11 January 2009
City to update bikeway plan
The Chronicle reports that the city's bikeway plan is about to get an update:
With continuing construction by the Texas Department of Transportation on three bike trails in the Heights, west Houston and the Texas Medical Center — and growing enthusiasm by Houston cyclists — the city of Houston plans to update its 15-year Comprehensive Bikeway Plan.
“Starting with February, we will be doing an update of the Comprehensive Bikeway Plan,” said Dan Raine, bicyclist-pedestrian coordinator with the city’s Public Works Department.
“This is a 15-year-old plan that has not been updated in 15 years, so it involves assessing our existing conditions, projects we currently have under design and construction.”
All projects within the 300 miles of bike trails were conceived beginning in 1993.
“Fifteen years later, we really need to look at where we are now and where we need to go,” Raine said.
His office will work with the city’s Super Neighborhood Councils to help identify new projects that will bridge any gaps in the existing system and to improve existing bikeways and connectivity.
“We want to develop new projects to help fill in the missing pieces,” Raine said. “We want to get a lot of citizens’ input on that.”
Here's wishing them well on the project. It's good to see the city focused on park resources that serve many (as opposed to a few).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/11/09 10:34 PM |
Untimely: Chron Editorial Board comments on parking revisions
Over the weekend, the Chronicle used one of its two house editorials to question the recent revisions to the city's parking ordinance:
Although the measure sailed through council without opposition, the Chronicle's Bradley Olson and Peggy O'Hare found the response from some downtown business owners and meter customers was less than enthusiastic.
Michael Massa, the owner of the longtime downtown eatery Massa's and a board member of the Downtown Alliance, says parking rules should be less restrictive. "Parking enforcement is already causing people not to come downtown," he commented. Because of the difficulties, "we don't have people dying to come downtown and shop."
Even the city's top elected official suggests that the new enforcement plan may need some tweaking. According to Mayor Bill White, the purpose of the law was to prevent downtown workers from turning street meters into publicly subsidized employee parking. However, the mayor allows that "whether or not there are circumstances that have created some undue hardship for people who must be at a place for more than two hours is something that we ought to look at."
Well, that's all well and good, but supposedly these revisions DO represent tweaking.
It's odd that the Chronicle Editorial Board waited until this weekend to comment on the matter, when their suggestions might have had more impact before the vote. It was on the published city agenda, and the Chron's Houston Politics blog posted about it as well. Nevertheless, the Editorial Board waited until after the fact to offer its sage counsel on the policy. Even worse, there were several days during the week that it ran an insipid "Another Voice" editorial instead of penning two house editorials. That's a weak performance from the Chronicle Editorial Board.
It's especially weak when contrasted with other units in the newspaper. For example, we've suggested in the past that the DC Bureau might be a luxury that the shrinking newspaper could no longer afford. However, after shedding several dead-weight columnists, the DC Bureau seems to be focusing more on local angles for their coverage; they're active bloggers, and they have a presence on Facebook and Twitter. In short, they seem to be working harder to attract, serve, and engage readers. The Chronicle Editorial Board might consider following their lead.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/11/09 10:26 PM |
Weingarten gets its way on retroactive variance
Back in December, Swamplot reported that Weingarten's new project at the site of the old River Oaks Shopping Center had run into a little problem: Apparently some of the new construction violated certain setback provisions.
Rather than tearing down the offending construction and reworking it, Weingarten announced plans to seek a variance (after the fact), even as neighbors organized against what they deemed a noisy potential new nuisance.
Fast forwarding a month, Swamplot reports that Weingarten managed to win approval for its (retroactive) variance request after satisfying some demands of the complaining neighbors. And as quoted by Swamplot and originally reported by Miya Shay for KTRK-13, Weingarten secured what was surely a helpful assist from two councilmembers:
Despite the anger of some neighbors, Weingarten at the end of the day got what it wanted: It got the variance. It doesn’t have to tear down the structure that initially was against city code. And it still has the support of several council members, many of whom have received campaign donations from some of the management at Weingarten.
In a comment on Swamplot, the Stop Shepherd Noise group indicates it is pleased with the outcome.
