27 August 2008

Houston blog talk linkpost: 08/27/08

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/27/08 08:27 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Thou shalt not question HPD

KHOU-11's Lee McGuire reports that some city councilmembers had the temerity to ask HPD for an accounting of previous funds that were allotted for recruitment advertising. This came about as HPD was requesting another $750,000 for the same thing:

Several councilmembers, including the budget chair, refused to back a request by the Houston Police Department for another $750,000 for recruitment advertising.

They said HPD has been unable or unwilling to provide information on how many recruits came on board because of the last round of advertising. Councilmember Green said he's been “banned” from asking questions of the HPD public information office and instead has been told to go through the legal department.

Councilmember Anne Clutterbuck said she was shocked that she couldn’t find HPD job openings on common job search Web sites, while the Dallas Police Department came up all the time. She said when she asked HPD about it, all she got back was “rhetoric.”

A councilman has been banned from asking questions??? No HPD jobs are listed on job search websites???

That's some fine leadership from Chief Hurtt.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/27/08 05:58 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

26 August 2008

HPD "cracks down" on the homeless...again

The last time HPD "cracked down" on the homeless was in September, 2007.

Almost one year later, it's time to do it again (via KHOU-11):

Three Houston Police divisions are preparing for a zero tolerance initiative against the homeless.

Starting on Tuesday, the Houston Police Department will crack down on the city's homeless. Some who know about the new initiative call it HPD politics, while others said it was a good move for safety. But whatever people said about the program, it was not a secret to those living on the streets.

Oooooo, zero tolerance! After today's sweep, stay tuned for the next crackdown in late summer 2009.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/26/08 04:52 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)

25 August 2008

Your Houston tax dollars at work

As the end of the city's fiscal year was approaching, what did city councilmembers do with the remainder of their office budgets? The Chron's Matt Stiles and Carolyn Feibel asked for all the spending records and wrote it up. Here's an excerpt:

Six council members bought new TVs with their budget funds. Some mounted large-screen TVs in common staff areas, while others bought each staffer TV sets for their desks.

Two new councilwomen, Wanda Adams and Melissa Noriega, bought five televisions each.

[snip]

Other council members who bought televisions with public funds include Ron Green, Jolanda Jones, M.J. Khan and James Rodriguez. In all, 22 new TVs were purchased for the council floor, at a cost of $8,705.

[snip]

District A Councilwoman Toni Lawrence said the council floor has too many televisions in use.

"Sometimes I have to close the door because of the TV noise," she said.

Be sure to read the entire story for more taxpayer-funded highlights, and don't forget the comments at the end of the Chron's story.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/25/08 05:06 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (13)

24 August 2008

Chron: School districts saved money with later start date; HISD: No we didn't

Last week the Chron's Jennifer Radcliffe wrote a story with the following thesis: School district utility bills have gone down since the Lege ordered later start dates:

Texas public school leaders may still be fuming about the legislative mandate that delayed the start of the school year until the last week of August, but advocates point to lower utility bills as a sign that lawmakers made the right choice.

In the first year, schools statewide appear to have saved millions of dollars in August utility bills. The Houston Independent School District's monthly payment to Reliant Energy, for example, dropped almost $200,000 between August 2006 and August 2007. Officials attribute about $66,000 of the savings to lower electricity costs.

You might already be able to see the problem with Radcliffe's story: She focused on August utility bills alone. Guess what? A later start date means a later end date, which means the possibility of extra utility usage at the end of the year. Might the savings have been offset by that? The Chron doesn't know:

HISD spends about $57 million a year on electricity, meaning $66,000 is a slight savings, officials said. And they said some of the savings probably were erased by extra days in May and June, but they couldn't provide the figures.

We heard from HISD's Terry Abbott who disputed Radcliffe's conclusion. Abbott said HISD advised Radcliffe the assertion might be wrong, and that HISD was running the numbers to see if the savings held up with the addition of the extra days at the end of the year. As it turned out, HISD's month-by-month electricity usage analysis did not show a savings; in fact, HISD's electricity usage and costs were higher for the 2007-08 school year when compared to the 2006-07 school year.

