Houston Leadership Vacuum: Of Parklets and S'MORES!

(Note: I found this while looking at the Pinboard feed of PubliusTX)

So this is a real thing:

Houston's first official "parklet" is now resting outside 19th St mattress store. Swamplot.com

Picture courtesy of Newliving

Apparently, the Parker administration has lowered the bar for ribbon cuttings to include things resembling something hastily thrown together by a 3rd graders parents in an effort to earn a "C" grade for that gardening project due tomorrow the child neglected to tell them about.

What you're seeing in the picture above (from Swamplot via New Living, please go read their entire article) is apparently not a late-arriving April Fool's joke.  This is a thing in Houston and it's called a parklet.

Now, before going any further, I've been to Europe, Asia, and visited many cities across the US of A and I'm familiar with the concept of placing a barrier of plants between parked cars and sidewalks in front of bars/restaurants which allow for patio dining and, in many cases, they are a good idea. They are (usually) tastefully done in a stone planter and placed just on the edge of the curb.

What I've never seen in ANY city is something that looks like a make-shift dumpster or construction staging area for greenery given the land-mark treatment and the full rigmarole that's being afforded this eyesore. To suggest that this was "designed" is an insult to design, to suggest that it represents a gigantic leap forward in the aesthetics of Houston borderlines on the ridiculous. That Houston's lame-duck Mayor is going to have a celebration and ribbon-cutting ceremony for this is just more than a little bit sad.

On top of that, Mayor Parker's Chief Policy Officer/Director of Communications Janice Evans shares with us that S'mores are being provided at the site. This brings to mind several questions.  For one, given that it's now illegal under Annise Antoinnete's regime for charity organizations to feed the homeless unless they are operating out of a certified kitchen, has Mr. S'more been cleared by the Houston Department of Health to distribute said sticky-sweet food items? After all, we live in a world where the City now decides who can provide a chicken sandwich to the most needy among us, should not that same standard also apply to who can provide sweets to folks who live in refurbished bungalows?

I enjoy a good S'more just as much as the next person.  But I have to wonder if we're not on the verge of the great marshmallow controversy here judging by the picture. I mean, I don't seen any evidence that established food safety protocols are being followed. No gloves, no hair nets. No refrigeration.

Certainly I would have no problem partaking in one of the proffered sweets but shouldn't the City, given their penchant under Parker for sticking their nose where it doesn't belong, step in and do something about this?

Or is this just another case where city ordinances and bothersome things such as food safety rules are "for thee and not for me"?  Because this is something that Mayor Parker likes, that she's rolling this out as the first step in Houston's transformation into San Francisco, all the bothersome things that restrict the freedoms of the citizenry are heretofore waived and considered null and void, provided you put a shoddy box full of plants in front of your property.

Of course, there is another possibility regarding this "parklet".  Could it be that underneath there's a gaping pothole that Annise Antionnete has no designs on fixing? She could then tout this as something new under the Sun to burnish her green credentials for a future State-wide run.

Coming soon to the middle of a road near you: Parklets! A San Francisco treat!

We might want to make sure the S'mores makers invest in those day-glo traffic vests, especially if operating near the Danger Train.

In arguing for at-grade light rail, Mrs. White makes the case against at-grade light rail

The primary reason that old axioms have a shelf-life long enough to become old axioms is that, on some level, they contain nuggets of truth that are so big they cannot be ignored.  I'm reminded of one old axiom when reading today's Mrs. White editorial regarding the Danger Train and the boondoggle that's shaping up over the Harrisburg under er...overpass:  "The definition of insanity is continuing to perform the same actions while expecting differing results."

Mrs. White it seems, fully embraces the insanity that has become Houston Metro's fractured transit-backbone.*

Overpass obstinacy. Mrs. White, Chron.com

There is a certain irony to a light rail route that is lined with auto repair shops and tire stores, but that's what you will see along Metro's nearly completed East End line, which follows Harrisburg from downtown to the Magnolia Park Transit Center. It is a reminder that despite this mass transit investment, car is still king in Houston. With this automotive dominance, Metro and City Hall's refusal to work together to build an overpass for this line that accommodates not only rail, but also cars and pedestrians, seems both short-sighted and spiteful.

The argument of many anti-light rail (NOT anti public transit. There is a difference except in the minds of those who refuse to accept fact) advocates has always been that in a car-centric city such as Houston, taking away miles and miles of vehicular lanes to accommodate a glorified toy train that doesn't do anything to promote mobility is counterproductive to transit needs.

