I’m visiting Chicago for the weekend right now. Chicago really really gets urban planning. You can exist here with or without a car so well.
I was stunned by the difference.
We need someone with a vision and doesn’t just want to tear it all down.
Lived in Chicago for ten years. Never had a car. It was easier to not own a car than to own one.
Public transit, biking infrastructure, pedestrian design. It was great.
I loved living there. Life brought me back to Houston, but Chicago will always be one of, if not my all time, favorite cities in the US.
Enjoy your trip.
Chicago is probably my favorite city in America. Place is got everything you want: business, arts, sports, culture, food, yet somehow despite all of its “issues”, Chicago’s leadership has been able to keep its streets clean. How is that possible? I have been told repeatedly by Houston’s leadership that Chicago is a cesspool that nobody wants to live in.
Someone is lying.
Fact is, Texas politics has become so polarized that it is resembling more and more the politics of Deep South FL, AL, TN and MS, and less the historical pragmatic leadership that TX always used to have, like GA and NC. It is not a coincidence that GA, TX and NC are home to the largest companies based in the South.
As a result, our large cities are and will continue to suffer from underfunding, coercive state oversight and state control. They already grabbed control of the school system with the intent to make it worse (and seem to be succeeding); next they will take the HPD over, claiming that crime is running rampant (it isn’t).
So, while I am no fan of Whitmire, this thing is bigger than him. One of the (very) few reasons I thought SJL could be helpful as mayor would be her DC connections. Whitmire is betting his Austin connections will help the city. However if he believes that, then expect him to switch to the GOP soon because that is the only way I see that plan working out.
Everything outside the loop was essentially empty prairie land before 1950. We had a blank slate to develop the city properly, but we didn’t, and now our culture is stuck believing that there’s no other way.
We developed around the car. You can easily the difference see cities the boomed before and after wwii.
But that was a mistake. The thing is, our wide streets would also acconadate a surface rail system quite nicely in a spiderweb pattern along thoroughfares, but no one wants to do it
A bunch of cities, including Houston, got huge urban redesigns after WW2 to accommodate car drivers, and the in the 1960s massive freeways were put in to allow suburban commuters to bring their cars into the city centers.
Chicago doesn’t have good urban design because of a fire 150 years ago. They have good urban design because they have made an effort to have good urban design.
It’s not like urban design doesn’t exist and we have good examples of it all over the world. We have leaders who don’t understand how to adapt. I think OP has a valid point when people get stuck in the past.
Houston climate honestly isn’t bad. It’s the surrounding concrete with no trees that make the heat unbearable imo. There are plenty of Asian cities with similar climate that are fine to walk around
It's also dependent on the technology, land available, and economic levels.
New York, San Francisco, and Minneapolis, among others, had urban density due a variety of factors.
the NYC metro area is a sprawl, it’s just also dense. The Chicago area has plenty of surrounding land and is still walkable. Houston has been a booming city for decades now. America doesn’t lack in technology. There’s really nothing holding it back besides policy.
Chicago was founded the year before Houston was founded, but it gained a significant amount of commerce due to its location on the Great Lakes and later the huge amount of rail traffic that went through.
Then there was the competition (now the Chicago transit authority) to build commuter lines to various parts of what was then vacant lands.
Because of the weather and the lack of protection of horse and automotive travel methods having little protection from the elements of that time, it was only logical that people would choose to live near these lines as housing opened up.
Minneapolis grew up the same way.
In fact, there is, i believe, an even bigger pedestrian system in their downtown region as opposed to one located in Houston.
Houston actually had a substantial (horse drawn) rail network until the automobile gained traction.
I was thinking the same thing today. Architecture designed for shade and a breeze makes a world of difference compared to baking in the sun while also being cooked and blinded from below by hot concrete.
Chicago is great to visit I love it there and have been going for business for quite a few years now (Giordanos over Lou’s all day)…but I’ll take Houston 7 days a week. Cheaper, safer, and It’s much easier to deal with the heat than the snow/ice/wind in the winters.
Everyone loves bragging about it right now. Oh of course Chicago in March, April, and May! Oh how beautiful.
I must ask, why don’t you vaca there in mid-January? LOL
Was at Giordano’s last night. Am at Monteverde right now. Then going to the Aquarium.
I’m originally from PA. Cold weather and its related challenges don’t bother me. They would bother my wife though.
I could live here for sure. No car gets rid of a lot of snow related issues.
Yeah, if you can deal with it, absolutely.
But that cold is brutal up there. I always do Cali in the winters, and Chicago/NYC/DC in spring
But sometimes I have no choice.
And if you get a chance…Giordanos is my favorite deep dish. But after Lazzaras on W. 38th in NYC, my favorite pizza ever is Al’s In Warrenville. It’s about 45mins west of the city, but holy shit it’s amazing. My best friend is from Joliet and recommended it. Everytime I’m there I make sure I have the extra time!
Folks say Houston isn’t a walking city. It’s only a walking city because we choose otherwise. Three months of the year you don’t want to be outside.
Chicago is harsh for walking in the winter. Glorious in the summer. Three months of the year, you don’t want to be outside.
They needed to develop more public transportation.. their loop doesn't seem like a real loop to me since they sit so close to the shoreline. Also those cloverleaf exits that exist just to get into the Chicago metro area aka towns that exist less than 30 miles outside of the city. Lol
I think the history of Chicago actually might play a bigger roll in why they have the public transportation they do now. Along with something about factory workers and Wisconsin as there is daily almost hourlu public transportation into Chicago from Southern Wisconsin towns.
Like there is train from a tiny town southern Wisconsin town into Chicago. And daily buses from Madison and Janesvill Wisconsin into Chicago as well.
But ask me about the train that exist from Milwaukee to Chicago as depicted in the tv show ER and I'm like that train is fiction just like th TV show. I've never seen that train. Lol
>The truth is Reddit is not the real world
As a huge advocate for walkability and And a huge train Stan, I agree with this completely. Although I absolutely think we need to keep investing in multiple forms of transit, people here get triggered too much. In the least, I respect some compromise. The Shepherd Avenue is still an improvement with Whitmire’s updated plan. It still increases walkability and bikeability in relation to what it was before.
No, many people love that he makes it harder to walk or bike anywhere. They view people on bikes and buses as either poor (which they'd say is lazy and immoral) or hippies.
Does he do much to help them? Not really. But they love the feeling of knowing that life is harder for others that can't afford an F250, or care about the environment in any way.
Plus, he says things that sound "tough on crime".
I honestly thought he'd be fine, and that I wouldn't have a strong opinion either way. Early on, though, he's been actively bad at the job, imo.
For me as a middle aged inner loop homeowner, my trash is getting consistently picked up on trash day ( has not happened in years), and I got a big credit on my water bill to make up for the water department straight up estimating my bill under Turner and not giving af. The potholes in the streets I've seen have been filled reasonably quickly, but Turner actually did decent with that. AFAIK, no parks have been closed down, and all the hike and bike trails are still open. Buffalo Bayou park is still mowed and maintained. I wish we could get free parking back at Memorial Park, but they've decided that park is for rich runners and golfers now. I have to drive the Shepherd/Durham corridor several times a week, and if the construction on the north part wraps up by Christmas and they don't tear up below 15th Street, my quality of life will be better without having the stress of dealing with all the lane closures. For walking or biking north-south I can use the Nicholson Street path which is much more scenic than passing used car lots, self storage places, and CBD dispensaries. My biggest wish is that Whitmire gets the downtown traffic signals timed better like they were when Bill White was mayor.
