ChronBlog: I think we might have an answer to Mike Snyder's Question.

A few weeks back Mike Snyder took a look at Houston Media's shameful silence during the Civil Rights era battle to integrate Houston lunch counters.

Why the Media Stayed Quiet as Houston Integrated its Lunch Counters. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)

It's an interesting read that mainly outlines the Chronicle's ties to the city's leadership and institutions and their historical proclivity to report along official lines. Not quite Pravda, but not quite an independent watchdog either.

Snyder goes on to outline the role of newspapers in cities and ultimately gets around to asking the question "Could this happen today?"

Based on what we're seeing reported surrounding the incidents that led to the unfortunate shooting of four police officers and the deaths of two suspects and their dog, I think we're starting to see that the answer is "yes, it could".

To whit:

Wounded Houston Officers Present opportunity for Unity, no division with HPD. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)

So, it was understandable but regrettable when Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi suggested the officers’ shooting was grounds for some type of vendetta.

“We are sick and tired of having targets on our back,” Gamaldi said. “We are sick and tired of dirt bags trying to take our lives when all we’re trying to do is protect this community and our families. Enough is enough. If you’re the ones out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy, well just know we’ve all got your number now. We’re going to be keeping track on all of y’all, and we’re going to make sure to hold you accountable every time you stir the pot on our police officers.”

Gamaldi started his career as a cop in New York 14 years ago, so he doesn’t need to be lectured about the job.

They then go on to say this:

What this city needs now is solidarity in support of the good guys trying to keep us safe. 

Not that it's going to matter, but let me preface all of this by saying that I have a healthy respect for the job the police do each day. I always try to treat them with respect, I always encourage them to "stay safe" when I meat them and generally I believe that a large majority of police officers, Sheriff's Deputies, Constables and Highway Patrol officers go into work each and every day with the intent of upholding their motto to "Protect and Serve". I really believe this.  I also believe that the officers in this raid were doing what they thought was correct and that they felt they were targeting the head of a heroin ring.  I believe that. If Joe Gamaldi thinks that my questioning some of the facts coming out of this case there's nothing I can do about that. Criticism is NOT targeting, I don't care what some spokespeople, or the Chron Editorial Board chooses to say.

The problem here is that it's not entirely clear the officers had the correct people, or the right house.  This is not anti-police rhetoric, it's not putting a "target" on the backs of HPD, it's a logical question to ask based on the facts that are coming out in this case.

First off, after the raid no black tar heroin was found in a house that was reportedly the center of a black tar heroin ring  That's odd.

Also, the official account of the event states that the couple's Pit Bull immediately "lunged" at the first officer entering the house, forcing him to shoot.  If you own a dog you realize that this type of behavior is out of character for any dog. The first canine reaction would have been to sit back on his haunches and bark, not to lunge.

So we have a "no-knock" warrant, with a police busting down the door and immediately shooting the family pet, in an alleged heroin den where no heroin was found. What the police did find was some guns (obviously) some marijuana and an as-yet unidentified white powder, which sounds more consistent with drug use than drug sales.

Where are the scales?  Why haven't we been told about cash found in the house?

There are a lot of things in the official account that are not adding up.

Granted, it's true that at this point we have not been given all of the facts, as police might be shielding some things from public consumption as the investigation is ongoing, but it's also true that the police MIGHT have been going into the wrong house.

At this point there are too many questions to just say that the cops were 100% correct on all of their decisions in this raid. There's too much unknown to cast the two dead as 100% in the wrong.

I'm truly sorry that the four officers got shot and the fifth injured his knee. I do have respect for the police but I'm also not naive enough to believe that they always get everything correct.

Cops are people, and subject to making errors.  If someone busted down my door, and shot my dog, I would probably fight back too, especially since I have no reason for them to be there. I'm sure that some will read this and say "He's just bashing the cops" but that's not true. Nor am I saying they were wrong and attacked a bunch of innocents minding their own business.  Were the suspects drug dealers?  We don't know. Does this mean the suspects were good people?  No, it doesn't.

