21 July 2005
Councilman Garcia helps neighborhoods with cleanup program
Wow! Here's a program worth highlighting and applauding:
Out there, Bennett said, are rodents and insects living inside wood and bricks that a storm blew off the next-door building onto her yard. And she wants it picked up.
"I called the 311," she said, "the mayor's office, ever since trying to get some help."
After four months of complaining, Sheppard was told, "the city has no funds for doing anything like that."
But Councilman Adrian Garcia in District H does, so he created "District H. Cares."
"I spend my campaign money buying the equipment," Garcia said. "The weed eaters, the chain saws, the trailers, all the equipment … so I could put this program in place."
The idea is to quickly move in to clean up neighborhood nuisances already cited by the city.
"To me that's enough," said Garcia. "Literally, my crew can be right behind them to take the corrective action. We should not wait until the lien process comes into place."
[snip]
"District H Cares" relies on a field service coordinator, volunteers, probationers and the homeless to get the job done.
So far, 22 weeded lots have been cleared and 700 trash bags filled with debris from clogged culverts, gutters and curbs have been tossed.
If all goes well, the program may go citywide.
Yeah, I suppose when the city is shelling out money for new police badges, day labor sites and a new Central Park, it might be hard finding money to clean up neighborhoods.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/21/05 06:01 PM |
Beware downtown parking lots -- you could get hit by the Danger Train
Following up on the Chronicle's story about MetroRail's design flaws which have led to a record-breaking accident rate, there was another encounter yesterday between light rail and a vehicle that entered an unauthorized zone:
A citation was issued to the driver of a vehicle involved in a light rail accident Wednesday.
A Metro train collided with an SUV as it pulled out of a parking lot near the intersection of Fannin and Oakdale.
And Kevin wonders:
How many cities have light rail designed so that an SUV pulling out of a parking lot can run into their multimillion dollar light rail transit backbone?!
Don Gallagher, the moderator of a Yahoo group was asking the same question:
Now come on folks, let's really think about this situation. HOW (all caps!)? HOW is it even possible for an SUV driver to pull out of a parking lot and get hit by a mammoth train? Don't any of the news investigators start to question the diverse resume of drivers and pedestrians involved? Not all young and stupid, none convicted of DWI, both old and young, men and women, all races. Heck, the first incident was with a responsible female news reporter folks.
Doesn't Metro or City Council get it? First off, it was the city officials that basically deeded our streets and ROW to Metro. The design severed many business and residential access points to the existing streets and created a dividing line in a great portion of our downtown and especially the Midtown area.
Come on Metro, come on city officials! Think about what you will be doing if you allow more of the same on other streets. The Galleria line (aka University line) will make the Main Street design look like "Safe Rail 101" in comparison. The traffic and pedestrian volumes at every intersection along the route is far larger and far more active than the existing line. Sure, perhaps they will build part of it grade separated (have to in some points) but the real situations will be on Post Oak. A line down Richmond is laughable for the impact it would have.
Seriously! A vehicle pulls out of a parking lot and gets walloped by a train?! What kind of design is that? How do experiences like this make downtown more attractive to people? Add this to Operation Jaywalking and parking meters that require babysitters, and Houston has created a downtown that some might think is more trouble than it's worth.
World class?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/21/05 08:55 AM |
18 July 2005
A Wrap-Up story that doesn't wrap it up
Last week we posted on Spring Branch ISD's fight to prevent the city of Houston from condemning a piece of land in front of an elementary school to create a new turn lane. Both the Chronicle and KTRK-13 ran stories previewing SBISD officials going before city council to protest the land grab, but then we couldn't find any stories after that.
Today in the Chronicle's Wrap Up section, Jason Spencer writes this:
IT turns out that the folks at the Spring Branch Independent School District never saw the memo.
If they had noticed the Oct. 15, 2004, letter explaining that the city of Houston wanted 200 square feet of Valley Oaks Elementary School property for a routine sidewalk improvement, not a right-turn lane, the unhappy school board members might not have marched down to City Hall last week. They also might not have issued a news release a day earlier, describing the city's decision to claim the land through eminent domain as a "dangerous land grab" endangering children's lives.
But it turns out the letter probably went unnoticed because it was addressed to then-Associate Superintendent Mike Maloney. That's the same Mike Maloney who had resigned four days earlier in the face of a criminal charge accusing him of lying on his job application by claiming to have a master's degree from a California university that doesn't exist.
