First off, I admit, I'm a bad blogger. I neglected to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. I would suggest that this was due to real life getting in the way, as it does, but you may also choose to accept that I don't give two figs whether or not your Christmas was merry, happy or a giant Humbug. We're all for happiness here at YDOP so take your pick.
We would be horribly remiss however if we failed to take a gaze into the hazy, blue future of Houston and Harris County to determine what the year ahead holds. So, without further ado, here are a few things that might, or might not happen locally in 2019.
Lina Hidalgo will do fair.
Look, she's not going to come in and change the County overnight. I would predict that she doesn't even come in and change a whole lot that matters. Most of what makes up County politics is pretty mundane stuff. She's going to have to focus on flood control, and making things work or she's going to find herself out of a job the first time she's up for reelection. She has to understand this. If she doesn't then she is indeed the bone idiot that many are claiming she is.
I don't think she's a dumb lady, so I think she'll pretty much settle in and be more noise than actual fury.
Bonus: I can all but guarantee you that one local, erratic political columnist will pen a column comparing her to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. For no other reason that she is also young, Hipanic, female, and a member of the Democratic Socialists. Oddly enough, neither of these two women have accomplished anything of note in their careers as of yet, other than getting elected of public office of course. The column in question will be gushing, and will paint the columnist as the smartest person in the room, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.
Some newly elected judge is going to do something stupid.
It's bound to happen. When you have mostly new judges, many of which have no judicial experience, there will be a judge who does something that's so beyond the pale that even Democrats look at each other and cringe. There are many candidates for this honor, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Franklin Bynum wins the booby prize.
Adrian Garcia will mis-manage his office.
This is less a prediction than a lead-pipe cinch. If you don't know why that is you haven't paid attention to the career of this man.
Houston Metro will still be unable to give full detail of the expenditures for their gigantic bond when it heads to election.
Nor will there be much push for them to do so. Any politician who might have asked Spieler and company to operate with any accountability and transparency at all has either retired, or been voted out of office. What remains is a political rubber stamp for the most-ill ran quasi-governmental agency in the region.
Bonus: Despite the Danger Train continuing to maim and kill people, there will be calls for more and more at-grade rail.
Sylvester Turner will get his tax-cap roll back.
It will be on the 2019 ballot, and it will pass with something like 68% of the vote. Because of this he will immediately push through a tax increase that's brutally punitive toward the poor and middle class. He will do this with a straight face, and will only partially pretend that the windfall the city receives from the tax isn't going to his political patrons.
Bonus: Stephen Costello will soon become the Czar of pretty much every issue that has plagued Houston EVER. Nothing of substance will be done to fix any of them.
The Harris County GOP will continue to shout at clouds.
The reason the city and county are slagged with such terrible leadership is because what passes for the opposition party in Harris County is pretty much an outrage engine focusing on National, rather than local, issues. This will not change, even if the party comes to its senses and votes Paul Simpson out of a leadership position. This is because the GOP does not, and has not, done local issues well for a while now.
Bonus: Orlando Sanchez will mount a futile challenge to Simpson for the Harris County GOP Chair. He will lose and blame his name.
HISD is toast.
The HISD board will continue to be both a source of low-comedy and high-shame to the area as the elected know-nothings on the board continue to run the district down the path of dissolution. The TEA won't think about coming in until 2020, so that's not a prediction here, but what I can say is that the board is going to continue to be a dumpster fire for the remainder of the year. They will, eventually, hire a superintendent, but they've so damaged the reputation of the district that whoever they end up with will be nothing more than a cypher.
We are eventually going to find the villages that are missing all of these idiots.
You cannot elect a group of low-functioning idiots to positions of power without depriving villages of their entertainment. I predict in 2019 we are going to discover where these people are coming from. Once we identify the source, we can begin to plug the leak and eventually return some sanity to Houston and Harris County leadership.
This fire-fighter thing is going to get even uglier.
Speaking of the HALV, it's going to continue to suck-up any semblance of leadership, fire men and women are going to be laid off and we just hope that some innocent citizen doesn't die because of Mayor Turner's vindictive streak.
Art Acevedo is FINALLY going to find a political office to run for.
We predict that 2019 is officially the year that Acevedo finds some favorable political slot, probably in the San Antonio area, to run for office and drop the pretense of being a first responder.
Houston will flood in 2019.
Of course it will. And while it may not be as bad as Harvey it could be a lot worse in terms of lives lost because logistics and leadership will be lacking. I was not the biggest fan of Ed Emmett and his Astrodome dreams but he was good in a disaster and that steady leadership will be missed.
And Finally.....
The inaugural "worst political blog in Harris County" award will finally be issued and will FINALLY be given to YDOP.
I will not stop hoping for this until it happens.
On a final note: 2019 is going to suck, as 2018 sucked, as 2017 sucked as 2016 sucked before it.
Happy New Year Everyone.
Monday, December 31, 2018
Thursday, December 20, 2018
HALV: The Growing Smallness of Boss Turner.
It is becoming apparent that Mayor Sylvester 'Boss' Turner might not be big enough to handle the challenges he is currently facing.
City Moves to Implement Prop B, Despite Uncertainty Over When Lay-offs Begin. HoustonChronicle ($$$)
If you're not at least a digital subscriber to the Houston Chronicle you might not be able to read this. If, say, you've already exhausted your reading of 3 free articles on stories about the Rockets, soft-porn slide shows or Erica Grieder trying to convince us and herself that she's the smartest, most bestest political writer EVAH and not just someone who wrote a book and then acted erratically at both her last job and on Twitter.
If you can't, that's too bad. Because the article is starting to paint Boss Turner as a diminutive figure in a place of power during a time when big challenges are at hand.
Granted, the Houston Fire Fighter's Union SHOULD want to negotiate at this point because they would be doing so from a position of power. From that standpoint Turner the Shrinking probably doesn't want to hit the negotiating table because there is increasing evidence that he's just not that good at it.
Turner understands the potential disastrous effects of his negotiating under the looming specter of Prop B. You have to at least give him that. But for the rest of his tactics, asking city departments to ponder budgets with cuts that are probably deeper than they should go, threatening mass layoffs of first responders, denigrating the work of fire personnel etc. These are signs of a man shrinking away from the challenge faster than a Ford F-250 barreling along a Houston freeway without care or concern for his fellow drivers.
Here's the thing. Houston NEEDS leadership right now. It needs a large-thinking individual with big ideas and bold solutions to a host of problems. What it has is a diminutive cypher, a life-long politician with little in the way of career accomplishment who is now refusing to even entertain ideas for solutions. Even the bad ones. His head could not be any further into the sand if only his ankles were still showing.
But, the lawyers are still getting paid. As are his other political patrons. Contracts with former business partners are paying them Millions of dollars and the only argument justifying this is that they are "former" business partners. As if friendships and patronage end when professional bonds are broken.
There is waste in the City of Houston budget, of that I'm sure. And while I have my doubts that there is enough waste to carve out to fully fund the fire fighter pay raise, fix Houston's dilapidated infrastructure, address flooding concerns, and increase the staffing levels for police officers, etc. the biggest problems for Houston right now are even deeper still, more problematic than fiscal disaster.
The biggest problem for Houston right now is that the Houston Area Leadership Vacuum seems to be centered around one very small man. A man whose current plan is to wait and hope. Hope that they get the right judge, the right court-order, the right decision that will let him continue on his path of busting the pillow-soft revenue cap, increasing taxes and using those funds to increase payments to his patronage.
The important thing to remember here is that "Houston Mayor" has been described in the media and by himself as being Turner's "dream job" his life-long aspiration. The gold-ring in what he has imagined to be his storybook political career.
Some story books are horror stories, and they don't end well. Unless the hero of the story has a transformative moment that provides him the courage to rise up and defeat the demon.
Right now we're half way through the Turner story and there's scant evidence that a heroic transformation is in our near future.
But he's having his in-front-of-the-looking-glass "Eat me, Drink me" moment.