To this end, Mrs. White continues in the next paragraph...

It usually doesn't make sense to prioritize roads in what should be a walkable, multi-modal corridor. Anyone who has tried to drive down Main Street knows that. 

The lack of logic in this statement, when combined with the talking points in the opening paragraph, is stunning.  First, as Mrs. White acknowledges, Houston is still (despite Critical Mass' arguments to the contrary) a car-based city. From that perspective it makes little sense to turn roads in one of the regions largest employment centers into no-car zones.

The fact is, downtown Houston is a driving mess these days.  Even now, when car/DangerTrain collisions have finally shown signs of diminishing, it's still tough to navigate and there are now roads that just end. For a city based on the concept of the car, this makes zero sense. It also raises the question as to why grade separation, argued for by DangerTrain critics but fought against by its supporters, is suddenly a "no-brainer" around Harrisburg but was considered necessary in one of the busiest traffic corridors within the City?

Additionally, you can add the Harrisburg overpass to another in the long list of promises to the community broken by Metro's insistence that the great-white whale be rammed down people's throats at all costs.

Despite these problems, an underpass has remained part of the conversation because it is what the community wanted, and what City Hall promised in 2010. Yet, further study has only demonstrated what City Hall and Metro already knew - an underpass is expensive and risky.

If City Hall and Metro both knew that an underpass was "expensive and risky" then one has to question why it was promised to the residents around Harrisburg in the first place?  Could it have been to garner support for a project on false pretense?

Houstonians were promised many things upon passing the MetroSolutions referendum, a 50% increase in bus service (when, in fact, bus service has decreased over time), a specific route plan (which Metro apparently never intended to follow) and now an underpass which neither Metro or the City ever intended to build.

Predictably Mrs. White, following the charge laid out long ago in her rail memo, is advocating a solution in line with Metro wishes but which still flies in the face of citizen wants. This should not surprise you because Mrs. White has not operated as a citizen's advocate for a very long time. Instead, she beats every institutional drum loudly and often. That the public occasionally gains a benefit is seen more as a happy accident rather than a sign of good governance.

At this risk of continuing to beat a dead horse, Mrs. White's advocacy for Metro's wishes is doing more to hurt the poor than any of the imagined ills of private business against which she rails frequently. At the least, the business community is employing people and providing end-of-a-gun funding for the things New Urbanists like.  At minimum, CM Rodriguez is attempting to keep the wishes of his constituents (customers) in mind. That's more that can be said for Metro and Mrs. White.

To Mrs. White, siding with the rank-and-file against the ruling class is something akin to City treason.  If she weren't such a staunch supporter of gun control I would suggest that the editorial calling for dissenters to be taken out behind George R. Brown and shot wouldn't be too long in coming.

With editorials such as this the only logical conclusion should be that Houston would be better off without this group of institutional shills and that the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board should be disbanded with the resources re-deployed to the news desks. Quasi-governmental factions of the Houston institution already employ many former journalists in their PR departments, let's let them earn their keep.














































*In honor of our Brazilian friends, I suggest we call the Light Rail system Neymar III

Houston Leadership Vacuum: Don't believe that the current administration holds no blame for the pension fund mess.

News today that the City of Houston is considering bringing a lawsuit against the firm that provided the analysis that lead to the 2001 changes in the HFD system by then Mayor Brown is just another case of Mayor Parker trying to wash her hands of the blame on an issue where she has had plenty of input.

City may sue firm over 2001 pension estimates. Mike Morris, HoustonChronicle.com ($)

What's amazing to me is that, in the linked story above, the reporter is continuing to run under the preferred (by the Parker administration) theory that Mayor Parker is dutifully working to bring herself up to speed on a situation with which she has little history.  You see the word "blindsided" thrown around a lot when referring to Parker's role in this.

In a recent story, Mike Morris again parroted the city line that Mayor Parker is an unwilling victim in all of this mess.

Parker's 'good government' approach could cause budget pain. Mike Morris, HoustonChronicle.com ($)

(In the interest of respecting the Chron's pay-wall I'm just going to pull a quote from the story and suggest, if you can, that you go read it all)

"I'm trying to change the game. At some point, one of us has to say, 'We are going to change the rules because that's not going to continue to work,' " Parker said. "It means that we have a strain now and there's things we could be doing that we're not doing, but three mayors back did it to me. I'm not going to do it three mayors forward."

