04 January 2007
KTRK: More red-light cameras are on the way
KTRK-13 reports that more red-light cameras are going up:
Police say 20 cameras have caught on camera several close calls and crashes as well. That's why in just about two weeks, 10 more cameras will be set up at more intersections.
"We're not at to try to catch people in a sneaky way," said Sgt. Michael Muench with the Houston Police Department. "We want people to be aware that the cameras are out there."
Great. Then why not improve the signage around the intersections deemed to be so dangerous as to require red-light cameras? If it's all about safety, then why not work harder to improve public awareness of the dangerous intersections? It wouldn't cost much to improve the signage warning motorists of the dangerous intersections and the red-light camera enforcement -- surely the revenues would more than pay for a few signs. And if it improves public safety, we're ALL for that, right?
KTRK notes that nearly 16,000 tickets (at $75 a pop) have been issued thus far.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/07 10:19 PM |
Crime surge hits METRO
KHOU-11's Jason Whitely reports that METRO is dealing with the same surge in crime as the rest of the city:
It's not just bus riders. Park & Rides passengers are targeted too.
For the last fiscal year, thefts went up 16-percent. The incease in robberies was even more alarming.
They skyrocketed by 400-percent compared to the fiscal year before.
Add it all up and crimes at bus stops, along the light rail and at Park & Rides were up 32-percent in the last year.
METRO Police Chief Tom Lambert is featured, and touts new cameras and a boost in manpower as steps the agency has taken in response to the increase in crime.
Unsurprisingly, Chief Lambert does not mention his decision to remove security personnel from the Park and Ride lots, effectively turning them into Park and Pillage lots.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/07 09:59 PM |
HPD gets serious about recruiting
KUHF's Capella Tucker reported today on various changes HPD is considering to help in the recruitment of officers.
Tucker did not report on HPD's initiative to recruit officers in Puerto Rico, which KTRK-13 reported on yesterday. Even if the officers don't recruit a soul in Puerto Rico, we're sure they enjoyed those 80 degree days much more than wet, miserable Houston this week!
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/07 09:45 PM |
03 January 2007
Painful shoe pun
Temporarily-Not Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado, who recently explained forgetting to plan a New Year's celebration by saying the city was "event-ed out," had this to say in response to Jordy Tollett's deal to step aside as head of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau (but remain as a well compensated consultant):
"The board is going to have a difficult time finding a replacement for Jordy. Whoever fills the position is going to have colorful shoes to fill," said Councilwoman Carol Alvarado. "Jordy was the biggest promoter of our city, not because it was his job but because it was his home and he loved this city."
That's just a painful shoe pun.
Still, it's entertaining (for bloggers, at least) now that she's talking to reporters again instead of hiding behind her PR and legal teams.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/03/07 10:51 PM |
Descent of Jon Matthews continues
The Chronicle's Eric Hanson reports on the latest twist in the case of former KSEV-700 talker Jon Matthews. Prosecutors have asked a state judge to revoke the parole of Matthews and sentence him to prison. Matthews' attorney asked the judge to reschedule the hearing so he could prepare adequately. It was reset for February 9.
Hanson's report goes into some of the details of the state's case against Matthews:
According to a July 5 report prepared by the Community Supervision and Corrections Department of Fort Bend County, Matthews tested positive for alcohol in June of last year and again on July 3.
"He admitted to abusing alcohol for approximately three weeks before testing positive," the report said.Matthews also was terminated from a sex offenders counseling program because he had been engaging in inappropriate online sexual conduct, according to court documents.
The report said the Texas Attorney General's Office found that Matthews had been viewing obscene material over the Internet and participated in an Internet fantasy message exchange in which he described sex acts performed on a 3-year-old boy.
"Mr. Matthews presented himself to be a female stripper who took her three-year-old son to work with her. The defendant described sexual acts between the strippers and the three-year-old boy," the report said. Matthews does not have a 3-year-old son.
Yikes. Matthews is one disturbed, likely dangerous, guy.
