08 December 2008
Olds: Prospects for Astrodome Hotel financing still dicey
Here is the lede on Bill Murphy's latest Chronicle story on the proposed Astrodome Hotel boondoggle:
The credit crunch has not killed the effort to turn the Astrodome into an upscale convention hotel, but the project's developers and county officials are unsure whether financing for the $450 million plan can be obtained.
As Tom Kirkendall has pointed out since Astrodome hotel fantasy first surfaced, the prospects of anyone financing the dubious project (absent a huge "investment" by government) were always slim, not that one would ever guess from Murphy's cheerleading/reporting.
Indeed, in a serious newspaper with more demanding editors, Murphy would never have been allowed to report so optimistically and glowingly for so long about the dreamed-of boondoggle without at least including some hard financial analysis to balance the cheerleading. Cory Crow also points out that the Texans and the Rodeo remain as significant hurdles that have yet to be overcome.
At some point, we're going to have to start considering some realistic solutions to the Astrodome problem. Judge Emmett has peeked at the little blog in the past -- so feel free to leave him your recommendations in the comments!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/08 09:35 PM |
07 December 2008
Reform you can believe in: Lykos targets short skirts!
Following last week's purge of experienced prosecutors and investigators who supported the wrong political candidate, the new regime in the Harris County District Attorney's Office took the opportunity to address misdemeanor prosecutors.
Given the problems the DA's office has suffered in the last year, not to mention the big "reform" campaigns run by both candidates, one might expect that top Lykos lieutenant Jim Leitner had plenty of serious issues to discuss.
And perhaps he will, one day. But as Murray Newman reports on his blog, last week's message was that Pat Lykos is not opposed to pant suits. Seriously. However, Lykos apparently does NOT like short skirts. Seriously!
Mark Bennett has a nice post on this "Reassurance of the Pants."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/08 02:12 PM |
What happens to Bolsover Street? (cont'd)
The Examiner's Michael Reed answers the question of what happens to Bolsover Street now that Lamesa Properties has been unable to secure financing for its Sonoma project: Pretty much nothing:
The 2400 block of Bolsover could remain undeveloped and in the possession of Lamesa Properties another seven-and-half years, according to the terms of the ordinance approving the street’s abandonment.
A spokesman for the city said Monday in addition to the five years the agreement allowed for the completion of the retail-residential project and some traffic-related construction, an additional three-year extension can be granted at the “sole discretion” of the director of Public Works.
Under the terms of the sale of the street, the additional time could be allowed “for extenuating circumstances,” city spokesman Alvin Wright said.
Those circumstances were not defined by the ordinance, which went into effect Aug. 21, 2007.
The sale of the street was contingent on completion of the project “as substantially presented to the community” and the installation of left-turn bays approaching Kelvin Street and Morningside Boulevard at the Rice Boulevard intersections within five years of that date.
An extension by the Public Works director, which does not require council action, could push that date back to Aug. 21, 2015. Failure to grant an extension request cannot be appealed by the property owner.
According to Wright, “The developer has satisfied all commitments and contract requirements to date, and there are no others until Aug. 21, 2012.”
That seems to have worked out well...for Lamesa Properties.
PREVIOUSLY: Bolsover appraisals raise questions over abandonment process
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/07/08 01:29 PM |
Adventures in homeownership
Sometimes owning a home can be a challenge (via KPRC-2):
Mountains Of Hurricane Mulch Invade Houston Neighborhood
If you haven't already, you should watch the video to see just how big the mountains of mulch are.
Homeowner Finds Roof In Unexpected Place
And this is unbelievable. Maybe the homeowner should see if the roofer in question has registered with the city.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/07/08 07:51 AM |
05 December 2008
KRIV: Bettencourt resigns! (UPDATED)
KRIV-26 is reporting some shocking political news (via Mike McGuff and Twitter):
FOX 26 News has learned Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt has turned in his resignation to Harris County Judge Ed Emmett.
Sources tell FOX 26 Bettencourt turned in his resignation letter Thursday, and it is effective Wednesday.
