26 April 2009
If the City subsidized just one more downtown hotel, would we be world class? (updated)
Several days ago, the Chronicle's Bradley Olson reported on Mayor White's latest, greatest effort to make downtown world class:
Houston is poised to provide a $9.6 million tax subsidy for an Embassy Suites downtown, part of a raft of public-private hotel development that has sprung up since the completion of Discovery Green.
City Council today is expected to consider the deal, which would provide the hotel developer up to $1.4 million a year for seven years if it agrees to set aside at least 70 percent of the planned hotel’s 262 rooms for conventions and to participate in national advertising geared toward attracting more convention business to Houston.
Houston-based American Liberty Hospitality, which is developing the $34.5 million hotel, did not return a call seeking comment.
In fairness, perhaps the company is too busy resolving its "NOT IN GOOD STANDING" status with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to help a Chron scribe report on what should be the public's business (thanks to Tom Bazan for that catch).
Mayor White's press staff surely won't like that a dissenting voice was included in the coverage:
Michael D. Oden, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has studied economic development subsidies, said an important question is why private investment will not suffice if there is such a strong convention market.
“What are the market failures here that justify a public subsidy?” he asked.
Houston's power brokers prefer that such questions not be asked. Such scrutiny is not usually The Houston Way.
Thankfully, Councilmembers Clutterbuck and Holm temporarily derailed this proposal with a tag, but it comes back on this week's agenda.
UPDATE (04-27-09): On the topic of The Houston Way, Olson has a brief in today's slim Chronicle on Mayor White's promotional efforts on behalf of Marvy Finger, based on documents requested by Texas Watchdog. Here's hoping Texas Watchdog will have a more detailed followup on their site, since the Monday Chronicle is a thin effort indeed these days. [ADDENDUM: Texas Watchdog promises an update shortly. Strangely enough, they apparently have not yet seen the documents from THEIR public information request. It is not clear how the Chronicle got hold of them before the organization that actually requested them.]
UPDATE 2 (04-27-09): And there's yet MORE on The Houston Way in today's Chronicle, from (you guessed it)... Olson:
The partial closure of Rivercrest Drive, brought about through a 12-year campaign by a small community of wealthy, powerful Houstonians who wanted to shut off their street from cut-through traffic, has kicked up dust all the way from City Council to the Texas Legislature.
On one hand are people like Oliveira in Briargrove Park, who cannot understand why the city permitted an action they believe has sent far more cars into their neighborhood, without so much as a public hearing on the matter.
They see only the outsized influence of their neighbors in Rivercrest, who have donated tens of thousands of dollars to the political campaigns of City Council members and national politicians and make their living as trial lawyers, professional athletes and business executives.
On the other side are those neighbors in Rivercrest, who lived for years on a long, straight street with no curbs, sidewalks or stop signs that had turned into something of a racetrack for cars trying to avoid rush-hour traffic on Westheimer. They had tried for more than a decade to get some help from the city, only to continually bump up against the will of their neighbors and a bureaucratic morass at City Hall.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport (and more), Texas Watchdog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/26/09 10:56 PM |
The TMC's power to condemn
Today's Chron carries an op-ed by Asmara Tekle-Johnson and Hugh Rice Kelly on the Texas Medical Center's power to condemn private property, and how it is using that power. Here's an excerpt:
The Texas Medical Center’s explosive growth combined with the condemnation power over “adjacent” property exercised by its obscure service company, “Texas Medical Center Inc.” Legally, “adjacent” means much more than is generally understood: TMC Inc.’s condemnation power extends to the boundaries of single-family, deed-restricted neighborhoods — on the west for four miles, from Main at Sunset to the Rice Village, back to Main along University Boulevard, and from there almost to Brays Bayou. On the east, a two-mile boundary extends condemnation jurisdiction to the Riverside Third Ward neighborhoods.
Nor is this threat a mere possibility. TMC Inc. already has established its willingness to condemn and bulldoze deed-restricted homes, 16 so far, and “extinguish” their single-family deed restrictions.
