HERE is a lazy-weekend edition of news and views:
- Reimbursing HUD may cost Houston millions (Bradley Olson, Houston Chronicle)
City officials characterized HUD’s challenges to its use of federal money as old news, but sources with knowledge of the matter say the city could be on the hook to pay back between $35 million and $45 million due to previous issues and newly identified problems. Those include questions about “Houston Hope” homes, a signature initiative of then-Mayor Bill White that sought to help low and middle-income individuals buy their own homes.
- Houston Hope and Bill White's Legacy (Live Oaks)
- A conversation with Houston Mayor Annise Parker (David Taffet, Dallas Voice)
- The actual truth about Bill White and Houston property taxes (Bob Lemer, Scribd)
- Cell Phone Wreck Hot Spots In Houston (Mike McGuff, KIAH-39 News)
- Bus ads, fewer riders, ticket surcharge: Metro's 2011 budget (Chron Houston Politics)
Fixed-route bus and rail ridership, which has declined annually since it peaked in 2006, is projected to decrease again in 2011, by a combined total of 2.8 percent. (Page 90). That would be a dramatic improvement from the 8.7 percent decline expected this year. (Page 91).
At some point, one has to wonder if the compulsion to spin any and all METRO news positively is pathological at the Chron.
To approach this slightly differently: Suppose the GDP of Country A shrank by 8.7% in 2008. Suppose it shrank by 2.8% in 2009. Would it make sense to say the country’s economy enjoyed “dramatic improvement” in 2009 compared to 2008 (no), or would it be more appropriate to note that Country A had been mired in recession for two years?
- The Race for District Clerk (With Updated Links) (Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center)
- Scared White Republican Fear of the Day: Third-World Document-Review Terrorists (Defending People)
- Proposed condos stir up controversy in the Heights (Gabe Gutierrez, KHOU-11 News)
- This Draft of Changes to the Preservation Ordinance Is Different, Somehow (Swamplot)
As mayor of the state’s largest city, Parker said she’s had more contact lately with Gov. Rick Perry than former Houston mayor Bill White.
“But I am absolutely livid that Rick Perry has an attack ad on Bill White that features me,” she said. “I don’t want to be used as a wedge in that campaign.”
Parker said that Perry used a quote of something she said while controller. She said it was not out of context….
Of COURSE Mayor Parker’s valid criticism of the fiscal policies of her predecessor was going to be an issue in the gubernatorial race. How could it not be?
