If CM Dwight Boykins is running for Mayor, then someone has to run for District D.
Brad Jordan
Your mind isn’t playing tricks. A former member of the pioneering hip-hop group Geto Boys could wind up representing a large part of the city.
Brad Jordan, better known as his rap moniker “Scarface,” on Sunday announced his bid for Houston City Council District D. The seat is currently held by Councilman Dwight Boykins, who recently filed paperwork indicating he will run for mayor, according to earlier reports in the Houston Chronicle.
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“It’s official,” the rapper said in an Instagram post. “I’m offering myself for service as the next Houston City Councilmember for District D. Join our movement! More details to come. www.bradfordistrictd.com.”
Fellow Houston rappers Paul Wall and Bun B have already showed their support for Jordan’s announcement online. “I’m here for this!” Bun B said in a comment on the post.
That website is just a placeholder right now, so check back later if you want to know more. I look forward to seeing his finance reports, I’ll tell you that much. I would expect that there will be multiple candidates in this race, even with a big-name person like Jordan jumping in. Welcome to the race, Scarface.
Inspiring. Maybe I will run. But the gerry mander that was done to allow Mrs. Cohen to get elected took me out of District H and puts me in District C, which doesn’t suit me as well as H. If I run and in the unlikely event of my election, I will impeach the mayor if he’s re-elected, for violating the city fair housing ordinance, and I will do away with the two super speedways that bisect the greater Heights, and I will make Durham into a bicycle super highway and turn Shepherd into a regular two lane city street with traffic in both directions. I will restore Nashua St. Then, I will cut the police force and hire some college educated detectives that can investigate crimes, and who will wear suits. Meantime, no more showing off their ink, and patrol officers will walk a beat or ride a bicycle and interact with the community. Reports will be taken by telephone, not by an officer who responds four hours later. My tax returns are available to anyone who wants to examine them.
Jason, are you aware of who is in charge of drawing the political boundaries in Texas? I doubt it, just as I doubt you are aware of how limited the powers are of individual city council members or how many local cops have college degrees. I know HPD already takes reports by phone and how fast they go to report taking calls isn’t a big concern for me-it’s the times when people are being robbed, raped, or otherwise in danger that matters. Cutting their numbers along with cutting those in HFD that always seem able to give tours of their stations rather than handle fires (per your comment in another thread) might be a good move though, I just haven’t seen much support to do so.
Steve, not sure who draws the political boundaries, but I am sure that it is done for the benefit of certain politicians at certain times. I have never had HPD take a report by telephone–they send an officer to the location which takes 3-4 hours. Perhaps they took a phone report from you, but not in my experience. Which seems to me a big waste to send anyone out to take a report, when there is no evidence to gather at the site. HFD does have time to give tours but they are doing an excellent job of handling fires. Houston seemingly has a high number of structure fires. In addition to fires, HFD deals with the many traffic crack ups, and water rescue in the frequent floods. Entering into a structure fire is not a risk free endeavor.
Jason, the city budget mentions their teleserve division and another program where you submit details via computer yourself, the programs covering tens of thousands of reports. I have not tried to obtain copies of each report to prove such programs exist ala King’s little fishing expedition recently, but I do have friends that have successfully used the program.
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/divisions/emergency_communications/index.htm
Those who draw the political boundaries currently are in the republican party so any belief that they carved out anything to benefit Ms. Cohen seems unlikely at best. Both political parties have engaged in gerrymandering and when the democrats take the state over again, it is likely they will do so just as they did for years.
As far as how many fires HFD handles that allows them ample time to engage in frequent tours of their stations and gear, suffice it to say that the city doesn’t have that many large fires to keep all their employees busy, most of what they do relates to EMS services.