As for Weingarten -- it's certainly helpful to have the city's pols on your side in such matters. Why the company didn't abide by Houston's existing development regulations in the first place remains unclear, but perhaps that's just not The Houston Way.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/11/09 09:59 PM |
Misspelling correction FAIL
The Chron corrections page recently noted the following:
The capiton of a photograph that ran on B4 of Thursday's paper misspelled the name of philanthropist Harry Bovay.
Will there be a correction noting the misspelled word in the above correction at some point?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/11/09 07:54 PM |
Apache Corp. donates thousands of trees to Harris County Flood Control District
After Hurricane Ike, Mayor White unveiled a new program called "Million Trees + Houston." I haven't heard anything about it since then, but KUHF-88.7 has a nice story on the Harris County Flood Control District's tree-planting program:
Everything the Harris County Flood Control District does relates to flooding. Tree planting is one of those activities...and it's almost by magic.
"One of our basins was just very bare. Went out four days later, and there were about seven thousand trees out there. It was amazing."
Heather Saucier handles media relations for the district. She says for the past five years, they've planted an average of 30-thousand trees every year.
[snip]
The activity makes it one of the largest tree planting agencies in the area. But it doesn't come cheap. Saucier says the district is getting help from Apache Corporation. It is a Houston based independent oil and gas exploration and production company.
"Had we had to purchase these trees, we would be spending more than three hundred thousand dollars. And so, this was a very generous gift from Apache, and we're gonna make sure we make very good use of these trees."
And without a lot of fanfare, Apache Corporation has almost reached its goal of planting one million trees:
"We have a goal of planting a million trees through the Apache Foundation and the Harris County Flood Control District, along with a number of other governmental agencies, schools, volunteer groups in five states have helped us with our goal of planting these trees and we're looking forward to this Spring and planting our millionth tree, hopefully right here in Houston."
That's excellent.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/11/09 04:10 PM |
10 January 2009
Texas Watchdog to host meetup Jan. 17
Texas Watchdog, the relatively new local watchdog group, is planning to host a blogger/citizen-journalist/activist meetup of sorts at the Stag's Head Pub at 2:00 pm on January 17.
Here's a blurb from their earlier blog-post announcement:
Come on out and hang with our staff. We want to know how we can help local bloggers and citizen journalists in reporting and using freedom of information laws in the Houston area — and find out how we can better investigate and keep an eye on local and state government agencies in the Houston area.
[snip]
Bring your story tips, your questions, your complaints — and let’s have a refreshing beverage and relax some, too!
If you want to pass along story ideas to the Texas Watchdog folks or just learn from working new-media journalists how to get info out of your local school or METRO or other public entity -- this sounds like a perfect opportunity! And the fried mushrooms aren't half bad at the Stag's Head either.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/10/09 02:02 PM |
Dangerous time/place/behavior update
From the Department of Conflicting Messages comes this report by KHOU-11's Jeff McShan on downtown crime.
On the one hand, downtown sounds a little scary:
A Houston security guard said he was making his rounds at a park across from downtown’s Toyota Center at 3:40 a.m., when two men reportedly came toward him from across the street. He said they nearly scared him to death.
“That's when they approached me, and one of them put a gun to my head,” said the guard, who didn’t want to be identified.
He said the men took off with his wallet and car keys.
“At that point, I panicked. I freaked out and ran,” said the guard. “I was on the radio yelling for backup and telling them that I was being robbed at gunpoint.”
On the other hand, it doesn't sound so bad:
Going through three months of crime statistics, 11 News learned that robberies downtown, when compared to the rest of the city, are rare.
In fact, from September until the end of November of 2008, there were only 20 reported incidents. The majority of them happened between midnight at 3 a.m.
But the number of downtown car break-ins during the same time was much larger. There were 75 auto thefts reported and 155 car break-ins.
To refine this in terms of Chief Hurtt's Dangerous Time/Place/Behavior theory of Houston crime, you should largely be fine downtown unless you are a security guard patrolling a property in the wee hours of the morning.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/10/09 01:17 PM |
07 January 2009
City toughens two-hour parking limits downtown
The Chronicle's Bradley Olson reports that Mayor White and his Council today took on the pressing matter of ... downtown parking meter limits:
Bolstered by an update to Houston parking laws that sailed through City Council on Wednesday without discussion, the city is set to enforce the time limits posted at parking meters. That means that if it says two hours, you really can stay only two hours.