Betterncourt has been unavailable for comment.
[snip]
Sources said Bettencourt has chosen to work in the private sector.
There's not much to say until this story is fleshed out a bit more, but if this is another case of a popular Republican running and winning while planning to step down the whole time (à la Judge Eckels), the little blog will be displeased once again. But perhaps there are mitigating circumstances, so we'll withhold judgment for now.
UPDATE: The Chronicle is now reporting the same story, citing Joe Stinebaker.
UPDATE 2: KHOU-11's Doug Miller has more.
UPDATE 3: The story seems to be that Bettencourt resigned to pursue a business opportunity he just received. Maybe that's even true. Unfortunately, the appearance is that Bettencourt misled voters about his intention to serve them just as Robert Eckels misled voters about his intention to serve them, because local Republican Party leaders (oxymoron?) knew that a non-incumbent Harris County Republican running in 2008 (and on) would be in a lot of trouble. Perhaps someone should inform the aspiring Machiavelli behind these moves that the Texas Republican brand is damaged, and that misleading voters about one's intention to serve if elected further damages the brand.
UPDATE 4: Paul Burka speculates about what's behind the Bettencourt resignation.
UPDATE 5 (12/07/2008): Bettencourt is finally quoted in the Chronicle, and doesn't seem at all bothered about misleading voters and citizens, who had every reason to expect he would serve out his term:
"I've had a wonderful 10 years of service with great people at the office who have done good things for the taxpayers of Harris County," Bettencourt, 50, said Saturday, a day after word of his planned departure was leaked to the media and broken on the late-night news.
"But there comes a time when you decide that further challenges await you and that you know you need to accept those challenges before maybe you get to the age where someone won't offer you the opportunity," he said.
[snip]
Bettencourt said he first entertained the idea of leaving the county during the summer, well after the GOP primary, when it looked like he and every other Republican in Harris County were headed for defeat. But he insisted no serious discussions about the offer he chose to accept occurred before the Nov. 4 election.
"This business venture is something that took shape after the election and not before," he said.
"You can always think pie in the sky, what do I do if the election doesn't turn out your way. It's another thing to have a thought like that and be approached to have a discussion about a new business venture.
In other words, the man isn't bothered by breaking his commitment to voters but has offered no compelling information as to why we shouldn't be bothered. It's the latest case of a local GOP official misleading citizens and voters, and it's deplorable.
Meanwhile, the Chronicle's Liz Austin Peterson has this quote from Bicyclist Bob Stein:
It is almost unheard of for an incumbent to resign before being sworn in to his new term, Rice University political scientist Bob Stein said. The timing of Bettencourt's decision was suspect, he said, because a lesser-known Republican might have struggled to win in a year Democrats so heavily dominated countywide elections.
True enough. However, Peterson might have added that Bob Stein is a Democrat. For that matter, perhaps the Chronicle could, on occasion, find some source other than Bob Stein to cite.
Peterson does confirm that the news was leaked to local media late Friday. There's only one reason to leak political news that way: Because it stinks and someone wants to bury it. While one can understand why the Harris County GOP's local Machiavellis might want to hide the fact that they have deceived voters and citizens (again), a better move would have been not to do it in the first place, especially after the Eckels example!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/08 09:59 PM |
04 December 2008
Study: Accidents in Texas decline signficantly at red-light-camera intersections
Earlier in the week, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported on a state-mandated red-light camera study:
A statewide study by institute researchers shows that monitored intersections had an overall 30 percent decrease in collisions.
The state-mandated report, released Tuesday by the Texas Department of Transportation, examined data from 56 intersections across the state, including many in Houston, from July 1, 2007, to June 30.
The data and analysis are limited because some cities' cameras went online during the study period and their post-installation data were not complete. But the report states that the cameras could be changing driver behavior.
"While these results cannot conclusively determine that red light cameras are responsible for the overall reduction in crashes ... the presence of the treatment provided some effect on the frequency of crashes at the selected intersections for the limited time period of this analysis," the report states.