The chilling consequences of TMC Inc.’s residential condemnations are obvious in a five-minute drive through the Central City subdivision near Holcombe Boulevard at Almeda Road. Once a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood of modest homes, in the past five years Central City has been devastated. Today it is marked by a score of bulldozed lots and more than half of its home sites have fallen into the hands of speculators — and TMC Inc. A 500-car employee parking garage looms over the neighborhood where homes once stood. Its glaring lights by night and its bulk by day now dominate the landscape. On the garage side of the subdivision, only two of 18 houses survive, the homes of their vanished neighbors condemned and bulldozed. A neighborhood brimming with children must now cope with cut-through traffic, light and noise pollution, and streets clogged by parked cars.
And while we have often commented on METRO's quasi-governmental status, TMC Inc. sounds far worse:
TMC Inc. is operated by an invisible, self-perpetuating board that does not account to any public authority. No open government processes apply to this wholly private company, and its management and board are beyond the reach of open records requirements, open meetings laws or any other democratic process. While the media and citizens can protest and influence the actions of the governmental and regulated entities entrusted with eminent domain power, the people have no forum to challenge TMC Inc.’s decisions — a singular privilege endowed on no other private entity in Texas history.
The writers note that state Rep. Garnet Coleman has sponsored HB 3709 which would end the TMC's power to condemn homes. This sounds like a worthy bill to get behind. And after that, maybe someone will offer a bill to curb METRO's power to condemn private property.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/26/09 08:04 AM |
23 April 2009
Harris County District Clerk's office ahead of the curve on electronic filing
KUHF-88.7's Rod Rice has a story on a topic that seems altogether rare these days: government showing some initiative and getting something right. Here's an excerpt:
It is not a requirement in Harris County, but even so, the District Clerk's office has set a state record for the number of civil court documents and lawsuits filed electronically. Rod Rice reports.
It happened on April 13th when the office processed 455 electronic case files. Harris County District Clerk Loren Jackson says electronic filing has a number of benefits. The most important is access.
“The one thing that we’re looking to do here in the District Clerk’s office is from the time a case is filed, to have that case filing available online for public consumption within 24 hours, that’s our goal.”
It would seem that kudos are in order for Mr. Jackson and his staff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/09 09:49 PM |
Reader interaction time: What's wrong with this picture?
Here is the headline and lede from Chronicle reporter Mike Snyder:
City to repair whistleblower’s home
Mayor Bill White has decided to spend $53,000 in local funds to repair the northwest Houston home of Marsha Farmer, who died last December after struggling for years to stop the waste of federal money in Houston’s home repair program.
We don't even know what to say, so feel free to finish this post for us in the comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/09 09:38 PM |
22 April 2009
AG: Public entitled to Mayor White's public calendar, developer correspondence
Texas Watchdog reporter Rosanna Ruiz (formerly of the Chronicle) has posted her first story for the online news organization, on Mayor White's recent effort to shield his calendar and certain correspondence from the public:
Mayor Bill White has for more than two months hidden his calendar and his correspondence with a developer, but the attorney general says White must now release at least a portion of this information.
White argued to keep some of the records under wraps after Texas Watchdog requested them in January under the Texas Public Information Act. However, he hasn’t released any of the records.
Texas Watchdog requested his 2008 calendar, as well as correspondence between White and developer Marvy Finger, whose firm built condominiums adjacent to a downtown park.
Mayor White usually talks a good game when it comes to government transparency, so it's surprising he was so resistant to these requests. It will be interesting to see what is in the documents when they are finally made available.
Apparently, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst complied with similar calendar requests made by Texas Watchdog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/22/09 04:36 PM |
Is refurbishing the Astrodome worth a few hundred million to you?
KPRC-2's Robert Arnold checked in last week with a report on possible uses for the decrepit Astrodome.
County Judge Ed Emmett sounds realistic about the poor prospects of an Astrodome hotel these days, but suggested a use we hadn't heard before:
"If the hotel idea doesn't come to fruition, then I think we'll be looking at something that will be a more public venue -- something everybody can use," said Emmett.
One idea being floated is to use the Dome to host the dozens of festivals held in Houston every year.
"You've got secure weather and it gives us some flexibility," said Emmett. "This coming weekend is a great example. You've got the International Festival and we're hearing it's going to rain for two days."
Local 2 Investigates also spoke with officials from Astrodome Studios, a private company that has been working for the last year-and-a-half on a proposal to turn the Dome into a massive sound-stage and production facility.
Company co-founders Cynthia Hand-Neely and Elise Hendrix said the project would be privately funded.
