12 July 2007
Mayor and Council excel at regulating, fail at implementing
Remember last fall when Mayor White, (temporarily not mayor pro tem) Carol Alvarado, and the rest of City Council beat their collective chest and passed an expanded (but with exemptions) smoking ban?
Yeah, well, it's almost time for the law to go into effect, and you'll be so surprised to learn that the city isn't ready to handle the exemptions:
At his family-run bar in downtown Houston, Mike Shapiro relies on a strong base of cigar smoking customers. So ever since the city passed the no-smoking ordinance, he's been trying to apply for the cigar bar exemption.
"I tried going down there to find out when I can apply, and all you get is a run-around," he said "They're not ready. Well, we're in the middle of July and they're still not ready."
Even though the ordinance passed last fall, the health department still hasn't come up with a permitting process.
"Is this a little late?" we asked Kathy Barton with the Houston Health Department.
"I'm a little disappointed this didn't happen quicker, but it is a small staff over there that works on such an operation," she said.
But no worries because the small staff has things under control:
Barton says staffers are working on a preliminary list of eight possible cigar bars they found from an article on the Internet, including Bossa, Downing Street and Crofts. But we found the list not very reliable. One of these so called cigar bars even isn't in operation. Paesanos shut down more than a year ago. It's now called Shadow Bar.
Or maybe not so under control. Meanwhile, Councilwoman Alvarado, who had this big idea in the first place, is on top of the situation:
"They need to get busy on that," said Houston Councilmember Carol Alvarado. "I had hoped they would have had that worked out."
Outstanding! Her management skills are still in top form, as we can see.
So let's recap: Mayor and Council enact a new ordinance, leaving all the pesky details to some overworked, understaffed city department. And no one bothers to check periodically on the process of ensuring a smooth implementation.
The problem is, Houston has a history of not being ready when new regulations go into effect.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: City Council suffers from Pass-a-Law Syndrome
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/12/07 09:41 PM |
Local Ethiopian group complains about science exhibit
The Chronicle's Cynthia Leonor Garza reports that one group of Houstonians is critical of the fast-approaching Lucy fossil exhibit:
Don't count on too many local Ethiopians getting in line to see Lucy, the superstar fossil from Ethiopia, when she makes her international public debut in Houston in late August.
The Ethiopian Community Organization in Houston recently announced its position against the Houston Museum of Natural Science planned exhibit of the 3.2-million-year-old hominid.
The group blames museum officials and the Ethiopian government for what it says is a politically insensitive and profit-driven decision that could damage the fragile fossil during its trek to America. Museum officials and other exhibit supporters, however, said bringing Lucy to the U.S. is about cultural exchange — not politics.
"We have to be able to differentiate bad government and good government — government that has engaged in massacre, illegal election fraud, imprisoning people," said Dula Abdu, one of the group's board members. "As an institution, it would have been unheard-of for them to do business with the Khmer Rouge or Hitler or Mussolini."
Museum officials defended their decision, saying their job is to display artifacts for the public. The country's current political state is beyond the exhibit's scope, said museum president Joel Bartsch.
Whatever the objections to the current government of Ethiopia, the Lucy exhibit truly is a coup for Houston (no pun intended). The Houston Museum of Natural Science exhibit will run from August 31 to April 20. Advance tickets are available on the museum website.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/12/07 09:37 PM |
11 July 2007
Don't worry, trust METRO (or not)
KHOU-11's Jason Whitely reports that a private firm hired by the Texas Medical Center has found worrisome stray current levels related to METRO's Main Street light-rail line:
In an eight page executive summary of a report prepared by Corrpro for the Texas Medical Center, and reviewed by 11 News, experts discovered worrisome levels of stray current in the foundation walls of the Meyer Building, part of Texas Children’s Hospital, and the Thermal Energy Corporation’s piping system, which supplies water to the all of the hospitals and medical buildings.
Corrpro said these two facilities “had stray current effects sufficient to warrant continued surveillance to detect and respond to possible increases.”
Electricity can corrode the steel rebar enveloped in concrete which is used in foundations and over time could eventually compromise structures.
Inconsequential effects of the leaking current from the light rail line were found at Methodist Hospital, UT Medical School, St. Luke’s Medical Tower, Memorial Hermann Professional Building, Fannin Holcombe Garage, Ben Taub Hospital and Parking Lot E of the Meyer Building.
