Earlier this month we wrote about how a Metro vice-president blatantly told some citizens that he considered part of his job to be keeping those nasty homeless people off the light rail. Let them take the bus, he more or less said; the light rail is for winners.
He has at least one supporter in that theory. Here's an e-mail we've received that heartily endorses the policy:
the homeless and the trian where shall I start....I take it none of you there take the train on a daily basis to go to work..well I do every darn day and the homeless are a big issue,,first off if you want them to use it for free then we should all use it for free and since that isnt going to happen so sorry but they need to pay just like the rest of us,,many mornings I dont want to go to work either but If i dont go whos gonna support your homeless,,further more let me ask u this how would u like to get on the train downtown, have to go all the way to the medical center and cant sit down because the homeless have urinated and manytimes done worse on all the seats so you cant sit down and the smell is awful,,,,or get sandwiched between several that smell horrible and you have to take the stench to work with you and have your pts comment...No im tired of getting on to packed trains when the minority that paid and all the seats are taken by your homeless
sleeping.....Before you judge the people at metro you take the train back and forth to work for a month and tell me how much you enjoy the ride and take a mask and spray cause your gonna need it....
We'd take this person up on the offer, but our co-workers might complain.
In a press release clearly launched from the Stone Age, the Bayou City's Metropolitan Transit Authority (that's Metro, if you're nasty) puffed up its chest and triumphantly declared today that it is "expanding the conversation by adding social media tools Facebook and Twitter to its communication portfolio."
Oh goody gumdrops! Yes, folks, that's a bona fide quote, straight from the horse's mouth. We know you're trying to decide whether to yawn or vomit. Just remove your finger from your throat before you injure yourself, will you? Besides, everyone knows that you add tools to a toolbox, not to a portfolio. Except the tools themselves, perhaps. But hey, we digress.
All joshin' aside, thank both goodness and the guy in the sky that Metro is on Facebook and Twitter now. Seriously. What would you do without Metro's tweets and status updates? You'd shrivel up and perish, that's what. We're also counting our lucky stars that said momentous occasion is aptly commemorated by a Flash banner on their website. Metro's really gone big time now, eh? It's like, 2002 all up in this place!
Todd Mason is the vice president of real estate services for Metro. At the time of his hiring, there was some concern that by hiring Mason and dabbling in big-time real estate development at and around Metro properties, the transit organization was extending itself far beyond its mission statement, which reads:
METRO is an innovative regional transportation organization of dedicated employees committed to partnering with the public and private sectors to provide the safest, highest quality services and mobility solutions that exceed our customers' expectations while creating economic growth.
Consider those fears well-founded. Apparently, Mason is now attempting to decide who gets to ride the light rail and who doesn't.
The Federal Transit Administration sent word earlier this week that Metro's Title VI program has finally been approved and is in full compliance, which, according to Metro, is one more step towards getting the all-important Full Funding Agreement from the feds.
Hair Balls has written several things about Metro's non-compliance (until now), starting when Metro received word in April about deficiencies in its civil rights -- Title VI -- program. After writing about some of the complaints against Metro, we found out in July that Metro was still deficient in a couple of areas.
The agency had until the end of this month to fix those problems and did so by providing better documentation to the FTA and by "the development of such programs as a Title VI training program for employees," Metro spokeswoman Raequel Robers told Hair Balls via e-mail.
Terribly sad news out of HPD -- the Metro cop who was involved in the agency's first fatal shooting has committed suicide.
Officer R.L. Harrington had been no-billed by a grand jury in relation to the incident, in which he shot and killed a knife-wielding man and injured a passer-by near the Rice campus.
"We're confident that Officer Harrington did exactly what he was supposed to do," Metro police chief Tom Lambert said after the no-billing.
An unidentified male's body was discovered at 3:45 a.m. September 5 in a car in the 9300 block of Richmond.
"Patrol officers responded to a shooting-in-progress call and found the victim sitting in the driver's seat of his vehicle with a gunshot wound to the head," HPD said at the time.
At first glance it seemed like the cash for clunker bike promotion at Daniel Boone Cycles was little more than a spoof on the government program to get some advertising for the bicycle shop. Turns out, you might call it a political statement.
