From the Houston Chronicle: Texas Medical Center's multibillion-dollar research campus opens, ushering in a new era

The Texas Governor and the city of Houston continue to work together the economic interests of the local area by enhancing the Texas Medical Center. 

- Click here for the article.

The first piece in a long-anticipated multibillion-dollar biomedical research campus opened Thursday in the Texas Medical Center, setting the stage for what could become a game-changing life sciences hub generating $5.4 billion in annual economic impact and tens of thousands jobs in Houston.

Houston has struggled to compete with larger life sciences magnets in San Francisco, Boston, San Diego and Raleigh-Durham, and the 37-acre Helix Park campus along Old Spanish Trail, a project nearly a decade in the making, represents a major milestone in helping the city gain momentum.

“When you looked at the incredible business and economic platform the state of Texas has, there was one glaring deficiency, and that is to have a massive hub for life sciences,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at the event.

Economic development officials think Helix Park will help to fill that gap, becoming a launch pad for a more mature life science industry in Texas.

The project is also the first time TMC, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Texas A&M University Health Science Center and UTHealth Houston have collaborated to build and finance a shared space to house their researchers under one roof.

“We've never really had a place where all of us felt like it was ours,” Bill McKeon, president of TMC, said in an interview. Shared laboratory spaces, plus a plethora of communal areas and coworking/office spaces, are meant to encourage researchers to mingle and collaborate.

From the Houston Chronicle: Houston mayoral questionnaire: Where candidates say they stand on the issues

A good way to look at the dominant issues in the current Houston mayoral election - at least according to the HC's editorial board - and where the candidates stand on them.

- Click here for the article. 

Here is a rundown of the issues. It provides a good at what a city does.  

- Crime and safety.
- Police hiring.
- Police response times.
- Police reform.
- Firefighters.
- Budget.
- Financial sustainability.
- Procurement and contracting.
- Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones.
- Bike lanes.
- Transportation expansion.
- Affordable housing.
- Permitting.
- Flood-control projects.
- Drainage.
- Solid Waste challenges.
- Garbage fees.
- Illegal dumping.
- Water and sewage rates.
- Leaky pipes.
- Street and drainage fees.

From the Texas Tribune: Senate bill would let Houston voters weigh in on fix to pension crisis

The question is, should they?

- Click here for the article.

If the Texas Senate gets its way, Houston city officials could have to get voter approval for a plan to partially shore up massive, multi-billion-dollar shortfalls in some of the city’s public pension funds.

The Senate on Wednesday voted 21-10 to give preliminary approval of a bill that would require voters to sign off before cities issue pension obligation bonds, a kind of public debt that infuses retirement funds with lump-sum payments. Issuing $1 billion in those bonds is a linchpin of Houston officials’ proposal to decrease the city’s unfunded pension liabilities that are estimated to be at least $8 billion.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told The Texas Tribune earlier this month that if the bill becomes law and voters reject the $1 billion bond proposition, a delicate and hard-fought plan to curb a growing pension crisis would be shrouded in uncertainty. He also argued that the debt already exists because the city will have to pay it at some point to make good on promises to pension members.

But lawmakers said voters should get to weigh in when cities take on such large amounts of bond debt.

From CityLab: The Great Texas Pension Fix - Houston owes its police, fire, and city workers about $7.8 billion, and it doesn’t exactly have the cash on hand. Their hard-fought solution could serve as a model for the rest of Texas, and the nation.

Not only does this story touch on city budgets, but it also illustrates the concept of states - in this case cities - as laboratories of democracy.

- Click here for the article.

When Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner took office last year, he inherited a sweeping pension crisis. The city had an unfunded liability of $5.6 billion, a figure representing Houston’s obligations to its fire, police, and municipal pension systems.

Then it got worse: After he took office and got a closer look at the books, Turner saw the revised figure—$7.8 billion.

