10 April 2009
KRIV: HUD audit finds problems in Houston housing program
KRIV-26's Isiah Carey broke a story last night on a HUD audit of a City of Houston housing program:
The audit is best described as explosive. It targets the City of Houston's Housing Department.
It highlights more than 40 deficiencies at in the agency. The housing department is designed to provide affordable housing and other opportunities for those with low income.
[snip]
Investigators say HUD dollars were used to pay the expenses of a relative of a man who heads a housing program. The city's rental project may discriminate against those with disabilities, and the Home Rehabilitation Program provided poor work in some cases.
[snip]
Some houses were considered overpriced and auditors want to know why three employees were paid with housing dollars to work in the mayor's office....
Well, THAT doesn't sound quite right, but it does sound like The Houston Way. We are looking forward to the talking-points explanation from Mayor White's press shop (and maybe even his volunteer twitterers and blog commenters).
KHOU-11's Lee Mcguire adds more to this story in a report tonight. The Houston Chronicle hasn't reported on this story yet (or the METRO budget disclosure discrepancies for that matter), but at least MeMo and her kids are posting new content!
UPDATE (04/11/2009): Isiah Carey has more in this post (and accompanying video), including the current Housing director's lament that the organization was "screwed" when he arrived. Recall that FOB (Friend of Bill White) David Mincberg headed the organization before bailing out to run unsuccessfully for County Judge. There is also video of Mayor White rambling on and not making much sense. Clearly, fixing the numerous problems in this organization was about as high a priority for Mayor White as fixing BARC, HPD's staffing issues, and the unfunded liabilities in the municipal pension funds. Maybe the next administration will get around to those things!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/10/09 11:36 PM |
March sales tax revenue down
A sign of the times (via HBJ):
During the month, the state collected $1.58 billion in sales tax revenue, 3.8 percent less than in March 2008.
In February, sales tax revenue was down 2.6 percent from February 2008 and down nearly 9.4 percent from January 2009.
[snip]
Ten local transit systems received $92.2 million in March sales tax payments, down 5.8 percent compared with a year ago.
Houston received $35.1 million for its allotment, down nearly 1.6 percent from the comparable period a year ago.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/10/09 04:42 AM |
09 April 2009
Does Bill White hate puppies? (cont'd)
Craig Malisow continues his diligent reporting for the Houston Press on the deplorable conditions at BARC. Here is the lede from today's post:
A faulty anesthesia machine, a dog that nearly escaped during euthanasia, poor lighting, and a busted air conditioning system were among BARC's surgery room problems highlighted in an intra-office e-mail, according to newly released public records.
Go read the whole thing.
At least they released the records (transparency being The Houston Way after all). Perhaps next they'll turn loose the Twitterers and blog commenters to set critics straight and let us know that Mayor White really does love puppies!
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Does Bill White hate puppies?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/09 10:22 PM |
HairBalls broadens the media-crit beat!
Richard Connelly, who once had a serious media-criticism column for the Houston Press, lately has been reduced to lamenting all the conservative talk on KTRH-740 on the publication's Hair Balls blog (as an aside, some degree of irony came today, when another blogger rewrote a Glenn Beck segment for Hair Balls, and more irony is provided by his publication's advertisements for amateur food and politics bloggers for THEIR blogs).
Now, Connelly has apparently added Chron.com conservative bloggers to the "beat" (such as it is), finding one of Dwight Silverman's handpicked poliblogger stars less than convincing.
As Cory Crow notes, Dwight Silverman's star political bloggers on the left apparently are not part of the new beat.
We are perplexed as to why any of this is serious fodder for a (one-time) media critic, or why he wouldn't just find more interesting media to consume if it's so off-putting.
Sadly, there was a time when Connelly would have skewered the Chronicle for running a Washington Post story about a local data center -- and that would likely have been a fun read. Then again, the Village Voice family has gotten pretty bad about "repackaging" content these days (compare and contrast a Miami Village Voice writer's feature on Stanford Financial Group), so maybe it's best not to go there. Besides, amateur blogger Laurence Simon seems to have covered it pretty well, although it's worth adding that the WaPo version is about 300 words longer. It must be nice having a real newspaper in one's town (or a good alt-weekly or two, for that matter).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/09 10:13 PM |
07 April 2009
KHOU's Desel exposes light-rail cost discrepancies; METRO refuses to comment
KHOU-11's Jeremy Desel has been examining what METRO is telling the public about the costs of rail expansion versus what METRO is telling the federal government about the costs of rail expansion, and -- shock! -- he finds large discrepancies.