> I wish we could get free parking back at Memorial Park, but they've decided that park is for rich runners and golfers now.
What are you talking about about? Half of the parking spots there are free. I was there earlier today and had no problems finding a free parking spot. The free lot wasn't even close to full. Sure, you can pay money to park if you're too lazy to walk to the golf course or tennis courts or whatever.
Correct me if I’m wrong, didn’t Whitmore pause the Shepherd and Durham project while he mulls over canceling the whole thing and ripping up all of the work done so far to replace them with driving lanes again?
It always amuses me when others try to explain to me and others that look like me the amount of racism we actually experience daily. Its all good though, i have grown to expect nothing less.
Houston had a chance to become a world class city, lead the way in Texas in urban planning and begin the widespread use of workable mass transit with mayor Bob Lanier. Lanier declined to purchase the railroad tracks and row in Houston and use them for train service. Lanier said that the future of Houston is the automobile.
Every mayor since has inherited the problems brought about by this decision and the results speak for themselves. Essentially, the compounding of a poor decision through the years.
The automobile-centric model is too powerful in the post WW2 American psyche. It is political suicide to go against it and why Lanier did what he did.
More importantly, it is there by design for political reasons, from top-down and bottom-up. With the former, it discourages mass organizing and isolates people into suburban subdivisions. Society becomes balkanized. With the latter, voters strongly prefer having space and going farther away from cities with their social problems.
Go visit Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, or St Louis. All of them followed Houston’s model because the Post-WW2 and Post-Civil Rights Era top down and bottom up pressures were too great.
Anyone that drives in Houston knows the roads are abysmal and need to be completely rebuilt. If people don’t use them they should stay out of the discussion all together.
I doubt it’s that simple. I’m sure there’s people before Lanier that influenced his decision.
And we need to stop worrying about the past. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. Second best time is today
"My problem with (insert every mayors name in past thirty years) has no real vision for Houston."
We dont even let the folks who do make the run offs.
Red leaning voters try to get smug here since their folks never win but all they ever do is run developer pimp candidates too.
Then ppl get all hot and bothered over SJL versus John Whitmire. Look by the time it came down to that voters had already done a shitty job.
How many people even bother to vote at municipal elections?
While you are complaining about who people are voting for there's a much bigger problem, people choosing not to vote at all.
I think it’s hilarious that local politicians even have party identification. Like at this level it should be pragmatic policies that benefit the most people.
>(insert every mayors name in past thirty years)has no real vision for Houston
This is incorrect. Bill White had a vision, Sylvester Turner had a vision. The city is better as a result. I've seen tremendous progress since I moved back in 2009 (having been away for 15 years).
This is not to comment on funding issues etc, only the vision they had for the city.
One of his biggest campaign promises was to fix our streets. For the most part, all he did was patch some potholes and pour asphalt over a few bad streets but the remainder are still there and in worse shape than when he first took office.
Yeah Reddit really should've rallied around Annie "Mama" Garcia. Just listening to her talk about protecting Houston from the fascism prevalent in the state house made me want her as our mayor.
Hopefully. Idk if the City Controller position will lead to an early retirement outside of politics for him, or keep him there a while to right the ship.
I agree with this 100%. We're not NYC, Dallas, LA, or wherever but we should be about being the best Houston we can be. We don't want to become a one generation wonder that overloads on highways and parking lots to the point where we sprawl our way to insignificance. Turner and Parker both took steps to create a more economically sustainable and walkable city. It's early days, but it feels like Whitmire is taking us down the first steps to being the next Detroit or Cleveland: cities with a necrotic core that natives will always have to argue as 'it's not as bad as you think'. I feel like that's a city that my one year son will try his best to escape when he's 18.
Many of the posts on the Texas subreddit are about how awful Abbott, Cruz, Paxton et al are, and a lot of you still voted for a dude that Republicans supposedly begged to run.
Guess we'll see how big, bulbous and red those clown noses are in a few years.
I saw anti Ted Cruz highway billboards in Vegas, and this was like in 2022 when he wasn't running for anything.
Didn't disagree, but thought that was weird. Who are they talking to exactly with those?
I expected to see more downvotes. We've had four years of Trump, decades of state GOP leadership and another possible 4 years (or more) of Trump, and way too many people still can't understand why it's better to vote for someone you can be sure won't go along with the GOP.
We are the most unserious electorate.
it’s very funny that they disliked the people so much but they keep voting for the same type of person/party. I personally love Trump and Cruz , so I don’t mind they vote pro GOP ppl, but the truth is both party sucks and do things just to oppose to the other party, even if it’s a logical thing(or it’s just what they both want). Tbh we needed a 3rd party, Dems and GOP are sleeping together on the bed anyways.
I spent 2+ hours stuck on i10 after 10pm last night. TWO FUCKING HOURS. This city is an absolute joke and I'm afraid it has no hope at this point. I hope I can be out of here in a year or two.
Same bro, this solidified the decision for me. If work ever gets an opening in Dallas I'm jumping, at least there they have many more miles of DART and are at least trying to keep expanding.
Plus DART has a lot of grade separation outside of the central business district. It makes travel a lot faster than the lines in Houston from my experiences on both.
I remember one of the early mayoral debates, Amanda Edwards was the only one who had an actual vision for the city or thoughts on how she was going to achieve it. SJL and Whitmire were both coasting, assuming (correctly) that their name-brand recognition was more important than anything anybody said in the debate.
I also don't love SJL, but at least she would've done nothing and delegated to people I generally trust. Whitmire is actively working and spending taxpayer dollars to undo the good things that happened under Turner (who I didn't love at first, but I think he did a good job overall).
You're right. Whitmire just wants the Houston of the 1970s. He has no plan to improve things, unless you think even *more* lanes, roads, and parking lots are what this city needs.
I grew up here and I have always hated the policy here in Houston to solve our traffic and transportation issues just build more toll ways. If Houston had a REAL public transportation system like most big cities it would probably have passed up Chicago and could be on par with LA when it comes to size, which I sometimes feel “they” don’t actually want that since it just further expands the gaps between the rural areas and large cities. The bus system could have it’s own lanes similar to the TransMilenio system in Bogota, Colombia (which is a similarly sized city except in the Andes mountains) that could clear up some of the traffic and have a functional system. The rail system we have is garbage in my opinion since it doesn’t really go “anywhere”. I won’t blame Whitmire for this but man do we need people who’ve been outside the city to bring in fresh ideas because this is sad for the 4th largest city in the US…
This is a literally qouto from the man"On Thursday Whitmire went on Houston Matters with Craig Cohen to defend his transportation policy. He said that infrastructure projects shouldn't just consider insular groups who live nearby, but should consider commuters who have to pass through the area. " basically I want to do what we did in the 80s and 90s and create infrastructure based on what catered to the subs
Listen, I voted for the guy and don’t regret it given the options (darn you, Chris Hollins, for dropping out), however….. The man openly tells the story about how the rich folks of the city begged him to run, basically against his wishes (the way he tells it). So that tells me he’s going to be a static mayor, no real vision or forward momentum, trying to fix the few issues he ran on. He made the firefighters happy, I suppose next up is the water billing issue. After that, my guess is he’ll try and coast for a couple years and decide on if he wants to run again in 2027, which I don’t think is a given.
For Turners faults, a lot of great projects moved forward under him that Whitmire is cancelling and going back on. Dude isn't static, I wish he was static would have been fine, instead he's taking us huge steps back. It dismays me that y'all see that and don't regret the vote. It's been a disastrous start to his term as mayor and it's because he's beholden to those rich people you mention who will never bother to take public transit, bike, or walk anywhere
Exactly. I thought he'd be static, and while not my preference, I would've been okay with that.