[snip]
While acknowledging the school district's role in the misunderstanding, Kellner and Kosmoski said city officials share the blame.
"The mayor's office would not return our phone calls," Kellner said. "They could have straightened this out with us a week ago."
Huh?
Is Spencer telling us that the condemnation is for a sidewalk and not a turn lane? Or is Spencer telling us that the city originally said it was for a sidewalk but now the city's constructing a turn lane?
Did Spencer interview Susan Kellner to get a more complete picture of what is going on and what Spring Branch ISD's position is? Did Spencer try to interview any city officials to clear up what the city of Houston is really doing, and to find out why the city refused to communicate with Spring Branch ISD officials?
We need a follow-up story to the wrap-up story.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/18/05 07:17 AM |
16 July 2005
Councilman proposes TIRZs help pay for police services
Councilman Adrian Garcia is trying to get TIRZs (tax increment reinvestment zones) to pay for law enforcement services:
Houston City Councilman Adrian Garcia is working on a plan to get the city's 22 tax increment reinvestment zones to start paying for law enforcement-related services, which may be a much-needed boost for the short-handed city police department.
[snip]
The zones are special districts created to attract investment to an undeveloped area. The zones have been created to rejuvenate development in sections of the city.
In a TIRZ, the property tax paid to the city and other participating governmental agencies is frozen at the amount collected when the zone was created. If the tax base increases through redevelopment or inflation, any additional tax revenue is dedicated to projects within the zone.
[snip]
Phasing in his plan began during the city's budget hearings earlier this month when Garcia submitted an amendment to a Senate bill that was passed in mid-May.
The bill allows the city to recoup the cost of municipal services rendered to these zones, and Garcia's amendment calls for the city to recover police-related expenses from the TIRZs in Houston.
When Orlando Sanchez filled in for Edd Hendee (KSEV-700) recently, he discussed TIRZs and how the entities don't pay for increases in municipal services. Councilman Garcia's plan is a good step to see if any of these TIRZs can afford to pay for the services they use.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/16/05 08:35 PM |
Show us the money
The Chronicle's Kristen Mack today reports on fundraising for area political races, including the $2.2 million raised by Mayor White.
We'd surely like to see more frequent updates on local politics from Mack. If only she could be talked into a local politics blog....
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/05 03:08 PM |
No proof of car insurance? Say adios to your car
So Garland, TX, has red light cameras and Houston is following suit. Look what else Garland and some other Texas cities are doing:
This week, the city of Mesquite became one of a growing number of Texas cities that tow vehicles if the owner cannot present proof of insurance to a police officer when stopped for another violation. The cities of Athens, Corsicana, DeSoto, Haltom City and Garland have already adopted a similar vehicle towing policy.
Mesquite police last year issued 9,471 citations worth $305 each for failure to produce insurance documentation. The new policy allows officers the option of impounding the vehicle if a motorist, insured or not, cannot produce the required paperwork. Before being towed, the police will search the vehicle without the consent of the owner. If the motorist says he is insured, police will attempt to contact the appropriate insurance company, but this may not help those stopped outside regular business hours.
This could leave several insured motorists stranded, facing a great deal of hassle and expense to recover their vehicle. In DeSoto, for example, motorists must go to the city jail to obtain a release form. Then they must find a way to take the form to J&N Wrecker service and pay all the required recovery charges. Texas does not regulate these fees, and some "cash only" lots will not accept credit cards or personal checks. The impound lots are not required to be open 24-hours a day, or open on holidays.
Motorists unable to pick up their vehicle immediately are assessed additional fees of $15 a day while the car remains on the lot, plus a $32 notification fee and $20 impound fee. A car left on the lot for sixty days will be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the city.
That last paragraph sounds similar to the original $AFEclear program.
Let's see now...9,471 citations x $305 = $2,888,655.
Just wait until MayorWhiteChiefHurtt hear about this program.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/16/05 09:34 AM |
13 July 2005
The priorities of Houston-area advocacy groups
Houston-area movers and shakers held an emergency meeting (complete with media folks) to deal with something that won't happen until OCTOBER, yet the same movers and shakers don't appear to have held an emergency meeting (with or without media folks) to deal with the fact that four adults and a baby were taken from a Harris County home on Sunday and haven't been seen since.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/13/05 06:13 AM |
12 July 2005
Houston does a little land-grab; Spring Branch ISD isn't happy
When the Supreme Court's Kelo decision came down (eminent domain), Mayor Bill White assured us that the city of Houston is not interested in condemning land for private development.