The fact is WE JUST DON'T KNOW YET.

But the Chron Ed Board knows, and they've gone to lecturing on behalf of their institutional sources, which is their default position, as it has always been and as it will always be until the newspaper does the right thing and shutters the Editorial Board and then redirecting the resources toward Watchdog Journalism.

Could the same thing happen today in the pages of the Houston Chronicle as happened in the past?

You bet your ass it could.

TXLV: Texas Craft Beer Industry is screwed

Some of the items in this Texas Tribune story about new Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen are amazing.

Despite Beer and Banking ties, New House Speaker Dennis Bonnen sees no need for recusals or new disclosures. Texas Tribune

Bonnen told The Texas Tribune he sees no conflicts of interest, no reason to take any formal steps to distance himself from beer or banking issues

His wife is the co-owner of a liquor distributor, and he himself is the CEO of a bank, yet he "sees no conflicts of interest".

That statement alone should make you question the political integrity of Texas new Speaker.

He's also got many lobbyists in his corner, invested in his bank to boot, people with whom he does business and their financial success is linked to his financial success and they're lobbying for issues in the very House of Representatives that Bonnen oversees.

Yet he sees "no conflict of interest".

At least Straus had the decency to recuse himself from matters relating to horse racing, it appears Bonnen is going to place no such restrictions on his ability to push laws and regulations that benefit him and his.  Outstanding news for the liquor distributors, not so much for Texas craft beer and liquor industry, who have already had efforts at reform go awry in past sessions due, in large part, to the power of the liquor distributor industry.

It gets even funnier later down in the article, where Bonnen tries to assure us that "It's good", he's instructed his staff to remain "neutral" on liquor and banking issues. All we have to do is trust him because, you know, he's got a reputation for being a good guy.

Of course, part of the issues with weak disclosure laws is that it's impossible to tell if someone is a "good guy" or no. If it's not clear who they're doing business with then it's not clear whether or not they're doing them a solid.

This is no different than Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner gifting is former business partner a multi-Million dollar contract and then saying "all is well" because he's his "former" partner and there's no longer a relationship there.

I first saw this story on BlogHouston publisher Kevin Whited's Shaarli feed and I about spat out my coffee.

The corruption in Texas Politics has hit a high point, and the only people who could change this are the politicians themselves, you know, the ones benefiting from our current system.

These leadership vacuums in Houston, Austin and Washington D.C. are going to matter to normal people eventually, I just hope by the time they do it's not too late to do anything about it.

Although I'm afraid it may already be.

HALV: The (Expensive) Education of Lina Hidalgo

Ignorance is bliss.

UNLESS you've just been elected County Judge for the largest County in Texas and have a laundry list of campaign promises you want to enact lest you become a one-term flash in the pan.

Then, Ignorance is a problem.

For Lina Hidalgo the solution appears to be to throw a bunch of money at the problem in hopes that it goes away....

Lina Hidalgo, Eager to Improve Harris County Government, Defends Consultant Costs. Zach Despart, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)

“I’m not going to sit here and come up with the best ideas by myself,” Hidalgo said. “And the folks that have been here 10, 20, 30 years aren’t going to either.”

One can imagine that morale is not at its high-tide in the Harris County offices right now, after being told by Hidalgo that all of their experience counts for naught, one could forgive long-time employees if they're feeling overlooked by Harris County's Neophyte media superstar.

The Chron piece on this, as Chron profiles of politicians with which they share policy goals typically are, is glowing. She's sitting in a spartan office with laser-like focus on the issues plaguing the county, issues, it is left unsaid, she hasn't the foggiest about how to actually fix.

Or if they're actually issues.

She tends to focus on ideology, instead  of practicality, ignoring the bread for circuses. She's also against outside hiring of specialists for things she doesn't like (the Harris County Bail Lawsuit) but is just fine doing the same for things she does like.  As is always the case, the trough of local politics stays the same, just the faces you find feeding out of it change.

