Stick another nail in the "Houston is a World Class City" coffin.
Metro mulling ads in and on buses, train stations. Dug. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
Truly "world class" cities have had these ads for years. London, Paris, New York, Las Vegas. Hell, Vegas has full bus wraps depicting certain shows for goodness' sake.
If Houston ever wants to be viewed as anything more than a regional city with one hell of an industrial driver for it's economy it will need to stop listening to those who want to limit it's scope and stop making issues like this a thing.
Of course, it could be worse....
Metro should go slow in considering advertisements on it's buses. Editorial Board. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
Now, if you're a clear thinking individual you might be wondering on what expertise a newspaper editorial board is standing on when they try to provide advice to any organization on advertisements?
After all, it was newspapers lack of understanding of on-line advertising trends that has all but scuttled their operation and news gathering budgets. They refused to modernize, paid the price, and are now suggesting that Houston Metro follow in their footsteps.
For an agency in desperate need of revenue, I'm far less against ads on busses, trains and train stations than I am taking of said revenue from the general populace through threat of force (taxation). This being the Chron ed-board however, who has never met a municipal tax increase they didn't like, you shouldn't be surprised that they have a problem contemplating advertisements on things they wish other people would ride more often.
Advertising on Metro vehicles, at Metro train stations is a great idea. It allows companies to voluntarily choose to spend their advertising budgets with Metro, and it would certainly make for much more visually appealing vehicles. Imagine a bus with a full Texans wrap, or the Astros, or a Rocket(s) train. A Metro bus decked out in all Dynamo Orange would be a fantastic specimen.
Yes, there are questions which adverts to allow. No one wants to ride on the Viagra Bus for example and political/issue adverts should be right out. Obviously no beer or liquor, but a Museum of Natural Science bus with a wrap that changes quarterly has some spectacular potential.
Nothing lewd, obviously, and no-one, ever, wants to see a giant image of a toilet on a bus, but a gigantic Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo bus would be pretty cool. Mattress Mac might also be out, but if he could keep his smiling visage off of the bus his furniture store's logo is pretty cool.
Rebrand the 9 as "Bernie's Burger Bus" and you have an instant winner.
This should not be this hard.
Showing posts with label HALV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HALV. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Thursday, April 18, 2019
HALV: Sylvester Turner - Dear Leader.
The Mayoral Race is heating up, and so are the charges of shenanigans against Dear Leader (Boss) Sylvester Turner
This is the offending billboard in question:
It's a doozy, and hardly a "safety" message when you consider the main focus is Turner, with the actual "alerthouston.org" site being hidden at the bottom in tiny text.
But that's becoming the norm for Dear Leader, an old-style boss of the machine type ruler who has taken to resorting to threats when challenged and whose communication staff plays out more like a compliance brigade who doesn't want to have to associate with the little people (Too good to fly coach Ms. Benton, seriously?) or a SWAT team out to punch down to citizens on any out of official lock-step statement. When they're not swooning over how great a leader *snicker* they find Turner to be.
Meanwhile, Dear Leader (Boss) Sylvester Turner is crying poor on one hand while gifting $400 Million in unreviewed contracts to his patronage.
Nothing to see here, move along, nothing to see.That's right, pay your taxes, go about your business. And if Dear Leader (Boss) Turner has anything to say about it you'll be paying a LOT more in taxes as the years go forward. After a lifetime in politics, he's got a lot of political patrons who are starting to wonder when they'll get their space in the Houston taxpayer trough.
Here's the thing. He's going to be re-elected, although probably by a slim margin, he will probably even have to go to a run-off against either Bill King or Tony Buzbee, possibly current Council member Dwight Boykins should he decided to run. Given his delusions of grandeur he's going to take that narrow victory and he, and his courtiers, are going to claim a mandate to basically increase taxes on homeowners and business until their eyes start bleeding.
He's not going to do this for public safety (although he'll frame it as such) and he's not going to do it to improve Houston. He's going to do it because he's got a LOT of political chits that need to be paid. He'll then go back to the law firm that he worked for prior to his obtaining the Mayoral seat (You know, the one he's currently paying Millions to in excess of prior Mayors?) and live comfortably for the rest of his life on the largesse that he's provided himself.
