23 February 2008
Of failed federal guidelines and 9-volt batteries
Poor METRO. How many years has the Main Street Rail line been running, and still we are learning how poorly constructed it was:
Every year - in either March, April or May - METRO tests our 7.5-mile railroad track with a device called a track geometry vehicle.
This machine glides along the rails and employs ultrasonic testing to discover cracks or other flaws. It will detect warps, gage issues, curves, elevations and speed limitations, says Scott Grogan, senior director of rail operations.
"The most recent testing resulted in a permanent speed restriction of 15 mph, implemented at old Main northbound," said Grogan. Geometry testing revealed that the curve at Fannin and old Main did not meet the federal guidelines for allowable speed at that curve because of the elevation of the outside rail. That curve met the federal criteria for a Class 1 speed of 15 mph.
"It should have been 15 mph from the get-go," said Grogan.
Better late than never to figure that out, eh?
And Rad Sallee has an update on The Medical Center's battle with METRO over stray current:
Metro maintains that the current has caused no damage to structures along the 7.5-mile route. However, Metro and Siemens have repaired bridge anchors and other track facilities where corrosion was found or current leakage was unacceptably high.
A report by a Medical Center consultant, Corrpro, based on monitoring 161 locations at 13 facilities in the medical complex in 2006-2007, found three with current high enough to deserve continued monitoring. Two sites were underground pipes and the third was the Meyer Building of Texas Children's Hospital, 1919 Braeswood at Greenbriar, which houses administrative offices.
Who knew a 9-volt battery could wreak such havoc?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/23/08 05:15 PM |
22 February 2008
Dangerous time/place/behavior update
Via KTRK-13's Gene Apodaca, we can add to our list of times/places/behaviors Chief Hurtt would encourage us to avoid in Houston:
Some neighbors are on edge after two men tried to abduct a woman at gunpoint, in the middle of the afternoon from a grocery store in the River Oaks area.
The attempted abduction happened Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of the Rice Epicurean market on Westheimer near Willowick.
At the Rice Epicurean market, customers are shocked. Few can imagine a crime so dangerous happening right where they shop.
The incident happened Tuesday around 1pm. Authorities say a woman had just pulled into the parking lot and was getting out of her car when two men grabbed her. One of those men was holding a gun.
Authorities say the woman fell to the ground and began yelling. That's when witnesses came to her aid, scaring the suspects off.
Be sure to add "Tuesday afternoons, River Oaks area, grocery shopping" to your list of dangerous time/place/behavior situations to avoid if you don't want to become a victim of violent crime.
PREVIOUSLY: Hurtt: You're pretty safe in Houston, unless you wind up dead!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/22/08 11:16 PM |
Harris County DA debate posted on KHOU website
Earlier in the week, the GOP candidates for Harris County District Attorney squared off in a debate (Democrat Clarence Bradford was invited, but apparently is still hiding somewhere hoping never to answer a tough question).
KHOU-11 could not be bothered actually to televise this important debate over the public airwaves, but they did have a live webcast, and the video is also available (Part One and Part Two).
In my view, the debate further illustrated that there are two highly qualified DA candidates on the GOP side, and two others -- but maybe you'll have other thoughts after watching the debate. Feel free to discuss in the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/22/08 10:24 PM |
They're not using the Danger Train?
KHOU-11 reports Med Center employees are using the free parking at the VA facility, leaving veterans (many of whom are disabled) facing a long walk:
He’s talking about the parking lot of the V.A. Medical Center and he’s not alone.
“It’s really, really hard to find a parking spot,” said fellow vet Carl Malbrought.
“It’s almost impossible if you don’t get here before 7 a.m. It’s really bad, really bad,” said Joe Davis who also served his country.
[snip]
It’s a problem caused by the high cost of parking elsewhere in the medical center.
It’s no secret that parking is at a premium at the medical center.
If you work at the medical center, it’s also no secret veterans park for free at the VA hospital.
So, apparently in an effort to save a few bucks, people who work elsewhere are parking here and busing to their jobs.
“I have witnessed three or four cars park and a van will pull up and these people will get out of their cars and get in this van and they zoom off and you can see they’re in medical attire,” said local veteran Isaac Boles.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/22/08 05:07 AM |
21 February 2008
Adventures in headline writing (cont'd)
The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto has a little fun with a Chron headline today:
How Many Voters Will Fit on a Swing?