From that perspective Ms. Hidalgo is no different than her predecessors, minus the veil of experience and actual knowledge. She's being painted as a single-minded ideologue with grand designs of "fairness" and "equity" but little in the way of actual "need".

Because she has no place in her reformer's heart for "need", what the county needs, what flood projects are needed, or would best work. She's more concerned with ensuring that crumbs of bread are given to her key constituent groups than she is actually solving the county's problems.

And spending money.  Judge Hidalgo seems to be very good, early, at doing that. It's the other things, the things on which she was elected, that there's currently scant evidence to indicate she's up to the job.

Not for nothing, the consultants she hired were the same that worked for Bill de Blasio's transition.

How's that been working out so far?

Even his ideological fellow travelers are admitting it's a disaster.

Hold on to your butts Harris County Residents, four years is a long damn time. And you can blow through a ton of taxpayer cash in far less than that. It appears Judge Hidalgo is dead-set on doing just that. Results be damned.

HALV: Cry Poor on Services, be rich on entertaining yourself.

Houston, as our elected (and unelected) ruling class likes to constantly remind us, is out of money.

It cannot afford to properly pave the roads. It cannot afford to pay firefighters on a level equitable with police after voters wished it so, without laying a bunch of them off of course. It cannot collect trash, recycling or perform a host of other basic services for constituents because......the money is just not there folks.

What can it do?

Well....

It can spend gobs of money trying, unsuccessfully, to bring movie productions to town and it can throw a party for the media hosted by Boss Turner, It can hire hire Mayoral staffers to troll people on Twitter who suggest no taxpayer money is being spent by an organization, wholly funded by Houston Taxes (from the General fund, hotel occupancy taxes and "other" funds as authorized by City Council) who then refuse to provide any details as to where the money originates. It can also sign on in support of what will assuredly be a multi-Million dollar plan to bring the FIFA World Cup to Houston including Millions that will be spent, some private, some undoubtedly public, even IF Houston doesn't win the bid.

Meanwhile Houston's roads are deteriorating to the point that developing Nations look at them and snicker, Houston's Fifth Ward is being buried under an increasingly large pile of trash and there doesn't seem to be much of a plan to dig out of it.

Word is that Boss Turner's staff (and their salary) are the only thing in Houston growing faster than the piles of trash. A Tweet I saw recently placed his direct staff headcount at 102, with many of them making in excess of $100,000 per year.

Clearly, it's good to be the Boss, and it's even better to be the Boss's friend. That's just about the only thing being done in the Turner administration these days, rewarding patrons.

Which is what we predicted would happen once he became Mayor, his career has an awful lot of debts to pay off.  And it's only going to get worse as we go forward.

This is one area where I wish I was wrong. And that the Houston Areal Leadership Vacuum wasn't growing as fast as it is.  This is not sustainable, nor is it very effective governance.

Nor is there much hope, given the slate of Mayoral candidates so far, that the sucking of the HALV will end anytime soon.

Trash origami, the NEXT big thing in urban design.

HALV: It's Election 2019 time already.

In 2019 the race for Houston Mayor should be the big story, and while it's been brewing for a while, yesterday's political announcements pretty much kicked things off proper:

Buzbee, King, call for donor limits at City Hall. Houston Chronicle.

If you're thinking you've heard similar sentiments recently, you're correct. Lina Hidalgo announced something similar just the day before. Suddenly everyone in Houston is trying to get on the "good governance" train.

Bill King, has basically been running for Mayor since he narrowly lost in 2015,publishing missive after missive against Turner in his blog and on Twitter. Some of his jabs, including pointing out that Turner's staff has ballooned to 102 since he took office and that many of them make over $100,000 per year, seem to be something that might gain some traction, were he able to get any traction in local media.

It's odd then that this is the issue that does, because this is an issue that media will fawn over, but which I don't see moving the electoral needle all that much.  Houston is basically DC at this point, through an electoral lens. Turner could shoot someone down on Smith Street and still receive enough votes to get into a run-off. Houston is a one-party town, minus the effective machine that exists in Chicago. A machine that Turner would give his political eye-teeth to develop and maintain.