His hope will be that the next Mayor is a member of the machine, and that they will continue the status quo that he started. To ensure this he'll engage the media, "activists" and any unions still loyal to him to ensure the "correct" person is elected as his successor.
That's how machine politics work, and we're seeing an example of a new Houston Political Machine rising as we speak. The creepy part about this one is the Dear Leader treatment of the current Boss.
In some ways that could portend worse things to come.
The leadership vacuum grows.
This is the offending billboard in question:
It's a doozy, and hardly a "safety" message when you consider the main focus is Turner, with the actual "alerthouston.org" site being hidden at the bottom in tiny text.
But that's becoming the norm for Dear Leader, an old-style boss of the machine type ruler who has taken to resorting to threats when challenged and whose communication staff plays out more like a compliance brigade who doesn't want to have to associate with the little people (Too good to fly coach Ms. Benton, seriously?) or a SWAT team out to punch down to citizens on any out of official lock-step statement. When they're not swooning over how great a leader *snicker* they find Turner to be.
Meanwhile, Dear Leader (Boss) Sylvester Turner is crying poor on one hand while gifting $400 Million in unreviewed contracts to his patronage.
Nothing to see here, move along, nothing to see.That's right, pay your taxes, go about your business. And if Dear Leader (Boss) Turner has anything to say about it you'll be paying a LOT more in taxes as the years go forward. After a lifetime in politics, he's got a lot of political patrons who are starting to wonder when they'll get their space in the Houston taxpayer trough.
Here's the thing. He's going to be re-elected, although probably by a slim margin, he will probably even have to go to a run-off against either Bill King or Tony Buzbee, possibly current Council member Dwight Boykins should he decided to run. Given his delusions of grandeur he's going to take that narrow victory and he, and his courtiers, are going to claim a mandate to basically increase taxes on homeowners and business until their eyes start bleeding.
He's not going to do this for public safety (although he'll frame it as such) and he's not going to do it to improve Houston. He's going to do it because he's got a LOT of political chits that need to be paid. He'll then go back to the law firm that he worked for prior to his obtaining the Mayoral seat (You know, the one he's currently paying Millions to in excess of prior Mayors?) and live comfortably for the rest of his life on the largesse that he's provided himself.
His hope will be that the next Mayor is a member of the machine, and that they will continue the status quo that he started. To ensure this he'll engage the media, "activists" and any unions still loyal to him to ensure the "correct" person is elected as his successor.
That's how machine politics work, and we're seeing an example of a new Houston Political Machine rising as we speak. The creepy part about this one is the Dear Leader treatment of the current Boss.
In some ways that could portend worse things to come.
The leadership vacuum grows.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
HALV: Wow, just wow.
Interesting dispatch from the Bill King Campaign:
Turner: It will cost you $2.8 Million to find out how I spent $400 Million of your tax dollars. Bill King Blog
Under City rules, the mayor can sign contracts up to $50,000 without Council approval. In January, we got a tip from a City employee that Turner was aggressively using this rule to benefit some of his cronies and that if we were to file an Open Records request for those contracts, we would find some very “interesting” expenditures. So, we filed a request for all contracts the City had entered into since Turner took office but had not been approved by Council.
Under the Texas Public Information Act (“TPIA”), the City is entitled to recover its costs in producing any documents. Last week we received a letter from the City Attorney stating that the cost of copying the contracts would be $2.8 million and if we would send over a check for 50% of that amount, they would begin copying the contracts.
The cost estimate stated that it would take 155,000 hours to assemble the documents. That is 75 people working full-time for a year.
The only possible reaction to this, if you're not a hopeless partisan or someone who's profiteering off the public trough, is "Wow"
Just Wow.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: There is no greater criminal enterprise in modern America than big city politics. It enables and entire courtier class of hangers-on and leeches who serve no public good and whose only job is to seemingly heap praise on the current emperor, provided said emperor is willing to swear fealty to the existing ruling structure.
It is quite literally the greatest scam in American history, it has run our cities into the ground, possibly damaged our cities beyond repair and has done more to devalue the existing American system than almost any other institution in the US.
And it's entirely legal.
Our cities are debt-ridden cess-pools, and our leaders are giving away money like it's so many carnival baubles.
And we have done this to ourselves by continuing to listen to local media and other bad-actors who are so tied into the system that their opinions are nothing more than press-releases for the status quo.
