak is third tier, and Klein Forest is fourth tier! And the district wants taxpayers to rebuild Klein High into a palatial showstopper?!
Dr. Cain did respond to Connie. He disputed Dr. Sanborn's findings. He also acknowledged that Klein Oak has been facing accelerated growth, but the district's solution is to build a new wing onto the school. Yippee! That will surely improve things.
Currently Dr. Cain is busy on the Klein circuit, so to speak, selling his proposal. Word is that he's hitting seniors groups, telling them their taxes won't increase. Gee, that's great. But what about folks who try to sell a house that's zoned into one of the three tanking high schools? How's that for a selling feature?
Another part of the bond that's a concern is the "laptops-for-all." Apparently they are tablet PCs. Parents must buy insurance, and there isn't an opt out. My son saw one yesterday, and he said it's cool looking, but slower than molasses. Great! What about situations where parents are currently trying to limit the amount of time their kids spend on a computer? Thanks, Klein ISD, for taking that parenting decision out of the hands of parents. Now kids can spend hours a day perfecting their learning surfing skills.
Remember what the number one complaint of businesses is about students entering the workforce? A complete lack of basic writing, math, and reading comprehension skills. Tablet PCs really should address those problems. Not!
Too bad there aren't any grownups at Klein ISD, making the decisions. Too bad Dr. Saavedra is already taken.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/13/08 03:23 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (16)
Mayor White's Peace Plant initiative
We think Mayor White should start one, because Peace Plants and other house plants actually reduce levels of benzene in the air -- and we all know Mayor White's been after the local chemical industry to reduce benzene:
Former NASA research scientist Dr. Bill Wolverton found plants improve air quality through their natural "filtering" ability. He discovered house plants can absorb up to 87 per cent of volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde and benzene, found in many homes and offices.
Indoor plants work round the clock to "clean" the air! How? They absorb toxins into the root zone, where they're turned into nutrients. Some tropical plants suppress airborne mold. Some of the hardest working plants are the peace lilies, ferns, palms, and spider plants. Some plants actually work at night while we sleep. These green heroes "breathe out" oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide at night, rather than in the daytime, when the majority of plants do their "breathing."
[snip]
Snake plants, broad sword ferns and rubber plants are among the top air purifiers recommended by experts. They're easy to grow, are natural humidifiers and remove airborne chemicals. Other green heroes are chrysanthemums, Gerbera daisies and spider plants.
We think this could be a win-win-win: Mayor White thinks of himself as a green mayor, and what's more green than plants? He can convince chemical industry officials to provide beneficial plants to citizens in the areas most affected by benzene levels, while putting his picture and a city of Houston logo on each pot; and then he can hold a congratulatory press conference announcing his plan, to great fanfare of course, with industry leaders behind him, as he announces how he worked to bring everyone together in Peace Plant harmony.
It'll be awesome.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/13/08 07:22 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
12 April 2008
Stiles: Slumlord-Rep. Vo urged HPD to ease up on his slums
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles posts tonight that in February, Slumlord-Representative Hubert Vo sent an interesting letter to HPD assistant police chief Dorothy Edwards, who oversees Neighborhood Protection.
In the letter, Slumlord-Representative Vo accused certain officers of "using their authority to harass and issue tickets instead of working with the apartment managers" among other things.
And as Stiles points out, Vo sent the letter not on personal or company letterhead, but on his official Texas House of Representatives letterhead! Prominently displayed at the bottom of the letterhead is the fact that Slumlord-Representative Vo is on the Law Enforcement Committee.
Nothing like trying* to use your elected position of power to intimidate local law enforcement to the benefit of your private enterprise. For a relative newcomer to politics, the Slumlord-Representative catches on fast!
PREVIOUSLY: The serial slumlord saga continues, State Rep. Vo is a serial slumlord, Hubert Vo's "next step toward positive change": ridding himself of slumlord status!.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/12/08 12:44 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Best to be wary of those blind committees (of men)
The Chronicle's Kyrie "MeMo" O'Connor is lamenting the rumored departure of Katie Couric from CBS News:
I have been angry all day about the reports that Katie Couric will be forklifted out of her CBS Evening News job in the near or not-so-near future.