Here's hoping he chooses the cake, but lately he's been drinking the potion.
City Moves to Implement Prop B, Despite Uncertainty Over When Lay-offs Begin. HoustonChronicle ($$$)
If you're not at least a digital subscriber to the Houston Chronicle you might not be able to read this. If, say, you've already exhausted your reading of 3 free articles on stories about the Rockets, soft-porn slide shows or Erica Grieder trying to convince us and herself that she's the smartest, most bestest political writer EVAH and not just someone who wrote a book and then acted erratically at both her last job and on Twitter.
If you can't, that's too bad. Because the article is starting to paint Boss Turner as a diminutive figure in a place of power during a time when big challenges are at hand.
Granted, the Houston Fire Fighter's Union SHOULD want to negotiate at this point because they would be doing so from a position of power. From that standpoint Turner the Shrinking probably doesn't want to hit the negotiating table because there is increasing evidence that he's just not that good at it.
Turner understands the potential disastrous effects of his negotiating under the looming specter of Prop B. You have to at least give him that. But for the rest of his tactics, asking city departments to ponder budgets with cuts that are probably deeper than they should go, threatening mass layoffs of first responders, denigrating the work of fire personnel etc. These are signs of a man shrinking away from the challenge faster than a Ford F-250 barreling along a Houston freeway without care or concern for his fellow drivers.
Here's the thing. Houston NEEDS leadership right now. It needs a large-thinking individual with big ideas and bold solutions to a host of problems. What it has is a diminutive cypher, a life-long politician with little in the way of career accomplishment who is now refusing to even entertain ideas for solutions. Even the bad ones. His head could not be any further into the sand if only his ankles were still showing.
But, the lawyers are still getting paid. As are his other political patrons. Contracts with former business partners are paying them Millions of dollars and the only argument justifying this is that they are "former" business partners. As if friendships and patronage end when professional bonds are broken.
There is waste in the City of Houston budget, of that I'm sure. And while I have my doubts that there is enough waste to carve out to fully fund the fire fighter pay raise, fix Houston's dilapidated infrastructure, address flooding concerns, and increase the staffing levels for police officers, etc. the biggest problems for Houston right now are even deeper still, more problematic than fiscal disaster.
The biggest problem for Houston right now is that the Houston Area Leadership Vacuum seems to be centered around one very small man. A man whose current plan is to wait and hope. Hope that they get the right judge, the right court-order, the right decision that will let him continue on his path of busting the pillow-soft revenue cap, increasing taxes and using those funds to increase payments to his patronage.
The important thing to remember here is that "Houston Mayor" has been described in the media and by himself as being Turner's "dream job" his life-long aspiration. The gold-ring in what he has imagined to be his storybook political career.
Some story books are horror stories, and they don't end well. Unless the hero of the story has a transformative moment that provides him the courage to rise up and defeat the demon.
Right now we're half way through the Turner story and there's scant evidence that a heroic transformation is in our near future.
But he's having his in-front-of-the-looking-glass "Eat me, Drink me" moment.
Here's hoping he chooses the cake, but lately he's been drinking the potion.
Monday, December 17, 2018
BadHumanity: Our Smart Phones are Making us Dumber.
Over the weekend the wife and I visited Zoo Lights at the Houston Zoo. It's a fun little walk around part of the zoo with Christmas lights strewn throughout. Good for either a date or family night whichever. At least, it would have been great, if the smart-phone photo takers wouldn't have been EVERYWHERE.
It's to the point now that this mania for taking pictures of everything, regardless of how insignificant, is getting out of control. It's even worse when people have children who are involved. Right from the jump you noticed the lines, people standing in long versions of them, waiting to snap multiple pictures of themselves and family members in "photo-op" spots, or increasingly, right in the middle of the walkways.
While I'm a fan of the occasional snap, and even do so myself from time to time, there comes a point where you're starting to miss out on life being so dead set on applying a SnapChat filter to it.
As an example of this I'll discuss the "Tunnel of lights" feature last night at the zoo.
You were supposed to walk through it, where you would be surrounded by lights on all side for about 10 yards. It might have been kind of pretty. The problem was you COULD NOT WALK THROUGH because, on both sides of the tunnel, there were long lines of people waiting to have someone (or, multiple someones one at a time) standing in the mouth of the tunnel to have their picture taken. After taking the picture they wouldn't walk through, they would walk back to whoever was taking the picture and switch places with them. We sat and watched a family do this for 10 minutes as they cycled through 5 people, taking multiple shots of each.
The thing was no one, ever, walked through the tunnel in the five minutes we were there. No one could because the entrances were blocked with the subjects of the pictures. The entire feature was being wasted.
But it's not just that. My wife got her feet stepped on 4 times by people not paying attention and backing up into her trying to get the "perfect shot". One family took up the entire walkway for 2-3 minutes trying to get the perfect picture of their little Honey Boo-Boo looking daughter mugging under a gorilla globe. You.Could.Not.Get.By without causing a scene because the husband was ensuring people stopped.
Now, at this point, were I a writer for the Houston Chronicle, I'd tell you about this scene of bad behavior and make-up some scenario where the offending family acted like boobs, I acted heroically and walked off feeling smug, while they felt chastened and dumb.
But that didn't happen. In fact, no one really challenged the guy because in most cases people just go along to get along. I didn't challenge them taking the picture. I waited patiently while they did so, and so did everyone else. The gentleman acting as a blocker really wasn't needed because, in my experience, people really do try to be respectful to people when they're taking the memory shot.
But, it's becoming too much. We've moved from a quick, 5 second photo to elaborate posing, multiple shots all trying to catch that perfect memory and we've forgotten about our fellow humans who are trying themselves to have a good time. Our leisure time, has taken on the same qualities as everything else in our lives. We've devalued each-other to the point that we no longer feel the need to travel about this pebble giving any type of respect.
You see the same things on our roads. Driving home from Zoo Lights we rushed up on an SUV that was doing 35 in the second-to-left-lane on the Southwest Freeway. Were his harzards on? Was he in distress? Did he have car problems?
No, he was talking on his phone while driving 25 miles below the speed limit in a lane that should be reserved for faster traffic.
We have lost the ability to live our lives without our smart phones, but we have also lost the ability to function properly in society with them. I'm not sure if there's a fix to this, or if we would even want it should it exist.
It's to the point now that this mania for taking pictures of everything, regardless of how insignificant, is getting out of control. It's even worse when people have children who are involved. Right from the jump you noticed the lines, people standing in long versions of them, waiting to snap multiple pictures of themselves and family members in "photo-op" spots, or increasingly, right in the middle of the walkways.
While I'm a fan of the occasional snap, and even do so myself from time to time, there comes a point where you're starting to miss out on life being so dead set on applying a SnapChat filter to it.
As an example of this I'll discuss the "Tunnel of lights" feature last night at the zoo.
You were supposed to walk through it, where you would be surrounded by lights on all side for about 10 yards. It might have been kind of pretty. The problem was you COULD NOT WALK THROUGH because, on both sides of the tunnel, there were long lines of people waiting to have someone (or, multiple someones one at a time) standing in the mouth of the tunnel to have their picture taken. After taking the picture they wouldn't walk through, they would walk back to whoever was taking the picture and switch places with them. We sat and watched a family do this for 10 minutes as they cycled through 5 people, taking multiple shots of each.
The thing was no one, ever, walked through the tunnel in the five minutes we were there. No one could because the entrances were blocked with the subjects of the pictures. The entire feature was being wasted.
But it's not just that. My wife got her feet stepped on 4 times by people not paying attention and backing up into her trying to get the "perfect shot". One family took up the entire walkway for 2-3 minutes trying to get the perfect picture of their little Honey Boo-Boo looking daughter mugging under a gorilla globe. You.Could.Not.Get.By without causing a scene because the husband was ensuring people stopped.
Now, at this point, were I a writer for the Houston Chronicle, I'd tell you about this scene of bad behavior and make-up some scenario where the offending family acted like boobs, I acted heroically and walked off feeling smug, while they felt chastened and dumb.