Abbott requested a correction or retraction from the Chron, but so far the editorial leadership has declined.

While Radcliffe's story features HISD, a sidebar notes August utility savings for fourteen school districts. In asserting that Texas schools "have saved millions of dollars," did Radcliffe get the last-month-of-school numbers for any of those school districts? If she did, they're not listed; therefore, Radcliffe's conclusion (millions saved) is not supported by her partial facts (August numbers only). To come up with that conclusion she needed to get complete utility numbers for all the districts.

Did any other districts try to warn her against using incomplete data? Unclear, but it doesn't appear the Chron is going to revisit the issue, and this will be the end of the story for Houston's daily newspaper of record.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/24/08 01:55 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

Mayor to Mincberg: Quit using me in your ads

Last week the Chron's Liz Austin Peterson reported that Mayor White was not overjoyed with county judge candidate David Mincberg's presumptive use of the mayoral likeness in the wannabe judge's first TV ad:

Democrat David Mincberg makes liberal use of Mayor Bill White's name and picture in the first television ad of his county judge campaign, touting his work in the popular leader's administration and comparing their business experience and management styles.

However, he did not seek permission from White, who generally stays out of local races and has been working to cultivate a good relationship with Republican County Judge Ed Emmett.

White since has made it clear to Mincberg's campaign that he prefers people to ask permission before using him in a campaign ad, said Michael Moore, the mayor's chief of staff.

"He does not want that (ad) to be interpreted as an endorsement," Moore said Wednesday. "The mayor works well with Judge Emmett and has worked well with David Mincberg."

We are thrilled to learn Mincberg plans on running on his "accomplishments" as the city's multi-family housing czar, especially since one could argue that his time in that position appears to have been intended to fluff up his résumé for a future political run. Certainly, the city got its money's worth out of the $1 per-year salary arrangement:

David Mincberg had worked on this a bit, and the City has been grateful for his services, but he has been asked to pass off responsibilities for this because of other time commitments and pursuits.

The "this" referenced above that Mincberg failed to focus on was actually pretty important, as Mayor White described it:

Our central idea is that there should be effective standards and enforcement of standards on the habitability of multi-family units. They should include aspects such as lighting and the ability of law enforcement to get to where they need to, as well as those codes which could create a hazard for electrocution or fire.

As the titular head of the city's multi-family housing program, Mincberg lost interest, and Mayor White had to find someone else to carry on the important work. But that doesn't stop Mincberg from praising his time with the city on his campaign website:

David Mincberg understands that honesty and efficiency are the keys to any successful operation. David’s ability to think strategically is why in 2006, Mayor Bill White asked him to run the City of Houston’s Housing and Community Development Department as a Dollar-a-Year executive. David turned down a salary and instead volunteered his time for this full-time position..

During his tenure as the Dollar-a-Year executive for the City of Houston, David Mincberg:

Managed the Housing Department

Established impartial systems for assessing and improving apartment safety, resulting in the Apartment Security Ordinance.(Ordinance #2006-1124)

Envisioned and created the Better Neighborhoods program by targeting Federal funds strategically to leverage impact.

And yet, in spite of those accomplishments, he was asked to move along so someone else who wasn't so preoccupied could get some work done.

BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/24/08 07:46 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

22 August 2008

This week at METRO: Frank Wilson gets a raise; bad bus drivers keep on driving

KPRC-2 has a story posted about how METRO's "Three Strikes, You're Out" rule for bus drivers is just more hot air from the transit agency that could power its own wind farm:

Motorists reported some startling behavior by bus drivers, including road rage, speeding through school zones, cutting off other drivers by swerving into lanes, aggressive lane changes, and nearly running people over in crosswalks.

"We play just like baseball," said METRO Vice President of Operations David Feeley. "Three strikes and you're out. If you have a particularly egregious situation, we say goodbye pretty quick."

Despite that policy, Local 2 Investigates found some drivers remaining behind the wheel with as many as nine or 12 strikes, including numerous complaints alleging the same sort of dangerous driving behavior.

