Category Archives: Local politics

I approve of this, with one reservation. The Houston City Council decided Wednesday that residential developers must share the costs of ensuring that future generations of Houstonians enjoy access to parks and green space as their city grows. The council … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Last month, the city was ordered to stop enforcing its billboard ordinance in an injunction granted as part of a lawsuit. Now the city has asked the judge to reconsider, saying the injunction was too broad. Jim Moriarty, the attorney … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A couple of days ago, I blogged about zoning and form-based planning, and said that I knew nothing about the latter. In a comment that I didn’t see at the time because it was accidentally flagged as spam by Movable … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’ve said before that the city has had a pretty good run in the courts lately. Yesterday, their winning streak came to an end when a judge granted an injunction to prevent enforcement of their billboard ordinance in the extraterritorial … Continue reading → Continue reading →

So much HISD news, so little time… HISD shorted out of tax revenue, state says The Harris County Appraisal District undervalued commercial and apartment property in 2005 and 2006, shorting the Houston Independent School District millions of dollars in tax … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In the end, the contract was extended without an open bid process. But it appears that may never happen again. Even as he pushed through a controversial contract extension for an airport concessionaire, Mayor Bill White told City Council on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Interesting approach being taken here by the city regarding billboards. Last month, [Houston City Attorney Arturo Michel] told Nooky’s and dozens of other companies that their billboards were illegal — not because of the content, but because of the location … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Chron has another article on the upcoming City Council food fight over airport concessions. Mayor Bill White called the food service at Bush Intercontinental Airport’s Terminal C inferior to that of other airports and said the fastest way to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Miya Shay connects a few dots in the airport concessions food fight, and calls out one of the principles for calling her out: Seems like Jason Yoo is not too happy with the recent coverage by the Chronicle and this … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Didn’t get a chance to blog about the airport concessions contract yesterday, which wound up getting tagged for a week in Council, so here we go now: Mayor Bill White said Wednesday he was confident he had the votes to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

You already know that I love the TV show Dirty Jobs. One of the dirty secrets about a lot of these jobs, the ones that Mike Rowe says “make civilized life possible”, is that a lot of them don’t pay … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As predicted, the District Court judges have named Assistant County Attorney Theresa Chang to be the replacement for outgoing Clerk Charles Bacarisse. The county’s state district judges unanimously backed Chang, who heads the county attorney’s compliance division, over three others … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The word I’m hearing from anonymous sources is that today is the day that the district court judges are going to pick their replacement for Charles Bacarisse as District Clerk. I’m told that they want the replacement to be an … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I don’t claim to know how The Woodlands governs itself. After reading this article, I’m still not sure that I understand it. Besides, as someone who’s always lived in a big city, the idea of there not being some kind … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Sugar Land has gone (mostly) smoke-free. Smoking will be restricted in restaurants, businesses, public parks, as well as Town Square Plaza and outdoor arenas. But the ordinance does exclude country clubs, retail tobacco stores, tobacco bars, stage areas for theatrical … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Houston City Council Member Adrian Garcia sent this message out, and Rick Noriega got it and sent it to me: We are all aware that the back-to-school time is upon us. Many students and parents are very busy looking for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Score another win for the city in court. After a daylong hearing in which the bar owners sought a preliminary injunction against the ordinance, U.S. District Judge Gray Miller found that the city can regulate alcohol-selling businesses to protect the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The word I’m hearing through the local grapevine is that District Clerk Charles Bacarisse will resign his position as soon as this Friday to make formal his run for the GOP nomination for County Judge next year. Now, we all … Continue reading → Continue reading →

And another local icon leaves the scene. Billy Burge, who played a major role in building Houston’s three professional sports venues, will not be reappointed to the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. Burge said he had served long enough on the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

They are going to name the Harris County Department of Education building on Irvington after RONALD REAGAN? This falls under the “I thought I’d seen it all” category. Reagan was NOT the education president, contrary to what the misinformed Republican … Continue reading → Continue reading →

If this isn’t the death blow, I don’t know what is. A federal appeals court today upheld a city ordinance restricting where topless clubs and sexually oriented businesses can operate. The ruling by a three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Who has responsibility for ensuring that there’s enough park space for Houston residents? According to City Council, some of that responsibility needs to be on developers. The ordinance, which city officials hope to have in place by Oct. 1, would … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The next time you peer into a mirror, take a closer look. You’ll be staring at the enforcement mechanism for the city’s new anti-smoking ordinance. When the city of Houston’s smoking ban expands next month to include bars, it largely … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Didn’t get to this the other day: Here are the basic arguments made in the Fifth Circuit Court appeal of the still-disputed anti-SOB ordinance from 1997. A 10-year-old analysis of where sexually oriented businesses in Houston can move to comply … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Back in May, several of Houston’s topless clubs got a temporary stay from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which prevented the city of Houston from arresting their employees under the previously-upheld anti-SOB law. Today, the promised … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The City Hall blog notes that proposed sale of the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation is on the agenda for City Council today. You can see it here as Item #27. I’m told that there are about 20 carryover … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I confess, I didn’t see this coming. [A] coalition of bar, nightclub and cabaret owners last week challenged Houston’s smoking ordinance in a federal lawsuit. They argue that city officials overstepped their authority last fall in passing the ordinance, scheduled … Continue reading → Continue reading →

We’ve talked before about the proposed $900 million bond issue that Commissioners Court may put on the ballot this November. That price tag may be greater by the time all is said and done. The court on Tuesday will consider … Continue reading → Continue reading →

You know about the $1 billion county bond proposal that will be on this November’s ballot. Now it may be joined by an HISD bond proposal as well. Houston Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said today that he needs $805 million in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Okay, so back in 2004 there were two competing revenue cap proposals for the city of Houston on the ballot. One only limited property and sales tax revenues plus water/sewer service fees, while the other affected those plus revenue generated … Continue reading → Continue reading →

One from the weekend I didn’t get to, another entry in the “Let’s play with the new searchable online campaign finance disclosure forms for city candidates” files. About one in 10 campaign contributions to elected city officials this year came … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I had a wonderful time last night at a house party for Nick Lampson in Clear Lake. He looks great and is clearly back at full energy, working hard in Congress and meeting with constituents around the district. He’s received … Continue reading → Continue reading →

And here I was thinking I’d only see Jordy Tollett again on some kind of Houston: Where Are They Now? special, preaching the benefits of the three-martini lunch. Perhaps not. According to Kristen Mack, Tollett is hot to get his … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good. The $628 million contract that the panel quietly approved devotes a third of the city’s energy purchases to wind-generated sources. [Mayor] White hopes the idea will give the city more stability in its roughly $150 million annual electricity budget, … Continue reading → Continue reading →