Drivers who stay beyond the posted limit will get a ticket, even if they have paid for additional time or have bought the all-day "Downtown Hopper" pass. The stricter ordinance also includes a provision making it clear that no one else can feed the meter for you.
[snip]
Tickets for exceeding the time limit, like those for when a meter has expired, are $25.
That bolded conclusion helps bring everything into better focus.
At least it's better than the previously contemplated crackdown on handicapped parkers.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Texas Liberal.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/07/09 10:33 PM |
Everyone's a media critic (including the Fifth Circuit)
Tom Kirkendall noticed something interesting in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' recent Skilling decision:
The Court clearly is not impressed by the objectivity of the Houston Chronicle, citing the newspaper's highly inflammatory coverage of Skilling's case in finding presumed community prejudice against Skilling. Of course, the Chronicle's most vitriolic critic of Skilling doesn't even notice (see also here and here) the Court's criticism.
In the internet age, everyone's a media critic, even the Fifth Circuit!
Kirkendall also posts a pdf of the decision with his notes interspersed, which makes for interesting reading. This is the sort of thing that newspapers concerned about their survival might be doing as well.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/07/09 10:26 PM |
Are you going to miss Whitney Casey when she's gone?
The Chronicle's reader representative has resurfaced in 2009, and offers this look into the inner workings of the newspaper's Star section, courtesy of a reader email and the reader rep's followup:
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 7:22 PM
Subject: Whitney Casey's PhotosThe assortment of come-hither poses that accompany "columnist" Whitney Casey's offerings weaken the credibility of her articles. I believe she has the incorrect job if what she wanted, instead, was to be a "pin up" girl.
In addition, it makes it appear she is using her position to find a relationship of her own. I don't believe the Chronicle has the duty to assist her. Indeed, other columnists' photos rarely change, even if they need to be updated.
Jim's Response: I went straight to Kyrie O'Conner, Chronicle deputy managing editor/features, on this. This is what she had to say: "It was our choice, not Whitney's to run a larger (and changing) photo with her column. She happened to have some new photos and given the nature of her column, we thought they went with it."
If it's dumbed down and trashed up, one might guess Kyrie O'Connor was involved.
The Houston Press blog Hairballs was documenting the rotating glamor photos way back in October 2008, though, so that's not entirely new.
What is new is the Star section's efforts in promoting Casey's new book. Here's a sampling:
Whitney Casey hit a snag in her plan for finding a man.
It seems that interviewing 250 men and writing an advice book, The Man Plan: Drive Men Wild – Not Away, on how catch a fellow’s attention, left her a little too much in the know for one potential date, who was scared off by Casey’s mastery of the tricks of the trade.
“The Man Plan is ruining my man plan,” Casey said.
Not that the blond, 6-foot former TV journalist — she hosted Great Day Houston and now writes a relationship column in the Houston Chronicle — has trouble catching eyes.
But after a year of finagling a book deal, then researching and writing it, Casey finds herself touting The Man Plan nationally, with a heart on the mend. She recently broke up with her doctor boyfriend.
A while back, O'Connor posted "You're going to miss us when we're gone" in reference to continuing problems in the print newspaper industry.
The metro and state desks? Absolutely.
Rotating glamor shots and related columnists/articles? Not so much.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/07/09 10:09 PM |
KHOU: Violent crime jumps to highest level since 2005
KHOU-11's Lee McGuire reports that the city would like you to know that "total crime" is down in Houston.
Unfortunately, violent crime in Houston is up:
“Total crime,” as defined by city data reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system, stood at 5,561 events per hundred thousand people in 2008. This is a drop of roughly 8 percent from 2007. The highest recent figure, 6,553 events per hundred thousand people, occurred in
However, incidents of “violent crime” in Houston are up year-to-year. These crimes occurred at a rate of 1,024 per hundred thousand people in 2008, a jump of 2.5 percent from the year before. It is the highest level in Houston since 2005. “Violent crime” includes forcible rape, murder, non-negligent manslaughter, robbery and aggravated assault.