But that didn't happen. In fact, no one really challenged the guy because in most cases people just go along to get along. I didn't challenge them taking the picture. I waited patiently while they did so, and so did everyone else. The gentleman acting as a blocker really wasn't needed because, in my experience, people really do try to be respectful to people when they're taking the memory shot.
But, it's becoming too much. We've moved from a quick, 5 second photo to elaborate posing, multiple shots all trying to catch that perfect memory and we've forgotten about our fellow humans who are trying themselves to have a good time. Our leisure time, has taken on the same qualities as everything else in our lives. We've devalued each-other to the point that we no longer feel the need to travel about this pebble giving any type of respect.
You see the same things on our roads. Driving home from Zoo Lights we rushed up on an SUV that was doing 35 in the second-to-left-lane on the Southwest Freeway. Were his harzards on? Was he in distress? Did he have car problems?
No, he was talking on his phone while driving 25 miles below the speed limit in a lane that should be reserved for faster traffic.
We have lost the ability to live our lives without our smart phones, but we have also lost the ability to function properly in society with them. I'm not sure if there's a fix to this, or if we would even want it should it exist.
Friday, December 14, 2018
HALV: World-Classiness (like Evil) Always wins.
Remember the moment (a few days ago) when I opined that the know-nothings in Houston, the uncultured set, those who don't have HD Radio with 88.7.2 programmed way down the list of saved stations, might accidentally win one?
Yeah, not so much.
Houston Renews Funding for Music Program After Bitter Fight. Houston Public Media
1. I'm not entirely sure why they say this fight was "bitter". Granted, this is Public Media, which views any disagreement about taxpayer funding toward classical music or Rick Steves on TV to be an affront to civilized society. So take all of this with a grain of salt. NPR, and their affiliates break out in hives when told that tax funds could be spent in some way better than a torrent of "what old white people like" programming. There was a disagreement over price, but I didn't see anything that elevated it anywhere near "bitter".
2. Council member Greg Travis actually made a salient point in this debate:
This is true, and brings me to another point. The restrooms at both HOU and IAH are foul. Even when they've just been cleaned they are nasty. Charging stations? Good luck. There are so few available in some areas that the ones you can find look like the power outlet at the Griswold house during Christmas. Wi-Fi? I wouldn't consider GoGo to be "Wi Fi" It's lofi for the masses and can barely function quickly enough to let you check e-mail. Good food? Considering that most of the catering contract is awarded to one company (Aramark) you get what you can get.
There are notable exceptions in both airports. Cat Cora's restaurant is pretty good, there's a Chick-fil-a at HOU, and the Pappa's restaurants are pretty solid. But the rank & file food court stuff in both are pretty pedestrian and, in some cases, pretty foul.
Again, I'm not going to make too big a deal about this because it is pleasant to sit on the outer part of Pappadeaux's in HOU and listen to the string trio playing classical tunes while you enjoy your Bloody Mary and crab cakes while waiting on your plane.
I'm good with it.
But it's just another example of how, in times when real improvements and change are sorely needed, it's hard to get rid of a pet program in the name of World Classiness.
Yeah, not so much.
Houston Renews Funding for Music Program After Bitter Fight. Houston Public Media
Live music at the airport might not seem like it would be that controversial, but it took hours for Houston City Council to agree to fund the Houston Airports Performing Arts Program – or Harmony in the Air – for another three years.
The $3 million for the program will come from airline fees, not taxes. Still, the price tag caused several council members to balk.2 things:
1. I'm not entirely sure why they say this fight was "bitter". Granted, this is Public Media, which views any disagreement about taxpayer funding toward classical music or Rick Steves on TV to be an affront to civilized society. So take all of this with a grain of salt. NPR, and their affiliates break out in hives when told that tax funds could be spent in some way better than a torrent of "what old white people like" programming. There was a disagreement over price, but I didn't see anything that elevated it anywhere near "bitter".
2. Council member Greg Travis actually made a salient point in this debate:
“I think when people go to the airports, they look for things like clean bathrooms,” said Council Member Greg Travis. “They look for, ‘Can I charge my phone?’ ‘Can I get the Wi-Fi?’ and ‘Do they have good restaurants?’ I think music may be up in that category, but I don’t think it’s that high up.”
This is true, and brings me to another point. The restrooms at both HOU and IAH are foul. Even when they've just been cleaned they are nasty. Charging stations? Good luck. There are so few available in some areas that the ones you can find look like the power outlet at the Griswold house during Christmas. Wi-Fi? I wouldn't consider GoGo to be "Wi Fi" It's lofi for the masses and can barely function quickly enough to let you check e-mail. Good food? Considering that most of the catering contract is awarded to one company (Aramark) you get what you can get.
There are notable exceptions in both airports. Cat Cora's restaurant is pretty good, there's a Chick-fil-a at HOU, and the Pappa's restaurants are pretty solid. But the rank & file food court stuff in both are pretty pedestrian and, in some cases, pretty foul.
Again, I'm not going to make too big a deal about this because it is pleasant to sit on the outer part of Pappadeaux's in HOU and listen to the string trio playing classical tunes while you enjoy your Bloody Mary and crab cakes while waiting on your plane.
I'm good with it.
But it's just another example of how, in times when real improvements and change are sorely needed, it's hard to get rid of a pet program in the name of World Classiness.
HALV: Imagine the Legacy Created by the "Boykins Trash Tax"
The Prop B Voter Retaliation Movement continues to gain steam...
Boykins Pitches Trash Fee to Pay for Firefighter Raises. HoustonChronicle.com
That, is one big tax for trash. Should it pass I propose naming after Councilman Boykins. the Boykins Trash Tax if you will. What a legacy.
This is not a new idea, nor an especially clever one, and the same argument that always bubbles up to the surface for this tax is "well, every other city is doing it".
Which begs the question: If every other major city razed 4 blocks of downtown would what passes for Houston leadership (and the Chronicle) think it to be a good idea to follow suit? "Everyone else is doing it" is usually a pretty shitty reason to do something. It's also an indication of weak and ineffectual leadership (HALV)
Per the article Turner has come out against this initially. It matches with his rhetoric on the issue that it's the firefighters that should be punished the most. I doubt that Turner is ideologically opposed to taxing resident's trash, its just that he would prefer the monies generated to go toward other things than firefighter pay. They're not getting off the hook that easily mind you.
The irony is, given the political climate in Houston today I would imagine one could find pretty decent support for a trash tax from the voters, especially if you linked the revenues to flood mitigation or (even better) some type of green initiative. If Houstonians thought they were receiving a benefit from it they would probably support it by around 2/3rds. I'm not sure the Boykins Trash Tax is what they envisioned.
The article goes on to mention another truth: Imposing a trash tax has long been a goal of progressive leadership in Houston. Bill White wanted it, Annise Parker wanted it, and Sylvester Turner wants the tax but he has plans for that revenue that does not include letting the firefighters get off scot free for defying his will.
Do I think this will fly? No, for all of the reasons listed above. Do I think it COULD fly if the revenues were tied to say....storm drain cleaning and other flood mitigation projects? Sure, but that's not what Houston is being offered here.
Also, here's a better write up on the tax from Charles Bain:
Council Member Wants to Tax Your Garbage.
Boykins Pitches Trash Fee to Pay for Firefighter Raises. HoustonChronicle.com
Houston City Councilman Dwight Boykins on Thursday proposed charging property owners a monthly garbage collection fee to finance raises for firefighters while avoiding job cuts for other city staff.
Under the proposal, most Houston homeowners would be charged a flat, monthly fee between $25 and $40 to help the city absorb the cost of raises for firefighters mandated by the pay parity charter amendment approved by voters last month.
That, is one big tax for trash. Should it pass I propose naming after Councilman Boykins. the Boykins Trash Tax if you will. What a legacy.
This is not a new idea, nor an especially clever one, and the same argument that always bubbles up to the surface for this tax is "well, every other city is doing it".