"Bill Clinton Courts Texas Voters in Galveston Swing"--headline, Houston Chronicle, Feb. 20
This one is kind of fun too:
It is a mystery why professional editors working in 2008 don't use spell checkers.
And then there was the jaw-dropper that appeared on the Chron D.C. Bureau's blog earlier:
Somebody had the good sense to change that one after some critical comments, although it's stunning that it made it to the web in the first place.
Chron headline writing is always an adventure!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/21/08 09:20 PM |
20 February 2008
Mayor White: Just give me $16 million for soccer stadium land and don't ask any questions (updated!)
Remember when Mayor White and Council extended a long-term no-bid airport concession contract last fall? And recall how Mayor White said he'd learned his lesson about transparency?
James Rodriguez, who represents Lambert’s area, and Anne Clutterbuck, a soccer fan, say they’d at least like to have a public hearing before spending $16 million on a possible stadium site.
But Mayor Bill White says it’s too early for public input.
“I think it’s fair if there’s a particular plan or proposal, which there’s not right now, to talk to the neighbors and the people who live right along there,” White said.
Nope, no particular plan or proposal. Just $16 million for a speculative land buy.
Except that taxpayer money is involved, Mayor White. If the mayor was buying the land with his own money, that would be different, but taxpayers have a right to ask questions about where their money is going.
Then, as noted here in the forum, Rad Sallee has a story in today's Chron that quotes Bob Eury (head of the Downtown Houston Management District) saying Metro will have no problem rerouting light rail tracks around the (speculative?) stadium. Eury also said any extra cost Metro would incur to change routing would be offset by added ridership the stadium would attract.
Right.
As FilioScotia wrote in the forum:
Metro will do this to keep the Mayor and the downtown business crowd happy, but it won't adjust the rail route on the west side to make residents along Richmond happy?
Yep, that's how it works.
UPDATE: A story on Chron.com says the vote has been delayed, and Mayor White has blinked:
Mayor Bill White said he could not rule out the possibility of some public funds being used for the stadium's construction. But he will negotiate for the Dynamo's owners to absorb the entire cost, he said.
But of course!
MORE: Let's visit the archives. This is from November 20, 2007:
White is seeking a deal that would not require the city to contribute public money. While AEG's proposal calls for the company to bear most of the construction costs, it still would require the city to provide millions of dollars in needed infrastructure improvements, city and team officials said.
This is from January 9, 2008:
"It's not going to be done the way it was done with other stadiums, where the taxpayers picked up the tab," said White said.
And this is from January 14, 2008:
Mayor Bill White said he doesn't want public funds used for the actual stadium construction.
And here's Oliver Luck from way back in 2005:
And among the first promises [newly named club president Oliver] Luck announced was a most important one that every sports fan should note: A soccer-specific stadium here would not be financed like every other sports mansion on the local landscape.
Financing will not be another tax burden on citizens.
Goooooaaaaalllll!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/20/08 07:20 PM |
Diligent HCAD civil servants find tax break for Mayor
In the latest Houston Press, Richard Connelly reports that in 2007, Mayor White received a pleasant surprise in the form of his property tax bill:
Houston accountant Tim Hebert is pissed about his property taxes. So he decided to do a little research at the Harris County Appraisal District Web site.
And there he learned that in 2007, while his taxes were going up, Mayor Bill White's Memorial-area home had gotten a huge tax break, with the assessment falling from about $2.8 million to about $1.8 million.
White's neighbors hadn't gotten the same break, just the mayor.
HCAD told Hebert the change came because new maps placed White's home in a floodplain, but that didn't make much sense — only his house was in the new floodplain? Hebert showed that other houses should have been affected by the new map as well.
"I don't have any personal beef with the Mayor," Hebert says, "but I hate the fact that the rest of us are getting slammed with ever-higher property taxes while His Honor gets a reduction of damn near $1,000,000."
Jason Cunningham, HCAD's residential property director, says, essentially, mistakes were made. Both in telling Hebert the reduction was because of a floodplain map, and in assessing White's house so high in the first place.