The study examined crashes at select intersections from 12 cities that were required to report accidents under a new state law. The data show that right-angle collisions were reduced by 43 percent, while rear-end collisions increased by 5 percent, mirroring the results of other studies across the nation.
Chronicle letter writer Dell Ayres remains skeptical, however:
In response to Wednesday's Page One story "RED-LIGHT CAMERAS CUT WRECKS 30% / A&M analysis finds that system does more than collect millions of dollars for cities": I would be more impressed with the 30 percent reduction figure if Texas A&M University had also included statistics from a comparable number of intersections that do not have cameras.
I suspect that $4-a-gallon gas had more to do with the drop than cameras. Since there were fewer cars on the road, it makes sense that there would be fewer accidents. Camera or no camera.
It's doubtful that traffic at dangerous intersections declined 43% (the reduction in right-angle collisions at monitored intersections), but the letter writer does raise a good point about needing to have some standard of comparison. It would be helpful to know statistics about dangerous intersections that don't currently have red-light cameras.
It does stand to reason that highly-publicized enforcement efforts are likely to result in a reduction of the undesired behavior, all things being equal. That's why I've never understood why the signage at intersections monitored by red-light cameras in Houston is so minimal (almost invisible). Some communities that use red-light cameras have much more prominent signage, which acts as a deterrent. Indeed, some places have even been known to use prominent signage and dummy camera equipment for the deterrent effect. If it's all about safety (and not at all about the revenue), then one might expect more prominent signage at Houston's camera-monitored intersections. But there is minimal signage in Houston, and the city refuses to do more.
And that brings us to my other longstanding concern. Even if the city's motive is some combination of revenue and safety, the red-light camera vendor's motive is revenue. In other cities, we have seen the red-light times adjusted in ways that "catch" more violators and boost revenue. We trust Mayor White when he says that he won't put up with that here, but the fact is he's already plotting his next political campaign, and won't always be in charge here -- but the company that has an incentive to boost its revenues will still be around.
And finally, we come to my last objection to the current system -- the inconvenience it causes to someone wrongly accused. The city could easily have required a system that would snap a photo of the driver and provide positive ID of violators, but it declined to build what would have been a fairer system. We do know that camera-enforcement errors can happen, and it's a pain to straighten out such errors. It would have been nice if Houston's system had been designed with more of a positive ID-component.
Still, it's good news that bad drivers are paying a little more attention to red lights at some intersections. If the cameras are responsible, great. They're obviously not going away. So who could object to improving the signage, educational, and due-process components of Houston's system (if it's not at all about the revenue)?
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/08 11:33 PM |
03 December 2008
KHOU's Greenblatt continues scrutiny of Hilton Americas/pension fund finances
KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt is continuing his reporting on the pension fund shortfall and related Hilton Americas accounting.
Yesterday, Greenblatt described the refinancing proposal that was discussed in a budget hearing:
The problem started when Houston tried to use the Hilton Americas Hotel to reduce some of the debt it owed to pension plans by handing over a promissory note. The note promised that the city would eventually pay $300 million to the pension fund.
The $300 million was supposed to come from the sale of the convention center hotel. But the city has not found a buyer yet, which means it still owes the debt.
“I called it an accounting sleight of hand,” said City Controller Annise Parker.
Parker said she warned city leaders years ago not to do the deal. However, the promissory note is not the only thing she doesn’t like.
Parker doesn’t like the huge interest rate that the city agreed to pay on the $300 million loan.
“We have been deferring the interest on those payments. So you do not have just the 8.5 percent, but the interest on the interest,” said Parker.
Greenblatt had difficulty getting any sort of substantive response from Mayor White's staff on the matter.
Today, Mayor White defended the financial arrangement:
“I want to assure Houston employees that their pensions are secure. And I want the taxpayers to know that these debts are all affordable,” said Mayor White.
[snip]
“We have borrowed money to make some of the pension payments. And that's because the pension payments are a long term obligation,” said the mayor, when asked if this is the right thing to do.