We have done this to ourselves. The only way to undo it is to elect leaders who won't partake in this type of behavior. The problem is almost EVERY candidate runs for election as a reformer. Almost none turn out to truly be.
A lot of money and power are difficult things to resist. Especially when changing things would require changing the laws that allow you to do it. It's much like Congress at the State and Federal levels. Licenses to steal.
If you read this and think "Wait a minute, he's calling the entire American political system corrupt here"
You're right. I am.
Tuesday, February 05, 2019
HALV: Two News Items that lay out the Vacuum in stark detail.
First:
"A Step Below Hell" Video gives inside look at HISD Dysfunction. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
The old saying "this mess is a place" seems to be very salient here. This is also a good job by the Chronicle of watchdog reporting, good use of FOIA requests and good reporting on a school board that has clearly run off the rails.
It is also the strongest case for TEA control that anyone has ever made.
Second:
The Trouble with the Midtown Innovation District. Sophie Asakura, HoustonChronicle.com
I'm not questioning Ms. Asakura's intentions, or her motivations. It appears that what she is advocating for is pure and focused. That she is concerned about the homeless and working poor in the area is admirable.
However, it's also painfully clear that her solutions to the problem are patently wrong. In fact, it could be argued that Ms. Asakura doesn't even really understand what she should be arguing for.
At it's root, the problem of chronic homelessness is a gigantic mental health issue that Houston, Harris County and the State of Texas are currently wholly unable to address. That Rice is purchasing parcels of land that acted as a homeless encampment is not a negative, neighborhood improvement is good. What is bad is that there are several people living in homeless encampments for one reason or another whose core needs are not being addressed.
Finally, for all of her concern about the people living in and around the Ion, and the problems that occur because of rising property values what she is really advocating for is property tax reform. If you have control of property tax then you have a situation where rising property values become a good thing due to increased equity minus the burden of excessive tax increases.
I doubt that Ms. Asakura would view it this way, but reforming property taxes in Texas would assuage most of her concerns and would actually help the home-owners in the area should property values rise.
Both of these stories show the flaws in both the operation of Harris County's elected leaders and the short-sightedness of our "thought leaders".
The HISD board is a dysfunctional mess, lacking both good intentions and a basic understanding of acting like an adult, while Ms. Askaura injects in a debate without understanding the issues for which she's advocating, or possible fixes for them.
All of this fuels the Houston Area Leadership Vacuum which is saddening, but not unexpected.
I will say this: I've respect for Ms. Asakura because her intentions are pure. I have no respect for the HISD Board because theirs are not. Honestly we need more people like Ms. Asakura who at least are approaching the issue concerned about others, if only their ideologies allowed them to view things through a wider lens.
"A Step Below Hell" Video gives inside look at HISD Dysfunction. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
The old saying "this mess is a place" seems to be very salient here. This is also a good job by the Chronicle of watchdog reporting, good use of FOIA requests and good reporting on a school board that has clearly run off the rails.
It is also the strongest case for TEA control that anyone has ever made.
Second:
The Trouble with the Midtown Innovation District. Sophie Asakura, HoustonChronicle.com
I'm not questioning Ms. Asakura's intentions, or her motivations. It appears that what she is advocating for is pure and focused. That she is concerned about the homeless and working poor in the area is admirable.
However, it's also painfully clear that her solutions to the problem are patently wrong. In fact, it could be argued that Ms. Asakura doesn't even really understand what she should be arguing for.
At it's root, the problem of chronic homelessness is a gigantic mental health issue that Houston, Harris County and the State of Texas are currently wholly unable to address. That Rice is purchasing parcels of land that acted as a homeless encampment is not a negative, neighborhood improvement is good. What is bad is that there are several people living in homeless encampments for one reason or another whose core needs are not being addressed.
Finally, for all of her concern about the people living in and around the Ion, and the problems that occur because of rising property values what she is really advocating for is property tax reform. If you have control of property tax then you have a situation where rising property values become a good thing due to increased equity minus the burden of excessive tax increases.
I doubt that Ms. Asakura would view it this way, but reforming property taxes in Texas would assuage most of her concerns and would actually help the home-owners in the area should property values rise.
Both of these stories show the flaws in both the operation of Harris County's elected leaders and the short-sightedness of our "thought leaders".