We're quite selfishly hoping the privately financed movie studio comes through. If it doesn't, preserving the Astrodome could get really expensive:
"At the very least, you're talking a couple hundred million dollars to make it something that's usable," said Emmett.
Emmett said that kind of expenditure could require a bond referendum."I think the public will support something that keeps the Dome intact and turns it into something that's usable by the public," said Emmett.
If it's a choice between a few hundred million dollars for a facility without much of a purpose or a much less expensive parking lot, I would vote for the parking lot. What do you think?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/22/09 12:09 AM |
21 April 2009
THAT will show us (part 2)! (updated)
A reader emailed earlier asking if we knew why the Chron removed blogHOUSTON from the "Blogs we've linked to" section on the Chron.com editorial page. The reader claimed Dwight Silverman had not answered several email inquiries to that effect.
We knew the newspaper exorcised blogHOUSTON from many blogrolls, but we didn't realize they had also removed it from the "Blogs we've linked to" section (which is strange, given the fact the newspaper has linked to the blog). Sure enough, it's gone (see the screenshot below).
We still have no idea why the blogHOUSTON exorcism was suddenly such a priority for Chron higher-ups, but we did notice something funny about the editorial page screenshot: Two of the people who were laid off several weeks ago (Claudia Kolker and Veronica Bucio) are still listed as members of the Editorial Board. Doh!
The newspaper continues to have some wacky, albeit entertaining, priorities. Perhaps one day, some adults will re-evaluate.
UPDATE (04/22/09): They have removed the outdated photo of the editorial board and updated the list of members!
Glad we could help out with that, Chron folks, and glad you're still reading our little "blacklisted" blog.
How in the world did you find your way over after the big BLOGROLL EXORCISM?!
And where should we send our web consulting fee?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/21/09 09:37 PM |
Vandals hit METRO's Kingwood Park-and-Pillage lot
KHOU-11's Rosa Flores reports on more vandalism at METRO's Park-and-Pillage lots:
A vandal was at it again in Kingwood on Monday.
Police say several cars were broken into at the Kingwood Park & Ride – the same place where cars were vandalized earlier this year.
[snip]
Commuters said there used to be a guard stationed there, but there hasn’t been one since security cameras were installed on the premises.
Obviously, that move continues to work out well for METRO's customers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/21/09 09:15 PM |
20 April 2009
Congrats to the Chronicle, 2009 Pulitzer finalist
Congratulations are due for the Chronicle (and current and former staff ), honored today as a Pulitzer finalist for coverage of Hurricane Ike.
The Chronicle proved unable to duplicate the success of the nearby Times-Picayune, which captured the Pulitzer in the breaking news category in 2006 for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Instead, the New York Times took the top prize in the category this year, for its Spitzer coverage. Still, it's a big deal being named finalist, and it's especially nice to see the recognition of a stellar team effort during a crisis.
And now... a question (or several) for diminutive editor Jeff Cohen. Would it be possible, finally, for the newspaper to stop looking to a prize board for validation? To stop trying to get their attention with death-penalty journalism so skewed as to be a caricature? With environmental gotcha activism by a journalist who left town fairly quickly when the prize didn't materialize? With a cartoonist who won the Prize at another newspaper trying just a little too hard here?
Your community news coverage/analysis of Ike was Pulitzer finalist quality (and if the newspaper's past coverage of Enron or Stanford Financial had been so strong, that prized Pulitzer surely would have been captured). Why can't the newspaper focus like a laser on local/regional affairs all the time, instead of just during a crisis?
Granted, that's made more difficult now with all the layoffs and the lack of emphasis on local/regional news, reported by professional journalists (reflected by a glance at Chron.com's disjointed main page, by this strange sister site, and really the absence of any serious effort to communicate the newspaper's vision to the public moving forward). But if the Atlanta Journal-Constitution can re-evaluate itself from top to bottom after its own downsizing, engage with its readers, and remake itself as a news and editorial organization, why couldn't our Pulitzer-finalist newspaper? Who knows, owning the local/regional news space and re-engaging the entire customer base (even those in the center and rightward!) might eventually lead to that elusive Pulitzer -- or at the very least, a healthier bottom line (just in case a proprietary electronic news reader isn't quite the salvation promised by the Hearst suits).