Houston is the only big Texas city without a garbage fee. Austin charges a monthly garbage fee of between $25 and $50, San Antonio charges roughly $20, Dallas charges $27 and Fort Worth charges between $12.50 and $23.
Which begs the question: If every other major city razed 4 blocks of downtown would what passes for Houston leadership (and the Chronicle) think it to be a good idea to follow suit? "Everyone else is doing it" is usually a pretty shitty reason to do something. It's also an indication of weak and ineffectual leadership (HALV)
Per the article Turner has come out against this initially. It matches with his rhetoric on the issue that it's the firefighters that should be punished the most. I doubt that Turner is ideologically opposed to taxing resident's trash, its just that he would prefer the monies generated to go toward other things than firefighter pay. They're not getting off the hook that easily mind you.
The irony is, given the political climate in Houston today I would imagine one could find pretty decent support for a trash tax from the voters, especially if you linked the revenues to flood mitigation or (even better) some type of green initiative. If Houstonians thought they were receiving a benefit from it they would probably support it by around 2/3rds. I'm not sure the Boykins Trash Tax is what they envisioned.
The article goes on to mention another truth: Imposing a trash tax has long been a goal of progressive leadership in Houston. Bill White wanted it, Annise Parker wanted it, and Sylvester Turner wants the tax but he has plans for that revenue that does not include letting the firefighters get off scot free for defying his will.
Do I think this will fly? No, for all of the reasons listed above. Do I think it COULD fly if the revenues were tied to say....storm drain cleaning and other flood mitigation projects? Sure, but that's not what Houston is being offered here.
Also, here's a better write up on the tax from Charles Bain:
Council Member Wants to Tax Your Garbage.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
HALV: Breeding corruption, waste and a crap-ton of unanswered questions.
It was several years back, on this blog, that I introduced the concept of the Houston Area Leadership Vacuum (The HALV, for short). It was a thing I created on a whim to describe what I saw as a stunning lack of actual leadership in any area of government within the Houston area.
The hope, when writing about these things, is that by identifying them people understand the problem and something is done to reverse the decay. Not that I would think this little blog would have much influence obviously, but hopefully someone in a position of power, or with access to positions of power, would read it and think 'You know, this blogger has a point in spite of himself."
It has not worked, because the HALV is growing, and sucking up more and more taxpayer resources.
City Council delays vote on Houston Airport Renovation Contracts. HoustonChronicle
City Controller Questions Expenses on Airport Terminal Project. HoustonChronicle.com
Surprise Vote Blocks Port Commission Appointment to Airport Development Agency. HoustonChronicle.com
Turner: City-Backed Non-Profit Could Seek to Run 15 Houston-Area Schools. HoustonChronicle.com
Mormon to stay on County Payroll, Working for Cagle. HoustonChronicle.com
That's five stories in the course of 3 days that reveal either a pattern of incompetence, shenanigans related to a quasi-governmental agency operating with zero transparency, trough-feeding to maintain the good old boy network, or a power grab.
It's gotten so bad in the Houston area that they aren't even trying to pretend at good governance any more.
The Houston Airport System is rapidly devolving into a dysfunctional mess, the Airport Development Agency seems to be a slush-fund for certain people to forward their personal business ventures while on the public dime, HISD is rapidly devolving into a shit-show, and people who lost elections are being invited back into government in unspecified, and untitled roles, to ensure their "expertise" is retained.
This doesn't even include the Houston City Police union acting as a litigation lackey for Mayor Sylvester Turner (side note: has ANYONE asked what standing the HPOU could possibly have in this suit?) and there's been no serious review of Turner's awarding of a multi-Million dollar contract to his "former" law partner. (I'm sure they were not friends, just law partners, and once that partnership was severed they NEVER had any contact with one another).
We're told to just pay our taxes and accept it, and while the Chron is doing an OK job reporting the news they're doing a horrible job of connecting the dots and following up on these scandals. Don't want to lose access to those politicians and their soirees after all.
While the city is running itself into the ground it's not yet clear whether the County is going to be functional in 2019 or no. We pretty much know that Adrian Garcia is going to be an ineffective manager of County resources, his past shows us that, and it's still highly unclear whether County Judge Elect Lina Hidalgo is going to be focused on the nuts and bolts of County operation (as is her job) or if she's going to try and lead a progressive redo of County services, but the early returns are not good.
The Houston region is already one with pothole pocked roads that make some third world countries tut-tut at us, traffic lights whose only real purpose is to create traffic snarls, a school district that you cannot even call a clown show because that's disrespectful to clowns, with a board whose main trait seems to be throwing shit at one another, and a city that's desperately trying to find more and more revenue so that it can continue doling out patronage payments instead of actually fixing things.
In the next round of city elections it's almost certain that an proposition repealing the pillow-soft revenue cap will be forwarded, and municipal workers and other various civic groups whose existence relies on the largesse of Boss Turner will ensure that it passes, thus ensuring that residents are going to get taxed until their ears bleed.
But, and this is important, what is there to show for that blood?
What has Mayor Turner actually ACCOMPLISHED?
He kicked the can down the road again on the Houston Pension deal, basically refinancing the debt and getting a couple of concessions in the short term, but since that was done, and it's clear the problem will not come to a head under his watch, a long-term fix has been essentially put on the shelf.
The "rain tax" that Houston residents are forced to pay, is bearing no fruit, and Stephen Costello seems happy to keep it that way.
A host of "blue ribbon" commissions have been given much fanfare, and then been allowed to accomplish pretty much nothing with little to no oversight, no questioning by the media and no public transparency to speak of.
Appointed members of quasi-governmental non-democratic agencies continue to spend money like a coked-up bachelor on his first trip to Vegas with nothing to show for it and all we get from the media and local good government groups is a collective shrug and hopes that they all get invites to the next big Holiday gala.
The Houston Region is a mess, and we're being told more about Internet memes regarding Texans games then we are hard news about the city that's falling down around us.
This is not sustainable, and the levels of corruption and graft are getting so high that the donors and beneficiaries aren't even pretending to try and hide it any longer.
There is a reason for all of this, obviously, and it's voter apathy and disinterest in local issues coupled with "good government" groups who are really just paid-extensions of political parties who choose only to see waste, fraud and abuse being committed by the other side.
Around a decade ago, there was a brief hope that some of this would be outed as a strong undercurrent of disruptive bloggers came forward and started to focus on some of these issues at great length. Unfortunately, most of were absorbed into the party machine and became party-bloggers and the rest got tired of getting beaten up by the local machine and just threw in the towel (guilty as charged here), the rest got dismissed out of hand by the local machine and it's house organ the media as cranks, which is too bad.
Because Houston really could use a gang of right and left leaning folks who look at all of this and say "hey, something is NOT right here".
Sadly I think that ship has sailed, and the HALV has sucked up pretty much any remaining opposition or efforts to reverse the tide.
The hope, when writing about these things, is that by identifying them people understand the problem and something is done to reverse the decay. Not that I would think this little blog would have much influence obviously, but hopefully someone in a position of power, or with access to positions of power, would read it and think 'You know, this blogger has a point in spite of himself."
It has not worked, because the HALV is growing, and sucking up more and more taxpayer resources.
City Council delays vote on Houston Airport Renovation Contracts. HoustonChronicle
City Controller Questions Expenses on Airport Terminal Project. HoustonChronicle.com
Surprise Vote Blocks Port Commission Appointment to Airport Development Agency. HoustonChronicle.com
Turner: City-Backed Non-Profit Could Seek to Run 15 Houston-Area Schools. HoustonChronicle.com
Mormon to stay on County Payroll, Working for Cagle. HoustonChronicle.com
That's five stories in the course of 3 days that reveal either a pattern of incompetence, shenanigans related to a quasi-governmental agency operating with zero transparency, trough-feeding to maintain the good old boy network, or a power grab.
It's gotten so bad in the Houston area that they aren't even trying to pretend at good governance any more.