However, incidents of “violent crime” in Houston are up year-to-year. These crimes occurred at a rate of 1,024 per hundred thousand people in 2008, a jump of 2.5 percent from the year before. It is the highest level in Houston since 2005. “Violent crime” includes forcible rape, murder, non-negligent manslaughter, robbery and aggravated assault.The number of rapes jumped significantly year-over-year. There were 24 rapes per hundred thousand people in 2007, but nearly 32 per hundred thousand in 2008, a 33 percent jump. Aggravated assaults were also up 11 percent.
Crimes committed in December were not included in the data released Wednesday.
It's not at all clear that we can even trust these numbers, given the city's murder reporting shenanigans previously exposed by McGuire's colleague Mark Greenblatt. But those are the numbers we have, and it's not good news.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/07/09 09:40 PM |
06 January 2009
KGOW-1560 scores ratings victory
KGOW-1560 (The Game), which only recently began encoding its signal to register with Arbitron, scored a nice victory in the latest ratings book. The Chronicle's David Barron posts the details:
John Granato and Lance Zierlein, the onetime leaders in Houston morning drive radio sports talk, begin the new year on top once again.
KGOW (1560 AM), which reunited Granato and Zierlien in November 2007 after both left longtime sports talk market leader KILT (610 AM), topped the December Arbitron ratings among men 25-54 with a 1.7 audience share in morning drive.
KFNC (97.5 FM) was second at 1.5, KILT was third at 1.0 and KBME (790 AM) brought up the rear with a 0.5 share.
[snip]
KILT, bolstered by its Texans and Rockets game broadcasts, remains the market leader in the weeklong numbers among men 25-54, the key demographic for sports radio advertising. KILT has a 1.8 share to 0.9 for each of the other three stations in the 6 a.m. to midnight weekly numbers for December.
KILT also retains a substantial lead in cumulative listeners. The station had 152,200 weekly listeners in December to 94,800 for KBME, 59,200 for KFNC and 31,200 for KGOW, according to Arbitron. KILT also had the highest weekly cume in morning drive with 42,400 weekly listeners in men 25-54 to 40,600 for KFNC, 23,600 for KGOW and 17,400 for KBME.
KGOW, however, had the highest average quarter-hour share because even though it has fewer total listeners than KILT, its listeners spend more time tuned in than do KILT’s.
“You want both, more listeners and more time spent listening,” Topper said. “But if I had my druthers, I’d rather have a small group of people who are passionate about the station.”
KGOW seems to be having some early success building an independent radio station with a popular, personality-driven show and an intensely loyal listenership. That model is the one followed in the beginning by The Ticket, which is a Dallas sports talk monster and now has all sorts of great shows and personalities in addition to the venerable Hard Line and Dunham & Miller programs. So here's hoping KGOW follows that buildout model and is able to improve its weaker shows over time.
One thing that is striking about the Houston radio numbers is just how weak they are overall. Either there aren't that many radio listeners interested in sports talk in Houston, or many people find some of the hosts and programs unlistenable. I'm inclined towards the latter. What do you think?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/06/09 08:00 AM |
05 January 2009
Murders decline in 2008
KHOU-11's Jeff McShan reports that murders as reported by HPD declined in 2008:
In 2006, there were 376 homicides within the city limits. In 2007, the number dropped to 347, and in 2008, it dropped again to 292.
300+ murders was an outrage, so it's good that the city is now (barely) below that number.
That is, if we can trust the numbers reported by HPD. Recall that McShan's colleague Mark Greenblatt has exposed past misreporting of murders by HPD.
It will be interesting to see the overall crime numbers for 2008.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/05/09 10:35 PM |
04 January 2009
Rebuild UTMB
Way back in November, we noted the problems caused by Ike to UTMB, and pointed out that it would be nice if various pols could get behind rebuilding the important resource.
While people were busy shopping and decking the halls and such in December, the issue did get some attention from opinion leaders.
Mayor Bill White, County Judge Ed Emmett, and Dr. Red Duke pointed out the gap in medical services caused by UTMB's service reduction in an op-ed in the Chronicle.