The HISD board is a dysfunctional mess, lacking both good intentions and a basic understanding of acting like an adult, while Ms. Askaura injects in a debate without understanding the issues for which she's advocating, or possible fixes for them.
All of this fuels the Houston Area Leadership Vacuum which is saddening, but not unexpected.
I will say this: I've respect for Ms. Asakura because her intentions are pure. I have no respect for the HISD Board because theirs are not. Honestly we need more people like Ms. Asakura who at least are approaching the issue concerned about others, if only their ideologies allowed them to view things through a wider lens.
Monday, February 04, 2019
HALV: "Trust me, because....some votes or something"
"Trust me"
That's the crux of Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia's argument when approached on the subject of "pay to play" in the Harris County Court....
Harris County Relies on Contractors, Commissioners Rely on their Cash. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
Uh huh.
This is an issue that seems to pop its head out of the mud occasionally and it's certainly not just limited to Garcia, or Democrats. The prevalence of pay to play deals is part and parcel of a governmental authority with non-existent ethics rules and little to no oversight. We're asking the wolves to guard the chicken coop, with nothing more than a vague promise from the wolves that they've actually sworn-off chicken, just ignore the feathers around their mouth.
Despite her office having no direct say on spending of the type mentioned in this story, it was hoped that Lina Hidalgo's commendable step of refusing campaign money from firms with county contracts would prod the other commissioners to up their game and end what is clearly a bad-governance practice.
So much for hopes and dreams.
Of course, an easy fix to all of this would be to change the rules and force all of these awarded contracts to go through a bid process, but that might prove detrimental to the people currently rigging the game, and they're the ones that would have to enact those changes, so it's doubtful it would ever happen.
Yes, the Texas Legislature could act, but the County spends tens of thousands (if not more) every session for lobbyists to descend on Austin and lobby against the taxpayers, and there's never much, if any, push for real reform from a State Lege that NEEDS County support to handle their unfunded mandates.
They say the closer you get in government to where you live the greater the corruption really is. Cities are by nature more corrupt than counties and counties more corrupt than State government and the States are more corrupt than the Federal Government. Judging by what we're seeing at the Federal level it's a miracle green slime isn't spewing out of some of our electeds mouths on a day to day basis.
But hey, trust them. Because at one time in the distant past they may have cast a vote on an issue that goes against the wishes of their campaign donors. Given the make-up of the donor's list that's highly possible.
It's also likely that the votes Garcia would use as an example go against every day citizens who donated or was a case where one donor won and another lost.
Oh well, give more money to me next time and we'll see if we can't have a make-good session later on. There are always more projects in the kitty.
Which, ironically, is why these offices are so coveted. They control a lot of money and provide Commissioners with a LOT of unchecked power.
It's GOOD to be in the ruling class.
That's the crux of Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia's argument when approached on the subject of "pay to play" in the Harris County Court....
Harris County Relies on Contractors, Commissioners Rely on their Cash. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
“If you look at my voting history over the years, I’ve made decisions and taken votes that worked against some of the interests of people that contributed to me,” said Garcia, who previously served as a Houston city councilman and Harris County sheriff.
Uh huh.
This is an issue that seems to pop its head out of the mud occasionally and it's certainly not just limited to Garcia, or Democrats. The prevalence of pay to play deals is part and parcel of a governmental authority with non-existent ethics rules and little to no oversight. We're asking the wolves to guard the chicken coop, with nothing more than a vague promise from the wolves that they've actually sworn-off chicken, just ignore the feathers around their mouth.
Despite her office having no direct say on spending of the type mentioned in this story, it was hoped that Lina Hidalgo's commendable step of refusing campaign money from firms with county contracts would prod the other commissioners to up their game and end what is clearly a bad-governance practice.
So much for hopes and dreams.
Of course, an easy fix to all of this would be to change the rules and force all of these awarded contracts to go through a bid process, but that might prove detrimental to the people currently rigging the game, and they're the ones that would have to enact those changes, so it's doubtful it would ever happen.
Yes, the Texas Legislature could act, but the County spends tens of thousands (if not more) every session for lobbyists to descend on Austin and lobby against the taxpayers, and there's never much, if any, push for real reform from a State Lege that NEEDS County support to handle their unfunded mandates.