Local accountant Bob Lemer is unconvinced:
“When you cut through all the fluff, all the Mayor did was take an existing debt and shove it into the future,” said Bob Lemer, retired partner from Houston’s Ernst and Young. “It’s beyond me why they are turning their head to this.”
It seems fairly simple, actually. Most politicians prefer to defer painful decisions if at all possible. Shrinking that unfunded liability in the pension plan significantly would have required either upsetting municipal workers by going after promised benefits, dedicating much larger contributions to the pension fund (most likely funded by a tax increase), or some combination of the two. Painful! Therefore, the problem gets some band-aids and future pols will get to revisit the issue.
But hey, we'll have a Tolerance Bridge at least!
UPDATE: Carolyn Feibel reports some better news re: the hotel and pension fund (which still has a huge unfunded liability, but not quite as huge).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/08 11:14 PM |
02 December 2008
The Lykos political purge begins
Harris County District Attorney-elect Pat Lykos has already begun to purge perceived political enemies from the DA's office.
Here's an excerpt from A Harris County Lawyer, the prosecutor whose blog has provided an invaluable look inside the DA's Office, about the process:
The Lykos Administration took affect last week with District Attorney Ken Magidson extending the professional courtesy to Jim Leitner of hiring him on to do Pat Lykos' bidding prior to her taking office on January 1, 2009.
Yesterday, all District Attorney employees learned the drill: Leitner sent you an e-mail that invited you for a "meeting" where he told you that the Lykos Administration would not be re-hiring you as an employee. By the end of yesterday's count, he had taken out four investigators and one prosecutor.
[snip]
We walked into his Office, where former-Judge Roger Bridgwater was working.
Jim started fumbling with his desk, saying he didn't know where "the letter" was. Judge Bridgwater told him it was in his desk. Jim ultimately found it.
It was a letter from Lykos thanking me for my service, but letting me know that my services were not needed under her administration. I found it a bit disingenuous considering the letter she had sent all District Attorney employees after the Republican primary run-off where she told us all that as long as we didn't campaign for Bradford that our jobs would be okay.
Wow. Never trust a politician. Who knew?
So, anyway, I read my "thanks for trying 55 felony cases more than I will ever try" letter from Lykos and calmly put it back in the envelope.
Go read the whole thing.
While these sorts of purges are to be expected -- certainly from someone with Pat Lykos' reputation for vindictiveness -- one would hope that the local media would at least give it a little bit of attention as some good career public servants are shown the door and Lykos acts... pretty much as those in the legal community who know her expected she would.
UPDATE: The Chronicle reports on the issue here.
UPDATE 2: KPRC-2 has more.
RELATED: Week of Republican hatchet jobs continues (Defending People), In defense of Murray Newman (Ron's Insanity), Lyin' Patty Lykos starts swinging her claws (Lone Star Times), The Lykos strikes back (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport), Lykos brings changes to Harris DA (Grits for Breakfast), A very, very rare purge begins at the DA's office (Hair Balls).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/02/08 11:53 PM |
That's Peter Brown, ARCHITECT (cont'd)
The Chronicle posted this letter from Councilmember Peter Brown on HISD's recently proposed school closings/consolidations:
The proposed HISD closings and consolidations of Carnegie Vanguard High School and eight neighborhood elementary schools disregard the expressed concerns of the communities they serve, and run counter to modern urban educational policy. In the face of unacceptable dropout rates and a divided community, the Houston Independent School District continues to erode the public trust. As a recent Gates Foundation study concludes, smaller neighborhood schools are better. They have higher attendance rates, more parental involvement and provide a safer, more personal teaching and learning environment, especially in the urban context. This is clearly demonstrated by our better charter schools — KIPP and Yes Academy. One way HISD could think outside the box is to allow successful charter schools to take over the campuses slated for closure. Larger schools have disadvantages — higher costs of transportation, busing, administration and security. As an architect, I can say that the renovation of existing schools can be less costly to the taxpayer than consolidation and new construction.
The councilmember (and mayoral candidate) makes some good points.
