mattyt36

From the text of the bill: the term "qualified project" includes a venue and any related infrastructure. Seems pretty open to me. Considering the cap park is adjacent to the GRB, and Houston First had already tasked itself with financial planning related to the cap park, it would seem so.

Huge risk=Lose the mayoral election for certain (she has no path to victory) or set herself up early to win a Congressional seat if Sheila wins? Seems like she's reduced her "risk" by any reasonable standard.

Agenda for meeting, item 3, first person listed: Mario Diaz, Director, Houston Airport System. https://www.houstontx.gov/council/committees/econdev/20230531/agenda.pdf Not to mention: (1) I'd say it's pretty "best practice" for an organization to trumpet a multiple hundred-million-dollar investment in one's facility, wouldn't you? (2) The City has responsibility for any apron work, so it is not exclusively a United project. While they may not want much press prior to the Board approval, the documents were presented in a public forum, so one would think it would also behoove them to "control the narrative."

Just hit HBJ with a quote from United (but not one from HAS . . . further proving the point). United Airlines plans redevelopment of Bush Intercontinental's Terminal B - Houston Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

And what would you say the function of a dedicated media relations group is? Not defending the Chronicle, but did any of the TV news stations pick it up? If you operate knowingly in such an environment (it should be no surprise if you’re a professional journalist the quality of the Chronicle reporting, what they are likely to pick up, and what they aren’t), and more press was a goal, you’d kind of be a bit more proactive, no?

Well it’s also kind of on HAS as well for not issuing a press release or coordinating with the media, wouldn’t you say?

Do you really have to ask that question? The right-wing has made it clear by implicitly threatening for years that they'll kill us all if anyone tries to touch their guns ("Come and take it" and "Over my cold, dead body"). Your "armed citizenry" is the army of foot soldiers for the "Nazi tyrant" (your words) who has made it all but crystal clear that if he returns to power he won't be leaving.

Well from a quick glance, they have been hosted in October and even February before, which would certainly help "take the heat off."

Indeed, there's a big difference between being 1 of 435 and essentially a "voter" and being a "strong mayor" executive of the nation's fourth largest city with control over a multibillion budget.

A fine profile of John Whitmire from the Texas Tribune from 2013. He sure seems like an, er, opportunist (that’s the nice word). https://www.texastribune.org/2013/01/18/dean-senate-public-and-private-blur/

Pretty sure Miami was at the Hyatt as the awning was lit in UM colors and the hotel was wrapped with the UM logo.

She's got a pretty effective political machine, regardless of what people on here think about her. How well it will work in certain areas of the City other than her congressional district is certainly debatable. Buzbee's only chance is if Ds congeal around SJL. (I know what BD thinks--it's probably somehow even more of a lock now! Getting that endorsement sure seems to be the kiss of death!)

Hollins has pulled out of the mayoral race and is now running for Controller. Former elections chief Chris Hollins drops bid for Houston mayor | The Texas Tribune

I don't disagree in principle with the above, but (1) how much of the Atlanta thing is the state versus the city (the State of Texas will give us absolutely zero help); and (2) I've seen plenty of movies made in Atlanta (they're a dime a dozen), and a lot of the mass market ones don't even mention/really engage with the place, which to me is awful policy--but I guess that's the point. Anodyne, anywhere America. It is no mystery to me why people would not want to film a movie here for simple reason of weather, but New Orleans has its share of movies filmed there (of course New Orleans is pretty unique). Mo I think did a fine job at capturing Houston, as did the Anthony Bourdain episode on Houston and even Top Chef. Houston is very unique, just not particularly "sexy." I think we need a high-profile tourist attraction, and it needs to be downtown for convention goers to have easy access. I think the Museum of Texas History would've been great, but that fell through. So I think the best bets are some sort of "NASA Light" exhibit downtown with regular buses to JSC, or some sort of National Museum of Immigration that is affiliated with the Smithsonian to raise its profile. An energy museum would also be appropriate--I'm just not sure how many people it would attract.

Hopefully we've come so far since 2013, with tangible proof of what investment in public spaces can do for the City, that an imaginative and inventive concept to repurpose the Astrodome will be a slam dunk for voter approval. I know there was a lot of blowback against Lina for killing the most recent (IMO totally blah) garage concept, but maybe history will prove it a blessing.