No stray current was detected in other areas at Texas Children’s Hospital, Memorial Hermann Hospital and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Prevention Center.
Over time, corrosion experts said, all of these facilities could see stray current levels increase.
“Transit system rail stray currents tend to increase as the system ages,” the report stated. Corrpro said the Texas Medical Center “should expect to continue a monitoring program for the life of the rail system.”
METRO's response, as reported by Whitely, is that only a few testing locations had stray current issues that warranted any concern whatsoever.
Previously, METRO's PR representative had assured that the problem posed no more concern than a nine-volt battery, an assessment apparently not shared by the professional engineers hired by the Medical Center to perform independent testing.
UPDATE: The Chronicle posts a catch-up story by Rad Sallee on the topic. The Froot Loops editor must have departed for the day, letting the actual news staff swing into action.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/11/07 12:20 PM |
10 July 2007
Local state rep takes on Houston Mutant Ninja Copper Thieves!
On Sunday, State Rep. Borris Miles shot one of two apparent thieves at his under-construction mansion on MacGregor and Scott. We've been hesitant to comment on the news, as the story seemed still to be "evolving" (as the newsies like to say) yesterday. Today, the Chronicle ran this fairly comprehensive account from reporters Kevin Moran and Kristen Mack:
A Pasadena man who was shot and wounded Sunday by State Rep. Borris Miles at his Third Ward home under construction is in custody.
Bruce Anthony Toler, 55, was charged Monday with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He remains at the Harris County Jail with bail set at $30,000.Miles found water problems about 6:15 p.m. when he stopped by the construction site in the 3700 block of South MacGregor Way. He left to change clothes, then returned about two hours later to clean up the water, said Donald Fields, the representative's spokesman.
While upstairs, Miles heard noises and went downstairs to investigate, a Houston Police Department spokesman said. Fields said Miles saw two men cutting and stripping pipes in an attempt to steal the copper.
"He (Miles) yelled at them and one threw a small pocketknife," HPD spokesman Victor Senties said. Miles pulled his pistol and shot the man in the lower left leg, Senties said.
What a bizarre story. Various accounts (KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KPRC-2, earlier Chron, AP, Miles press release via Isiah Carey) had Miles heading to his under-construction property to do plumbing (odd, but maybe he's just really emotionally attached to his huge new mansion and doesn't trust his contractors to get things right), had the thieves after copper wire or after copper pipes that they were "stripping" (whatever that means), had Miles leaving and returning to the property (but NOT, as his spokesman said, to "leave and retrieve a gun"), only to be surprised by a pocketknife-throwing bad guy (Houston Mutant Ninja Copper Thieves, anyone?). Definitely an odd tale.
But hey, in Texas, a man's home is his castle (literally a castle, in this case!), so probably not many people are going to question if Miles followed the relevant laws to the letter in this instance (or instead went looking for trouble to teach a lesson). And the state representative had the good sense not to issue a press release along the lines of, "Everyone knows HPD is too short on manpower to deal with these sorts of problems, so I decided to deter future thieves by breaking out a little whoop-ass." That wouldn't be politically prudent.
Even so, that was sort of the message conveyed. We hope it will deter any other members of the Houston Mutant Ninja Copper Thieves! Let them move on to Dallas.
BLOGVERSATION: Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee, Lone Star Times, Red Ink: Texas, Greg's Opinion, Off the Kuff, Texas Rainmaker, ABC-13 Political Blog, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/10/07 10:25 PM |
09 July 2007
Pushing aside the poor for the New Urbanist's dream community
Following up on yesterday's Chronicle editorial extolling the great vision of New Urban planner Andres Duany, the Chron's Mike Snyder has a story detailing what Duany has been doing in Houston (designing three projects), and more on what Duany thinks Houston needs to do to stay relevant.
A funny thing happened in the story, though. Thanks to Mike Snyder's fine reporting, a little bit of truth leaked out:
It's unclear, however, whether residents of the Fifth Ward — still a predominantly poor area — will be able to afford to live in the project Duany designed. New Urbanist projects have a reputation for high costs, and Duany, in his meeting with the Chronicle editorial board, said the only way he could reduce costs would be to compromise on the quality of his design.