Here's the best part:

Overall, [VP Feeley] said dangerous driving complaints are down 23.9 percent from last year.

"We're doing something right," he said.

And:

Hers was among 7,236 pages of complaints reviewed by Local 2 Investigates, starting from July 2007 and continuing through July of this year.

The 7,200 complaints is a declining trend -- woo!

In completely unrelated news, Rad Sallee reports METRO CEO Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson is getting a retroactive pay raise:

The Metropolitan Transit Authority board approved a 10 percent raise Thursday for president and CEO Frank Wilson, bringing his total compensation to more than $340,000.

Board member George DeMontrond said Wilson's annual performance review was "most satisfactory" and noted that he did not receive raises in 2005 or 2007. Wilson's new base pay will be $307,340.

DeMontrond said the increase in base pay — 21 percent since Wilson was hired May 3, 2004 — was "nominal" in view of inflation. The raise will be retroactive to May 3, 2008, said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts.

[snip]

Although his new contract details were not immediately available, Wilson in 2006 also received $20,000 per year in salary deferred until retirement, a car allowance of $12,600 and membership in the Houston Club. Roberts said those items have not increased.

He still has his car allowance. Because he's too important to ride public transportation.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/22/08 06:11 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)

21 August 2008

Houston blog talk linkpost: 08/21/08

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/08 11:29 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Houston University?

Earlier in the week, both KUHF-88.7 and the Chronicle reported that University of Houston-Downtown officials would like to change the institution's name.

Some ideas that have been tossed out include Houston International University, Gulf Coast University and Houston University.

It's all well and good that UH-D officials want more glamor than "Downtown" offers. However, since the university is to remain a part of the University of Houston system, shouldn't the University of Houston remain part of the name (even if Downtown is replaced)?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/08 11:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

KHOU: Council delays vote on drainage fund

KHOU-11's Lee McGuire reports on a drainage-fund proposal developed by Councilmember Khan and supported by Mayor White:

A plan to create a special fund in the city’s budget to act as like a detention pond for dedicated tax dollars was scheduled for a vote [Wednesday], but two members of the City Council asked to hold off on a vote for a week.

Council members Anne Clutterbuck and Pam Holm said they support the measure, but requested the extra time to gather additional comments on the measure from the community.

Even so, it appears the full council will vote to support the measure next week. The plan will funnel roughly $211 million into a dedicated fund over the next five years. That money will be used for infrastructure projects targeting neighborhoods that flood during heavy rainfall.

M.J. Khan, who chairs the flooding and drainage committee and developed this plan, said it cannot fix all of the city’s flooding problems.

“If you talk to the professionals in the engineering community, they will tell you that this is just a small portion of what is really needed,” he said. “The real numbers are upwards of two billion, or three billion. The important thing with this fund is that we’re not taking money from the general revenue fund – we are allocating money that we do collect and putting it in this dedicated fund before it goes somewhere else.”

Council member Mike Sullivan, who opposed the creation of a drainage enterprise fee during his campaign, says he supports this plan because it does not impose a fee or tax on residents.

“I’ve always said I think we can find funding to get the projects done without a tax,” he said while explaining his support for this measure. “Here we are.”

Houston Mayor Bill White explained that a dedicated budget pool for drainage improvement projects will allow future administrations to tap money for infrastructure projects without suffering the political consequences of cutting other areas of the city budget to pay for them.

This seems like a sensible move on its face. It's good to see Mayor White and Council trying to tackle the real problems in the city (without creating new revenue streams in the process).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/08 11:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

KHOU: Pierce Elevated parking to get makeover

This curious blurb appeared on KHOU-11's website yesterday:

Houston City Council approved a proposal to upgrade the lighting beneath the Pierce Elevated parking garage. They plan to spend almost half a million dollars to fix up the area.

The Pierce Elevated is a parking lot by day, but at night it turns into a campsite for dozens of homeless people.

Businesses in that area have been complaining about a lack of security for a while.

Is there that big a demand for nighttime parking in this area?