The initial story is set up as one of those typically formulaic he-said/he-said standoffs between Paul Magaziner and Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson, but we're going to take on the role of really good editor, excise those elements, and give the facts center stage:
On March 4, the Metro Board voted on a contract with the Parsons Group to design, build and operate four new Light Rail lines.
The cost for the North Line would be $387 million, and the cost for the Southeast Line would be $441 million.
[snip]
According to letters dated on March 23 from Metro to the Federal Transit Administration, Metro indicated that the current net project cost estimate would be $896 million for the North Line and $911 million for the Southeast Line.
The numbers in the letters are more than double the estimated costs in Metro's contract with its builder.
Neal Meyer also takes on the part of really good editor, and offers this synopsis:
Last month, the Metro board announced that it had approved a deal (though it had not signed a contract) with Parsons Transport Group where Parsons would lead a consortium to build four of the Metro Solutions Phase 2 rail lines, but not including the Wheeler / Richmond rail alignment. This deal would involve building a total 20 miles of Metro's planned 30 miles light rail for a price $1.46 billion. The costs of the North Corridor and Southeast Corridors were announced to be $387 and $441 million respectively. Desel's accompanying news story showed footage of last month's board meeting where Chairman David Wolff expressed optimism of falling costs, presumably due to a fall in materials costs resulting from the current economic downturn.
However, apparently in an FTA Letter of No Prejudice communication dated March 23rd 2009, the costs of the North and Southeast Corridors were stated at $896,797,000 and $911,211,000 respectively.
[snip]
...Metro has been telling the public and Parsons one thing and the FTA something entirely different concerning project costs. At $897 million, the 5.4 miles of the North Corridor will run $166 million per mile. The Southeast Corridor will run at $134 million per mile. At costs like this, the 30 miles of Phase 2 will run $4.5 billion plus, a figure the Wizard predicted 18 months ago.
Taxpayers deserve better than this. The discrepancies between both sets of numbers is between $2 - $3 billion....
THAT is the punch line (not that Paul Magaziner and Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson dispute the amount of the discrepancy, or that Magaziner opposes wasteful METRO projects in general).
Unfortunately, Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson refuses to speak to Desel about the discrepancies. In a report tonight, Desel said a METRO vice president initially had something to say about the numbers, then decided that he did not have anything to say. Perhaps in the coming days, somebody at METRO will have something to say about what looks like a doubling in costs for METRO Solutions and an effort to keep the public in the dark. We hope it will be more helpful than Raequel Roberts rambling on nonsensically about nine-volt batteries or the organization's expensive blogger rambling on about China's ambitions to make significant quantities of electric cars.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/07/09 11:57 PM |
06 April 2009
Stiles hits the state ethics beat
Today's Chronicle has a feature by Matt Stiles on state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston. Here's an excerpt:
If he were a baseball player, state Sen. Rodney Ellis would be flirting with the Mendoza Line, the undesirable designation given to batters with averages around .200.
Only three senators had a lower passage rate than Ellis during the last legislative session. The veteran Houston Democrat is known for filing more legislation than any of his colleagues.
This year, the 54-year-old Ellis is juggling at least 183 potential laws, more than anyone else at the Capitol.
But don’t judge him by his passage rate, which stands at about 20 percent for the decade.
“If somebody’s going to criticize me because I do too much, because I’m ambitious, well, I stand accused,” he said with a chuckle during a recent interview.
Hee hee hee! And if someone's going to criticize him for possibly unethical behavior that happens to benefit him and business associates financially? He doesn't have nearly so much to say about that:
Over the years, he’s also faced criticism for mixing public work with private business as an investment banker. Just recently, the online news organization Texas Watchdog reported that Ellis’ company had profited as a minority subcontractor on an $800 million controversial bond package that Ellis publicly endorsed. He denied wrongdoing.
Not even a real quote? Tsk tsk.