But he didn't say anything about taking another governmental entity's land:
School board trustees in Spring Branch say they've been given the brush-off by city of Houston officials intent on taking land from an elementary school to widen a busy street.
The trustees, who unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the city's decision to add a right-turn lane from Westview Drive to Pech Road because of safety concerns at nearby Valley Oaks Elementary, plan to voice their feelings at today's City Council meeting. Despite that school board vote, the city has moved to condemn the property through eminent domain and proceed with the project.
Wow! Is this a common occurrence?
For the city to seize land from another governmental entity is almost unheard of, if not unprecedented, said Kelly Frels, a private attorney who has represented local school districts, including Spring Branch, for 35 years. He does not represent Spring Branch in this case.
Leave it to the city of Houston to be a trend-setter. And how is the city responding to Spring Branch ISD?
"We asked the city officials repeatedly for any documentation they have to justify the need for this right turn lane," said Trustee Theresa Kosmoski, a former Valley Oaks PTA president. "They still have not shown us anything that shows it's necessary, nor anything to show they have planned for the safety of the children."
[snip]Several letters from the school district to the city have gone unanswered, she said, directing most of her criticism at City Council Member Toni Lawrence, who represents the area.
Lawrence was out of the office Monday and could not be reached for comment, said her chief assistant, Mike Howard.
"It's really hard to figure out what's going on in their heads," Kosmoski said. "The lack of responsiveness to the school board has been mind boggling."
And did the city have any response to Chronicle inquiries?
"There would be no way in the world we would do something like this if we thought it was dangerous. Traffic is getting congested over there and it needs to be improved," said Wes Johnson, spokesman for the city's Public Works Department. "If people obey the law, there won't be any danger at all."
Wait a minute. If people would just obey the law, there won't be any danger? We are talking about doing this in front of an ELEMENTARY school! We are talking about young children! Does Mr. Johnson have young children? Is he as clueless as elementary school-aged children often are?
The city hasn't done any safety or traffic flow studies because they aren't necessary for such a small project, Johnson said.
"This is primarily so we can make that turn more safe and put in an Americans with Disabilities Act-approved ramp," Johnson said. "To us, we don't see why that would be less safe than it is now."
"That concerns us greatly," said Spring Branch Trustee Susan Kellner. "When you're going to do this kind of stuff around an elementary school, you really have to consider all the safety ramifications."
(Susan Kellner is the wife of Continental CEO Larry Kellner.)
This is pretty amazing. Houston does a little land grab from a local school district, doesn't conduct any studies to assess the impact on a local elementary school, and refuses to respond to the school district when questioned about it.
Does the city really need that land to widen a road and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act? Really? How did the city determine the turn lane was needed if no studies were done? And if there is a study, why doesn't the city show it to Spring Branch ISD? Or, if this was decided on a whim, whose whim was it?
I would suggest that Mayor White's assurances after the Kelo decision are not very...reassuring.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: This is turning into a bad week for the mayor. He's had to back off his earlier attitude towards Councilmember Wiseman on the issue of Houston MediaSource's programming, and now the "Public Safety" mayor has gotten on the side of an issue in which he seems to be favoring an eminent domain land grab at the possible expense of the safety of schoolchildren, AND one of his opponents is the wife of Continental's head man?
Mayor White may need to follow Lee Brown's lead and get out of town for a few weeks.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/12/05 10:37 AM |
10 July 2005
Third time isn't a charm to kill red light cameras
Rick Casey spotted something in the Texas House tax reform bill:
The tax bill has tucked in it, and noticed by virtually no one, a measure that would kill Mayor Bill White's proposal to install cameras to catch red-light scofflaws at the city's most dangerous intersections.
How would a revenue bill kill the city's red-light camera initiative? Through starvation.
Inserted by Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, the amendment would assign all the revenue from red-light camera citations to the state's general fund, except for $1 per citation for the cities.
[snip]
"It kills it," said one city official flatly. The city's official stance is that the program is to save lives, not make money. But in today's tight budgetary times, they don't want to take funds from other programs to pay for it.
Elkins admits his amendment is intended to kill the program and makes no apology.
"If it's such a good, effective program for public safety, they should be willing to spend the money," he said.