How un-diverse! So Duany and his fellow planning enthusiasts want to create high-end neighborhoods. But where will the poor go when they are pushed out to make way for Duany's new developments?
Providing affordable housing, Duany said, is chiefly the responsibility of the federal and local governments rather than developers. His projects for Liu will include garage apartments, with some houses, which will provide an affordable rental unit as well as generating income that owners can apply to their mortgage payments.
No, it is absolutely not the responsibility of government to provide affordable housing! Government already sticks its nose in all kinds of places it doesn't belong and often makes things worse in the process. All around Houston developers are building affordable housing, sometimes even in those (gasp!) suburbs Duany so abhors.
Duany, 57, acknowledged that the style of living he prefers, and that his developments provide, need not be everyone's choice. His first book, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, written with his wife and a colleague from his firm, focused largely on his ideas for better design in the suburbs.
And even though he found much of the development in Houston appalling, Duany said he found its people to be friendly and unpretentious.
"I really like Houstonians," he said, "but I could never live in Houston."
Thank goodness. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/09/07 08:33 PM |
Breaking news you CAN get elsewhere (07-09-2007 edition)
The weekend is over, but the Chronicle city desk isn't quite back to full speed this morning. Fortunately, the Chron.com Froot Loops bureau has things covered:
A man was shot after he and an accomplice tried to steal building supplies from the home of State Rep. Boris Miles in southeast Houston on Sunday night, according to televised reports by KTRK (Channel 13)
Authorities gave a reporter this account: The representative was working at his home that is under construction on South MacGregor and Scott about 7:30 when he had a noise in the structure.
Miles, who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun, went to inspect the home when he discovered two men inside.
He opened fire at the suspects, after one of the men allegedly threw a knife at him.
One man was wounded and taken to the hospital. The other was arrested. No charges are expected against Miles.
Way to stay on top of the TV news there, guys!
UPDATE: Two hours after the Froot Loops story first posted, the Chronicle actually has replaced it with a version by reporter Kevin Moran. It's not clear why the Froot Loops versions of these stories continue to appear in the first place. All it does is make the Chron city desk look silly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/09/07 07:34 AM |
08 July 2007
Is Lee Brown in charge of this bank also?
Here's some news courtesy of KPRC-2 that might concern people who bank with the Harris County Federal Credit Union:
More than $100,000 disappeared as it was being transferred from a credit union to an ATM, but thanks to a couple of Good Samaritans, the money was returned within 15 minutes, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.
The money was supposed to be delivered to Harris County Federal Credit Union ATMs around the country.
But Harris County sheriff's deputies said the six boxes of cash fell off the back of a pickup truck when they were being transferred by two off-duty Houston police officers.
The officers realized the money was gone when they arrived at the courthouse annex on Wallisville Road.
Authorities said two men found the cash while driving on Normandy Drive and picked it up. Because the boxes were engraved with Harris County Federal Credit Union and the address, the men returned it to the rightful owners within 15 minutes, officials said.
"The money rolled out," said Susan Roberts, the credit union president.
"You think that's a good way to transport money?" KPRC Local 2 reporter Elizabeth Scarborough asked.
"Well, ma'am, it falls out of armored cars, too," Roberts said. "The money is fully insured."
Yeah, money falls out of armored cars all of the time. And it's smart for banking establishments to send out a hundred grand at a time with two guys in a pickup truck. Right!
Is Lee Brown now running this banking establishment also?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/08/07 08:12 PM |
Metro: adding bus service and hiding new maps
Finally! A Metro service improvement than might actually be considered an improvement:
METRO’s August service changes include 14 more local trips on routes that include the 1 Hospital and 85 Antoine, and one new commuter trip on the 221 Kingsland. In total, METRO is adding more than 78 hours each weekday that its buses will be on the street.
It's a small step, but it's a step, one that hopefully signals a rethinking of priorities inside the Lee P. Brown Administration Building.
We also learn that while light rail is Metro's transit backbone, bus service "is the heartbeat of our business,” [Metro President Frank] Wilson said. “We’ll continue to expand and improve that service as this region grows and prospers.” Yeah, well, "continue to expand and improve" are not the best choice of words. After several years of nothing but cuts in bus service, Metro might need a heart transplant.