As David Benzion points out again at Lone Star Times, it is time for Jon Matthews to go to jail. Here's hoping somewhere along the way he finds the professional help he certainly needs.
BLOGVERSATION: HouStoned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/03/07 06:37 PM |
02 January 2007
Making sense of muffed crime reporting/editorializing
On January 1, Chron.com posted a story by Peggy O'Hare that seemed like a rushed effort to get unofficial 2006 crime statistics posted to the web.
Here's the story's third paragraph:
Despite another annual increase, residents here are not necessarily at greater risk of becoming a homicide victim. That's because Houston's homicide rate per 100,000 residents rose only incrementally in 2006 — since the city's population is estimated to have surged by more than 148,000 people, due largely to an influx of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
That bolded editorializing is curious, since this is allegedly a news story. Perhaps the reporter should have stuck simply to reporting the facts and not editorializing about them, because she later seems to contradict herself:
In 2006, the Houston Police Department recorded 379 homicides as of Dec. 31, a 13.5 percent increase from the 334 homicides recorded in 2005. The 2006 total is the highest since 1994, when 419 homicides were reported in the city.
It was the second consecutive year for a steep jump, although the increase was not nearly as alarming as the 23 percent rise in homicides seen at the end of 2005.
Despite the upward trend, Houston's homicide rate per 100,000 residents hardly changed at all. That number increased from 16.33 in 2005 to 17.24 in 2006.
The reason? Houston's population jumped by 7.5 percent during that same 12-month period — a massive increase.
Those bolded parts are interesting. Houston's homicide rate per 100,000 residents increased by 5.57% from 2005 to 2006, which (the reporter editorializes) is hardly a change at all. Houston's population "jumped" by 7.5% over the same period, however, which the reporter characterizes as "a massive increase." Apparently at the Chron city desk, percentage increases of 6% or so don't register as change at all, but anything much larger is massive!
In any case, there is a measurably greater risk of becoming a homicide victim in Houston, contrary to the characterization in the story's third sentence.
Again, less editorializing probably would have served this reporter and the Chronicle better, since this effort is just a mess. In fact, editing might have helped a bit too -- but who knows, maybe the new city editor was tied up watching the TV news again! And all of this per-capita-crime editorializing/reporting assumes the city's population estimates are accurate, even though those estimates are not yet supported by official Census data.
There was some improvement in the murder numbers over the last three months of 2006 (if the Chronicle reporting is accurate), and some improvement in rates of other types of crime over the last year. It would be nice if we've seen the worst of the crime surge, although overall crime levels are still high and HPD manpower is still low -- not necessarily a winning combination.
Incidentally, Houston bicyclist Bob Stein is quoted by the reporter. Nowhere does the reporter mention that Stein's wife is the White Administration's agenda director. That probably is worth a mention if the newspaper is going to cite the man's evaluation of crime in a city where his wife serves as a key advisor to the mayor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/02/07 10:24 PM |
Gladwell: Enron wasn’t really a puzzle. It was a mystery.
The New Yorker has published a fascinating article by Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) about the fall of Enron.
In typical fashion, Gladwell uses the particulars of the Enron collapse to make a point about how we should think about financial disclosure in today's information-rich business environment.
Gladwell's discussion of the particulars is especially worth reading and considering. More than a few pundits have vilified top executives for their alleged roles in the "fraud" of Enron, but many of those pundits tend to have trouble describing the particulars of the crimes committed (or just ignore those details altogether in favor of purely emotional appeals). Gladwell has done a real service for thoughtful people who want to delve more deeply into the crimes committed by the Enron principals (or crimes not committed, as some would contend).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/02/07 08:46 PM |
Popular talker wonders how city forgot New Year's event
The fact that Houston's leaders apparently forgot to plan a New Year's celebration was a hot topic today on the radio program of KTRH-740's popular Chris Baker.
Baker sounds even more mystified than we about how city leaders forgot this "annual" event. For those who missed the live show and might be interested, podcasts of the program are available here. The interview with Councilmember Peter Brown was particularly entertaining, although not in a way that is necessarily flattering to the councilmember.