[snip]
City officials don't expect this attempt to succeed, either. And even Elkins doesn't sound optimistic.
Darn.
Of course Rep. Elkins is correct -- if it was truly about safety, the city should be willing to pay for any costs. But then again, if it was truly about safety, Mayor White would have looked at yellow light times first, like he promised city council.
But, as we all know, red light cameras have nothing to do with safety.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/10/05 10:14 AM |
09 July 2005
Minutemen generate Houston hysteria
I started reading this Chronicle story about the upcoming Apocalypse, otherwise known as the Minutemen-are-coming-to-town, and I could barely get past the second paragraph I was laughing so hard:
"The city of Houston is a very diverse city," said Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt. "There is a great deal of harmony here, and we are not going to stand by and let some outside agency or organization come in and disrupt that harmony. We will do whatever is necessary to keep the peace in the city of Houston."
Harmony! Diversity! Peace! When will Chris Baker come back from vacation?
And it continues:
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who organized today's meeting of law enforcement officials, said she is concerned that the Minutemen's plans to expand their activities to a diverse city like Houston could become confrontational.
"I will say, as a member of Congress, I do not claim the Minutemen are criminals," said Jackson Lee, D-Houston. "I do claim they are acting in an unauthorized way and may be characterized even as militia. When that occurs in a population, what you have is a mixture of confrontation that makes the jobs of these law enforcement indivudals more difficult."
More diversity!
There's no word in this story if Rep. Jackson Lee began reminiscing about her childhood years in Queens, NY, where she dreamed of a diverse and confrontation-free Houston.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/09/05 08:35 PM |
More on Major League Soccer in Houston
This Soccer Times story makes Major League Soccer in Houston sound like an almost-done deal:
This left Houston as probably the only option that appealed to Grupo Televisa. However, the league has been stymied for some time trying to find a place to play. Reliant Stadium, where the National Football League's Houston Texans play, was looked at, but its ownership did not want to become MLS franchise owners at this time, nor did it want to become landlord. Other venues were looked at, including the University of Houston's Robertson Stadium, but have been dismissed for various other reasons. Now, according to local media reports, an inventive solution may have been found - playing in the all but abandoned Astrodome.
Since Reliant was built, the only thing the Astrodome has been used for, besides some high school events, is the two-week long Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which draws over two million attendees each year to the February event. Otherwise, it sits empty, much as Washington, D.C.'s RFK Stadium did before MLS's D.C. United became its main tenant 10 years ago.
Televisa executives Javier Perez Teuffer and Juan de Villa Franca have recently visited Houston for talks with Mayor Bill White and Houston Sports Authority head Oliver Luck. In addition, operational personnel from Club America have toured the Astrodome.
There reportedly are a number of issues still to be solved, including what kind of playing surface would be used. The Astrodome has a permanent roof, and when baseball and football were played there, growing grass was a lost cause, leading to the advent of AstroTurf. A grass tray system is being studied.
In any event, the Astrodome would be a temporary solution until a soccer-specific facility could be built.
Yep. We have to keep the Sports Authority busy so Oliver Luck can keep his job. How much farther do you think hotel and rental car tax revenues can be stretched? Enough to fund a new soccer stadium?
The story also relays what went wrong for MLS in San Antonio:
A memorandum of understanding was signed between MLS and the San Antonio City Council, but then the agreement became a political football in the mayoral election campaign to choose who would succeed Garza. Phil Hardberger, the 70-year-old former business executive who ended up winning had based a part of his campaign on his opposition to the deal with MLS.
"Goodbye, that's what I would tell the MLS," Hardberger said when asked what he would say to MLS commissioner Don Garber. "Call us again in about 10 years. We'll see what the market looks like (and) whether you really can bring money into San Antonio."
Fortunately for Major League Soccer, Mayor White and Oliver Luck won't be quite so worried about whether or not MLS can bring money into Houston; quite the opposite actually: Houstonians should worry about how much money those two will give to MLS for the privilege of bringing a team here.
RELATED: bH's Sports Authority archives
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/09/05 01:10 PM |
Mayor White -- working to improve Houston's schools?
The Suffolk (VA) News-Herald has this entry in its Editors Blog about Houston sprawl:
If there's a city where sprawl isn't just tolerated but celebrated, it's Houston. After all, this is a place where people love their property rights so much, they don't allow zoning.