Darrell Hancock and Cory Crow have written more -- and more thoughtfully -- on this topic, so go check out their stuff and leave them some comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/20/09 11:13 PM |
19 April 2009
WSJ's Holman Jenkins on red-light-camera revenue-streams
Commenter kjb434 passed along an interesting Wall Street Journal article by Holman Jenkins to us on red-light cameras, entitled "The war on short yellows." As Jenkins notes, voters don't much like red-light cameras, although pols craving revenue certainly do:
One Arizona sheriff recently proved you could get elected by opposing speed cameras. Meanwhile, the state legislature is considering bills to dismantle the system created by Gov. Janet Napolitano when she faced a gaping budget deficit, before she escaped to the Obama Department of Homeland Security. Petitioners in Arizona are also gathering signatures to put the question directly before voters -- speed cameras have never won when submitted to voters.
Even the Scottsdale City Council recently voted not to oppose the anti-camera bills in the state legislature.
Why is this important? Because Arizona, specifically Scottsdale, is home to the two biggest companies, American Traffic Solutions and Redflex Traffic Systems, in the incestuous world of promoting and operating traffic cameras for revenue-hungry governments.
Laid to rest long ago should have been the pretense that the goal is "safety," not chasing cash.
We've long argued against Houston's red-light cameras on due-process grounds, and we certainly don't believe any Houston pol who suggests that revenues played no part in our own red-light camera scheme. What do you think?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/09 10:57 PM |
THAT will show us!
Unca Darrell asks why blogHOUSTON was kicked off some Chron.com blogrolls.
We have no idea, but it is the case that the little blog was once on the blogroll at Houston Politics, and seems to have been removed over the last few days. (UPDATE: Ditto SciGuy's blogroll).
It's strange to think that blogroll exorcism is a priority for anyone at the continually shrinking newspaper, but then again, some reporters do find the time to explain that news reported elsewhere isn't news and to pass along fifteen-year-old (+) stories (to prove some obscure point?), so we've long stopped trying to figure out the priorities at 801 Texas Avenue.
Anyhoo.... our blogroll continues to grow, and the blogs we link offer all sorts of interesting perspectives on the Houston area. So as the Chron continues to shrink, feel free to click away on our growing collection of links!
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/09 10:37 PM |
17 April 2009
Only in Houston...
KHOU-11 reports on an unusual crash that took place early Friday morning:
The West Loop southbound was shut down for about two hours overnight after two crashes involving a mobile taco stand and a fire truck, respectively.
It happened around 1 a.m. near San Felipe.
Police say a pickup truck was moving fast down 610 when he smashed into the back end of a slower-moving truck pulling a taco stand.
The pickup actually went all the way inside the stand.
[snip]
While HFD was at the scene blocking the lanes, and SUV smashed into the back of the fire truck.
The episode is quintessentially Houston, is it not?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/17/09 10:06 PM |
15 April 2009
City continues review of Mobility Response Team problems
Earlier in the week, the Chron's Bradley Olson blogged about efforts to fix some of the problems with the Mobility Response Team, another of Mayor White's Ready-Fire-Aim! programs that wasn't quite ready for primetime at launch:
City Council members got a lengthy presentation today from the Houston Police Department on its plans to reform the "Mobility Response Team" program, which Mayor Bill White has called a "traffic SWAT team."
A series of Wayne Dolcefino reports on lengthy breaks taken by mobility officers during peak traffic hours, exaggerated accounting for their work and a stunning set of clips showing them doing little to nothing (including one while an elderly woman struggled to cross the street just a stone's throw away) prompted HPD to conduct a thorough investigation.
At an unusually well-attended (by council members, that is) Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee meeting, Assistant Chief Vicki King outlined more than a dozen training, supervisory and accountability reforms they are in the process of implementing for the program.
The Undercover Man's followup reporting on the (not-unimportant!) story he broke is here. He adds that HPD's investigation into the problems he documented should be completed in May.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/09 11:56 PM |
Chron reporter downplays TV coverage of HUD audit story
Remember back in the "good old days" of journalism when multiple news organizations tried to beat each other to stories (some major, some not-so-major)?
We've grown accustomed to newsroom cutbacks, newspaper closings, and less competition in general to break news.
What we aren't quite used to are blog posts like this one, essentially explaining why the Chronicle apparently* didn't feel the need to cover audit report irregularities in a city department, a story picked up by two television stations:
Television reports late last week might have left the impression that Houston's federally funded housing programs were immersed in scandal. But compared with previous audits of the city's Department of Housing and Community Development, the latest federal monitoring report was rather mild.
