03 July 2008

Happy Fourth!

Here's wishing everyone a very happy Fourth of July weekend.

Happy Birthday, America!

ANNE ADDS: If you live in unincorporated Harris County, be sure to thumb your nose at the Chron killjoys. Klein Oak Band is running the Fireworks Warehouse on FM 2920, west of I-45 and across from Spring Tabernacle, as a fundraiser. If you live in far north Harris County, drop by, say hi, and spend some money. I'll be working 'til 2 this afternoon.

Happy Independence Day!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/03/08 10:17 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (0)

02 July 2008

Editorial LiveJournalists: License renewal office NOT the ideal state!

One of the Editorial LiveJournalists apparently descended from the sheltered offices of 801 Texas Avenue to discover that in-person license renewals are inconvenient and inefficient:

Texans can renew their driver's license online, and change the address on the license online. But for no obvious reason, the department won't let Texans do both if their license has expired. Those with an expired license and a new address must go to one of the department's crowded, poorly maintained offices.

At the office on Dacoma Street, visitors are met with a dysfunctional bureaucracy that combines the horrifying absurdity of a Franz Kafka story with the cruel indifference of the Soviet bureaucracy before it crumbled. First, one must wait in line for an application. Then applicants must fill it out standing up or squatting on the floor, because there aren't enough chairs, and using the office's broad counters is prohibited. Tantalizingly, DPS officials withhold the purpose of this policy.

After a torturous wait of a couple of hours or more, applicants are called by number to stand in a second slow-moving line before getting their applications processed. At the rear of the second line is a small sign stating "No cell phones beyond this point."

I had to go to the Dacoma office a few weeks ago. While it was slow and inefficient (like many bureaucracies! Imagine how splendid it would be if there were a Department of Government Healthcare!), it actually wasn't as bad as I expected (total wait was slightly over an hour), and in my experience it didn't approach "the horrifying absurdity of a Franz Kafka story with the cruel indifference of the Soviet bureaucracy before it crumbled."

We think we know which Editorial LiveJournalist didn't qualify for online renewal, though. Check out this Editorial LiveJournal by Mr. Gibbons that we mocked way back in 2005:

The presiding judge of Houston's municipal courts, Berta Mejia, announced that police officers will soon be coming around and arresting those who failed to appear in court or pay the fines for their traffic tickets. As police and court officials are making their list of delinquents, I suggest they check it twice.

Last week as I was driving downtown I was pulled over by a Houston police officer. He said there was an arrest warrant issued for the driver of a car with my license plates. It was a mistake, perhaps a clerical error. I receive few tickets and have none outstanding. The officer allowed me to go.

Before I drove off I asked the officer if he could do something to prevent me from being stopped again. He said no, there was nothing he could do. It was up to me to straighten it out.

I called Judge Mejia's office, but an official said that mistaken warrants were not her department. There was nothing the judge could do. I was referred to the office of the chief clerk, but my call was neither answered nor, after I left a voice mail, returned.

An operator at the city's 311 help line confirmed that there was no warrant in my name or in the name of anyone driving a car with my plates.

The city computer showed an old ticket had been paid, leaving a balance due of zero. The operator said she could not withdraw or dismiss a warrant because none existed.

So there it was. There was nothing anyone could do.

I have not used the adjective "Kafka-esque" since the Nixon administration, but it's always there, ready and waiting, if I should need it.

Like when an Editorial LiveJournalist must descend from the Chron mothership to go renew a license in person. The DPS office must be cowering in fear about now!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/08 09:47 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)

01 July 2008

Is Mayor White ready for state politics? (PoliSci@UST)

The profs say the mayor has some work to do yet -- but there's plenty of time (PoliSci@UST).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/08 09:37 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

The public trial and conviction of Joe Horn (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport)

Cory Crow discusses the Chron's discussion of the Joe Horn matter (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/08 09:34 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Harris County grand jury on target (Brent's Blog)

Brent Clanton discusses the Joe Horn matter (Brent's Blog).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/08 09:30 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Not right, but not a crime (Defending People)

Mark Bennett discusses the Joe Horn matter (Defending People).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/08 09:29 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

City launches new campaign finance tools (Chron Houston Politics)

Matt Stiles posts about improvements to the city's campaign finance reporting system (Chron Houston Politics).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/08 09:20 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Ten jinxed Houston restaurant locations (Eating Our Words)

John Nova Lomax has a list (Eating our Words).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/08 09:17 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

TMC to start Park and Ride service

Texas Medical Center employees will soon have a new transit option according to KHOU-11:

“Soon, Texas Medical Center employees could come to this AMC theater parking lot in Sugar Land, leave their cars and hop on a bus for a ride.”

“I’m definitely excited,” employee Dionne Flynn said. “I’m waiting for it to actually start working.”

Flynn and her fiancé work at the Medical Center and hope to take the park-and-ride.

Like so many employees surveyed, they say something’s got to give. and it isn’t gas prices. Eighty-one percent of employees said yes, and they’re about to get it: bus rides from fort bend county to the medical center.

“And it’s like door-to-door service,” park-and-rider user Percy Patel said. “I can’t ask for more, right?”

Sugar Land is the first proposed location, but the system will grow—paid for by the Medical Center’s parking garages. Spaces no longer used by employees will bring in more money. That’ll subsidize bus costs, and riders will shell out a few dollars.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Patel said.

There's no mention of Metro's "transit backbone."

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/01/08 04:58 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (12)

30 June 2008

What’s Wrong with Richard Justice, Jose de Jesus Ortiz, Cecil Cooper and Carlos Lee, to Name a Few (Houstoned Ballz)

Want to know what "the great minds running the Astros think"? John Royal says all you need to do is read Richard Justice and Jesus Ortiz to find out (Houstoned Ballz).