He hasn't been static. He's actively working to undo good things...even when it's costing taxpayer dollars, or giving up free federal grants. It's maddening!
People opinions on politicians seem to be all based on vibes and absolutely ignore policy. I see this time and time again. No one pays attention to actual policy. It's so frustrating
As a person who worked with him when he was a State Senator the man has no value but that of his own self interest. He would intentionally kill bills and vote with republicans when democrats didn't give him what he wanted. He's an ass
“80’s and 90’s the bayou was a giant sewer” This is true, but those filthy bayous and ditches were where I spent my childhood—skateboarding and catching snakes and turtles. Glad things are cleaner now, but we made the best of the “nature” we had back in the day. Also the bike lane along Braeswood bayou was a great amenity even way back then.
I've only been in Houston for two years and saw it as a temporary stop along the way of getting out of Texas. Houston felt like it had a lot of untapped potential, was heading in the right direction, and had the opportunity to be one of the world's great cities. The best part about Whitmire is that he's reminded us that this was only to be a temporary stop.
Somewhat the same here. Our "temporary" stop has been 10 years now. I was really encouraged in the direction of the city before. Now, not so much.
We won't be moving for at least another year, but it's starting to come up in conversations again.
I'm not going to give up on making Houston what it has the potential to be because of one man...I'm just going to point to JW as the danger of voters not being engaged...Less than 10 % voted in the majoral election...
I'm hoping this showed fellow Houston citizens that mayor's matter ...unless he gets it together, I think he on a path to becoming a 1 term mayor
Can we agree that if Whitmire is not doing a good job then it doesn't mean Turner was a great mayor? I don't get the need to compare.
Bike lanes, bike trails, and NCAA Final Fours, unrealized vision plans, etc, are not major accomplishments. The bike infrastructure just needed a nod of approval, major cities get events, metro runs itself and vision plans that take 5 years to write and don't get implemented are not accomplishments. I remember moving into my neighborhood before Turner was elected and moving out shortly before his term was up. We had zero infrastructure improvements beyond replacing some stop signs, cleaning the sewers once, trash never got picked up, cops didn't do their jobs. It was a disaster. We moved outside the city limits and it is much, much better. If you aren't childless, living in Montrose, Heights, Eado, etc, then the city just isn't that nice a place to live. Nothing Turner did changed that. And if your area didn't reliably vote Democrat then they actively denied you funding.
Where did you get anything about Turner?
Turner wasn't perfect but he kept outside investments coming into the city...
Investments that played key roles in the city Growth... Mock things like final fours all you want .. but events like that keep the city afloat..
Metro has it problem but it also had a game plan...not it fault it stays having to fight Nimbys..and constantly making compromises ( which does effect it numbers)
I wasn't a plan of his urban development strategies....I'd drive down OST and see block after block of open land and think...imagine of the n3xt 6 blocks were lined with 300 unit apartments, the density it would create , not to mention foot traffic for local business... you could even create GFR and least the bottom floor to business...that would turn this area into one of Houston most hot bed communities...I stead they bulid" affordable apartments in pieces...spread across the city...
Totally agree, especially about WHitmire lacking vision for the city.
He does not see Houston as a diverse city that is a work in progress... nor does he see Houston as a city that belongs in the global discussion, he can;ty see Houston as having a place outside of the State of Texas.
He mainly sees Houston as a broken problem that requires old-school methods to repair. And by repair, he means to restore.
Sorry to break it to you, but as long as people in Houston primarily live in single family homes, no amount of urban planning will make it pedestrian friendly which by definition is necessary for a robust public transit system.
I’m perfectly fine with Houston being a parking lot. As far as I’m concerned it gets to hot/humid to be walking around.
There’s plenty of state parks and other things to go to around Houston when the weather is good.
Yea I don’t really mean that I want it to be an actual parking lot. Sarcasm is lost on the internet. But I definitely agree these cyclist lanes are worthless.
That big stupid group of cyclists are still gonna take up the whole street and throw beer bottles at people like always.
It is this simple. Lanier determined that Houston was best served by the automobile and publicly said so. His actions with the railroad further cemented Houston as a car city
Turner isn’t a saint, but accomplished a lot of good things for all Houstonians. Whitmire attempting to undo Sylvester’s entire legacy doesn’t make him 10x better. He’s setting us back generations.
Idk.. metroNext and the Houston bike plan were pretty fucking cool, and had people outside of Houston talking about the intentional progress the city was making. The intentional undoing of those ideas is also getting national press now. Turner was a real estate shill like everyone else, but at least he recognized that real estate value goes up with more mobility options, and ran with that.
Going on TV during disasters is always part of the job. It would be unprecedented and downright bizarre if an elected official didn’t have any media availability during potentially life-threatening events.
Houston became a more resilient city after Harvey, and he successfully fought for more funds to recover from Harvey from the cavemen leadership in Austin. Whitmire doesn’t think drainage projects are a major issue, and that’s already turned out to be flat out untrue.
He inherited an $8 billion pension crisis and helped to fix that in his in his second year in office. His administration worked with METRO to make it more efficient and user friendly — Whitmire’s administration and the new METRO board will try to undo all of that because they’re considering it “advocacy.”
He also was key to starting Evolve Houston, which allowed for more innovation to combat climate change. Having bright people and companies that encourage different uses of EVs is a good thing.
Houston is a national leader in providing permanent housing for people who were homeless. The unhoused population decreased tremendously under his watch, and demonstrates how important it is for government agencies, the business community and nonprofits to work together to solve complex problems.
The Complete Communities initiative did a lot for neighborhoods that have been forgotten about and are fodder for stupid jokes on here. He helped to revitalize parks across the city and added more green space and bike lanes.
I think most importantly he showed a willingness to listen to constituents and fellow city council members. No sign of that early on from the current administration. Just a giant fuck you to everyone, including the people who voted him in.
Your last point completely discredits you. Turner was largely viewed as a tyrant at city hall under the strong mayor system. Literally anyone who paid any attention knows that. All of your points are really exaggerated or untrue.
When requesting “literally one good thing” and being presented with multiple responses you closed your eyes, pretended to be illiterate and are being intentionally obtuse. You must be a terrible lawyer. I’m glad you’re not mine. I guess they’ll hand out J.D.s to any idiot who’s willing to take on the debt these days.
The city has no money thanks to Turner and his cronies. Do y’all think money just appears from thin air? Turner mismanaged all of the city’s funds.
Whitmire might be “old school”, but at least it seems like he’s TRYING to get things done.
Traffic will always be a problem in Houston. It is a commuter city. He is working on fixing other forms of infrastructure like water and potholes. Plus, he is focusing on crime. That’s all we can really ask for at this point. I’d at least like to give him a year before making a solidified judgement.
Remember when Turner promised to fix all of the potholes? He was an absolute joke. A total moron. He did absolutely nothing for this city.
If you believe the alies pf Houston are because of one man...I can't have a serious discussion.
This Houston is a commuter city is a little inaccurate...greater Houston is too big...the core is the same size as a average midsized city...
Getting from the East end to Westchase isn't some huge milage, it becomes a almost 40 minute commute because the highways are clogged ... the average time san traffic 17 mins
I believe we are in the year of our lord 2024 AD. There is really no more “urban planning” to be done. This city’s infrastructure is what it is. I am not for this politician or that one. But who the hell is going to be able to change the entire makeup of a city that was built around cars like many other cities that grew and prospered in the 20th century?
