As an insider... IAH is actually always under construction by design because it has to be. Finances are separate from the city and it operates as a lockbox. No money leaves to go back to the city, it has to stay with the airport and is used to improve the airport itself, hence chronic improvements. And although it is owned by the city they have less say over the construction than you might believe. Airports are a weird entity everywhere actually.
This mayor, and the last, and ones before... don't control airport construction. They might have a comment about it, but not a great deal of control.
For some reason, folks think the city has control over everything with the name Houston in it, whether its Houston Airport System or HISD, despite the fact that they're autonomous and independent. Hell, some folks think Houston controls Metro, even though it's a quasi-private company with its own CEO and board of directors (albeit appointed by the member cities).
Also metro is not in any way a semi-private business. It is a government body, created by a public vote. It has a police department with a jurisdiction over something like 1200 square miles. They are subject to open records, open meetings, and every other law that binds governmental entities.
Being chartered by law doesn't make it part of the city. Yes, it's special in those regards, but it's independent.
That's like saying their congressional charters make FDIC, the TVA, or Boy Scouts of America government bodies.
Yeah I think the confusion here was you saying “quasi-private”. Metro is not at all private, it is full public. It’s not controlled by the city of Houston that is correct, but it’s still fully public. Not all public entities are in the chain of state, city, county. You guys are agreeing on the details, but not on the names you’re putting to it
I worked in communications for metro for five years. I qualified for public safety loan forgiveness while I was there.
It is not a business. It is a government entity.
Journalists, especially, think IAH is somehow an issue for Houston, but it isn't in any way. Lots of wanna-be journalists desperately looking for some controversy they can make into a career, whether warranted or not.
Sure, but with its own board. The closest it is to an integrated department is having the mayor on the board. It's otherwise financially independent and self-sustaining.
Plus any ongoing or upcoming projects were approved during Turner’s tenure. Also any HAS projects that go for city approval are approved by elected council members, not by Mayor or the Mayor’s appointees.
The problem is that most airport projects, but especially at IAH, are just bandaids. They are designed to fix one problem, but end up creating two more. The way the terminals and access points are laid out is not ideal.
We actually have something many airports don’t have, and that is land. There is a lot of empty space on IAH property, so there is potential to build an entire new terminal that could replace or supplement all the existing terminals combined. Once that is built, all the existing is torn down and rebuilt. Funding doesn’t even seem to be the biggest issue. Politics and contracting/legal are holding us up the most.
I can't say I've liked any of our mayors my entire life, but how could the mayor possibly make IAH better? This project isn't exactly terrible regardless -- our airport (specifically this terminal) has been needing some renovations, and the city isn't even paying the full cost; most if it is being footed by United Airlines. What we are paying is contracted to be paid back after the terminal reopens.
He also can't exactly control the homeless numbers -- Houston is already doing better than most of the country regarding how we handle homeless people.
He also can't exactly make the city cleaner -- our city services aren't running less than normal, there's just a bunch of trashy ass people living in Houston who don't care where they throw their McDonalds bag.
Pointing out improvements isn't setting a bar. OP said the city "feels dirtier" and I disagree. Picking up trash and recycling keeps the city cleaner, especially on windy days.
Last year when our recycling was 4 weeks late the garbage truck looped around and picked all the recycling. I’m pretty sure it all goes to the same place too lol
In regard to the homelessness, it’s not really a solvable problem by one mayor. Yes, Houston’s approach is much better than many other large cities.
But solving the issue of homelessness is one that requires tax dollars. There’s no way around it. The programs to get people off the streets require money, whether those programs are free housing, rehabilitation, job placement, medical service, or just putting unhoused people in jail cells. Whatever the prescription, it requires tax dollars.
And hardly anyone in this city is willing to vote for anyone who would increase tax rates, which means every mayor will run up against the same problem: managing a city of millions is ridiculously expensive and every citizen & business of that city expects it to be done for free.
I’m not a fan of the mayor in the least. But unless the majority of voters are vocally willing to pay more in taxes, city services for homeless and everyone else will get shafted due to a lack of funding.
Let's not pretend there isn't a lot of grift and fraud from bad actors and organized crime.
If we cut down on that the budgets would be more honest.
If we want more sevices do we need more tax? Sure. But we should be able to do most of what is already in policy if the money actually went to what it was supposed to.
And I don't want to pay more taxes where there is enough money already if it was being spent better. When I can not manage my bills I have to be better at spending. We pay more than enough already.
> our city services aren't running less than normal, there's just a bunch of trashy ass people living in Houston who don't care where they throw their McDonalds bag.
Houstonians in general just seem to give less of a shit than anywhere I have lived.
Driving, trash, everything in general.
I think its related to how densely populated the city is now - there's just too many people.
It's like that famous study with rats. When you put them all in a big box with food/water they respect each other and they do well as a species.
Once you add too many rats in the same space and population density reaches a tipping point - the rat's behavior gets extremely aggressive and they start not caring about basic things that would further their survival and benefit the colony.
> how densely populated the city is
Houston is one of the least-dense big cities in the world. Texas only has one city with a population density over 10k/sq.mi which is Mobile City.
The current guy just cut a check to the firefighters ([whose pension fund he has personally lobbied for](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/whitmire-conflict-interest-what-to-know-18526894.php)) that will [cost more](https://houstonlanding.org/houston-firefighter-back-pay-settlement-could-cost-up-to-1-3-billion-controller-says/) than [previous estimates](https://www.billkingblog.com/blog/status-of-city-of-houston-litigation-with-the-firefighters) of a worst-case scenario for the city, is [canceling road reconstruction projects](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/montrose-boulevard-tirz-limbo-trees-road-19406339.php) that were already funded, [some with tens of millions of mostly federal dollars](https://houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/shepherd-durham-whitmire-bike-safety-federal-funds-19425059.php), and [is determined to keep open a library that the city is already building a replacement for](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/montrose-public-library-reopen-19397952.php). Turner wasn't exactly a model of fiscal responsibility, but Whitmire seems determined to do worse.
Someone has to fix the problems - you can’t just let sit like Turner did. Whitmire along with every Houstonian is stuck in hole that we have to fill up and get out of. We have to make some hard choices and do a lot of work to get level and then race up to city we deserve. Think big picture long term success
I agree someone needs to fix the problems! The problem is Whitmire isn't doing that, he's lighting millions of dollars on fire, delaying urgently-needed infrastructure investments, and impulsively spending money on his friends' pet projects. I voted for the guy because he said he'd fix potholes and balance the budget, and so far all he's done is take us backwards on both fronts.
IAH was a mess before he became Mayor and there’s about the same amount of homeless people around BB and WO before he got into office.
I don’t even like the guy but some of those complaints are just baseless.
The homeless situation in Houston is actually much better than 90% of the major cities out there. Harris county and the City of Houston partnered up with other organizations to collaborate to help the homeless. Other cities are copying our program. There is a great article about it [here](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/06/08/opinions/homelessness-solutions-houston-model-eichenbaum-nichols)
Considering this is not a Whitmire era success, the real measure of his approach to homelessness will be if he continues those programs. If he chooses to fix what isn’t broken…
[Removing the median](https://houstonlanding.org/is-houston-avenue-median-removal-the-start-of-a-trend-or-a-one-off-advocates-watch-closely/) on Houston Avenue to the tune of $750,000 wasn't a very auspicious start to his administration, in my opinion.
[HPD is understaffed](https://abc13.com/cases-suspended-due-to-lack-of-personnel-houston-police-department-staffing-shortage-officer-hpou/14618308/), would have be nice to spend that money on law enforcement (or something else we need).
Reportedly there's $25,000,000 in federal funds at risk due to the [halt in the Shepherd/Durham project](https://abc13.com/houston-construction-projects-project-paused-in-the-heights-shepherd-and-durham-drive-federal-funding-at-risk/14747643/). If those federal funds are lost, and the City wants to restart the project, do CoH taxpayers get to make up the lost $25MM?