They say the closer you get in government to where you live the greater the corruption really is. Cities are by nature more corrupt than counties and counties more corrupt than State government and the States are more corrupt than the Federal Government. Judging by what we're seeing at the Federal level it's a miracle green slime isn't spewing out of some of our electeds mouths on a day to day basis.
But hey, trust them. Because at one time in the distant past they may have cast a vote on an issue that goes against the wishes of their campaign donors. Given the make-up of the donor's list that's highly possible.
It's also likely that the votes Garcia would use as an example go against every day citizens who donated or was a case where one donor won and another lost.
Oh well, give more money to me next time and we'll see if we can't have a make-good session later on. There are always more projects in the kitty.
Which, ironically, is why these offices are so coveted. They control a lot of money and provide Commissioners with a LOT of unchecked power.
It's GOOD to be in the ruling class.
Thursday, January 31, 2019
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 ($$$)
It's an interesting read that mainly outlines the Chronicle's ties to the city's leadership and institutions and their historical proclivity to report along official lines. Not quite Pravda, but not quite an independent watchdog either.
Snyder goes on to outline the role of newspapers in cities and ultimately gets around to asking the question "Could this happen today?"
Based on what we're seeing reported surrounding the incidents that led to the unfortunate shooting of four police officers and the deaths of two suspects and their dog, I think we're starting to see that the answer is "yes, it could".
To whit:
Wounded Houston Officers Present opportunity for Unity, no division with HPD. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
They then go on to say this:
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
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 ($$$)
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
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.
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.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
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.
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.
Monday, December 31, 2018
2019: Dusting Off the Crystal Ball
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.
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.
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.
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?
Friday, November 30, 2018
HALV: The HISD Mess is Rotten from the Top.
It doesn't matter who takes over as the Superintendent of HISD, as long as the board is staffed by low-functioning idiots.
HISD Trustees Vowed to Play Nice, but that didn't last long. Chron.com
Children, Children, can't we all just get along?
With this group of mush-puddles in charge it's quite possible that HISD hasn't yet found the bottom of the hole it's digging for itself and the only solution might be for the State to come in, sweep it clean, possibly break it up and start from scratch.
Jones and Santos are the culprits in this story, but the entire group of them have been guilty of bad behavior at some point in the past. It's a combination of wanting, desperately, to run for higher office, ego and sheer childishness that drives this group, not some burning desire to "help the children" or other such nonsense that pops up in political ads.
And Houston voters, rarely taking the time to look that far down-ballot are not going to boot them out of office, so I'm afraid that it's going to lie at the feet of the State to make sure that the biggest city in Texas has a school district (or, districts, if they knew what was good for them) that can at least nominally perform it's duties.
As long as we keep running along with this gaggle of awful, HISD is never going to get better.
I'd say "do your duty" and vote them out "for the children" but I know that's not going to happen. So the plea goes out to the Texas Education Administration.
Please, if not for the children do it for our sanity, and some peace and quiet.
HISD Trustees Vowed to Play Nice, but that didn't last long. Chron.com
Trustees Jolanda Jones and Elizabeth Santos engaged in a 30-second shouting match during a workshop Tuesday, with Jones shouting for Santos to "be quiet" and Santos calling Jones a "liar."
Children, Children, can't we all just get along?
With this group of mush-puddles in charge it's quite possible that HISD hasn't yet found the bottom of the hole it's digging for itself and the only solution might be for the State to come in, sweep it clean, possibly break it up and start from scratch.
Jones and Santos are the culprits in this story, but the entire group of them have been guilty of bad behavior at some point in the past. It's a combination of wanting, desperately, to run for higher office, ego and sheer childishness that drives this group, not some burning desire to "help the children" or other such nonsense that pops up in political ads.
And Houston voters, rarely taking the time to look that far down-ballot are not going to boot them out of office, so I'm afraid that it's going to lie at the feet of the State to make sure that the biggest city in Texas has a school district (or, districts, if they knew what was good for them) that can at least nominally perform it's duties.
As long as we keep running along with this gaggle of awful, HISD is never going to get better.
I'd say "do your duty" and vote them out "for the children" but I know that's not going to happen. So the plea goes out to the Texas Education Administration.
Please, if not for the children do it for our sanity, and some peace and quiet.