The April 6 report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development included 40 "findings" -- violations of federal rules -- and a smaller number of "concerns," which are to findings what tadpoles are to frogs. The findings and concerns focused on problems with record-keeping, procedures and administration of the complicated federal programs, rather than on any misuse of funds.
No big deal! Er, wait, someone can't make up his mind:
That's not to suggest that the report is unimportant.
What? Isn't that pretty much what it suggested?
Compared to past problems, maybe the current problems truly are no big deal. But was the (not-"unimportant") audit report really such a little deal that it merited no coverage from the city's newspaper of record?
This seems peculiar, but perhaps someone can explain it to us in the comments or via email**.
* We don't recall seeing any such story online, in the e-edition, or from searching, but sometimes Chron.com searching can be finicky.
** We do consider emails to the blog on the record and fair game for publication.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/09 11:36 PM |
Texas Watchdog adds Steve McVicker, Rosanna Ruiz to the fold
On the Texas Watchdog site, Trent Seibert announces the addition of two new reporters to the organization: Steve McVicker and Rosanna Ruiz.
Readers here should be familiar with both. Ruiz most recently provided the Chronicle its most critical coverage of METRO in years, before Jeff Cohen apparently decided to de-emphasize the transit beat (and laid her off). McVicker has worked in a number of local newsrooms, providing notable coverage of HPD's crime lab fiasco for the Chronicle (before getting laid off) and, more recently seeing his book made into a bigtime movie starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.
These are significant additions for Texas Watchdog, and their five journalists may well make up the second biggest metro desk in the city (especially since, as Rich Connelly and the Houston Press drone ad nauseam, KTRH-740 is *gasp* more about conservative talk than news these days, a possibly lamentable fact but something that stopped being news quite a while ago).
Congrats to Texas Watchdog and to Ruiz and McVicker on what should be an interesting partnership. We're looking forward to learning about more METRO deception and funny numbers, not to mention just how many thousand rape-test-kits are sitting in a (leaky?) closet somewhere still waiting to be analyzed several years after the Bromwich Report on the crime lab.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/09 07:20 PM |
14 April 2009
Houston-area Tea Parties (updated)
Several Tea Parties are planned in and around the Houston area tomorrow, and the big one at Jones Plaza should be jam-packed:
We expect quite a crowd. If we have overflow we are setting up an overflow area to protest the post office. Please stay on sidewalks there, and we apologize if Jones Plaza becomes too full. We are working to accommodate people in case this happens.
If you are unsure about coming downtown, The Woodlands, Sugarland, Clear Lake, Tomball, and a few other communities are hosting Tea parties. Please consider going to them. All Texas tea parties can be found here: http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/texas/
Things will get underway at 4pm at Jones Plaza, at 5pm in The Woodlands, and at 6pm in Clear Lake -- all accommodating folks who have to work, you'll notice, unlike a METRO board meeting.
If you make it to one of the Tea Parties tomorrow, please tell us about it in the forum.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS (04/15/09): Houston's Expert on Everything, Bicyclist (and Democrat) Bob Stein, has an opinion (actually, two opinions) on the Tea Parties. Here's the first one, offered to KHOU-11:
Organizers say the events are non-partisan, but 11 News political expert Bob Stein disagrees.
“This is an effort by the Republican National Committee to build up grass roots for a decimated party,” said Stein.
Here's the second opinion, offered to the Galveston County Daily News:
More than 300 people gathered in a city park Tuesday to rally against “out of control” government spending and to ship protest tea bags to Washington, D.C. Whether the first of what will be a series of tea party protests across the country is the start of a grass-roots political movement or just another form of political theater is yet to be determined.
“I think it is too early to say,” said Rice University political science professor Bob Stein. “There is a good deal of partisanship, but for an event the Republican Party would normally put its stamp on as the loyal opposition there really isn’t a (party) spokesperson on this.
“To me, the story is why the Republican Party is not jumping on this. (Republicans) are supportive of this, but not sounding the trumpet.”
Thank you, Bicyclist Stein, for those two contradictory opinions!
Incidentally, neither story identifies Stein as a Democrat.
ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: Our beloved Chronicle dips its toe into the Tea Party water with this story:
Anti-tax protesters turn out for dreaded April 15
Gosh, it's a mystery why that paper is bleeding readers.
MEANWHILE: KPRC-2 covers the local story much better than the Chronicle.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Suburban Goddess, This Blog Is Full Of Crap.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/14/09 06:45 PM |
13 April 2009
Texas Watchdog hosts public information meet-up (updated)
Want to learn how to file a public information request?
The folks at Texas Watchdog are hosting a blogger meetup on Tuesday to explain how the pros do just that.
The gathering is set for Coffee Groundz at 5:30 pm Tuesday. More information is available here.
UPDATE (04/14/09): Former Chron transit reporter Rosanna Ruiz announces on twitter that she will now be writing for Texas Watchdog, which seems like a good partnership. No word on whether she'll be at today's gathering.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/13/09 10:53 PM |
12 April 2009
Murray Newman does what DA Lykos and the media didn't . . .
. . . which was research of the Batson challenge that led to the Chronicle story about DA Lykos publicly tossing two prosecutors under the bus.
Click here to refresh your memory.
Murray forked out $25 for the transcript of the Batson challenges and actually shares with us what transpired. Anyone who read the Chronicle or watched the news and watched DA Lykos grandstand by calling her prosecutors "negligent" and "incompetent", giving the public the impression that these two prosecutors are racist, needs to read Murray's post.
Here's an excerpt;
Juror Number 13 was struck for having seven Class C Issuance of a Bad Check cases, and also could not make a decision on punishment versus rehabilitation.
They say character is crucial in the courtroom; this also includes the characters of jurors. Great job, Murray!
Posted by Jason @ 04/12/09 11:00 PM |
West: "The favored developers get favored treatment, and nobody else does"
The Chronicle ran a three-author story today that discusses the city's seemingly capricious decisionmaking process regarding aid to developers. Here is an excerpt:
The City Council’s decision last week to assist the developer of Regent Square, an $850 million mixed-use project off Allen Parkway, with up to $10 million in reimbursements raised new questions about the administration’s policy for supporting private developments with public money, and whether such assistance has been fair, consistent or even in the public interest.
“The impression out here in the community is that there is no standard,” said Jane West, a Sixth Ward neighborhood leader who participated in meetings with the city on the Sawyer Heights proposal. “The favored developers get favored treatment, and nobody else does.”
That does seem to be The Houston Way! Be sure to read the entire story.
Along the same lines, the Chronicle also recently ran a column by Lisa Gray on downtown as a living destination (hope springs eternal!). In particular, the following graf stood out:
Marvy Finger, the developer of One Park Place, bet big on Discovery Green before the park was even built. On a block adjacent to the park, Finger proposed a 37-story residential building, luxury apartments with room for a first-floor grocery store and restaurant.
Why not bet big? Mayor White effectively built a lovely, if tiny (compared to Central Park, or even our own Memorial or Buffalo Bayou parks), potty spot for the pets of the affluent residents to come, AND has personally acted as an advertising agent for the project. Funny how things work out for some developers in Houston, eh?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/12/09 09:32 PM |
METRO: Mary Sit fluffs the numbers; Frank Wilson is MIA
In the never-ending quest to pad ridership numbers, METRO's expensive blogger posted this statistic the other day:
METRO carries some 108 million riders every year.
That caused a reader to whip out his calculator:
108 million divided by 52 week averages out to about umm 2.07 million riders per week...
That's called METRO Math. Hopefully it will not soon be coming to a school district near us.
Meanwhile, KHOU-11's Jeremy Desel notes that Frank Wilson is doing his best impersonation of Clarence Bradford, minus the press release (via Barry Klein)
11 News has been trying to get clarification about the cost differences for the last two days. The explanation apparently needs to come from Metro President Frank Wilson, who has been unavailable for comment.
Has anyone checked with METRO's vendors to see if Frank's out looking for a new job? Or maybe METRO continues to be easily befuddled by the day-to-day intricacies of the transit business:
So maybe that's why the deal fell apart: Somebody says something that the people at Metro don't understand, so they just let it slide. If Parsons starts throwing around ideas Metro doesn't understand, we hope it asks for some clarification, considering all that money involved.
Our tax dollars at work. (Except Pasadena and Baytown, of course.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/12/09 06:27 AM |
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