And in case you didn't know by now, he's an architect.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/02/08 11:32 PM |
Move It column covers METRO audit, expensive fuel contracts
The Chronicle's Rosanna Ruiz reports that METRO has commissioned a required performance review of itself:
An inside look, including customer complaints, at how Metro manages itself is now in the works. The board awarded a $225,000 contract to Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc. to conduct a state-mandated performance review. The same firm has done at least two previous audits of the transit agency.
The last audit, in 2005, found that passenger fare revenues plunged more than 14 percent during the previous four years while operating expenses per passenger rose 35 percent.
Passenger complaints increased significantly last year — a majority concerned driver behavior. The audit also found ridership declines, which it said needed to be corrected and not hidden in adjusted statistics.
This year's figures, recently cited by Wilson, were also fuzzy. He offered ridership numbers that were adjusted to make up for failures with noncalibrated electronic counters on some buses. And he also provided nonadjusted figures.
Metro says ridership increases are not in dispute and points to a surge in ridership thanks to the cost of fuel and more Park and Ride users, although some of those numbers can be attributed to Metro's two new Park and Ride lots.
Let's see which ridership numbers the auditors choose.
That will be an important factor, but what will also be important is a detailed breakdown of the fare revenues by types of service (rail, bus, Park and Ride, etc.). Let's hope that METRO will be more forthcoming with the audit firm on those figures than it sometimes is with mere citizens who try to obtain them.
Elsewhere in the column, Ruiz describes METRO's Chairman David Wolff's defense of the organization's costly fuel contracts to the Chronicle editorial board. It's too bad Chairman Wolff's visit with the generally supportive editorial board wasn't recorded and posted online, but maybe one day the editorial board will make better use of technology to inform and engage the community.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/02/08 11:26 PM |
01 December 2008
State Auditor's Office, Queen Sheila raise concerns over METRO
Isiah Carey and Texas Watchdog both call attention to this audit report by the State Auditor's Office on METRO.
The report (which should be read in its entirety) is generally complimentary of METRO. However, the most interesting section (Chapter Three, beginning about page 16) raises questions about optimistic projections by METRO, as well as concerns over debt. METRO responds at some length to the questions (beginning around page 19).
In the meantime, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who has been thinking about Houston light rail since she was a six-year-old running around the Jamaica area of Queens, has scheduled a press conference to criticize METRO -- not over the questions raised in the audit report. No no, that would be timely and salient. Instead, Queen Sheila apparently is upset because METRO isn't functioning well enough as a local jobs program. See her press release after the [Read More] jump. The release indicates that a press conference will be held downtown on Wednesday, December 2, so we're not sure exactly when it is going to take place. But if you make it, please leave us a comment and let us know about it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/01/08 10:43 PM |
30 November 2008
City lays out agenda for Austin, prefers that you not think about city pensions too much
The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel lays out Mayor White's to-do list for the 2009 legislative session in Austin.
Closer to home, KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt ran a story just before Thanksgiving on the perilous state of Houston's municipal employee pension fund finances. It's too comprehensive to excerpt, so we urge readers to go have a closer look.
Many Houstonians are probably under the mistaken impression that the referenced pension plan problems were "solved" shortly after Mayor White took office and discovered the "gift" (in the form of a massive unfunded liability) he had been left by Lee Brown.
In reality, the political pain of completely solving the problem would have been much too high for someone of Mayor White's ambitions, so band-aids were applied, some structural adjustments were made for the future, and the issue was largely left for the next mayor. But the unfunded liability was and remains huge, as we have pointed out from time to time. Kudos to Greenblatt for reminding Houstonians (not to mention Mayor White and the "watchdog"* city controller who wants to be mayor).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/08 10:04 PM |
Houston trauma centers struggle to take up UTMB slack
KHOU-11's Leigh Frillici reports on the local trauma-center impact of Ike's UTMB devastation:
Damage and financial troubles after Hurricane Ike cost UTMB at Galveston its level one trauma center. Now patients are flown to the next closest center with a helipad, which is Memorial Hermann.