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/02/07 06:15 PM |
01 January 2007
City water meters say "answer unclear--try again later"
KHOU had a segment on Thursday's news about the faulty transmitters used by the City of Houston Public Works department to obtain water meter readings. It's not the first time they've looked into this issue, either; it's not even the second time. It seems the Brown-era program to read electronically all water meters in the city, now $21 million (and counting) over budget, and nearly four years overdue, hasn't worked quite as advertised. Surprisingly, sticking electronic devices into often-flooded holes in the ground (and then running over them with everything from lawnmowers to large tractor trailers) has led to a very high failure rate, quoted at 47%. Perhaps we can suggest using a "Magic 8-ball" to improve reliability?
Carroll Shanks from Kingwood said he uses about as much water as the next guy, so you can imagine his surprise when he got a letter in the mail that began, “Dear Sir or Madam, due to an inadvertent reading[sic] of your water meter you now owe $1,486.”
The problem is that the city’s electronic water meter wasn’t tracking his usage and although he continued to be billed, it was only for a minimum amount.
Conceived in the late 1990s as a way to reduce costs by making a large meter reading staff unnecessary, Public Works sold the council on the project by claiming that only about seven techs would be needed to maintain over 400,000 transmitters across the city. The council of that time was concerned by the idea that no one would be checking up on the electronics, and extracted a promise from Public Works that it would read every meter at least once per year to ensure that the transmitters were reporting correctly.
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 01/01/07 07:25 PM |
Clear Channel's vision for Houston-area radio
The Houston Business Journal has posted a print edition Q & A with local Clear Channel GM Eddie Martiny that includes some interesting information. Here are a couple of bites:
HBJ: You have an extensive line-up of FM and AM shows. Where do you plan to make changes, if any?
Martiny: The main programming changes have been on our AM radio stations (NewsRadio KTRH 740 AM and TalkRadio 950 KPRC).
We're moving Rush Limbaugh to KTRH for a few simple reasons: Rush is America's most popular on-air personality. Moving to our 50,000 watt giant gives Rush the opportunity to broadcast to a larger audience on one of the most powerful radio stations in America.
The changes we made on KPRC are designed to give listeners more live and local programming. While nationally syndicated hosts are popular, some of the marketplace has been seeking more local viewpoints.
[snip]
HBJ: With Houston a Top 10 radio market, where do you see the city's future heading?
Martiny: I believe the future of the radio industry is bright. Radio revenue for 2006 will most likely reach an all-time high for the city of Houston (approximately $330 million). This is a reflection of the quality of our talented team and a robust local economy.
It's not just our company. There are several first-rate radio companies in Houston. Houston radio is competitive, which results in great radio for the listeners.
As long as Houston continues to thrive, so will radio.
We've long noted the market for local issue-oriented talk, and Clear Channel's recent scheduling changes make the most of what KTRH-740 and KPRC-950 can deliver signal-wise: putting the powerhouse hosts on KTRH's big blowtorch (as Chris Baker calls it), and putting the local hosts, dealing with issues of local interest, on KPRC. It's a win-win for Clear Channel and for Houston-area listeners.
PREVIOUSLY: KTRH-740 and KPRC-950 changing shows, schedules
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/01/07 07:54 AM |
31 December 2006
Happy New Year!
Here's wishing a Happy New Year (in advance) to everyone.
Thanks to all the readers, commenters, and emailers who made this little site so much fun in 2006. We're looking forward to an even better 2007!
Since our lame city leaders couldn't manage to put on their "annual" New Year's event this year, here are pictures of New York's famous New Year's Eve ball and a rendering of Houston's New Year's star from last year's "annual" New Year's celebration here in town.
Can we say LAME one more time? Yes, I think we can.
If you're heading out tonight, please be careful (and don't drive if you've been drinking).
UPDATE (01-01-2007): If Chris Baker's post here is any indicator, he may well have something to say on his show tomorrow about Houston's lack of a New Year celebration.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/31/06 04:02 PM |
29 December 2006
Jordy Tollett resigns
Gerard J. "Jordy" Tollett announced today that he is leaving his post as president and CEO of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau.