Thursday, November 29, 2018
HALV (Shocker!): Your Elected Officials in Houston Don't Think All That Highly of You.
It should come as a surprise to no one that immediately after the November 6th election results for Proposition B (The Firefighter Pay Equity Item) showed that it was going to pass overwhelmingly that Mayor Turner would begin moving to issue legal challenges to it. After all, he spent a lot of time in the run-up to the vote rallying his friends at the trough and Houston's Courtier Class to advocate against it, and it was one of the worst-kept secrets in Houston that he was not going to quit regardless of what the voters said.
Sure enough, on Wednesday, the story came out that Turner brow-beat the City Council into hiring a law-firm of his choosing to "study" the proposition in what is most-assuredly the first steps toward just ignoring the Proposition altogether, or filing a lawsuit depending on which path his lawyers tell him is the most likely to succeed.
In the Houston Chronicle story regarding the hiring of the law firm there were a couple of interesting nuggets.
Houston Council Hires Law Firm to Advise City on Prop B Legal questions. HoustonChronicle.com
First, and it needs to be said. This headline is wrong. Turner is hiring the law firm, City Council has just approved the hiring. (by a narrow 9-7 vote)
Then there's this:
Any way you look at it that is a helluva return on investment. For a measly fifteen grand Norton Rose has reaped a $500K pay day. Whoever thought up this deal at the law firm needs a raise. They, correctly, identified Mayor Turner's penchant for a) being politically vindictive and b) paying off his political patrons and acted appropriately. Good move by them.
Then, there's this:
So, instead of an immediate middle finger to 59% of Houston voters they waited three weeks to extend the digit, relying on their dim view of the electorate to assuage the anger.
In other words, they (and the Chron) think you to be fairly daft.
Of course, the only way to prove them wrong is to show up during the next Mayoral election and remind Turner that you're not that daft, and send him and the nine city council members packing when their number comes up. They are betting that people are both not paying much attention to this, and that they won't care when the time comes to head back to the ballot box.
Given Houston voter history this is not a bad political gamble. After all, they'll have the media on their side, so these issues can be white washed away, and most people are too busy in their daily lives. If they need a push in the right direction they can also rely on the unproductive class to give them a boost as well. There are plenty of people around with plenty of free time and access to the Internet after all.
Despite all of this it's not at all surprising that Turner is taking the confrontational path. Since coming back one of the key topics of this blog has been his pettiness toward political enemies, and his payback to his patrons. Of greater concern is that he is showing no willingness to engage with the Firefighters Union at all after the vote, signifying that, if he loses, he's willing to make drastic cuts to the department and place his political vindictiveness over the needs of Houstonians.
This leads to the uneasy realization that Houston potentially has a Mayor in City Hall that is more concerned with satisfying his need for revenge than ensuring the City is functioning properly.
If true, that's a problem. A BIG problem for a big city that's facing a host of challenges that could potentially be beyond the grasp of the current Mayor to address. The other option is that he doesn't care about his constituents at all.
Either incompetent or indifferent the focus of this Mayor is on "I" not "we". Which, oddly enough, puts him in the same intellectual wheelhouse and most of the Houston Chronicle opinion scribblers.
Or maybe he has a master plan that's going to shock everyone and which will resolve this mess to the satisfaction of all, thus saving the City budget and sparing the citizens the indignity of being taxed until their eyes bleed.
Yeah, that's a reach. A huge leap of faith that Houstononians are going to have to make. For now there's no other choice.
Sure enough, on Wednesday, the story came out that Turner brow-beat the City Council into hiring a law-firm of his choosing to "study" the proposition in what is most-assuredly the first steps toward just ignoring the Proposition altogether, or filing a lawsuit depending on which path his lawyers tell him is the most likely to succeed.
In the Houston Chronicle story regarding the hiring of the law firm there were a couple of interesting nuggets.
Houston Council Hires Law Firm to Advise City on Prop B Legal questions. HoustonChronicle.com
First, and it needs to be said. This headline is wrong. Turner is hiring the law firm, City Council has just approved the hiring. (by a narrow 9-7 vote)
Then there's this:
Neil Thomas, a Norton Rose partner in that office, served as treasurer for the anti-Prop B PAC, Protect Houston, and the firm contributed $15,000 to the committee’s coffers.