"We usually see 450 trauma admissions a month. This October, we did over 600," said [Memorial Hermann E.R. Director Dr. James ] McCarthy. "It was our busiest month on record for the last 10 years."
With about 4.5 million people in the Greater Houston area, we should have four trauma centers. But what we had before Hurricane Ike was three, and now with UTMB losing their major center, Houston is down to two.
Money is what it will take to get another major trauma center on line.
"What we're talking about is creating a trauma network in Houston that will take care of you and your family when you get into a car accident on your way home from work, or on your way home from a holiday get together,” said McCarthy.
UTMB is such an important resource for our community and our entire state. It would be nice if some of the pols who were so busy grandstanding in the aftermath of Ike were just as committed to rebuilding and restoring the important resource that is UTMB as quickly as possible. We would like to see some of our local officials pushing the issue more forcefully also.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/08 09:16 PM |
METRO IAH express bus service long overdue, but expensive
The Chronicle's Rosanna Ruiz does a nice job with this METRO press release posing as a news article:
Houston residents and out-of-town travelers can rely ... on taxis, shuttles and now nonstop bus service to George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Metro has added nonstop bus service to the airport for $30 round-trip.
The buses, similar to those used by Park and Ride commuters, run every 30 minutes to and from Metro's downtown passenger plaza, 815 Pierce, to Bush airport's Terminal C.
[snip]
In comparison, SuperShuttle vans cost $23 for a trip to the Bush airport and $44 round-trip.
Yellow Cabs cost $44.50 to downtown, $51 to get to the Galleria area and $55 to travel to Reliant Stadium.
This is a needed, long overdue service that METRO should have been shamed into offering years ago.
That being said, it's also an expensive, needed, long overdue service.
The Chronicle reporter might have done some comparisons on large cities that offer similar services, and how much it costs to get into the central business area. Chicago, St. Louis, and Philadelphia (to name a few) all offer train rides into their central business areas for less money. Surely other cities offer express bus service. But the reporter doesn't take the initiative to provide those comparisons, which probably weren't included in METRO's press information either.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/08 09:06 PM |
Houston makes affordable homes less affordable
The city of Houston has added thousands of dollars to the cost of building new homes (via the Chron's Carolyn Feibel):
New homes built in Houston will have to meet more stringent energy-saving standards starting next October under a new energy code approved Wednesday by the City Council.
"The modern trend among both some of the finer small and large home builders is to build much more energy-efficient homes," said Mayor Bill White. "In fact, you're going to see people are drawn into the city because we have good building standards."
The council passed the code unanimously with no discussion.
The new code requires new residential construction up to three stories to attain a 15 percent energy savings over the existing 2006 International Residential Code.
While it's a noble goal, should it really be mandated through regulation, or should it be voluntary? For example, if someone wants to buy a green home, shouldn't they just buy from a builder who chooses to build green homes?
Right now, local homebuilders are struggling to stay afloat for a myriad of reasons, including the high cost of materials and the credit crunch. They cannot eat the costs associated with building "greener" houses; the costs will be passed on to the consumer. When one is an entry-level homebuyer, this will inevitably price some out of the lowest end of the market.
The Greater Houston Builders Association approved of the changes, but wants to see the city add some incentives, said Adam Aschmann, the group's government affairs director.
For example, he said, the group would like the city to pay for the cost of energy compliance inspections for homes that sell for less than $175,000.
Aschmann said the energy goals could add between $1,000 and $2,000 to the construction cost of a median-priced home.
The new energy code also would apply to home additions of 500 square feet or more.
Barry Klein, president of the Houston Property Rights Association, said he feared the regulations would hurt homebuyers.
"For new construction, the cost becomes more and more prohibitive for people to purchase those new homes," Klein said. "There is a long established pattern of people moving out of the city to escape the city's regulations. I'm sure this is the kind of thing that will accelerate that."
Aschmann's estimate of the extra costs is probably optimistic at best for some homebuilders -- especially the ones who build affordable homes which have not been Energy Star certified previously.