Well, the voters technically had their say on the matter and said no thanks. Not sure how you can blame the Rodeo or the Texans for that one. Houston voters don't approve referendum to save Astrodome (espn.com) Hidalgo torpedoed the parking garage proposal--hopefully this planning effort will result in a new concept for the Astrodome that can be packaged into the new leases. Note the timeframe for all of these improvements per the article is . . . 2032!

I hope it's the first of many!

Well, I could certainly see that, but it almost seems as if the Democratic "ground game" in Harris County is more geared towards Lina's coalition these days, which makes me think that Chris Hollins shouldn't be counted out. There's certainly no guarantee Whitmire will finish in the top 2 for a runoff, especially if he is seen as "a Republican in Democratic clothing" (similar to Paul Vallas in Chicago or Rick Caruso in LA--Caruso lost and polls show Vallas in the lead, but polling for municipal elections is notoriously difficult). (I know @Blue Dogs will appreciate that Hollins's father was an actual HPD officer!) In any case, we shall soon find out.

Not really a question for you (am always interested in @Blue Dogs “in-depth” analysis), but could it be the case that assuming the above is true (which I can totally see), I think it’s also accurate to say Whitmire doesn’t have nearly the constituency that Sheila does (people may be indifferent to him, or simply favor him due to the others in the race), but I’m not sure anodyne gets out the vote in an off-year election.

Based on?

That makes two of us.

Well finally some more info on the development: -“Hope to” break ground in fall. -Will include 4-star hotel (brand TBD) -Walkway above street to club level (ick) -3 year construction period -Architect and contractor hired https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2023/03/24/houston-astros-downtown-entertainment-center.html

Sure, but not as a commercial service airport as was originally intended. Aerial dogfight erupts over airport - Houston Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

The closest corollary would be PAE, which was opened for commercial service in 2019 by Alaska and United. Southwest announced service but pulled out before even starting. United suspended service during COVID, came back in 2020, and left for good in 2021. Alaska is still there, but more than likely is serving it to occupy the gates and prevent them from being taken over by a new entrant with the associated competitive effects (think AA and its checkered history at DAL). Average fares at PAE for the most recent 12 month period are about 20% lower than for SEA. All destinations served from PAE by Alaska are served by Alaska from SEA. If there were no commercial service at PAE, the vast majority would use SEA. A lesser number would use BLI, which is also served by Alaska. The business case for PAE rests solely on Alaska locking other airlines out of the market, i.e., even though the demand may be there, the supply is "artificial." The opportunity cost of Alaska not serving PAE is that another airline likely would and charge much lower fares with the attendant competitive effects, not because they're adding passengers that wouldn't already be flying them from SEA in the first place. It's the same sort of calculus a company like HEB goes through when deciding to build a new grocery store without cannibalizing existing ones--sometimes you have to do it because someone else may do the cannibalizing. Saying that TKI is building a new airport because of some sort of latent demand is fallacious. City leaders have been talking about it for more than a decade (even before they bought the thing from Collin County in 2013) as an economic development initiative because, despite being a rapidly growing area, it's not particularly convenient to DFW or DAL--let's be honest, the former is really the primary reason any company would move to the Soulless Prairie (low-tax environment aside). All of the corporate traffic from the DNT corridor locating out there put ideas into their head. If the City of Katy or the City of Sugar Land or Fort Bend County are as interested in building an airport as the City of McKinney has been for years, then sure, it could happen, but linking that to some sort of burgeoning, latent demand is ridiculous. AA may very well serve TKI from day 1 for the same reason AS serves PAE, but let's see where they are 1, 3, 5, and 10 years down the road. They couldn't even serve DAL for more than a couple of years at a time. The fact remains that DFW and DAL will have multiple nonstop flights to all major destinations in the U.S. and any operation at TKI will definitely be "niche." Sure, some may save 30 minutes driving, but those savings will be dwarfed by the time cost of having to connect in ORD or ATL (or IAH). I do disagree though--if SGR, for example, did convert to a commercial service airport, IMO the most likely tenants would be LCCs like Allegiant. P.S. Just as a reflection of how the industry is going in the completely OPPOSITE direction--in the past couple of weeks, DL exited 4 markets altogether, while UA exited 2, in addition to all the previous cuts.

Careful . . . she's getting upset!