Here's the joke about that: You literally could not pay me to watch her newscast. For one thing, I am among the millions of people who are still at work when she comes on. For another, I get my news other ways, from print and Internet and TV, but not at that exact moment in my day. And I wouldn't even if I could. I watched her news show when she started, so thrilled to have a woman in that post that I overlooked every news muscle in my body, all of them twitching this is a mess.
From the beginning, her show looked like it was put together by a committee. A committee of well-meaning people, maybe, but not people with vision. It reminded me of everything I've fought off in very similar meetings for the past 15 years.
But I cheered on Couric, because I wanted her to succeed, or any woman to succeed, even with a stacked deck like that.
Anyone who tells you a man would have been shown the door by now, even in that mean TV game, is a fool. Women in the public eye are still treated so much worse than men it's stunning.
MeMo was never very forthcoming about who made the boneheaded decision to send a features reporter to impersonate a Katrina refugee some time ago. But this post raises an interesting possibility -- perhaps it was a committee "of well meaning people... but not people with vision." Probably dominated by men!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/12/08 12:23 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
11 April 2008
The serial slumlord saga continues
The Chron's Matt Stiles has more on state Rep. Hubert Vo's apartment buildings. When the city first ordered repairs at one of his apartment complexes, Vo didn't comply fast enough, so the city was forced to hand out misdemeanor citations:
City officials first issued warnings to make repairs at that property, but later issued misdemeanor citations when the work was not done quickly.
Vo, who hired contractors to address those issues after the city's inspections, said Wednesday that he was not aware of the conditions at his complexes but that he took full responsibility for them.
Ignorance is not a defense. In fact, it tells us a lot about his character, that he would say he was unaware of such living conditions. He ought to be ashamed of himself, he ought to apologize to his tenants, and he ought to be making some sort of restitution.
And Stiles learned that one of the ladies in yesterday's story received a suspicious phone call:
Also Thursday, a resident quoted in the Chronicle report complained about retaliation for speaking out.
Residents who complain about conditions generally are protected by state law against retaliation by their landlords.
The woman, Tomasa Compean, said Thursday morning that she was afraid the complex management was trying to force her out.
She said she received a phone call from someone who asked for her by name, and then asked if she was looking for an apartment to rent. She said she questioned the caller and was told the management of her apartment complex had passed on her phone number.
"I don't want them to do that. Why are they calling other apartments? If they want me to leave why don't they tell me themselves? I'm not going to leave. I've lived here 18 years," she said.
Later in the day, Vo's campaign denied any retaliation and said the management had agreed to complete the repairs next week.
"I also want to assure you that I have informed all my employees that there will be no retaliation against anyone who has pointed out problems to you or anyone else," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the city has ordered repairs at another of Vo's properties, with a one-month completion deadline.
Conditions are so egregious, even the Chron's editorial board has harshly criticized Vo:
"It's not my intention to have those apartments like that," Vo told the Chronicle. From a veteran apartment owner, such a statement would be doubtful. From a civic leader who is advising others on how to clean up their properties, it is ludicrous.
Vo's GOP opponent in the November election, HISD trustee Greg Meyer, criticized Vo for waiting until the apartment conditions became public before promising to deal with them. At least Vo is realistic enough to admit that the disclosures are "going to kill my reputation" and says he wants to move on and repair the damage.
If he's serious, Vo has a very busy summer ahead of him. He must tackle two levels of damage: the physical condition of his properties and his tattered political image. For starters, he should issue a complete list of his apartment holdings and detail which apartments are in need of repair and what he's doing to make them sound. He should also pay rebates to the unfortunate tenants who have been living for years in substandard conditions.