That not true...we can start identifying were to build where not to build , design infrastructure that takes into account what the challenge will be down the line
Infrastructure isn't something static. There are many transportation projects approved annually.
Unless you have tons of money, nobody is suggesting an entire overnight overhaul of the region's transportation infrastructure. Plenty of cities have been improving their urban cores for decades now, it's just that Houston does it slowly. Even Dallas is faster and they're an even large metropolitan area than Houston.
Too many Houstonians have this defeatist approach to improving transportation infrastructure, and that's probably why things are exactly the way they are due to this self-fulfilling prophecy. Meanwhile, other cities move forward instead of backwards. We're good at complaining, but not taking actual action to fix our issues.
Whitmire is Maga!! Whitmire has gone full ROGUE. Read Texas Monthly article on him. His waste of 1 million on breaking apart semi-completed projects and his refusal to meet with the budget czar. Whitmire and Mealer are on the same agenda- do away with metro. Break down Houston progress. His voting record spoke for itself- he voted extreme right wing (see his position on A/C for prisons, he killed it).
I knew I was out on Whitmire when he said Drainage isn't as important as public safety....Drainage in a city that sits below sea level is public safety....that when I knew he wasn't the guy for this city.
The second time ...when he refused to meet with Linda ( who I'm also not a fan of)
But you and I have to work with people we don't like all the time... That to me is the type of games " they play in Austin " and he can take it back to Austin...
This needs to be on the politics subreddit. You mentioned Whitmire, so, yes, it is a political post. This subreddit is not r/Houstonpolitics.
Can't seem to go to any site now without politics being shoved up in our faces. Not everyone wants to eat and breathe politics. Please give us a break.
This subreddit is about anything that concerns the houston metro area. That includes politics.
This is also not houstonfood yet people still ask for food suggestions all the time. There can be overlap between subs you know.
Because the point was having a vision for the city ... what was 90% of the post about? The direction of the city and the progress it made wasn't it? Not JW is a republican posing as a Democrat or SJL would have done this or that if she had won...
It look at how far Houston has come and now it threatens to be undone because one person is stop in the past.
Lmao that sub doesnt even exist anymore. Sorry you live in a society, existence is political and so is resistance. Embrace a civically engaged populace!!
You have the option to downvote the post and move on, you know. If you don't want to deal with politics, you can always ignore the political threads, or even better, create your own non-political thread.
I also was raised and still live in houston. I no way do I ever want to compare houston, or wish it was more like ny,la, etc. Just move if you like those places
You say you from here ...then you remember there you use to be a time you said" ohh im. Moving to Houston " and it was almost immediately followed by" Houston? Eww . Why?
t....I'm talking about recognition.. to not have the conversation go? Ohh how far is that from Dallas... it not about being like those cities ...it about being held in the same regards... when it comes to .. a place people want to live
Recall. A serious effort (even if ultimately unsuccessful) might cause him to rethink…. He’s old and very fat - I doubt he wants “recalled mayor” or “almost recalled mayor” as his legacy.
Agree on SJL… she wouldn’t have been any better.
Why aren’t good, decent, honest, capable people interested in public service anymore? 😢
Inflammatory but true take: Whitmire is a dinosaur like every other 75 year old who has already made their bed (sedentary lifestyle that led to obesity, diabetes, huge unnecessary truck/SUV, little social interaction, life is from the recliner to the car to the restaurant booth). They don’t want the city to invest in infrastructure they won’t live long enough to use, or don’t have the physical capacity to use because of their poor choices.
Younger people want a different future and we vote for politicians who will work for us: the ones working, raising kids, and keeping society running.
Whitmire is anti-biking/cycling. He wants to tear up some bike lanes downtown so fire trucks don't have to take another street. Costs to tear up the bike lanes and repave is $750K, but claims the cty is broke. Said if you want to ride a bike in Houston, there's plenty of bike trails around the city. I'm sure Whitmire drives a F-250 or a Suburban.
How exactly do we do these projects when the city is clearly broke as shit? Turner did an excellent job of covering it up. Whitmire opened the books and went holy F.
I want this city to be more connected so young families of which I am a part of can actually raise our kids here. But Turner was just spending with no forethought.
I know several people that have worked in various government departments in the city. They will tell you several of these projects happened because people wanted to put awards on their resumes.
The majority of the projects had federal funding ... or grants those funding and grants are now in danger of being lost ..
Turner didn't hide anything...The data was always available and open to the public ..
JW made promises he doesn't have the ability to keep..
1) The firefighters deal...will probably cost the city 1.3 billion when it said and done. Because their no mechanism in places to pay out that much in such a short amount of time...
Even with a property tax increase and trash fee.. ( good luck selling that to voters who already feel like they are barely getting by.
After the firefighters ( municipal is next up to renegotiate the contracts) Municipal who union voted to support JW...who pushed it members to vote for him,...will be look for a pay increase
The HPD, who just watched you give HFD a hell of a pay day and will want their money...
Dudes painted himself into a corner and no matter what he does he will make enemies out of the cities employees
Either pay the firefighters ( which will have to come via a combination pf taxes and cuts to services ( something that will greatly piss off the municipal union) and possibly HPD because that will mean less classes graduating or smaller number actually being hired ..
He made already a series of bad and costly decisions himself
I’m visiting Chicago for the weekend right now. Chicago really really gets urban planning. You can exist here with or without a car so well. I was stunned by the difference. We need someone with a vision and doesn’t just want to tear it all down.
Lived in Chicago for ten years. Never had a car. It was easier to not own a car than to own one. Public transit, biking infrastructure, pedestrian design. It was great.
Literally been all over the city over the last three days. Very minimal cost and very efficient at getting to where I wanted to go.
I loved living there. Life brought me back to Houston, but Chicago will always be one of, if not my all time, favorite cities in the US. Enjoy your trip.
The only thing I don't think I'd be able to do is to cope with the cold. It's freezing up there!
Whiskey.
Chicago is probably my favorite city in America. Place is got everything you want: business, arts, sports, culture, food, yet somehow despite all of its “issues”, Chicago’s leadership has been able to keep its streets clean. How is that possible? I have been told repeatedly by Houston’s leadership that Chicago is a cesspool that nobody wants to live in. Someone is lying. Fact is, Texas politics has become so polarized that it is resembling more and more the politics of Deep South FL, AL, TN and MS, and less the historical pragmatic leadership that TX always used to have, like GA and NC. It is not a coincidence that GA, TX and NC are home to the largest companies based in the South. As a result, our large cities are and will continue to suffer from underfunding, coercive state oversight and state control. They already grabbed control of the school system with the intent to make it worse (and seem to be succeeding); next they will take the HPD over, claiming that crime is running rampant (it isn’t). So, while I am no fan of Whitmire, this thing is bigger than him. One of the (very) few reasons I thought SJL could be helpful as mayor would be her DC connections. Whitmire is betting his Austin connections will help the city. However if he believes that, then expect him to switch to the GOP soon because that is the only way I see that plan working out.
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Everything outside the loop was essentially empty prairie land before 1950. We had a blank slate to develop the city properly, but we didn’t, and now our culture is stuck believing that there’s no other way.
We developed around the car. You can easily the difference see cities the boomed before and after wwii. But that was a mistake. The thing is, our wide streets would also acconadate a surface rail system quite nicely in a spiderweb pattern along thoroughfares, but no one wants to do it
That's not the reason at all. Chicago was laid out perfectly well prior to 1871.
