04 June 2008

Fox26 expanding its news offerings

The Insite posts that beginning August 18, KRIV-26 will begin offering 5:00 pm and 5:30 pm local news broadcasts.

Good for KRIV. The more local news coverage, the better.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/04/08 09:20 AM |

03 June 2008

A tag team from two of our least useful local public servants

METRO's expensive blogger posts the transcript of the web chat with the ever-entertaining Chief Lambert.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/08 11:51 PM |

Mrs. White doesn't like Chief Hurtt's beard policy

Mrs. White has weighed in against Chief Hurtt's misguided beard policy:

At a time when Houston's police force is severely understaffed, City Council has ladled out authorization to spend up to $150,000 on outside counsel to fight a lawsuit challenging the Police Department's no-beard policy. The money will not be well-spent.

[snip]

HPD officials claim that beards, in addition to creating a poor public appearance on officers, interfere with the proper functioning of gas masks, a point the officers dispute. If this is the only sticking point, there have got to be some simple solutions that would make an expensive court fight unnecessary.

Perhaps Hurtt should consult with New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, whose department also bans beards but makes an exception for officers with the skin condition of the Houston complainants. The same is true of Chicago police. Or Hurtt could call Philadelphia, where the police commissioner in 2004 amended policy to allow officers to wear neatly trimmed beards not more than a quarter inch in length.

It's difficult enough for HPD to find qualified candidates without the focus on beards. At a time when HPD is understaffed, Chief Hurtt's obsession with beards just seems odd and misguided.

The conclusion to the editorial was amusing:

Houston Mayor Bill White said he's staying out of the dispute and will not try to micromanage the Police Department. This is one case where the mayor, a veteran litigator with a well-known tendency to micromanage, should step in and mediate a compromise that treats these police officers with dignity and saves taxpayer dollars.

Even though this editorial mostly gets it right, Mrs. White is wrong about one thing -- Mayor White hasn't shown much interest in micromanaging or even macromanaging three areas that have, for decades, been a focus of other Houston mayors: HPD, METRO, and public works. The mayor has indeed micromanaged many aspects of the city -- but arguably not three of the most important ones. So we're not sure that Mrs. White's man is going to heed her advice on this one. Strangely, HPD and policing just don't seem to interest him that much.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/08 10:38 PM |

Lose an Eye: Why transportation planning fails

Cory Crow points out that transit enthusiasts who insist that the ONLY mobility solution for Houston is getting people out of cars aren't offering a solution at all.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/08 09:14 AM |

LST: What's a little cutting and pasting in the Chron ideal state?

Last week, Matt Bramanti caught the Chron Editorial LiveJournalists cutting and pasting from an old New York Times story (without quotation marks).

Since the Editorial LiveJournalists reference the Times once, it's not exactly plagiarism, but it is lazy and sloppy, and the work should have been attributed properly.

Maybe the Editorial LiveJournalists just decided what's good enough for Rick Casey is good enough for them? Borderline plagiarism certainly does not seem to be the ideal state, though.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/08 08:36 AM |

02 June 2008

Annise Parker to help people open checking accounts (really!)

City Controller Annise Parker apparently doesn't have enough to keep her busy, so she's taking on a project that, in a better-run city, might well have been delegated to a junior-level mayoral aide:

Like other major U.S. cities, Houston is a city with two financial systems. One offers a wide variety of free- or low-cost options for checking, saving and loans. The other is a predatory system that charges exorbitant fees for even the simplest of transactions. The unbanked, the poor and working class who do not have bank accounts, are the targets of this second-tier financial system.

In my final term as Houston City Controller I'm leading an effort to bring the unbanked into the financial mainstream by helping them to open free starter checking accounts.

Who knew we elected a city controller to take care of such important matters as Remedial Checking 101?

Come to think of it, maybe Carol Alvarado should be employed as a consultant on this important project.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/08 10:26 PM |

METRO finally to transfer land held for Main developers

The Chronicle's Nancy Sarnoff reports that METRO is about to sell some land that it has been holding for developers along Main:

Owners of the Continental Club and other investors are buying two Midtown blocks just north of the music club and next to the Ensemble/HCC light rail station, moving a step closer in their plans to develop the parcel.

