01 October 2009
Houblog analyzes the coming water-bill increases
Because of recent technical problems*, Ubu Roi wasn't able to post his thoughts here on the coming increases in Houston water bills.
Fortunately, he did post those thoughts on his original blog, Houblog.
Here's a completely out-of-context teaser to entice readers to click over:
It’s misleading, grandstanding, and worse, it’s utterly unwarranted....
* Our web host has become completely unreliable, hence the down time this week. We'll likely be moving things over the weekend. We'll try not to break anything, at least not for too long.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/01/09 10:07 PM |
Chron's multipurpose muni reporter travels state with Senate Candidate White
The Chronicle's Bradley Olson traveled with Senate Candidate Bill White outside of Houston recently, and reports on the experience here.
For those keeping score at home, that means Olson now seems to be manning the Senate Candidate White, City Hall, municipal elections, court report, and boat rescue beats for the Chronicle.
Jeff Cohen may want to get this guy some help at some point, before he collapses in a hard-working heap!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/01/09 09:10 PM |
Examiner: Trees return to Kirby
The Examiner's Michael Reed reported last week that trees are returning to Kirby.
It's still one ugly, expanded stretch of concrete if you ask us.
But, that's the price of progress, we suppose. Traffic should zip right along on the new, expanded runways. And hey, in 20 years those new trees might resemble all those that were removed for the raceway expansion. If they actually are watered and such, that is.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/01/09 08:32 PM |
30 September 2009
Texas Watchdog investigates adventures in no-bid contracting, METRO-style
Recently, we've seen Mayor Bill White skirt the city's contracting rules to put the artist now known as The One* in place to clean up a BARC mess that had not previously been a priority and that threatened to be a drag on Senate Candidate Bill White's campaign.
That's nothing, however, compared to METRO's use of no-bid contracts for consultants under Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson.
Texas Watchdog has the details in this story today.
METRO contends that the use of such consultants can actually save the taxpayers money, and gives the organization flexibility.
We're open to the argument that one-off consulting can sometimes be more efficient, but we also think public organizations should operate with much greater transparency than this.
When deals are ramrodded through by high-ranking public officials with no public debate or scrutiny -- especially when those deals involve former colleagues of the officials or even self-promoters who are known as The One* -- what is the public supposed to think? Indeed, how is the public even to know, in an age of shrinking newsrooms?
That's why public organizations should make the case with the public well in advance of any such deals (and in our view, should try to keep them rare).
* We are referring to BARC "change agent" Gerry Fusco, who has referred to himself as "The One" in public interviews.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/30/09 08:56 AM |
28 September 2009
Chron returns to topic of police shootings
The Houston Chronicle has returned to a favorite topic with this article about how shootings by law enforcement in Harris County have risen this year. According to reporter James Pinkerton, as of 24 September there have been 44 police shootings in Harris County. This has already surpassed the total number of police shootings for the last two years.
Read the explanations offered by our community.
First, HPOU President Gary Blankinship cites the end of the city's paid overtime program. He also cites rising unemployment due to the state of the economy as of late. However not everyone who is out of a job is out committing a crime. Police are hearing that excuse from people. However it's usually from the same people who were out screwing up when the economy was good.
Next we have media-appointed community activist Quanell X. He seems still hung up on Chuck Rosenthal. He also refuses to look at the whole picture, particularly from the perspective of the officer at risk, who doesn't have the benefit of hindsight. He wants to see more officers charged regardless of the facts.
Next was a shock. Donna Hawkins, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, blames permissive gun laws! Was she reading a bad script? She was quoted as follows,
If more people have the access and it becomes easier to carry them, there tends to be more shooting and more situations involving police officers.
Posted by Jason @ 09/28/09 07:25 PM |
26 September 2009
KPRC's Dean reports on Park-and-Pillage failures; METRO tries to shield data from public
KPRC-2's Stephen Dean reports that METRO's ongoing experiment with camera surveillance as a replacement for live security officers at the Park-and-Pillage lots is still going poorly:
The Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority reported that 271 camera failure reports have been filed since January 2008, with 10 instances of entire Park & Ride lots being offline and invisible to police officers who are supposed to watch the cameras for crime.