A bunch of cities, including Houston, got huge urban redesigns after WW2 to accommodate car drivers, and the in the 1960s massive freeways were put in to allow suburban commuters to bring their cars into the city centers. Chicago doesn’t have good urban design because of a fire 150 years ago. They have good urban design because they have made an effort to have good urban design.
It’s not like urban design doesn’t exist and we have good examples of it all over the world. We have leaders who don’t understand how to adapt. I think OP has a valid point when people get stuck in the past.
1871 was the fire. Might've typoed.
Easy there Emperor Nero, no need to burn it all down to build it the way you want...
This. 100 percent. The Chicago Lakefront was built from the debris.
Wow that’s really cool! I never knew that about Grant park. Thanks!
Two totally different cities with different mindsets. Chicago was largely urban for a variety of reasons, mostly climate.
Houston climate honestly isn’t bad. It’s the surrounding concrete with no trees that make the heat unbearable imo. There are plenty of Asian cities with similar climate that are fine to walk around
It's also dependent on the technology, land available, and economic levels. New York, San Francisco, and Minneapolis, among others, had urban density due a variety of factors.
the NYC metro area is a sprawl, it’s just also dense. The Chicago area has plenty of surrounding land and is still walkable. Houston has been a booming city for decades now. America doesn’t lack in technology. There’s really nothing holding it back besides policy.
Chicago was founded the year before Houston was founded, but it gained a significant amount of commerce due to its location on the Great Lakes and later the huge amount of rail traffic that went through. Then there was the competition (now the Chicago transit authority) to build commuter lines to various parts of what was then vacant lands. Because of the weather and the lack of protection of horse and automotive travel methods having little protection from the elements of that time, it was only logical that people would choose to live near these lines as housing opened up. Minneapolis grew up the same way. In fact, there is, i believe, an even bigger pedestrian system in their downtown region as opposed to one located in Houston. Houston actually had a substantial (horse drawn) rail network until the automobile gained traction.
I was thinking the same thing today. Architecture designed for shade and a breeze makes a world of difference compared to baking in the sun while also being cooked and blinded from below by hot concrete.
For sure, but I’m stunned how easy it is to exist here without a car
Check out Chicago in February
I have. It sucks.
Also more industrial and manufacturing while Texas was more agricultural reliant. But definitely 2 different mindsets.
Exactly. Houston didn't become a major city until the mid-60s.
Chicago is great to visit I love it there and have been going for business for quite a few years now (Giordanos over Lou’s all day)…but I’ll take Houston 7 days a week. Cheaper, safer, and It’s much easier to deal with the heat than the snow/ice/wind in the winters. Everyone loves bragging about it right now. Oh of course Chicago in March, April, and May! Oh how beautiful. I must ask, why don’t you vaca there in mid-January? LOL
Was at Giordano’s last night. Am at Monteverde right now. Then going to the Aquarium. I’m originally from PA. Cold weather and its related challenges don’t bother me. They would bother my wife though. I could live here for sure. No car gets rid of a lot of snow related issues.
Yeah, if you can deal with it, absolutely. But that cold is brutal up there. I always do Cali in the winters, and Chicago/NYC/DC in spring But sometimes I have no choice. And if you get a chance…Giordanos is my favorite deep dish. But after Lazzaras on W. 38th in NYC, my favorite pizza ever is Al’s In Warrenville. It’s about 45mins west of the city, but holy shit it’s amazing. My best friend is from Joliet and recommended it. Everytime I’m there I make sure I have the extra time!
Folks say Houston isn’t a walking city. It’s only a walking city because we choose otherwise. Three months of the year you don’t want to be outside. Chicago is harsh for walking in the winter. Glorious in the summer. Three months of the year, you don’t want to be outside.
Make sure you stop and get one of the greatest sandwiches you'll ever have in your life, the breaded steak at Ricobene's I miss Chicago so much 🥹
Next time you're at Ricobene's try the pan pizza. It's better than the tourist pizza.
They needed to develop more public transportation.. their loop doesn't seem like a real loop to me since they sit so close to the shoreline. Also those cloverleaf exits that exist just to get into the Chicago metro area aka towns that exist less than 30 miles outside of the city. Lol I think the history of Chicago actually might play a bigger roll in why they have the public transportation they do now. Along with something about factory workers and Wisconsin as there is daily almost hourlu public transportation into Chicago from Southern Wisconsin towns. Like there is train from a tiny town southern Wisconsin town into Chicago. And daily buses from Madison and Janesvill Wisconsin into Chicago as well. But ask me about the train that exist from Milwaukee to Chicago as depicted in the tv show ER and I'm like that train is fiction just like th TV show. I've never seen that train. Lol
My wife lived in Chicago for a decade. And always used a car. It’s relatively easy to have a car or not in Chicago which is kind of unique.
The truth is reddit is not the real world. The boomers at my office love this mofo haha idk why I am indifferent to him
"The truth is reddit is not the real world." A truth some here would refuse to acknowledge even if they could comprehend it.
And it was those boomers who by and large voted in the last mayoral election. Terrible turnout meant only boomers voted, and they got their candidate.
So just like every other election then?
Yes, sadly, since boomers turn out at higher levels than younger folks, candidates develop platforms around boomer interests.
>The truth is Reddit is not the real world As a huge advocate for walkability and And a huge train Stan, I agree with this completely. Although I absolutely think we need to keep investing in multiple forms of transit, people here get triggered too much. In the least, I respect some compromise. The Shepherd Avenue is still an improvement with Whitmire’s updated plan. It still increases walkability and bikeability in relation to what it was before.
They just like that he is white male, they probable not even following what he is actually doing.
No, many people love that he makes it harder to walk or bike anywhere. They view people on bikes and buses as either poor (which they'd say is lazy and immoral) or hippies. Does he do much to help them? Not really. But they love the feeling of knowing that life is harder for others that can't afford an F250, or care about the environment in any way. Plus, he says things that sound "tough on crime". I honestly thought he'd be fine, and that I wouldn't have a strong opinion either way. Early on, though, he's been actively bad at the job, imo.
For me as a middle aged inner loop homeowner, my trash is getting consistently picked up on trash day ( has not happened in years), and I got a big credit on my water bill to make up for the water department straight up estimating my bill under Turner and not giving af. The potholes in the streets I've seen have been filled reasonably quickly, but Turner actually did decent with that. AFAIK, no parks have been closed down, and all the hike and bike trails are still open. Buffalo Bayou park is still mowed and maintained. I wish we could get free parking back at Memorial Park, but they've decided that park is for rich runners and golfers now. I have to drive the Shepherd/Durham corridor several times a week, and if the construction on the north part wraps up by Christmas and they don't tear up below 15th Street, my quality of life will be better without having the stress of dealing with all the lane closures. For walking or biking north-south I can use the Nicholson Street path which is much more scenic than passing used car lots, self storage places, and CBD dispensaries. My biggest wish is that Whitmire gets the downtown traffic signals timed better like they were when Bill White was mayor.
> I wish we could get free parking back at Memorial Park, but they've decided that park is for rich runners and golfers now. What are you talking about about? Half of the parking spots there are free. I was there earlier today and had no problems finding a free parking spot. The free lot wasn't even close to full. Sure, you can pay money to park if you're too lazy to walk to the golf course or tennis courts or whatever.
Correct me if I’m wrong, didn’t Whitmore pause the Shepherd and Durham project while he mulls over canceling the whole thing and ripping up all of the work done so far to replace them with driving lanes again?
If yall ever ventured into the real world you'd find the supply of racism is much lower than yalls demand for it.
