mattyt36

1 hour ago, __nevii said:

It is — Republicans are cowardly and scared that they are losing their grip regarding state political control. Lots of GOP led positions in Harris county swept by Democrats in 2018 onwards. They are trying every trick in the book to destroy urban areas/make living conditions miserable such as to drive out left-leaning people (who tend to like well-functioning urban environments). This is their dying grasp in attempts to wrestle back power.

That is why they are trying to control elections in Harris county. That is why they took over HISD. That is why they are attempting to push I-45.

Now, the only thing that will complete this theory is whether or not Whitmire is "in on it" regarding the Republican agenda.  Is he a "lackey" of Abbott, sent in to Houston because the state leaders knew that no Republican would win a city race? Or, is he simply a "useful idiot?"

But the wrinkle, is whether or not they truly drive Texans out of the state. Stuff at HISD, I-45, etc might only merely drive Houstonians into suburban counties, or to other cities in the state at best. If the voters themselves have not changed, then popular elections like governor's seat will remain unaffected.

The pattern of State attacks against the City and the County (without corollaries elsewhere in the State) implies a level of coordination that is pretty plain to see for anyone who can put two and two together (and you can put Ogg in this bucket as well). 

I'm sure they had a similar plan for the County (that was the holy grail to regain control of elections), but they managed to lose that one with abysmally poor candidate selection.  They did better with Whitmire because he wasn't nearly as grating and had a D after his name.  Still, the campaign ingredients were the same and let's just they weren't, "I love this City"--in fact, it was quite explicitly the opposite.  I'm sure the same people who had Mealer on "speed dial" have Whitmire as well.  (It may be more accurate to say they had already had his for a long time.)

Sammy's post is very revealing.  Can't say I'm surprised--certainly confirms what I've figured for a while. Community input is absolutely necessary when it is a project he doesn't like--to h*ll with it when it doesn't ("surprisingly predictable," que será, será).  The same sort of arguments that he has made about I-45 are now thrown out the window when it comes to this administration's stated policy that neighborhood preferences can be subordinated to those of commuters:

Whitmire administration dings Houston’s Vision Zero efforts (houstonlanding.org)

When considering community input, Gaffrick said the administration views the community as more than just those that live near proposed projects. That includes commuters.

Sure HISD is in bad shape and has been for a long time, as are virtually every other urban school districts in the country, but there are some bright spots, which you acknowledge.  Here's some questions:

(1) Are there other districts in the State similarly situated as HISD?

(2) Why is the State not "helping" them fix their school systems?

(3) What're the real problems at HISD?

(4) How exactly are the State and Mike Miles going to fix it?  

(4) is the real question.  Let's see where we are a couple of years from now.  I'd love to be wrong.  But I have a suspicion that if there is any movement of the ball down the field it'll be in the opposite direction due to the simple truth that you can't fix an institution that you are hell-bent on destroying from an ideological perspective.

The goal is to make Houston unmanageable so that they have an excuse to "clean it up."  I'd guess their strategy is to make Houston the rhetorical Chicago of Texas.

But these final points, I suppose, are points to be made in a different thread.

39 minutes ago, hbg.50 said:

You are really fixated on Alexandra del Moral Mealer.

Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock is Metro’s chairperson.  Why don’t you focus on her?

It's very easy (and quite logical) to focus on someone who has put themselves and their opinions on maximizing vehicle lanes out there, wouldn't you say?  That seems to be their "elevator pitch": "We're not removing any vehicle lanes--for bikes or buses--in Houston."  Mark my words, we'll be hearing a lot of this.

What has Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock said of interest on the topic?

41 minutes ago, hbg.50 said:

Cue the Reddit/Twitter hysteria…and the small contingent on HAIF I guess…

You think it's "hysteria" to discuss on a message board covering Houston in a specific section of said board dedicated to transit in Houston that METRO has removed links describing BRT projects approved by voters?  You have a very strange definition of hysteria.

Yeah way too much to expect new Board members to want to “advocate” for transit.

I’m sure Alexandra is having a great time.

Disgusting and undoubtedly 💯 by design. Wonder what the next step of their “strategic plan” is.