Then Metro's blogger Mary Sit announced that Metro has a new system map. There's just one little problem:
Those of you who have seen our new system map, now available at our RideStores (behind the counter - you have to ask for one), will see some welcomed changes.
Ha! That's the funniest paragraph we've read in a long time. Unfortunately, she wasn't trying to be funny. Typical Metro.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/08/07 05:05 PM |
Marketing Houston: Breakfast Klub goes on the road
The Chronicle's David Kaplan checks in on the latest efforts to market Houston in New York:
Bureau officials hoped that along with all the other attractions Houston has to offer, having [Marcus] Davis and his staff dishing out Breakfast Klub fare would help dispel such notions.
And so on a wing and a waffle, they flew to the Big Apple.
The theme of the party was "Bringing the soul of Houston to the heart of New York."
The invitation tugged even harder at the Houston-New York connection, noting that "The marriage of wings and waffles has deep roots in New York City dating back to 1938" when the Wells Supper Club in Harlem began serving chicken and waffles as an after-concert meal.
Held at Penthouse 15, a reception hall in Manhattan's Garment District, the event also featured jazz performed by four musicians trained at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts who are now working in New York.
Served along with wings and waffles were strawberry-basil margaritas made from a recipe borrowed from the Volcano, a Rice Village-area bar.
A highlight of the night was a welcoming talk by Davis, who runs the Midtown-area Breakfast Klub with his wife, Mel Davis, and brothers Tony and Jerry Davis.
He spoke of how the Houston Breakfast Klub and the Harlem Wells Supper Club of old share a chicken-and-waffle connection and how this kind of food is able to transcend cultures and bring people together as it does in his restaurant.
A wings and waffle-themed event makes sense because it plays against the Houston stereotype, said John Keeling, senior vice president of PKF, a hotel consulting firm.
"Outsiders think they know Houston, but they don't," he said, "and what they think they know, they don't like.
Houston can't compete with first-tier convention cities Orlando, New York, San Diego, Anaheim, Chicago and Las Vegas, but it can hold its own against its second-tier rivals San Antonio, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Washington, Denver and Seattle, Keeling said.
Although Houston has nice convention facilities, as a tourist destination it probably isn't as appealing to most people as San Antonio, Miami, Seattle, Denver, or Washington. But certainly Houston should be able to compete for scraps in that second tier, along with Dallas and Atlanta.
And that's fine with me. Houston has a lot to offer the people who choose to live here. It's not the end of the world (for me, anyway) if Houston will never, ever be a major convention player.
What say you?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/08/07 02:45 PM |
Utopians redefine diversity
It's another weekend of urban planning opinion pieces in the Chronicle, including a LiveJournalist editorial on the topic. The headline alone is problematic:
Diverse design
Houston can offer a choice: affordable suburbs and high commuting costs, or improved urban living
How is something diverse if it's an either/or proposition? The correct headline would replace "or" with "and." Not everyone fits into the cookie-cutter mold of wanting to live in a highly urbanized area, and that's what makes Houston so vibrant and energetic. There is growth in the Greater Houston area precisely because we have so many choices.
The LiveJournalists approvingly cite urban planner Andres Duany who spoke to city elites last week about the wonders of New Urbanism:
For Duany, in Houston to coordinate the planning and design of three residential and mixed use projects, diversity is the highest value: diverse designs and land uses combined in a walkable, urban village.
He warns that the worst development danger is the monoculture housing subdivisions that mark the city's periphery. Building hundreds of houses with similar styles and prices that appeal to young parents inevitably causes blight when the style — not chosen to stand the test of time — goes out of fashion and the neighborhood's value declines as its residents age and grow resentful of their lot.
Another mistake was for Houstonians to build their neighborhoods distant from their jobs and their shopping needs. The result is low density but high congestion because nothing can be accomplished without a car.
The arrangement, Duany told a lecture audience at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is highly unfair to the 50 percent of Houstonians who are too young, too old or too poor to drive.
Better planning and design, which the market is beginning to offer in the central city, would at once reduce automobile use, congestion, human stress and the high cost of transportation, a minimum of about $9,000 per car per year.
All that Duany promotes is anti-diversity. Duany, Councilmember Peter Brown, and the Chron's editorial board want to take away diversity by taking away living choices. Right now the market -- not the government -- is responding to the many different wants of consumers: suburban housing, townhomes, city lofts, inside the Loop, outside the Loop, etc. That's diversity.