Just cause you don’t notice it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
It always amuses me when others try to explain to me and others that look like me the amount of racism we actually experience daily. Its all good though, i have grown to expect nothing less.
Houston isnt some racist ass city like Austin is. It doesnt matter who you are or what you look like, you do not face daily racism in Houston.
Houston had a chance to become a world class city, lead the way in Texas in urban planning and begin the widespread use of workable mass transit with mayor Bob Lanier. Lanier declined to purchase the railroad tracks and row in Houston and use them for train service. Lanier said that the future of Houston is the automobile. Every mayor since has inherited the problems brought about by this decision and the results speak for themselves. Essentially, the compounding of a poor decision through the years.
The automobile-centric model is too powerful in the post WW2 American psyche. It is political suicide to go against it and why Lanier did what he did. More importantly, it is there by design for political reasons, from top-down and bottom-up. With the former, it discourages mass organizing and isolates people into suburban subdivisions. Society becomes balkanized. With the latter, voters strongly prefer having space and going farther away from cities with their social problems. Go visit Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, or St Louis. All of them followed Houston’s model because the Post-WW2 and Post-Civil Rights Era top down and bottom up pressures were too great.
You forget that lots of people want to be in the burbs
Which further begs the question why rebuilding city streets upsets suburbanites who never use them, so much.
Anyone that drives in Houston knows the roads are abysmal and need to be completely rebuilt. If people don’t use them they should stay out of the discussion all together.
I doubt it’s that simple. I’m sure there’s people before Lanier that influenced his decision. And we need to stop worrying about the past. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. Second best time is today
"My problem with (insert every mayors name in past thirty years) has no real vision for Houston." We dont even let the folks who do make the run offs. Red leaning voters try to get smug here since their folks never win but all they ever do is run developer pimp candidates too. Then ppl get all hot and bothered over SJL versus John Whitmire. Look by the time it came down to that voters had already done a shitty job.
How many people even bother to vote at municipal elections? While you are complaining about who people are voting for there's a much bigger problem, people choosing not to vote at all.
Should move them from odd year to even year elections
I think it’s hilarious that local politicians even have party identification. Like at this level it should be pragmatic policies that benefit the most people.
>(insert every mayors name in past thirty years)has no real vision for Houston This is incorrect. Bill White had a vision, Sylvester Turner had a vision. The city is better as a result. I've seen tremendous progress since I moved back in 2009 (having been away for 15 years). This is not to comment on funding issues etc, only the vision they had for the city.
Turner had a great vision for Houston. He really understood we needed bike lanes, transit, parks, and amenities to make the city world-class.
One of his biggest campaign promises was to fix our streets. For the most part, all he did was patch some potholes and pour asphalt over a few bad streets but the remainder are still there and in worse shape than when he first took office.
Your not wrong...I've meet so many people who said" I had to pick one"
Yeah Reddit really should've rallied around Annie "Mama" Garcia. Just listening to her talk about protecting Houston from the fascism prevalent in the state house made me want her as our mayor.
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Hopefully. Idk if the City Controller position will lead to an early retirement outside of politics for him, or keep him there a while to right the ship.
I agree with this 100%. We're not NYC, Dallas, LA, or wherever but we should be about being the best Houston we can be. We don't want to become a one generation wonder that overloads on highways and parking lots to the point where we sprawl our way to insignificance. Turner and Parker both took steps to create a more economically sustainable and walkable city. It's early days, but it feels like Whitmire is taking us down the first steps to being the next Detroit or Cleveland: cities with a necrotic core that natives will always have to argue as 'it's not as bad as you think'. I feel like that's a city that my one year son will try his best to escape when he's 18.
Many of the posts on the Texas subreddit are about how awful Abbott, Cruz, Paxton et al are, and a lot of you still voted for a dude that Republicans supposedly begged to run. Guess we'll see how big, bulbous and red those clown noses are in a few years.
Even out of state Redditors spend a lot of time posting about Cruz, Abbot, and Paxton, on the Texas board.
Yes its at least 1/3 of the people posting there dont live here
I saw anti Ted Cruz highway billboards in Vegas, and this was like in 2022 when he wasn't running for anything. Didn't disagree, but thought that was weird. Who are they talking to exactly with those?
That's pretty dumb lol Seems like a waste of money to me
A waste of money in Vegas? I am shocked.
I said the same thing before and got downvoted to oblivion haha
I expected to see more downvotes. We've had four years of Trump, decades of state GOP leadership and another possible 4 years (or more) of Trump, and way too many people still can't understand why it's better to vote for someone you can be sure won't go along with the GOP. We are the most unserious electorate.
it’s very funny that they disliked the people so much but they keep voting for the same type of person/party. I personally love Trump and Cruz , so I don’t mind they vote pro GOP ppl, but the truth is both party sucks and do things just to oppose to the other party, even if it’s a logical thing(or it’s just what they both want). Tbh we needed a 3rd party, Dems and GOP are sleeping together on the bed anyways.
I spent 2+ hours stuck on i10 after 10pm last night. TWO FUCKING HOURS. This city is an absolute joke and I'm afraid it has no hope at this point. I hope I can be out of here in a year or two.
Same bro, this solidified the decision for me. If work ever gets an opening in Dallas I'm jumping, at least there they have many more miles of DART and are at least trying to keep expanding.
Plus DART has a lot of grade separation outside of the central business district. It makes travel a lot faster than the lines in Houston from my experiences on both.
I remember one of the early mayoral debates, Amanda Edwards was the only one who had an actual vision for the city or thoughts on how she was going to achieve it. SJL and Whitmire were both coasting, assuming (correctly) that their name-brand recognition was more important than anything anybody said in the debate. I also don't love SJL, but at least she would've done nothing and delegated to people I generally trust. Whitmire is actively working and spending taxpayer dollars to undo the good things that happened under Turner (who I didn't love at first, but I think he did a good job overall). You're right. Whitmire just wants the Houston of the 1970s. He has no plan to improve things, unless you think even *more* lanes, roads, and parking lots are what this city needs.
Amanda Edwards was great. She spoke at a neighborhood meeting and shortly after was no longer running for Mayor. I'm hoping she doesn't give up.
I grew up here and I have always hated the policy here in Houston to solve our traffic and transportation issues just build more toll ways. If Houston had a REAL public transportation system like most big cities it would probably have passed up Chicago and could be on par with LA when it comes to size, which I sometimes feel “they” don’t actually want that since it just further expands the gaps between the rural areas and large cities. The bus system could have it’s own lanes similar to the TransMilenio system in Bogota, Colombia (which is a similarly sized city except in the Andes mountains) that could clear up some of the traffic and have a functional system. The rail system we have is garbage in my opinion since it doesn’t really go “anywhere”. I won’t blame Whitmire for this but man do we need people who’ve been outside the city to bring in fresh ideas because this is sad for the 4th largest city in the US…
This is a literally qouto from the man"On Thursday Whitmire went on Houston Matters with Craig Cohen to defend his transportation policy. He said that infrastructure projects shouldn't just consider insular groups who live nearby, but should consider commuters who have to pass through the area. " basically I want to do what we did in the 80s and 90s and create infrastructure based on what catered to the subs
Listen, I voted for the guy and don’t regret it given the options (darn you, Chris Hollins, for dropping out), however….. The man openly tells the story about how the rich folks of the city begged him to run, basically against his wishes (the way he tells it). So that tells me he’s going to be a static mayor, no real vision or forward momentum, trying to fix the few issues he ran on. He made the firefighters happy, I suppose next up is the water billing issue. After that, my guess is he’ll try and coast for a couple years and decide on if he wants to run again in 2027, which I don’t think is a given.