The emphasis in the above quote is mine.  Because the idea that this was "done" to Mayor Parker, and that she didn't have a hand in the issue, requires ignoring her own words and other matters which have long been part of the public record.

To whit:

Labor in the news. AFLCIO (May 19th, 2004)

Archiving a Houston Chronicle story:

City employees would work longer, pay more and get less under a new retirement package proposed Tuesday by Mayor Bill White to slash the $1.9 billion shortfall in Houston's main municipal pension fund.
White's proposal, which must be negotiated with the pension board, is much like the plan the city had in 2001 before more generous pension benefits went into effect. Those benefits have proved unaffordable.
White also proposes to add the city-owned Hilton Americas-Houston hotel to the pension fund's assets to generate more revenue.

City Controller Annise Parker said she has a lot of questions about such a deal.
"I'm not quite sure of the legality," she said. "If I were a pension board member and they offered this asset, I would demand control. I think it would be hard for the city to give that up."

City puts hotel deeper in debt to bolster bloated City pension system. Jenna Colley, Houston Business Journal

"A $300 million reduction in the pension's unfunded liability is a big chunk out of way without the city having to put any cash out," says Parker. "We don't actually transfer the title of the hotel." Under the deal, the city will give up its lien on the hotel to the pension system.
The pension system board will have no control over the actual hotel, which is managed and operated by Hilton Hotels Corp.
As part of the deal, the city will have to pay at least 8.5 percent or about $26 million annually in interest on the $300 million. Under the deal, however, the pension system has the option of brokering that note to third parties.  

At some point in this process, then Controller Parker's "concerns" went away and she became a staunch supporter of the Hotel asset plan.  She also supported borrowing to pay pension obligations before she threw her predecessors under the bus for it.

Here's how to fix the city's pension mess. Annise Parker, Chron.com (May 9, 2004)

In the short term, the city may need to issue pension obligation bonds. This amounts to taking on new debt to pay an existing debt. It is similar to taking out a home equity loan to meet your everyday expenses. It's not a good idea. However, given the city's current financial difficulties, its an idea that may have to be considered to get through the immediate crisis.

Emphasis mine.

Later on she used the hotel asset swap and touted her role in adding to the entire mess as campaign fodder.

InsideOut at City Hall: First Year. Annise Parker, Outsmart. (Jan 2005)

As the city’s chief financial officer, my office provided the mayor and council with assessments of Propositions 1 and 2 and the pension crisis. I also presented the council’s only written analysis of the complicated Hilton Americas hotel transfer, a critical component of the mayor’s pension proposal.
Still up in the air is my proposal to have the controller or a representative serve on the pension board. It’s a perfect fit with the controller’s responsibility as the city’s financial watchdog and a way to bring some independent oversight to the pension fund’s investing policies. There would be no conflict of interest because I have no vote at the council table.

In addition, she later turned on Mayor Bill White, with whom (in her own words) she worked "closely" with on the pension situation.

Houston paying now for past bonds, tax cuts. Taxrates.ee

The city of Houston's budget crisis that has resulted in 747 employees getting pink slips last month and likely will close pools and community centers did not happen overnight.

It has been brewing for the better part of a decade, the result of, among other things, spending more while taxing less, borrowing to pay bills, raiding its piggy bank and channeling ever more payroll dollars into funds for retirees. A public hearing on the coming year's budget is scheduled for June 14.

Mayor Annise Parker inherited a city that she said last year had been spending more than it had taken in "for years." Parker, who served as controller or councilwoman since the 1990s, has refused to second-guess her predecessor, Bill White.

However, she has distanced herself by highlighting that this year's budget would not use pension obligation bonds to meet the city's commitment to retirees — a signature feature of White's budgets. The city borrowed $245 million to pay pension benefits during the White years. The money spent, the city now has to pay $34 million in principal and interest in the coming fiscal year.

"One of the side-effects of term limits is mayors push bills down the line, and Parker happens to be at the point in the line where the bills are coming due," said Nancy Sims, a University of Houston adjunct professor of political science.

In a recent op-ed article in the Houston Chronicle, White wrote that the city would not have been able to obtain reductions in employee pension benefits without relying on some borrowing to make the pension funds more secure. He also cited a 2004 Chronicle op-ed piece by then-Controller Parker in which she wrote, "In the short term, the city may need to issue pension obligation bonds."