He said he has decided to pursue other ventures.He will serve as a consultant until 2008.
GHCVB chairman Doug Horn and chairman emeritus Don Henderson will coordinate day-to-day operations at the GHCVB.
The executive board of the bureau voted in November to search for a possible replacement for Tollett.
Considerable pressure was applied on the board's 28 members, who cast secret ballots when deciding whether to follow up on Mayor Bill White's recommendation to enlist a national executive search firm to find candidates when Tollett's contract expires in February.
Mayor White can really turn those screws, eh?
BLOGVERSATION: HouStoned, People Mover.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/29/06 05:25 PM |
DeBakey discusses receiving the surgery he pioneered
On Christmas day, the New York Times posted a great story by Lawrence K. Altman on Houston's renowned Dr. Michael DeBakey, who became the oldest living recipient of the heart surgery he helped pioneer.
It's a fascinating tale of how Dr. DeBakey actually diagnosed himself, left a directive advising no surgery, and was eventually overruled by his wife and the Methodist Hospital ethics board (interestingly enough, given the determination by some hospitals in Houston to end lives deemed unworthy).
Houston's newspaper of record was forced to run a short AP account of the New York Times story. Apparently, the New York Times reporter has a longtime relationship with Dr. DeBakey, and that helped secure this great story for the newspaper:
Dr. DeBakey agreed to talk, and permitted his doctors to talk, because of a professional relationship of decades with this reporter, who is also a physician, and because he wanted to set the record straight for the public about what happened and explain how a man nearly 100 years old could survive.
That's the second time in a week that the New York Times has published a story with a Houston angle. Does that mean our little city is becoming world class?
BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers,
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/06 05:03 PM |
Editorial LiveJournalists reject Mayor's spin on crime
Last week, we noted the release of the latest FBI crime statistics, which only confirmed what most Houstonians know to be true about violent crime in the city (it's increasing).
Nonetheless, that didn't stop MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's press shop from going into full spin mode for the local media. Here are excerpts from KHOU-11's story that appeared shortly after the FBI information was widely reported:
When the population increase is factored in, the murder rate is still up 11 percent, but violent crimes as a whole – including forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault – are down 4 percent, a number the city says more accurately reflects the rate of crime in the area.
“In the last three years since I’ve been mayor, we’ll have less total violent crime than the three years before I was mayor...even though we have a much larger population,” Mayor Bill White said.
The bolded part is the sort of reporting that sometimes results when people don't understand basic statistics (and when spinners take advantage of people who don't understand basic statistics). "Violent crimes as a whole" are up, and up significantly. There is no spinning the raw numbers. What the reporter perhaps meant to say is that per capita violent crime is not up if one figures in estimated population figures supplied by HPD -- and we italicize the "if" to emphasize that those numbers are simply estimates.
Both the raw statistics and the per capita statistics are useful, and neither should be viewed in isolation (or spun for political purposes to mislead the public about what is a real crime problem in Houston).
Interestingly, the Editorial LiveJournalists (sometimes referred to as Mrs. White for their unwavering devotion to their man) weren't totally buying the mayor's spin this time:
A graph charting the rise in the rate of all violent crimes in Houston for the first half of 2006 would show a line rising relatively slowly. A graph of the number of Houston police officers in recent years would show a line rapidly descending.
Both of those lines are heading in the wrong direction. Unless the decline in the number of police officers is reversed, Houston risks continued increases in the rate of violent crimes.
According to figures compiled by the FBI, per capita violent crimes in Houston rose by 5.9 percent — not quite twice the national rate. The murder rate, however, jumped a startling 28 percent, from 158 during the first six months of 2005 to 202 for the same period this year.
During Mayor Bill White's tenure, retirements in the veteran force have shrunk the department by about 600 officers. At the same time, the city's population has been burgeoning, even without the influx of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. The result: a sharp decline in the number of officers per 1,000 residents.
