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.
