NRG Parking Fee and Insult at HISD Graduations. Ken Hoffman, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
(The linked article is behind the Chron's increasingly expensive paywall. My quote here is very selective but please, if you can, go read the entire column)
This was a public-school graduation at a public facility. It wasn't professional entertainment, like a football game or a concert, where you expect to pay for parking.
The quoted piece, above, is the argument against the NRG complex charging the parking fee. Sure, Hoffman goes on to do what we all do, argue that many of the student's families attending the graduation might not be financially well off, but he needn't do that. The argument against was in the quoted sentence above.
What Hoffman did, by making economic demographics the central figure of his piece is to politicize it needlessly. Take the following response from the comments:
Well, I think life is too short to complain about a $12 parking and if you can't afford it, then you shouldn't be driving an uninsured car.
This is why, in the incredibly insipid world of anonymous online commentary, bringing a red herring into the argument such as demographics only serves to distort the argument for into something it is not. By bringing in issues such as income inequality and demographics Hoffman all but ensured that his central point (this was a public event at a public-owned [albeit privately operated] facility) has been lost in a wave of anti-corporate, and anti-immigrant snark.
There are also a lot of commenters blaming NRG for this mess. In fact, NRG only has the naming rights for the complex and had nothing to do with the decision to charge for parking.
If you want someone to blame, then look at the Harris County Sports Authority who neglected to carve out a 'public use' exception to the parking fee in the contract with the Texans and the Rodeo. Had Harris County the leadership to negotiate in this manner, issues of this type would not exist. Instead, it often feels like the lease to run the complex was nothing more than a giveaway on behalf of the County to Bob McNair*.
Should the Texans have offered parking for free? Certainly. But, absent a contractual obligation to do so they were well within their rights to charge full-rate, regardless of the nature of the event. If you want to blame anyone, point your ire directly at the Harris County Sports Authority.
*On another, tangential, note: Has there been another public figure who has fallen so far, so fast in public perception than Bob McNair? From savior of football in Houston to nothing more than a greedy, conniving, miser who's doddering management style is not only ruining the Texans, but embarrassing and financially damaging the City of Houston as well.