At the conclusion of that process, the legislator should apologize and promise to be a responsible property owner henceforth. It might not salvage his political career, but it would go a long way toward restoring his honor.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Democratic consultant Mark Campos calls out the local left blogosphere over its relative silence on the Vo slumlord matter:
Commentary has noticed that local Dems have been eerily quiet on the not so good run that Harris County Dem State Rep Hubert Vo has received in the Chron. There is another Chron article today plus an E-Board special. It seems like on the internet yak-off lines, local Dems have a take on every thing. In fact, most go out of their way to let you know their opinion on all kinds of stuff. Commentary has not heard a single peep coming out of the local Dem camp on this matter – nada – silence. Then again, what can you say?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/11/08 05:09 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
10 April 2008
Chron adds to Harris County government beat
Earlier today, Matt Stiles introduced the Chronicle's new Harris County government reporter, Liz Peterson.
Tonight, she's posting away on the Houston Politics blog -- and is already asking more interesting questions than the Chron's metro/teen diarist:
Earlier this week, the Commissioners Court agreed to study whether Harris County should open a public defenders office.
I chatted with a local bail bondsman this morning about his experiences in and out of Harris County courtrooms. He didn't give the court-appointed attorneys a rave review: a 5 at the very best on a scale of 1 to 10. But he's done business in Dallas as well and doesn't think their public defenders office has done much better. And he questioned whether the county could really save money in the long run, after it pays the lawyers' salaries and benefits, not to mention the cost of office space and utilities.
He raises some interesting points. Will employees of a public defenders office be better trained and equipped to handle these cases? Will they care more? Or will the results largely be the same no matter what system the county employs?
Welcome to the local blogosphere, Ms. Peterson. It's good to have some new blood around here! We're looking forward to more reporters bringing questions to Harris County government.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/10/08 10:39 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Do the restrooms have sponsors yet?
Via Swamplot and Lou Minatti we learn that Discovery Green is awash in brands/sponsors. Swamplot provides the list:
McNair Foundation Jogging Trail
Waste Management, Inc. Gardens
Lindsey Waterside Landing & Garden
Kinder Lake
Anheuser-Busch Stage
Fondren Foundation Performance Space
Cemex, USA Terrace
Flores Terrace
Vinson & Elkins Garden
Alkek Building
John P. McGovern Playground
Stedman West Veranda
Cullen Veranda
Jones Lawn
Sarofim Picnic Lawn
Andrea and Bill White Promenade
The Brown Foundation Promenade
Bracewell Plaza
Wortham Foundation Gardens
Maconda’s Grove
Riley Family Fountain
Long Plaza
Clifford and Doris Faulkner Seating Area
Compass Bank Waterside Lawn
Merrill Lynch & Co. Pier
Cooper Industries Water Garden
Monument au Fantome, a gift from the Duncan Family
Houston Astros Garden Grove
Carruth Lake Lights
Gita and Ali Saberioon Plaza
Simmons Family Stage
Sara and Bill Morgan Reading Room
Powell Foundation Reading Room
Mist Tree, a gift from Fayez Sarofim
Devon Energy Global Garden
Robert R. and Kay M. Onstead Foundation Walk
Harriet and Joe Foster Dog Run
Burguieres Foundation Seating Area
Tharp Fountain
Kinder Large Dog Run
Friends of Lily, Kelly & Sadie Kinder Seating Area
Wells Fargo Seating Area
The Bela Fountain
L.H. and C.W. Duncan Foundation Seating Area
Marathon Oil Bike Racks
Centerpoint Energy Seating Areas
Bernice Hevrdejs Butterfly Garden
Sanders Hummingbird Garden
Beverly and Staman Ogilvie Seating Area
J.P. Morgan Chase Bench Area
Jimi Derrick’s Arbor
Wachovia Securities Seating Area
Nancy G. Kinder Oak
Jack C. Alexander Plaza
Lily Chen Foster Garden
Allen Family Rose Garden
Mary Lents Native Plant Garden
Fulbright & Jaworski LLP Garden
Carruth Foundation Bocce Courts
Hagstette Putting Green
Michelle Rozzell Bulb Garden
Trini’s Shuffleboard Court
Listening Vessels, a gift from Maconda Brown O’Connor
Martin Family Scent Garden
Ray C. Fish Foundation Bench Area
I don't think the Reading Rooms refer to the restrooms.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/10/08 07:18 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (13)
State Rep. Vo is a serial slumlord
After last week's news that state Rep. Hubert Vo is a slumlord (who owns a $4.5 million mansion), the Chron's Matt Stiles took a field trip to visit Vo's other properties. What he found is that last week's discovery was not an isolated incident:
Residents in local apartments owned by state Rep. Hubert Vo live in conditions that appear to violate numerous health and building standards, a Houston Chronicle review of the properties has found.