That assessment won't surprise blogHOUSTON readers, but seeing those four paragraphs coming from Mrs. White made me wonder who wrote that editorial! Maybe a bright young intern did it while everyone else was enjoying spiked egg nog?
The conclusion was a bit weak, though:
The first priority, however, must be for HPD to redouble its efforts to recruit, train and deploy new officers. If the force continues to decline at a time of swift population growth, the department could find itself in a personnel hole from which it could not easily extricate itself.
We agree with the first sentence, of course. As for the second sentence, it would seem that HPD is in a pretty serious "personnel hole" now -- and partly because the editorial page of the city's major news daily was disinterested in the problem for years, when the problem might have been addressed more easily.
(Apologies for blogging this bit of "olds" but work, travel, Christmas, and my ThinkPad mishap all conspired to delay this post beyond the usual level of freshness!)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/06 01:29 PM |
28 December 2006
Will the New Year's Eve star shine upon Houston again? (update: Carol Alvarado says Houston is "event-ed out")
We may have poked a bit of fun last year at the city's New Year's Eve celebration with its ascending, Chronicle-esque star, but what's the deal this year? Last year's KHOU-11 story made it sound like this was going to be an annual event:
City officials hope to someday rival the New York City ball drop, but for this year at least, the symbol stays small, and if all goes well, rises to the occasion without a hitch.
Mike McGuff also wonders what happened to New Year's Eve Houston, and is working on a list of alternative events.
Has anyone heard about a city-planned party for this year?
UPDATE: And just like that, the Chron has a story today on what happened to the (almost) annual star-raising celebration:
The Downtown Entertainment District Alliance, a volunteer group of business owners around lower Main Street, organized the star-raising event last New Year's Eve.
With a crowd estimated at 10,000 looking on, the star began to rise at 10 p.m., growing brighter as it ascended. It reached the top of the 12-story Binz Building at Main and Texas at midnight.
The volunteer group hoped to move the event this year to 3 Allen Center, a 50-story skyscraper on downtown's west side, but a change in the building's ownership complicated planning, said John Zotos, a downtown restaurateur who co-chairs the alliance.
Zotos said last year's event was a success, but organizers wanted to move it away from the Main Street rail line, which limited space for crowds to gather.
Move it away from the Danger Train? Say it ain't so!
Alvarado, whose district includes downtown, said several factors contributed to the one-year delay in repeating the event.
Planning should have begun sooner, she said, and city government and the Convention and Visitors Bureau must assume bigger roles in organizing and marketing the celebration.
"We didn't want to just throw something together just to have an event," Alvarado said. "And after the big events in the last couple of years, I think people were just a little event-ed out."
Folks were too "event-ed out" to plan a New Year's Eve party? That's not very world-class!
Imagine where New York City would be (the city we are trying to emulate) if they didn't plan a New Year's Eve party because the planning folks were "event-ed out"?
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/06 06:50 PM |
Frank Wilson: Metro makes Houston livable
You know, Metro's really raking in the dough these days. Lots and lots of tax revenue. The problem is Metro has to dedicate a large portion of that money to the Danger Train and its planned offspring, so other parts of the Metro empire suffer.
Such as customer service. Still. And again. (Will someone either ask for a definition of Metro Time or buy Metro a clock?)
Such as bus service and bus stops:
Thanks to a Montrose restaurant owner and various community groups, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is bringing back its adopt-a-stop and adopt-a-shelter programs, which can help curb crime at Houston bus stops.
The program, which died a few years ago because of a lack of interest, was revived in the fall when Dimitrios Fetokakis, owner of Niko Niko's Greek and American Café at 2520 Montrose, called Houston District D City Councilwoman Ada Edwards to complain about criminal activity at the bus stop across from his business.
"My employees were afraid to walk across the street where we park our employee cars," he said. "It just doesn't look good when we have customers sitting on the patio and they see drug deals."
Fetokakis said there were also problems with trash and prostitution.