The Houston Airport System is rapidly devolving into a dysfunctional mess, the Airport Development Agency seems to be a slush-fund for certain people to forward their personal business ventures while on the public dime, HISD is rapidly devolving into a shit-show, and people who lost elections are being invited back into government in unspecified, and untitled roles, to ensure their "expertise" is retained.
This doesn't even include the Houston City Police union acting as a litigation lackey for Mayor Sylvester Turner (side note: has ANYONE asked what standing the HPOU could possibly have in this suit?) and there's been no serious review of Turner's awarding of a multi-Million dollar contract to his "former" law partner. (I'm sure they were not friends, just law partners, and once that partnership was severed they NEVER had any contact with one another).
We're told to just pay our taxes and accept it, and while the Chron is doing an OK job reporting the news they're doing a horrible job of connecting the dots and following up on these scandals. Don't want to lose access to those politicians and their soirees after all.
While the city is running itself into the ground it's not yet clear whether the County is going to be functional in 2019 or no. We pretty much know that Adrian Garcia is going to be an ineffective manager of County resources, his past shows us that, and it's still highly unclear whether County Judge Elect Lina Hidalgo is going to be focused on the nuts and bolts of County operation (as is her job) or if she's going to try and lead a progressive redo of County services, but the early returns are not good.
The Houston region is already one with pothole pocked roads that make some third world countries tut-tut at us, traffic lights whose only real purpose is to create traffic snarls, a school district that you cannot even call a clown show because that's disrespectful to clowns, with a board whose main trait seems to be throwing shit at one another, and a city that's desperately trying to find more and more revenue so that it can continue doling out patronage payments instead of actually fixing things.
In the next round of city elections it's almost certain that an proposition repealing the pillow-soft revenue cap will be forwarded, and municipal workers and other various civic groups whose existence relies on the largesse of Boss Turner will ensure that it passes, thus ensuring that residents are going to get taxed until their ears bleed.
But, and this is important, what is there to show for that blood?
What has Mayor Turner actually ACCOMPLISHED?
He kicked the can down the road again on the Houston Pension deal, basically refinancing the debt and getting a couple of concessions in the short term, but since that was done, and it's clear the problem will not come to a head under his watch, a long-term fix has been essentially put on the shelf.
The "rain tax" that Houston residents are forced to pay, is bearing no fruit, and Stephen Costello seems happy to keep it that way.
A host of "blue ribbon" commissions have been given much fanfare, and then been allowed to accomplish pretty much nothing with little to no oversight, no questioning by the media and no public transparency to speak of.
Appointed members of quasi-governmental non-democratic agencies continue to spend money like a coked-up bachelor on his first trip to Vegas with nothing to show for it and all we get from the media and local good government groups is a collective shrug and hopes that they all get invites to the next big Holiday gala.
The Houston Region is a mess, and we're being told more about Internet memes regarding Texans games then we are hard news about the city that's falling down around us.
This is not sustainable, and the levels of corruption and graft are getting so high that the donors and beneficiaries aren't even pretending to try and hide it any longer.
There is a reason for all of this, obviously, and it's voter apathy and disinterest in local issues coupled with "good government" groups who are really just paid-extensions of political parties who choose only to see waste, fraud and abuse being committed by the other side.
Around a decade ago, there was a brief hope that some of this would be outed as a strong undercurrent of disruptive bloggers came forward and started to focus on some of these issues at great length. Unfortunately, most of were absorbed into the party machine and became party-bloggers and the rest got tired of getting beaten up by the local machine and just threw in the towel (guilty as charged here), the rest got dismissed out of hand by the local machine and it's house organ the media as cranks, which is too bad.
Because Houston really could use a gang of right and left leaning folks who look at all of this and say "hey, something is NOT right here".
Sadly I think that ship has sailed, and the HALV has sucked up pretty much any remaining opposition or efforts to reverse the tide.
HALV: Sadly, People Keep Dying on Houston Roads
And, when they do, the Chron is all over it pushing a narrative that started with their "Out of Control" series which advocates for fewer lanes of traffic, slower speeds, more at-grade walking paths and a reduction of traffic lanes to allow for at-grade "green lanes".
It's even bleeding into their supposed straight news reporting on the wrecks. This is a problem because there's a fine line between "reporting" and "advocacy" and, as they did on light rail, the Chron appears to have decided they have no problem crossing it.
Has a streets memo been sent out to all staff as their was with light rail?
One of the biggest problems that comes with trying to argue this is that people won't read what's actually written about the issue, or listen to what's said. They'll just read the intro and then go into "Well, actually" that you're either anti-bicycle or anti-pedestrian or other some such, which is why I usually refuse to engage people on the matter. I'm writing my piece, you're welcome to comment, or don't, but it's highly unlikely that you or I would gain anything by debating this any at all. Because any suggestion that David Crossley's European vacation fever-dream for Houston is a bad idea, or at the minimum, one that will cost Billions of dollars but which will not alleviate the problem is treated as anti-mobility gibberish by the left, and any suggestion that bicycles and pedestrians have a place in the transit mix is treated as "greenism" by the Right.
Both can be true.
One thing lacking from the reporting is whether or not any of the grand plans of Crossley would have done anything to prevent the incidents that occurred yesterday. The Pedestrian accident appears to be caused by inattention, while the incident on the Grand Parkway appears to have been caused by an unfortunate man with a seizure condition making a bad choice. All of the speed cameras, reduced speed limits and traffic enforcement in the world would not have prevented any of that.
While I'm sure you're getting bored hearing it I will continue to beat the drum for the following:
1. Increased bike and pedestrian trails that are GRADE SEPARATED from lanes of automobile traffic. Of course people bike and walk to work, as a matter of fact, I ride up in the elevator with a couple of bicyclists every morning, but the solution is not to put multiple vehicles that are going to travel a varying speeds on the same grade.
2. Better road engineering/maintenance. Too many "exit only" lanes, too many on ramps that enter a freeway into them, forcing drivers to merge quickly into a mess of traffic creating slowdowns and other issues. The way Houston's freeway on/off ramp systems are designed is a mess. There needs to be a better way to fix it.
3. A reduction of speed VARIANCE. The biggest lie being told in this entire tale is that "speed kills". That's a load of bull that's been all but debunked in several studies in Europe. In fact, what "kills" is more often a variance in speed. Fast vehicles mixed in with slower vehicles mixed in with slower bicycles mixed in with slower still pedestrians, all sharing the same road space.
4. Better lane discipline. In Germany, it's a bigger fine for undertaking (passing on the right) than it is for speeding. Because the German's understand that the most dangerous thing is not going the proper speed in the proper lane. In Texas, the left lane on a road (when there are two) is usually designated as "for passing only". You should only be in it when you're passing another vehicle (this includes bicycles fwiw) then you are expected to move back right. In most cases there are more drivers in the left lane than the right lanes, and some of them are driving too slow.
5. Reducing Distracted driving. Texas does have a law against distracted driving, but it's rarely enforced. They also have a law against texting while driving, which is enforced even less. We have convinced ourselves, wrongly, that our work-a-day lives are so busy that we cannot afford to just sit in the car and drive. The result of this is that we're on our phones, texting, doing our make-up, eating, drinking coffee, taking the lid off of a soft-drink, rummaging around the floor-board for something we think we need right now while peering over the dashboard and trying, unsuccessfully, to maintain our lanes.
None of the above can be fixed by any of the prescriptions that Crossley and his acolytes (and the Chron) are promoting. You can't legislate away either stupidity or carelessness, nor can you improve a bad car situation by designing less room for them in a vain hope that people are going to freely give up their one remaining means of freedom to live asshole-to-elbow in a downtown high-rise and take a pretty crappy public transit system where you want them to go.
The harsh reality is that a lot of this boils down to personal responsibility and defensive driving.
Don't drink and drive.
Don't speed excessively.
Don't fiddle around while driving.
Respect others and yield the right-of-way
Use your turn signals (and then turn them off!)
Practice lane discipline.