Cory Crow has more (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/08 08:59 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Terry Abbott, HISD's press secretary, resigning (School Zone)

HISD press secretary Terry Abbott will be leaving his post for the private sector at the end of August (School Zone).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/08 08:41 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

HCC "leadership" favors athletics program

The Chronicle's Ronnie Turner reports that HCC is considering an unnecessary extravagance:

The Houston Community College System board of trustees will vote Tuesday on a student fee that would enable it to add an intramural athletic program, with the possibility of elevating it to an intercollegiate program in the future.

If the fee is approved, students would pay an extra $6 per semester, effective in the spring of 2009, to fund the intramural program, which would begin this fall. HCC chancellor Mary S. Spangler estimates that the fee would bring in an additional $250,000 per semester, money that would be split among five of the HCCS campuses: Central, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. She said that the other campus, Coleman College for Health Sciences, probably would not have a program because of its lack of facilities.

[snip]

Despite the possible financial strain an athletic program would bring, Spangler sees benefits in having one.

"The more activities that you can engage students in at the college, research shows the more likely students are to be engaged to stay in their classes and to move from one semester to the other towards their goal," she said. "There are a number of different kinds of things to do that: student government, athletics, working at the college; those kinds of things keep them involved."

Obviously, HCC's "leadership" really wants intercollegiate athletics.

Why this is a good idea for HCC, given its mission, is far less clear.

UPDATE (07/02/08): HCC's board of trustees voted unanimously to start the intramural athletics program (and almost certainly believes it will lead to bigger things).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/08 08:24 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)

Rick Casey champions another cause (Life at the HCCJC)

A Harris County Lawyer goes after "Rick Casey's latest holier-than-thou tripe" (Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/08 07:05 AM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Continuing to suspend reality on financing the soccer stadium (Houston's Clear Thinkers)

Tom Kirkendall again considers the absurdity of Texas Southern's proposed investment in the Dynamo soccer stadium (Houston's Clear Thinkers).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/08 07:00 AM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

29 June 2008

An Editorial LiveJournal from Mr. Gibbons!

The Chron features an Editorial LiveJournal from James Howard Gibbons today.

Mr. Gibbons' diaries are SO elegant, witty, and insightful (especially true when compared to other Chron diaries)! We urge everyone to check out his ideal state.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/08 10:38 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

28 June 2008

East End no longer overlooked (except when it still is)

At METRO's exciting East End light rail groundbreaking this week, amidst the streamers and fireworks (but apparently NOT scratch-off cards -- or an agreement with the contractor actually expected to do the work), Mayor White offered the following boast:

"It may have been said in the past, but it can't be said now that the city of Houston is overlooking the East End," Mayor Bill White said to applause from about 200 attendees.

Really?

Perhaps the mayor's Prius and bicycle don't find their way into the East End on his commute to and from City Hall each day, because KHOU-11's Brad Woodard reports that funded East End sidewalk improvements are indeed being overlooked by Mayor White's government:

The City of Houston has a predicament on its hands.

They’ve received millions of federal dollars to build sidewalks intended to keep kids safe going to and from school.

But those sidewalks haven’t been built, and now that money is just sitting there while construction costs rise.

“This is a wealthy city. We shouldn’t see this,” civil engineer Gonzalo Camacho said.

In reality, it’s what you don’t see on many of the East End streets that concerns Camacho.

“The fact is, people live here. They have to walk from here somewhere. The only way people and kids can walk along here is cross the street and go over there. But there’s no crossing here,” Camacho said.

It was Camacho that did a cost analysis and helped the city get the federal grant. They were supposed to use the money to improve sidewalks around six East End Schools.

They got $2.4 million from the Safe Routes to Schools program, all funneled through TXDoT.

“That was in September. September of ’07. It’s June of ’08. Any new sidewalks yet?” Camacho said.

There aren’t.

“The funding is available. It has been secured on behalf of the City of Houston, so now it’s up to the City of Houston to secure those funds and implement those projects,” TXDoT’s Raquelle Lewis said.

More specifically, it’s up to the Public Works Department.

So much for not overlooking the East End.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/08 12:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

AT&T Calling Dallas New Home (High Tech Texan)

AT&T is relocating from San Antonio to Dallas. Michael Garfield wonders why Houston didn't make a bigger push to attract the company (High Tech Texan).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/08 11:14 AM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

27 June 2008

Chron headline writers offer helpful advice

The subheadline on a Chron story in the * section today amused us:

Beating up the boss is a common fantasy
Astros pitcher tried just that, but the experts advise otherwise

Who can argue with expert advice?

Or with crack Chron headline writers who have a knack for conveying what's important.

So just one question -- Do the * kids fantasize about beating up their boss (it being such a common fantasy and all)? Or is it the Chron headline writers who have such fantasies?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/08 11:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)

Astros-Rangers: Shawn Chacon Is Suspended, Carlos Lee Is Fat (Houstoned Ballz)

Drayton McLane's PR man in the Chron sports department thinks Carlos Lee gets criticism not because he appears to loaf, but because the local media isn't diverse. John Royal is flabbergasted (Houstoned Ballz).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/08 09:31 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

John Culberson: Most connected Congressman (PoliSci@UST)

The UST poli sci folks call attention to Rep. John Culberson's web connections (PoliSci@UST).

Proof that the Left doesn't have a monopoly on web geekery!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/08 08:41 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

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LOCAL BLOG TALK

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City launches new campaign finance tools (Chron Houston Politics)

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What’s Wrong with Richard Justice, Jose de Jesus Ortiz, Cecil Cooper and Carlos Lee, to Name a Few (Houstoned Ballz)

Terry Abbott, HISD's press secretary, resigning (School Zone)

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