The property is owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which bought it last year and has been holding it for the investors in what became a controversial development strategy.

The blocks are along the west side of Main Street, bordered by Holman, Winbern and Travis.

Bob Schultz of RHS Interests, whose group originally assembled the land from multiple owners, said the closing on the property will happen in two or three months.

The investors are considering several development scenarios to promote walking and transit use, potentially including student housing, apartments, office space and a hotel. William Cannady is the lead architect.

One thing is certain. It will include a retail component similar to what Schultz and his partners did next door, which was fill the space with small, independent retailers. Those tenants include the Continental Club, the record store Sig's Lagoon, Tacos A Go-Go and the Big Top bar.

The well-known Continental Club in Austin is on South Congress, a street of eclectic shops and restaurants. The developers envision the same sorts of tenants for this part of Midtown.

"We're trying to bring some of that to Houston," Schultz said.

Construction could start in 18 months.

Last year, the transit authority's board voted to spend $7.2 million for the property. The new owners will reimburse Metro for what it paid.

The idea was that the transit group would carry the land for a specific amount of time and later sell it to Schultz and his partners, who were sensitive to the adjacent transit station and rail ridership in general.

Too bad we can't all use METRO as our private development bank, huh?

PREVIOUSLY: METRO (nontransparently) makes $7.2 million real-estate deal.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/08 10:04 PM |

A PSA from the Church of Dan

The nominally independent Lone Star Times offers up the praise for Dan Patrick today. A begathon can't be far off....

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/08 09:34 PM |

They're not slums -- they're investment opportunities!

Remember those slum apartments Matt Stiles has been reporting on? Some of the units are for sale, and Swamplot links to some of the rather *ahem* positive descriptions.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/08 09:22 PM |

Congratulations, Michael Berry

The Insite posts that former councilman Michael Berry is now a father.

Congratulations!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/08 09:15 PM |

Mobility planning is great (unless METRO is involved)

The Chronicle's Rad Sallee checks in on the area's mobility planning process:

Transportation planning is both hugely important and often mind-numbing.

Houston, for example, has a Major Thoroughfare and Freeway Plan (MTFP), an Urban Corridors plan and a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) that includes streets and roads. Some of those also are included in the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).

And if that weren't enough, work started recently on a City of Houston Mobility Plan (CMP).

So, of course, a roomful of planners and interested others attended a Livable Houston luncheon last Wednesday about this latest effort to keep ahead of traffic.

The CMP, as Houston Planning Department Director Marlene Gafrick described it, is not so much a plan as "a tool for improving the other plans."

The latter are mainly lists of potential projects, with such nuts-and-bolts data as estimated costs, funding sources, start dates, etc., but they don't say much about the need for the listed facilities or their likely contributions to citywide mobility.

Now, when a project is proposed, "the mobility plan should allow us to analyze the impact on traffic, and where the traffic would go," Gafrick said.

Consultants led by Kimley-Horn & Associates and funded by $600,000 from the city, started work in April to create the tools by December, Gafrick said.

Imagine that -- when major projects are proposed, a quality mobility plan should consider the impact on traffic!

Can somebody tell METRO and Council about this revelation, because we are pretty sure this will be news to them!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/08 08:58 PM |

DMN reporters push for muni hotel, cite Houston

A reader passes along a two-reporter story from the Dallas Morning News on our northern neighbor's efforts to justify municipal government getting into the hotel business. The headline pretty much suggests this isn't exactly going to be critical or curious coverage:

Dallas hopes to duplicate other cities' success with convention center hotels

Lo and behold, several paragraphs into the story, we learn that Dallas officials (or the two reporters -- it's not exactly clear from this uncritical reporting) are touting the "success" of other Texas cities that are in the hotel business:

Austin's convention hotel, which opened in December 2003, initially failed to make projections for occupancy levels or room rates. But city officials say the Hilton Austin performed well enough to prevent the city from dipping into reserves to pay debt service on bonds. They now consider it a success.

And in Houston, city officials are preparing to seek offers in the next 30 to 60 days for the sale of the Hilton Americas, a $289 million, publicly owned hotel near the George R. Brown Convention Center.