But even in Houston, residents are having second thoughts about plunking houses and strip shopping centers ever farther out on the prairie. Still, leaders are careful how they criticize these developments. "I don't want, nor do most people in this community want, to tell people where they can and can't live or how long their commute should or shouldn't be," Mayor Bill White told the Houston Chronicle recently. "One person's sprawl is another person's dream house. On the other hand, as a fiscal conservative, I'll tell you it is much more expensive for us to provide transportation services, water and sewer services and everything else if somebody lives twice as far away."
That seems to be the Texas approach to dealing with sprawl: Label it a bad investment. Also, point to the obvious: that building new highways only invites more distant development. One anti-sprawl group looked over the new regional transportation plan and was appalled by what it found: plans for building 12,900 miles of new roads over the next 20 years.
"That was not a plan, it was a continuation of what we've always done," the group's president told the Chronicle. "A 75 percent increase in vehicle-miles traveled is assumed. Sprawl is written into it - it's guaranteed, when we should be trying to rein it in."
Mayor White agrees that transportation shapes the nature and location of growth, but he's unwilling to say no to more roads. His approach: Improve neighborhoods, be quick to turn property seized for tax delinquencies into affordable housing. and work with the school district on improving the schools. Do these things, he said, and the city's charms will bring the people back.
Wow. There's plenty to digest in those five paragraphs. I'll let readers come to their own conclusions, but the part about Mayor White working to improve schools interests me because I haven't heard much from Mayor White on this topic. In fact, in his 2005 State of the City address, he used the word "schools" once.
Of course, Dr. Saavedra has been front and center working to improve HISD schools, but if Mayor White has been assisting or supporting Dr. Saavedra in his aggressive reforms, I've missed it. And frankly, when Dr. Saavedra was being strung up for trying to improve three high schools that were threatened with state takeover, I don't recall Mayor White coming to Dr. Saavedra's defense.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/09/05 11:59 AM |
08 July 2005
Minutemen will monitor Houston day laborers
Illegal immigration apologists are going to come unglued:
The Minutemen are coming to Houston.
Leaders of the controversial group dedicated to stopping the flow of illegal immigration said they will patrol the streets of the Bayou City beginning in October, as part of a campaign that will extend north from the Mexican border. Houston volunteers will gather near day labor centers and corners where immigrant workers solicit work, in an effort to draw critical attention to the city's hands-off policy toward illegal immigrants.
"We will be videotaping the (day laborers) and we will be videotaping the contractors who pick them up," said Bill Parmley, a Goliad County landowner who heads the Texas chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. The Minutemen will only observe to draw attention to the problem and will not attempt to make arrests, he said.
We know how HPD capitulated the other day. What do other local officials think?
News of the potential patrols in Houston drew a muted response from Mayor Bill White, who said he did not want to engage in a "pointless public relations battle."
"I'm not in a position to dictate to private organizations other than that they should obey the law," White said.
But others were more outspoken.
"This is a welcoming community, and (the Minutemen) should let the law do its job," said City Councilman Gordon Quan, a longtime advocate for immigrants. "They would be a polarizing influence that would bring out latent prejudice."
Yes, well, the law in Houston is prevented from doing its job when it comes to illegal immigrants, Councilman Quan, due to the city's sanctuary policy:
Houston Police Department policy forbids officers from asking about immigration status in most cases. The city also funds day labor sites used by immigrants, including illegal immigrants, to find work.
And what does the organization that got HPD to cave on photographing day laborers think of the Minutemen?
"These people who hunt immigrants are only thinking of themselves," added Maria del Carmen Yupe, a leader of The Metropolitan Organization. "They don't think of the suffering of these immigrants who stand on the corner hoping to work for something to eat."
Hunt immigrants? Please. If they suffer so much while standing on a corner in Houston, then why are they here?
And check out this Mayor White quote:
White defended current policy.
"The protection of our borders is essentially a federal function," the mayor said. "I am not going to take our police out of the neighborhoods" to start looking for illegal immigrants. "Our police priority is going to be public safety."
He meant to say he didn't want to take the police off of jaywalking patrols.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/08/05 08:15 AM |
07 July 2005
The Chronicle should hire Marc Campos to write editorials
Marc Campos has a bit of fun today with Mayor White and Metro:
In yesterday's Chron, there was a story about Houston's Mayor Bill White - while bike riding - running across illegal trash dumpers. The Mayor approached the dumpers, police were called in, and the dumb dumpers were "hauled" (awwww) off to jail. Way to go Mayor. Don't be surprised to see da Mayor pull up in a Safe Clear tow truck and help you change a flat tire if you happen to get a blow-out on a city freeway. Pity the poor downtown pedestrian that gets body slammed and a jaywalking ticket by da Mayor during the lunch hour.
