News and views roundup (05/10/2011 edition)
Time to clear out the news links...
- OTC objectives: Year after BP spill, optimism warranted, but so is firm commitment to stewardship - Houston Chronicle
The editorial board at the newspaper of record in the energy capital of the world does not know the difference between oil and gasoline? It's well past time to end the inane staff editorials and redeploy the resources to the newsroom.At a moment when events make supplies from the Mideast uncertain, and as oil nudges up to $4 per gallon, such a drop in Gulf production would be consequential.
- Vacant buildings pose risks across Houston - Zain Shauk, Houston Chronicle
What an odd headline, since the story focused on the 77002 zip code. Somebody better tell Stephen Klineberg things aren't as rosy downtown as he opined recently!The recently released 2010 census results show one out of four buildings in Houston downtown's two census tracts is vacant, higher than the city's average vacancy rate of 12 percent.
- Midtown TIRZ the high bidder–without bidding - Chris Moran, Chron Houston Politics
So did the mayor misspeak when she characterized the TIRZ as the high bidder? Here's hoping Moran and crew have filed public information requests for related correspondence, and will share on scribd. - City privatization plan could raise $10M for cash-strapped Houston - Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle
Agreed. It would be nice if public servants were better stewards of public spending ALL the time.The union that represents the affected workers, the Houston Organization of Public Employees, is "incredibly concerned" about the plan, which it did not learn of until Thursday, executive director Annika Dowling said.
"It's disappointing that so many times when the city is in a budget crisis it privatizes jobs to save money," Dowling said.
- Another Public/Private Potential Boondoggle (But Maybe Not, I Don’t Know) - nonsequiteuse
More likely, a Houston Way boondoggle. - City proposes to lease prime arts venues; local man likens it to desperate crack deal - John Nova Lomax, Hair Balls
- HCAD confirms bad news about property values - Ken Fountain, Examiner News
Except it's not such bad news for taxpayers. - Houston Water Officials Say City Is Not On Verge Of Water Restrictions - David Pitman, KUHF-88.7 News
To the contrary -- the city probably is enjoying the extra revenue after the massive water rate increases! - METRO Launches Public Workshops on Long-range Transit - Write on METRO
Will there be mariachi bands and scratch-off cards? It's not truly a METRO extravaganza without those.At the community workshops - to be conducted in neighborhoods from Third Ward to Missouri City to Katy - there will be mini RideStores offering the full services of the RideStore, including Q® Fare Card distribution. There will also be a laptop connected to an interactive map where people can draw the routes they want and submit their instant map with a click.
In addition, there will also be a children's coloring corner, so families can bring their kids; and vendors in parking lots selling fast food."
- Push poll on Rebuild Houston – Off the Kuff
It's strange that after all these years of blockquoting from political articles, Kuffner still doesn't seem to understand what a push poll is. This almost certainly was not a true push poll. - Emails reveal UH System plans to alter UHV's operations - Gabe Semenza, Victoria Advocate
- Fort Bend newspaper loses $1 million libel lawsuit - Cindy George, Houston Chronicle
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/09/11 10:16 PM | Print |
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