When we drove by the parking lot under the Pierce Elevated (or the Pierce Elevator, as Chief Hurtt once called it) tonight, it was pretty deserted aside from a few homeless people (and fewer of them than usual).

If anyone knows more about these plans, please enlighten us in the comments!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/08 10:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Vacar/Chron: Full speed ahead with $1.2B IAH renovation!

Richard Vacar, who has been a proponent of an expensive renovation and expansion of Bush Intercontinental Airport despite significant planned capacity reduction by airlines, today is given a platform on the Chronicle news pages for his advocacy:

Hotels, parking lots, taxi companies and other businesses that rely on air travelers are expecting to see revenue fall as airlines cut capacity this fall. But Houston's airports won't share as much pain, according to the city's top airport official.

Some airports across the country are scrapping plans for terminals and parking garages because of dropping revenue, but both Hobby and Bush Intercontinental airports will continue with current plans, including Bush's $1.2 billion renovation and expansion of Terminal B, Houston Airport System chief Richard Vacar said.

"Really, compared to other airports, we're doing quite well," Vacar said. "I'm not trying to sugarcoat it."

Bush will see a 5.2 percent decrease in flights in September compared with September 2007, or a loss of 265 per week, according to data from the airport system.

Since the story mentions that some airports have scrapped expansion plans, wouldn't it have been an example of good journalism to cite some of the officials at those airports, and their rationale for not pursuing their expansion plans in a time of industry shrinkage? Or some independent expert, for that matter?

$1.2 billion is a significant amount of money. As commenter houtxcharles suggested here, a little more information wouldn't hurt before we charge ahead. Instead, as usual when it comes to big public projects, we get cheerleading from the area's newspaper of record.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/08 10:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

Grand Parkway F-2 segment will require condemning many homes

Some new residents in Spring have just discovered what many of us have been railing against for a while now: The Grand Parkway F-2 segment is going to require the demolition of many homes (via the Chron):

Plans for the Grand Parkway have been on the books for 25 years, but only 28 of its proposed 185 miles have been built. Environmental and neighborhood groups have opposed the project.

It would include 11 segments traversing seven counties. The 12.1-mile Segment F2 would cut directly through the Lakes of Avalon Village, a subdivision with several hundred homes located on FM 2920 just west of Kuykendahl Road.

About 60 homes are in the right-of-way and would have to be demolished to make way for the parkway once construction began, Gornet said. Other homes, like Martin's, are just outside the right-of-way.

Houston's Planning Commission and Harris County's Public Infrastructure Department could not deny the developers the right to subdivide the land and sell houses on it because no government agency had committed to build the segment, officials said.

Developers sued the city in 1994 after they were denied the right to subdivide land that fell within a different section of the parkway's proposed alignment. They won $1.3 million in a case that was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The current F2 alignment was chosen in 2005 and was included in a draft environmental impact study the association published the following year, Gornet said. The developer applied to the Houston Planning Commission for the plat in late 2005 and received approval in 2006, he said.

Gornet said he met early last year with representatives from the Friendswood Development Company, a Lennar subsidiary that bought all the lots from Hudson, and told them the Grand Parkway would pose a problem for homes being built in its right-of-way.

The 60 homes mentioned in this story are only a portion of the homes in the way of the current F-2 alignment. There are many others, particularly in the Mossy Oaks subdivision, which will have to be demolished.

As for the developers, since the land was never bought up by TxDOT or HCTRA, there was no reason for developers to sit on perfectly usable land, waiting for something that might never happen. As the Chron's story notes, the current alignment was only chosen in 2005. While the subdivision in this story may not have been constructed then, there were many other homes in the way of the F-2 segment when the alignment was chosen. The Grand Parkway Association knows that and doesn't care.

And then there's the whole issue of whether or not this parkway is needed. Most of us who live in the Tomball/Spring/Klein area say no. Finish widening Kuykendahl, improve FM 2920, whatever. There are other options, rather than us having to sacrifice our communities.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/21/08 05:40 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)

Local watchdog/news group up and running

Journalist Trent Seibert passes along word today that his new watchdog/news group Texas Watchdog is now up and running. Seibert is joined initially by former Dallas Observer staffer Matt Pulle.