Some METRO police officers told Local 2 Investigates the problem is much more widespread than those numbers suggest. Those officers said they are being posted at Park & Ride lots nearly every day in response to crimes that were never detected by the network of 354 cameras.
A well-run, responsive public organization might reconsider the whole cameras-as-replacement-for-security gambit.
METRO, on the other hand, responded as it usually does:
METRO transit headquarters has filed documents in an effort to keep quiet about its camera failures. In response to a Local 2 Investigates request for complete camera maintenance and outage reports, METRO filed with the Texas Attorney General, asking that the documents be kept secret.
That's outrageous -- but not surprising.
Recall that METRO chief Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson once asserted that METRO operates "in a completely transparent manner."
Right!
PREVIOUSLY: BH Park-and-Pillage Archives.
Photo by flickr user Andyrob used via a Creative Commons license.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/09 02:01 PM |
Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom? (#2)
As reported by the Chronicle's Bradley Olson, Senate Candidate Bill White recently warned voters to be wary of any new spending proposed by Houston's mayoral candidates:
White, who has shied away from endorsing or even offering tacit support to those vying to replace him, weighed in last week with surprising advice for voters: Beware of any promises of new spending in 2010 and 2011.“Texas has not come out of the recession, and sales tax receipts are dropping,” White wrote in a post on his Facebook page Tuesday. “Be sure not to vote for our next mayor based on commitments of more spending in the next two years.”
Houston Mayor Bill White, of course, has not been shy about spending money on his priorities. This week, KTRK-13's Wayne Dolcefino checked out White's prized weatherization program and found plenty of wasteful spending.
In Part 1, Dolcefino examines the high cost of the city's light-bulb replacement program (as opposed to the cost at Home Depot).
In Part 2, Dolcefino examines the high cost of other items (caulk, ceiling fans) purchased as part of the program.
In Part 3, Dolcefino reports that the State of Texas has been much slower to spend federal "stimulus" dollars that have been allocated for a similar weatherization program, in hopes of avoiding some of the expensive missteps of the Houston program:
Part of the delay is making sure Texas and other states can actually manage to spend all that money efficiently.
"The problem and challenge now is that you're going from a $13 million program to a $327 million program," said Gerber [from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs].
[snip]
"There are going to be a different set of rules the city is going to have to adhere to."
That will mean an end to spending the money the way Houston Mayor Bill White has been spending it: in handpicked neighborhoods where 50 percent of the homes met the guidelines.
We are not optimistic that the state's program will be significantly less wasteful than Mayor White's boondoggle, but kudos to Dolcefino for his investigation (we would love to see a followup on contractors who have benefited from the program). Be sure to click over, or check out the embedded videos below.
BLOGVERSATION: Live Oaks.
PREVIOUSLY: Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom? (#1).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/09 12:33 PM |
Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (#1)
Senate-candidate White donned his mayoral cap this week to caution Houston's mayor-wannabes about excessive spending during the current recession (via the Chron's Bradley Olsen):
White warns against new spending
Mayor tells voters to be wary of promises by candidates who are vying for his job“Texas has not come out of the recession, and sales tax receipts are dropping,” White wrote in a post on his Facebook page Tuesday. “Be sure not to vote for our next mayor based on commitments of more spending in the next two years.”
That's good advice: Be wary of promises by candidates.
However, a new press release on the mayor's official website touts his success at spending millions for his own green preferences:
The City of Houston and Mayor Bill White have been recognized by Automotive Fleet Magazine as one of the nation’s top Green Fleet Leaders and will receive the first annual “Green Fleet Leadership” Award at the 2009 Green Fleet Conference, October 19-20, in Chicago.
The City of Houston’s green fleet accomplishments include:
-- Replacing 683 passenger vehicles with hybrids through the Mayor’s Hybrid Initiative, as well as scheduled replacement of 34 heavy-duty vehicles with hybrid and clean-diesel vehicles.