"It's a matter of making people aware they can go green, have a new bike, and it can all be done by private enterprise," Joy Boone, who started the shop in 1968 by buying and selling used bikes, tells Hair Balls. "Every dealer in town could do the same thing."
Boone isn't the biggest fan of government. She received a $200 check from one stimulus program, she says, but that money just went back to paying taxes.
"I think [the government] has wasted a lot of money," Boone says. "The cash for clunker program was probably the wisest thing they did, because it put the money in the hands of the people without 20 million layers of bureaucracy."
We may finally have some answers to the questions that emerged after it was reported that Metro lied about the cost of two proposed light rail corridors.
During a Metro meeting in April, Houstonian Paul Magaziner told the board that the projects would cost $1.8 billion. Frank Wilson, Metro's president, told Magaziner that those numbers were "extremely exaggerated."
But according to documents from the Federal Transit Administration -- obtained by Hair Balls today -- Metro is seeking federal funding agreements that equal $1.58 billion for the North and Southeast corridors.
That's about $761 million more than the cost listed on the contract Metro signed in March, but we don't think you can call Metro liars. Misleading maybe, and Metro officials certainly could have explained better, but they didn't necessarly lie.
Last month, Metro had a big ol' ceremony to mark the groundbreaking on two new light-rail lines.
Union Station was the scene, and a life-size mock version of a light-rail train was included, as this picture from Metro's blog shows:
Photo courtesy Metro
To the accompaniment of music that was a lame cross between the Terminator soundtrack, the 1812 Overture and a bad `80s hair band, a curtain was dropped, confetti exploded and steam climbed dramatically as the life-size model appeared. (You can watch almost 30 minutes of the mind-numbing speeches, and the dramatic climax, here if you dare.) Other, smaller ceremonies took place along the North and Southeast corridors.
The Citizens Transportation Coalition is currently giddy with dreams of 90 MPH commuter trains speeding from Galveston and down 290 into the city...possibly by 2012, which sounds like the far future but is only three years away.
There hasn't been much public movement on commuter rail since the HGAC's study was released a year ago. But quietly, gears are meshing, and we may have commuter rail to Galveston and Hempstead as early as 2012.
On Thursday, the North Houston Association hosted a high-powered group: Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, METRO CEO Frank Wilson, Gulf Coast Freight Rail District (GCFRD) Chairman Mark Ellis, Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation (THSRTC) chairman (and former Harris County Judge) Robert Eckels, and Union Pacific's Joe Adams. Introducing them was former Harris County Judge and State Senator Jon Lindsey, father of the Harris County Toll Road Authority. If there was ever a visual demonstration of the political will that's aligning behind commuter rail, this was it.
Oh, someone's going to get money to study the idea? Where can we buy our tickets for the grand 2012 opening?
Last week we told you how the police force of Milo, Maine (Motto: "Such As It Is") was receiving more stimulus funds than HPD. Admittedly easy to do, since HPD was getting zero stimulus funds.
Now the snub gets worse: Metro will be feeding at the trough that is blocked to HPD.
The agency will get $3 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, one of 15 such agencies in the country to get money.
"METRO's police department will use the money to hire 10 police officers -- two of the spots will be filled with explosives detection canines," spokeswoman Carolina Mendoza says. (Wait, dogs count as cops?)
"Any additional resources will help us to make the system safer," METRO's assistant poloce chief Tim Kelly said in a release. "Police officers are the backbone of what we do. This money will help us get more officers on the force to help with our day-to-day operations, such as conducting random patrols which help deter terrorism and reduce crime."
The Federal Transit Administration released its final report on Metro's compliance -- and non-compliance -- with federal civil rights laws, and according to the report, Metro is still deficient in two areas, including not being able to prove that its November 2008 fare increase or recent service eliminations did not hurt minority or low-income riders.
From the report:
METRO remains deficient in this area because it has planned or implemented substantial new services during 2008, including all of the Light Rail projects and the implementation of premium services, including Signature bus service and Airport Direct bus service. METRO has not documented that it conducted an Equity Evaluation of these service improvements to determine that the investments were made equitable in minority and non-minority communities.
A Metro vice-president was arrested and charged with sending indecent images to an underage boy, Channel 2 has reported.