Speaking of ethics, we neglected to link to another nice bit of work from Stiles that was posted to Chron.com recently: a nifty searchable database of money spent by lobbyists on elected officials and state employees. Well done, Mr. Stiles!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/06/09 09:30 PM |
05 April 2009
Two opinions on the Chron from around the local blogosphere
The County Seat blog updates us on the activities of Chronicle metro/state/teen diarist Lisa Falkenberg, who apparently spoke recently to the grownups at a Democratic Party event that reportedly later involved serious discussion about candidates to run against Republican judge John Phillips, whom Falkenberg has criticized more than once in the Chronicle.
Shockingly, Alan Bernstein, who regularly posts about similar Republican Party events on Chron.com, did not chronicle this meeting for the newspaper. Perhaps one day! (Or maybe in lieu of that, we'll get emails about nearly twenty-year-old Chron coverage of some related political event).
Meanwhile, over at The ClownVision Chronicles, John Royal posts the following about the Chron sports pages, although it might just as easily be said about other parts of the newspaper:
So why is the Chron failing? That answer is simple: the Chron treats its readers as idiots. And there's only so long that a consumer can be treated with such utter contempt.
That seems to be the way the Chronicle's diminutive editor wants it to be. Fore!
Feel free to discuss further on the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/09 10:09 PM |
04 April 2009
Adventures in downsizing, Jeff Cohen-style
A commenter on the Chron's reader rep blog (an oxymoron in its current form) offers this:
The only things I have noticed since the Chronicle's re-organization are:
1) The blogs are updated less frequently
2) I get daily spam from chron.comNot winning the game, Chronicle...
Au contraire. There has been another noticeable development that traces directly back to diminutive editor Jeff Cohen's, ah, "re-organization" -- copy editing oopses (via Hair Balls):
Lay Off Copy Editors, Lose Opening Paragraphs
Still A Rough Transition For The Chronicle
Meanwhile, Jeff Cohen took all his pain and sadness to the Shell Houston Open on April 1st. Looking good, Mr. Editor!
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Maybe Cohen is pondering future cuts while hitting the links. Fore!
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Cohen notes it's an "interesting time" to be a journalist, hits the links
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/04/09 11:19 AM |
Pasadena gets METRO service; far-flung Harris County suburbs still have nothing
Chron.com reports that METRO is unveiling a Park and Pillage, er, Ride, in Pasadena on Monday:
The city of Pasadena does not contribute sales tax revenue to Metro, so Harris County is using federal transportation funds to pay for the service, with Pasadena chipping in $39,000. Total annual cost is $212,800. Metro has a similar contract to provide bus service to and around Baytown, which is also not a Metro member.
Residents of far North Harris County, on the other hand, do contribute sales tax revenue to METRO and have nothing to show for it, which is by design. Remember when the Chron's Rad Sallee confirmed that METRO was punishing those who voted against wasteful, inefficient light rail?
So again we see that Harris County suburbs are taxed but not serviced, while Baytown and Pasadena are serviced but not taxed.
Something's wrong with this picture, but there's an easy solution: METRO should release the outer 'burbs from the taxing agreement, since it admits it has no interest in providing service for those areas, and that money should go to Harris County for road maintenance.
MORE: On METRO's Sit and Spin blog, Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson adds:
"It's important to remember that the people who ride transit also pay for it - not just with fares, but with tax dollars."
Not exactly.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/04/09 07:57 AM |
02 April 2009
Gexa Energy security breach compromises customer information
KTRK-13 reports that local electricity provider Gexa Energy suffered a security breach that compromised personal information of customers:
If you are a customer of Gexa Energy, your personal information may have been compromised.
The personal information was compromised a year ago, but the company is only now sending out letters to consumers. Gexa officials say that's because law enforcement asked the company to remain quiet during the investigation.
Gexa officials say they do not know how many customers' personal information was compromised, but they are sending the letter to customers past and present and even to those who may have enrolled in a Gexa plan, but didn't ultimately end up choosing the provider.
As a former Gexa customer, I got one of those notification letters. They were ever so helpful in letting me know I should monitor my credit. Thanks Gexa!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/02/09 10:51 PM |
Michel, Michelle, Ma Belle, who can tell the difference?