-- Surpassing Houston’s own emissions reduction plan by achieving total 2009 fleet greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 90,864 tons per year (tpy), 6.1% below Houston’s 2010 Emissions Reduction Plan goal of 96,761 tpy and 7.8% below the 2010 business-as-usual projection (Of note: overall GHG emissions have increased by only 3% despite the fleet increasing in size by 12%).
-- Reducing fleet fuel consumption from 9.4 million gallons in 2005 to 8.8 million gallons in 2009.
So, let's do a little math, using some reasonably guesstimated numbers:
683 passenger vehicles (Toyota Prius') x $25,000 = $17.1 million
.6 million gallon fuel consumption reduction x $2.20 = $1.32 million
Mayor White spent $17 million (give or take) to save $1.5 million (give or take). You may now insert the joke about the wife who justifies her shopping spree by telling her husband how much money she saved.
Indeed, Texans should be wary of promises by candidates.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/26/09 12:02 PM |
Congrats to BH favs Cory Crow and Mike McGuff!
We're a little behind on praising a couple more BH friends who won awards this week (from the corporate-posing-as-alt-media types...)
It's definitely worth noting that Village Voice Houston recently honored BH favs Cory Crow (Best Blog) and Mike McGuff (best twitterer).
We're much more partial to a certain icehouse that opened a few decades ahead of this year's winner, but hey, corporate-alt-media has spoken.
Congrats to our friends who did manage to garner praise! We're open to buying 'em a beer (or several, most likely) at the Best Icehouse in Texas (if not in Houston *eyeroll*) whenever they'd like. We may even turn it into a BH event (we like good excuses like this).
Open comments on these winners and the others -- knock yourselves out!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/09 12:12 AM |
24 September 2009
KHOU's Greenblatt scores Emmy for stories on HPD homicide misreporting
KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt just won an Emmy for his investigative series on HPD's homicide misreporting.
Recall that city officials once tried to smear Greenblatt for his reporting, before conceding his points.
Congratulations to Greenblatt for a job well done! The KHOU-11 press release is below.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/09 09:55 PM |
23 September 2009
Tyler Cowen and commenters address Houston, zoning, and land-use restrictions
Tyler Cowen's Marginal Revolution blog recently linked to this old (2005) paper by Michael Lewyn on "How Overregulation Creates Sprawl (Even in a City without Zoning)."
As readers well know, Houston does not have the sort of macro-level zoning that severely curtails how certain land can be used. However, Lewyn contends that some of Houston's micro-level land-use restrictions are, in some ways, as far-reaching as zoning -- and that a less restrictive environment might actually lead to less sprawl and less automobile dependency. We've seen some of these topics addressed on NeoHOUSTON and Houston Strategies, but this paper and the comments on Cowen's blog make for interesting reading (be sure to look for Houston Strategist Tory Gattis in those comments).
Since our audience is more local, we'd be interested in your thoughts.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/09 08:34 PM |
22 September 2009
Chronicle is (quietly) looking for some reporters
We've been hearing rumors from journalist friends attending conferences that the Houston Chronicle has been quietly advertising some jobs for a while now, but hadn't been able to track down anything concrete (the Chron "reader rep" doesn't answer our emails, which makes it hard to get questions answered).
Until yesterday, that is. Chron business editor Tara Young was tweeting about attending a seminar with other journalists, and announced:
Folks were surprised to hear that the Houston Chronicle is hiring. But it's true! We need: an oil and gas, a county and a political writer!
All of the people laid off in March must be heartened to know that the Chronicle is in growth mode again.
Come to think of it, maybe THAT is why the positions aren't showing up on JournalismJobs.com!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/22/09 09:51 PM |
21 September 2009
Shay: Council turf battle over NASA?
KTRK-13's Miya Shay blogs about a little turf battle between At-Large Councilmember and Mayoral Candidate Peter Brown and Councilmember Mike Sullivan.
Apparently, Brown suggested that Council take up some vague resolution in support of NASA. Councilmember Sullivan rejected Brown's meddling (NASA resides in Sullivan's district), suggesting his colleague's recent interest in the matter could harm the strategy Sullivan had been pursuing in support of NASA. Be sure to click over to Shay's blog for all the details.
