Free Republic

March 21, 2006, 2:37PM Richmond rail plan draws a crowd Most of the 500 at town hall talk oppose Metro idea By RAD SALLEE Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle More than 500 people attended a town hall meeting Monday night on the controversial choice of a route for the Metropolitan Transit Authority's next light rail line, most opposing plans to build on Richmond Avenue. Those who spoke at the meeting, at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer, were each given one minute to talk, and most said they favored a line on nearby Westpark. Some, like Christina Campbell, said construction...

AUSTIN - Houston dodged what may be the last legislative attempt to stop its plan to enforce red lights with cameras, as the Senate Friday night defeated an amendment that would have required a public vote on the program. The Senate voted 18-13 against the amendment by Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, after a spirited debate. Houston Democrats Rodney Ellis, Mario Gallegos and John Whitmire joined with Houston Republicans Kyle Janek and Jon Lindsay in voting against the amendment. Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, supported Jackson's amendment. Whitmire, who spoke at length against the amendment, said he believes efforts to...

White is right: Cameras at traffic lights can save lives Clay Robison writes that red light cameras can help protect us from some of the most dangerous people we will ever encounter Whom do you fear the most? A two-time ex-convict on the prowl for easy money to feed a drug habit? Or a suburban soccer mom running late for a movie? How about a deliveryman with too many stops on his morning route, or a salesman with too many appointments on his daily calendar? The addicted ex-con probably would cause most people the most anxiety because he clearly is...

When Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs said she wanted to push for a citywide public smoking ban, Mayor Bill White told her she was on her own. "This wasn't his priority," she said. It still isn't. Although he is reluctantly seeking a compromise, which he earlier promised to introduce before the year is out, he's running out of weeks. Here's how we got here: Sekula-Gibbs, the only physician on City Council — who has pushed for a "Healthy Houston" and sometimes sports a white lab coat at the council table — said she was waiting for the right time to press for...

Mayor Bill White's plan to use cameras to monitor red-light violations stalled today, when a scheduled vote before the City Council was delayed a week so that questions about the plan could be answered. White has touted the proposal as a way to improve traffic enforcement without overtaxing Houston police, and supporters on the council had hoped to vote on it today after discussion on Tuesday. The discussion ran long, however, ensuring that there wouldn't be time today for the vote. The administration wants to hire a company to mount cameras at 50 or more of the city's most dangerous...

Events of the past week reminded me of the wisdom of the late Bill Crane, one of my political science professors. Crane wrote a popular textbook on Texas politics. Needless to say, he understood political corruption, and divided it into two types. It wasn't Democrat and Republican. This was before Texas Republicans had enough power to be corrupt. Crane's distinction was between Catholic corruption and Protestant corruption. He wasn't talking theology, but sociology. His use of the term "Catholic" was shorthand for immigrant groups that arrived relatively recently: Irish, Italians, Mexicans, and so on. The "Protestants" were the moneyed and...

Texans are generally gung-ho for law and order. They support the death penalty for capital crimes and tough prison sentences meted out to drug users and multiple offenders. That enthusiasm doesn't seem to extend to automated traffic enforcement systems that can videotape cars zooming through red lights and then mail tickets to the vehicle owner later. It's the rare Houston motorist who hasn't narrowly escaped being struck by an impatient driver trying to beat a red light. Police officers joke that Houstonians believe a red light means only three more cars can go through the intersection. Places of business as...

Mayor Bill White spoke Wednesday about city integrity following the bribery indictment of a one-time aide to former Mayor Lee Brown. Oliver Spellman, who until last Friday also worked as a top aide to County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, has been charged with criminal conspiracy to obtain bribes as a public official. It stems from allegations he helped a consultant in Cleveland, Ohio win City of Houston contracts. Mayor White says all contracts handled by Spellman are under review, and corruption will not be tolerated. "I've said in public microphones for two years, public contracting should be clean and transparent, no...

After witnessing a weekend of self-congratulatory festivities marking the January 1st debut of Houston’s MetroRail transit system, the hometown newspaper’s editorial board could hardly contain its exuberance. “Viewed from any angle,” opined the Houston Chronicle, the kickoff celebrations were a sure “sign of good things to come.” To the board, itself a merciless campaigner for rail, the roughly 15,000 people in attendance suggested that a “large helping of crow” was in order for transit critics. Reports from Houston spread quickly causing the Arizona Republic’s editorial page to gloat “critics rail at light rail to no avail.” After all, what...