TGM

No butthurt here. I quite enjoy the token bread and circuses that these career politicians offer their constituents in place of authenticity. And when someone special like the Yale-educated Shelia Jackson Lee comes around you stand back in awe at how cheap and easy it is to purchase a voters allegiance. I want Shelia to stay because while anyone else can do the same inept job, no one can do it with the panache and spectacle that is Shelia Jackson Lee. Houston will be a dull place without her.

No, the burden is on Kyle to prove the difficulty of obtaining welfare as a single, childless male as he stated that this was in fact for the record.

Wow, I think you've made the case that liberalism truly is a mental disorder.

We both know that's a suckers choice as you'll continue to move the goal posts with each example I cite and I'll never get to hear your jokes. Let's just say people I thought I knew have surprised me in their faking of of PTSDs, work-place injuries, actual job search efforts, and unreported sources of income that will allow them to qualify for "assistance". Have you not noticed increased amounts of advertisements informing people of various benefits? They want to give away more money. So?

Red, I don't really get a chance to listen to radio during the work day. Could you provide a re-cap of today's grumblings. And since it sounds like you've worked hard for your money, how about helping me out with a loan. Four out of five of the window units the city gave me are on the fritz!

Probably change, and whatever remains of hope. I'm going to call BS on your statement that it's hard for single men to get welfare. I really don't see today's government turning anyone down for any sort of dependance, um,err, assistance. If a person can some how eff-up getting on the government gravy train then there is little hope for them. For heavens sake, we fund groups like Acorn to insure everyone gets pie.

Maybe they're actively preserving history.

Once you realize how the pricing model works its pretty easy to figure out where the $2.5M went. $10k - email reply $50k - reply letter with SJL letterhead (suitable for framing) $100k - call returned by current staff member (staff subject to change without notice) $250k - meeting with chief of staff $500k - sound bite of your cause included in speech $1M - name of cause mentioned with an angry voice $2M - Press conference with guarantee of 3+ microphones $2.5M - Level 1 Outrage * *each increased level of outrage is $1M.

I'll tell you what's gross; the amount of power a certain person has to be confident enough to publicly admit what you are doing with Midtown residents money knowing that it will never come back to haunt you. When I realized a few years ago that the very people tasked with revitalizing the neighborhood were actively trying to harm it I knew it was time to get out.

Like this: http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/housing/Land-Rush.html "The Power Broker" "Garnet Coleman shares most of Lowe's concerns about what's happening in the Third Ward. His hands, however, lie closer to the levers of political power, and his stake in the neighborhood is more deeply personal. "Third Ward is my home -- it's not for sale," Coleman says. "A hundred years in my family. It's a very different point of view." The key to Coleman's approach is money -- money to buy land and take it out of circulation. To get it, Coleman is utilizing a quasi-governmental authority, deploying tactics that would make the legendary highway and bridge builder Robert Moses proud. If Moses manipulated the back channels of power in New York for the cause of promoting development, however, Coleman is doing the same in Houston in order to impede it. Coleman's vehicle is an urban investment tool known to most cities that use it as "tax increment financing." In Houston, the arrangement goes by a different name -- "tax increment reinvestment zone" or TIRZ. The idea is that as a depressed area redevelops, the resulting increase in property taxes pays for more improvements in the neighborhood. Houston's city council has designated 22 such TIRZs in different neighborhoods, each with its own governing board. Typically, their goal is to spruce up sidewalks, lighting and landscaping, in hopes of attracting even more development. One TIRZ, in a neighborhood known as Midtown, is acting a little differently. Midtown is a once run-down area of commercial warehouses just east of the Third Ward. It's now transformed into a thriving neighborhood of apartments, shops, restaurants and nightclubs. The board of the Midtown TIRZ is divided between Coleman loyalists and appointees of Mayor White. The board has chosen to use almost all of its revenues -- $10 million in the past five years -- to purchase and then "bank" land in the Third Ward. "If you look at Midtown, that was all publicly induced -- ain't none of it affordable," says Coleman. "Why can't we do the same thing for people who need an affordable place to live?" It's a decidedly unorthodox arrangement, one whose very existence seems to be something of a secret. Coleman declines to say how much land the Midtown TIRZ has banked in the Third Ward. He'll say only that he wants the land to be used for low-income rental housing, with deeds held by local churches and CDCs that could borrow against the value of the land in order to build more affordable housing. "Low-density rental is the only way for it to be affordable," Coleman argues. "You keep the character of the neighborhood while providing affordable housing." In order to save the Third Ward, Coleman seems intent on freezing its current character and demographics in place. An essential part of his plan is to attach restrictive deeds to the rental properties to ensure that they are never sold to private developers or converted to condos. But is it really possible for a neighborhood to resist change? Fifty years ago, much of the area that Coleman now sees as his patrimony was a largely Jewish neighborhood. Only in the 1960s did the area become predominantly black. What Coleman is trying to do is keep it that way. He seems to enjoy the challenge. "Everyone said it couldn't be done," he crows, with obvious relish. "I said, 'Watch me.' "

It takes 2.5 mil to convert it to a public park? For just $30k I'll give you a dog park, bocce court, and BBQ pits, all surrounded by a sidewalk made of reclaimed brick.

That's a misuse of TIRZ dollar IMHO. One could also argue church and state issues, but I'm not sure how far that would get you. If it was worth preserving then the congregation should have been preserving it. Pathetic.

When you walk those streets you need to do it with flair and confidence.

I have not driven through Freedmans town lately, is the maintainence-deferred church still being propped up by those beams that bring so much joy to the residents around it?

Replicants look like (80's) Daryl Hannah and don't ask for change. They will however ask you for clove cigarettes at Numbers on Friday evenings. The proper term is zombies. I'm a little disappointed that we have not heard about someone in Midtown trying bath salts, stripping, and then attempting to eat alive that chicken that hangs out near NTB. I guess even our local Zombies can't compete at the national level.

Based on my experience everything is done for the sake of show. When a group of significant power thinks the real issue can be resolved by hiring a PR firm rather than more officers then you know that the perception that the area is safe is more important than actually going after the intrenched criminal problems.

Yet another reason I am happy to be "post-midtown"

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