Here is the part that stood out for us:
The Mayor’s office replied that it does not in general issue resolutions on issues, but that it will discuss it in its weekly meetings.
Now, if one of the mayor's favorites needed a letter to help promote expensive condos, or needed someone to use eminent domain to seize land for an otherwise unplanned park in support of a favored development*, THAT might get some attention from the mayor.
Useless resolutions on issues? Apparently not. The Houston Way is more about making things happen than declarations.
BLOGVERSATION: Bay Area Houston.
* Speaking of that Galleria-area land taking, the folks at Texas Watchdog filed an interesting addendum to that story last week when reporting on spousal campaign finance disclosures more generally. "None other than Anne Brown was an investor in the development," they noted, "and her husband [Councilmember Peter Brown] voted to condemn the patch of land." To repeat -- The Houston Way is more about making things happen than declarations!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/09 11:20 PM |
Letter writer Andrew Prieditis visits with blogHOUSTON
While catching up on the Chron letters page back in August, we ran across a writer (Andrew Prieditis) who managed to have two letters published in one week, a violation of the newspaper's stated letters policy. One of those letters was published in multiple newspapers across the country, with Prieditis claiming to be from the hometown of each newspaper. We discovered that Prieditis had published such letters all over the world, and wrote it up in this post (which was picked up by Romenesko, and led to other people looking into Prieditis and his letter writing).
At the time, we emailed several addresses we found for Prieditis to try to secure an interview. We finally heard back from Prieditis, and this is the Q&A we conducted via email. Of interest to local readers is his admission that the Chronicle never attempted to contact him to verify any of his information. The unprofessional and unresponsive newspaper ignored our questions about their letters policy at the time, and our recent followup questions (just as it ignores our legitimate corrections requests), but let it be noted that we did ask for comment. Here is our interview with Prieditis.
BH: It appears you lived for some time in the Germantown, MD area here in the states, but recent reports suggest you're in Australasia now. Could you tell me what place is truly "home" for you at the moment?
AP: Sure. Hamilton, New Zealand is currently where I reside.
BH: Why did you claim to be from the home cities of all those different newspapers?
AP: I usually put my address local to the newspaper in question to maximize the chance of being published. I've found that, as a general rule, if I were to put my actual address, I'd stand a lower chance of being published than if I were a local. Also, I just don't want to take any risks of not being published. Being published is really the big thing.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/09 12:10 PM |
20 September 2009
Linkpost: 09/20/09
The little blog may have taken the weekend off, but many folks were posting away. Here's a selection from local blogs. Oh, and how about those Texans?!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/20/09 10:16 PM |
17 September 2009
Chron: METRO approves massive new budget, fare increases; public in the dark until last minute
The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel reports that METRO approved a massive new budget today that contains another round of fare increases.
Feibel reported this morning on the proposed fare increase. There hasn't been much awareness or discussion of the fare increase, mainly because METRO prefers to keep the public in the dark on its full budget.
Feibel recently reported on METRO's lack of budget transparency, and today even the Chronicle editorial board, one of the enablers of METRO's nontransparent and arrogant behavior over the years, chided METRO for its budget secrecy.
Not that any of it really matters. As long as Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson is running METRO and we have a mayor who is disinterested in METRO, Wilson is going to do what he pleases. Too bad if public watchdogs, or the public itself, object.
It will be interesting to see if the fare increases actually produce an increase in revenues. If Bill King is right, revenues won't increase, and may well continue their decline.
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Watchdog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/17/09 10:27 PM |
Senate-Candidate White orders investigation into Mayor White's favorite "low-income advocacy group"
KTRK-13 ran this tidbit yesterday afternoon:
Houston Mayor Bill White is taking a closer look at the city's connection to the low-income Houston advocacy group ACORN. That comes after the group's CEO, Bertha Lewis, ordered an independent investigation into the group's systems and processes.