Until people decide that they're going to be willing to follow the rules of the road, none of the changes that are being proposed are going to help. At some point the Houston driver has to decide that they're going to follow the rules and laws of the road.
Two huge steps to helping them do so would be to fix the roads (correctly, with quality pothole repair) and properly sequence traffic lights. The latter alone would result in far-fewer drivers running red lights and causing potential wrecks for no other reason then that they would not be stopped so often.
Thus getting them where they want to be more safely.
Shouldn't that, and not ridding Houston of cars, be the goal in the first place?
Sadly, you won't read THAT in the Houston Chronicle, which has forgone journalism for advocacy. And that's part of the problem as well.
It's even bleeding into their supposed straight news reporting on the wrecks. This is a problem because there's a fine line between "reporting" and "advocacy" and, as they did on light rail, the Chron appears to have decided they have no problem crossing it.
Has a streets memo been sent out to all staff as their was with light rail?
One of the biggest problems that comes with trying to argue this is that people won't read what's actually written about the issue, or listen to what's said. They'll just read the intro and then go into "Well, actually" that you're either anti-bicycle or anti-pedestrian or other some such, which is why I usually refuse to engage people on the matter. I'm writing my piece, you're welcome to comment, or don't, but it's highly unlikely that you or I would gain anything by debating this any at all. Because any suggestion that David Crossley's European vacation fever-dream for Houston is a bad idea, or at the minimum, one that will cost Billions of dollars but which will not alleviate the problem is treated as anti-mobility gibberish by the left, and any suggestion that bicycles and pedestrians have a place in the transit mix is treated as "greenism" by the Right.
Both can be true.
One thing lacking from the reporting is whether or not any of the grand plans of Crossley would have done anything to prevent the incidents that occurred yesterday. The Pedestrian accident appears to be caused by inattention, while the incident on the Grand Parkway appears to have been caused by an unfortunate man with a seizure condition making a bad choice. All of the speed cameras, reduced speed limits and traffic enforcement in the world would not have prevented any of that.
While I'm sure you're getting bored hearing it I will continue to beat the drum for the following:
1. Increased bike and pedestrian trails that are GRADE SEPARATED from lanes of automobile traffic. Of course people bike and walk to work, as a matter of fact, I ride up in the elevator with a couple of bicyclists every morning, but the solution is not to put multiple vehicles that are going to travel a varying speeds on the same grade.
2. Better road engineering/maintenance. Too many "exit only" lanes, too many on ramps that enter a freeway into them, forcing drivers to merge quickly into a mess of traffic creating slowdowns and other issues. The way Houston's freeway on/off ramp systems are designed is a mess. There needs to be a better way to fix it.
3. A reduction of speed VARIANCE. The biggest lie being told in this entire tale is that "speed kills". That's a load of bull that's been all but debunked in several studies in Europe. In fact, what "kills" is more often a variance in speed. Fast vehicles mixed in with slower vehicles mixed in with slower bicycles mixed in with slower still pedestrians, all sharing the same road space.
4. Better lane discipline. In Germany, it's a bigger fine for undertaking (passing on the right) than it is for speeding. Because the German's understand that the most dangerous thing is not going the proper speed in the proper lane. In Texas, the left lane on a road (when there are two) is usually designated as "for passing only". You should only be in it when you're passing another vehicle (this includes bicycles fwiw) then you are expected to move back right. In most cases there are more drivers in the left lane than the right lanes, and some of them are driving too slow.
5. Reducing Distracted driving. Texas does have a law against distracted driving, but it's rarely enforced. They also have a law against texting while driving, which is enforced even less. We have convinced ourselves, wrongly, that our work-a-day lives are so busy that we cannot afford to just sit in the car and drive. The result of this is that we're on our phones, texting, doing our make-up, eating, drinking coffee, taking the lid off of a soft-drink, rummaging around the floor-board for something we think we need right now while peering over the dashboard and trying, unsuccessfully, to maintain our lanes.
None of the above can be fixed by any of the prescriptions that Crossley and his acolytes (and the Chron) are promoting. You can't legislate away either stupidity or carelessness, nor can you improve a bad car situation by designing less room for them in a vain hope that people are going to freely give up their one remaining means of freedom to live asshole-to-elbow in a downtown high-rise and take a pretty crappy public transit system where you want them to go.
The harsh reality is that a lot of this boils down to personal responsibility and defensive driving.
Don't drink and drive.
Don't speed excessively.
Don't fiddle around while driving.
Respect others and yield the right-of-way
Use your turn signals (and then turn them off!)
Practice lane discipline.
Until people decide that they're going to be willing to follow the rules of the road, none of the changes that are being proposed are going to help. At some point the Houston driver has to decide that they're going to follow the rules and laws of the road.
Two huge steps to helping them do so would be to fix the roads (correctly, with quality pothole repair) and properly sequence traffic lights. The latter alone would result in far-fewer drivers running red lights and causing potential wrecks for no other reason then that they would not be stopped so often.
Thus getting them where they want to be more safely.
Shouldn't that, and not ridding Houston of cars, be the goal in the first place?
Sadly, you won't read THAT in the Houston Chronicle, which has forgone journalism for advocacy. And that's part of the problem as well.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
HALV: Brahms is Bad for Rushing Gate-to-Gate on a Short Connection.
In the ongoing battle of know-nothings vs. Houston's eternal reach for World-Classiness it appears the know-nothings are possibly on the verge of winning one. Granted, it's a little one.
Some Council Members not in Tune With Airport Music Contract. HoustonChronicle.com
City council is mulling whether to pay up to $600,000 a year for live music at Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports, a service that Mayor Sylvester Turner has said would show visitors that Houston is both “a little bit country” and “a little bit chic.”
Council members were scheduled to consider the funding at their last two weekly meetings, but the item has been delayed twice following debates between those who say music improves the quality of airports and those arguing the money should go toward what they consider more pressing needs.
Status, by way of classical music if you will. And while it could be argued that the Houston Airport System's perception could be improved by better...um...food choices, perhaps, that would be wrong, apparently. The idea that having Puccini's La bohème wafting from behind you as your argue with the gate agent because your upgrade didn't go through adds a touch of world classiness to a city is silly of course. But this is Houston where silliness abounds. Granted, the fact that you're frustrated because you couldn't FIND the gate in the first place because the signs were old/outdated/substandard probably doesn't enhance your calm much, and even the gentle tones of Brahms Lullaby isn't going to do much to put you in a better mood*.
Signage, maybe a bar that serves something better than lukewarm Bud Light and reasonable dining options would help in most cases. And I don't know who decided that having "luxury" retail in an airport lends an air of classiness to the place but they should be fired forthwith and without further discussion.
To my mind there are far better uses for $600,000/year at Houston's sibling airports than this, and I say this as someone who actually flies out of there a LOT and who enjoys the 4-some sitting in the rotunda banging away at Beethoven's 7th like it's going to will my plane on the ground more quickly.
Unfortunately, this is Houston, and this is the Houston Chronicle so the people who like to angrily comment on newspaper sites are strutting about arguing against "taxpayer money" going to a group of symphony folks belting out Motzart's Requiem to the moneyed masses lucky enough to fund a plane ticket and not toward flood control, thus ignoring that the airport fund is a completely separate entity from the cities general fund. This flawed argument, obviously, allows those FOR the spending to dismiss out of hand the ramblings of those obviously less culturally and literally intelligent than them.
You know, people who understand Classical music only to the point they hear it on TV, in a movie somewhere, or the one symphony concert they attended because their employer gave them free tickets. Yup, THAT culturally elevated group of people.
Of course, walking though an airport and hearing Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights doesn't make one culturally elite, but it's enough for Turner to feel that the lack of Gergiev's Bolero is a dark mark on the city. Which is enough for this to be elevated to "news" status in Houston.
Which is sad, and is the REAL reason Houston will never, ever achieve the level of world-classiness that its ruling class so desires. Instead of realizing what makes Houston GREAT, we instead are given a copy-cat, watered down version of what OTHER places do, and are told to eat our world-classiness gruel and like it.
