It’s the two-week-vacation catchup edition of the roundup:
- City officials seem dismissive in Heights Walmart e-mails (Mike Morris, Houston Chronicle)
What, folks expect professionalism and objectivity from their ostensibly technocratic city departments? As we’ve detailed on this blog for years, that ship sailed under Mayor Bill White, when such offices became increasingly politicized (to boost White’s fellow elites and pet projects). - Judge: City mistakenly booted Houston condo residents (Gabe Gutierrez, KHOU-11 News)
A judge has ruled the city of Houston violated the state’s due process code when it ordered a group of condo residents to vacate their homes in 2008.
In 2008? Wasn’t that during the Bill White “Running the City Like a Business” era? Whoops!
- Houston City Council OKs stricter preservation law (Bradley Olson, Houston Chronicle)
Alternate headline (and just as accurate): Houston City Council OK’s stricter restrictions on property rights. But hey, at least now we don’t look like such hicks to all those “world-class” elites! - Houston's income growth up 133% since 1989 (Christine Hall, Houston Business Journal)
What, Houston had been doing something right (with no zoning, low water rates, no drainage tax, and no “historic preservation” restrictions on property rights) over the last two decades? This is not the narrative I hear from advocates of A Place Called Perfect or even majorities on the current City Council. - Rethinking Renew Houston (Bay Area Houston)
Renew Houston, a bunch of millionaire engineers, has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to convince us to self tax ourselves so they can continue to be millionaires. And they have the gall to tell our schools, the ones that have been strapped for cash, to cut waste so they can make millions off our tax dollars?
There are plenty of good reasons to oppose that gargantuan drainage tax (the self-interested nature of its main public-office proponent being one of them). Here’s hoping “Republican” Councilmember Costello will draw some principled, well-funded opposition when he runs for re-election. Maybe it’s a cause some of the Tea Party organizations could take up.
- Metro Execs Riding Buses Or Rail: Not Quite What It Seems (Hair Balls)
“New METRO” management, same old METRO “not quite what it seems” equivocation? - Marketing Department Wins Award (Write on METRO)
Systemwide ridership has been plummeting for half a decade or so, but imagine how bad it might be if not for METRO’s bloated PR and Marketing departments! Umm… - More room for bikes, strollers on Metro rail (Chron Houston Politics)
With systemwide ridership plummeting, they have plenty of room for more bikes and strollers! Rah Rah! - Another airport transportation option (Chron Houston Politics)
At a bare minimum, you’d think the newspaper’s transit beat writer would look to the newspaper’s archives himself as part of his research (Ken Hoffman has also written on the topic). But you’d probably be setting expectations too high. - Corrections: 15 October 2010 (Houston Chronicle)