And Duany seems to blame suburbanists for the plight of the urban poor. Nice try, but don't blame folks who moved away to find a better living environment. Dig a little deeper to figure out why people moved to the suburbs, and go from there.
As for Duany's concerns about automobile use and congestion, there is no way most Americans will give up their cars. Period. With our cars, we have the freedom to go where we want, when we want. However, there are things Metro and TxDOT could do to make a public transit commute more inviting: (1) Instead of expanding freeways out, expand them up. Isn't that what urbanists want us to do anyway, go up, not out? Make I-45 and I-10 double-decker freeways which would create plenty of room for HOT lanes, express bus lanes, and commuter rail lines; (2) make Metro think smarter and plan better: Have commuter rail link up to a downtown transit center where buses and trolleys would meet commuters to take them to their final destination.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: This statement from the elitist/urbanist Duany caught my eye:
Another mistake was for Houstonians to build their neighborhoods distant from their jobs and their shopping needs.
That's all well and good, but one of the benefits of not having zoning is that shops and restaurants and such have been free to spring up in neighborhoods in accordance with market demands (you know, responding to people who live in the neighborhoods, rather than the sorts of all-knowing elitists who gather at cocktail parties with Architect Peter Brown). In my view, it's not a bad thing to live in a city where market demand can drive amenities -- and so CVS can move quickly to build a pharmacy in a developing part of Midtown that is desperately short on amenities, instead of being denied a building permit because some planning bureaucrat might prefer that CVS Pharmacy get into the apartment construction/rental business!
That observation from Duany suggests he doesn't understand Houston very well.
BLOGVERSATION: Did Peter Brown Plan This? (Miya Shay's Political Blog)
RELATED: Five good reasons why quality of life is the issue here, by Ed Wulfe and Richard Weekley (Chronicle Outlook)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/08/07 01:26 PM |
07 July 2007
Angel-McIver cited for Astroworld hay meadow
The Chronicle's Christina Wright reports that the site of a one-time attraction has become an eyesore:
For many Houstonians, AstroWorld was a place of fun and memories. Now, the 104 acres that once were home to the Serial Thriller, the Dungeon Drop and the Texas Cyclone have been replaced with 3-foot weeds, grass and unkempt shrubbery.
This week, the city gave the owners 30 days to clean up the former AstroWorld location or possibly face fines up to $1,500 as well as a cleanup bill.
Angel-McIver Interests, a Conroe-based land development company, bought the site for $77 million in 2005 from Six Flags Inc. when the property value rose and attendance began declining.
"It's been too wet to mow," said Michael McIver, president of Angel-McIver. "As soon as the weather clears up, we will mow it." He added that the property has been mowed twice since his company bought it.
This week, an inspector from the Houston Police Department's Neighborhood Protection Corps left a notice on the north entrance fence that said the owners are in violation of the "neighborhood nuisances" article in the city's Code of Ordinances.
The code exists to keep up appearances but, most importantly, to keep pests away, according to Jodi Silva, a spokeswoman for the corps.
"When you have high weeds, you are making a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and snakes can live in there, and rats," she said. "It's just a potential health hazard."
Private property owners are required by the city to keep grass or weeds to 9 inches or less and remove any obstructions of the sidewalks and streets bordering the property.
Angel-McIver has mowed the place twice since 2005? Wow, line them up for a corporate good citizenship award!
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/07/07 11:02 PM |
KTRK: Good news on crime
KTRK-13 ran a story by Andy Cerota a couple of nights ago with some rare good news about Houston crime:
There's some good news to report about violent crime in the city of Houston. All arrows are pointing down for the first time in a long time.
Here's what we found out when comparing the first five months of 2007 to the first five months of last year. Murders are down nearly 13 percent. Rape is down at more than 33 percent. Robbery is down 6.6 percent. And aggravated assault is down nearly 4 percent.
Overall, violent crime in Houston is down more than six percent.
2006 isn't necessarily the best benchmark, given just how bad violent crime was in Houston last year, but at least the indicators are headed in the right direction.
I contacted KTRK to try and get the raw numbers, which are more useful for purposes of comparison/analysis. I'll add them to this post if/when I receive them.