Nevermind that you often have no idea where you are, and the signs above your head spend more time pointing you to the United lounge than they do your gate. I guess lost with ambiance is better than just plain lost?
*Of course, pretty much ALL of this debate ignores the very real fact that people don't choose which airports to connect through, the airlines make those choices for them. How else can you explain the continued popularity of that Pit La Guardia?
Thursday, December 06, 2018
All The Little Things: News and Notes (12/06/2018)
Every week there are several things that catch my eye as interesting but not with quite enough meat on the bone to warrant a full blog post. As I've done in the past, I'm going to revert to link posting (as every truly awful blog should) and just compile those in a single entry.
Some of these might interest you, some might not, you get what you pay for. (Except in the case of the Houston Chronicle's fire-wall, where you pay for not much of value at all)
The Chron would like you to know that United CEO Oscar Munoz is a really swell guy.
No one does the 'glowing profile' bit quite like the Chronicle. They are the undisputed champions of the genre. Here they turn their focus toward a middling CEO who's greatest accomplishment to date is being able to say "Hey, we don't absolutely suck anymore."
I see the Texas Tribune is still trying to hide their editorializing behind an "analysis" screen.
This lets their top Austin political reporter weigh-in on issues that he otherwise wouldn't be able to opine on in hard news. (theoretically) More and more political "reporting" is really just gussied up opinion writing anyway. So, in the end, it probably doesn't matter much. Neither does the Texas Tribune when it gets down to it.
There is nothing "important" about a restaurant opening.
Can we please stop deifying people who just happen to be pretty good at cooking food for high prices? "Important" openings are homeless shelters, or food kitchens for the poor, or other critical services for communities. Someone offering up the latest fusion goat tacos might be good, but it's hardly important. Let's stop buying in to the self-ego stroking of the FoodBorg in 2019 mmmmKay?
Prop B is placed on hold.
And I have some questions:
1. How in the world does the HPOU have any kind of standing here?
2. So the HPOU is now the political enforcement arm for Mayor Sylvester "Boss" Turner?
Houston is starting to slide into the muck of corruption, payola and the good-ol' boy system. That should worry Houstonians as the current Mayor has dropped all pretenses to the contrary.
For a so-called "moderate" Chron "Conservative" Columnist Erica Greider sure luvs herself some socialists
And their ideas apparently. Belief in the Federal Jobs Guarantee should be an automatic disqualifier as a writer of political opinion. Also, Republicans in Harris County need to stop treating her like she's an ally. Like most of the other Chron political opinion scribes Ms. Greider is a progressive. There's nothing wrong with that, provided you fully identify your leanings which the Chron and Greider do not.
LINKHouston is new! Vibrant! Forwar.....Oh crap they are just more of the same.
In the end all of these transit groups in Houston are about one thing. Diverting more of your money to the failed engine that is MetroHouston. What they really want are pretty things in the never-ending chase of world-classiness. Houston and the region cannot have nice things because of groups like this.
Scandal-dogged wanna-be Democratic candidate tries to settle for being a Democratic policy wonk instead.
"Tax, tax, tax. Tax, tax, tax. Equality somesuch For All, for some, for me, for none, spend, spend, spend "For the Children" transparency, good governance."
Yup, he pretty much hit all the lefty talking points. Well done Junior policy wonk.
Sometimes it feels like these editorials are completed by two different people writing half each.
It's no secret I think the Chron should shutter it's editorial board and redeploy the resources to the newsroom. For one, it would improve their reputation. For two, it would stop them from penning embarrassing editorials that contradict themselves within the text such as this. Auto companies aren't getting rid of cars to go greener, they're doing it to focus more on SUVs. I mean, it says so right in the article.
"Airport Rock" sounds like the worst idea ever.
The classical music trio that plays in the concourse at Hobby is actually pretty good. I can't imagine how pitiful listening to the Cooper Hill band play a cover of Clay Travis would be. On the bright side, this story did give us a quote of someone in the city calling IAH a "dump" so there's that.
There is nothing politically transformative about calling for increased spending of other people's money.
Yes, Ocasio-Cortez is a media darling, but no policy that she's forwarded so far is very well thought or, or especially innovative. The media is so quick to plant rising star labels on photogenic politicians who pull mild upsets that they forget to look under the hood at the actual policy skills. This is why there are thousands of rusted out old husks of political rising stars on the curbs of American history. Ocasio-Cortez is a political Edsel. There's nothing transformative about that.
Turner looks to dip his toes in HISD.
I'm sure there's money to be made in this, for someone, probably someone with ties to Turner who will eventually receive a lucrative contract to actually run the schools. I'm also not clear on how bringing back Stipeche, who was on the board from 2010-2015 and is one of the architects of the districts failure, is going to solve anything.
Sean Dolan REALLY hates Katy ISD
He first spoke out as an anti-bullying advocate but it's starting to look like he just really wants to get even with the man who took his lunch money in Jr. High.
Texas Driver Responsibility Program under (well deserved) fire.
Just a reminder folks: Cash grabs ALWAYS, and without fail, have unintended consequences. Remember this the next time your local electeds come up with programs that include forced takings from the citizenry. Because hurting the poor is a bipartisan goal.
White's on PARADE!!
I always chuckle a bit when the media discovers that there are stupid people out there who are crafting policy for a political party. Yup, there are White Nationalists in the GOP, and Black Panthers and La Raza devotees in the Democratic party to boot. If this is a shock to you, or if you think it newsworthy, you should probably read a little bit more. More worryingly is that crap such as this tends to distract us from societies REAL villains: People who start celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving.
And finally.....two things.
Don't go through life this angry. Get out, go to the beach, visit a museum, don't wake up one morning only to find out you're this poor lady whose sole purpose in life is to diminish people's good feelings toward a dog. Mental health is a real issue in this country right now, get help.
I have found the bottom of the media. You go to J-School, get a 4-year degree (even if it takes six to get it) you get a job at a newspaper, and a by-line. Only to find out that your job will consist entirely of scouring social-media for reactions (or "hilarious memes") to breaking news stories. You now know what it's like to work in the unwashed armpit of the media. I am so, so sorry. Your next Jack and Coke is on me.
Remember: Life is good, it's us who mess it up.
Some of these might interest you, some might not, you get what you pay for. (Except in the case of the Houston Chronicle's fire-wall, where you pay for not much of value at all)
The Chron would like you to know that United CEO Oscar Munoz is a really swell guy.
No one does the 'glowing profile' bit quite like the Chronicle. They are the undisputed champions of the genre. Here they turn their focus toward a middling CEO who's greatest accomplishment to date is being able to say "Hey, we don't absolutely suck anymore."
I see the Texas Tribune is still trying to hide their editorializing behind an "analysis" screen.
This lets their top Austin political reporter weigh-in on issues that he otherwise wouldn't be able to opine on in hard news. (theoretically) More and more political "reporting" is really just gussied up opinion writing anyway. So, in the end, it probably doesn't matter much. Neither does the Texas Tribune when it gets down to it.
There is nothing "important" about a restaurant opening.
Can we please stop deifying people who just happen to be pretty good at cooking food for high prices? "Important" openings are homeless shelters, or food kitchens for the poor, or other critical services for communities. Someone offering up the latest fusion goat tacos might be good, but it's hardly important. Let's stop buying in to the self-ego stroking of the FoodBorg in 2019 mmmmKay?
Prop B is placed on hold.
And I have some questions:
1. How in the world does the HPOU have any kind of standing here?
2. So the HPOU is now the political enforcement arm for Mayor Sylvester "Boss" Turner?
Houston is starting to slide into the muck of corruption, payola and the good-ol' boy system. That should worry Houstonians as the current Mayor has dropped all pretenses to the contrary.