In recent days, the Houston Chronicle documented exposed electrical wires, rotting wood, broken and boarded-up windows and other potential violations of the city's "minimum standards" for occupied buildings.
After seeing the Chronicle's photographs, inspectors from two city departments pledged investigations into properties owned by Vo, D-Houston, saying the conditions could lead to misdemeanor criminal citations.
"There was nothing in those pictures that wasn't a violation," said Jodi Silva, a spokeswoman for the Houston Police Department's neighborhood protection division. "You have to keep your property to certain minimum standards, and that's what these are falling under."
The Chronicle's inquiry began last week after city inspectors, acting on complaints, cited Vo for conditions at an apartment complex he owns in the East End. There, inspectors found open electrical boxes, loose wiring and inadequate balcony railings — all misdemeanor violations.
Vo's other properties, in varying degrees, showed similar problems, though one complex was outside the city limits and not subject to post-construction inspections.
Among other potential city violations at three complexes were overflowing Dumpsters, damaged parking lots and an algae-filled swimming pool — all conditions that could prompt criminal fines.
Vo, who has owned the properties for years, took blame for the problems Wednesday, saying he had not done enough to ensure the complexes were maintained. He said he would improve the conditions, pledging personal inspections of individual units, cooperation with city officials and outreach to residents to encourage them to report concerns.
So, while Vo touts himself as "Dedicated to Public Service" and "Accessible. Responsive. Independent.," he has actually not been interested in serving the people who pay him rent each month, until Stiles started poking around. Examples:
Tomasa Compean, 58, has lived for 18 years in her one-bedroom unit, where she pays $450 a month and has never received new carpet or paint. White powder bug poison outlines her baseboards, and a leaky faucet has left a large patch of rust and mildew in her tub, which apartment officials have covered only with paint.
[snip]
"The worst things are the roaches and mice. That's just too much."
Carmen Aguilar, whose two-bedroom apartment faces a dusty courtyard next to a swimming pool filled with opaque green water, pointed to a buckled wall and a large, moldy hole above her bathtub.
Meanwhile, Vo is having a pity party:
Vo said he knew he would face criticism:
"It's going to affect me very much. It's going to kill my reputation. I just have to move on and try to repair the damage.
It's all about him. Poor Hubert Vo.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Be sure to click over to the Chronicle photo gallery of the Vo Slums. This photo of a murky green swimming pool is pretty good, although the actual structural violations of the slums are more of a concern. Certainly, the photos are quite a contrast from those of Vo's personal real estate!
RELATED: More Vo Real Estate for Sale: Memorial Mansion with Multiples (Swamplot)
BLOGVERSATION: Houston Politics, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Swamplot.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/10/08 05:06 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (14)
09 April 2008
UH academic: Enforcement of immigration laws damaging to immigrants!
The Chronicle's Susan Carroll reports that "immigrant rights" organizers are putting together a downtown protest march next month:
Immigrant advocates in Houston on Wednesday called for supporters of comprehensive immigration reform to join a May 1 march downtown as part of a larger, nationwide protest.
The Houston march is scheduled to coincide with protests, marches and rallies across the country, said Maria Jimenez, a longtime Houston activist, calling it a "national mobilization." Organizers had no projected turnout for the march, which will start at 2 p.m. in front of the Mickey Leland Federal Building at 1919 Smith St., and end at Antioch Park at 1400 Smith St.
"We're inviting the community to stand up for itself," said Cesar Espinoza, an organizer with the Central American Resource Center in southwest Houston. "We need to fight laws that damage our communities and our families."