Local industry has sounded the alarm regarding the loss of UTMB's excellent trauma services.
And Texas Monthly's Mimi Swartz effectively blasted UT's board of regents for its response to UTMB's plight (and its likely illegal November meeting that resulted in massive layoffs at the institution).
A lawsuit is pending regarding the regents' likely illegal meeting, but that lawsuit will have about as much impact on the UTMB decisionmaking as a Facebook page or online petition (not much). If area pols (and people) don't get behind restoring this important medical resource, it seems likely that its decline will be permanent (and it will hardly surprise if a shiny new med school opens in, say, Austin, eventually). As a growing region in a growing state, we can hardly afford any permanent reduction in area medical capabilities, so here's hoping our area pols get their act together on this.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/09 10:44 PM |
Taking apart Mayor White's spinning of red-light-camera study
There have been several follow-ups to Bradley Olson's story on the findings of Houston's long overdue red-light-camera study.
TheNewspaper.com came up with a couple of interesting points after looking the data:
The Rice-TTI study compared 24 months of pre-installation data to between 13 and 21 months of post-installation data for each of the five groups. According to TheNewspaper's analysis of overall accident data found in the appendices, the average number of monthly collisions went from an average of 15.4 collisions per month in the two years prior to camera enforcement to 58.3 accidents per month in the post-installation period. Although this figure is not reported in the study itself, the general fact is briefly acknowledged.
"The absolute number of collisions at camera-monitored intersection approaches is not decreasing," the study admitted.
To achieve the appearance of success, the study divided red light camera intersections into "non-monitored" approaches -- the directions of travel at the intersection where the red light camera is not looking -- and the "monitored" approaches where ticketing took place. There was a 132 percent increase in collisions at the non-monitored approaches of the intersection where red light cameras were installed and a non-significant 9 percent increase at the monitored approaches. The study treated these increases in both rear end and T-bone collisions as unrelated to the red light camera as long as the accident happened outside of the camera's view.
The study concluded that because the accidents went up at the non-monitored approaches of red light camera intersections, but effectively stayed the same at the monitored approaches, that the red light cameras were responsible for the "benefit" (a smaller increase) at one part of the red light camera intersection, but not the increase in acccidents at the other. This line of thought would suggest that the increased accidents at the non-monitored approaches of red light camera intersections reflected an increase in accidents at the other city intersections that had no red light cameras at all. The study admits this implication is untrue.
The second point: The data from the Houston study is at odds with the data from the statewide red-light-camera study that purported to show red-light cameras reduced accidents:
Increases in Houston collisions documented by Rice-TTI mysteriously became decreases in collisions in the TxDOT-TTI report, as follows:
Monroe at Gulf Freeway East Service Road: a 913% increase became a 41.7% decrease
Hollister at Northwest Freeway: a 747% increase became a 60.5% decrease
FM1960 West at Tomball Parkway: a 307% increase became a 44% decrease
Richmond at Dunvale: a 103% increase became no change
South Sam Houston Freeway at Telephone Road: a 164% increase became a 19.3% decrease
East Freeway North Service Road at Normandy: a 52% increase became a 25% decrease
North Freeway West Service Road at West Rankin Road: a 18% increase became a 32.7% decrease
Then Bradley Olson posted a follow-up story on Chron.com suggesting the Houston study was flawed, which prompted Scott Henson, who blogs at Grits for Breakfast, to express his skepticism:
While not long ago, the Chronicle touted the results of a much less rigorous study uncritically, in this case, where the results do not support red light cameras, the whole story was centered around claiming the research methodology was flawed. Writes Bradley Olson:
Because red-light cameras are known to have a spillover effect — meaning that they have been shown to impact the number of accidents at intersections where there are no cameras — robust examinations of camera programs always compare crash data with that in other cities.
It's what statisticians call a control group. Unless the study authors compare crashes at the 50 intersections where red-light cameras have been installed with other intersections in which they have not been — preferably in other cities — no conclusions can be drawn from it.