King is saddled with the baggage of losing previously, and now he's faced with the fact that his signature issue, pension reform, has been effectively kicked far enough down the road that people are willing to suspend disbelief and call it "fixed" despite it being no such thing.

Buzbee is a wild-card, more of a bomb-thrower than a serious candidate at this point with very little evidence suggesting that will change.

So far, no one else legitimate has thrown their hat in the ring but, should they, you would have to think the challenge would come from the right, further diluting the opposition pool. I just can't see any serious Democrat wanting to challenge Turner. Stephen Costello is smart enough to keep his powder dry, be content to be named the czar of pretty much everything and then take that crown and attempt to parlay it to City Hall in 2023 with Turner's blessing.

Mayor Costello, THAT's a sobering thought.

Given the current state of things here are my very early odds on the race and where I see the candidates place in it:  (Odds are to make the run-off)


Sylvester Turner (-2000) The prohibitive favorite who has both the power of incumbency and the largest natural voting base in the election. It would take the presence of a strong, Democratic candidate entering the race to change these odds and I just don't see that happening.

Tony Buzbee (+500) I make his odds this long because it's highly possible he flames out. But I put him in second place for reasons that I'll elaborate more on in just a minute. He's going to be loud, he's going to be flashy, he might even provide some amusement. Will he win?  Doubtful. He's got little in the way of message and no natural base.

Bill King (+800) I've met Bill King, he's a decent man. Certainly a politician though and that's the problem. He's going to have to overcome the perception that he's a perpetual candidate after losing against Turner in 2015 and now having to reinvent himself but he does at least have a base of voter support in Houston, something Buzbee is lacking. Where I think he's going to struggle is that he has a lot of entrenched opposition as well, something Buzbee does not have at the moment.

A bigger challenge for both Buzbee and King is that, even if they are to find an issue that could be damaging to Turner, it probably is not going to matter. You'd have to have it resonate with a large portion of Turner's voters to the level that they would be willing to rethink their support for him.

Good luck with that.

The State of the HALV: January 10, 2019

Some quick thoughts on a few things that I currently don't have time to give full-treatment to.

Prop B will be fought over in the media. - It seems pretty clear that Turner is still operating under the assumption that by continuing to make the case that Prop B is punching a gigantic hole in the budget, he will win this issue in the public mind. Given that we're dealing with the Houston electorate, he could be correct.

The answer is ALWAYS more money. - Of course, there's already a gigantic hole in the Houston budget. Harvey et al. is usually blamed for this but the real reason is that what passes for leadership in Houston hasn't focused on Public Works at all for at least a decade now.

Even when money is coming, they don't know what to do with it. - It's amazing that, this long after the disaster, we're still not at a place where people can have access to needed funds. Are you surprised that many have totally given up on the process?

Give Credit to Acevedo, he knows to toe the party line - He might not be the best police chief, but he's a savvy politician who hasn't found an issue he can't try to exploit, or a TV camera he's shy to get in front of. He's also not shown an aversion to changing tack for partisan reasons. He's going to find an elected office to run for soon.  This is all groundwork.

On another note: It's time to retire "iconic" and "beloved" when speaking of shuttered businesses. - The example here is a Burger King for chrissakes.

Beware: It's almost rodeo season. - I'm planning on being out of town, a lot, during this time.

Lina Hidalgo's solution is probably NOT to hire Ed Emmett - Hidalgo hasn't done anything really wrong yet, but hiring Emmett is not some magic bullet that's going to save the county. If we cannot survive without the services of one political figure then the Houston region is in bigger trouble than we've been saying on here.  Also, Hidalgo seems to have put "equitable" on auto-repeat for pretty much every issue. I would substitute "need".

Politics as perpetual election machine is #BadPolitics - There's precious little "public service" going on, more and more "patronage payback" and way too much "running for office". On the bright side, the more they're focused on getting re-elected the less stuff they can mess up. Still, elections should only be a small part of the political process.