Texas Watchdog describes itself as "a news Web site and training center that scrutinizes the actions of government agencies, bureaucracies and politicians in Texas. It is an independent, nonpartisan entity founded on the belief that our American democracy depends on transparency in government."

Today's launch includes two stories with a state focus (examining Texas political money-men Fred Baron and Stephen Payne).

Seibert says that the Houston-based group will cover some state issues, but will also hit local issues. He adds that in addition to breaking news, the group hopes to provide training for citizen-journalists interested in watchdog journalism and government transparency/accountability, and will even offer some fellowships.

Here is a blog post from Nashville's Post Politics blog that offers some background on Seibert and the Texas Watchdog effort (Seibert hails most recently from Nashville).

We're looking forward to what a couple of dedicated watchdog journalists can turn up in an area where so much print "coverage" of municipal/county affairs (not to mention METRO) amounts to uncritical cheerleading. Just a friendly hint, though -- we'd like to see a blog and some RSS feeds eventually!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/08 12:29 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (5)

20 August 2008

Keeling: Local hotel occupancy down -- Build more!

Consultant/advocate John Keeling, who's never seen a boondoggle that didn't merit a glowing feasibility study (so long as clients were paying), makes an appearance in a recent Nancy Sarnoff report for the Chronicle:

Occupancy at area hotels is slipping, as the nation's economic troubles have resulted in weaker demand for business travel around the country and in Houston.

Areawide, occupancy is expected to dip about 1 percentage point by the year's end to 66.5 percent, hotel consultant John Keeling said at a meeting Thursday of the Hotel & Lodging Association of Greater Houston.

"It's reflective of what's going on in the rest of the country," said Keeling, senior vice president of PKF Consulting in Houston. "Because we're better diversified, we're affected by it."

Last year, PKF predicted Houston-area hotel occupancy would reach 70 percent in 2008.

Instead of always quoting John Keeling's latest prediction that some project will make millions, local media might consider following Sarnoff's lead here (or Tom Kirkendall's lead here, or Cory Crow's lead here and here) and looking back from time to time on Keeling's predictions.

Of course, Sarnoff concludes by citing Keeling on Houston's need for more hotels. Some habits die hard.

BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/08 10:04 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

Do you have your tickets for Dynamo Democrat Day? (Updated)

An interesting post on a Harris County Democratic Party site indicates that the local Dems are working with the local sorta-professional soccer franchise to raise money for the party:

On Sunday, September 7, the Dynamo and the Harris County Democratic Party present Dynamo Democrat Day! Come see a terrific game from your 2-time MLS Champions Houston Dynamo, spend time with your fellow Democrats and support the Harris County Democratic Party at the same time! $5 from every $15 ticket will go to help the Harris County Democratic Party promote its message of change across the county.

Click Here To Buy Tickets (Promo Code: hcdp)

Dynamo Democrat Day
Houston Dynamo vs. KC Wizards
Sunday, September 7, 2008
2:00 PM
Robertson Stadium at UH
$15 - $5 of which goes to the HCDP

Click Here To Buy Tickets *(Promo Code: hcdp)

Hope to see you there!

What a nice deal: Dems help promote the professional soccer franchise in town, the professional soccer franchise in town helps promote Dems -- and surely wins some goodwill towards extracting all sorts of favors when it comes time to building that stadium that will make the east end of downtown more like Manhattan (oh, there we go being negative again -- who knows, maybe the Houtopians are right and it really WILL make Houston like Manhattan!).

Do you have your tickets yet for Dynamo Democrat Day?

ANNE ADDS: If the Dynamo can afford to give a portion of each ticket's proceeds to local Dems, why can't they raise funds for their new stadium this way?

UPDATE: Oliver Luck has responded to my email queries. Luck says that this promotion is actually taking place through the League of Women Voters. He says the promotion is not a "Dynamo Democrat Day," that the Harris County Democratic Party "gave the promo a misleading and unauthorized title" and that the Dynamo have asked the party to change this on their website.