William Murphy Madison, who deals with infrastructure for the agency, sent at least 10 pornographic images to a Missouri City kid. Unfortunately for Madison, but fortunately for the kid, the victim's mom discovered the images and contacted police.
Madison is suspended from his $136,000-a-year job, but we were left to wonder -- doesn't Metro screen its computers? Can staffers just watch porn all day long when they should be making the buses run on time?
We asked spokesperson Raequel Roberts. She has complained about our coverage of Metro, so her dealings with us tend to involve terse e-mails.
A couple months back, we wrote about Metro receiving notification from the Federal Transit Administration, saying Metro had violated federal civil rights laws, but we hadn't seen a draft of the preliminary report. Now we have, and, apparently, Metro hasn't been too concerned with the federal laws.
According to the report, "the general consensus among the staff was that there was little to no awareness of METRO's Title VI Program," a program designed to ensure that Metro doesn't discriminate based on race, color, or national origin, and it evaluates the "social and economic effects of programs and activities on minority populations and low-income populations."
Furthermore, the report says, no one on staff interviewed by the FTA even knew that there was a person or department where Title VI complaints should be directed.
"Human error" caused a Metro train to derail just after midnight on June 16, according to Metro officials, but engineers from Arup, a firm hired to assist in the investigation, say that Metro needs to implement a safer lubrication system on the rails.
Pictures from the investigation, released by Metro at a press conference this afternoon, show gouge marks on
the concrete and rail along the stretch of track where the derailment occurred. Metro plans to test the track "to verify its structural integrity" with ultrasound, a yearly test that costs about $3,500.
Steve Clark, and engineer with Arup, says that these kinds of accidents don't happen very often, adding, "It's unusual for us to get involved in derailment investigations."
A Harris County grand jury on Monday no-billed the Metro officer who shot and killed a knife-weilding man who had threatened at least one Metro passenger. Accidentally shot in the May 5 incident was Guadalupe Acosta, who subsequently sued Metro.
Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert revealed the grand jury's decision not to indict Officer R.L. Harrington at a press conference today.
"We're confident that Officer Harrington did exactly what he was supposed to do," Lambert said.
The Houston Police Department investigated the shooting. Although Lambert said he read HPD's report, he said it would not be "appropriate" for him to comment on the findings.
Lambert and Metro Spokesman George Smalley also refuted claims raised by Acosta and her attorney.
We weren't really surprised to learn that the saga of The Great Metro Shooting is once again grabbing headlines, this time with the news that the bystander who was shot now plans on suing Metro.
Guadalupe Acosta, a nanny, told the Chron she was shot in the shoulder as she was pushing the toddler she cared for around the Rice University jogging path. And she said no one from Metro ever apologized or expressed sympathy. Since Metro ain't talking, Hair Balls can only speculate that that was a legal tactic -- i.e., don't apologize, because that can be interpreted as guilt. Well, besides just being indecent, it appears to have been a tactic that came back to bite Metro in the ass.
Acosta told Hair Balls that she wouldn't have sued if Metro had apologized and offered to cover her medical expenses; of course, she could be full of it, but c'mon -- you get shot while you're pushing a toddler, for heaven's sake, and no one even says "Whoops -- my bad"?
Acosta said the only time she heard from Metro was when Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert questioned in her in the hospital the day of the shooting.
Lomax, keeping to his strict warm-up regimen for the big race
It was to be the ultimate contest between man and machine.
Hair Balls announced in earnest at this afternoon's staff meeting its plans to sample the new 402 Quickline Bellaire, which was unveiled by Metro on Friday. The so-called "signature" bus -- the first of its kind in Houston -- runs along the standard Number 2 Bellaire route during rush hour, making far fewer stops in order to travel at a heretofore unimaginable pace.
At this, staff writer John Nova Lomax produced an audible scoff.
"I could beat that on my bike," Lomax said.
And so Hair Balls loaded Lomax's 18-year-old bicycle into the bed of its pick-up and headed for the TMC Transit Center, where the Quickline's westbound service begins. Lomax smoked a cigarette as he waited at the station for the race to begin.
It was here Hair Balls learned that Lomax's confidence was drawn less from his prowess on the pedals than the fact that the road between the station and his house, about one-and-a-half miles away along the route, is plagued by construction. Lomax used to be able to beat the traffic on foot, he claimed. It has since alleviated some, but he predicted a handy victory all the same.