Any way you look at it that is a helluva return on investment. For a measly fifteen grand Norton Rose has reaped a $500K pay day. Whoever thought up this deal at the law firm needs a raise. They, correctly, identified Mayor Turner's penchant for a) being politically vindictive and b) paying off his political patrons and acted appropriately. Good move by them.
Then, there's this:
The mayor initially planned to seek a contract with Norton Rose the morning after Election Day, but delayed the vote over concerns that hiring the firm would look like “a middle finger” to the voters, as District G Councilman Greg Travis put it.
So, instead of an immediate middle finger to 59% of Houston voters they waited three weeks to extend the digit, relying on their dim view of the electorate to assuage the anger.
In other words, they (and the Chron) think you to be fairly daft.
Of course, the only way to prove them wrong is to show up during the next Mayoral election and remind Turner that you're not that daft, and send him and the nine city council members packing when their number comes up. They are betting that people are both not paying much attention to this, and that they won't care when the time comes to head back to the ballot box.
Given Houston voter history this is not a bad political gamble. After all, they'll have the media on their side, so these issues can be white washed away, and most people are too busy in their daily lives. If they need a push in the right direction they can also rely on the unproductive class to give them a boost as well. There are plenty of people around with plenty of free time and access to the Internet after all.
Despite all of this it's not at all surprising that Turner is taking the confrontational path. Since coming back one of the key topics of this blog has been his pettiness toward political enemies, and his payback to his patrons. Of greater concern is that he is showing no willingness to engage with the Firefighters Union at all after the vote, signifying that, if he loses, he's willing to make drastic cuts to the department and place his political vindictiveness over the needs of Houstonians.
This leads to the uneasy realization that Houston potentially has a Mayor in City Hall that is more concerned with satisfying his need for revenge than ensuring the City is functioning properly.
If true, that's a problem. A BIG problem for a big city that's facing a host of challenges that could potentially be beyond the grasp of the current Mayor to address. The other option is that he doesn't care about his constituents at all.
Either incompetent or indifferent the focus of this Mayor is on "I" not "we". Which, oddly enough, puts him in the same intellectual wheelhouse and most of the Houston Chronicle opinion scribblers.
Or maybe he has a master plan that's going to shock everyone and which will resolve this mess to the satisfaction of all, thus saving the City budget and sparing the citizens the indignity of being taxed until their eyes bleed.
Yeah, that's a reach. A huge leap of faith that Houstononians are going to have to make. For now there's no other choice.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
BadMedia: I still can't open up a can of care in the Houston vs. Dallas (fake) rivalry.
Another day, another media driven story about how Houston hates Dallas and vice-versa.
Houston Folk are Now in Charge of Texas, Should we be Worried? Ron Reynolds, Dallas Morning News
Meh. The truth is Dallas is a self-centered city as well, only concerned about it's Cowboys (who reside in Arlington) and keeping up an image burnished by a long-ago television show that was really good, and really inaccurate regarding Dallas as a whole.
Part of the problem is that there's never been a "Houston" television show. If there was it would be fascinating, depicting the life of the unproductive class riding around on the light-rail system from brain-session to brain-session endlessly trying to figure out a way to glom onto the next taxpayer-subsidized project in order to put food on the table.
But, I digress....
Both Houston and Dallas are fine places to work, and horrid places to live.
Houston has sprawl and swamp-heat and gross traffic, coupled with really bad services and inept municipal government that has trouble figuring out how to handle basic services, like fixing pot-holes for example.
Dallas has sprawl and North Texas weather, which brings the dynamic of snow into the picture and inept municipal government that has trouble figuring out how to handle basic services, like fixing pot-holes for example.
The old lie is that Dallas is white-collar while Houston chugs along with it's blue-collar dynamic. The truth is not that simple. Both Houston and Dallas are ruled and controlled by a moneyed gentry, who are serviced by a courtier class whose sole job is getting themselves invited to parties on a semi-regular basis. You might know these people as "the media".
It's the media's job to prop up the gentry, what passes for nobility in Houston/Dallas, painting on them lavish praise and layers of respectability through the dodgy use of glossy pictorials about "best dressed" or "most philanthropic" or what not. What all this really means is that they have the money and connections to throw a helluva shin-dig at fancy places the writers wouldn't otherwise attend because they can't afford it.