The reason for the sale: The hotel has been so profitable that city officials think they can sell it for a good price, then turn around and finance the construction of yet another hotel near the convention center.

"This kind of development is being seen all over the country because municipalities view conventions as an opportunity to attract outside sources of income. It's a part of the evolution process" for convention centers, said Peter McStravick, chief operating officer of the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corp.

So, the Hilton Austin is a success because the city hasn't been stuck with as big a bill as it might have been? And Houston's Hilton America is a success because... the people who want to sell it in order to finance an even bigger boondoggle say so.

That's some critical reporting by two Dallas Morning News reporters!

Apparently, it would have been entirely too much to ask for the reporters to look into (and post), say, occupancy rates or average room rates, or the histories of the various boondoggles, or even feature any critical comments that aren't followed by rebuttals. Dallas PR officials couldn't have done a better job with this circular reasoning (other cities are doing it and say it's swell, so Dallas must copy!) posing as news.

For a little perspective, here is a sampling of some of our posts on these sorts of taxpayer-funded boondoggles (with all sorts of relevant links): A novel counterproposal, City ready to build ANOTHER convention center hotel?!, Astrodome Hotel developers seek projected tax revenue to secure funding, Why the Astrodome Hotel is a terrible idea.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/08 08:43 PM |

Stuff we're working on...

In light of Anne Linehan's post on METRO's latest "service improvements" we thought we'd share a few things that we're contemplating for the little blog.

First, we're considering a new blog category and separate forum section to post and track citizen TXPIA requests. We started with the idea of tracking Tom Bazan's requests (which routinely result in stonewalling from METRO), but then thought we could just as easily post additional relevant requests sent by readers -- and then let the submitters keep track of their status in the forum. The Sheriff's Office is hardly the only local governmental entity that stonewalls TXPIA requests, after all.

Second, we've long had a sidebar of "Local Blog Talk" link postings, where we try to highlight local bloggers posting about purely local affairs. As blogging about local matters has grown, we've posted more and more to that sidebar. Unfortunately, there's not currently an RSS feed for it, and it's not featured as prominently as we would like. So we're contemplating just rolling those updates into the regular blog stream, with their own category and RSS feed for anyone who wants to track them separately. The posts would be along the lines of Instapundit-style one- or two-sentence linkposts.

Let us know in the forum what you think about these proposed "service improvements" -- and whether they should even be called "service improvements" (since we are not proposing cuts, that may not be the appropriate term).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/08 08:58 AM |

01 June 2008

Chron profiles one Houstonian's travel hobby

The Chronicle's Dai Huynh profiles a Houston man who makes a habit of being on inaugural Continental Airlines flights:

Circling the Earth by plane would add 25,000 miles to your frequent flier account. Imagine doing that four times a year.

Jim Shelly travels city-to-city, country-to-country for his job as a sports consultant and marketer. He averages more than 100,000 miles per year, or four times around the world. You would think the Houston-based road warrior would have grown weary of life in the sky. Not Shelly, who has boarded every major Continental Airlines inaugural flight of eight hours or longer since a dare in 2001.

He doesn't fly on the inaugural flights for work, either. He does it for fun, and on his own dime.

"It's a buzz, going over and coming back," Shelly said. "There's an excitement that is hard to replicate. Look around, I don't think anybody is going to sleep on this inaugural flight to Mumbai."

Last fall, Shelly was on Continental's first daily, nonstop service between Mumbai and its New Jersey hub at Newark Liberty International Airport. All around him, the mostly Indian passengers were standing in the aisles, chatting about the significance of the nonstop route that would allow U.S. travelers to bypass lengthy connections in Europe. Also, Mumbai is India's commercial center. The new service, several people said, further validates India's influence on the business world.

"They're excited," Shelly said. "Who can blame them? It's almost like they're making history because they're the first on this flight. It's unique; it's something not many people get to do."

Unless you're Shelly. His first inaugural flight was to Hong Kong, followed by Amsterdam, Geneva, Beijing, New Delhi, Mumbai and most recently, London Heathrow Airport. Next year, he plans to board Continental's inaugural flight from Newark Liberty to Shanghai.