Unfortunately, Mayor White's justification shows a lack of real-world understanding:
White said homeowners will recoup the added costs on their utility bills within four or five years.
"So, that is a good investment, and it makes it so homes are more affordable in the long run," he said. "If somebody is, say, laid off or suffers a financial reverse, then they will be able to stay in their house longer, and I would encourage people to shop for energy-efficient homes."
The extra money required to build the house will be tacked on to the purchase price. At the most affordable end of the housing market, that means some people will not be able to buy a starter house, with the extra cost included. Therefore, recouping the added cost is out of the picture.
BLOGVERSATION: When Houston grows up it wants to be just like Paris, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/30/08 07:38 AM |
What happens to Bolsover Street?
With the recent news that Lamesa Properties has been unable to secure financing for its proposed Sonoma development, what will end up happening to Bolsover Street, which the city sold to the developer (via the Examiner's Michael Reed):
Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck of District C, where the project is located, said while she is “saddened” by the announcement, she expects to eventually “see a project similar to what was presented to the community” at the site.
In an effort make the project possible, the City Council on Aug. 8, 2007 voted to sell the 2400 block of Bolsover Street to Lamesa for $1.74 million, or about $60 a square foot.
The sale of the street was contingent on completion of the project “as substantially presented to the community” and the installation of left-turn bays approaching Kelvin and Morningside at the Rice Boulevard intersections by December 2012.
The building that once stood where Phase 1 was planned on the north side of Bolsover, containing Nit Noi restaurant and other businesses, was demolished in October 2007.
Clutterbuck said it is her understanding Lamesa intends to fence off most of the property from the public for the time being, and that it will be “kept it in the manner befitting the community.”
She said there has also been talk of using part of the site for such things as a community market or a staging area for other projects in the area.
Meanwhile, Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger said Monday the Rice Village store will close Dec. 31 as planned and will not be relocated.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/30/08 06:33 AM |
29 November 2008
Downtown District invites you to come and enjoy the Christmas lights
Er, maybe that should be "Holiday" lights.
Yesterday's Chronicle story highlighted the Downtown District's attempt to recreate a Christmas tradition: visiting downtown to see the Christmas lights and decorations. Perhaps this tradition will hold up better than the city's "annual" New Year's Eve star raising -- a tradition that lasted one year because former Councilwoman Carol Alvarado was too pooped to party the next year.
If you make it down there, have fun. Just beware the red light cameras (and the city wants to add more!), the Wild West parking, the Danger Train, and the homeless.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/29/08 05:57 AM |
27 November 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!
We take a break from our feasting to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Here at the little blog, we're thankful for everyone (bloggers, commenters, emailers, readers, lurkers) who have made this little hobby of ours so enjoyable. With rare exceptions, we manage to have a civil and informed (if sometimes spirited) discussion about the Houston area, and we appreciate everyone who helps keep it going.
Now, back to the feast.... :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/27/08 01:30 PM |
Shock: Desired behavior leads to undesirable outcome
On Monday, METRO's expensive blogger wrote a post titled, "When Public Transit's Cash Cow Runs Dry." The first paragraph is a doozy:
Americans are driving fewer miles this year than last year - and that means the Highway Trust Fund, fueled by the gasoline tax, took in billions of fewer dollars in Fiscal Year 2008. We drove 90 billion miles less in a period of 11 months in FY08 compared to the year before, reported the U.S. Department of Transportation last week.
Isn't that the goal of transit experts, agencies, and enthusiasts? For Americans to drive less? So, public transit fans get their desired outcome, but suddenly realize there's a downside.
Genius.
And the solution? Increase taxes, of course!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/27/08 07:13 AM |
Greenspoint still most crime-plagued mall in Houston
Earlier this week, KPRC-2's Amy Davis looked at crime stats for local malls, as we approach the busiest shopping time of the year. The top five for crime are:
1. Greenspoint
2. Willowbrook
3. Galleria
4. Sharpstown
5. tie between West Oaks and Almeda
Yay for online shopping!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/27/08 06:55 AM |
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