Below the writers are the unproductive class. They typically come from some money, somewhere up the familial food chain, they typically don't have "jobs" in the traditional sense but have been declared "experts" in fields such as public transportation and urban planning because they either a.) once wrote a blog that had some pretty graphs attached to it, or b.) have hung around "think-tanks" for long enough that the stink of respectability clings to them like the smoke smell in your clothes after you've barbecued a rack of ribs.
The unproductive class is especially sneaky, because they don't have jobs they can spend all of their time helping the politicians figure out how to divert more of your money to the moneyed gentry through tax takings while trying to convince you that it's "for the children". Of course, when all of this turns out to be a boondoggle (see DART) they find someone to dutifully write a story about Dallas vs. Houston which gets the chattel all fired up and concerned that the sky is falling because Houston/Dallas has SOMETHING that Houston/Dallas doesn't have and it's threatening to blow Houston/Dallas' stink of world classiness into the garbage.
And, as we all know, losing world classiness is like losing a bond election. It will require Billions of dollars of self-sacrifice on your (not their) part to ever get it back.
It's the circle of Dallas/Houston Municipal life, and one of the keys to getting elected to local office is now to pledge fealty to the system.
From that perspective, Houston and Dallas are identical twins.
Houston Folk are Now in Charge of Texas, Should we be Worried? Ron Reynolds, Dallas Morning News
The city can be a very insular, self-centered place, unconcerned with the goings-on of those not within the gravitational pull of Loop 610.
Meh. The truth is Dallas is a self-centered city as well, only concerned about it's Cowboys (who reside in Arlington) and keeping up an image burnished by a long-ago television show that was really good, and really inaccurate regarding Dallas as a whole.
Part of the problem is that there's never been a "Houston" television show. If there was it would be fascinating, depicting the life of the unproductive class riding around on the light-rail system from brain-session to brain-session endlessly trying to figure out a way to glom onto the next taxpayer-subsidized project in order to put food on the table.
But, I digress....
Both Houston and Dallas are fine places to work, and horrid places to live.
Houston has sprawl and swamp-heat and gross traffic, coupled with really bad services and inept municipal government that has trouble figuring out how to handle basic services, like fixing pot-holes for example.
Dallas has sprawl and North Texas weather, which brings the dynamic of snow into the picture and inept municipal government that has trouble figuring out how to handle basic services, like fixing pot-holes for example.
The old lie is that Dallas is white-collar while Houston chugs along with it's blue-collar dynamic. The truth is not that simple. Both Houston and Dallas are ruled and controlled by a moneyed gentry, who are serviced by a courtier class whose sole job is getting themselves invited to parties on a semi-regular basis. You might know these people as "the media".
It's the media's job to prop up the gentry, what passes for nobility in Houston/Dallas, painting on them lavish praise and layers of respectability through the dodgy use of glossy pictorials about "best dressed" or "most philanthropic" or what not. What all this really means is that they have the money and connections to throw a helluva shin-dig at fancy places the writers wouldn't otherwise attend because they can't afford it.
Below the writers are the unproductive class. They typically come from some money, somewhere up the familial food chain, they typically don't have "jobs" in the traditional sense but have been declared "experts" in fields such as public transportation and urban planning because they either a.) once wrote a blog that had some pretty graphs attached to it, or b.) have hung around "think-tanks" for long enough that the stink of respectability clings to them like the smoke smell in your clothes after you've barbecued a rack of ribs.
The unproductive class is especially sneaky, because they don't have jobs they can spend all of their time helping the politicians figure out how to divert more of your money to the moneyed gentry through tax takings while trying to convince you that it's "for the children". Of course, when all of this turns out to be a boondoggle (see DART) they find someone to dutifully write a story about Dallas vs. Houston which gets the chattel all fired up and concerned that the sky is falling because Houston/Dallas has SOMETHING that Houston/Dallas doesn't have and it's threatening to blow Houston/Dallas' stink of world classiness into the garbage.
And, as we all know, losing world classiness is like losing a bond election. It will require Billions of dollars of self-sacrifice on your (not their) part to ever get it back.
It's the circle of Dallas/Houston Municipal life, and one of the keys to getting elected to local office is now to pledge fealty to the system.
From that perspective, Houston and Dallas are identical twins.
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