Many sane people probably wonder about Mr. Shelly's unusual hobby, but I have to admit being a little envious. I would at least spend a few days at the locations, though. Same-day turns to exotic places don't make much sense to me, but maybe he's already seen it all.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/08 09:22 PM |

New METRO service "improvements" begin today

METRO has posted a new listing of service changes effective June 1st -- today!

Just because METRO no longer calls them "service improvements" doesn't mean we can't continue to relive METRO's PR department's glory days, although some might argue that with a spokeswoman who likens stray current to a 9-volt battery, we are still in the PR department's glory days. But I digress.

Click "Read More" to see the latest improvements:

[Read More]

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/01/08 12:37 PM |

Agenda item 29: City will abandon portion of South Post Oak for BLVD Place (updated!)

This city council agenda item's wording is enough to make one's eyes glaze over:

29. ORDINANCE finding and determining that public convenience and necessity no longer require the continued use (1) as public streets of a 13,380 square foot portion of South Post Oak Lane (Parcel SY5-011A) and a 5,238 square foot portion of Skylark Lane (Parcel SY5-011B), both located within Azalea Terrace, a subdivision according to the plat thereof recorded at Volume 33, Page 38, Map Records of Harris County, Texas (“HCMR”), (2) two utility easements on 0.0963 acres of land (Parcel SY5-011C) and 0.1098 acres of land (Parcel SY5-011D), both located within Restricted Reserve “A”, Saks Fashion Center, according to the plat thereof recorded at Volume 340, Page 51, HCMR, and (3) a water line easement on 0.1863 acres of land (Parcel SY5-011E) within Azalea Terrace Annex, according to the plat thereof recorded at Volume 34, Page 61, HCMR; vacating and abandoning said public street rights-of-way and easements to Boulevard Place, L.P., abutting owner, in consideration of the conveyance to the City of a public street right-of-way easement on 66,500 square feet (Parcel AY6-165), payment to the City of $1,500.00, and other good and valuable consideration; approving and authorizing the conveyance to the City by Crescent POC Investors, L.P. of public street right-of-way easements on 5,346 square feet (Parcel AY8-271A), 343 square feet (Parcel AY8-271B) and 526 square feet (Parcel AY8-271C) of land - DISTRICT G - HOLM

TAGGED BY COUNCIL MEMBER HOLM

This was Item 33 on Agenda of May 28, 2008

I see BLVD Place in there, which we posted on previously when the Chron wrote about the city using its eminent domain powers to obtain land for Ed Wulfe's big development.

So how can we find out more about this item?

We have to go and find the "Agenda backup." One has to exit the agenda page, go to the council page, click on "Agenda backup," and download a large PDF file, in this case 122 pages. Then one has to page through to find where the backup is for the particular agenda item of interest. For agenda item 29, the corresponding backup is located starting on page 108 of the pdf file. What one can see in the backup is that the city will be abandoning property valued at $2.45 million, and in return BLVD Place will pay the city $1,500 and convey rights-of-way worth $6.54 million:

Inasmuch as the value of the $1,500 minimum fee plus the street right-of-way being conveyed to the City is greater than the value of the streets and easements being abandoned and sold, it is recommended City Council approve an ordinance authorizing the abandonment and sale of a portion of South Post Oak Lane, a portion of Skylark Lane, two 10-foot-wide utiltiy easements, and a 10-foot-wide prescriptive water line easement in exchange for a consideration of $1,500 plus the conveyance to the city of right-of-way for South Post Oak Lane and Ambassador Way, all located within Azalea Terrace Subdivision, Azalea Terrace Annex Subdivision, Saks Fashion Center, Post Oak Embassy, and/or Fashion Square.

It's too bad there isn't a way to provide links on the online agenda where folks can get more information. And what I didn't see was the reason Councilwoman Holm tagged it.