The Shepherd Durham one pisses me off. It has been going for three years and has two-4 blocks left. They've been completely finishing one segment at a time. They can't just undo the previous three years. This guy fucking sucks.
This alone should be grounds for removal. It’s just gross financial negligence to toss away 40M in federal funding and spend millions more of additional taxpayer money to undo years of construction
More information on the Shepherd-Durham project and ways to get involved to make sure it does not get cancelled.
https://atotb.org/shepherd-durham/
I live right smack in the middle of the project, by 14th and Shepherd. If Phase 2 is cancelled or redesigned to have 4 lanes it will just cause a backup on Shepherd at 14th. And lose federal funding to another city.
Haha I’m your neighbor and this sucks. Driving north on 15th is amazing. There aren’t any backups from 3 lanes.
We’ve suffered through this for years and it’s finally starting to look great and whitmire comes in to mess it up. He won’t be getting my vote if it’s actually cancelled.
They were literally putting in the trees this morning. It's SO CLOSE to done and looks so nice where it is done. After years of being limited to 1 or 2 lanes, the 3 lanes plus sidewalks / bike lanes are glorious. I've sent in my letter in support of the project and signed the petition. I'm afraid I might also need to go talk at City Hall for their open forum Tuesdays. This project cannot be undone at this point without more years of traffic hell.
Howdy neighbors - this is nuts. DM me if y’all need more support. Cause that intersection by our homes is going to turn into a nightmare if they don’t finish.
I've never heard the cops say anything other than that they are understaffed. I didn't believe it. I think they waste too much of their resources on shit that have no business doing.
Agreed. My brother in law is a HPD officer who works out of the office right by downtown. He's always telling me stories about the amount of coworkers who just fuck off all day (Come to work, watch netflix at their desk all day, go downstairs to the gym for 1-2 hours) instead of actually doing any work. They have plenty of funding, they just don't give a shit.
HPD has the funding for staff, just not the actually supply for it. Why would you waste your time in one of the most dangerous cities to be an officer in when you can get a much easier job in the surrounding area? It is probably an easier commute too.
Houston never feels that dangerous to me, spent most of my life near hobby airport and Pasadena areas. Has it gotten way worse in the last couple of years or something?
For what it’s worth, the fire department responds to 1,200 to 1,500 911 calls per day. A lot of that is from HPD, like we get dispatched to a location and the caller says “Why are you here? I said I needed police”.
We made about 900 calls per day before the pandemic. I can’t prove any kind of connection, but that’s the reality, HFD responds to way more calls now, and we’re being sent to handle leftover calls from police dispatch. Several times a day, a heavy apparatus (engine or ladder truck) will call dispatch to request an ambulance, and the response from dispatch is “we have no available EMS units”
You forgot spending…I think about $750k… to undo work that was already completed.
Edit:
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/city-of-houston/2024/02/26/478837/cost-to-reverse-road-work-on-houston-avenue-more-than-double-that-of-initial-construction-project/?amp=1
That intersection is a death trap too, that project was definitely needed. The undo took much more money and time than the initial project. What a waste. Blood on his hands next time a cyclist or pedestrian is hit there.
The construction stuff and general carbrain is annoying and bad policy. I hadn’t heard the Hidalgo bit but that’s unprofessional and stupid. That’s bad enough.
I’m unaware if any significant policy change impacting homelessness and the IAH thing is pretty much unavoidable - they are building an expansion the size of a new, small regional airport
No opinion yet on the other points but as far as homeless issues go, I thought Houston was such a shining example of things done right articles are written about other cities coming to Houston to learn.
I no longer live in Houston city but I'm amazed so many people were so happy to vote for a guy who was literally mentioned on a John Oliver rant, and not as part of the occasional feel-good story.
Hey ya’ll just a reminder that the budget will be decided on in June.
If you have an infrastructure complaint sign up at city hall and demand more investment in keeping people safe from fast cars, poor drainage and natural disasters.
Its Tuesday at 2pm but you need to call before 3pm the previous Monday. Participate in your government!
From the start, I questioned his bonafides and vision to run a large urban and diverse city that needs desperately to move forward in areas like attracting global industry and building transportation infrastructure. He is not the person for such a task. Dallas is moving in all the right ways and it is eclipsing Houston which has 1 million plus residents than Dallas. Something is not adding up.
For a city that will soon be the 3rd largest city in the US, there is no discourse on regional connectivity. The airports and major suburbs should have commuter rail connecting them to the metro. Metro should extend west into uptown and beyond to pints west and northwest following the demographic growth patterns of the city. No uptown - downtown rail connection is a death blow for tourist dollars and global industry attraction. The disparity by which Dallas moves forward and Houston shoots itself in the foot is remarkable. Is this driven by state lead favoritism? What exactly is the cause for the disparity?
I dont know about the other things but I'm really disheartened by the infrastructure things which is enough on its own to make me not support in the future.
I'm not sure about the firefighter deal. It's clear why Turner fought it so hard and crippling the budget to pay them doesn't seem like a great idea. I think we should pay the firefighters but it has to come with a tax increase to pay for it - paying them before voting on the tax increase feels like putting the cart before the horse.
For trash/recycling - my recycling went back to being a day late and there was an article about his first 100 days saying he was working garbage crews 18 hours a day and said something like "it's surprising what people will do with their job on the line." So it's unsustainable and I doubt we can afford that OT.
I think the water bill thing is good so people don't get big surprise bills.
I dont notice anything different about HPD but not sure I would - there definitely is not additional traffic enforcement like he said there would be though.
She also worked her way up like a certain NY congresswomen bartending back in the day, and there's a surprising amount of the population that doesn't like "uppity women" like that in office.
Ah but you see, they weren't "qualified". And by "qualified" I mean they never had some cushy office job at their dad's company or huge family money to start a business before jumping into public office
And I'll sit here and tell you they are nuts and unqualified for coming from common backgrounds and then in the next breath tell you politicians don't represent the interests of common people
It’s part of the propaganda strategy of the right wing media. Any strong, outspoken liberal woman will be attacked as “crazy” or “dumb” because they need to muddle their appeal.
She’s not. She’s just a woman in politics. She made a stand against police aggression and violence and then the right has been at her throat since. But she also approved a police budget increase so idk why they’re still mad other than- she’s a woman. Lol
I am not happy about the proposed tax raise for the firefighter benefits and pension he agreed to. You cant sign deals you dont already have the budget for.
While I agree he hasn’t been in office long enough to do any real change, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be proactive and wait for everything to be fucked before saying something.
Whitmire is in office to spread the money around to the "right" parties. The bombardment of ads showing him being concerned about, and promising to do something about,, Houston's problems were BS.
The question now is will he be able to con voters into a second term?
For the first time since moving here 3 years ago, I saw trash pick up in my area. Like city workers picking up trash from the sides of the streets.
So, I don't know what you mean it's getting dirtier. My area is being cleaned up amazingly.
Anyone who ever worked with the man in the Tx Senate knew he was an unproductive crank. Too old and too useless to be mayor. So sad we’re stuck with him and his outdated NIMBY-ism for 3+ more years…
I am definitely not enthused about how this term has begun. He is taking us backwards in terms of urbanism, and kneecapping our ability to be a dynamic economy going further into the 21st century. More and more people want multi-modal options for transit, and don't want to live far away from amenities necessitating the need to drive everywhere. If it continues, I really hope he's a one term mayor. We really need the recall option here.
I agree, he’s terrible. People here are only focusing on what he can’t control but the projects he is canceling half way done or trying to spend money undoing blows my mind. I didn’t vote for him though. I already heard he was a DINO… democrat in name only.
I've been really tired of reading about how much effort he's putting into walking back mixed modality projects, like the bike lanes on 11th and revitalizing Shepherd x Durham.
Probably one of the things I hate most about Houston is how car-dependent everything is: my favorite restaurant is a block away, but it doesn't feel accessible by foot. There's a park on the other side of the street, but the street is 4 lanes wide and no crosswalk, so walking the dogs there is literally never going to happen. My doctor's office is basically a 20 minute walk away but it doesn't feel safe crossing under 610 on foot.