On 3/28/2024 at 4:46 PM, hbg.50 said:

Whitmire continues to clean house…replacing the Houston Public Library director of 20 years!
 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/mayor-john-whitmire-appoints-new-houston-public-19373976.php

I admire the consistency of character for whoever “hearted” this one … the new Mayor fired (sorry, “cleaned house”) the library director who worked there for 20 years EXCLAMATION POINT

(No need to note whether the person was competent or not)

On 4/18/2024 at 12:50 PM, Blue Dogs said:

Turner flat out LIED about the so-called "budget surplus".

Uh huh, sure buddy. And Whitmire flat out lied about being a Democrat as plenty of people who voted for him thinking otherwise would now tell you, if “flat out lying” is your standard.

Governments run by cash flow. When was there not a surplus, Beavis?
 

Maybe voluntarily throwing your hands up on day one and signing a check for, what, $300 million (I forget the number) and saying the next day “the City is broke and it’s not my fault” means you’re not the best fiscal manager with the balance of the City’s interests at heart.
 

But we all know he’s not that stupid (or smart for that matter)! So the question is why did he do it? Someone must’ve put the idea in his head. From the little I’ve read (Texas Monthly and Texas Tribune articles), he seems to be susceptible to such things as a certain class of politicians intrinsically are.

Interesting in Houston we’re experiencing a splintering of the Democratic Party while the country is experiencing a splintering of the Republican Party. However in both cases the only beneficiaries seem to be the more radical of the right wingers.

I know why you are cheering, bluey!

Just now, Triton said:

With Whitmire, he'd probably find a way to turn those caps into another highway to bypass the traffic below.

SAD BUT TRUE!

On 4/27/2024 at 11:59 AM, Amlaham said:

Atlanta gets federal funding for deck over their downtown highway. Just more reassurance that we will for sure land something! https://www.bisnow.com/atlanta/news/economic-development/downtown-stitch-gets-massive-federal-funding-for-first-phaase-123297

With the State government clearly in the "Punish the City of Houston and Harris County" mode these days and now having Whitmire as a stooge in City Hall, the more cynical side of me wonders if they will find a way to prevent the caps from being built even if the funding is available.  

OH WELL.  Thanks to those who hated SJL so much they voted for that guy!  Deja vu, 2016!

Surprising someone still is encouraging this person to keep trying at a political career by getting her appointed to the METRO board as privileged whiner-in-chief. Boy did we dodge a bullet (wish we could say the same about Whitmire). I mean, seriously, even if she believes this (which is questionable at best) does she think it is a winning argument for most Heights residents? The fact she still loves her ridiculous campaign photo provides further proof of her absolute cluelessness. I believe the word is “shrill.” 

Probably not the best thread for this article, but it is a good one discussing the success of the City's land use reforms that are now celebrating their 25th anniversary.  (It does mention parking requirements, however.)

Houston, we have a solution - Works in Progress

2 hours ago, BeerNut said:

 

Seems to me the strategy is a typical Republican one--deliberately "starve the beast" in order to make cuts elsewhere inevitable while completely avoiding any policy debates.

3 hours ago, steve1363 said:

And to think he won with a huge mandate!  His tenure is not off to a good start.   He's already dealing with two big issues (Firefighters pay and Police case scandal), he comes off as combative, and frankly he's not very likeable.

But it's still too early to say we are in for "4 years of hurt."  Everybody knew the city had financial problems and the firefighters lawsuit had to be dealt with.  The police case scandal came out of the woodwork so he can't be blamed for that. 

He still has plenty of time to recover.

He does, but I'm not particularly hopeful--that'd require him changing his tack, and as you say, he comes across as unnecessarily "combative" and "not very likable."  Hard to change course with that attitude.  It actually seems like he doesn't particularly like the City, which is, I suppose, one way to run it. 

Every time I see Whitmire’s name in the news, all I can think is we’re in for 4 years of real hurt and for no reason at all.

As @noahmf said

Ah, yes, I forgot, the only acceptable way to "circumvent the voters" is to storm the Capitol when they're counting votes.  Who needs the legal process?!

8 minutes ago, editor said:

I wonder what it was before Katrina cut off service past New Orleans.  Unfortunately, the Amtrak web site doesn't go back that far.

The website I sent sure does.  The peak was in the 20K range, from 2015-2019.  Stats go back to 2005.

9 minutes ago, editor said:

Speaking with people anecdotally, there was pretty enthusiastic ridership east from Houston to Jacksonville → Miami/Orlando/Tampa, and Jacksonville → Charlotte.