OTHER RESOURCES: Chron.com's Homicide Watch.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/07/07 01:02 PM |
05 July 2007
KTRK's Marvin Zindler diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
Tonight's KTRK-13 news broadcast had some unfortunate news from Marvin Zindler:
We have some sobering news about a member of our Eyewitness News family. Action 13's Marvin Zindler has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
He's been a member of our family for nearly 35 years and in all those years, he's been totally open with all of us about his surgeries, from open heart surgery to cosmetic procedures. And this evening, he wants to share his latest battle with you, too. Below is text and video of what Marvin had to say from his hospital room on Thursday.
Check out Marvin's message on the KTRK-13 website, where you can also leave a message for Marvin if you're so inclined.
UPDATE (07-07-2007): Commenter FilioScotia just left a great comment about Marvin and his impact on Houston. Be sure to give it a read.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/07 09:13 PM |
Chron: Some at-grade rail is kind of dangerous
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee today describes some of Houston's dangerous at-grade rail crossings. Here's an excerpt:
Roughly half of the nearly 1,800 at-grade, or street-level, crossings in the Houston area, like the East Archer location where the teens died June 14, have only "passive" safety devices that are not train-activated. These include "stop," "yield" or "crossing ahead" signs, pavement markings and street lighting.
There are 25 crossings in the Texas Department of Transportation's six-county Houston District that federal officials have approved for "active" signalization — flashing lights and crossing arms.
[snip]
Four other crossings, all near downtown Houston, are recommended for closing.
In addition, TxDOT has recommended 12 other crossings in the Houston district for upgrades. If approved, these likely would be completed by late 2009, Gbur said.
Railroads consider at-grade crossings "an opportunity for something bad to happen" and applaud their elimination, Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Joe Arbona said.
[snip]
Arbona noted that installing flashing signals at an at-grade crossing cannot guarantee safety as long as some drivers ignore the warnings.
"More than half of accidents happen at places where you have signal lights," he said.
However, a driver has to go to some trouble to crash through a crossing arm or deliberately go around it. All 25 of the approved upgrades call for gate arms.
As Laurence Simon observed earlier, there's a rather notable omission in this story about the dangers of at-grade rail crossings that have only minimal, "passive" safety devices: The story does not once mention the fact that most of METRO's light rail is at-grade and most street crossings do not have gate arms.
Interestingly, the story notes that TXDOT is trying to reduce the number of such intersections in the Houston area, but makes no mention of the fact that METRO is determined to move forward with more dangerous at-grade madness with the new rail lines it is building.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/07 09:11 PM |
Breaking news you CAN get elsewhere (07-05-2007 edition)
The Chron.com Froot Loops bureau has been watching KTRK-13 again this morning:
An infant was burned during a fireworks accident in Montgomery County late Wednesday night, according to televised reports this morning by KTRK (Channel 13).
Authorities gave a reporter this account: A woman was holding her 4-month-old daughter when she went outside to watch a neighbor set off fireworks on Val Verde and Goliad.
The object launched and hit the woman, and fell onto the baby who was wrapped in a blanket.
The girl was taken to the hospital. About 25 percent of the infant's body was burned.
So, if the Chronicle city desk is going to rely on KTRK for its online morning news coverage, doesn't that make KTRK Houston's actual leading information source?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/07 06:13 AM |
04 July 2007
A circulating trolley system for the downtown area
In The Woodlands, that is. The Houston Business Journal had the story last week, and the Chron's Rad Sallee covered it Monday. From HBJ:
The Town Center Improvement District said Friday that trolleys will be ready to give free service to destinations around The Woodlands Town Center July 5.
Three trolleys will make daily runs between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Stops include The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Market Street and The Woodlands Mall. In addition to dedicated stops, the trolleys will make stops for pedestrians along the route.
[snip]
The trolleys are a two-year pilot project made possible by a partnership between the Town Center Improvement District and the Houston-Galveston Area Council. At the end of the two-year period, organizers will assess ridership data.
Rad Sallee noted that the service actually begins this afternoon, for The Woodlands' annual Red Hot and Blue Festival.
What a great idea for what has become a thriving area all around The Woodlands Town Center. Weekdays, evenings, weekends -- the place is teeming with people enjoying all the nice amenities that have sprung up. My family particularly enjoys Market Street, what with its great shops, restaurants and park with fountains. Plus, parking is abundant and (mostly) free.