Metro's announced they'll be doing track maintenance this weekend, so if you're planning on cruising the light rail through downtown, think again.
There will be no service between the Downtown Transit Center and UH-Downtown from 5:30 am til 2 pm on both Saturday and Sunday, Metro's Carolina Mendoza says. Instead riders will get to experience the luxury of connector buses, which will run every 15 minutes.
Light-rail service won't be affected between Fannin South and the DTC, by the way.
Metro has announced a raft of changes to their bus schedules, mostly beginning this weekend.
There are far too many to detail, so look for the info relevant to you here. The biggest thing we saw was the Medical Center circulating bus will no longer be circulating.
Worry not about all these tweaks, however; they are for your own good. Many, in fact, are described as moves made to "Adjust trip times for more reliable service." So what could go wrong?
Metro says the moves involve "simplifying...routes for better mobility in busy thoroughfares."
Check it out to see how much you will be inconvenienced.
With it just being Memorial Day Weekend and all, perhaps it's not the best timing for this post, but what the hell.
On May 2, Rice employee and local historian Lauren Meyers was riding the MetroRail up to the Fleetwood Mac concert at Toyota Center. At some point, she violated one of Metro's ticky-tack rules by taking a sip of bottled water. It's a rare train ride that you don't see someone do that; hell we've been known to even drink coffee on the train, and we once saw a clever guy put a Colt 45 tall boy inside a to-go cup and then punch a straw through the lid and into the can.
So yeah, it's usually live and let live on there. Even the drivers seem to ignore all but blatant boozing.
But not the curmudgeonly vet in the clip below. Evidently, he didn't slog through the frozen mud of the Battle of the Bulge so people like Meyers could wantonly swill Ozarka on light-rail trains. As Meyers put it on her blog, he fought so that people like her would obey the rules.
We reported yesterday on things looking up for Metro, but today Hair Balls learned that our transit authority is violating the federal government's definition of civil rights.
According to a letter dated April 27, the Federal Transit Administration conducted a Title VI Compliance Review of Metro earlier this year, which, among other things, ensures "that the level and quality of transportation service is provided without regard to race, color, or national origin" and evaluates the "social and economic effects of programs and activities on minority populations and low-income populations."
Twenty-six different transit authorities have been reviewed since 2002, according to the FTA's web site, but this was the first in Houston. Metro has until the end of this month to respond to a preliminary report on the Title VI civil rights violations, according to the letter.
Hair Balls hasn't seen the report, and a representative from Metro hasn't been available for comment so it's impossible to know the nature of the violations. But several Houstonians, including Tom Bazan, have filed complaints with the federal civil rights office about the dwindling level of bus service to low-income areas in favor of pouring "delicate precious resources" into new light-rail lines.
"There's supposed to be a watch dogs for stuff like this," Bazan tells Hair Balls. "I think most of the watch dogs have had their nests feathered by Metro."
More news -- good or bad depending on your side of the fence -- about Metro's planned light-rail lines came today when board chairman David Wolff announced that Metro has all but got its first funding agreement from the Federal Transit Administration.
For 2010, the feds listed the North and Southeast corridors as two of the five recommended projects on its budget, and Metro is set to get $75 million for each.
Construction on both lines could start as early as June, Wolff said.
Metro expected and announced it would have the funding agreement by the end of last year, but that didn't happen.
"We got out-politicked. This is the first time we haven't had a dysfunctional delegation," Wolff told Hair Balls, referring to anti-rail US Reps like Tom DeLay. "It was like walking into a gun fight down an alley. You'd want to walk somewhere more peaceful. The places that were more peaceful got the money."
Today we tell you how the Houston Press gets results!! For you!!
As promised, the bus stop in question was been moved from between the cement bench and street sign (where it was inaccessible to everyone) to a more rider-friendly spot a few feet north. Now riders can approach the stop without having to crawl over any impediments. It should be noted that the stop was moved within just three business days of our notifying Metro of the situation.
Tuesday's Metro Police shooting was not just unusual in that it was the first fatal shooting in the agency's history, but in that a bystander was injured as well. While we wait for more details to emerge from HPD, which is leading the investigation, Hair Balls checked in with a criminology expert about the incidence of bystander shootings.