Clearly Mayor Parker's current assumption that she was "shocked" by the state of Houston's finances upon becoming Mayor ring hollow. It's very clear, through a reading of the public record, including Parker's own words, that she was intimately involved in putting the city in the current financial hole.

This is not to say that Parker's current plans lack merit, or that her refusal to continue covering the current pension debt with additional borrowing is not a good idea. Quite the contrary. It could be argued that cuts, as painful as they may be, NEED to be made and made immediately.

However, the ingestion of the public line by secretarial journalists runs counter to the fact-based public record that suggests the Mayor is has been a willing accomplice, during her time as City Controller, in making this situation.

The public record also suggests that Houston's leadership vacuum has been present for years. Despite all of the glowing press given to Mayor's Brown and White by the Houston Chronicle, this issue has been simmering below the surface, unnoticed and unreported, for years now. At least since 2001. That it's just now coming to light reveals a blind spot in local media that needs to be corrected.

Of course, the Chronicle will point out that they have been running a series of Bill King warnings on this issue but none of them have made it into their hard news reporting and currently, King has been taking part in the same revisionist history as he ramps up for what many believe is a planned run for the Mayoral office.

Houston's taxpayers deserve better than the shoddy fiscal management that's been provided by their elected officials and the secretarial reporting by their media outlets which have allowed these problems to fester under the surface for years now.

 

Katy Catches Houston Financial Derangement Syndrome.

Early last week couple of stories were published that attracted little attention from the Inner-Loop centric courtiers who typically obsess over news of this sort but revealed a growing problem in local governments, especially those of the quasi-governmental, unelected type, that should be a growing concern and of upmost importance in local elections.

The first story involved the City of Katy, an Exburb City on the far Western reaches of the Houston region who it seems has caught a fever with the only cure being more cowbell hotel.

Katy plans convention center, hotel. Jenny Aldridge, Houston Business Journal

The estimated $10 million project will be anchored by an 80-acre retention pond south of Kingsland Boulevard and will include a 50,000 to 60,000-square-foot convention center. The city is currently in negotiations with Houston-based Simpkins Group to purchase the 10 to 15 acres for the project, and hopes to have a deal inked by September, according to Kayce Reina, director of tourism and marketing for the city.

Plans also include a 4- to 5-star hotel, with several well-known hotel brands showing interest. Officials declined to disclose what hotel brands expressed interest.

The first issue here is obvious.  When you think of the great boardwalks of America you think of Coney Island or Atlantic City. Being generous (very) we'll remain in Texas and say Kemah and the Pleasure Pier are examples of the type.  All of these share an important geographical feature. Namely, they are situated on a natural coast line.

You are not going to find, across the world, any great boardwalk built on the banks of an 80-foot retention pond. And while supporters might look up to the Woodlands and say "but wait, their waterway is man-made" I would counter that it's also surrounded by a master-planned community that took decades to construct and develop to the point that the waterway made sense. It would also be prudent to mention that the Woodlands is known more for it's golf than it is for giving good boardwalk.

It also mentions, in the same story, that Sugar Land is considering the building of a convention center, which I'm sure will be anchored by a taxpayer-subsidized hotel.

Then we have the story of Dublin Texas, who is continuing to beat the great white whale of tourism to death despite all evidence to the contrary.

Is there life after Dr. Pepper? Dublin wonders. Emily Schmall, AP via Chron.com

But Dublin without Dr Pepper is turning out to be a hard sell. At the annual summer festival in June — the first since 1980 in which Dr Pepper's birthday was not celebrated — the town saw how far its largest tourism event had fallen.

Five line dancers in tap shoes performed to a near-empty set of bleachers. The bicycle race was canceled after the organizers failed to show. An arts and crafts fair included only two stands. Food options were also slim: the Surfing Cowboy's Cajun shrimp on a stick or a Mexican taco truck.

Let's be clear here. "Tourism" development is NOT, nor has it ever been, about that murky cure-all for bad policy known as economic development. The arguments that convention centers and public-subsidized events create Billions in economic benefit are hazy constructions built on fuzzy math. They have about as much basis in reality as do estimations of public attendance at rallies and un-ticketed events.

The only reason these unelected tourism bureaus create playpens are to justify their (to quote Mel Brooks) "phony baloney jobs". They have been given a charge to increase tourism so they follow the play-books of other small and mid-size townships the only way they know how. In many cases what they seek to replicate (a boardwalk) is something that they've either seen in the news or to places that they've recently visited. Make no mistake that the Houston push for a more "walkable, livable central core" is nothing more than Euro-yearning by a group of people who recently obtained a passport and realized that the world's great cities are so for a reason. Amazingly, these same sycophants rail against the homogenization of the American suburb while trying to attain the same thing in American cities.