Chronicle tennis wine columnist Dale Robertson is surely having a bad week.
He led this week's column, about prominent women in the wine world, as follows:
It’s no longer unusual to meet a woman winemaker. Helen Turley raised the bar almost off the charts. Other than perhaps Michelle Rolland, there’s likely no more famous a wine consultant to be found in the world. Glass ceilings are for greenhouses, not vineyards.
There's just one little problem.... The famous wine consultant cited in the lede was Michel Rolland, very much a male. That led to this correction in today's Chronicle:
International wine consultant Michel Rolland was misidentified in a story on Page 2 of Wednesday’s Flavor section.
Yeah he was! (Because he IS a he, after all).
Sadly, the Chron didn't even blame a copy editor for the gaffe (which might have been understandable, since the Chron just fired so many of them). Apparently, the tennis wine columnist just blew it. Oops!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/02/09 10:05 PM |
01 April 2009
Where's the outrage now?
Remember when the Chron's erratic features editor Kyrie O'Connor had one of her classic meltdowns over a female firefighter who gave birth, left the hospital, and took an advancement exam because the mean old men in the department don't make exceptions, ever, even for women who are giving birth?
Okay, in all honesty, you probably don't. But here's a snippet:
The other day Beda Kent gave birth to a 7 1/2-pound baby girl, took a brief nap, got up from her hospital bed, took some Motrin, went to the George R. Brown, took and passed a Houston Fire department promotion exam -- for captain, no less -- scored 104 out of a possible 110, apparently outpointed some 350 other test-takers, lost her hospital bed, left her newborn in the hospital because she had no choice, and went home.
Holy smoke. Now that is a woman.
Childbirth used to be a big deal, back when anyone cared. I remember my mother-in-law telling me that, five days post-partum, the doctors let her sit up and dangle her legs over the side of the hospital bed.
Tell that to Beda Kent who, not incidentally, is a 12-year veteran of the department.
According to today's Chronicle, the firefighter promotion exam is given with about the regularity of a full solar eclipse, and no exceptions are made, ever, that would allow anyone to take the test at another time. HFD District Chief Jack Williams, who sounds like he takes the rule book very, very seriously, said even a firefighter injured in the line of duty wouldn't be allowed to take the test at a nonstandard time.
Come again?
You mean, if a firefighter suffered smoke inhalation rescuing a baby from a burning apartment, he or she -- presumably he -- would not be given an alternate time? And no one would kick up a fuss?
I don't even believe that. I don't believe the union, the media, the local mote-and-beam blogs, Bill O'Reilly and for all I know Emeril Lagasse and Michiko Kakutani wouldn't scream to the high heavens about such an outrage.
But Beda Kent? All she did was bring a healthy life into the world. If she'd decided to spend more than two-and-a-half hours resting up after that minor event, she would have blown her chances for a promotion for a couple of years at least.
Apparently Beda Kent isn't the kind of person who asked for special treatment.
She's not asking for special treatment, but I am. The Houston Fire Department should be mortified to put a veteran firefighter through such a stupid and painful exercise. Promotion exams aren't visions of Our Lady -- they're utterly within human control. What is the point? That Beda Kent, or that hypothetical injured fire hero, would take advantage of the system to study up? Or cheat?
If you can't figure out a way around such a silly possibility, you ought not to administer tests at all. (If you can't imagine a way out of this one, how can I trust you to get me out of my burning townhouse?)
And if you're the union, or the doctors, or the mayor or the mote-and-beam bloggers -- I'm calling you out, Anne Linehan -- or Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham or the Blessed Virgin herself, you'll summon up some outrage against the sorry, stupid, Procrustean, benighted policies that forced Beda Kent out of childbed to go find a couple of No. 2 pencils and show the system what a woman can do, whether she should have to or not.
Big talk!
Flash forward about three years.... to this rare Houston Press HairBalls post covering something other than Rich Connelly's dissatisfaction with KTRH:
We know have a new leader in the clubhouse for Worst Way To Find Out You Lost Your Chronicle Job.
Dai Huynh, one of the paper's food writers, was scheduled to come back from maternity leave. The night before she gets a call telling her, in effect, "don't bother."
I'm a fan of Huynh, and sad to see this news.
But so much for my white-male perspective. Where is Kyrie O'Connor's "outrage" over this?
Not a peep, so far as we can tell.
So much for the big talk from the Chron's erratic features editor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/01/09 10:36 PM |
31 March 2009
Giff Nielsen has (almost) left the building
Tonight is KHOU-11 sports director Giff Nielsen's last day on the job. The Chronicle's David Barron has more on Nielsen's departure:
As Gifford Nielsen prepares today to wrap up 31 years in two of the highest-profile positions any city can offer — six years as an NFL quarterback, 25 years as a television sportscaster – he reckons the same formula helped him endure in both career paths.
Nielsen, 54, announced Monday that he will resign as sports director at KHOU (Channel 11), effective today. His final appearances will be on today’s 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts.
He disclosed his decision after returning from a vacation break during which the station laid off its two sports producers, including lead producer Carleton Cole, who helped break Nielsen into the business in 1984.
“When you take away the sports producers, obviously there’s a different philosophy of how you’re going to cover sports and what you’re going to do,” he said. “The TV station has made a decision to do and to cover sports differently, and that’s something I’m not accustomed to.
Nielsen's certainly a fixture of Houston TV sports coverage, and it's a shame he felt the need to leave so abruptly. Here's wishing Nielsen well in his future endeavors.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/31/09 10:20 PM |
Maybe it's best for some to stick with the KTRH conservative talk beat...
The Houston Press Hair Balls blog decided to try a little Chron/media criticism today, with regard to the newspaper's coverage of the DA's recent criticism of two prosecutors:
"She did this rush to just blast them in the media for her own gain," [former prosecutor Murray] Newman told Hair Balls.
It seems to have worked. The Chronicle's coverage was slanted in her direction, closing as it did with a Lycos-lauding rhetorical flourish from defense attorney Mark Bennett, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association: "It's an encouraging sign that (Lykos) is interested in trying to make things right and trying to make the system work fairly for all of the citizens of Harris County, not just the rich, white ones."
[snip]
For his part, Newman says the favorable Chron coverage should come as no surprise. "After the Chronicle endorses her, especially with as much as they have been blasting the DA's office prior to her arrival, they've basically built her up to being the Second Coming and they are not gonna back off of that," he says. "They're gonna overlook her flaws as long as they possibly can."
As we noted in a related post four days ago, Newman and Mark Bennett consistently provide some of the best commentary on local law and politics. They even get the DA's name right on their blogs!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/31/09 10:14 PM |
30 March 2009
Clay Robison has left the building
Clay Robison, the longtime Chronicle Austin bureau newsman (six days per week) and editorialist (one day per week), pens his farewell column for today's newspaper.
Much of the column is the customary reflection on a long career on a beat, although Robison couldn't resist dispensing this bit of advice:
I offer an observation to bloggers, whose presence in the political arena is expanding as the ranks of traditional news reporters thin. There is a difference between reporting and spinning. I have done both for a long time, and reporting is a lot harder.
With regard to the bolded portion -- yes, you have, and the combination of heading up the news bureau six days per week and producing a reliably lefty opinion column one day per week was one that many of us found odd (and, frankly, part of the problem).
So ... kudos to Clay Robison for a long run in a career he obviously enjoyed. Maybe we'll even see his writing surface somewhere; surely there's a publication that could make good use of his institutional knowledge. But looking to the future (instead of back), let's hope the Chronicle Austin bureau moving forward takes Robison's parting advice to heart, and focuses only on reporting. There are plenty of sources of opinion these days, but those (we?) editorialists are, in most cases, no substitute for hard-news reporting done by pros.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/30/09 07:37 AM |
28 March 2009
More "change" at the DA's Office
The District Attorney's Office is in the Chronicle twice in one day. This article features an idea about forcing some defendants to go to trial regardless of their wishes. Now, usually when I agree with a defense attorney like Mark Bennett, I have to stick my head out the window to make sure the world hasn't ended. However, I totally agree with Mr. Bennett in his assessment of Jim Leitner.
The loudest voice against the plan came from Mark Bennett, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers association, who said the District Attorney’s Office was treating people’s fates like a game or a law school mock trial exercise.Amen! Another problem with this is the standard Harris County practice is to schedule several cases for trial on the same day. The prosecutors and the defense attorneys have to call all of their witnesses into court and then huddle up and decide which case will actually go to trial, and everyone else will have to go home and come again another day. This plan of Leitner's would also force more police officers to put their lives on hold to come to court when they normally wouldn't have to. This keeps the officers from their regular patrol or detective duties, preventing them from serving the citizens. This plan would also force civilians to put their lives on hold as well when it wouldn't be necessary.“It’s unethical,” Bennett said. “A prosecutor’s job is to seek justice, not win easy cases.
However, there could be one benefit to this plan. Perhaps the DA herself could actually try a case and get rid of that stigma of never having prosecuted a case.
Posted by Jason @ 03/28/09 12:23 AM |
27 March 2009
Message From District Attorney Lykos
Murray Newman's brilliant explanation is here.
I don't know if DA Lykos meant to send this message but she has. In addition to the already-in-place prohibition against striking jurors based on race, her ADAs now have to take jurors' race into consideration when placing them on a jury. I thought Lady Justice was supposed to be color blind, but she isn't.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Mark Bennett comments on the matter here. Bennett and Newman are consistently providing some of the best commentary on local law and politics.
Posted by Jason @ 03/27/09 11:43 AM |
26 March 2009
The fallout
We comment on local media quite a bit on the blog, so readers have probably been wondering about the deafening silence on the big layoffs at the Chronicle.
Frankly, what was there to say in the middle of the carnage?
When ninetysomething journalists get whacked in one day at the biggest news organization in town, and countless more support staff are fired the next day, your community almost certainly is not the better for it. So out of respect to the many journalists at the Chronicle who were literally walking on eggshells as lives were being upended, we decided not to engage in running gossip on the blog about who may have gotten the axe, the corrections that inevitably follow from such speculation, and generally crass rumormongering.
So, for now it's done. Some dead weight was cleared (and much more was not), but many more journalists who did good work are now gone. Our best wishes go out to everyone who lost their jobs during these tough times.
And our best wishes also go out to the folks left at 801 Texas Avenue, who somehow have to reconcile the oversized, overpromising "vision" of diminutive editor Jeff Cohen (who apparently stayed hidden in his office during the carnage) with the pint-size resources he's given them to accomplish the "vision," all while knowing that quality work is probably not as important a factor in job security at the Chronicle these days as being one of Cohen's pets.
But what do I know? Please become a part of the conversation in the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/26/09 09:25 AM |
24 March 2009
Chief Hurtt announces more crimefighting by acronym
Chief Hurtt has broken out an excellent crimefighting acronym on his blog:
To combat the drunk driving problem in the city of Houston, HPD is acquiring six Breath Alcohol Testing (B.A.T.) vans to be used as mobile Intoxilyzer units for the processing of DWI suspects.
The first B.A.T. van, completed at the end of 2008, was used as a working prototype and is equipped with a suspect holding area as well as a breathalyzer, an Intoxilizer, and computers for officers to write the arrest report, run background checks, file charges and process the suspect.
[snip]
The existing B.A.T. van has already been used in joint task force operations, as a back-up during the renovation of the Central Police Station’s Intoxilyzer facility, and in conjunction with the Aggressive Driving Enforcement Program and the DWI overtime programs.
This question has to be asked: Will the B.A.T. Van respond to the B.A.T. Signal.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/24/09 09:44 PM |
23 March 2009
Frank Wilson: The Main Street Line is irreplaceable
METRO's very expensive blogger posts an excerpt from a trade magazine interview with Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson, where METRO's CEO says:
"Before there was a rail line on Main Street, Houston didn't understand what rail was. And the first year after it was here, it was a curse that was sent here by the transit gods," said Wilson.
"And now it's irreplaceable in five short years. There's no [sic] here who's going to say we should roll it up and give Main Street back to the automobile," he continued.
It succeeded because of the locations the 7.5 mile line connects - the financial district, downtown and the Texas Medical Center.
"There is no other place that connects all that...Now people use this as a horizontal elevator. It's like a cable car but flat - on and off, on and off, on and off," said Wilson.
It's so irreplaceable, not to mention indispensable, that Frank Wilson has to have a $1,000 per month car allowance!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/23/09 05:53 PM |
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