This is utter gobbledy gook, not a legitimate statistical analysis! Red light cameras create their OWN control group when researchers monitor accidents at the intersection BEFORE and AFTER enforcement begins.
That was the flaw I identified in the Texas Department of Transportation study published in December - in the vast majority of intersections they studied, data was not gathered before cameras were installed to compare them. In the Houston study, they had that data going back several years, so IMO the results are actually much more robust and probative than TXDOT's.
[snip]
The reporter also claims, bizarrely, that, "At a ratio of 10 to 1, study after study on the effect of red-light cameras ... have found that they drastically reduce crashes." That's simply false on its face, which further leads me to think Olson's sources were feeding him a line of bull. As I wrote in reaction to the TXDOT study:
in Lubbock red light cameras were discontinued after accidents overall increased 52% at intersections with cameras. Similarly, the state of Virginia eliminated their use after studies in every city using the devices found the number of accidents increased. In other jurisdictions, studies have found reductions in right-angle accidents but nearly equal increases in rear-end collisions, including in injury accidents.
The Houston figures jibe closely with those results, so I don't see why Olson or Mayor White are so surprised that accidents increased in Houston, too. That's what happens when officials prioritize revenue generation over public safety.
And finally, a letter in today's Chronicle, points out that most red-light-camera violations occur in the first two seconds after the light has turned red:
These are not very likely to be the ones that cause serious accidents, but they certainly are the source of a huge amount of revenue being raised by the city. Heavily penalizing these early violations does almost nothing to reduce the accident rate because most red-light-running accidents are caused by drivers who are oblivious to the red light. They run the light much later than two seconds into the red, and they are usually impaired or oblivious to the danger they face.
And a California study showed that three-fourths of all red-light-camera violations occurred in the first second after a light turned red.
The point?
Lengthening yellow light times will do more to reduce red light running and accidents than cameras ever will.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/04/09 03:32 PM |
31 December 2008
Happy New Year's
Happy New Year's, everyone.
Be safe out there tonight. And please don't get behind the wheel if you've been drinking.
See ya'll in 2009!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/31/08 04:01 PM |
30 December 2008
Houston tops a list it doesn't want to be on
I found an interesting article in the Houston Chronicle. It's titled:
"Study: Houston leads in homicides by black youths"
Allan Turner writes a good article citing a study done by James Fox and Marc Swatt. Their study puts Houston at the top of the list of homicides by young black youths. Mostly the victims are also black youths.
This is a touchy subject due to the politically correct status quo we live in. So, to avoid controversy, what do these academics suggest is the reason?Focusing on the period between 2000-01 and 2006-07, the study found Houston at the top of a list of 28 U.S. cities, with a 139 percent increase in the number of young African-Americans suspected in killings.
In 2006-07, 129 young black men were murdered in the city, up from 42 in 2000-01.
Okay, we've got the federal government to blame.Fox and his associate, criminologist Marc Swatt, argued in the report that the increases occurred as the federal government cut support for community policing and intervention programs put in place to combat a rise in gang violence in the 1990s.
"Kids can't wait, and crime doesn't wait," Fox said. "There is a significant need here — a large group of kids with inadequate, inferior education and a ready access to guns. A teenager with a gun in his hand is a dangerous individual."
Okay, kids and guns don't mix. Never mind that millions of kids (like me and my brother) were raised around guns but were taught about responsibility and consequences at an early age by our father.
Of course Quanell has to weigh in since he is the Chronicle's duly appointed community activist.
Isn't he considered a 'leader in the African-American community?' Then this is an indictment of him too.Houston community activist Quanell X called the study a "blanket indictment of the city and government officials in the city and a greater indictment of ministers and political leaders of the African-American community."
Shape Community Center's Deloyd Parker questioned the way the study was conducted. "When they say 'offender,' does that mean someone who's charged with a crime or been convicted?" he said. "Sometimes even being convicted doesn't mean you're actually guilty."
Of course we have the 'ostrich' response!
I wish I could find the young black woman I met two years ago in southwest Houston. She works hard trying to raise her two young boys whose father left them. Her oldest son was on probation and her youngest son had just been arrested for auto theft. Who did she blame? She was upset at her son, not the police. Ask her. She could shed some light on this problem. We talked for over an hour about absentee fathers, lack of positive role models, the glorification of the 'gangsta' lifestyle by rap music, and the lack of personal responsibility. This extraordinary woman could answer this problem better than academia. I wonder how Houston will wear this scarlet letter!