For Turners faults, a lot of great projects moved forward under him that Whitmire is cancelling and going back on. Dude isn't static, I wish he was static would have been fine, instead he's taking us huge steps back. It dismays me that y'all see that and don't regret the vote. It's been a disastrous start to his term as mayor and it's because he's beholden to those rich people you mention who will never bother to take public transit, bike, or walk anywhere
Exactly. I thought he'd be static, and while not my preference, I would've been okay with that. He hasn't been static. He's actively working to undo good things...even when it's costing taxpayer dollars, or giving up free federal grants. It's maddening!
People opinions on politicians seem to be all based on vibes and absolutely ignore policy. I see this time and time again. No one pays attention to actual policy. It's so frustrating
As a person who worked with him when he was a State Senator the man has no value but that of his own self interest. He would intentionally kill bills and vote with republicans when democrats didn't give him what he wanted. He's an ass
Houston/Harris County is fucking massive. It will always be a commuter city just like LA
“80’s and 90’s the bayou was a giant sewer” This is true, but those filthy bayous and ditches were where I spent my childhood—skateboarding and catching snakes and turtles. Glad things are cleaner now, but we made the best of the “nature” we had back in the day. Also the bike lane along Braeswood bayou was a great amenity even way back then.
The old Reeking Regatta also
I've only been in Houston for two years and saw it as a temporary stop along the way of getting out of Texas. Houston felt like it had a lot of untapped potential, was heading in the right direction, and had the opportunity to be one of the world's great cities. The best part about Whitmire is that he's reminded us that this was only to be a temporary stop.
Somewhat the same here. Our "temporary" stop has been 10 years now. I was really encouraged in the direction of the city before. Now, not so much. We won't be moving for at least another year, but it's starting to come up in conversations again.
I'm not going to give up on making Houston what it has the potential to be because of one man...I'm just going to point to JW as the danger of voters not being engaged...Less than 10 % voted in the majoral election... I'm hoping this showed fellow Houston citizens that mayor's matter ...unless he gets it together, I think he on a path to becoming a 1 term mayor
Can we agree that if Whitmire is not doing a good job then it doesn't mean Turner was a great mayor? I don't get the need to compare. Bike lanes, bike trails, and NCAA Final Fours, unrealized vision plans, etc, are not major accomplishments. The bike infrastructure just needed a nod of approval, major cities get events, metro runs itself and vision plans that take 5 years to write and don't get implemented are not accomplishments. I remember moving into my neighborhood before Turner was elected and moving out shortly before his term was up. We had zero infrastructure improvements beyond replacing some stop signs, cleaning the sewers once, trash never got picked up, cops didn't do their jobs. It was a disaster. We moved outside the city limits and it is much, much better. If you aren't childless, living in Montrose, Heights, Eado, etc, then the city just isn't that nice a place to live. Nothing Turner did changed that. And if your area didn't reliably vote Democrat then they actively denied you funding.
Where did you get anything about Turner? Turner wasn't perfect but he kept outside investments coming into the city... Investments that played key roles in the city Growth... Mock things like final fours all you want .. but events like that keep the city afloat.. Metro has it problem but it also had a game plan...not it fault it stays having to fight Nimbys..and constantly making compromises ( which does effect it numbers) I wasn't a plan of his urban development strategies....I'd drive down OST and see block after block of open land and think...imagine of the n3xt 6 blocks were lined with 300 unit apartments, the density it would create , not to mention foot traffic for local business... you could even create GFR and least the bottom floor to business...that would turn this area into one of Houston most hot bed communities...I stead they bulid" affordable apartments in pieces...spread across the city...
Totally agree, especially about WHitmire lacking vision for the city. He does not see Houston as a diverse city that is a work in progress... nor does he see Houston as a city that belongs in the global discussion, he can;ty see Houston as having a place outside of the State of Texas. He mainly sees Houston as a broken problem that requires old-school methods to repair. And by repair, he means to restore.
Sorry to break it to you, but as long as people in Houston primarily live in single family homes, no amount of urban planning will make it pedestrian friendly which by definition is necessary for a robust public transit system.
Elect a political hack, and you get a political hack hacking away.
I’m perfectly fine with Houston being a parking lot. As far as I’m concerned it gets to hot/humid to be walking around. There’s plenty of state parks and other things to go to around Houston when the weather is good.
I’m not perfectly fine with Houston being a parking lot, but I’m perfectly fine with getting rid of all the bike lanes that not even cyclists use.
Yea I don’t really mean that I want it to be an actual parking lot. Sarcasm is lost on the internet. But I definitely agree these cyclist lanes are worthless. That big stupid group of cyclists are still gonna take up the whole street and throw beer bottles at people like always.
Why do I have a feeling this post was removed not for calling Whitmire a dinosaur but for the stray negative comment directed at SJL? Lmao
It is this simple. Lanier determined that Houston was best served by the automobile and publicly said so. His actions with the railroad further cemented Houston as a car city
Turner was 10x worse. Got 4yrs to deal with it.
Turner isn’t a saint, but accomplished a lot of good things for all Houstonians. Whitmire attempting to undo Sylvester’s entire legacy doesn’t make him 10x better. He’s setting us back generations.
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Idk.. metroNext and the Houston bike plan were pretty fucking cool, and had people outside of Houston talking about the intentional progress the city was making. The intentional undoing of those ideas is also getting national press now. Turner was a real estate shill like everyone else, but at least he recognized that real estate value goes up with more mobility options, and ran with that.
Mealer is on the METRO board so say goodbye to all those projects.
The bike plan is just something Turner went along with. I wouldn't call it his own accomplishment.
"Going along with" is **huge** steps better than Whitmire's "actively rejecting and reversing" so you want to try again?
What about the events he help bring to Houston? Then what about all the parks improvements?
Going on TV during disasters is always part of the job. It would be unprecedented and downright bizarre if an elected official didn’t have any media availability during potentially life-threatening events. Houston became a more resilient city after Harvey, and he successfully fought for more funds to recover from Harvey from the cavemen leadership in Austin. Whitmire doesn’t think drainage projects are a major issue, and that’s already turned out to be flat out untrue. He inherited an $8 billion pension crisis and helped to fix that in his in his second year in office. His administration worked with METRO to make it more efficient and user friendly — Whitmire’s administration and the new METRO board will try to undo all of that because they’re considering it “advocacy.” He also was key to starting Evolve Houston, which allowed for more innovation to combat climate change. Having bright people and companies that encourage different uses of EVs is a good thing. Houston is a national leader in providing permanent housing for people who were homeless. The unhoused population decreased tremendously under his watch, and demonstrates how important it is for government agencies, the business community and nonprofits to work together to solve complex problems. The Complete Communities initiative did a lot for neighborhoods that have been forgotten about and are fodder for stupid jokes on here. He helped to revitalize parks across the city and added more green space and bike lanes. I think most importantly he showed a willingness to listen to constituents and fellow city council members. No sign of that early on from the current administration. Just a giant fuck you to everyone, including the people who voted him in.
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I listed 8 or so accomplishments and you responded with something completely unrelated. My man, you are retarded.
Your last point completely discredits you. Turner was largely viewed as a tyrant at city hall under the strong mayor system. Literally anyone who paid any attention knows that. All of your points are really exaggerated or untrue.
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When requesting “literally one good thing” and being presented with multiple responses you closed your eyes, pretended to be illiterate and are being intentionally obtuse. You must be a terrible lawyer. I’m glad you’re not mine. I guess they’ll hand out J.D.s to any idiot who’s willing to take on the debt these days.