Does this mean you spoke with people who took it who described the ridership as "enthusiastic"?  So your anecdotal sample was comprised of a set of only people who rode the train?  What exactly is meant by "enthusiastic ridership"?  Hobbyists?

FWIW, Amtrak ridership statistics available here: Amtrak Ridership | Bureau of Transportation Statistics (dot.gov).  It's a nice little utility where you can click on the city and see the boardings and alightings, so two way traffic--airport traffic is traditionally presented one way.

Houston at 15,833 for federal fiscal year 2022, or 43 daily average, or 21.5 each way daily average.  However, since trains operate only 3 days per week, that'd be right at 100 per day or 50 each way.  More than what I would've guessed quite honestly.  Pre-pandemic they were above 20K annually.

San Antonio almost three times as much at 45,819, but it has train service to Dallas as well--I think daily.

Austin 26,665.

Fort Worth 93,181 (it has train service to Oklahoma--I think daily)

Dallas 40,197

55 minutes ago, tangledwoods said:

not to be that guy but I am pretty certain that the train riding demographic doesn't have much overlap with the demographic that Post wants in their building.....

I can see it now.

Food & Wine Magazine:

Best Amtrak Stations in the Country for Food

POST Houston

Forget Washington, DC Union Station!  If you're one of those many gourmands frequently traveling the bustling 5-hour trip* from Houston to San Antonio, you can experience a gourmet food court at POST HTX, where you can get a burger for $25 before you hear the call for "All Aboard!"

* - Editor's note: Often 8 hours.  Operates 3 days per week.

20 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

As I said upthread, I wish we could get the love from United that DFW gets from American.

I'm so confused . . . that would require them using more than 3 gates at Terminal D 🤣🤣🤣

On 1/30/2024 at 1:49 PM, Blue Dogs said:

Here's a growing headache for the Whitmire administration:

https://houstonlanding.org/houston-minority-contracting-program-may-be-at-crossroads-with-new-mayor-lawsuit/

 

Ah, Bluey's concerned with minority contracting.  Didn't see that one coming.

And make that 2 more long-haul routes as GIG is also being added.

Bound for Brisbane: American Airlines to fly Down Under next winter - American Airlines Newsroom (aa.com)

VER also added, I think in this case it is a resumption, which is a good time to highlight the fact that IAH isn't even number 1 to Mexico anymore and hasn't been since 2019:

Seats to Mexico by calendar year IAH/DFW, in millions:

2010: 1.906 / 1.309

2015: 2.095 / 1.808

2019: 2.091 / 2.066 

2023: 2.510 / 2.825

Destinations served CY 2023: IAH 22 / DFW 24

No unique destinations are served from HOU.

You can't blame that on ORD, EWR, and IAD being more geographically convenient to Mexico.  Granted, the majority of HOU's international service is to Mexico, albeit to beach destinations.  For reference, HOU had 0.371MM seats to Mexico in CY 2023, which means IAH and HOU combined was only 2% higher than DFW alone.

The air traffic statistics for Houston have been comparatively awful for quite some time, but considering since Houston can be so famously insular, it's understandably easy to have one's head in the sand.

10 hours ago, asubrt said:

Add another destination for DFW… looks like AA is starting Dallas-Brisbane this year 🫤

You beat me to it 🤣  I was waiting for the press release to abide by the "rules."  (I'm afraid we actually may not be able to count it as "actual growth" until the first flight flies, however.)

American Airlines to launch Brisbane-Dallas flights - Executive Traveller

So that's the fifth long-haul route announced for DFW since COVID (excluding HND, which replaced an NRT flight).

The last long-haul route announced for IAH was SYD in 2018 (excluding HND, which was a transfer from NRT).  That is now a seasonal flight.

Nonstop long haul destinations IAH/DFW

Europe: 7 / 11

South America: 5 / 3

Asia: 3 / 4 (counting HND and NRT separately)

Oceania: 2 / 4

Total: 17 / 22

Seems IAH is essentially being consigned to a Latin American hub.  Admittedly, a lot of that has to do with AA's poor route network, but that doesn't stop the negative effects for IAH (think gravity model of economics).

20 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Actually, the point is you told us AI service to DFW had been announced.  That is false. Full stop. With or without context.  No announcement had been made when you reported this falsehood to us. No announcement has been made as of this moment. 