Posted by Jason @ 12/30/08 11:17 AM |
29 December 2008
Chron: Wrecks more than doubled at intersections with at least one red-light camera
Finally, the study has been released (completely unrelated to that lawsuit, we're sure), and incredibly, Mayor White and Bob Stein have decided they're going to sell a different conclusion, saying red light cameras have actually improved public safety: (via the Chron's Bradley Olsen):
Red-light cameras installed at some of Houston's most dangerous intersections did not reduce the number of crashes there, according to a long-awaited study the city commissioned on the matter.
In fact, wrecks at intersections with at least one red-light camera more than doubled, the data shows. The analysis examined accident data at intersections that had at least one camera which monitored traffic in one direction, or "approach" of the intersection.
Study authors said the reason for the increase at "monitored approaches" is actually that the city has seen a major uptick in collisions during the past year, one that they believe red-light cameras helped mitigate. In other words, the study, released today, concludes that there were far fewer collisions at intersections with red-light cameras than there otherwise would have been if the cameras had not been installed.
"Collisions are going up all over the city," said Bob Stein, a Rice University political science professor and one of report's four authors. "But red-light cameras have held back that increase at approaches where they have been installed."
Regarding the bolded sentence, read the following from the study:
Although this study supports the idea that that red light cameras have a positive effect in reducing collisions at monitored approaches in comparison with non-monitored approaches, several questions have been raised by these findings. The most important of these is “Why have accidents at non-monitored approaches increased so dramatically in the past year?” As suggested above, these results could be evidence of an increase in collisions across the city. The selection in 2006 of intersections with high rates of collisions could be serving to magnify this effect.
Currently, conclusions on a general increase in collisions across the city are not supportable with available data. Population growth and congestion stand out as possible factors behind slower traffic flow and increased collisions on a citywide level. However, this hypothesis is beyond the scope of this report and will have to be tested with specific data and rigorous analysis.
Just something to consider, as you read MayorWhiteBobStein's spin:
Mayor Bill White said the findings prove that the red light cameras are making city streets safer.
"The program is proving successful in improving public safety, which has been the goal since the beginning," White said in a written statement. "We believe the findings and conclusions provide sound evidence of that."
Or something else.
UPDATE: Kevin and Cory have struggled through the study. Both now need aspirin.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/29/08 07:48 PM |
28 December 2008
The Houston Way paves the way in Galleria-area land taking
Lately, quite a bit of attention has been focused on "the Chicago Way," the complex web of cronyism, patronage, and machine politics that can make (think both of the Mayors Daley) or break (think recent governors) Illinois pols.
Locally, we have The Houston Way, which doesn't factor into our state politics quite as prominently, but is no less intriguing when it comes to cronyism, patronage, and the benefits that always seem to accrue to the city's powerful and well-connected.
As Houston Chronicle reporters Carolyn Feibel and Bradley Olson make clear today in an outstanding followup to a March 2008 story by Mike Snyder on the city's abuse of its eminent domain power, The Houston Way hardly went away when Lee Brown finally was term-limited out of office and Bill White took charge (even though Mayor White's press staff surely loves it when journalists give the impression that White singlehandedly restored ethics to Houston government). Rather, one might say it reverted back to the more refined practices of, say, the Lanier Administration (more refined in the sense that we doubt any White Administration staffers will wind up indicted like various Brown Administration staffers, who were bunglers in The Houston Way really).