White, he says, has simply been the victim of "extreme overvaluing for years."
"These are very difficult areas to appraise," he says. "What we are really doing is correcting an error. It was just wrong."
Cunningham says an appraiser noted the value of White's home was too high during an overall look at the neighborhood. The homes of White's neighbors, he says, were more accurate and didn't need to be changed significantly.
Isn't it nice that our local civil servants worked so diligently to make sure hizzoner's property taxes were reduced? For the sake of accuracy. And not because he's a prominent pol. We're sure they work just as hard to give everyone a break.
In fact, if you've received such a nice break from HCAD in the last few years (out of the blue, not as a result of protest), please send me an email (publiustx-at-gmail.com). We'll append your success story to the post (but will remove your name for purposes of privacy). Who says we never post good news? I just hope the gmail server can handle the crush!
UPDATE (02-22-2008): The Chronicle's Matt Stiles has a straight news story on the topic, noting that thousands of Houston landowners can expect similar reductions because of changes in federal and local floodway regulations. We remain ready to post all such good news that we receive via email (to date, we have not received any)!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/20/08 05:37 PM |
19 February 2008
"Borrowing" as flattery?
Back on 15 February, in the wake of the Chuck Rosenthal resignation letter that praised the staff of the DA's office, attorney Mark Bennett crafted a particularly nice line on his blog:
Chuck closes his letter with praise for the ADAs:
I am extremely proud of the work that the ladies and gentlemen of this office do for the citizens of Harris County. They have too many cases, are under compensated, and are often unfairly criticized for the hard decisions they make in fulfilling their mandate to see that justice is done. The residents of Harris County need to appreciate the great work these folks do. As the saying goes, "If I were asked to lead a charge on Hell, I'd want these people in my ranks."
I expect those ADAs' response will be something along the lines of "gee, thanks." Until six weeks ago, they would all probably have followed Chuck on his charge into Hell; most of them now feel like, in the past five weeks, they have.
Fast forward to today's column from Lisa Falkenberg, who also seems to have appreciated Bennett's style:
That was nice of him to think of them, finally.
One might argue that, over the past six weeks, Rosenthal has indeed led a charge, not exactly on hell, but straight into hell, dragging along with him the unwilling participants within his ranks.
That's not as good as the original, but it's strikingly similar nonetheless (which may mean some Chronsters are better at the craft of "borrowing" than the Senior Plagiarist who also shares the Metro/State state pages, or the Chron business columnist who rips off old Chicago Tribune prose after it's linked on blogs).
Bennett offers Falkenberg an amusing apology for this misunderstanding on his blog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/19/08 08:22 PM |
18 February 2008
Chron: Former councilman looks to clean up on city's Dynamo boondoggle
Related to Anne Linehan's post from Sunday -- today the Chronicle reported additional interesting details on Mayor White's proposed giveaway to the Houston Dynamo:
Houston has offered more than $15.5 million to buy five downtown blocks that could be a future site of a Dynamo soccer stadium.
The city council could vote on the deal this Wednesday. The purchase price assumes the land is worth $49 per square foot, almost quadruple the assessed value of $12.50 per square foot, according to Harris County Appraisal District records.
The five blocks are owned by various corporate entities controlled by former Councilman Louis Macey. To acquire a sixth block, owned by a different company, the city has offered to swap a block nearby that it already owns.
What a potential windfall for a former councilman!
Sorry, but this highly lucrative insider wheeling and dealing doesn't quite pass the smell test (even though the local media continually remind us that Mayor White's administration is the most ethical since... well, maybe ever!).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/18/08 10:27 PM |
Council to consider signing bonuses to boost HPD recruiting
We've frequently commented on HPD's manpower shortage, which has been a problem for years.
The Chronicle reports that Mayor White and Council are finally attempting to boost recruiting via financial incentives:
In an effort to put at least 1,000 more officers on the streets, the Houston Police Department plans to offer signing bonuses of up to $12,000 to new cadets starting with the next academy class in March, officials said Thursday.
The decision to offer bonuses follows similar moves by other police departments and the military, all of which are competing for the same pool of applicants.
The city of Dallas, for example, has offered a $10,000 incentive to police cadets — even advertising the deal on Houston billboards.
