Well that didn't take long.
Houston is still unwinding from the damage of that bastard Harvey and already the usual cast of characters are emerging to remind us that all of Houston's ills are caused by people who have chosen, for one reason or another, to live outside Beltway 8. (Full disclosure: This would include me and my family.)
The Houston Chronicle, as they do, have provided a sounding board for all of the old voices. Even Eric Berger was pulled out of mothballs and allowed to opine....
Five Days of Hellish Rainfall must be a wake-up call to stop business as usual. Eric Berger, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$ eventually)
Also included in this "five-minutes hate-fest" Jay Blazek Crossley, son of noted loony and a man increasingly known for his ever-growing beard, David Crossley.
Stop building neighborhoods that make other neighborhoods flood. Jay Blazek Crossley, Houston Chronicle.com ($$$ eventually)
Of course Chris Tomlinson has to weigh-in, from Austin of course.
End housing discrimination and change lives. Chris Tomlinson, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$ eventually)
And while I'm somewhat sympathetic to Tomlinson's main argument (The Texas law allowing apartment owners to deny renting to those on government assistance IS ridiculous on it's face) his other writings reveal a new-urbanist lean that, while absent from this article, colors all of his writing. (To be fair: at least he paid lip-service to the free market, and didn't advocate requiring apartment owners to take on a certain percentage of low-income renters as some have. Kudos for that)
Finally, we learn that not all suburbs are created equal.
How can we save Houston's Mid-Century Modern neighborhoods? Bruce Race, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$ eventually)
It should be noted that the common thread in all of this, namely, picking and choosing where (other) people are allowed to live, ignore the very real problem of cost.
Because if you decide, for instance, that it's no longer possible for people to be able to live in areas outside of Beltway 8 and that everyone should lose their homes you then run into the sticky problem of compensation. Because it's unconstitutional for the government to relieve someone of their personal property without offering adequate compensation. If you didn't compensate, that would be a taking and those are prohibited by the 5th Amendment.
Now granted, Americans have a sketchy relationship with our governing document these days, specifically the Bill of Rights. We tend to like some, and dislike others, or even to like some when it suits us but wish them out of the way when it doesn't. See the first, second, fourth, fifth and tenth amendment for more detail.
The bad thing about this is that many, many Houston Chronicle reporters have done a spectacular job going into the muck and providing good, solid coverage of the storm and it's aftermath. As usual, it's the opinion/commentary section of Houston's regional daily that's letting them down. Gift a lady the first Pulitzer in the paper's history, and bad publisher's and Editors in Chief have a tendency to think "MOAR IS BETTAH!!" which is what we're seeing here.
For all of the talk of unity and a shared mission it didn't take long for the dividers among us to bubble up out of the muck and try to forward their agenda that more than half of the Houston region's residents (and growing, if you look at the latest census numbers) are trying to kill the others and should be protected from their stupid selves.
Houston had unity for a brief, shining moment. It's being undone by horrid traffic which are turning drivers into selfish me-monkeys and now the courtier class who provide little in the way of actual tangible good, and much in the way of bloviatingly bad.
At some point we have to hope that the adults in the room (if any remain) emerge to steer the conversation in a more helpful direction. Pointing the finger at people who are currently spending time ripping the guts out of their home is probably not going to be all that helpful. The worry here is that Houston's political leadership is too bereft of common sense to not ignore the courtiers and courtesans who are desperately seeking their attention.
The leadership at the Houston Chronicle is just hoping that it sells more papers. They are a for-profit business after all.
Maybe someone should take a look at where the RebuildHouston funds, and all of those TIRZ tax dollars are going?
Just a thought.
