Houston talkers focus on Mayor White's SAFEclear program
With the New Year's festivities behind, Houston drivers took to the freeways today, and many of them were confronted with Mayor White's expensive and intrusive new SAFEclear program (which we've dubbed $AFEclear), by which an oligopoly of wrecker services patrol Houston's freeways at all times of the day, and are charged with the task of forcibly towing all disabled vehicles for a $75 fee (unless the car must be towed to a storage facility, at which point storage fees will begin to accrue). The Mayor's program makes it a Class C misdemeanor for any other wrecker service outside the $AFEclear oligopoly to tow vehicles within the $AFEclear zone. The program launched without any facility for those with insurance or auto club programs to be directly billed for this "service."
As one might expect, the $AFEclear program was a hot topic on Houston's political talk shows during drive time this afternoon.
Dan Patrick devoted his two hour show on KSEV-700 today to the topic.
Patrick likes to play up his station's independent status and the fact that he gives Houston-area citizens a voice (in the fight for property tax relief, as one example). So it came as a surprise today that Patrick endorsed every city talking point about the $AFEclear program. He interviewed David Saperstein, who is the chair of the mayor’s Office on Mobility (or traffic "czar"), and then a tow company owner who has secured one of the franchises. Safety, clear roads and rubbernecking seemed to be the big talking points, and Patrick was in full agreement with Saperstein on all of them. He told Czar Saperstein that he found the Safe Clear program "comforting," and seemed not to be troubled by such problems as someone finding it a financial hardship to have at least $75 on hand while driving Houston freeways. He commented that he carried a $100 bill on him at all times. In response to one caller who expressed concern about some people not being able to afford the minimum $75 price tag, Patrick said that perhaps people who couldn't afford a tow shouldn't be driving on the roads anyway.
Seriously!
Patrick even suggested to Czar Saperstein that the city should get AJ Foyt to narrate some Public Service Announcements for the Safe Clear program. Then Patrick helpfully offered to run those PSA's on KSEV. Czar Saperstein said he thought that was a great idea.
It is very disappointing that Patrick, who frequently claims to stand up for average folks on his radio station (and to suggest they donate to CLOUT), doesn't see a single problem with this program. He's happy, apparently, because the roads will be clear for him, and since he always carries a $100 bill, why be concerned about a measly $75 towing charge.
He definitely came across as an elite country club conservative.
On the other hand, the $AFEclear program drew considerable ire from Chris Baker on his highly rated KTRH-740 program. Baker's chief complaints about $AFEclear are that it's intrusive and expensive to motorists, it's designed as much to enhance municipal revenues as to improve mobility, and it's likely to have a disproportionate impact on poor people in the city. Various callers contended that bidding for the $AFEclear program netted the city nearly $1 million in new revenues (we have not confirmed that figure) and that the city's authority may conflict with DPS authority over the freeways (since they are not city but state property), among the more general complaints about the mayor's policy.
Hardly any callers had anything good to say about it, and most were angry. Baker's audience is a broad cross section of Houston, so we can't help but think the mayor's office may have miscalculated in its latest effort to boost municipal revenues while creating an effective oligopoly for those wrecker services that obtained $AFEclear permits (at whatever fee).
At some point toward the end of the show, Baker seemed to speak for many frustrated callers when he suggested that we need to round up some good old boys and a cute girl, put 'em in an orange Dodge charger, and send 'em off to city hall to deal with Boss Hogg (i.e. Mayor White).
That seems like a great idea, but only if they get Roscoe (Czar Saperstein, the mayor's transportation guru) and Enos (Michael Berry, an author and big supporter of the enabling ordinance) out of our hair also.
Anne Linehan and Kevin Whited coauthored this post.
Posted by blogHOUSTON @ 01/03/05 11:38 PM | Print |
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.