Yep, that's definitely the main takeaway in all of the above.

Thanks for reinforcing my point 👍

56 minutes ago, X.R. said:

Am I missing something or is Houston not on there? Or is the point that the Astros are still so far away that they aren't even considered to be under consideration yet?

Maybe it's because all of these absolutely dwarf what has been proposed for MMP!  🤣

@Houston19514, the seats are loaded into computer reservation systems and are for sale as we speak.  Trust me, you won't have to wait long.  

And, if you're in the market for "actual growth" and not "imagined or projected growth," consider the following:

Percent change in international enplanements (one-way, not two-way) per U.S. DoT (these exclude nonrevenue passengers so are lower than the numbers reported by the airports)

IAH/DFW (in millions)

2019: 5.4 / 4.6

2020: 1.7 / 1.6

2021: 3.2 / 2.9

2022: 4.6 / 4.7

That means in 2022, DFW was 2.2% ahead of where it was pre-COVID while IAH was 14.8% behind.

If we assume the YTD percentages you posted above hold (+22.4% for IAH and +14.3% for DFW), that would make for 2023:

2023: 5.6 / 5.4 

So, yes, IAH will emerge CY 2023 as marginally busier than DFW, which seems to be your biggest yardstick.  However, from a long-term perspective, it means IAH will be 3.7% higher than where it was pre-COVID, while DFW will be a whopping 17.4% higher.  That is "actual growth."  I ask you again, who would you rather be?  IAH grew faster in 2023 than DFW is because it had a lot of ground to make up.  And it's increasingly clear to me the competitive landscape has likely changed permanently.  This longer-term trend is THE trend.  DFW continues to get more long-haul service this summer while IAH gets none.  AUS getting European service certainly hasn't helped, either.

As for the route map, well, that shouldn't take much mental effort to understand.  If you could go back in a time machine on January 10, you would see what they were seeing.  There were schedules leaked by reputable sources, as happens with these things quite often (e.g., the same group of people who knew about Ethiopian coming here before the world did).  Maybe it will pan out, maybe it won't.  The point is DFW is likely in AI's network plan for the near term and IAH isn't.  The fact is that Houston has not been in the mind of long-haul international network planners in the way it had been in the past since 2015, which admittedly makes perfect sense because Houston's economy has not performed comparatively well since then when compared to the prior decade.  One needs to follow the industry as a whole, instead of Houston's participation in the industry at a single point in time in order to notice the abundant evidence and ensure one's head is not in the proverbial sand.

I hope to be wrong, but the "actual growth" data, when presented in a manner that allows people to see the real long-term trends, tells otherwise. 

On 1/29/2024 at 9:03 AM, Houston19514 said:

I wish we'd get the love from United that DFW gets from American.  But I'd rather have Bush IAH's international traffic growth of 22.4% for 2023 than DFW's 14.3% growth.   (By the way, I think Finnair and Iberia have both been at DFW since 2022; good for them that they finally joined Houston in having service from Turkish.)

"I'd rather have more growth in the past than future growth"--this seems to be a recurring theme.

Not sure why I'd be glib about Turkish serving DFW after IAH.  It's not like IAH has gotten an airline that has served DFW.  I don't think it says the thing you think it says, especially considering IAH is a Star Alliance hub.  When Iberia comes to IAH, then maybe I'd say you have a point.

The routes and airlines listed were added since COVID (i.e., 2019).  The long-term is the story.  Not a year or a month at a time.

On 1/29/2024 at 9:42 AM, Houston19514 said:

And I don't know of any announcement of DFW service by Air India.

"Announced intentions."

Air India Plans Dallas, Los Angeles, And Seattle Flights - One Mile at a Time

59 minutes ago, talltexan83 said:

I know this has been brought up before, but would it be that difficult to move the Amtrak station into the Post complex?  It's only a few hundred meters away.  With the potential hotel proposed, they could go for something similar to what Denver has accomplished with their downtown train station.  

There are only 3 trains per week each way IIRC (maybe 4), whereas Denver has the airport rail, light rail, and a transit center, not to mention the Denver station is arguably more centrally located.  So even if they moved it, I don't really see it accomplishing anything close along the lines of Denver.  Kind of putting the cart way before the horse, no?