Luck adds that the Harris County Republican Party will be participating as well, and that the Libertarian Party was invited.

On the question of whether the donations will be made by the Dynamo or by the individual donors to the respective parties, he said by individual donors.

Here is the promotional flyer that he passed along. Many thanks to Oliver Luck for the timely and informative response!

ANNE ADDS TO UPDATE: If the Dynamo can afford to give a portion of each ticket's proceeds to local political parties, why can't they raise funds for their new stadium this way?

UPDATE 2: The party donation aspect of the event appears to have been canceled, which seems like a good response.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/08 11:39 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (40)

19 August 2008

Chron primer on Katy Freeway managed HOV/toll lanes

The Chronicle's Rad Sallee offers a primer on the confusing mess of managed HOV/toll lanes coming soon to the Katy Freeway:

Sometime in late spring 2009, three important changes will occur.
1. Every vehicle on the lanes must have a transponder on the windshield. This can be either an EZ Tag issued by the county toll road authority or a TxTag from the Texas Turnpike Authority.

EZ Tags cost $15 and require an initial balance of $40. When the balance drops below $10, it is charged back up to $40 from the owner's bank account. TxTags are free and require a $20 balance.

2. The managed lanes will be open at all times for toll-paying drivers, regardless of the number of occupants.

3. Motorists who frequently commute with at least one other occupant may choose to register one of their transponder-equipped vehicles with HCTRA as an HOV. When the toll sensors recognize that the tag is registered, no toll will be charged.

It's important to note that if your car is registered as an HOV and you drive it onto the managed lanes during the HOV hours without a passenger, you're breaking the law.

If you drive on the managed lanes outside the HOV hours, you'll be charged the toll like everyone else.

Conversely, if the vehicle is not registered as an HOV, you'll always be charged the toll, even if you have a dozen passengers.

The tag can't be moved from one vehicle to another.

•Registered HOV users who want to drive the managed lanes alone occasionally, but also lawfully, can call the toll road authority 24 hours in advance and de-register for a particular trip. They will need to reregister afterward, though, or the toll will be charged for every future trip.

To make all this simpler, [HCTRA deputy director Peter] Key said, EZ Tag owners will eventually be able to call up their accounts online and change their registration status back and forth by clicking a box.

To make all this simpler? That Peter Key is such a jokester!

The Katy Freeway expansion brings much needed traffic capacity to the area, but the managed-lane experiment sounds like it has the potential to be a big confusing mess (and enforcement nightmare). But, lest we be accused of negativism, perhaps it will all work out peachy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/19/08 10:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)

18 August 2008

Houston blog talk linkpost: 08/18/08

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/18/08 09:35 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

The Chron's bad few days

The Chronicle's substandard journalism has been taking more of a pounding than usual on blogs over the last few days (albeit not this one, because work, software maintenance, and life in general have been intruding more than usual on our blogging time).

Over at the Lone Star Times, Matt Bramanti takes the newspaper to task for incorrectly asserting cops had beaten a prisoner to death (but they did run a correction -- not always the case at the Chronicle).

Bramanti also notes that the Editorial LiveJournalists got the Russian president's name wrong (we haven't seen a correction on that one).

At Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Cory Crow picks apart a Chron story on the recent sales-tax holiday weekend.

National Review Online's Media Blog writes that Sen. Cornyn is unhappy with the Chron's repeated (mis)characterization of some healthcare comments he made. Unsurprisingly, a Chron editor was not available to discuss the matter with NRO.

And today, Bramanti is back at work, skewering the latest screed by Clay Robison, who moonlights as Hearst's Austin bureau chief when he's not penning such articles.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/18/08 09:30 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)

Frank Wilson: Go for the greed

As he was speaking to the Asian Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Southwest Houston Chamber of Commerce last week, Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson tried to encourage Asian business owners to get some of the $2 billion worth of business five new light rail lines are generating:

"If you've never ridden the train in your life, or if you don't even like the train, look at this from self-interest and greed," said Wilson. "This program is as real as it gets. It's the time for you to start focusing on how to get involved, not just as users."

