Does Mayor White trust the voters?
We nearly passed out this morning when we saw Rad Sallee's story in today's Chronicle:
Two days after Metro's revised transit plan was announced, criticism was bubbling up in the minority communities whose votes for light rail tipped the scales in a close election.
"It's clearly a slap in the face," the Rev. William Lawson said of the Metropolitan Transit Authority's decision to begin with a guided busway system in his southeast Houston neighborhood and three others. Metro says these will be upgraded to light rail when ridership increases.
[snip]
"The largest percentage of Metro riders are people from the southeast quadrant," Lawson said, "and they needed the votes of those people to get the issue passed."
State Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, and Councilman Adrian Garcia, whose district includes the largely Hispanic Near Northside, said the Uptown-Galleria connection was a surprise.
"I've never seen any language in what I sold to my constituents that had the Galleria in it," Gallegos said.
"When you go to the fine print, they're telling me it's perfectly legal and when we wait a few years we'll get light rail, but that's saying 'trust me.' "
Minister Robert Muhammad, head of Nation of Islam's southwest region, who endorsed the 2003 Metro plan, said the change of plans "may be the straw that broke the camel's back politically. We can't trust anything that they say."
The referendum passed with 52 percent of the vote.
About 74 percent of low-income blacks and 80 percent of middle-income blacks voted for the Metro light rail plan.
So did 57 percent of Hispanics, compared with 45 percent of middle-income whites and 42 percent of upper-income whites.
We have wondered how the minority community feels about Metro's endless cutting of bus routes so it can concentrate on 7.5 miles of downtown light rail. Mayor White no doubt thinks he has salvaged Metro's expansion plans, but my guess is he never consulted anyone from the communities that REALLY rely on Metro for transportation. Heck, since we haven't heard a peep out of Judge Eckels, we wonder if Mayor White consulted with anyone from Harris County about the new plan.
Since the new plan IS dramatically different from the 2003 voter-approved plan, Mayor White should tell Metro to put it to a vote. $1 billion of local tax money is a big commitment and we know from past experience that Metro will require more and more funding. Light rail has an insatiable appetite, just like the Metro Bigs pushing for it. Plus, Houston-area residents are getting smarter -- we don't want to keep hearing the "trust us" refrain. We are tired of trusting and getting squat in return.
If Mayor White and Metro think it is such a good plan, they should have enough confidence to put it to a vote, just like the mayor did with SAFEclear and the smoking ban. Oh that's right...we didn't get to vote on those -- Mayor White made an executive decision, and convinced City Council to agree with him.
Maybe Mayor White doesn't trust the voters.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 10:17 AM | Houston Politics | Print | Comments (18)
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