Want to see something sad?  Go to Santa Barbara, California and walk around downtown. It has the feel of Europe, but sanitized, as if a great US corporation came in and tidied up all of the rough edges, took away anything that might be offensive to the creative class, and plopped it right back down in the middle of an area who only had to sell it's soul in return.

This is the big problem with Houston Financial Derangement Syndrome. It's a disease that sucks the soul and uniqueness out of a community in exchange for a Stepford Wives version of something vaguely touristy. Unfortunately, the business of soul-sucking is expensive and is always paid for by the people who can afford it the least.  In return for these faux-palaces of authentic fakery the public is left with little money in the public coffers to do things such as pave roads and maintain parks.

In other words, they're left with something closely resembling Houston.

TLSPM Follies: The Great University of Texas-Austin Passion Play

Pity poor William Powers. Set up as a Messianic figure by the TLSPM in an effort to get at Wallace Hall and, by extension, Rick Perry (whom the TLSPM have been unable to scathe, not for lack of trying) it's all starting to come apart for the man as issues of influence peddling and legislative complicity are coming to the fore.

Sources: Whistleblower forcing out UT President. Michael Quinn Sullivan, Breitbart Texas

Earlier this week, as an investigation was being launched into allegations that under-qualified students were being admitted into Texas’ flagship institution based on their political ties and relationships, the director of admissions announced she was leaving her job. This new investigation by Cigarroa comes on the heels of a cursory review by the UT System which found examples of  inappropriate swaying the admissions process at the Austin campus.

After months of defending Powers as the victim of a witch-hunt led by shadowy right-wing forces, even the TLSPM has decided the latest allegations are too much to ignore.

Cagarroa tells Powers to resign or be fired. Reeve Hamilton, The Texas Tribune

SOME of the TLSPM that is, whereas BadMedia outlets like the Houston Chronicle have decided to double down:

Supporters rally behind UT-Austin President. Benjamin Wermund, Houston Chronicle

Wemund takes the usual path. Find a former Republican politicians who was well liked by the establishment and quote them as being on-board with the current GOP leadership.  He also included this little bit of oratory from Houston area trough-feeder State Rep. Carol Alvarado...

"I'm just kind of taken aback by the fact that we've had to remind them a couple of times about not making personnel changes," Alvarado said. "I'm curious if Cigarroa is just having selective memory issues, or if he's completely dissing our request."

Alvarado said working with the UT system has been a "tug-of-war," but that Powers' ultimatum is "the climax of the insubordination." She said whether UT officials could be punished for ignoring the committee is "worth looking into." 

The "insubordination" that Alvarado thinks is "worth looking into" is only important if you choose to ignore the very serious alleged admissions issues that have arisen from internal e-mails and now whistleblowers. For those politicians who seemingly are constantly worried about what's "fair" it's amazing that, suddenly, fairness in admissions to Texas' flagship institution is placed so readily on the back-burner.

All in the name of fealty one guesses.  Fealty to what I'll leave up to you.

No matter where this story ends up the one thing that is certain is that the Texas Lock Step Political Media has done Texas voters and citizens another disservice by failing to report truly and faithfully on an issue that could be of great importance. If the playing field for admissions to Tier One universities in Texas truly is imbalanced and rigged by powerful members of the political class then it's the poor and unconnected who will suffer the most.  This disadvantage is currently being swept under the rug only to be replaced by a system-wide vendetta against a Governor who has out-foxed and out-smarted them repeatedly over the course of his term.

If anything, the total whiff on this story should lead to some TLSPM soul-searching and perhaps a refreshing of the roster.  Might it be suggested that someone with the ability for independent thought be considered?

As it currently stands, the mess at UT-Austin is only exceeded by the mess in the Austin bureaus of pretty much every Texas news outlet.  Media, professional political media, in Texas is now more about egos and grudges than it ever has been and the public is suffering for it.

Looking to November: When the news cycle slows down, bad media publications get desperate.

The recent story regarding disclosure by private government's and government agencies of hazardous chemical stockpiles is interesting for a couple of reasons.