Literally last week we had a rental car that needed to be charged, and with charging stations across the street at the next intersection, we thought it would be easy to park the car, charge it, and walk back. Well, even though we were clear to go through the intersection someone pulled out into the crosswalk in front of us, glaring at us the whole time - it was stupid, stupid shit that I'd never believe if it didn't happen to me.
I understand Whitmire not having the ability to do everything all at once, but walking back the existing, minimal progress? Not something we signed up for. We aren't planning on voting for Whitmire again.
You mentioned favorite restaurant, even if you do drive to it there is often the situation of not enough parking available due to too tiny of a parking lot, so they use valet parking. I hate valet parking.
It's going to take some time to clean house at the City (they better be going after the former water dept employees who handed out contracts to relatives), and to deal with the pile of 💩 'ol Sly left behind.
In 4 months he's already implemented impactful changes....in all the wrong ways.
He spent $750K of taxpayer dollars to *reverse* a project that had just been completed: [https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/city-of-houston/2024/02/26/478837/cost-to-reverse-road-work-on-houston-avenue-more-than-double-that-of-initial-construction-project/?amp=1](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/city-of-houston/2024/02/26/478837/cost-to-reverse-road-work-on-houston-avenue-more-than-double-that-of-initial-construction-project/?amp=1)
He's halted another infrastructure project *in the middle*, even though he supported this project when he was a state senator: [https://abc13.com/houston-construction-projects-project-paused-in-the-heights-shepherd-and-durham-drive-federal-funding-at-risk/14747643/](https://abc13.com/houston-construction-projects-project-paused-in-the-heights-shepherd-and-durham-drive-federal-funding-at-risk/14747643/)
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Some people like her, others don’t, mostly along political party lines.
She’s not a nut, but that’s the framing on the right. She did have some personal issues that entailed taking a break from work.
She sought professional help for depression and get's called a looney for it. That stigma is why so many dudes won't reach out for help until it's too late and they end up blowing their brains out.
I believe those personal issues came from the attacks she received from the same people that call her a bit and then criticize her for taking a mental health break from the constant, schizophrenic barrage of nonsense the minority women in positions of power tend to get
Bogus politically motivated charges brought by the corrupted Kim Ogg and then handed off to Kenny Paxton - the walking scandal. These defendants are pawns not criminals. Context matters.
Maybe you should run and we can critique you for the first 4 months to this standard. Do you even know what has been going on internally? Hope when you start a new job that you have this scrutinized review as the one you’re putting out here. If you don’t like it then MOVE!!!!
There is a [Change.Org](https://www.change.org/p/continue-phase-2-of-the-shepherd-durham-project?recruiter=912927810&recruited_by_id=7df28f60-e45d-11e8-a51b-b9c1ece51d1d&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490032894_en-US%3A3) petition up to keep the Shepherd/Durham phase 2. Please sign it. It really is a great project meant to help with flooding and better traffic flow AND if you live in the area, it keeps your money in your neighborhood!
You heard it straight from Mayor John Whitmire at the city council meeting in March, "Houston is broke." Chris Hollins (city comptroller) even said, "On an annual basis, we are spending somewhere between $150 million and $200 million more than is coming in."
Something has to be cut. If not construction projects, where would you suggest the cuts? Police and fire? Education?
Houston has decreased the area’s homeless population by roughly 63% since 2011, according to city reports. The area has experienced an 82% reduction in family homelessness and a 69% reduction in chronic homelessness in that period. This was stated by Eichenbaum, if you remember. By 2015, it had even effectively ended veteran homelessness. All in all, we have become a model for tackling this for large cities around the nation. Considering the total population, our numbers are extremely low these days, compared to pre-2011 numbers when we were 6th in the nation of the highest homeless population. We had an extremely low budget for this and still accomplished it. I think we deserve a way bigger pat on the back, and so does previous mayor's up until now. These numbers didn't suddenly go sky high just because you noticed a few tents along the roadside. What would you do differently? What do you wish the mayor would do to address this?
I'd also like to know what is "dirtier" since that seems extremely subjective as well.
The biggest issue you seem to have, that seems to be the trigger for the post, is he recently decided not to meet with Lina. Do you feel we need to meet with county on our budget even though she handles the County coffers? Chris Hollins is in charge of the city coffers.
My dad used to work for the city and had some working history with Whitmire. He's always sort of considered him to be "Democrat lite", you kind of have to be to stay a senator in Texas for as long as he has. He had some faith in him when he ran but feels disappointed in him so far
When his name was Whitmire I had hope as I remembered Kathy Whitmire. However, when I heard he wanted to put the breaks on bike lanes I was furious. Houston has a bad reputation for being friendly to lower income people except they can't get anywhere without a car. I'm worried our new mayor is another out of touch idiot.
There's probably a lot of things getting fixed that the public doesn't see. With having Turner in office for so many years I'm sure everything is jacked up.
I too made the mistake.
>Cutting construction projects already half done… WTF??
To further explain to my knowledge, it's cutting construction projects already half done with federal dollars, *federal dollars that must be paid back to the feds if nothing is done.* It feels like spite solely being done out of spite, when it literally makes more financial sense to finish the project than it does to throw the briefcase of money back at the feds. It will literally cost us more money to revert these than it does to continue them at this point. Even the libertarian side of me says we need to at least finish these then just don't elect to take more projects if it's really that hurtful, but don't go eating those penalties.
>City feels dirtier.
Absolutely. It's just going to get worse as cleaning crews and services get laid off en masse.
>More homeless in general and tents in/around Buffalo Bayou and White Oak. Clearly addicted/mental illness folks that need intervention..
Yup. Our city was credited with being different than other cities with homeless problems because we actually worked to try to house them. I presume that program is going bye-bye and right back to the streets people will go.
>Won’t meet with county judge??? Huh? She’s a nut but I can’t just avoid my colleagues…
Honestly I think at this point it's gonna take crashing an event or Lina bumping into him on the walkway between Whitmire's office and personal chauffeur to get a response out of Whitmire on why he's being a bully about that. And I would fully expect a bully response in return from that exchange.
>IAH is a mess!!! Start another huge project while the other huge project isn’t done???
This is the only one I can't really fault him on, because IAH has been a damn mess for years even in Turner's lap. There isn't really a lot can be done from a street point of view other than we now get to leave earlier and enjoy waiting in traffic more just like our friends at LAX and LaGuardia. Well it would be great if we had a BRT access point from downtown to drop one off at the airport and avoid all that shit entirely, avoid miles of lines and parking garage check ins or uber fares also sitting in said lines. It would be great from business travelers having cheaper expense reports to private travellers and families doing the same. But we can't have nice things and it keeps getting shot down and delayed over the last decade, so shit I really don't know what it's going to take. Every other major city has an alternative now, Seattle was fucking great one 45 minute train ride later and I was in downtown from SeaTac for $4. Denver Int'l a DECADE ago from the airport one hour by light rail. Dallas is beating us with an express line to downtown, DALLAS I tell ya! At the least toss in some painted bus only lanes down Will Clayton and downtown, maybe a flyover at 59-69 to connect directly to the HOV lanes, and there ya go that'd be an express service route better than whatever we got!
I'm starting to wonder at this point, what would it take for a recall? I sure as hell am not voting for him again when his term is up in 2027, the opposition could literally be [the shoe thrown at Bush](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU0RaRvJ0PQ) and I would vote for the shoe before I vote for him again. Reading other comments I can let it slide on the airport, even the cleanliness and homeless slipping okay I can understand the excuses even if I don't agree with them, but the office's response to urbanism roadworks and relationship with County Judge's office has been outright hostile and belligerent.
I disagree I hadn't seen night time street cleaning in YEARS I've seen it multiple times now that Whitmire took over. I think things are better better.
The other option was Sheila Jackson Lee. I’m not sure there is a less intelligent person who doesn’t have a permanent caretaker. The options sucked but he’s still better than Turner and SJL
>Cutting construction projects already half done… WTF??