And with a starting salary of $41,690, Dallas is reeling in recruits from Houston, where the base pay is just $29,000.
"The field has never been as competitive as it is right now, and you've got to do something," said Capt. Dwayne W. Ready, who heads up HPD's human resources division.
The proposal, supported by Mayor Bill White, is expected to go before the City Council on Wednesday.
Officials with the Houston Police Officers' Union, however, have criticized the bonus plan, characterizing it as a Band-Aid solution to a more serious problem of HPD's uncompetitive pay scale and warned it could hurt morale.
The department employs about 4,800 officers, and Police Chief Harold Hurtt wants at least 6,100 to keep pace with the city's population growth, said Executive Assistant Chief Martha Montalvo, who oversees HPD's administrative operations.
Given the disparities in salary between Houston and Dallas (and similar signing bonuses in Dallas), city leaders may actually need to consider a boost in salaries along with the signing bonus.
Surely if the City of Houston can throw money at so many of the mayor's pet projects in a time of record revenues, it can actually fund essential city services (like policing) at the necessary levels.
RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/18/08 10:13 PM |
GHP offshoot takes on Mayor White on air quality ordinance
The Chronicle's Jennifer Leahy reported last week that Mayor White's 2007 air-quality ordinance revisions have come under legal fire:
A coalition of Houston plant operators filed a lawsuit Friday against the city of Houston, alleging an air quality ordinance adopted by the city last summer violates state law.
"We filed to get the court's review because we believe the ordinance conflicts with state law, and we believe it's very difficult for our members to have a patchwork of regulations to follow," said Business Coalition for Clean Air Appeal Group spokeswoman Elizabeth Hendler.
Hendler noted that the group spent "several months" working with the city without success to find a compromise after the ordinance was adopted.
She said the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a state agency, has authority delegated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air quality and previously regulated Houston facilities.
[snip]
The ordinance, described in the city code as an air pollution abatement program, states that a health officer will conduct air quality monitoring and evaluation and investigate complaints of violations of the Texas Clean Air Act.
Auto repair shops, gas stations, dry cleaning plants and used-car lots are also monitored and required to pay registration fees under the ordinance.
Fees range from $100 for a dry cleaning plant with fewer than six employees to $3,000 for a facility emitting more than 10 tons annually of airborne contaminants.
[snip]
Though the ordinance affects numerous small businesses, the BCCA Appeal Group is comprised of and funded by large chemical plant operators.
The BCCA Appeal Group was established in 2001 by members of the Business Coalition for Clean Air, an offshoot of the Greater Houston Partnership.
Expect Mayor White to defend his revenue stream vigorously!
It is interesting that he'll be fighting an offshoot of the GHP, and that some sort of accommodation short of legal action wasn't worked out behind the scenes.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/18/08 09:28 PM |
Area GOP primary candidate questions/answers
With a little encouragement from the blogging sidelines, local blogger Cory Crow has taken the lead in compiling and submitting detailed policy questionnaires to Republican primary candidates for several area offices.
As he receives answers and posts them on his blog, we'll update this post with links to his posts, along with an indicator of the date of the response and the race. As the general election approaches, we'll do something similar in a new post (and link to Charles Kuffner's interviews with the Democratic candidates as well). Thanks in advance to all the candidates who participate!
Without further ado, here's the list of responses to date:
Candidate (Office Sought, Date Answers Posted)
Jim Leitner (Harris County District Attorney, 02/18/2008)
Robert Talton (Congressional District 22, 02/21/2008)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/18/08 09:24 AM |
17 February 2008
Should we issue a missing persons alert for Clarence Bradford?
Chuck Rosenthal isn't the only local pol facing some legal difficulties.
As the Chronicle's Cindy George reported this weekend, Harris County District Attorney candidate Clarence Bradford remains a part of several lawsuits stemming from HPD's 2002 K-Mart parking lot raid:
A federal judge has declined another city request to end the 10 lawsuits filed by people arrested in a 2002 Kmart street racing raid.
It's the second time U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas has ruled that the lawsuits can go forward.
In a decision this week, Atlas wrote that the more than 100 plaintiffs could sue about whether the Houston Police Department had a "custom of mass detention without individualized reasonable suspicion."
