Apparently, in Houston, there are several people residing in the courtesan class who would just as soon pick the latter....
City's free ride to recycling success about to end. Mike Morris, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
Francis and Scruggs both noted that Houston is Texas' only big city without a garbage fee.
"Objective" reporter (and spouse to far-left Democratic State Rep) Miya Shay:
Mayor@AnniseParker opined about possibility of garbage fee, didn't go far. But other cities chargefor city trash service.
And so it goes.
Clearly the pass/fail test for municipal policy, for some, is to look around and see if everyone else is doing it. This is the thinking that got Houston saddled with 4 very expensive professional sports stadiums (one of which is an eyesore that going to cost taxpayers Billions of dollars to revitalize and maintain) a light rail system that doesn't go anywhere, or do anything to reduce congestion, and red-light cameras that were removed due to concerns regarding their legality.
It's also the thinking that led to great expense surrounding Parker's Folly (HER Ordinance), has led to the bird sculpture disaster and paved the way for the stellar political career of Sylvester Turner.
Everyone else is doing it.
From that perspective however you have to stop and wonder what everyone "else" is doing that Houston might want to do next?
Raise the minimum wage to $15/hour? Potentially. Never mind that jobs in the cities that are doing that are seeing all of the problems doubters predicted (increased unemployment (as compared to the National average and trends), increased prices, increased small business closings, business flight etc.) because "they're all doing it" people are already starting to shout that Houston should to.
Bike trails? Oh sure. Never mind that the future of transportation probably resides with driverless car technology other cities (many with much more temperate climates) are spending Billions on bike paths so Houston should as well. As a matter of fact, we need to become a bike leader, allowing for the 4 months of good weather that Houstonians actually like to bike.
Remove the revenue caps? Of course, because OTHER cities don't have them why should Houston? Besides, if Houston were to remove the revenue caps then they could spend more money to "get things done" just like they do in cities in State's like California and the Rust Belt, places where many of the people forwarding and supporting these ideas fled from to avoid high taxes and low services.
Of course, following this logic there are a host of other things Houston can do to keep in line as well.
File for Bankruptcy? Hey, why not. Maybe we can get a State Appointed City Manager to run things for us as well? What Houston REALLY needs to be "world class" is an appointed "czar" to make decisions for us.
Shrink in size? That's a good possibility. Because while most of the cities Houston is trying to emulate had boom times, they are currently shrinking in size. This creates reduced tax collections which lead to increased debt (governments at all levels rarely truly decrease spending) and inner city blight. Of course, as segregated as Houston (inside the city limits) is it won't be the wealthy progressive (predominantly Caucasian) neighborhoods that will suffer, but the poor, predominantly minority ones.
Lose global influence? Outside of New York City, Los Angeles (primarily due to Hollywood) and possibly San Francisco, America has no truly "global" cities. Sure Chicago has it's finance and business and Houston has it's energy and medical, but there's nothing truly unique about either. If Houston were to lose population in sufficient amounts to reduce it's two biggest industries then it would rapidly fade from global importance as has Pittsburgh, Cleveland and other cities in the Rust belt. Same for Chicago. (If you don't think this can happen take a look north to Oklahoma City, which is continually building itself up as an energy center outside of Houston.)
Of course, if you asked Houston's ruling and courtesan classes if they wanted any of the above to happen they would snort and call you crazy. That they are currently pursuing practices that are leading Houston down this path seems lost on them and there's very little chance you're going to pierce the cones of silence they have erected around themselves to plant an unorthodox idea.
Many people, mistakenly, thought that I was referring to a temporary leadership vacuum in Houston during election season when I mentioned the HALV. Sadly, I wasn't.
The Houston Leadership Vacuum is not created by a lack of bodies in an office, but a lack of ideas that accompanies the office holders. Houston currently has in place a bevvy of elected officials. What it does not have in any position is a true leader. The problem is, the more elections we have, the more the leadership vacuum expands.