"It's just a rare phenomenon," says David Klinger, a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "...Police officers are trained to take into consideration what we call their 'background' - what's behind what I'm shooting at. Oftentimes, police officers are able to...structure encounters so that their background is clear."
A former patrol officer in L.A. and Redmond, Washington, Klinger is the author of In the Kill Zone: A Cop's Eye View of Deadly Force. He was also a professor of sociology at the University of Houston.
In the more than 25 years it has been around, Metro's police force has never had an officer shoot and kill someone. Which is probably a good thing, seeing how events unfolded this afternoon.
Metro police killed a man who they say was brandishing a knife even after being Tasered three times. For good measure, they also wounded an innocent bystander.
Details are somewhat sketchy, but apparently a woman at the Rice stop told a Metro cop she'd been harassed by a guy. When the guy in question refused to talk and "acted in a threatening manner," out came the Taser.
Another Metro cop arrived and also Tasered the guy, who nevertheless started brandishing a knife on the Rice jogging path.
So out came the heavy artillery. Unfortunately enough for a woman who was apparently jogging at the time.
Bus riders waiting on the northwest corner of 290 at Antoine have had a pretty hard time getting to their bus stop. After a handicap access ramp was built at the site, the bus stop has been impossible for Metro riders to get to without crawling over a cement obstacle or walking in the street. On the one side, there's a stationary bench and Metro trash can blocking the way. On the other side, there's a sign post right in the middle of the lumpy strip of grass, forcing able bodied riders to either squeeze against the railing or step into the street. Wheelchair users have been just plain out of luck no matter what side they've tried to use.
We're not experts on the American Disabilities Act, but we're pretty sure an access ramp is supposed to make it easier to get to the stop, not harder so we contacted METRO who told us: "METRO has about 10,000 bus stops and their accessibility is a high priority for us. METRO budgets about $300,000 annually to upgrade its existing bus stops to ensure they are accessible to our patrons, whether it's a concrete pad or damaged sidewalk that needs to be fixed. Please note the bus stop was placed there before the bridged walkway was even built. A work order has been placed to move the bus stop about 10 feet north of the bridged walkway. We project to have this done by the end of the week."
Good deal. We'll be there on Friday to check on METRO's progress.
Metro has announced that the evening rush hour should see full service on all its routes and HOV lanes, with the possible exception of the I-45 HOV lane which is still kinda flooded near downtown.
There's a big caveat attached -- if another big storm hits, then changes might have to be made.
Right now there are 13 routes still operating on a reduced schedule due to flooding, spokeswoman Carolina Mendoza says:
The futuristic blue background really compliments your shitty attitude
Claiming environmental superiority, low gas mileage and the quietest ride outside of a bicycle, the Toyota Prius is a car that inspires rabid, cult-like legions of fans. They create websites, message boards and even Facebook pages to celebrate their love of a car. Not since the original Ford Mustang has a car inspired such loyalty.
As this week's cover story demonstrates in vivid, cutting detail, the Prius isn't all it's cracked up to be. With a safety record that includes dangerously random accelerations, defective brakes and mysterious stalling, the Prius has a dark underbelly that's very rarely seen or mentioned in the media, much less among their legions of fans.
Add to this the fact that the Prius is downright aesthetically unappealing, not to mention followed by a "cloud of smug" everywhere it goes, and you have the potential for some very ugly Prius backlash. Below are some of our favorite embarrassing moments in Prius history (with our cover story at number one, of course).
Watching the Astros hasn't been an unalloyed joy so far this season, but tomorrow you get to do it cheaply. And save the earth (a little bit) in the process.
Just bring evidence to the Minute Maid Park box office that you've taken a Metro bus or train Wednesday, and you'll get half-off tickets to see the Astros take on (and likely get pummeled by) the LA Dodgers.
If you can get there early enough -- the box office opens at 8:30 am -- you might just get some Field Box seats, which usually go for $39. For the price of a bus ticket, you can get them for $19.50, which is a pretty good deal in these days of amazingly high-priced baseball seats.
It's an Earth Day miracle -- because 10,000 lucky fans will also get a green Astros hat!!
The Astros also plan to honor the earth by not having any runners disturb the base paths between third base and home.
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