Time to clear out a few links:
- Sumners says drainage fee math is all wet – Chron Houston Politics
Sumners’ own calculations indicate that the monthly rates the city proposes will bring in $157.2 million annually for improving and maintaining city drainage, not the $122.4 million presented at City Council in January. The city stuck by its numbers and referred Sumners back to that very presentation.
The city has also asked the state attorney general to exempt the city from releasing much of the information Sumners requests on the grounds that it is the subject of pending litigation.
Best to keep the public in the dark until the last possible moment?
- METRO disputes "Lost Opportunity" – David Jennings, Big Jolly Politics
METRO’s bloated/expensive PR department has time to pick nits with bloggers? And nits they are — good for David Jennings for sticking to his guns. - Spanish rail-car vendor criticizes Metro’s latest deal to buy new cars – Jeremy Desel, KHOU-11 News
- Portland rail: Going nowhere – Ethan Epstein, The American Spectator
You know the adage, “When you’re in a hole, stop digging”? TriMet has revised it to: “When you’re in a hole, build more light rail.” Despite its financial distress, TriMet now plans to build another MAX line, its most expensive yet. Construction is slated to begin this summer on a segment connecting Portland and Milwaukie, a sleepy town of 20,000. The price tag: $1.5 billion. As the line would stretch only 7.3 miles, the cost per mile would be a little more than $200 million. The federal government has agreed to foot half the bill, and TriMet plans to fund most of the rest by floating $724 million in bonds.
The story is about Portland and its celebrated (by UrbanUtopian types, anyway) rail culture; there are plenty of warning signs for Houston throughout, though, so be sure to click over.
- Is Harris County Sheriff, Adrian Garcia, Sending His Director Of Public Affairs To Bully His GOP Opponent? – Eric Weinman, Patriot Statesman
- The Corruption Trials Behind the Astrodome’s Lost Decade – Swamplot
- The Dome Pavilion – Camposcommunications’s Blog
- Tougher historic preservation rules renew debate over property rights – Gabe Gutierrez, KHOU-11 News
- Changes to HISD's magnet program could include fund redistribution – Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle
Are Terry Grier and crew determined to annoy every constituency possible? - The Re-Honkification of the Heights – Greg's Opinion
- The Protean Future Of American Cities – Joel Kotkin, Forbes
Sure, being cool is nice, but the obsession with hipness often means missing a bigger story: the gradual diminution of the urban core as engines for job creation. For example, while Chicago’s Loop has doubled its population to 20,000, it has also experienced a large drop in private-sector employment, which now constitutes a considerably smaller share of regional employment than a decade ago. The same goes for the new urbanist mecca of Portland as well as the heavily hyped Los Angeles downtown area.
None of this suggests, however, that the American urban core is in a state of permanent decline. The urban option will continue to appeal to small but growing segment of the population, and certain highly paid professionals, notably in finance, will continue to cluster there.
But the bigger story — all but ignored by the mainstream media — is the continued evolution of urban regions toward a more dispersed, multi-centered form.
Not Houston-specific, but Kotkin’s observations are always intriguing, particularly as they relate to the Houston area.
- Deer Park man accused of illegally streaming content on Internet – Jessica Fax, Houston Chronicle