[snip]
"Every time I drive by a bus stop, the trash is always full, there's graffiti on the bus stops, it's just time for the bus stops to be fixed. They look very old," Carson said. "When it comes to crime, we know some of the issues we have in Hyde Park also coincide with some of the issues we have at the bus stops.
Nice. Who needs security? Look how well things have worked out at the Park and Rides. And don't forget Metro's suggestion that bus riders who are worried about safety can take advantage of Texas' concealed carry law.
However, as Laurence Simon points out, there is one area where Metro has decided to spend a little money -- a blogger. At least I'm assuming former Chron reporter Mary Sit isn't working for free.
Back in October, Metro boss Frank Wilson said, "“If Houston didn't have METRO, it would cease to be a livable city.” Some might argue that Houston already lost some of its livability once Metro began focusing on light rail.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/06 06:03 PM |
Houston celebrates a successful 2006
Here's a Los Angeles Times story on Houston's current economic good fortune:
FINE wine flows freely at Tony's, the dining room of the rich and powerful in this dynamic Sun Belt city. But it always flows a little faster when the price of crude oil is high — and these days, owner Tony Vallone said, the bottles are emptying at a brisk pace.
On a recent Friday evening, socialites in fur coats stepped past the cascading sheets of water at the glass entrance, into an airy room adorned with vibrant Robert Rauschenberg paintings. Waiters wheeled out enormous souffles and whole red snappers encrusted in salt. The richest man in town, oil pipeline magnate Dan Duncan, was dining there for the third time in four days.
At the center table, Ileana Trevino, the head of a hospital foundation, was celebrating her 51st birthday with about a dozen close friends and her husband, Michael, a Marathon Oil executive. She was asked what she wanted to drink.
"Whatever's expensive," Trevino replied, and laughed. The sommelier recommended bottles of a $50 red from Spain's Montsant region, a modest option at a restaurant that offers magnums of 1945 Chateau Petrus Bordeaux for $30,000.
"It's almost palpable, isn't it?" said attorney Michael Solar, one of Trevino's friends, as he waved his glass to indicate the wealth in the packed room. "When the rest of the country is doing well, it seems like Houston is often struggling. But when the rest of the country is struggling, it seems like Houston is often doing well."
High oil, natural gas and electricity prices may bring pain to families and business owners elsewhere, but in America's energy capital, they bring prosperity.
Two out of every five Houstonians owe their jobs to energy — many big oil and gas companies have their world or American headquarters in Houston — and the industry's spectacular profits in recent years have helped the nation's fourth-largest city outdistance the country as a whole in economic growth.
The story continues on, noting that housing is affordable, high-end spas and social clubs have waiting lists, gas-guzzling SUVs are popular (think Hummers!), and Houstonians love to eat out. It reads almost like a primer for Angelenos, describing a foreign land and people.
The only thing missing from the story was a quote from Bob Stein.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/06 01:56 PM |
Rick's Cabaret celebrates a successful 2006
Via the Houston Business Journal:
Adult entertainment company Rick's Cabaret Inc. reported stronger annual net income and revenue Thursday, aided by robust performances [Anne adds: I'll bet!] from both new and existing nightclubs.
[snip]
"The excellent performance of Rick's Cabaret-New York City gave us a strong revenue boost for the fiscal year and this club continues to grow steadily each month," said Eric Langan, president and CEO of Rick's Cabaret. "Our growth program is on track and we are looking forward to another strong year in 2007 from our existing clubs and the four acquisitions we have made recently."
Langan added that the company plans to evaluate possible additional acquisitions that fit the company's business model and can provide a quick boost to earnings.
Rick's (NASDAQ: RICK) operates upscale adult nightclubs serving primarily businessmen and professionals who offer live adult entertainment, restaurant and bar operations.
