Greater Houston Partnership unveils shiny, new digs in downtown Houston. Chron.com
They've hidden more details (and their usual rah-rah reporting) in this story behind their paywall, where they (seriously) discuss the President of Mozambique not being impressed with the GHP's cramped offices as being one of the driving forces behind the expenditure of $8-plus Million.
Which sums up the leadership vacuum in Houston pretty neatly methinks.
Houston is a city with a 2nd world infrastructure, glaring budget problems, rising violent crime and an increasing unemployment rate.
But by golly we sure have some nice digs for our quasi-governmental Chamber of Commerce.
A Chamber of Commerce presided over by Jaime Rootes, who also presides over the Houston Texans, that perpetually mediocre NFL franchise on Kirby.
Which is fitting when you think about it. While Texans fans suffer through loss after loss the owner and his crew rake in Millions. While Houston citizens suffer the members of the ruling class, especially those connected to elected officials through patronage, are thriving.
Welcome to America in 2016 and the "new" American dream. It's not what you know, how hard you work or how innovative you are any more folks, it's whether or not you have enough money to dole out favors to elected officials or quasi-governmental agencies in order to gain subsidy in return.
And it's just going to get worse as we go forward if we continue repeating the same mistakes, and electing the same type of politician to lead us.
Oh say can you see......that all of the tenants of the building are quasi-governmental, or rely on the government for largesse.
Partnership Tower is owned by Houston First, which is a tenant, along with the Harris County Houston Sports Authority, the Center for Houston's Future, the Hotel and Lodging Association of Greater Houston and the Greater Houston Visitors Bureau, whose staff has been integrated with Houston First.
Yay.