Pensions are the storm clouds on the horizon that threaten to wash out the so-called Texas Miracle, the wave of new jobs that kept the Lone Star State afloat through the Great Recession. Taken together, the four largest cities in Texas—Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio—owe more than $22 billion in pension shortfalls. Dallas and Houston rank second and fourth, respectively, on the list of cities nationwide with the largest unfunded pension liabilities, per a ranking by Moody’s. (At number one? Chicago.)

The road to pension crises is paved with good intentions. Officials in Houston and elsewhere tend to plan for funding pensions with sunny days in mind. When markets tank, the investments contributing to pension funds wither. And when the economy stumbles, cities sometimes withhold pension contributions to make up budget gaps. These effects add up over time, and correcting course usually involves contentious politics. Texas cities may have it worse than most because the local political climate is so hostile to tax revenues (even when Texas cities experience miraculous growth). Anywhere, though, officials and employees tend to kick the can down the road. It’s retirement, after all.

Admitting that you have a problem is the first step toward solving it; cities in Texas, whether they like it or not, are being forced to take that step.

Houston is further along than most. A proposal that the city will put before the Texas legislature this year would restructure the city’s obligations. The new dispensation would include benchmarks for bringing all parties back to the table to renegotiate terms, as necessary, until the unfunded liability is funded. It would also set a time period for meeting that obligation: a 30-year amortization schedule, something resembling a traditional home mortgage.

From the Urban Edge: Houston in 2016, as Told Through 5 Maps

For our look at cities in 2306.

- Click here for the article.

Here's one that showcases the "suburbanization of poverty."

As inner-loop real estate heats up, Houston is experiencing what many urban areas across the country are seeing: the suburbanization of poverty, presenting new challenges for communities that often lack infrastructure like a robust public transportation system. It also means that service providers may need to reorient themselves. One example of this can be seen from our Opportunity Youth report, which tracked young adults ages 16-19 who are not enrolled in school or employed. Many of the areas with the highest number of these so-called “disconnected” or “opportunity youth” are outside the loop, challenging stereotypes about “inner cities.”

Another example of the suburbanization of poverty comes from our Disparate City report. Looking at poverty rates by census tract across the county, researchers found that not only has poverty increased but it has become more concentrated as the wealthy have become more segregated. The concentration of poverty, along with the suburbanization of poverty, is one of the biggest challenges metro areas face today. In Harris County, the problem is particularly acute. From 1980 to 2010, the percentage of high poverty census tracts in Harris County more than quadrupled to 39 percent, which is nearly double the national rate of 20 percent. The researchers also found that “high poverty areas, largely confined to within or just beyond Houston’s Inner Loop in 1980, have since emerged in the areas beyond the Inner Loop … These high poverty areas largely supplanted areas that were considered middle class in 1980.

From Virtual Tourist: WARNINGS AND DANGERS IN HOUSTON Areas to Avoid / Crime

Looks a lot like the redlining map discussed in a previous post.

- Click here for the article.

- Click here for the post on redlining.

Fromk the Texas Tribune: Houston, and its global petrochemical hub, remain in the eye of the storm

Area state senator Larry Taylor is featured here.

More concerns for the 85th Session.

- Click here for the article.

The waters that make the Houston Ship Channel an important global port and hub of petrochemical activity are the same rising tides that - under the most dire scenarios - could one day cause catastrophe.

To the frustration of many, however, that looming threat of the day when, not if, a powerful storm surge descends on one of Texas' economic engines - ripping above-ground pipes from their fittings, tossing chemical storage tanks like empty soda cans and deluging entire manufacturing plants in brackish salt water - hasn't led to enough political and economic pressure to build what some consider the region's only option for keeping a hurricane from sweeping billions of dollars of Houston investment into the sea.

"We are eight years since Hurricane Ike… and we still don't have that one plan," said State Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, referencing the last hurricane to wreak havoc across the Houston area. "That's troubling, but we're making progress... We will need it. It is not a matter of thinking it may happen some day, it will happen."