Recall back in March that we and other blogs commented on the story by Snyder, which described a lawsuit filed by two brothers contesting the city's effort to take their small Galleria-area property and make it into a so-small-as-to-be-useless "public park" that would conveniently double as ornamentation for a huge planned real-estate development. To recap Snyder's reporting: The brothers had acquired that property in 1982, and had been approached by the Uptown Houston District in February 2004 about selling it for parkland. In April 2004, Wulfe & Co. became interested in acquiring the land, and within a year had announced plans to redevelop a surrounding plot into the multi-acre BLVD Place mixed-use development. In July 2006, Wulfe & Co made a sizable offer for the land, which the brothers declined. In October 2006, the City of Houston said it wanted to acquire the land for a park. In May 2007, the city made an offer for the land, which the brothers declined. In November 2007, the City filed to acquire the property by eminent domain for the Uptown Houston District -- for more than a million dollars less than Wulfe & Co had once offered. At the time, Joe Turner, the City's Parks and Recreation director, said the move was justified, and that there was a "shortage of parks" in the area. The reporting noted that Ed Wulfe had a seat on the Uptown Houston District's board, and "is well-known at City Hall."
At the time, some of us didn't think this passed the smell test.
In today's intricate, detailed followup to the original story, we learn quite a bit more about this deal that makes it smell even worse. In no particular order, here are more of the damning details:
- The Hanover Company (which would acquire 1.48 acres of land from Wulfe & Co for a residential tower) stipulated that the brothers' property (which was adjacent) had to be a part of any deal -- and it eventually was, courtesy of the Uptown Houston District and the city's eminent domain power. Like Wulfe, Hanover President John Nash is a member of the Uptown Houston District board.
- In depositions related to the lawsuit, Joe Turner (the Parks and Recreation director) now says he did not want to seize the land for the park, that the idea did not originate with his office (which has not used condemnation to acquire parkland in his tenure), and that Councilmember Pam Holm pushed the idea and provided him a memo to sign off on backing the deal.
- Mayor White's March 2008 memo after some critical press coverage seems to betray the fact that there was no public-purpose behind the land grab.
- There still are no plans for the land's use as a park.
- Hanover executives and Wulfe are big contributors to Mayor Bill White, Councilmember Pam Holm, and Councilmember Peter Brown, all of whom supported the eminent domain proceeding enthusiastically.
- Councilmember Peter Brown's wife just happened to be an investor in BLVD Place, but City Attorney Arturo Michel apparently told Brown that this didn't represent a conflict of interest.
- Mayor Bill White and Councilmember Peter Brown are both resisting deposition efforts.
We'll leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions about this smelly, incestuous mess, although we suspect all but the most partisan cheerleaders for Mayor White will at least agree that it's a smelly incestuous mess.
We do take exception with one small part of the otherwise fine reporting by Feibel and Olson:
[C]ritics of City Hall contend that officials too often shape policy and decisions to aid developers.
That's not untrue, but a better description of The Houston Way is that officials too often shape policy and decisions to aid the city's powerful and well-connected (at the expense of the less powerful).
Notable recent examples of The Houston Way in action would include: Mayor White, Council, and Richard Vacar putting an airport shuttle company out of business at the behest of Yellow Cab, which wanted the business to itself; Mayor White's use of an archaic driveway ordinance to continue to frustrate a planned high-rise development (that had seemingly met existing regulatory hurdles) once well-connected supporters demanded it be stopped (this would be a key example of developers NOT shaping policy); Mayor White and Council extending the IAH Terminal C concession for the well-connected Jason Yoo despite the abysmal job he has done; and of course the unsuccessful effort to boot the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation from its prime real estate (for developers never named?).
In a town with a columnist like John Kass, we might look forward to many scathing columns in the future about The Houston Way and all of its incestuous relationships and deals. Alas, The Plagiarist is more expert in The San Antonio Way than ours, the Teen Diarist's range is *ahem* limited as well, and the Houston Press gave up trying to write about politics years ago. Too bad.
BLOGVERSATION: Red Ink: Texas, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/08 10:32 PM |
Art in Houston: Chron offers "guidance about what is good for the people of Houston"
Remember when Chron editor Jeff Cohen said the editorial board's purpose was to "offer guidance about what is good for the people of Houston"?
Well, the Chron's Christmas day editorial was a doozy, opining that "Houstonians can thank the publicly/privately funded Houston Art Alliance for the coming artistic bounty."
That's just hilarious, considering Wayne Dolcefino's recent look at the taxpayer-funded Houston Art Alliance. So, just for fun, here's a little compare/contrast:
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/08 09:10 AM |
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