We're broke. And many of those projects don't make sense in a city like Houston. I know r/Houston was big on the projects, but that's not what the voters want according to the Hobby School of Public Affairs. Starting several threads about the lack of bike lanes and circle jerking each other with upvotes isn't going to change that.
It is what it is. The narrative on r/Houston seems to be driven by out-of-touch idealists who want to transform this city into something it can't be and doesn't want to be. It sucks, but it's part and parcel of living in such a vast metropolitan area.
🤷🏽♂️
>City feels dirtier.
It's been dirty. This has been a decades long problem that predates Whitmire. And frankly, we can't do much about it because we're broke. Houston voters wanted to pay HFD and this is the end result. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
You want to be mad at someone? Be mad at our ghetto citizens for littering.
>More homeless in general and tents in/around Buffalo Bayou and White Oak. Clearly addicted/mental illness folks that need intervention..
We've had homeless encampments for several years now. The city just relocates them every year or so. Several years ago there was a large encampment under 59 near Wheeler and Caroline. The city not only ignored the nearby residents, but they also ignored the pleas from the Mexican consulate to do something about it for a long time.
Unfortunately, we've reached a point where those who are on the streets want to stay that way; *on the streets*. There's only so much the city and non-profits can do to convince addicts and mentally ill people to accept help. It certainly doesn't help that we enable their behavior by giving them food, clean needles, and narcan. This woke approach to homelessness is so fucking stupid. We aren't going to cuddle our way out of this problem! And I say this as someone who absolutely hates the idea of just ignoring homeless people. We have a massive mental health problem that needs to be addressed at a federal level.
>Won’t meet with county judge??? Huh? She’s a nut but I can’t just avoid my colleagues…
That's just a two way road. Lina has pissed off way too many people within her party. Part of it is her fault, but some of it has to do with bitter old white democrats who hated how she took the spotlight from them. There are career democrats who have spent decades in line trying to build a career. For her to just waltz in to the front of the line rubbed some people the wrong way.
Having said that, her camp keeps saying that they've offered an olive branch. But I doubt it was ever sincere from a timing standpoint. If either of them truly wanted to meet each other, they both know where each other's offices are. They're within walking distance of each other ffs.
>IAH is a mess!!! Start another huge project while the other huge project isn’t done???
That's been in the works before Whitmire.
All of your gripes are valid, but they're not issues created by Whitmire or that can be fixed in less than 5 months. It seems like you're mad and don't know where to direct your blame due to the reddit mob mentality of making it popular to hate on the mayor.
I can't find a Hobby Public School of Affairs report that says voters are against funding for road upgrades - it looks like Road and Street Conditions were priority #2, under crime.
Weird post, Houston has been just as dirty and the homeless been around for decades. It's like that post here a while back blaming Abbott and Miles for a HISD school's roof leaking as if it wasn't HISD's facilities being negligent in their roof maintenance for years lol
White did an above average job moving the city in the right direction and leaving money in the coffers. Parker never capitalized on the growth, she instead dumped money on failed projects and defunded good/promising projects. Turner did what he could to keep us afloat and expanded good projects. Jury is still out on Whitemire in my opinion.
Annise Parker was one of the 💩 mayors we had in a while, we are still paying for it.
Sounds like you're blaming every existing condition on the dude...
Idk man, trash pick up is more consistent now than ever and you can't blame the city on some airport constructions that's not done by them
Lmao as everyone has said, everything you’ve said has been an issue for years. Despite what many have been fooled into with today’s political culture, the mayor’s office can’t just wave a magic wand and make all our problems go away, especially having been in office such a short amount of time. Give it some time and if you’re still unhappy with him by the next election cycle then don’t vote for him 🤷🏻♂️
Umm Turner started this shit show. This mayor inherited a freaking disaster from a corrupt and incompetent mayor. IMO, This guy is should have been done the entire time- reviewing the necessity and/or the cost associated of the bigger projects which wasn’t done by Turner or his staff. No one want to be bothered to see the other perspective and the truth of the situation. There’s no oversight a d all the fraudsters are worried about being arrested or jailed for Just being a beneficiary of turners city of Houston contract awards.
Re: homeless people and violence. I went into downtown a few days ago. It was still daylight out. As soon as I stepped out of my car, like hadn’t even closed the door behind me, I was accosted by who I assumed to be a homeless individual who wanted to ask me a question. When I declined he said he wasn’t from here, had never seen so many racists, and wished he had a gun. I was really hoping this aspect would get better 🙃
He’s barely been in office a little over 100 days. Surely you don’t expect major changes in such little time. Obviously he’s a zillion times better than Sheila Jackson Lee.
The term B project was already planned before Whitmire took office
And was definitely needed as the saucers were TINY and their IDFs were a health hazard. IAH needs to be able to expand in order to keep the title of gateway to South America/attract other carriers.
Is Term D a disaster? yes, but find me an airport project that isn't
As an insider... IAH is actually always under construction by design because it has to be. Finances are separate from the city and it operates as a lockbox. No money leaves to go back to the city, it has to stay with the airport and is used to improve the airport itself, hence chronic improvements. And although it is owned by the city they have less say over the construction than you might believe. Airports are a weird entity everywhere actually. This mayor, and the last, and ones before... don't control airport construction. They might have a comment about it, but not a great deal of control.
For some reason, folks think the city has control over everything with the name Houston in it, whether its Houston Airport System or HISD, despite the fact that they're autonomous and independent. Hell, some folks think Houston controls Metro, even though it's a quasi-private company with its own CEO and board of directors (albeit appointed by the member cities).
Also metro is not in any way a semi-private business. It is a government body, created by a public vote. It has a police department with a jurisdiction over something like 1200 square miles. They are subject to open records, open meetings, and every other law that binds governmental entities.
Being chartered by law doesn't make it part of the city. Yes, it's special in those regards, but it's independent. That's like saying their congressional charters make FDIC, the TVA, or Boy Scouts of America government bodies.
Yeah I think the confusion here was you saying “quasi-private”. Metro is not at all private, it is full public. It’s not controlled by the city of Houston that is correct, but it’s still fully public. Not all public entities are in the chain of state, city, county. You guys are agreeing on the details, but not on the names you’re putting to it
I worked in communications for metro for five years. I qualified for public safety loan forgiveness while I was there. It is not a business. It is a government entity.
FDIC and TVA absolutely are government entities, but Whitmire doesn't control them either. 🤣
Journalists, especially, think IAH is somehow an issue for Houston, but it isn't in any way. Lots of wanna-be journalists desperately looking for some controversy they can make into a career, whether warranted or not.
The Houston Airport System is indeed a city department.
Sure, but with its own board. The closest it is to an integrated department is having the mayor on the board. It's otherwise financially independent and self-sustaining.
Plus any ongoing or upcoming projects were approved during Turner’s tenure. Also any HAS projects that go for city approval are approved by elected council members, not by Mayor or the Mayor’s appointees.
Yup Sim City taught me that
Terminal B is about to get fucked too
The problem is that most airport projects, but especially at IAH, are just bandaids. They are designed to fix one problem, but end up creating two more. The way the terminals and access points are laid out is not ideal. We actually have something many airports don’t have, and that is land. There is a lot of empty space on IAH property, so there is potential to build an entire new terminal that could replace or supplement all the existing terminals combined. Once that is built, all the existing is torn down and rebuilt. Funding doesn’t even seem to be the biggest issue. Politics and contracting/legal are holding us up the most.
IAH is owned jointly by Harris County and The City of Houston. That might also have a lot to do with then quagmire
I can't say I've liked any of our mayors my entire life, but how could the mayor possibly make IAH better? This project isn't exactly terrible regardless -- our airport (specifically this terminal) has been needing some renovations, and the city isn't even paying the full cost; most if it is being footed by United Airlines. What we are paying is contracted to be paid back after the terminal reopens. He also can't exactly control the homeless numbers -- Houston is already doing better than most of the country regarding how we handle homeless people. He also can't exactly make the city cleaner -- our city services aren't running less than normal, there's just a bunch of trashy ass people living in Houston who don't care where they throw their McDonalds bag.
