As Mayor Parker continues to obsess about who should be able to go into what public restroom, when, how and creative names to call her political opponents the City of Houston is dealing with some pretty serious issues. Not that you'd know it (other than the recent Tropical Storm Bill tweets) looking through her Twitter Account which is a mish-mash of catty issue advocacy that searches at every angle to belittle her political opponents and to take pictures of Herroner with various groups of friendly supporters.
The Mayor is also big on rhetorical questions which make it clear how little thought she's given to what the answers might be.
As signs continue to emerge that Parker is no longer being taken all that seriously by the people who are not term-limited whether or not you consider her remaining tenure being marked by lame-duck status is either a blessing or a curse depending on which side of the political aisle you reside.
One thing is for sure, pressing items such as HPD staffing, legal issues surrounding, and the future of, ReBuild Houston, and the city's plan for flooding going forward are going to be up to the next Mayoral administration to tackle. For Parker, these things are outside of her "political agenda" which she now considers "complete". One assumes this means that she's passed the Grand Urinal Bargain of 2014, grabbed a shovel and broke ground on a project under litigation and well.....
Some would call this a downside of term-limits. While this may be true it's also true that, even when she wasn't a lame-duck, Mayor Parker did not show much of an interest in dealing with these issues so, from that perspective, having a new Mayor coming on board could be a good thing.
Just as Mayor Parker suggested that it's a good idea to ask the Mayoral candidates about ReBuild Houston, it might also be a good idea to ask them about the major issues that will be affecting their tenure if elected.
I'm not sure about you but I would consider HPD staffing, Rebuild Houston and basic infrastructure needs to be much higher up the food chain of core issues than one-bin recycling or special parking designations. Not that the latter shouldn't be on the city's agenda, only that there are far more pressing issues to deal with that will affect the lives of all Houstonians and those in the Houston Area.