[snip]
In 2005, the judge ruled that the police plan that led to the mass arrests was unconstitutional. In a scathing opinion, she called HPD tactics to detain and arrest people who were not observed violating the law "an unjustified, almost totalitarian, regime of suspicionless stops."
Civil rights lawsuits were filed after almost 300 people were arrested in August 2002 during a surprise raid on the Kmart parking lot in the 8400 block of Westheimer. The HPD operation was an attempt to combat street racing.
All of the cases name former HPD Chief Clarence C.O. Bradford, who is running as a Democrat for Harris County district attorney, and allege he knew about the plan. The lawsuits also accused police of brandishing firearms and being verbally abusive during the incident.[snip]
The judge also wrote that there is a genuine dispute about then-Chief Bradford's knowledge about that summer's plan.
Bradford lost his appeal of Atlas' decision to keep him as a defendant in the lawsuits.
The story contained no quote from Bradford.
The DA candidate's political team did issue a statement to the Chronicle in reaction to the Rosenthal resignation:
Former Houston Police Chief C.O. "Brad" Bradford, the lone Democrat running for district attorney:
"I said when I began my campaign last year that we need change in the District Attorney's office," Bradford's statement read. "I find the personal use of government property by government officials, including computers and e-mail, to be totally inappropriate. And there is no place in the District Attorney's office for racism or belittling of women."
A call to Bradford for further comment, was not immediately returned to the Houston Chronicle.
Not immediately returned, or not ever returned?
It seems that Clarence Bradford has nearly gone into hiding, which is odd behavior from a political candidate. He must really not want to answer any tough questions!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/08 11:04 PM |
Soccer stadium land on Council agenda
Thanks to Tom Bazan for noting what's on this week's City Council agenda (#16):
16. ORDINANCE appropriating a total of $15,542,042.00 from the reimbursement of Equipment/Projects Fund (Fund 1850), approving and authorizing the purchase of land known as Blocks 203, 204, 205, 218 and 219, SSBB, Harris County, Texas, from the following parties, as their respective interests appear: (1) Louis Macey, Trustee, on behalf of a trust created pursuant to an agreement dated November 17, 1997, (2) Louis Macey, Trustee, on behalf of undisclosed parties; (3) Macey Family Properties, Ltd., a Texas Limited Partnership; and (4) Macey Family Properties II, Ltd., a Texas Limited Partnership; approving necessary documents related thereto; finding and determining that public convenience and necessity no longer require the continued use of a portion of public street right-of-way consisting of Jackson Street between Rusk Avenue and Capitol Avenue, vacating and abandoning said public street right-of-way to the abutting owner Macey Family Properties II, Ltd., a Texas Limited Partnership and to LAM Block 100, Ltd., a Texas Limited Partnership, as their respective interests appear, for the appraised fair market value; approving the conveyance of the City’s interest in the real property underlying such street to the abutting owners Macey Family Properties II, Ltd., a Texas Limited Partnership and to LAM Block 100, Ltd., a Texas Limited Partnership, as their respective interests appear, for the appraised fair market value while reserving and retaining easement rights for the public utilities currently in place until the abutting owners grant acceptable permanent utilities easements to the City and move the utilities to such easements at their expense - DISTRICT I - RODRIGUEZ
It appears item #17 may be related:
17. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing the conveyance of land known as Block 193, SSBB, Harris County, Texas and the improvements thereon in exchange for (1) $250,000.00, (2) the acquisition of land known as Block 220, SSBB, Harris County, Texas, and the improvements thereon, from 800 Dowling, LP, a Texas Limited Partnership; and the entering into of a lease-back agreement by the City as “Tenant” and 800 Dowling, LP as “Landlord” of Block 193, SSBB, and the improvements thereon; approving necessary documents related thereto - DISTRICT I ‑ RODRIGUEZ
And perhaps item #46, too:
46. SET A PUBLIC HEARING DATE relative to proposed amendment of the Project Plan and Reinvestment Zone Financing Plan for Reinvestment Zone Number 15, City of Houston, Texas (East Downtown Zone) - DISTRICT I - RODRIGUEZ
SUGGESTED HEARING DATE - WEDNESDAY - FEBRUARY 27, 2008 - 9:00 A.M.