Lina Hidalgo promising not to take money from county contractors is a good start. - Which needs to be tempered with the realization that there are many other campaign donors who could push her to equally bad policy. It's like the "climate" politicians who propose not to take money from "Big Oil". That's OK on it's surface, but still leaves them open to accepting donations from groups that don't have the public's interest at heart.  How do you stop this?  You don't. What's needed is tougher and more public disclosure rules around campaign finance. I don't mind people having biases, just be open and honest about them. (See: Fletcher et al)

In the matter of the State of Texas vs. the Houston Region. - We're to the point that HPD Chief Acevedo says Houston is fighting a "gang war" on day and then poo-poohs the same after Abbott suggests expanding the Gang Task Force because "lines on a map" or something? It's sad to see the Jazmine Barnes tragedy exploited this way by politicians who are just looking for their moment in the media spotlight.

And finally....

Sadly, illegal tire dumping in poor neighborhoods is an issue again. - It seems that the poor neighborhoods are only issues when politicians want their votes for political office, and then they go away under a flood of world-classiness and other initiatives designed to create plaques and naming rights for prosperity.  Meanwhile, how long will it be before voters start to question exactly WHAT and who they're voting for?  Or, more sanely, to realize that voting is a lazy-man's way to participate in democracy and start taking alternative action? (And no, I don't mean vigilantism, I'm referring to civic engagement and the actual work of doing things, something our politicians have forgotten of late)


2019 is off to a heckuva start.

BadMedia: Houston Chronicle - Last week's news, today.

Curious what's going on locally in politics in America's 4th largest city?

Believe it or not you're not likely to find it on the Politics and policy page on the website for the former newspaper of record.

As of now, 7:48 AM, January 8th, 2019 the most recent story showing up on the page is dated....

12/29/2018 (note: I wrote this story last night but verified this morning.)

Want a story from August about local leaders pushing for the $2.5 Billion dollar bond election?  You can read that, it passed in November with over 60% of the vote mind you so you're probably a little late.

Want to know that Harvey victims were still struggling back in April 2018? Covered.

How about a December 19th, 2018 about Houston struggling to expand it's sidewalk program? You're in luck.

All of the stories I linked to were penned by Mike Morris, who has either been on vacation for just over a week or who honestly can't find anything in local Houston politics and policy to write about. Even on the front page of HoustonChronicle.com the most recent story I can find relating to Houston Politics and Policy is this December 12th story on the delay of the vote for the Houston Airport System renovation contracts.  Surely something has happened with those right?  Or there's more to the story on these right?

For all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the downfall of newspaper media, and their self-prescribed "critical role" in the function of democracy the fact is you're more likely to get Twitter take-downs of the CFPI Halftime show or (from time to time) soft-core porn pictorials on Chron.com than you are actual hard news and that's too bad.

Because there are a lot of messes to try and sort out in Houston but the Chronicle has clearly chosen to feature click-bait and (erratic) editorial content over actual hard news. You know, the stuff that is ACTUALLY critical to public interaction with democracy?

Houston doesn't need more j-school grads combing Twitter, and it sure as hell doesn't need the unhinged ramblings of Chris Tomlinson, Erica Grieder or Lisa Falkenberg.

Tomlinson is a business reporter who hates actual business, Falkenberg is just special and Grieder is just....well...erratic? Oversold on her own brilliance which is really not a thing? A public meltdown waiting to happen? (again)

Judging by the stories featured it's clear that the Chron has it's priorities all out of whack, and that Houston civic engagement is suffering because of it.  Their subscription rate continues to decline, as does their relevance within the City.  We're started a new year, but we're saddled with the same old crap-fest of a newspaper.

The Dallas Morning News is currently suffering the same fate, and they just sadly laid-off 43 of their staff. Reportedly shrinking their news staff to 20 people.  Twenty people to cover all of the Dallas Metroplex.

How long before the Chron does the same?  Turning itself into nothing more than a gossip rag with a couple of political opinion writers?

Not that anyone will notice. You'll still (presumably) be able to log onto HoustonChronicle.com and view reporting that's almost a year old.


Sad.