Organizers said they were hoping to bring attention to a bill pending in Congress called the SAVE Act, the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement Act, which would add an estimated 8,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents and require employers to use federal databases to verify the status of all workers. The SAVE Act offers no path toward legalization for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Lorenzo Cano, associate director of the University of Houston Center for Mexican American Studies, said the act misses the crux of the immigration issue by focusing primarily on enforcement and ignoring the millions of immigrants drawn to the U.S. for work.
The notion that the U.S. shouldn't begin to make some minimal effort to enforce its immigration laws because illegal immigrants think that's mean doesn't seem all that convincing to us -- but then again, we aren't illegal immigrants or academics at UH's Mexican American Studies program.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/08 10:18 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
08 April 2008
KTRK wins another round in email fight; Sheriff undeterred
KTRK-13's Christine Dobbyn reports that the local ABC affiliate won another legal battle today in its effort to obtain emails from the Sheriff's Department:
13 Undercover asked for thousands of deleted emails from Sheriff Tommy Thomas. Now, after weeks of fighting for our legal right to see those emails, we will finally get the chance.
The ruling out of the 281st District Court says the sheriff's department email policy put into place on January 9 violates state law, and the judge says they cannot ever enact a policy like this one again.
The email policy was ordered in place by the sheriff's department on January 9 -- two days after 13 Undercover reporter Wayne Dolcefino interviewed Sheriff Thomas as part of multiple investigative reports. The policy ordered all departmental emails more than 14 days old be deleted.
[snip]
The ruling says the sheriff's department email policy violated state law and tells the department they can never enact a policy like this one again. Deputies must make all the emails available to Dolcefino within two weeks, and the department must pay Wayne's attorneys fees. That means the sheriff's department's decision to fight the original request will cost taxpayers $30,000.
That seems like great news for the public. Given the energy and expense involved in the fight to withhold the public's information, the emails could be very interesting.
The Sheriff's Department may not be done spending your money to withhold your information, however:
First Assistant County Attorney John Barnhill told Eyewitness News, "We've spoken with the Harris County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Tommy Thomas has requested that we file an appeal in this case on his behalf. Accordingly we will file a notice of appeal."
At what point can some grownup in Harris County government insist to Sheriff Thomas that he's wasted enough of the public's money, and that it's time to turn over the public's information?
RELATED COVERAGE: Chronicle.
BLOGVERSATION: Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/08 11:50 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chronicle reports on a deaf inmate's problems communicating; however, he communicated with a bat...
In this story the Chronicle takes the case of a young man who was in jail and who is deaf. Reporter Terri Langford addresses the issues of communicating with deaf people inside the Harris County jail. Okay, fine, no problem. Langford left out one, teeny, tiny little factoid in this story.
"Christopher Fuentes' hands fly in front of him, recalling his recent stay inside the Harris County Jail after a violent Super Bowl Sunday fight with his brother landed him there."
What reporter Langford didn't elaborate on was that Mr. Fuentes took a base ball bat and almost beat his brother to death. The two got into an argument (because Mr. Fuentes wanted something and was told no by his mother) and started fighting. At the scene, police were told the brother did pick up a knife, but never got to use it. The brother was knocked on the floor and was trying to defend himself, but Mr. Fuentes kept beating him, and beating him, and beating him. The house was a bloody mess. So reserve your sympathy for this guy. The alleged "knife wound" was news to everyone since nobody said the knife got used.
"As a teen, Fuentes was diagnosed as bipolar and received services and medication ..." His mother told officers this on the scene and was trying to convince the officers that he wasn't responsible for his actions. She was overheard by one officer saying she was going to try to downplay this to help her son. It looks as if that is exactly what she did.
Posted by Jason @ 04/08/08 09:40 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Mayor White's gonna FIRE people if airport expansion runs over budget!
You probably heard yesterday that a big expansion is scheduled for Terminal B at Bush Intercontinental (via KHOU-11):
Seven years and at least $1.2 billion from now, the outdated Terminal B will be five times bigger. There will be more gates, new regional jet facilities and a second federal inspection building that will allow for even more international flights.
When asked about the cost and time overruns that plagued Terminal E's expansion, Mayor White said: