23 March 2009
A tale of two transit projects
Cory Crow comments on the news that METRO will not receive "stimulus" funds for light rail, while Harris County has been allocated almost $200 million for the Grand Parkway:
Metro has dithered, changed technology, changed plans and done pretty much anything but get started on the projects, with delays and significant slack-time already used up in the pre-implementation phase. This time last year it would have been fair to say that the Light Rail project was being held-up by Culberson and others in Congress. Today, if Metro wants to see the reason for the delay, they only need look in the mirror.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/23/09 05:34 PM |
22 March 2009
Great moments in Houston Public Works
City Disconnects Sprinklers, Threatens Day Care (KRPC-2):
The owner of a Houston day care said city contractors dug up her fire sprinkler system and then the city threatened to shut her down for having no sprinklers
[snip]
"We don't want them to shut down," Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said. "We will work with them."
Wright said his department has no record of having a fire line connected to the building, meaning the owner of the building did not follow the proper process to install the line for the sprinkler system to begin with. With no record of the sprinkler line, city contractors would have no way of knowing they had to reconnect it, Wright suggested.
However, Wright could not explain why his department's contractors would dig up the sprinkler line in the street if they didn't even know it existed. He also could not explain how the city fire marshal was able to inspect the sprinkler system each year for several years without his department knowing the sprinkler system existed.
City Uses Duct Tape On Sewer Line (KPRC-2):
A city of Houston crew apparently used duct tape to repair a broken sewer line last fall that cost a homeowner $3,400 to fix, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.
David Higgins and his wife said sewage began backing up in the showers at his house last January. A plumber traced the problem to a broken sewer line in the front yard that was apparently broken by a city crew repairing a water line nearby.
The broken sewer pipe was patched with a piece of plastic from a traffic cone, wrapped with duct tape and reburied.
[snip]
Higgins asked the city to city to reimburse the $3,400 he spent to fix it, but the city refused to pay.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/22/09 05:32 PM |
21 March 2009
Finally, Spring is here!
What a beautiful day it looks to be! Hope you'll be out enjoying it.
SUNDAY UPDATE: Still beautiful. Still outside. Hope you are, too!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/21/09 10:41 AM |
19 March 2009
Houston's fair housing ordinance
Local media is reporting the city is suing a homeowner in the first test of the city's fair housing ordinance. Here's the Chron's story:
The city of Houston on Tuesday filed its first criminal misdemeanor charge under a fair housing ordinance, a case against a millionaire for not selling his $8.2 million home in an affluent gated community to his neighbor.
Randy Zamora, chief prosecutor for the city, said Matthew Prucka, an engineer inventor, faces up to a $500 fine if found guilty of discriminating against the disabled in the December 2007 sale of his home.
“After looking at statements he made in a deposition, it seems pretty clear he just didn’t like the idea of ramps and widening halls and did not want his house to be used by his neighbor’s disabled daughter,” Zamora said.
Prucka’s attorney said the criminal charge is “absurd.” He said Prucka cared about preserving a historic home, and that the issue of his neighbor’s disabled daughter wasn’t raised until the neighbor became angry over not getting the house.
[snip]
“The idea is to make the point that this is against the law,” said Zamora, who said he didn’t contact Prucka or his attorney before filing the charge. “If these cases are brought to our attention, we will do something about it.”
KUHF-88.7's story includes this from Mr. Prucka's attorney:
Fogler says his client found someone who wanted to buy the house as is.
"The buyer loved the house the way it was and wanted to preserve it. And that meant something to Mr. Prucka and his wife, because they had spent so much time restoring the house to its original condition."
Three years after the ordinance made it through Council, and the first test is over a historic, multi-million dollar home -- which would seem to indicate there's not a whole lot of housing discrimination going on in Houston. But hey, Gordon Quan got his feel-good ordinance, and that's what counts:
Houston lawyer Gordon Quan helped push through the law when on the City Council and said he’s surprised the first case is about “wealthy people battling over a piece of property. It’s usually used for poor people.”
Not in Houston!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/19/09 06:13 PM |
18 March 2009
Bring back the "Red, White and Blue"
The Chronicle has posted a story by political reporter Alan Bernstein that is a real head-shaker.
The quick synopsis is as follows: Following last November's elections, KUHT general manager John Hesse put the weekly Gary Polland/David Jones local political show "Red, White and Blue" on hiatus. Hesse apparently hopes to change the focus of the show to put more emphasis on guests, and even considered dropping hosts Polland and Jones, according to Bernstein. Both Democratic and Republican pols have urged KUHT to retain the hosts and the format. And Hesse has finally said he hopes to bring the show back, although the details still have not been finalized.
How in the world have KUHT and UH managed to screw this up so badly?
Granted, Polland and Jones aren't going to be winning any ratings wars. But their emphasis on local political issues and personalities is a great fit on noncommercial, public television (which isn't capturing many time slots in Houston, we'd wager). They run a smart show with good guests. And as Bernstein reports, they have fans ranging from Rep. Ted Poe to Rep. Al Green, who likely don't agree on many topics.
It's astounding that KUHT's general manager has let things degenerate to the point that it merits a story in the Chronicle and lobbying from Congresscritters. Just get the show back on the air already!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/18/09 11:54 PM |
17 March 2009
Chron's Olson: "MWBE showdown at City Hall"
The Chronicle's Brad Olson reports that next week's Council meeting could be entertaining:
A federal judge today ordered the city to put to a City Council vote a settlement agreement over the participation of women in Houston's minority business program. The settlement, part of decade-old litigation over the legality of such municipal contracting efforts, would have put women-owned businesses into the same category as small businesses. That would have left women business owners with a smaller "set-aside" portion of city contracts than currently exists, a fact that spurred a furious lobbying effort from local and national women contracting and business associations, given the prominence of the city's minority business program.
According to Olson, the city's attorney argued the matter hasn't been put on the agenda because it doesn't have the votes to pass. Apparently, most parties agree that it will not pass.
There is so much that is wrong here that we'll start with just a few items and let readers pile on: 1) Why is a federal judge setting a City Council agenda? 2) How much money has been spent by the various parties trying either to secure taxpayer goodies or to direct taxpayer goodies to special interests differently? 3) Do we really need these programs, or are they mostly about rewarding special interests with taxpayer goodies these days?
Please do join the conversation!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/17/09 10:50 PM |
METRO: Our performance levels aren't bad!
METRO's expensive blogger has posted the organization's latest "web chat," this time with Andy Skabowski, associate vice president of operations (long titles and bureaucratic bloat are fun!). We didn't sit through it, but we think one exchange is representative:
Q : Why is METRO Houston's service so bad compared to other cities' mass transport systems?
A : Houston METRO's service performance levels are measured by industry standards, and our service levels and perfomance are equal to, if not better, than other major cities.
That is disappointing. We expected more exciting rhetoric, like "Our performance is world class!" Maybe Raequel "Nine Volt" Roberts can coach him up with more exciting talking points next time.
PREVIOUSLY: Area transit agency manipulating statistics? Just call it The Houston Way (blogHOUSTON).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/17/09 09:20 PM |
16 March 2009
Texas Watchdog reports on Sen. Ellis' apparent HISD bond conflict of interest
Texas Watchdog has posted an interesting bit of investigative journalism by Matt Pulle.
Pulle takes a closer look at state senator Rodney Ellis' support of HISD's 2007 bond proposal. Sen. Ellis' support came at a fairly crucial time during the debate, since HISD somewhat bungled the politics of the proposal and it had drawn a fair amount of criticism. As it turns out, Ellis apparently had quite a conflict of interest that, until now, has gone unreported:
Ellis is a high-ranking partner in a New York-based company called Rice Financial Products that stands to make money when the school system issues bonds — like the one the voters passed in 2007.
For at least a decade, Rice, which specializes in bond and derivatives transactions, has served as the minority co-financial adviser with First Southwest Co. as a part of a contractual requirement that the bank work with a “minority or women-owned business.” That same contract says that “minority firms,” like Ellis’, are eligible to receive 30 percent of First Southwest’s compensation from the district.
So, in the midst of a tense debate over the merits of HISD’s financial plan, when Ellis reassured his constituents that the district’s bond package was a “good package … a fair package,” he had a textbook conflict of interest. That same package, if voters followed the state senator’s endorsement, could inflate his firm’s coffers by tens of thousands of dollars.
The results of the Texas Watchdog investigation are posted here and here. The second page has an especially helpful chart that illustrates Ellis' somewhat convoluted financial ties to HISD -- ties that HISD's spokesman Norman Uhl told Pulle he did not know about. Ellis declined to comment for the story.
This is some really nice investigative work by Texas Watchdog, and reads like the sort of journalism one might have found in the Houston Press a decade ago (well before their political focus changed to the KTRH/conservative talk radio beat and weekly two poliblogger interviews) -- not surprising, given Pulle's background in alt-weekly journalism.
UPDATE: Sen. Ellis' office issued a non-denial denial that appears on the Chron Texas Politics blog.
Texas Watchdog responds here.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/16/09 03:10 PM |
15 March 2009
Single-stream pilot program to boost recycling rates by factor of 7+?
The City of Houston has announced a test "single-stream" recycling program, in which all recyclables can be placed together for pickup. The goal is to boost the city's recycling rate and to improve the program's efficiency by making pickup easier for collectors.
The recycling numbers used in the Chronicle coverage did catch our eye:
The long-term goal is to increase recycling participation. A 2008 survey from Waste News pegged Houston with a dismal 2.6 percent recycling rate.
White has said the city’s rate will approach 20 percent after the implementation of new programs. In January, the city began a wood waste recycling program for tree limbs and brush. In the spring, officials are planning to expand yard waste recycling through the use of biodegradable bags.
But single-stream recycling appears to be an increasingly popular strategy for improving participation. Fort Worth and Plano already have single-stream programs.
A single-stream system can more than double participation rates, said Pat DeRueda, president of Waste Management Recycling Services.
So, a waste management expert says single-stream recycling can double recycling participation rates, which in Houston is currently 2.6%. Yet Mayor White claims that this pilot program and a couple of other programs will take the recycling rate to 20%. Is this another case of Senate-candidate math?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/15/09 07:23 PM |
Lykos announces DNA testing policy, calls for regional DNA crime lab
Earlier this week, Harris County DA Pat Lykos announced that moving forward, the DA's office will test DNA evidence in all cases where it is available and relevant.
The new policy was rolled out in response to a 2003 case in which an innocent man, Ricardo Rachell, was wrongly convicted of sexual assault of a minor. Lykos laid some blame on the HPD Crime Lab, which was dysfunctional at the time the case was proceeding. Flanked by HPD Chief Harold Hurtt, Lykos apologized for the "cascading, system-wide breakdown" and also called for the creation of a regional DNA crime lab.
Lykos rightly drew praise for this move, from such diverse quarters as former prosecutor Murray Newman, defense attorney Mark Bennett, and the Chronicle's metro/state plagiarist Rick Casey. Indeed, we can't imagine why the move wouldn't draw praise, which is why we didn't see much need to comment on the obvious earlier in the week.
However, the real devil will be in the details. It's one thing to call for a regional DNA crime lab, which we agree is a good idea. In the meantime, however, the ongoing problem of confidence in the HPD Crime Lab looms, and apparently that is yet another problem that will pass from MayorWhiteChiefHurtt to the next administration. Local CompStat/policing activist Jay Wall reminds us that in 2005, the New York Times reported that the crime lab in 2002 had a testing backlog of nearly 19,500 rape test kits, and had only reduced that number to 10,000 by 2005; he rightly asks why HPD wasn't performing those tests back then. We haven't heard where the number stands today, but we'd be shocked if the backlog has been eliminated. Clearly, we need leadership other than MayorWhiteChiefHurtt to move this forward, so kudos to Pat Lykos for taking it on. We hope she makes it a real priority.
We were amused that one Democratic activist welcomed the move, but nonetheless spun it as Lykos stealing Clarence Bradford's DA campaign proposals. This same activist neglected to mention that one big reason the HPD Crime Lab was dysfunctional at the time of the Rachell case was the mismanagement of HPD's chief at the time, none other than Clarence Bradford.
Bradford, incidentally, is currently running for the City Council At-Large Position 4 seat.
The full Rachell Report is available on the Chronicle website here, in pdf format.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/15/09 07:03 PM |
Saavedra stretches credulity on rodeo spending from vending machine fund
Earlier in the week, the Chronicle reported that HISD spent up to as much as $100,000 dollars of vending-machine revenues so that some favored educators could attend Houston LiveStock Show and Rodeo gala events:
The Texas Education Agency is investigating whether some HISD principals and administrators wrongly tapped discretionary funds to spend as much as $100,000 on rodeo gala tickets since 2003.
The principals bought the tickets with profits from school vending machines that go into funds controlled by the school leaders, said George Garver, manager of campus audits in the Houston school district’s inspector general’s office. Tickets for the annual Black Heritage Western Gala were then given to teachers and administrators.
The discretionary funds are to be used to “promote the general welfare and the educational development and morale of students,” the HISD’s financial procedures manual says. “Any expenditures directly from this account must benefit the entire student body.”
School Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said principals and administrators had appropriately used the funds because purchasing tickets works to cement a fruitful partnership between HISD and the rodeo. The rodeo, he said, awards more than $1 million in college scholarships to HISD students annually.
“I have been reassured by the (HISD) inspector general that there is nothing illegal or unethical about this practice,” he said. “It’s a relatively small investment when you consider that the return on that is very substantial.”
Those bolded sentences really are astounding in light of the stated spending requirements for the vending machine funds, no?
The thoughts of one activist resonated with me (and probably quite a few others):
Del Murphy, husband of a retired HISD assistant principal, filed complaints with HISD’s inspector general and TEA. Money from the discretionary funds, he said, should go to buy school library books or make other school improvements.
“They use this money to go wining and dining. Taking this money and using it in this way is immoral,” he said. “You are taking money away from kids and elementary schools that are at minimal resources.”
Surely there was a better use for these funds.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Texas Watchdog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/15/09 06:16 PM |
GHVCB opens six-person D.C. office
The Houston Business Journal's Christine Hall reports that The Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau has opened an office in Washington, D.C.:
The new office is the organization’s first multiperson office outside of Houston, according to the bureau.
The GHCVB estimates that the 2,400 associations in the D.C. area have pumped more than $118 million into the Houston economy through convention business over the past three years.
“The goal of the D.C. office is to help the GHCVB better connect with the 2,400 association customers in the greater D.C. area, and thus bring in more convention business to the city of Houston,” Greg Ortale, president and chief executive officer of the GHCVB, said in a statement. “With the help of the new D.C. office, I hope to increase the number of meeting bookings by 15 percent within one full year of operation.”
Sidney Chang will anchor the new office as director of sales for the Mid-Atlantic region. He will oversee five other employees.
Let's hope that in one year, local media remember to ask the GHCVB if booking goals were met and the costs of the new office are justified.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/15/09 04:00 PM |
Senate-candidate White tries to beef up his illegal immigration bonafides
Now that Mayor White wants to become Senator White, the "It's the feds' fault!" message he has cultivated for the past few years just won't fly, so he's having to add a bit of nuance. You see, it IS still the Feds' fault, but now he's going to make it a "cause" (via the Chron's Susan Carroll and Bradley Olson):
Standing in front of a bank of TV cameras this week, Houston Mayor Bill White took the federal government to task for not deporting an illegal immigrant with a criminal record before he allegedly shot a Houston police officer during a recent drug raid.
“I vowed after talking to the officer’s wife that I was going to make this a cause,” the mayor said Tuesday, “and I wasn’t going to tolerate some of the excuses that we’ve heard about lack of resources.”
That is truly pathetic. As if being mayor of Houston has been an out-of-body experience for him. Who's been making excuses? Mayor White. Who said HPD resources couldn't be spent doing the federal government's job? Mayor White.
But, you see, with a statewide run for office in progress, NOW it's become a cause. It wasn't a cause in 2006 when HPD Officer Rodney Johnson was murdered by an illegal alien criminal.
Here's Mayor White in 2005:
"The protection of our borders is essentially a federal function," the mayor said. "I am not going to take our police out of the neighborhoods" to start looking for illegal immigrants. "Our police priority is going to be public safety."
And here:
Mayor White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt have defended the current policy. Immigration is a federal responsibility and local police are busy fighting more serious crimes, said a spokesman for White, Frank Michel.
The city's police force has shrunk to 4,600 officers from 5,200 since mid-2003. Many officers retired early to avoid having benefits reduced by a plan that the city enacted to shore up its police pension.
And after Officer Johnson's murder in 2006 (what's more serious than murder?), MayorWhiteChiefHurtt confirmed their support for the city's sanctuary policy directive:
The department's current policy forbids officers from asking about someone's immigration status, unless they've committed at least a Class B misdemeanor. It also prevents officers from inquiring about citizenship if a person has committed no crime.
Both White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt supported that policy. However, White said Wednesday at a City Hall press conference that certain "operational refinements" could still be made. "I think it's fair game for discussion with a committee," said White.
Here's how HPD refined the sanctuary directive:
[...]if an officer should decide to arrest an individual and bring them to the city jail, "We will be checking fingerprints of Class C offenders," said City Council Public Safety Committee Chairman Adrian Garcia. "If there's information that comes back in relation to questionable immigration status, we will put a 'hold' on you until Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can investigate."
The Chron's story notes how the modification panned out:
Recent documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle through a public records request show that very few illegal immigrants are being identified in the city jail. Last year, HPD jailers detained for immigration officials less than 1 percent of the 58,774 suspects booked only into the city’s jails and not transferred to the Harris County Jail. From October 2006 through January, HPD identified and detained 372 suspected illegal immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The recently obtained documents include a November e-mail from Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt to White that reported “several thousand” illegal immigrants eligible for deportation had passed through the city’s lockups.
But now that Senate-candidate White has a new cause, change is on the horizon:
To plug any potential remaining gaps, White this week said he plans to ask Hurtt to consider participating in the federal government’s controversial 287(g) program, which trains local jailers to assist immigration agents. The move is a departure from the mayor’s past position that local police should have limited involvement in immigration enforcement. The mayor and Hurtt this week also committed to using a Homeland Security database that automatically checks suspects’ immigration history.
Well, maybe change is on the horizon, but since Mayor White's going to "ask" Chief Hurtt to "consider" participating in the federal program, we shouldn't hold our breath.
Back in 2008 when Harris County became the first law enforcement agency in Texas to receive the training, the Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel questioned not-yet-a-candidate-for-Senate Bill White about HPD participating:
White said, in essence, no.
"I think it will erode the capacity of local law enforcement if local law enforcement starts assuming more and more federal functions."
[snip]
"I'd rather have our police figure out how to catch people who commit violent crimes, than become immigration lawyers."
That's the REAL Bill White.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/15/09 08:43 AM |
14 March 2009
When Georgia increased yellow light times, red light camera violations tanked
On January 1, a new Georgia law kicked in forcing a one-second increase in the duration of the yellow warning light at intersections with red light cameras. The result has been devastating for red light camera makers as violations -- and revenue -- immediately plunged for the months of January, February and March. Last week, the city of Norcross dumped photo enforcement. Now the UK-owned red light camera maker Lasercraft is offering its customers a 90-day suspension of service to prevent cities from dropping their automated ticketing contracts. The cities of Lilburn and Snellville accepted this offer yesterday and suspended their red light camera programs.
"With the passage of House Bill 77, effective January 1, 2009, there has been a precipitous decline in the number of citations issued through the program," Lilburn Police Chief J.B. Davidson wrote in a memo to the city council.
The mandated increase in signal time created dramatic and instant results. In 2008, Lasercraft issued an average of 1,559 citations each month. In January, that number dropped 80 percent to just 313. Norcross also saw an 80 percent drop in violations.
Not that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt would be interested in that approach for Houston.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/14/09 02:37 PM |
12 March 2009
Thin skin: Radio host asks tough questions of Bill White; Mayor's staff whines
In the comments on our "Blame the Feds!" post, kjb434 called our attention to some excellent local radio by Michael Berry.
Apparently, Mayor White's press people didn't like Berry's treatment of their guy, and called the host to lecture him about it. Berry discusses that outrageous conversation in this mp3 from Wednesday's program.
Wouldn't it be great if the mayor's staff were as concerned about solving the problems of the city as squelching occasionally critical voices?
BLOGVERSATION: Hair Balls.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/12/09 09:22 PM |
11 March 2009
Arizona does qualify as "outside the boundaries"
Mayoral candidate Annise Parker's new "Houston first" proposal didn't excite us much one way or the other, but we did enjoy a couple of grafs from Alan Bernstein's Chronicle coverage:
To the extent allowed by law, city government jobs should go first to applicants who live in Houston, according to Parker’s proposal, and mayoral appointees to boards and commissions also should come from within city limits.
In past years the city has had police chiefs and lesser-known workers who lived outside the boundaries.
Now who in the world could he be talking about?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/11/09 10:12 PM |
MayorWhiteChiefHurtt: Blame the feds!
Most blogHOUSTON readers have surely been following the news of another needless shooting of a Houston police officer by an illegal immigrant.
Part of the problem is that HPD remains understaffed, a circumstance bestowed upon MayorWhiteChiefHurtt by the Lee Brown Administration (former members of which are now running for Council and Mayor) but one they really haven't done much to address.
Part of the problem is that Houston remains a sanctuary city.
And part of the problem is that federal immigration policy obviously isn't getting the job done.
All of that being said, these grafs from an Isiah Carey blog post take blame-shifting to a new level:
White says the answer lies in federal dollars and the sharing of up-to-date intelligence with local police departments.White flanked by Police Chief Harold Hurtt says Houston is not a sanctuary city and they need the help to get the illegal criminals out!
Don't blame us! We're just helpless bystanders in denial! What fine leadership from MayorWhiteChiefHurtt.
The truth is, this is a big problem that can't be blamed on any one thing, but the dynamic duo's policies, denial, and blame-shifting certainly haven't done much to help the problem.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/11/09 10:04 PM |
10 March 2009
At least the METRO blog's comments are entertaining
We previously noted that METRO's vice-president of PR something-or-another (sorry, we aren't going to look it up -- blogger's prerogative) Raequel Roberts sent a letter to the Chronicle expressing displeasure with the newspaper's recent coverage of METRO.
Apparently, the letter was edited to save space (or perhaps as a courtesy, to save the eyes and brain cells of readers), so METRO's expensive blogger posted the overly long, overly defensive letter in its full, umm, glory on the transit/land-development organization's blog.
That prompted some interesting comments from one reader of the blog. Since few people read METRO's very expensive taxpayer-funded blog (but many people read our small, privately funded blog), we thought we'd reproduce Don G's comments here:
Rosanna Ruiz was apparently correct in her statement about using the trip planner. It flunked my several attempts when I placed my house address and Ben Taub for a trip tomorrow. It correctly inserted my total address and after selecting the correct choice for Ben Taub, it inserted that data. I then clicked on the "Get Trip Plan" button and zip, natta, nothing happened. All it did was refresh the screen.
Prior attempts (before I read the story) required me to tell it the intersections where a bus might be.
What "SHOULD" happen is for it to tell you first, how far you have to walk and an estimated walk time, followed by the scheduled trips and the walk at the other end.
I seriously doubt Metro will every do that because it would show you how long it's going to take from your door step to the destination door step.
and
I use the Net all the time to locate and get to places.
I just now decided to try the Goggle Transit deal and lo and behold, it provided me with directions, total distance and the total travel time!
Of course...that was NOT using 'public transit'!
It showed me that to get from Beaujolais Lane (with exact address entered) to Maroneal :ane (with exact address entered) as a 15.7 mile trip taking 28 minutes.
Now, when I changed it to 'public transit' with the exact same parameters (and I used tomorrow morning at 8 AM BTW) it gave me this glorious statement:
"Sorry, we don't have transit schedule data for a trip from 1359 Beaujolais Ln, Houston, Texas 77077 to 2508 Maroneal St, Houston, Texas 77030 at the time and date you specified."
Now I want to ask, who should we believe? Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts who has a vested interest in selling Metro as a gospel? Or should we accept Rosanna Ruiz,who tried it and surely is a skilled user of the net?
Metro continually seems to sell puff stories rather than providing truth to the tax payers who make it what it is.
Remember, Raequel is the one who compared stray current to a nine volt battery1 Insanely depressing comment that time.
PS: I even tried Raequel's address...to my same destination and it worked PERFECTLY for car but failed to recognize public transit. And, FYI, her address failed also using their own "trip planner"
I would like for Mary to tell Raequel to write a apology correction to the Houston Chronicle to be published as a Letter to the Editor as well as a letter of apology to the author.
We won't be holding our breath for that to happen!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/09 09:30 PM |
CTC: HCTRA land development bad; METRO land development good
The CTC's Robin Holzer, one of METRO's biggest light rail cheerleaders, recently sent out a Grand Parkway action alert:
When you pay tolls on the busy Westpark and Sam Houston toll roads, do you ever think about what your tolls should pay for? For several years now, Harris County has "pooled" toll dollars from busy toll roads to fund other important transportation projects, like the Hardy extension from 610 to Downtown.
But this Tuesday, our toll dollars may start funding land development, at least if the County moves forward on Grand Parkway segment E without a traffic and revenue study. Read on for details...
Robin Holzer, Chair
Gasp!
Of course, METRO has been unabashedly working on land development for years, but we can't recall a CTC alert about that -- which is especially odd since METRO has the power to condemn privately-owned property within a 1,500 foot radius of any transit station.
Now, longtime readers know that I am no fan of the Grand Parkway because I think it's unnecessary, and it's being pushed by developers. However, one would hope the head of the "Citizens' Transportation Coalition" would show some consistency by demanding accountability (or transparency, or slowness of action, or whatever) from ALL local transportation agencies, not just the evil toll road-building one.
END NOTE: Here's Holzer on METRORail via the Chronicle:
Robin Holzer, chairwoman of Houston’s Citizens’ Transportation Coalition, told the Chronicle, “There’s a lot in this agreement to show that Metro has been listening to the community and trying to accommodate our concerns. The transportation infrastructure we build has a dramatic effect on the quality of life in our neighborhoods and people have a right to be involved.”
Here's Holzer on HCTRA via the Chronicle:
“Harris County has a responsibility to every toll road user in our region to slow down and do this right,” said Holzer, whose mobility advocacy group argues that Segment E will do little to address pressing traffic concerns while helping developers get rich building sprawling subdivisions on the Katy Prairie.
By the way, here's just one example of how METRO's been listening to the community and accommodating concerns.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/10/09 07:06 PM |
09 March 2009
Texas Watchdog documents local cases of apparent voter fraud
Texas Watchdog, the local watchdog/transparency group that broke a dead-voter story in 2008, follows up today with a report on two cases of apparent voter fraud.
The names of dead voters may have been used to cast unlawful ballots in two recent elections, a Texas Watchdog investigation has found.
The votes found by Texas Watchdog — two discovered so far by digging through reams of paper and electronic records — appear to be isolated events that don’t point to a pattern or trend of fraudulent activity.
But our reporting, which followed the trail from the polling place all the way to the Harris County district attorney’s office in charge of public integrity, shows how easy it would be to commit voter fraud - and how tough it can be to prosecute people who commit the crime.
Click on over to the Texas Watchdog report for the rest of the report, along with quotes from relevant sources.
The Texas Watchdog reporting comes as the state legislature is gearing up for what is likely to be a highly charged -- and highly partisan -- debate over stronger voter identification legislation. The Republican majority has already muscled through a rules change in hopes of moving the legislation this time around. And some members of the Democratic minority have already started winding up constituents with not so subtle accusations against those who favor the legislation (indeed, Sen. Rodney Ellis robocalled my home last night with an invitation for me to join his telephone town hall to discuss the Republican effort at "voter suppression" -- a charged term that seems popular with some on the Left).
We're not all that interested in the party politics behind the Voter ID debate. As we've stated before, the two major political parties have plenty of resources to get their message out and, if they like, call their opponents names without our help. We are interested in the integrity of the voting process, however, and that our vote, rightly cast according to the established rules, is not devalued by fraudulent votes. We are also interested in anyone who is eligible to vote being able to do so in a relatively easy (but verifiable) manner. To the extent these two aims conflict, we would think reasonable people could come to a workable compromise. Or at least reasonable political leaders might be able to.
The Texas Watchdog reporting suggests that fraudulent voting isn't just a theoretical problem (at least in our area), and that the existing criminal law framework doesn't offer much in the way of deterrence. It's certainly not very hard to vote fraudulently under existing rules (which sets the stage for potential abuse in the future, especially as government becomes ever bigger and, therefore, how an election swings helps determine who gets more of big government's goodies). Moving forward, it's probably worth keeping those facts in mind as some partisans scream "voter suppression" (or worse) at anyone who dares to suggest that perhaps toughening our voter ID requirements isn't an outrageous idea.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/09/09 01:59 PM |
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