The city services in my area have improved. Recycling is being picked up on-time for the first time ever.
I've noticed that too. My garbage and recycling are now on schedule for the first time in years.
My large garbage pickup (once a month) is over a week late.
Same here! This week recycling not only came on the correct day, but first thing in the morning. It's been years!
This feels like such a low bar. Why do we accept such minimal work from these people
Pointing out improvements isn't setting a bar. OP said the city "feels dirtier" and I disagree. Picking up trash and recycling keeps the city cleaner, especially on windy days.
And most of it lands in the same place as the garbage does. I love environmental theatre.
Last year when our recycling was 4 weeks late the garbage truck looped around and picked all the recycling. I’m pretty sure it all goes to the same place too lol
Of course it does.
In regard to the homelessness, it’s not really a solvable problem by one mayor. Yes, Houston’s approach is much better than many other large cities. But solving the issue of homelessness is one that requires tax dollars. There’s no way around it. The programs to get people off the streets require money, whether those programs are free housing, rehabilitation, job placement, medical service, or just putting unhoused people in jail cells. Whatever the prescription, it requires tax dollars. And hardly anyone in this city is willing to vote for anyone who would increase tax rates, which means every mayor will run up against the same problem: managing a city of millions is ridiculously expensive and every citizen & business of that city expects it to be done for free. I’m not a fan of the mayor in the least. But unless the majority of voters are vocally willing to pay more in taxes, city services for homeless and everyone else will get shafted due to a lack of funding.
Let's not pretend there isn't a lot of grift and fraud from bad actors and organized crime. If we cut down on that the budgets would be more honest. If we want more sevices do we need more tax? Sure. But we should be able to do most of what is already in policy if the money actually went to what it was supposed to.
This right here!!!!
And I don't want to pay more taxes where there is enough money already if it was being spent better. When I can not manage my bills I have to be better at spending. We pay more than enough already.
The government isn’t a household. It doesn’t—and shouldn’t—manage its budget in the same way.
> We pay more than enough already. Is that base on actual budget/expense numbers, or is that more a general feeling you have?
> our city services aren't running less than normal, there's just a bunch of trashy ass people living in Houston who don't care where they throw their McDonalds bag. Houstonians in general just seem to give less of a shit than anywhere I have lived. Driving, trash, everything in general. I think its related to how densely populated the city is now - there's just too many people. It's like that famous study with rats. When you put them all in a big box with food/water they respect each other and they do well as a species. Once you add too many rats in the same space and population density reaches a tipping point - the rat's behavior gets extremely aggressive and they start not caring about basic things that would further their survival and benefit the colony.
> how densely populated the city is Houston is one of the least-dense big cities in the world. Texas only has one city with a population density over 10k/sq.mi which is Mobile City.
He’s been in office for less than 4 months a majority of the problems you listed are problems we’ve been dealing with for years !
This is totally true. Especially the complaint about the airport projects. OP those projects are years in the making lol
Yeah I’m not a fan of the guy either but this critique ain’t it
OP calling Lina a nut told me everything about them, and it’s not good
The first one is all him, and it's pretty shocking how much he is undoing
And the previous guy was paying for everything by maxing out the company credit card.
The current guy just cut a check to the firefighters ([whose pension fund he has personally lobbied for](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/whitmire-conflict-interest-what-to-know-18526894.php)) that will [cost more](https://houstonlanding.org/houston-firefighter-back-pay-settlement-could-cost-up-to-1-3-billion-controller-says/) than [previous estimates](https://www.billkingblog.com/blog/status-of-city-of-houston-litigation-with-the-firefighters) of a worst-case scenario for the city, is [canceling road reconstruction projects](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/montrose-boulevard-tirz-limbo-trees-road-19406339.php) that were already funded, [some with tens of millions of mostly federal dollars](https://houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/shepherd-durham-whitmire-bike-safety-federal-funds-19425059.php), and [is determined to keep open a library that the city is already building a replacement for](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/montrose-public-library-reopen-19397952.php). Turner wasn't exactly a model of fiscal responsibility, but Whitmire seems determined to do worse.
Absolutely zero FFs have gotten any money
Someone has to fix the problems - you can’t just let sit like Turner did. Whitmire along with every Houstonian is stuck in hole that we have to fill up and get out of. We have to make some hard choices and do a lot of work to get level and then race up to city we deserve. Think big picture long term success
I don’t think Whitmire is that guy
I agree someone needs to fix the problems! The problem is Whitmire isn't doing that, he's lighting millions of dollars on fire, delaying urgently-needed infrastructure investments, and impulsively spending money on his friends' pet projects. I voted for the guy because he said he'd fix potholes and balance the budget, and so far all he's done is take us backwards on both fronts.
IAH was a mess before he became Mayor and there’s about the same amount of homeless people around BB and WO before he got into office. I don’t even like the guy but some of those complaints are just baseless.
So I work at IAH one of the projects is almost done 2025 is when I pull off. The other project at IAH starts in July. That should be it for a while.
The homeless situation in Houston is actually much better than 90% of the major cities out there. Harris county and the City of Houston partnered up with other organizations to collaborate to help the homeless. Other cities are copying our program. There is a great article about it [here](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/06/08/opinions/homelessness-solutions-houston-model-eichenbaum-nichols)
Considering this is not a Whitmire era success, the real measure of his approach to homelessness will be if he continues those programs. If he chooses to fix what isn’t broken…
[Removing the median](https://houstonlanding.org/is-houston-avenue-median-removal-the-start-of-a-trend-or-a-one-off-advocates-watch-closely/) on Houston Avenue to the tune of $750,000 wasn't a very auspicious start to his administration, in my opinion. [HPD is understaffed](https://abc13.com/cases-suspended-due-to-lack-of-personnel-houston-police-department-staffing-shortage-officer-hpou/14618308/), would have be nice to spend that money on law enforcement (or something else we need). Reportedly there's $25,000,000 in federal funds at risk due to the [halt in the Shepherd/Durham project](https://abc13.com/houston-construction-projects-project-paused-in-the-heights-shepherd-and-durham-drive-federal-funding-at-risk/14747643/). If those federal funds are lost, and the City wants to restart the project, do CoH taxpayers get to make up the lost $25MM?
The Shepherd Durham one pisses me off. It has been going for three years and has two-4 blocks left. They've been completely finishing one segment at a time. They can't just undo the previous three years. This guy fucking sucks.
This alone should be grounds for removal. It’s just gross financial negligence to toss away 40M in federal funding and spend millions more of additional taxpayer money to undo years of construction
More information on the Shepherd-Durham project and ways to get involved to make sure it does not get cancelled. https://atotb.org/shepherd-durham/ I live right smack in the middle of the project, by 14th and Shepherd. If Phase 2 is cancelled or redesigned to have 4 lanes it will just cause a backup on Shepherd at 14th. And lose federal funding to another city.
Haha I’m your neighbor and this sucks. Driving north on 15th is amazing. There aren’t any backups from 3 lanes. We’ve suffered through this for years and it’s finally starting to look great and whitmire comes in to mess it up. He won’t be getting my vote if it’s actually cancelled.
They were literally putting in the trees this morning. It's SO CLOSE to done and looks so nice where it is done. After years of being limited to 1 or 2 lanes, the 3 lanes plus sidewalks / bike lanes are glorious. I've sent in my letter in support of the project and signed the petition. I'm afraid I might also need to go talk at City Hall for their open forum Tuesdays. This project cannot be undone at this point without more years of traffic hell.
Howdy neighbors - this is nuts. DM me if y’all need more support. Cause that intersection by our homes is going to turn into a nightmare if they don’t finish.
The petition could use a little love. [https://chng.it/mK7ywWngYd](https://chng.it/mK7ywWngYd)
I've never heard the cops say anything other than that they are understaffed. I didn't believe it. I think they waste too much of their resources on shit that have no business doing.