That's about $16 million, not including tax breaks and upcoming infrastructure improvements the Dynamo will require. Oh, and a street right-of-way that is no longer needed for "public convenience."
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/17/08 04:55 PM |
Myth or fact: Revisiting Rosenthal's detective-as-attorney gambit
The Chronicle's resident plagiarist Rick Casey couldn't resist piling on Chuck Rosenthal in today's newspaper. In the column, he presents an interesting 1986 story about Rosenthal as fact:
I do wonder what was his first clue that his judgment was impaired.
Was it in 1986 when he sent undercover cops to pose as defense lawyers to question jail inmates about drug offenses?
The allegations from 1986 were recently reported by Mike Tolson in a Chron recap of Rosenthal's career:
In 1986, for example, his tactics as a prosecutor were questioned when he was accused of sending two undercover police officers posing as defense lawyers into the city jail to talk with a defendant there on cocaine charges. The alleged trick was an attempt to learn more about a reported kidnapping. Even Holmes questioned whether his assistant, one of two prosecutors assigned to the case, had pushed the envelope on what was appropriate.
"The question is whether there was a breach in a privileged communication between lawyer and client," Holmes said at the time. "You are on dangerous ground when you do that."
Note that Tolson reported that the matter was alleged to have happened -- even though Casey reported it in his column as fact.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/08 01:56 PM |
16 February 2008
Best student protest ever!
The University of Houston Daily Cougar reports on a student protest that sort of fizzled:
They met, chanted and marched their way into an administrator's office before realizing that the official in question was out of town.
UH Students Against Sweatshops, a student organization dedicated to protecting workers' rights, marched into UH President Renu Khator's office Thursday afternoon after organizing a rally outside the M.D. Anderson Library."The clothes in the bookstore are not sweatshop-free," UH Students Against Sweatshops founder Timothy O'Brien said.
The group intended to get Khator to sign the Designated Suppliers Program, a document that would guarantee workers' rights and prevent harsh working conditions for workers who sew university logo apparel, according to the Workers Rights Consortium.
The group march ended almost 30 minutes later, when Assistant Vice Chancellor of Planning and Initiatives Dan Gardner told them Khator was not in Houston.
Maybe next time.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/08 11:07 PM |
Houston weather: We're all going to die!!!! (or not)
Last night, we were treated to some local weather forecasters scaring the hell out of everyone once again.
Hail! Tornadoes! Flooding!
SEVERE WEATHER LIKELY SATURDAY, WITH ALL OF THE ABOVE!
We're all going to die!!!! (Okay, I made that last part up, but that's the feeling I got from watching some weather reports).
As of 10 PM tonight in central Houston: No deaths (at least related to weather -- this is MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's city, after all, so there were probably some homicides), no hail, no tornadoes, no flooding.
There was a bit of rain and wind as we left Hofheinz tonight after Cougar basketball. We did not fear for our lives.
We imagine Ken Hoffman will be having some fun with this one in a column.
MORE: This illustrates the point of the post nicely, especially some of the comments and inline responses.
BLOGVERSATION: Scott's Coffee House.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/08 10:15 PM |
Not-news: Astrodome Redevelopment "expert" says redevelopment would be swell!
Unsurprisingly, an expert hired by Astrodome Redevelopment Corp. has reported that a convention center hotel (in a bad part of town with no real amenities or desirable features beyond a couple dozen sporting events per year) would generate MILLIONS for the city and have an occupancy rate even higher than Houston hotels in desirable parts of the city.
For some reason, the Houston Chronicle reports this as news:
A convention hotel at the Reliant Astrodome could net nearly $50 million annually four years after opening, a consultant said in a report released by Harris County Friday.
"Reliant Park is transforming into one of the largest, most versatile sports, entertainment and conversion complexes in the United States," hotel consultant John Keeling, vice president of PKF Consulting, wrote. "To our knowledge, there are no other hotels like the proposed (hotel) adjacent to" a major stadium and convention center.
Astrodome Redevelopment Co., which has proposed reinventing the Dome as a convention hotel, hired PKF to do the study last year.
[snip]
PKF estimated that the Dome hotel would have a 72 percent occupancy rate in its third year.