Rumor has it that the METRO Credibility Task Force will be sweetening the bus rapid transit (BRT) system for the shafted communities. BRT, which is a bus in train wardrobe, will have their bus drivers, errr, engineers, announce "all aboard" when the bus, errr, train is ready to depart. In addition, the "engineers" will all be required to wear those "locomotive engineer" hats. That ought to appease the chumped voters.
The METRO Credibility Task Force! Well, METRO does excel at creating Task Forces. And Laurence Simon points out another Task Force possibility for METRO.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/07/05 01:43 PM |
06 July 2005
Wiseman perturbs the city boss
KTRK-13's Miya Shay reports on today's city council meeting, where Houston MediaSource associates showed up to bark at councilmember Addie Wiseman, who seems to have barked right back at them.
Mayor Bill White sounds perturbed that a debate over the extent to which the city should fund vulgar/obscene speech on a public access channel has sidetracked other agenda items (like harassing citizens downtown, or designing shiny new HPD badges):
All the sniping has left the mayor a little frustrated.
"Has it taken a disproportionate amount of time, particularly by Councilwoman Wiseman?" the mayor asked himself. He answered with a "Yes."
We thought we had safely retired the Boss Hogg White nickname, but if he's going to start sounding like a city boss again....
UPDATE (07-07-2005): Matt Stiles covers the story for the Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/06/05 10:13 PM |
HPD capitulates -- won't photograph illegal immigrants
This is disappointing, but not surprising:
The Houston Police Department has instructed officers not to photograph illegal immigrants seeking day jobs, after an incident last month prompted an outcry from an immigrant rights group.
Houston police Capt. Juan Trevino made the pledge to 400 people who attended a meeting Tuesday night organized by The Metropolitan Organization, an interfaith grass-roots political action group.
Trevino said that "an isolated handful of officers" took immigrants' photographs after a business owner on North Shepherd recently complained that they "were walking on private property."
Addressing the TMO gathering in Spanish and English, Trevino said that the Houston police department will work with the organization to encourage immigrant workers to seek work at the east side day labor center.
Not only are officers instructed not to photograph these people, but now HPD will encourage illegal immigrants to get a job! What a crock!
Here's HPD's mission statement:
The mission of the Houston Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in the City of Houston by working cooperatively with the public and within the framework of the U.S. Constitution to enforce the laws, preserve the peace, reduce fear and provide for a safe environment.
So much for enforcing laws, reducing fear and providing a safe environment for U.S. citizens. And nowhere in the mission statement does it say HPD should helpfully tell illegal immigrants where to find employment. Is HPD going to tell them how to get (fake) green cards, too?
Broderick Bagert, an organizer for the TMO, said the community organization welcomed Trevino's comments.
"It had been an issue of real concern because people from the churches in the East End have worked for more than a year and half to win funding for the worker-development center in the East End," Bagert said. "We've been working to staff that, to organize it, and we've really invested in that strategy to deal with day laborers. The second work site has just gotten started in the last few months."
Even though the incident occurred on Houston's north side, Bagert said, there was concern "that the police were going to be intimidating workers. It was seen as a real step back. So we were very concerned about it," Bagert said.
They forgot the sensitivity training.
RELATED: LULAC won't like this (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/06/05 08:16 AM |
05 July 2005
Aiyer addresses HPD manpower shortage
Jay Aiyer, a candidate for City Council's At Large 2 seat, has posted his thoughts on HPD's manpower shortage as well as a proposal to get more officers trained and on the streets.
Here are excerpts from Aiyer's blog:
The reality is that Houston is facing a public safety crisis. We simply do not have enough police officers patrolling the streets of Houston, or enough fire fighters, and the problem is getting worse. In a study conducted by the Houston Police Officer’s Union, the number of police officers was tracked and analyzed over the last 10 years.
The results speak for themselves. In 1995, Houston had over 5000 police officers. By 2001, that number had slightly increased to just over 5300, with an additional 300 overtime equivalents. Today that number has dramatically dropped to 4800. That means Houston had 250 more police officers in 1995 than it does today. Compounding the problem is that Houston now has 400,000 to 500,000 more residents living in the city than in 1995.
