Monthly Archives: July 2009

I would have to agree with my friend Coby at Bay Area Houston.  It seems Gene Locke’s campaign was getting hit from all sides lately over the firing of a republican fundraiser.  But Coby has his own thoughts.

It can’t be the cancer. No one is that cruel. Well, almost no one. Instead it is the fundraising aspect. With donations down due to the economy, Walden was able to tap into her base of republicans who support Locke’s vision for the city. Who best to raise money from republicans than the fundraiser who raised money for John McCain and Kay Bailey? But now the republican donors are tapped out and she has no one else to tap. So it is time to find someone else that can now tap the other side of the aisle. Sue isn’t a good fit.

Locke received the “C” Club endorsement, which should have made tapping into the other side easier.  This blogger wasn’t too keen on that, but some readers have told me it proves he’ll “work with both sides of the aisle.”  Well, if one is truly a bipartisan person that buys into that, then go ahead.  This blogger doesn’t play well with the other side, especially when we seem to have a nice progressive majority on Council.

But like Coby, I’m also human and completely agree with his statement:

Of course, this is my opinion and while sitting around opinionating, eating tamales and drinking an ice cold Bohemia, waiting for Locke’s dream of building a Hispanic Museum to come to fruition, I wish Sue Walden the very best with her bout with cancer.

Except I’m drinking a Miller High Life Light (on special at Kroger for $8/12 pack).

Of course, I am looking forward to debating Coby on where the Chicano-Latino-Hispanic-Latin American-Spanish Museum should be built:  Kingwood or Clear Lake?

I need to hand it to mayoral candidate Peter Brown.  He’s quite the architect.  His plan to prevent flooding is impressive and proactive.

Councilman Brown’s plan has three main elements:

• Invest in Projects That Work, to Reduce Flooding and Use Funding More Effectively. The city spends $50 million each year, distributed across many small projects, to combat flooding. But as recent flooding has shown, our current policies do little to address the major drainage issues. Instead of waiting for flooding problems to occur, Peter Brown is proposing a full-scale plan for maintaining our drainage systems so that they don’t fail at the first sign of a thunderstorm.

• Coordinate Our Approach to Find Regional Solutions. Peter Brown understands that a regional problem requires a regional solution. Floodwaters don’t recognize political boundaries, so any successful solution to the flooding problem will require coordination with other cities in the region. The city needs to better coordinate with the various entities involved in flood prevention, and protect neighborhoods within Houston from irresponsible upstream development.

• Engage in Proactive Prevention, to Keep Our City Prepared. Peter Brown wants to protect Houston’s families and businesses from suffering further losses due to flooding by improving standards, encouraging more flood-reducing development, and protecting our natural watersheds. He’ll also apply new, innovative technologies that empower residents to alert the city of poorly maintained infrastructure and give them the tools to keep track of flooding prevention efforts.

How we pay for this is the big question.  Perhaps if the City had applied for stimulus money for an infrastructural notion, such as flood prevention, we would have gotten some cash.