These posts discuss city government.
On Friday, April 15, the Mayor delivered her State of the City address to the Greater Houston Partnership. This annual event is one of the largest of the year and I have been attending it through several Mayors. Approximately 1500 leading Houstonians from the business sector and elected leadership gathered to listen to the Mayor’s […]
Continue reading →As you may recall from previous posts, the City of Houston is adding two additional Council seats due to population increases. Yesterday, the first draft of a map was presented at City Council along with animated discussion of the proposed plan. I am, admittedly, a bit of a demographic junkie and enjoy studying numbers. The […]
Continue reading →The Federal government is on the verge of shutting down! Will they or won’t they? The State of Texas is close to causing thousands of teachers to lose their jobs while throwing the elderly out of nursing homes. Cities across the nation are at war with their employees and trying to figure out how to […]
Continue reading →The Houston City Council has initiated their Redistricting process. And, already, it has become contentious. The City is ahead of the Legislature as it holds elections this November and has a tight deadline to meet for Justice Department approval. Last week, Council took up the discussion and immediately a disagreement emerged over the addition of […]
Continue reading →Guess what? The City of Houston needs to trim approximately $130 million from the next fiscal year budget. That budget will be adopted by Council sometime in June and the Fiscal Year begins on July 1. The Mayor is trying her best to keep informing everyone that these dollars need to be found in the […]
Continue reading →We last discussed “Reality Show” voting and the way voters have become very fickle over the last few years. Today, let’s analyze “reality show” governing. Contestants arrive at the prescribed location and are psyched to win. They are pumped up. After months of talking “smack”, or in this case, promoting their platform to the roars […]
Continue reading →Alas, the long-awaited Census data for Texas has been released. It is full of fascinating information and this geek will be busy for days pondering the information. Preliminary reviews indicate some things we already knew. Texas is officially a minority majority population. The number of white/non Hispanic residents has dropped below 50%. Our urban areas […]
Continue reading →I have been pondering whether to write about the Chad Holley video for some time now. Since my inbox has been filled with folks claiming outrage and Members of Congress have called for a federal investigation, it seems appropriate to discuss. For months I had heard about this video. It was believed that were it […]
Continue reading →For more years than I can remember, I have been attending the Greater Houston Partnership’s annual State of the City luncheon. The current Mayor addresses an audience of 1200 – 1500 people and updates the crowd, filled with business and civic leaders, on the state of the city. In all these years, the luncheon has […]
Continue reading →Periodically, Ponderings will feature “Ponderings Picks”. This feature will highlight interesting people, programs and projects that we deem worthy of sharing. Houston has been very lucky to recruit Laura Spanjian to our fine city. She is the new “Green Guru” (my nickname) for the City of Houston. She is the innovator of the City Hall/Downtown […]
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