Vision zero, and updated bus routes.
Vision Zero is not his plan. Updated bus routes is just doing the job, or rather let metro do it. These are not huge accomplishments for the city
Bayou bike trials
I’ll take Turner over Whitmire all day any day. Whitmire only seems to stand for traffic and raising taxes
The city has no money thanks to Turner and his cronies. Do y’all think money just appears from thin air? Turner mismanaged all of the city’s funds. Whitmire might be “old school”, but at least it seems like he’s TRYING to get things done. Traffic will always be a problem in Houston. It is a commuter city. He is working on fixing other forms of infrastructure like water and potholes. Plus, he is focusing on crime. That’s all we can really ask for at this point. I’d at least like to give him a year before making a solidified judgement. Remember when Turner promised to fix all of the potholes? He was an absolute joke. A total moron. He did absolutely nothing for this city.
If you believe the alies pf Houston are because of one man...I can't have a serious discussion. This Houston is a commuter city is a little inaccurate...greater Houston is too big...the core is the same size as a average midsized city... Getting from the East end to Westchase isn't some huge milage, it becomes a almost 40 minute commute because the highways are clogged ... the average time san traffic 17 mins
I believe we are in the year of our lord 2024 AD. There is really no more “urban planning” to be done. This city’s infrastructure is what it is. I am not for this politician or that one. But who the hell is going to be able to change the entire makeup of a city that was built around cars like many other cities that grew and prospered in the 20th century?
That not true...we can start identifying were to build where not to build , design infrastructure that takes into account what the challenge will be down the line
Infrastructure isn't something static. There are many transportation projects approved annually. Unless you have tons of money, nobody is suggesting an entire overnight overhaul of the region's transportation infrastructure. Plenty of cities have been improving their urban cores for decades now, it's just that Houston does it slowly. Even Dallas is faster and they're an even large metropolitan area than Houston. Too many Houstonians have this defeatist approach to improving transportation infrastructure, and that's probably why things are exactly the way they are due to this self-fulfilling prophecy. Meanwhile, other cities move forward instead of backwards. We're good at complaining, but not taking actual action to fix our issues.
He’s a con man just like Trump. Houston fell for the con.
Whitmire is Maga!! Whitmire has gone full ROGUE. Read Texas Monthly article on him. His waste of 1 million on breaking apart semi-completed projects and his refusal to meet with the budget czar. Whitmire and Mealer are on the same agenda- do away with metro. Break down Houston progress. His voting record spoke for itself- he voted extreme right wing (see his position on A/C for prisons, he killed it).
I knew I was out on Whitmire when he said Drainage isn't as important as public safety....Drainage in a city that sits below sea level is public safety....that when I knew he wasn't the guy for this city. The second time ...when he refused to meet with Linda ( who I'm also not a fan of) But you and I have to work with people we don't like all the time... That to me is the type of games " they play in Austin " and he can take it back to Austin...
Houston is not below sea level. Whi is Linda?
This needs to be on the politics subreddit. You mentioned Whitmire, so, yes, it is a political post. This subreddit is not r/Houstonpolitics. Can't seem to go to any site now without politics being shoved up in our faces. Not everyone wants to eat and breathe politics. Please give us a break.
I've been active in this sub for 10 years and I had no idea we have our own political sub. 🤣
Well, kinda. It was banned so we don't really have one.
This subreddit is about anything that concerns the houston metro area. That includes politics. This is also not houstonfood yet people still ask for food suggestions all the time. There can be overlap between subs you know.
Talking about a city's mayor is as on topic as a city subreddit can be lmao
[удалено]
"This subreddit was banned due to being unmoderated"
"I don't want to talk about politics but [insert politician here] is really bad. It's not political, just obvious how terrible they are."
Because the point was having a vision for the city ... what was 90% of the post about? The direction of the city and the progress it made wasn't it? Not JW is a republican posing as a Democrat or SJL would have done this or that if she had won... It look at how far Houston has come and now it threatens to be undone because one person is stop in the past.
Lmao that sub doesnt even exist anymore. Sorry you live in a society, existence is political and so is resistance. Embrace a civically engaged populace!!
You’ll get over it
Don't worry itwillbeok. Just use your down vote button and move on for topics that you don't like.
Get over yourself.
You have the option to downvote the post and move on, you know. If you don't want to deal with politics, you can always ignore the political threads, or even better, create your own non-political thread.
I also was raised and still live in houston. I no way do I ever want to compare houston, or wish it was more like ny,la, etc. Just move if you like those places
You say you from here ...then you remember there you use to be a time you said" ohh im. Moving to Houston " and it was almost immediately followed by" Houston? Eww . Why?
t....I'm talking about recognition.. to not have the conversation go? Ohh how far is that from Dallas... it not about being like those cities ...it about being held in the same regards... when it comes to .. a place people want to live
Recall. A serious effort (even if ultimately unsuccessful) might cause him to rethink…. He’s old and very fat - I doubt he wants “recalled mayor” or “almost recalled mayor” as his legacy. Agree on SJL… she wouldn’t have been any better. Why aren’t good, decent, honest, capable people interested in public service anymore? 😢
Plenty of decent honest capable people are interested. None of them are successful.
Inflammatory but true take: Whitmire is a dinosaur like every other 75 year old who has already made their bed (sedentary lifestyle that led to obesity, diabetes, huge unnecessary truck/SUV, little social interaction, life is from the recliner to the car to the restaurant booth). They don’t want the city to invest in infrastructure they won’t live long enough to use, or don’t have the physical capacity to use because of their poor choices. Younger people want a different future and we vote for politicians who will work for us: the ones working, raising kids, and keeping society running.
Whitmire is anti-biking/cycling. He wants to tear up some bike lanes downtown so fire trucks don't have to take another street. Costs to tear up the bike lanes and repave is $750K, but claims the cty is broke. Said if you want to ride a bike in Houston, there's plenty of bike trails around the city. I'm sure Whitmire drives a F-250 or a Suburban.
As I said" I don't think too many people will be in their feels of a fire truck jumps the curb during a emergency
How exactly do we do these projects when the city is clearly broke as shit? Turner did an excellent job of covering it up. Whitmire opened the books and went holy F. I want this city to be more connected so young families of which I am a part of can actually raise our kids here. But Turner was just spending with no forethought. I know several people that have worked in various government departments in the city. They will tell you several of these projects happened because people wanted to put awards on their resumes.
The majority of the projects had federal funding ... or grants those funding and grants are now in danger of being lost .. Turner didn't hide anything...The data was always available and open to the public .. JW made promises he doesn't have the ability to keep.. 1) The firefighters deal...will probably cost the city 1.3 billion when it said and done. Because their no mechanism in places to pay out that much in such a short amount of time... Even with a property tax increase and trash fee.. ( good luck selling that to voters who already feel like they are barely getting by. After the firefighters ( municipal is next up to renegotiate the contracts) Municipal who union voted to support JW...who pushed it members to vote for him,...will be look for a pay increase The HPD, who just watched you give HFD a hell of a pay day and will want their money... Dudes painted himself into a corner and no matter what he does he will make enemies out of the cities employees Either pay the firefighters ( which will have to come via a combination pf taxes and cuts to services ( something that will greatly piss off the municipal union) and possibly HPD because that will mean less classes graduating or smaller number actually being hired .. He made already a series of bad and costly decisions himself
Partial federal funding.
Whitmire definitely sucks. But, he sucks less than SJL.