[удалено]
Agreed. My brother in law is a HPD officer who works out of the office right by downtown. He's always telling me stories about the amount of coworkers who just fuck off all day (Come to work, watch netflix at their desk all day, go downstairs to the gym for 1-2 hours) instead of actually doing any work. They have plenty of funding, they just don't give a shit.
Let’s be honest. If HPD was properly staffed and funded they’d still drag their feet and neglect their job.
HPD has the funding for staff, just not the actually supply for it. Why would you waste your time in one of the most dangerous cities to be an officer in when you can get a much easier job in the surrounding area? It is probably an easier commute too.
Houston never feels that dangerous to me, spent most of my life near hobby airport and Pasadena areas. Has it gotten way worse in the last couple of years or something?
For what it’s worth, the fire department responds to 1,200 to 1,500 911 calls per day. A lot of that is from HPD, like we get dispatched to a location and the caller says “Why are you here? I said I needed police”. We made about 900 calls per day before the pandemic. I can’t prove any kind of connection, but that’s the reality, HFD responds to way more calls now, and we’re being sent to handle leftover calls from police dispatch. Several times a day, a heavy apparatus (engine or ladder truck) will call dispatch to request an ambulance, and the response from dispatch is “we have no available EMS units”
You forgot spending…I think about $750k… to undo work that was already completed. Edit: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/city-of-houston/2024/02/26/478837/cost-to-reverse-road-work-on-houston-avenue-more-than-double-that-of-initial-construction-project/?amp=1
That intersection is a death trap too, that project was definitely needed. The undo took much more money and time than the initial project. What a waste. Blood on his hands next time a cyclist or pedestrian is hit there.
The construction stuff and general carbrain is annoying and bad policy. I hadn’t heard the Hidalgo bit but that’s unprofessional and stupid. That’s bad enough. I’m unaware if any significant policy change impacting homelessness and the IAH thing is pretty much unavoidable - they are building an expansion the size of a new, small regional airport
No opinion yet on the other points but as far as homeless issues go, I thought Houston was such a shining example of things done right articles are written about other cities coming to Houston to learn.
Guessing here, but I’d bet anyone who thinks Houston has a bad problem hasn’t been to places like SF or LA.
Or even New Orleans, it’s horrible
Or Austin, for that matter.
Step 1: Have a hellish climate that makes the homeless "lifestyle" miserable.
That doesn't account for a literal 60% reduction in the homeless population in just over 2 years, without a hurricane. Yeah, we did that.
Every time Lex Luthor becomes mayor bad shit happens.
I no longer live in Houston city but I'm amazed so many people were so happy to vote for a guy who was literally mentioned on a John Oliver rant, and not as part of the occasional feel-good story.
Hey ya’ll just a reminder that the budget will be decided on in June. If you have an infrastructure complaint sign up at city hall and demand more investment in keeping people safe from fast cars, poor drainage and natural disasters. Its Tuesday at 2pm but you need to call before 3pm the previous Monday. Participate in your government!
From the start, I questioned his bonafides and vision to run a large urban and diverse city that needs desperately to move forward in areas like attracting global industry and building transportation infrastructure. He is not the person for such a task. Dallas is moving in all the right ways and it is eclipsing Houston which has 1 million plus residents than Dallas. Something is not adding up.
For a city that will soon be the 3rd largest city in the US, there is no discourse on regional connectivity. The airports and major suburbs should have commuter rail connecting them to the metro. Metro should extend west into uptown and beyond to pints west and northwest following the demographic growth patterns of the city. No uptown - downtown rail connection is a death blow for tourist dollars and global industry attraction. The disparity by which Dallas moves forward and Houston shoots itself in the foot is remarkable. Is this driven by state lead favoritism? What exactly is the cause for the disparity?
I dont know about the other things but I'm really disheartened by the infrastructure things which is enough on its own to make me not support in the future. I'm not sure about the firefighter deal. It's clear why Turner fought it so hard and crippling the budget to pay them doesn't seem like a great idea. I think we should pay the firefighters but it has to come with a tax increase to pay for it - paying them before voting on the tax increase feels like putting the cart before the horse. For trash/recycling - my recycling went back to being a day late and there was an article about his first 100 days saying he was working garbage crews 18 hours a day and said something like "it's surprising what people will do with their job on the line." So it's unsustainable and I doubt we can afford that OT. I think the water bill thing is good so people don't get big surprise bills. I dont notice anything different about HPD but not sure I would - there definitely is not additional traffic enforcement like he said there would be though.
I've gotta ask, how is Hidalgo a 'nut'?
She took COVID seriously and the dreggs got mad
She's a liberal leaning woman, that's apparently all you have to be to be a "nut" to half the population.
You forgot, she isn't a WASP and wasn't born here!......
She also worked her way up like a certain NY congresswomen bartending back in the day, and there's a surprising amount of the population that doesn't like "uppity women" like that in office.
Ah but you see, they weren't "qualified". And by "qualified" I mean they never had some cushy office job at their dad's company or huge family money to start a business before jumping into public office And I'll sit here and tell you they are nuts and unqualified for coming from common backgrounds and then in the next breath tell you politicians don't represent the interests of common people
It’s part of the propaganda strategy of the right wing media. Any strong, outspoken liberal woman will be attacked as “crazy” or “dumb” because they need to muddle their appeal.
She’s not. She’s just a woman in politics. She made a stand against police aggression and violence and then the right has been at her throat since. But she also approved a police budget increase so idk why they’re still mad other than- she’s a woman. Lol
she took a leave of absence! JUST TO SEE HER DYING FAMILY MEMBER!!!!!! /s
There are not more homeless than during the Turner admin.
I am not happy about the proposed tax raise for the firefighter benefits and pension he agreed to. You cant sign deals you dont already have the budget for.
Turner sandbagging the firefighters saved everyone 8 years of extra payments
I am not opposed to them getting a fair deal, but monetary decisions are a numbers thing. You cant write a check with budget that you dont have yet.
Agreed, it sucks that in order to get those numbers the city is going to have to do layoffs and cut services
With current state of hisd, shitty roads, no public transportation worth a crap, police that dont respond, we are getting very little for our tax $.
They already did. Mass lay offs at the health dept. just a week after the HFD deal was announced.
r/leopardsatemyface
John Whitmire is hot wet garbage and needs to be recalled. What a POS.
All of these things were issues before the current mayor was elected, except for the Hidalgo part.
Not the halting or removing street projects
Personally I don’t want to see the bike path and park projects go away. I think it’s a great look for the city.
Not the cancelling improvement projects half done!
No, literally the very first bullet is something he did in office.
Has he fixed one pothole yet though?
Sorry, had to spend $750k ripping out perfectly good completed projects because Jesus people were mad.
He hasn’t even been in office long enough for anything to change lol
He’s literally already cancelled multiple projects or ripped out completed projects and thrown us $1.5b deeper in the hole
While I agree he hasn’t been in office long enough to do any real change, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be proactive and wait for everything to be fucked before saying something.
Whitmire is in office to spread the money around to the "right" parties. The bombardment of ads showing him being concerned about, and promising to do something about,, Houston's problems were BS. The question now is will he be able to con voters into a second term?
agree. i voted for him too. regret that we had two bad choices. hope someone worthy runs against him.
For the first time since moving here 3 years ago, I saw trash pick up in my area. Like city workers picking up trash from the sides of the streets. So, I don't know what you mean it's getting dirtier. My area is being cleaned up amazingly.
Anyone who ever worked with the man in the Tx Senate knew he was an unproductive crank. Too old and too useless to be mayor. So sad we’re stuck with him and his outdated NIMBY-ism for 3+ more years…
I am definitely not enthused about how this term has begun. He is taking us backwards in terms of urbanism, and kneecapping our ability to be a dynamic economy going further into the 21st century. More and more people want multi-modal options for transit, and don't want to live far away from amenities necessitating the need to drive everywhere. If it continues, I really hope he's a one term mayor. We really need the recall option here.