Abbott says companies must release chemical info but state does not. Lauren McGaughy, HoustonChronicle.com ($)

Confusing headline notwithstanding the story is pretty straight-forward. Abbott has ruled that there are differing standards for private entities in regards to disclosure of hazardous material than there are for state agencies. Private entities, per Abbott, must disclose this information while state agencies need not.

While this sounds vicious and ominous it follows a pattern of law that sets different legal standards for government and private industry in almost all areas.  What's troubling is that Abbott is trying to use public safety in the form of keeping information from terrorists as the primary reason for the state exemption. If public safety really were the primary concern then no entity would be required to disclose this information to an un-credentialed member of the public. Private sector ammonium nitrate is just as dangerous as ammonium nitrate held in government hands after all.

The rest of the story reads like a children's playground exchange with "then sue me" actually being a phrase written by a public official in Texas.  You also have the Wendy! Davis campaign desperately making a mountain out of a molehill and advocacy groups friendly to her campaign trying to suggest that this issue is a campaign killer for Attorney General Abbott.  It's not, and a vast majority of voters are likely to not even care, but it's worth about 24 hours in a news cycle and then it will go away.

Of course, the Davis campaign would like for this to very much not go away and I'm sure that they'll continue to push this as hard as possible as they desperately try to gain some traction before school starts back up and people get distracted by their daily lives.

Houston Leadership Vacuum: $1.7MM to solve an undefined problem.

Even after reading today's story on Houston's $1.7MM donation to a private business in order to build a grocery store I have no idea what a food desert is.  What I do know is that the city is now in the business of giving large amounts of cash to businesses that are high risk.  This during a time when the roads are rapidly descending into moonscape territory and it's almost a flip of a coin whether or not your fire, crime or medical emergency will be responded to in a timely manner, or at all.

In the run-up to the passing of the last city budget Mayor Parker moaned often and loudly about $1MM in spending by City Councilmembers who set up a slush-fund to reward pet-projects in their districts. Apparently it wasn't the amount of spending that Parker had an issue with but that it didn't go to one of her primary priorities: doing things that polish her resume for a planned state wide run.

Here's the area in question via Google Maps, with locations that (admittedly) are loosely considered grocery stores marked:

As near as I can tell, there's an HEB (with fresh produce) around 5000 feet (just under a mile) from the current location, and a Fiesta food mart about 2 miles away.  There's also an organic market, and several small produce sellers approximately 2 miles away.

On the other side of 288 (not pictured) there's a fairly large Kroger as well.  Again, this Kroger is about a mile away from the new store. 

By means of comparison, I compared roughly the same geographical area in two relatively well-off areas of Houston and found the following:

 

In Copperfield, a suburb to the Northwest of Houston, there were even fewer traditional "grocery stores" within approximately the same geographical area.  Just to the South there is a Sprouts, and there's a Kroger to the North. 

Then we get to the Heights:

Again you see just about the same distribution of grocery-type stores as you find in South Union.

One would guess that the argument is that residents in Copperfield and the Heights are more likely to have vehicles that can make the grocery run for them.  OK, I'll give you that but, this doesn't mean there's a food desert as much as it means Metro is creating transit deserts that aren't allowing residents of these areas to commute to grocery stores and buy the healthy produce they need.

What's not being discussed by what currently passes for leadership in Houston is that Metro is on the verge of making these transit deserts worse. Anytime you create a plan to reduce coverage but increase ridership, as Metro is currently doing, then you're admitting that there are going to be increasingly large areas of the region with massively reduced coverage.  In areas such as Copperfield and the Heights, this would be more of a nuisance than an actual problem. In poor areas such as South Union, this is potentially very harmful.

Look how much the connecting service is reduced from the old system:

To the new:

 

Before we go on spending $1.7MM to rid ourselves of a problem that seemingly doesn't exist, let's focus on a problem that does. Namely, a group of New Urbanist devotees doing their level best to make it harder for the poor to use transit (that they are dependent upon most) to run chores, buy groceries, get to employment centers in favor of allowing the wealthy to use the transit system as a plaything.

We've been told for years that Houston having a workable light-rail system is needed for us to be World Class(y). There's nothing world class about hanging the poorest among us out to dry so that the so-called creative class can feel good about themselves (seeing as they don't have to interact with the rabble) as they listen to their music on iPads, iPhones and iPods, riding trains and buses on their way to the coffee shop.

A real leader would understand how this all works together, and would promote policies that make sense when viewed as a whole. In Houston's current leadership vacuum we're given political pay-offs masked as solutions while the administration obsesses over our bathroom habits.