National Night Out, the local option

You have to admit, this makes a lot of sense.

For 24 long years, Houstonians swatted mosquitoes for law and order. They sweated for community solidarity. They turned out by the tens of thousands in the hottest part of the summer to join their fellow Americans in the crime-fighting National Night Out.

This year they're putting it all on ice. Sort of.

City police officials have announced that this year Houston and all of Texas will observe National Night Out on Oct. 7 -- two months after the rest of the nation.

"You've been out at night in August, and you know what that's like," said police spokesman Jesse Martinez. "And you've been out at night in October, and you know what that's like, too."

[...]

Matt Peskin, executive director of the National Association of Town Watch, the Night Out sponsor, said his group agreed to experimentally reschedule Texas events after it received complaints about the heat from law enforcement agencies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"There are two trains of thought on this," he said. "It could be great, or it could be a total flop."

Well, yeah, those are your two main options. As I recall, NNO originated in the North, so it made sense for it to be a summer evening. I personally was never bothered by it being in August down here, but I'm a bit of a mutant when it comes to heat tolerance, so I can certainly understand the objection. Let's hope it turns out to be great.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 27, 2008 to Elsewhere in Houston