[snip]
Why have we not trained more new officers? Cost -- it currently costs the city of Houston $2.8 million for a cadet class of 70. That number doubles when the overall cost of operations of the Police Academy is factored in. Fiscal reality makes any dramatic increase in training difficult under our current system.
There is an answer to this problem.
Be sure to check out the rest of Aiyer's detailed post for his answer.
In reviewing the websites of various candidates for council, we see that most candidates are in favor of maintaining police, fire, and EMS protection. That's a no-brainer.
We'd like to see all council candidates (including incumbents) follow Aiyer's lead in talking about HPD's manpower shortage and how the city should deal with it, in detail.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/05 09:52 AM |
04 July 2005
A hands-on kind of mayor
Mayor's bike ride turns into crimefighting mission -- KTRK-13
During a holiday weekend, all government offices are closed and you don't expect our elected officials to do much more than appear at parades and other 4th of July events. But Mayor Bill White spent his Sunday fighting crime.
Mayor White has talked tough about illegal dumping before, but not quite like this. On Sunday, the mayor was joined by a council member, a state senator, and several other people for a bike ride through several Houston neighborhoods. They ended up throwing two guys behind bars."Around 9:15 yesterday, we're rolling through Independent Hights. Some gentlemen appeared to be illegal dumping," said Assistant HPD Chief Brian Lumpkin.
It was near a boarded up house on Bombay Street that the mayor and his fellow cyclists made the stop.
"I saw them on a side street and I made a beeline on a bicycle," said Mayor White. "I told them 'What do you think you're doing?'"
When the mayor saw the two men and confronted them, they made up a number of excuses until backup officers arrived. They were sent to jail and charged with felony dumping.
"The guy picks the worst day in the world to go dumping," said Mayor White's Deputy Chief of Staff Terence Fontaine. "He was dumping in front of a city council member, a state senator, and the mayor of the city."
I'm wondering who the others were (city councilmember and state senator) with the mayor.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/04/05 07:52 PM |
03 July 2005
Airport parking: less complicated, more expensive
Drivers at Houston's two airports will find it easier, less complicated and slightly more expensive to park at Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports, under new rates that take effect today [last Friday, July 1].
Hourly parking will now be allowed in all terminal garages, but it will cost an extra $1 — from $12 to $13 — to park for five to 24 hours at both airports.
The Houston Airport Board on Thursday also abolished the controversial $30 fee for parking more than five hours in one prime area at Bush Intercontinental: the close-in garage at Terminal C-West.
The new rate plan eliminates a "daily schedule" that required some drivers to pay $3 for parking any period of time up to three hours.
[snip]
"We do have ample parking for passengers and visitors using all terminals, but this change helps make it more uniform throughout the hourly parking complex," said airport spokesman Roger Smith. "It's a very minimal increase, and we in Houston still enjoy some of the lowest-priced, big-city airport parking that you will find anywhere."
They couldn't make it less complicated AND less expensive, now could they?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/03/05 08:18 AM |
01 July 2005
Giving away the Astrodome
Charles Kuffner posted some of his thoughts on Major League Soccer eyeing the Astrodome, and one of his commenters appears to be familiar with why San Antonio and MLS couldn't come to an agreement:
The initial memorandum of understanding had SA spending $2.8 million on 14 more luxury suites at the dome, and another $3.7 million on a practice facility. In addition to this, we were about to give MLS a 5 year rent free lease (with four more 5 year extensions), the MLS would keep all revenue from tickets, parking and concessions, MLS would receive half of any revenues from events it co-sponsored (like the recent Mexico-Guatemala soccer match held here), the city would receive 5 (count it, five) percent from any advertising signage sold by the team in the dome, and the city would receive 30 percent of the naming rights payments if a sponsor was lined up by 2006. If the sponsor was signed up after 2006, the city's cut would drop to 20 percent.
So basically, we were hoping to cut into the Alamodome's operating deficit through the 5% advertising revenue, and the 30/20% cut we'd receive in naming rights. Talk about giving away the farm.
San Antonio's bill for the "privilege" of getting an MLS team went from $6 million to $22 million -- and that was just on the up-front costs!
Unfortunately, we all know Houston will agree to some kind of deal like this; it's what Billy Burge and Oliver Luck do best.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/01/05 07:09 AM |
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