Sheesh. Between Frank Wilson and Raequel "9-volt battery" Roberts, METRO sure has picked some winners.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/18/08 04:41 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)

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LOCAL BLOGS

Pure Bloggers: +A Certain Slant of Light; +A Veneer of Certainty; +Ain't Chicken; +Around Town Houston; +B.S. Houston ArtBlog; +Baboon Pirates; +Bayou City Madman; +Beldar Blog; +Blue Bayou; +Boyd's Blog; +Brazosport News; +Business Unusual; +By the Bayou; +Chelsea Hotel No. 2; +Chief Hurtt's Blog; +Connections; +Custos Fidei; +Defending People (Mark Bennett); +Diana's Place; +Dissonance; +Down the Writer's Path; +Fabulous Jen; +Fireballs, Lightning Bolts and Hell Storms; +Food In Houston; +Greg's Opinion; +H-Town Grooves; +High Tech Texan; +Houblog.com; +Houston Calling; +Houston Consigliere; +Houston Photobloggers; +Houston Strategies; +Houston's Clear Thinkers; +Houston, Hot and Humid; +Houstonist; +Houtopia; +Intermodality; +Jeff Balke; +John Little; +Laurence Simon; +Laurie Kendrick; +Liberty's Blog; +Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center; +Lone Star Times; +Lose an Eye; +Lou Minatti; +Metroblogging Houston; +Midtown Live; +Misunderestimation; +Off the Kuff; +Perfectly Cromulent; +Perry vs World; +Polimom; +Professors R-Squared; +PubliusTX.net; +Quaint Quiescence; +Rant Fever; +Red Ink: Texas; +Rep. John Culberson's Blog; +Right of Texas; +Run Houston; +She Eats; +Sit, Ubu, Sit!; +Slampo's Place; +Stolen Thunder; +Talk In Texas; +Texas Liberal; +Texas Safety Forum; +Texas Yankee; +The County Seat; +The Light Bulb; +Twelve Two Two Fondue; +WILLisms; +Write on METRO
Journo Bloggers: +Brent Clanton; +HC: About Chron; +HC: About Last Night; +HC: Baseball; +HC: Bayou City History; +HC: Cook's Tour; +HC: David Barron; +HC: Hand Stamp; +HC: Helpline; +HC: Houston Departures; +HC: Houston Politics; +HC: Inside Central Houston; +HC: Jerome Solomon; +HC: John McClain/NFL; +HC: Loren Steffy; +HC: MeMo; +HC: Nick Anderson; +HC: School Zone; +HC: SciGuy; +HC: Sports Justice; +HC: Sports Soup; +HC: Tag's Baseball Plays; +HC: Tech Blog; +HC: Texas on the Potomac; +HC: The Unofficial Scorer; +HC: UH Cougars; +HP: Eating Our Words; +HP: HouStoned; +HP: HouStoned Ballz; +HP: HouStoned Rocks; +Isiah Carey's Insite; +KTRK: Consumer Blog; +KTRK: Miya Shay; +KTRK: Prof 13; +KTRK: Roussel Report; +KTRK: Tim Heller; +Matt Lavine's Left Field News; +Mike McGuff

The local blogs above cover topics of interest. Drop us a line if you blog about local topics and would like us to consider your blog. While a link back to blogHOUSTON is not required, it would be much appreciated.

LOCAL NEWS

+Examiner News
+Houston Business Journal
+Houston Chronicle
+Houston Community News
+Houston Forward Times
+Houston Press
+KPRC-2 (NBC)
+KHOU-11 (CBS)
+KTRK-13 (ABC)
+KRIV-26 (FOX)
+KTRH-740 AM
+KPRC-950 AM
+KUHF-88.7 FM (NPR)

LOCAL INFO

+AOL Cityguide
+B4-U-Eat
+Citysearch Houston
+Crime Maps & Stats
+Houston Architecture Info Forum
+Houston Chronicle Dining
+Houston Press Dining
+KPFT Music Calendar
+Links to Houston
+Pollstar (Houston)
+RadioInfo.com (Houston)
+Red Pub