If Mayor White wins his battle to oust Jordy Tollett from the GHCVB, perhaps Jordy can land a job at Rick's, working in the PR department:
When Houston Civic Center Director Jordy Tollett explained why he spent several thousand dollars in taxpayers' money escorting visitors to Rick's, [his answer that] "They wanted to go there" became the quote on another billboard. Tollett's public reprimand from the mayor led to what may have been the apogee of Rick's public acceptance, a Houston Chronicle editorial that declared, "As a city trying to attract convention business, we must spend money to make money, and if Tollett was bowing to the demands of clients to go to topless bars, we probably shouldn't fault him too much."
(Thanks to Charles Kuffner for posting that classic gem.)
I may be in the minority here, but I'm rooting for Jordy to keep his job. He's quite a character!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/06 12:56 PM |
Dumped baggage probably stolen in "holiday grab bag"
Rad Sallee has much more on the story of the dumpster full of luggage found near IAH. Apparently, stealing luggage from airports isn't unheard of:
The 68 pieces of baggage that turned up in a trash bin Tuesday near George Bush Intercontinental Airport were probably stolen by a team of thieves in a single day's work while airline staffers were stretched thin by the demands of holiday travel, a Texas travel adviser theorized Wednesday.
"It sounds like a hit-or-miss holiday grab bag," said Tom Parsons, of Arlington, who operates Bestfares.com. "They probably grabbed enough to fill up a little van, then went off somewhere and rifled through it."
[snip]
Parsons said it is costly for the airlines to pay tag-checkers. It is a job that neither the Houston Airport System, which oversees operations at Bush and Hobby, nor the federal Transportation Security Administration performs.
Continental Airlines spokeswoman Mary Clark said many travelers would object to the delay that checking would cause. The airline does not check tags against bags, she said.
Not checking is standard practice at most U.S. airports, Parsons said, but checks are more frequent elsewhere. He said his bags were checked recently when he picked them up in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Although 68 bags may seem "an amazing number" to steal from carousels, it's not that hard to do for a gang, he said.
"We had something like that in Dallas. A group of guys would go from one terminal to another and pick up a couple of bags each place and throw them into their car," he said. The group would later hold garage sales to sell their loot, including the luggage, he said.
At Bush, Parsons speculated, "Those guys were working at different terminals, they took their time and then moved on.
"When you look at the number of terminals and the number of places where you can pick up your bags, it doesn't take that many stops before you've got 70."
"Some bags will sit there on the carousel and go around for three or four laps, and that's a good sign of a missed connection. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that maybe nobody is going to claim this bag," he said.
Airlines have personnel to remove those bags to prevent theft, but sometimes they're busy elsewhere, Parsons said.
One year a member of my family shipped some luggage via UPS, before visiting us for Christmas. Maybe UPS and FedEx need to offer a new service, since airlines don't seem to be interested in safeguarding passengers' bags.
In the Chron story, Continental suggests that luggage theft "is rare," but this KHOU-11 story suggests it might be more of a problem than airlines want to admit:
Police sources told 11 News that more often than not the bags are not mishandled or lost, but stolen, sometimes by people on the other side of the security check points. The source tells us that police become frustrated because the incidents are not reported by the airlines.
It makes for bad publicity the source said.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Slampo's Place.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/06 10:51 AM |
That'll be an expensive fix
Copper thieves were pretty brazen at a park in southeast Houston, using a bulldozer to dig up the valuable wiring:
Someone used a chain and a bulldozer to steal 2,400 feet of buried copper lines from the Blackhawk sports complex on Fuqua. Those lines were supposed to serve as the facility's main power source.
"It makes me angry and frustrated," said Jeremy Ward with the South Belt Youth Football League. "To see that somebody would stoop to that level to tear down something that somebody is trying to put together for the kids of the community."
Replacing the copper wiring and repairing the damage will cost the park nearly $50,000.
Houston city council is already working on a plan to stop copper thieves, in part, by making it tougher to sell scrap metal to dealers. A proposed ordinance calls for strict record-keeping by scrap metal dealers, surveillance video of all transactions and fingerprint impressions. A vote on the ordinance is pending.
Unless there are copper wires in the surveillance cameras, which means those will be a target as well.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/06 08:06 AM |
[Previous 20 Entries] [Next 20 Entries]