For a so-called "moderate" Chron "Conservative" Columnist Erica Greider sure luvs herself some socialists
And their ideas apparently. Belief in the Federal Jobs Guarantee should be an automatic disqualifier as a writer of political opinion. Also, Republicans in Harris County need to stop treating her like she's an ally. Like most of the other Chron political opinion scribes Ms. Greider is a progressive. There's nothing wrong with that, provided you fully identify your leanings which the Chron and Greider do not.
LINKHouston is new! Vibrant! Forwar.....Oh crap they are just more of the same.
In the end all of these transit groups in Houston are about one thing. Diverting more of your money to the failed engine that is MetroHouston. What they really want are pretty things in the never-ending chase of world-classiness. Houston and the region cannot have nice things because of groups like this.
Scandal-dogged wanna-be Democratic candidate tries to settle for being a Democratic policy wonk instead.
"Tax, tax, tax. Tax, tax, tax. Equality somesuch For All, for some, for me, for none, spend, spend, spend "For the Children" transparency, good governance."
Yup, he pretty much hit all the lefty talking points. Well done Junior policy wonk.
Sometimes it feels like these editorials are completed by two different people writing half each.
It's no secret I think the Chron should shutter it's editorial board and redeploy the resources to the newsroom. For one, it would improve their reputation. For two, it would stop them from penning embarrassing editorials that contradict themselves within the text such as this. Auto companies aren't getting rid of cars to go greener, they're doing it to focus more on SUVs. I mean, it says so right in the article.
"Airport Rock" sounds like the worst idea ever.
The classical music trio that plays in the concourse at Hobby is actually pretty good. I can't imagine how pitiful listening to the Cooper Hill band play a cover of Clay Travis would be. On the bright side, this story did give us a quote of someone in the city calling IAH a "dump" so there's that.
There is nothing politically transformative about calling for increased spending of other people's money.
Yes, Ocasio-Cortez is a media darling, but no policy that she's forwarded so far is very well thought or, or especially innovative. The media is so quick to plant rising star labels on photogenic politicians who pull mild upsets that they forget to look under the hood at the actual policy skills. This is why there are thousands of rusted out old husks of political rising stars on the curbs of American history. Ocasio-Cortez is a political Edsel. There's nothing transformative about that.
Turner looks to dip his toes in HISD.
I'm sure there's money to be made in this, for someone, probably someone with ties to Turner who will eventually receive a lucrative contract to actually run the schools. I'm also not clear on how bringing back Stipeche, who was on the board from 2010-2015 and is one of the architects of the districts failure, is going to solve anything.
Sean Dolan REALLY hates Katy ISD
He first spoke out as an anti-bullying advocate but it's starting to look like he just really wants to get even with the man who took his lunch money in Jr. High.
Texas Driver Responsibility Program under (well deserved) fire.
Just a reminder folks: Cash grabs ALWAYS, and without fail, have unintended consequences. Remember this the next time your local electeds come up with programs that include forced takings from the citizenry. Because hurting the poor is a bipartisan goal.
White's on PARADE!!
I always chuckle a bit when the media discovers that there are stupid people out there who are crafting policy for a political party. Yup, there are White Nationalists in the GOP, and Black Panthers and La Raza devotees in the Democratic party to boot. If this is a shock to you, or if you think it newsworthy, you should probably read a little bit more. More worryingly is that crap such as this tends to distract us from societies REAL villains: People who start celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving.
And finally.....two things.
Don't go through life this angry. Get out, go to the beach, visit a museum, don't wake up one morning only to find out you're this poor lady whose sole purpose in life is to diminish people's good feelings toward a dog. Mental health is a real issue in this country right now, get help.
I have found the bottom of the media. You go to J-School, get a 4-year degree (even if it takes six to get it) you get a job at a newspaper, and a by-line. Only to find out that your job will consist entirely of scouring social-media for reactions (or "hilarious memes") to breaking news stories. You now know what it's like to work in the unwashed armpit of the media. I am so, so sorry. Your next Jack and Coke is on me.
Remember: Life is good, it's us who mess it up.
Wednesday, December 05, 2018
BadMedia: An Open Letter to Houston Area Elected Officials (Some of you anyway)
Dear Houston Area Elected Officials,
Based on what's found in here:
HISD Interim Superintendent Latham talks taxes, budget cuts, campus closures. HoustonChronicle.com
I would not, under any circumstances, sit down for an interview with the Houston Chronicle until after they disavow this horrid practice.
Interviews where a newspaper doesn't release the actual recordings, or live-stream them, are bad enough, just ask Congressman-elect Dan Crenshaw about that. In fact, the Chronicle Editorial Board has a long history of playing fast and loose with quotes from some elected officials. It got so bad that, starting with Rick Perry, Republican elected officials at the state level just stopped interacting with them at all.
Now that they've seemingly decided to openly editorialize in supposed interviews on the hard news side there's very little impetus for you to talk to them at all. If one of their reporters comes at you with questions I would record the conversation. In fact, I would have no conversations with them absent a video recorder and 2 witnesses.
This type of editorializing in-line is journalism malpractice. The editor who green-lighted it should be either demoted, fired, or required to spend the rest of their career chasing after John McClain and ensuring he has enough snacks to last the game.
It remains to be seen whether or not this becomes the new norm for the Chronicle when interviewing or if it's just reserved for a category of public figures they don't like all that much. I wouldn't take the chance. In fact, given the electoral record you'd probably be better just not speaking with them at all.
Don't worry about freedom of the press, there are both other outlets that you can speak with who will not behave in this manner and, if they persist along this route, they're not really the "press" anyway are they?
Interviews should be just that, questions and answers related to the public in an honest, transparent manner without allowing the newspaper to editorialize in a manner the subject is not allowed to respond to.
I wonder if Ms. Latham knew this "context" was going to be added in after the fact? My guess is no, she did not.
Nor will you, when they decide you're on a side they don't like and try to "context" you either.
Just don't do it.
Sincerely,
YDOP.
Based on what's found in here:
HISD Interim Superintendent Latham talks taxes, budget cuts, campus closures. HoustonChronicle.com
As Houston ISD administrators outlined an initial projection of a $76 million shortfall in 2019-2020, Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan this week addressed several issues facing the state’s largest school district. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle — her first since HISD trustees voted to replace her before reversing course in mid-October — Lathan touched on HISD’s mounting budget challenges, her outlook on spending cuts, whether HISD should seek a tax increase and predictions for school finance reform, among other topics.
Here are Lathan’s extended comments, with additional context from the Chronicle on each topic. (emphasis mine)
I would not, under any circumstances, sit down for an interview with the Houston Chronicle until after they disavow this horrid practice.
Interviews where a newspaper doesn't release the actual recordings, or live-stream them, are bad enough, just ask Congressman-elect Dan Crenshaw about that. In fact, the Chronicle Editorial Board has a long history of playing fast and loose with quotes from some elected officials. It got so bad that, starting with Rick Perry, Republican elected officials at the state level just stopped interacting with them at all.
Now that they've seemingly decided to openly editorialize in supposed interviews on the hard news side there's very little impetus for you to talk to them at all. If one of their reporters comes at you with questions I would record the conversation. In fact, I would have no conversations with them absent a video recorder and 2 witnesses.
This type of editorializing in-line is journalism malpractice. The editor who green-lighted it should be either demoted, fired, or required to spend the rest of their career chasing after John McClain and ensuring he has enough snacks to last the game.
It remains to be seen whether or not this becomes the new norm for the Chronicle when interviewing or if it's just reserved for a category of public figures they don't like all that much. I wouldn't take the chance. In fact, given the electoral record you'd probably be better just not speaking with them at all.
Don't worry about freedom of the press, there are both other outlets that you can speak with who will not behave in this manner and, if they persist along this route, they're not really the "press" anyway are they?
Interviews should be just that, questions and answers related to the public in an honest, transparent manner without allowing the newspaper to editorialize in a manner the subject is not allowed to respond to.
I wonder if Ms. Latham knew this "context" was going to be added in after the fact? My guess is no, she did not.
Nor will you, when they decide you're on a side they don't like and try to "context" you either.
Just don't do it.
Sincerely,
YDOP.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)