Mayor White didn't think anything was done wrong, but he looked at a $155,000 grant given to ACORN from the City of Houston just to make sure everything was on the up-and-up. The grant was to help people facing home foreclosure.
Senate-Candidate White is getting good at this.
FROM THE MAYOR'S PRESS RELEASE ARCHIVES: Mayor White & ACORN team up to fight foreclosure
Photo of Senate Candidate Bill White by flickr user STANANDLOU.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/17/09 06:09 PM |
16 September 2009
TV news elaborates on recent print stories
On Sunday, the Chronicle broke the news that area taxpayers might have to bail out the Sports Authority, despite repeated promises that such a thing could NEVER happen. In a followup blog post, Anne Linehan pointed out Gene Locke's connection to the Sports Authority. Yesterday, KTRK-13 followed up on how the news might affect the mayoral race. Chron.com's Houston Politics blog called attention to the KTRK story today (while noting that it failed to credit the Chronicle's reporting).
Way back on 2 September, the Houston Press posted that a change in UH's book-loan policy was forcing students to buy books at the offical university bookstore, as opposed to the off-campus College Store. Today, KTRK went to the campus to report further on the change. We can't say we're THAT surprised that the university would funnel book-loan proceeds towards its own bookstore.
In other news, we're pretty sure print media reported the mayoral candidates all exclaimed "me too!" at some gathering or another, and TV media presented audio/video confirmation of the "me too!" moments. But we're too lazy to track down those links tonight.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/16/09 11:00 PM |
15 September 2009
Linkpost: 09/15/09
The local blog talk backlog has gotten a little ridiculous, so here is a selection of good links from the last few days.
- City Council Candidate Lives A Life Of Danger, He Says (Hair Balls)
- Chronicle: Metro keeps full budget hidden, posts committee workshop notices (Texas Watchdog)
- Jail Hell (Defending People)
- Is (Or Was) There a "Houston Accent"? (Slampo's Place)
- Karen Derr Promises Not To Tear Down City Hall, Either (Swamplot)
- In and Around the New North Montrose Whole Foods (Swamplot)
- Harris County Republican Party Chairman Race Forum (Big Jolly Politics)
- Fiestas Patrias Parade - HCRP Blows Opportunity, Again (Big Jolly Politics)
- DA Reluctance Almost Costs Citizens (Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee)
- Does anyone take John McClain seriously? (Houston's Clear Thinkers)
- 2009 Weekly local football review (Houston's Clear Thinkers)
- Montrose Chinese Restaurant - Give it a Try (Fat Baby)
- Grass-fed Beef: Healthier Hamburgers (Eating our Words)
- Southbound Food show #8 (I'm Never Full)
- Coming To La Carafe: More Room To Smoke and Drink (Hair Balls)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/09 10:18 PM |
Rice Prof gives good grades to SAFEclear program he helped design
In today's Chronicle, Carolyn Feibel reports on a study by Bob Stein (Houston's expert on everything) that found a correlation between SAFEclear response times and a reduction in traffic accidents:
Houston's mandatory towing program has continued to reduce crashes on the city's freeways, according to a city-commissioned study released Monday.[snip]
“It makes the program look exceptionally effective,” said Bob Stein, a Rice University professor who co-authored the study with Tim Lomax of the A&M Texas Transportation Institute. (Stein's wife works for the White administration as a City Council agenda director.)
Cory Crow offers (tongue-in-cheek?) congratulations to the Chronicle for identifying Stein's wife (something that is not always done by the newspaper).
However, we would have preferred that the newspaper identify Stein as one of the architects of the SAFEclear program, a relevant fact reported previously by Rad Sallee for the Chronicle.
Helping design a program for the City of Houston and THEN being commissioned by the city to study its effectiveness is a pretty good gig!
Come to think of it, it's not unlike mayoral staffer Anthony Hall approving various expenditures by Richard Vacar at the Houston Airport System, and later overseeing the investigation of the same when Vacar's mysterious departure raised questions.
That's how the connected class rolls in Houston. We like to call it The Houston Way.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/09 09:57 PM |
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