UBU ROI ADDS: In 2004, the city cut S. Post Oak Ln. (not Blvd.) short and gave Wulfe several parcels of land (where the streets would have been located). In 2006, Council member Holm appears to have been involved in revising the deal; at that time Wulfe agreed to construct the streets around BLVD Place at his expense. The 2008 version frees him from that obligation, at the cost of his giving some of the land back. However, the land he is giving back, in combination with some minor/useless parcels, would re-route the streets, increasing the size of his development. The streets, if built, will be constructed with taxpayer money; Wulfe only has to construct a fire hydrant and cut some water /sewer mains at his expense (approx. $65k).

I'd guess that Pam's not happy that he's going back on the deal; or maybe it's just the difference between treatment of BLVD Place and the Ashby high-rise.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/01/08 08:21 AM |

31 May 2008

Council committee dares to question METRO

Do you think METRO saw this coming?

For the second time in three weeks, a city council committee on Friday raised numerous questions and objections to an agreement that would give the Metropolitan Transit Authority permission to build five new light rail lines on Houston streets.

Several members of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Airports Committee said they want Metro to expand its rail system, but said they would have opposed the "consent agreement" had it come to a vote.

Among council members' concerns were sidewalks, street beautification, the impact of construction, the danger of trains operating in residential neighborhoods and uncertainties about routes. After more than two hours of discussion, committee chair Sue Lovell adjourned the meeting.

Recall that METRO President Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson wanted one consent agreement to cover the ENTIRE (remade) Solutions plan. That was optimistic!

After the disastrous way METRO built seven miles of downtown light rail, and the way METRO simply threw out the voter-approved original Solutions plan and came up with a new one, it's heartening to see local officials take a dim view of METRO's unending obfuscation, even if it's only temporary.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/31/08 12:31 PM |

30 May 2008

Mayor White gets Houston moving

Readers in the Galleria area might want to plan to avoid the intersection of Richmond/Chimney Rock in the immediate future.

I just got hung up in a big mess of a bottleneck that turned a five-minute drive into a twenty-minute one. Construction seems to have closed all but one lane each way on Richmond at the intersection, and there's no warning on approach -- which means it's easy to get stuck in the mess. There was also no sign of Mayor White's celebrated trinket Mobility Response Team (and their cool scooters!), which allegedly was created to help deal with such problems.

At least it's good that Mayor White is "getting Houston moving" as his campaign theme states. Who knows how long lunchtime motorists might get stuck in silly bottlenecks otherwise?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/30/08 12:34 PM |

29 May 2008

KHOU checks in on HPD murder misreporting scandal

KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt checked in tonight with an update on HPD's underreporting of murders in recent years. Interestingly, the department has quietly reclassified some 16 incidents as murders since Greenblatt started reporting on the issue.

In some of the years in which murders were misreported, Houston -- not Dallas -- would have been the murder capital of Texas.

And what of Chief Hurtt's (or Chief Hurtt's ghostwriter's) recent editorializing? Somewhat misleading, according to Greenblatt:

Recently, a guest editorial in the Houston Chronicle called on HPD to have an independent, comprehensive audit of its crime statistics conducted.

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt responded with his own guest editorial, claiming the FBI has checked out and approved HPD’s records from 2007.

The only problem? Out of more than 200 thousand incidents that took place in Houston during 2007, the feds looked at just 277 records.

Further, Hurtt claimed to the Chronicle the State had conducted its own audits of HPD as well, writing: “In fact, the Texas Department of Public Safety has conducted several audits within our Records Division (2001, 2002, 2004 and 2007).”

But the Defenders called DPS to check on that statement. DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said: “We have not done an audit of their uniform crime reporting program since the year 2000.”

11 News: “So the audits you have done have absolutely nothing to do with crime statistics?

DPS: “That is correct.”

DPS spokeswoman Mange went on to say that the only time DPS has audited Houston crime statistics was back in 1995. A different Houston police chief requested the audit back then. Mange said DPS cannot begin an audit on its own- stressing that HPD would have to request an audit for the process to begin.

So, we can't trust HPD's murder reporting under MayorWhiteChiefHurtt, and it seems we can't trust Chief Hurtt himself.

This further illustrates why we need the audit that Jay Wall and associates have suggested.

So, what's the over/under on the number of days before Chief Hurtt's ghostblogger tries to smear Greenblatt again?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/29/08 10:46 PM |