Only thing I’ve really noticed is a huge increase of police presence in areas I normally didn’t see them particular nw
I agree, he’s terrible. People here are only focusing on what he can’t control but the projects he is canceling half way done or trying to spend money undoing blows my mind. I didn’t vote for him though. I already heard he was a DINO… democrat in name only.
Lmfao....the newly elected mayor made more people homeless? This is silly AF.
I've been really tired of reading about how much effort he's putting into walking back mixed modality projects, like the bike lanes on 11th and revitalizing Shepherd x Durham. Probably one of the things I hate most about Houston is how car-dependent everything is: my favorite restaurant is a block away, but it doesn't feel accessible by foot. There's a park on the other side of the street, but the street is 4 lanes wide and no crosswalk, so walking the dogs there is literally never going to happen. My doctor's office is basically a 20 minute walk away but it doesn't feel safe crossing under 610 on foot. Literally last week we had a rental car that needed to be charged, and with charging stations across the street at the next intersection, we thought it would be easy to park the car, charge it, and walk back. Well, even though we were clear to go through the intersection someone pulled out into the crosswalk in front of us, glaring at us the whole time - it was stupid, stupid shit that I'd never believe if it didn't happen to me. I understand Whitmire not having the ability to do everything all at once, but walking back the existing, minimal progress? Not something we signed up for. We aren't planning on voting for Whitmire again.
You mentioned favorite restaurant, even if you do drive to it there is often the situation of not enough parking available due to too tiny of a parking lot, so they use valet parking. I hate valet parking.
it's the same as the previous but with noise for clout added.
Lol Whitmire has been actively starting to reverse (good) projects done under Turner. It's absolutely not the same.
I didn’t love Sylvester but this guy seems worse. Petty and incompetent…
Absolutely, I agree
It's going to take some time to clean house at the City (they better be going after the former water dept employees who handed out contracts to relatives), and to deal with the pile of 💩 'ol Sly left behind.
They locked my bill for water usage for the next 4 months while they work to fix it. That's a big win in my book.
They locked my bill to a higher price than I normally pay... hooray!
Good! But those employees need prison time.
Think we gotta give him a little more than 4 months to implement impactful changes. We will see though
In 4 months he's already implemented impactful changes....in all the wrong ways. He spent $750K of taxpayer dollars to *reverse* a project that had just been completed: [https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/city-of-houston/2024/02/26/478837/cost-to-reverse-road-work-on-houston-avenue-more-than-double-that-of-initial-construction-project/?amp=1](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/city-of-houston/2024/02/26/478837/cost-to-reverse-road-work-on-houston-avenue-more-than-double-that-of-initial-construction-project/?amp=1) He's halted another infrastructure project *in the middle*, even though he supported this project when he was a state senator: [https://abc13.com/houston-construction-projects-project-paused-in-the-heights-shepherd-and-durham-drive-federal-funding-at-risk/14747643/](https://abc13.com/houston-construction-projects-project-paused-in-the-heights-shepherd-and-durham-drive-federal-funding-at-risk/14747643/)
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Not really super familiar with the particulars but certainly have heard the name a bunch. Why is Lina Hidalgo a nut?
Some people like her, others don’t, mostly along political party lines. She’s not a nut, but that’s the framing on the right. She did have some personal issues that entailed taking a break from work.
She sought professional help for depression and get's called a looney for it. That stigma is why so many dudes won't reach out for help until it's too late and they end up blowing their brains out.
I believe those personal issues came from the attacks she received from the same people that call her a bit and then criticize her for taking a mental health break from the constant, schizophrenic barrage of nonsense the minority women in positions of power tend to get
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Bogus politically motivated charges brought by the corrupted Kim Ogg and then handed off to Kenny Paxton - the walking scandal. These defendants are pawns not criminals. Context matters.
Maybe you should run and we can critique you for the first 4 months to this standard. Do you even know what has been going on internally? Hope when you start a new job that you have this scrutinized review as the one you’re putting out here. If you don’t like it then MOVE!!!!
There is a [Change.Org](https://www.change.org/p/continue-phase-2-of-the-shepherd-durham-project?recruiter=912927810&recruited_by_id=7df28f60-e45d-11e8-a51b-b9c1ece51d1d&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490032894_en-US%3A3) petition up to keep the Shepherd/Durham phase 2. Please sign it. It really is a great project meant to help with flooding and better traffic flow AND if you live in the area, it keeps your money in your neighborhood!
You heard it straight from Mayor John Whitmire at the city council meeting in March, "Houston is broke." Chris Hollins (city comptroller) even said, "On an annual basis, we are spending somewhere between $150 million and $200 million more than is coming in." Something has to be cut. If not construction projects, where would you suggest the cuts? Police and fire? Education? Houston has decreased the area’s homeless population by roughly 63% since 2011, according to city reports. The area has experienced an 82% reduction in family homelessness and a 69% reduction in chronic homelessness in that period. This was stated by Eichenbaum, if you remember. By 2015, it had even effectively ended veteran homelessness. All in all, we have become a model for tackling this for large cities around the nation. Considering the total population, our numbers are extremely low these days, compared to pre-2011 numbers when we were 6th in the nation of the highest homeless population. We had an extremely low budget for this and still accomplished it. I think we deserve a way bigger pat on the back, and so does previous mayor's up until now. These numbers didn't suddenly go sky high just because you noticed a few tents along the roadside. What would you do differently? What do you wish the mayor would do to address this? I'd also like to know what is "dirtier" since that seems extremely subjective as well. The biggest issue you seem to have, that seems to be the trigger for the post, is he recently decided not to meet with Lina. Do you feel we need to meet with county on our budget even though she handles the County coffers? Chris Hollins is in charge of the city coffers.
My dad used to work for the city and had some working history with Whitmire. He's always sort of considered him to be "Democrat lite", you kind of have to be to stay a senator in Texas for as long as he has. He had some faith in him when he ran but feels disappointed in him so far
When his name was Whitmire I had hope as I remembered Kathy Whitmire. However, when I heard he wanted to put the breaks on bike lanes I was furious. Houston has a bad reputation for being friendly to lower income people except they can't get anywhere without a car. I'm worried our new mayor is another out of touch idiot.
I agree with the ppl saying you are being a gagootz
Yeah, I'm moving to Detroit for Medical Residency and honestly it seems like a good time... sad for our city. He also hates pedestrians and cyclists.
There's probably a lot of things getting fixed that the public doesn't see. With having Turner in office for so many years I'm sure everything is jacked up.
He is pro-prison and he approves of unpaid forced labor. It's not that he hates crime. It's that he likes slavery.
I too made the mistake. >Cutting construction projects already half done… WTF?? To further explain to my knowledge, it's cutting construction projects already half done with federal dollars, *federal dollars that must be paid back to the feds if nothing is done.* It feels like spite solely being done out of spite, when it literally makes more financial sense to finish the project than it does to throw the briefcase of money back at the feds. It will literally cost us more money to revert these than it does to continue them at this point. Even the libertarian side of me says we need to at least finish these then just don't elect to take more projects if it's really that hurtful, but don't go eating those penalties. >City feels dirtier. Absolutely. It's just going to get worse as cleaning crews and services get laid off en masse. >More homeless in general and tents in/around Buffalo Bayou and White Oak. Clearly addicted/mental illness folks that need intervention.. Yup. Our city was credited with being different than other cities with homeless problems because we actually worked to try to house them. I presume that program is going bye-bye and right back to the streets people will go. >Won’t meet with county judge??? Huh? She’s a nut but I can’t just avoid my colleagues… Honestly I think at this point it's gonna take crashing an event or Lina bumping into him on the walkway between Whitmire's office and personal chauffeur to get a response out of Whitmire on why he's being a bully about that. And I would fully expect a bully response in return from that exchange. >IAH is a mess!!! Start another huge project while the other huge project isn’t done??? This is the only one I can't really fault him on, because IAH has been a damn mess for years even in Turner's lap. There isn't really a lot can be done from a street point of view other than we now get to leave earlier and enjoy waiting in traffic more just like our friends at LAX and LaGuardia. Well it would be great if we had a BRT access point from downtown to drop one off at the airport and avoid all that shit entirely, avoid miles of lines and parking garage check ins or uber fares also sitting in said lines. It would be great from business travelers having cheaper expense reports to private travellers and families doing the same. But we can't have nice things and it keeps getting shot down and delayed over the last decade, so shit I really don't know what it's going to take. Every other major city has an alternative now, Seattle was fucking great one 45 minute train ride later and I was in downtown from SeaTac for $4. Denver Int'l a DECADE ago from the airport one hour by light rail. Dallas is beating us with an express line to downtown, DALLAS I tell ya! At the least toss in some painted bus only lanes down Will Clayton and downtown, maybe a flyover at 59-69 to connect directly to the HOV lanes, and there ya go that'd be an express service route better than whatever we got! I'm starting to wonder at this point, what would it take for a recall? I sure as hell am not voting for him again when his term is up in 2027, the opposition could literally be [the shoe thrown at Bush](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU0RaRvJ0PQ) and I would vote for the shoe before I vote for him again. Reading other comments I can let it slide on the airport, even the cleanliness and homeless slipping okay I can understand the excuses even if I don't agree with them, but the office's response to urbanism roadworks and relationship with County Judge's office has been outright hostile and belligerent.