Downtown Houston cannot currently fill its hotels, despite a top-notch convention center, two sports/entertainment venues that are open far more than two dozen times per year, downtown commerce, and other amenities. It therefore boggles the mind that any objective analyst would therefore conclude that Houston needs another convention center hotel in an undesirable part of town (seriously, is Houston's South Loop on anyone's destination list on dates that do not involve the Texans, Rodeo, or soccer?).
Of course Astrodome Redevelopment's analyst came down exactly where one would expect. Why anyone would pay much attention to his sales job (let alone call it news) is another question altogether.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Houston's Clear Thinkers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/08 10:01 PM |
Chief Lambert receives awards for METRO's security preparedness!
METRO's blogger Mary Sit announced on Thursday that METRO's security preparedness has been rewarded:
METRO received top honors Monday when the Transportation Security Administration recognized both our transit security system and our chief of police, Tom Lambert, for his excellent work.
The first award - called "Carrier of Distinction" - placed METRO in the top 5 percent of all transit systems nationwide for emergency preparedeness. As "Carrier of Distinction," our system was lauded for "superior performance in security program development, planning and execution."
"That's pretty significant," said Lambert.
Pictured above is Congresswoman Sheila Lee Jackson, Tom Lambert, and Kip Hawley, TSA's top administrator.
The second award recognized Lambert's leadership in chairing the 18-month-old "Police and Security Peer Advisory Group." Members of that group include: New York, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Philadelphia, Amtrak, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.
That's a pretty impressive list of huge transit agencies. How did Houston's METRO get to be the leader?
Just recently, we have Chief Lambert's less-than-stellar performance when a Danger Train driver ran over a cyclist:
Just after the collision, police said the 29-year-old physician riding her bike appeared to be at fault.
"We know that she was wearing headphones," Lambert said, "She was riding bike, not looking to what happened."
Actually, we now know the only accurate part of that statement was when Chief Lambert said she was riding a bike. The Danger Train driver has now been suspended for five days and will be retrained.
We can visit Kevin Whited's PubliusTX archives to recall numerous instances where Chief Lambert ran to the cameras after a Danger Train accident to berate the victim, and Houston drivers in general, for getting in the way of the train. Lambert even did his schtick for an ad.
How about the time a woman was raped at a METRO bus stop and METRO's response was to remind riders that they can carry a gun on a bus if they hold a concealed carry permit. And two years after that, a KHOU-11 story detailed that during a 10-month span, there were 326 crimes reported, many violent, at METRO bus stops, but METRO's police force was concentrated in the downtown area. METRO said there are just too many bus stops for METRO PD to patrol.
But perhaps his finest hour in METRO security preparedness was when he decided to remove all security guards at Park and Rides, thereby turning them into Park and Pillages. His excuse was that security guards were too cost prohibitive. The ensuing cluelessness was truly something to behold:
Metro's Park and Pillage (updated -- Metro's forming a Task Force!)
Lambert: Park and Rides just need technology -- where do we get some?
Metro's Chief Lambert on with Chris Baker today
Beware tailgate thievery at Park and Pillages
Thieves target park and ride customers
KTRK Crime Tracker: Crime up at METRO's park-and-pillage lots
METRO still looking at some technology for Park and Pillages
Chief Lambert: When a crime is reported, we'll rewind the tape
Most likely these awards are for METRO's Special Operations Response Team (SORT), an elite counterterror unit that Chief Lambert says has trained with experts from Israel, the FBI, Transportation Security Administration, and other U.S. transit agencies. SORT officers patrol light rail stations and bus transit centers.
Bad guys at bus stops and Park and Pillages need not worry.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/16/08 12:22 PM |
15 February 2008
KHOU: Rosenthal to step down (Update: He's gone)
KHOU-11 just sent out an email alert that Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal will be stepping down later today.
The Chronicle reports that Rosenthal has already resigned, but doesn't have much in the way of details.
We'll update the post as more stories are posted.
UPDATE: KPRC-2 has the story. KHOU now has a story posted. The Chron.com story has been updated. KTRK-13 has a story posted.
BLOGVERSATION: Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, Defending People, Professors R-Squared, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/15/08 02:02 PM |
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