Councilman takes aim at utility pole placement

[musicman]

Poles are a prerequisite for urban living? Just because something predates don't necessary mean they have right of way. The city has got to improve. And why pay extra?

because installation costs will be passed on to the customer. it is one thing to bury them from the start as they do in some newer areas, however buryng them after a system is in use adds greatly to the cost.

[MetroMogul]

Poles are a prerequisite for urban living? Just because something predates don't necessary mean they have right of way. The city has got to improve. And why pay extra? Cause ppl like their city clean and not ugly, and they care about public spaces.

And there is so much litter everywhere, there is no sense of pride or belonging.

I think it's very arrogant for a few wealthy homeowners to decide what is ugly for the rest of the general population. Here's a great solution though; let the yuppies who want buried utilities work with Centerpoint and pay foot the bill themselves.

[webdude]

I think it's very arrogant for a few wealthy homeowners to decide what is ugly for the rest of the general population. Here's a great solution though; let the yuppies who want buried utilities work with Centerpoint and pay foot the bill themselves.

There are some things like infrastructure needs to go through government, unfortunately. We can't just say let those who want better looking freeways pay for the planting of trees, or those who want parks pay their way, otherwise our freeways are going to look worse, and parks non-existent. And we can't just say those who want who want rail go make their own. Then the city will never improve.

I wouldn't mind paying more for Houston to look good, man made stuff is the only thing we can do to beautify this city, we are not blessed with natural beauty here. But so far, we decide to make it worse by adding strip malls, sprawl, poles, wires, giant parking lots and crumbling roadways.

[dbigtex56]

At a minimum, utilities shouldn't be allowed to install poles, guy wires, utility boxes, transformers, etc. where they interfere with sidewalks. Check out Taft south of Lovett; the telephone company's switching equipment (or whatever the hell the thing is) completely blocks the sidewalk!

I've never seen another city where new sidewalks are laid to go around a guy wire, rather than making the responsible utility (an oxymoron in Texas) move its equipment.

[KinkaidAlum]

I think River Oaks has already buried its utilities. So no worries about the rich getting something for free -- they've already paid their share.

Nope. Most part of River Oaks, Boulevard Oaks, and Southampton all have utility poles. The difference being they are hidden in alleys (Southampton/Blvd Oaks) or in the back yard by the detached garages (River Oaks).

[RedScare]

I wouldn't mind paying more for Houston to look good, man made stuff is the only thing we can do to beautify this city, we are not blessed with natural beauty here. But so far, we decide to make it worse by adding strip malls, sprawl, poles, wires, giant parking lots and crumbling roadways.

Who is "we"? I have not added a single strip mall, pole, wire, parking lot, or contributed to sprawl since I got here. I am also unaware of any poles, wires or strip malls that the City built. The County built a few giant parking lots for the Astrodome and Minute Maid, but the City only built a parking garage for its convention center and Toyota.

You have listed numerous (in your eyes) blights on the landscape, and suggest that somehow government can fix all of these things with an added levy on the populace. You ignore the dozens or even hundreds of different parties involved in these blights, and further, ignore the City's limited ability to fix them, even if the City wanted to. Sprawl? Generally, sprawl exists outside city limits. How can the city fix a nationwide phenomenon occurring outside city limits? Strip malls? Same answer. Poles and wires? Owned by Centerpoint. Electricity deregulation put a crimp in funds for transmission lines, and they have no interest in using limited funds on burying already existing lines.

So, that leaves the City offering to bury lines at taxpayer expense. Yeah. Right after we get the police force back up to respectable levels, resuface the crumbling roads you mention, raise fire department staffing levels, fund our employee retirement fund and give the tax protesters a tax cut to shut them up for a week or two. You may not mind paying extra, but you are the only who doesn't.

There is just no impetus to remove already existing lines. If there was, these $500,000 homes would not sell with the poles in front of them. Then, the builder would start burying the lines himself. If the buyers of these homes don't care enough to demand the poles be removed, I certainly have no interest in paying for it. I bought a house with poles in the alley. Maybe these buyers should, as well.

[webdude]

Who is "we"? I have not added a single strip mall, pole, wire, parking lot, or contributed to sprawl since I got here. I am also unaware of any poles, wires or strip malls that the City built. The County built a few giant parking lots for the Astrodome and Minute Maid, but the City only built a parking garage for its convention center and Toyota.

You have listed numerous (in your eyes) blights on the landscape, and suggest that somehow government can fix all of these things with an added levy on the populace. You ignore the dozens or even hundreds of different parties involved in these blights, and further, ignore the City's limited ability to fix them, even if the City wanted to. Sprawl? Generally, sprawl exists outside city limits. How can the city fix a nationwide phenomenon occurring outside city limits? Strip malls? Same answer. Poles and wires? Owned by Centerpoint. Electricity deregulation put a crimp in funds for transmission lines, and they have no interest in using limited funds on burying already existing lines.

So, that leaves the City offering to bury lines at taxpayer expense. Yeah. Right after we get the police force back up to respectable levels, resuface the crumbling roads you mention, raise fire department staffing levels, fund our employee retirement fund and give the tax protesters a tax cut to shut them up for a week or two. You may not mind paying extra, but you are the only who doesn't.

There is just no impetus to remove already existing lines. If there was, these $500,000 homes would not sell with the poles in front of them. Then, the builder would start burying the lines himself. If the buyers of these homes don't care enough to demand the poles be removed, I certainly have no interest in paying for it. I bought a house with poles in the alley. Maybe these buyers should, as well.

Actually the line 'man made stuff is the only thing we...' should give clue that I don't expect just the government to fix all these things. You are right there are lots of parties involved in blight. I was talking about the mentality of accepting blight. You have not personally added any to the blight and I am not certainly not blaming you for it. But I am blaming the overall populace's easy acceptance of blight, which does encourage developers/ parties to not care or put beautification factor at the bottom for their projects.

I am already paying taxes, I am sure I am entitled to hope that some of it can go to making the city more presentable.

And I was just saying I wouldn't mind paying, I know many others would, hence we still have so many of them around.

[RedScare]

WD, what you are advocating for is this....

The City Beautiful Movement

Frankly, I do not disagree with you at all. I would love for a renewed interest in a 21st Century City Beautiful movement. One of my personal favorites is fountains. I love 'em! Sadly, City Beautiful is expensive, and requires a civic mindset that believes that higher taxes used to build parks, fountains, esplanades, and civic buildings of architectural significance is worthwhile. It requires a belief by residents that these publicly funded amenities add to the overall quality of life and pride of place.

This is decidedly not the case in Houston, Texas or the US in this day and age. Though you may see people saying that they want these things, you never read about paying for it. Our new downtown park would not exist if not for charitable donations. Additions to our city parkland are also largely obtained through donations. The less government crowd is ruining our quality of life, because elected officials are terrified of funding anything other than police and fire protection...and even that sometimes gets shorted.

So, this is what you get. Barely walkable sidewalks, bumpy streets, and marginally functional infrastructure. When's the last time you saw a bridge of even passing interest? It is probably 1950s vintage or earlier. Same with government buildings and schools. Last week, we had a thread trashing HISD's bond proposal just for school renovations. It takes guts for elected officials to spend a little extra to make things look better, and their thanks will be some special interest tax protest group lambasting them for wasteful spending and calling them tax and spend liberals. The only money anyone seems to want spent is on wars and border walls....neither of which is particularly attractive.

So, while I may join you in wishing for a more beautiful city, I strongly disagree on who is to blame. Look at your neighbors...it's their fault.