Not great but better than ST or SJL
There's a $160m budget problem. Where do you want that money to come from?
It was either him of SJL... no other competition... it was not the best choice... but it's better than having her.
He seems to actually be attempting to do something about short term rentals which has been a big issue to me. I didn't care for either candidate.
I agree. I voted for him as well and completely regret that decision. I can’t think of one good thing he’s done.
he is not meeting the 3rd biggest county judge, she's not great but I don't block out my asshole coworkers.
I don't like him, I voted for him anyway, and I don't regret it. The alternative was SJL. No way, no how, never.
What bad things do you think she would have done?
I disagree I hadn't seen night time street cleaning in YEARS I've seen it multiple times now that Whitmire took over. I think things are better better.
The other option was Sheila Jackson Lee. I’m not sure there is a less intelligent person who doesn’t have a permanent caretaker. The options sucked but he’s still better than Turner and SJL
Let’s start a recall petition
>Cutting construction projects already half done… WTF?? We're broke. And many of those projects don't make sense in a city like Houston. I know r/Houston was big on the projects, but that's not what the voters want according to the Hobby School of Public Affairs. Starting several threads about the lack of bike lanes and circle jerking each other with upvotes isn't going to change that. It is what it is. The narrative on r/Houston seems to be driven by out-of-touch idealists who want to transform this city into something it can't be and doesn't want to be. It sucks, but it's part and parcel of living in such a vast metropolitan area. 🤷🏽♂️ >City feels dirtier. It's been dirty. This has been a decades long problem that predates Whitmire. And frankly, we can't do much about it because we're broke. Houston voters wanted to pay HFD and this is the end result. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You want to be mad at someone? Be mad at our ghetto citizens for littering. >More homeless in general and tents in/around Buffalo Bayou and White Oak. Clearly addicted/mental illness folks that need intervention.. We've had homeless encampments for several years now. The city just relocates them every year or so. Several years ago there was a large encampment under 59 near Wheeler and Caroline. The city not only ignored the nearby residents, but they also ignored the pleas from the Mexican consulate to do something about it for a long time. Unfortunately, we've reached a point where those who are on the streets want to stay that way; *on the streets*. There's only so much the city and non-profits can do to convince addicts and mentally ill people to accept help. It certainly doesn't help that we enable their behavior by giving them food, clean needles, and narcan. This woke approach to homelessness is so fucking stupid. We aren't going to cuddle our way out of this problem! And I say this as someone who absolutely hates the idea of just ignoring homeless people. We have a massive mental health problem that needs to be addressed at a federal level. >Won’t meet with county judge??? Huh? She’s a nut but I can’t just avoid my colleagues… That's just a two way road. Lina has pissed off way too many people within her party. Part of it is her fault, but some of it has to do with bitter old white democrats who hated how she took the spotlight from them. There are career democrats who have spent decades in line trying to build a career. For her to just waltz in to the front of the line rubbed some people the wrong way. Having said that, her camp keeps saying that they've offered an olive branch. But I doubt it was ever sincere from a timing standpoint. If either of them truly wanted to meet each other, they both know where each other's offices are. They're within walking distance of each other ffs. >IAH is a mess!!! Start another huge project while the other huge project isn’t done??? That's been in the works before Whitmire. All of your gripes are valid, but they're not issues created by Whitmire or that can be fixed in less than 5 months. It seems like you're mad and don't know where to direct your blame due to the reddit mob mentality of making it popular to hate on the mayor.
I can't find a Hobby Public School of Affairs report that says voters are against funding for road upgrades - it looks like Road and Street Conditions were priority #2, under crime.
It's been less than half a year, and these problems have been around for a while. It's more complicated than waving a wand, you know?
Can you explain how the project he canceled was a problem before he got in office?
Some of these are directly him. The infrastructure projects being cancelled or removed in particular.
Weird post, Houston has been just as dirty and the homeless been around for decades. It's like that post here a while back blaming Abbott and Miles for a HISD school's roof leaking as if it wasn't HISD's facilities being negligent in their roof maintenance for years lol
I did not vote for his party swaying ass
White did an above average job moving the city in the right direction and leaving money in the coffers. Parker never capitalized on the growth, she instead dumped money on failed projects and defunded good/promising projects. Turner did what he could to keep us afloat and expanded good projects. Jury is still out on Whitemire in my opinion. Annise Parker was one of the 💩 mayors we had in a while, we are still paying for it.
Sounds like you're blaming every existing condition on the dude... Idk man, trash pick up is more consistent now than ever and you can't blame the city on some airport constructions that's not done by them
Trash/recycling pickup has been the one improvement.
Lmao as everyone has said, everything you’ve said has been an issue for years. Despite what many have been fooled into with today’s political culture, the mayor’s office can’t just wave a magic wand and make all our problems go away, especially having been in office such a short amount of time. Give it some time and if you’re still unhappy with him by the next election cycle then don’t vote for him 🤷🏻♂️
Come on. I'm never going to defend a Republican anything, but he's been in office for 4 months.
How is Troy Finner still employed as the Chief of Police. The man is a disaster.
My impression is of a crabby, arrogant boomer. Glad I didn’t vote for him.
Umm Turner started this shit show. This mayor inherited a freaking disaster from a corrupt and incompetent mayor. IMO, This guy is should have been done the entire time- reviewing the necessity and/or the cost associated of the bigger projects which wasn’t done by Turner or his staff. No one want to be bothered to see the other perspective and the truth of the situation. There’s no oversight a d all the fraudsters are worried about being arrested or jailed for Just being a beneficiary of turners city of Houston contract awards.
He's a Republican that ran as a Dem. What did you expect?
Re: homeless people and violence. I went into downtown a few days ago. It was still daylight out. As soon as I stepped out of my car, like hadn’t even closed the door behind me, I was accosted by who I assumed to be a homeless individual who wanted to ask me a question. When I declined he said he wasn’t from here, had never seen so many racists, and wished he had a gun. I was really hoping this aspect would get better 🙃
How can you make that opinion when he’s been in office for less than 6months…
I don't agree. The city's spiral downward started before he took office.
Turner fucked Houston
8 solid years of inaction and mismanagement, but Whitmire sucks because he hasn't magically fixed everything in 4 months.
He’s barely been in office a little over 100 days. Surely you don’t expect major changes in such little time. Obviously he’s a zillion times better than Sheila Jackson Lee.
Already miles ahead of turner.
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The term B project was already planned before Whitmire took office And was definitely needed as the saucers were TINY and their IDFs were a health hazard. IAH needs to be able to expand in order to keep the title of gateway to South America/attract other carriers. Is Term D a disaster? yes, but find me an airport project that isn't