The recent rain and flooding has some of us thinking about the city’s priorities.
We must be patient
- We have passed a bond election calling for the building of a new children’s museum costing up to $19.2 million.
- The city has other things to do so the museum will not be built in the next three years. No one has said that they plan to build it in the three years after that, or after that. It is not even scheduled at this point.
- Despite the fact that city council authorized the issuance of $218 million of certificates of obligation over a year ago to be spent on streets, our roads are still a mess and they have not told us what the plan is.
- Our new city budget decreases spending for libraries, parks, museums, the zoo, public health, transportation, and environmental services while increasing funding for city planning, engineering, the city manager and a host of other “internal” departments. See City budget
- After creating a new tax in 2007 (the city calls it a fee — one that you must pay) to improve storm water handling and collecting many millions of dollars the city tells us that it will take time (unspecified) to solve our flooding problems.
On the other hand
- The city has fast-tracked construction of a new ball park, one that none of us voted for. Local contractors say that the spending is “wildly high” because of the need to finish the ball park on an emergency basis. Work is going on in the residential neighborhood 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The project cost is now well over $60 million. They evaluated the bids and chose their contractor in only one day!
- The city needed to sell bonds for the ball park but started construction without them. That are in a hurry. The plan is to build the stadium in less than one year.
- The city tore down our old city hall and bought and remodeled buildings in less than a year, once again actions that the public did not vote for. The moves have cost us more than $70 million. Much of this was done without bidding and giving 4% to Houston schools.
- The city is closing one of the busiest streets in town for 18 months for reconstruction. The project is scheduled to cost $12 million.
What’s important
Evidently the city thinks that the ball park and city hall relocation are more important than flooding, road repair, Country Club road, the children’s museum or a host of other projects. They can move fast when they want to but not for the things that we think are important.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
“Despite the fact that city council authorized the issuance of $218 million of certificates of obligation over a year ago to be spent on streets, our roads are still a mess and they have not told us what the plan is”
then
“The city is closing one of the busiest streets in town for 18 months for reconstruction. The project is scheduled to cost $12 million.”
huh?
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Woody,
Yes poorly written on my part.
The point I was trying to make is that they will close a major road for 18 months with no special effort to keep parts of it open while at the same time they pull out all of the stops to build a ball park 24 hours a day.
Brutus
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Country Club is just one street, albeit a major one. And even that project has been poorly planned and managed. There are lots of other streets that also need repairs which should have been taken care of before now. Not to mention other things that are far more important than a damn ballpark. We talk about the importance of education, yet a ballpark takes priority over learning environments. I think one of Brutus’s key points is that the city council and management shuffled NEEDS that affect a lot of people to take care of the WANTS of a a few.
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Brutus…you are Right on. Good points!!!
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Giving credit where it’s due, a city truck was on my street yesterday repairing potholes.
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Good to hear.
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