The same cannot be said for Houston's downtown, where Metro got rid of its circulating trolleys a couple of years ago. They actually would have complimented the light rail, but that was not the plan Metro decided to follow.
COMPLETELY UNRELATED: Citizens group in The Woodlands takes action on independence (Houston Business Journal)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/04/07 09:04 AM |
03 July 2007
Politics and a waffle cone, anyone?
The Chronicle's Ken Hoffman reports that U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson will be making a public appearance in his adopted district today:
U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson has a new program where he "trades places" with a constituent, so he can stay in touch with the mood of his district.
Today Lampson will be scooping ice cream from noon to 1 p.m. at the Ben & Jerry's shop in the Sugar Land Town Square mall.
Lampson wants customers to unload on him. Go ahead — tell him what's making you happy or unhappy about life in these United States.
If you're in Sugar Land today and want a scoop of politics with your dessert, be sure to stop by.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/03/07 10:02 AM |
02 July 2007
Lanier wins fifth straight debate title, says farewell to coach
The Chronicle's Jennifer Friedberg reports that the Lanier Middle School debate team has just won its fifth straight national title:
The Lanier Middle School debate team spent three days last week preparing for its biggest competition of the school year — the National Junior Forensics League Tournament in Greeley, Colo.
The work paid off as the squad won the three-day event, which concluded July 1, posting its fifth consecutive national title for Lanier debate coach Jim Henley's last hurrah.
"I'm very proud that 65 students took time out of their summer vacation and worked very hard on a tough academic discipline, prepared and were successful in the competition," Henley said. "We just dominated the debate section of the competition."
Henley calls the tournament "the World Series of middle school debate."
[snip]
The team is comprised of 100 sixth-graders and 100 seventh- and eighth-graders. Henley said the squad is the largest in the country.
It won eight out of nine local and regional tournaments this year.
"They compete against high schools here and most of the time they win," Henley said.
The team has lost only one competition since 2002.
[snip]
Henley has taught at Lanier for 20 years — history for 10 years before starting the debate team and moving into teaching forensics full time.
After their win, the team and 90 Houstonians celebrated at Outback Steakhouse. They said goodbye to Henley and hello to the team's new coach, Frantz Hill from Jane Long Middle School, 6501 Bellaire Blvd.
"His students were sad to lose him and my students were sad to lose me," Henley said. "The transition was seamless and wonderful."
Retiring, Henley said, "is the hardest thing I've ever done."
Congrats to the debate team and to Henley for jobs well done!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/07 09:52 PM |
01 July 2007
Do editors even read this stuff before it goes out (cont'd)?
The Chronicle led a three-reporter story today on the death of immigration legislation in the Senate as follows:
Many business leaders are lamenting last week's death of the landmark Senate immigration bill and predicting dire consequences for the Texas economy.
Already, labor shortages have caused onions to rot in the fields, delayed wheat harvests and docked Gulf shrimp boats because of a lack of crews, they say.
Already?
If crops are rotting and shrimp is at risk of spoiling, it's not likely that Senate passage of the proposed legislation would have had any immediate effect.
This story, like most in the Chronicle, really would have benefited from good editing.
The reader comments are entertaining, at least!
UPDATE (07-03-2007): Cory at Lose an Eye, It's a Sport finds another example that makes readers wonder if there are any editors manning the S.S. Chronicle these days.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/07 10:21 PM |
Lambert: Real live police officers ARE better than cameras.
Last week, KTRK-13's Deborah Wrigley took a look at Metro's increasing reliance upon crime-fighting-by-camera, and while the piece isn't terribly skeptical of Metro's approach, there are a couple of tidbits that expose some of the inherent problems:
"If somebody reported someone was messing with this car, I could zoom into it and look at the license plate," [Metro police officer David]Hall said.
That'll scare the bad guys!
METRO is still adapting to a new way of policing. It's caught some crimes in the act, helped investigate others after the fact, but in law enforcement and anti-terrorism says the agency's police chief, there's no substitute for a real pair of eyes and a badge.
And that's the bottom line. Metro's bumbling police chief knows it, but he still pulled security guards out of the Park and Rides anyway, thereby turning them into Park and Pillages.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/01/07 10:53 AM |
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