With the nation focused on Hurricane Matthew as it continues its march up the East Coast this weekend, some observers have noted Houston's massive role in world energy production and its exposure to storms that are increasing in intensity make it one of the most at-risk spots where devastation could not only claim local lives and structures, but send shockwaves through the economy.

From OffCite: Hazardous: The Redlining of Houston Neighborhoods

For our look at civil rights - and equal protection - in 2305, as well as municipal governments in 2306.

- Redlining "is the practice of denying services, either directly or through selectively raising prices, to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic makeups of those areas."

The process has been argued to be the central reason racially segregated housing patterns persist in the United States - which also maintains de facto racial segregation in public schools despite Brown v Board.

- Click here for the article.

Why are we so compelled to define neighborhoods as “good” or “bad”? Is there one definition of a “good” neighborhood — is it universal? Can a low-income neighborhood be a “good” neighborhood? I often wonder, and frequently challenge, whether these labels accurately depict a place and its people or whether they are self-fulfilling prophecy that makes it easy to invest or divest. The question comes more clearly into focus by understanding the history of neighborhood classification, of “good” and “bad” labels, and why they are too often directly associated with income and ethnicity.

A great deal has been written about “redlining,” which was the practice of denying loans to certain areas of cities based, in part, on race. Not surprisingly, areas that were redlined declined, property values slumped, and for many, the only option was to move. The practice of redlining was institutionalized with the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) Residential Security Maps, though many scholars argue that the maps simply reflected the predominant lending practices of the time — and projected them into the future. Regardless, it is very clear that the maps tell us one part of the story of what went wrong, and how.

From the Houston Chronicle: Near Northside residents call for civility ordinance, saying drugs and vagrancy are intolerable

For 2306, and our discussion of cities.

- Click here for the article.

A man plops down on the stoop in nearly 100-degree heat outside the Falcon grocery store on North Main. He loiters, leaning on his black rolling suitcase, doing little of nothing.

Alida and George Rodriguez, who greet many of their customers at the store by name, don't know the dark-haired man. They assume he's waiting for mealtime at one of several nearby soup kitchens.

George goes outside to see if he needs some help. Inside, Alida explains that some patrons might not stop by with the man sitting there because they don't want to be asked for money.

And, if he comes inside, she fears, the worst could happen. Last year, Alida, 76, was assaulted and temporarily held hostage by a vagrant man at the corner store her father founded decades ago.

That's why she and dozens of area residents have signed a petition filed in August asking for the city's "civility ordinance" to include Near Northside. The regulation prohibits sitting, laying or sleeping on sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. in six central Houston neighborhoods.

From the Houston Chronicle: Feds file discrimination suit against owners of Midtown bar Gaslamp

For out look at civil rights.

- Click here for the article.

A Midtown bar that was accused of charging cover charges only to non-white patrons and turning other minorities away under the guise of "dress code violations" is now the subject of a federal discrimination lawsuit.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the owners and operators of 360 Midtown, which was formerly Gaslamp, at the corner of Brazos and Hadley streets.

Scandal embroiled the bar last year when three black men made the racism allegations last year.

Brandon Ball, Dan Scarbrough and Ken Piggee — all attorneys — said that when they approached the doors of Gaslamp, the doormen immediately told them that to enter, they had to pay $20.

Deciding against it, the trio went to a nearby bar and later walked by Gaslamp.

"We're looking, and there are white people going in and getting their hands stamped," Ball told the Chronicle in September 2015. "They were going in and not paying anything."

The three sat and watched the door for some time, they said last year, watching white customers enter free of charge and minorities get turned away. They said they spoke with the others as they were turned away.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

It alleges that Ayman Jarrah and his company, Land Guardian Inc., discriminated against African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American patrons "by charging such persons a cover charge to enter the establishment, while not imposing such a charge on similarly situated white persons, and denying such persons the right to enter the establishment while admitting similarly situated white patrons."

From Courthouse News Service: Houston Loses Appeal in Firefighter Pension Fight

For an upcoming look at local government, as well as the judicial system in the state.

- Click here for the article.

Houston can't overhaul a state-governed firefighter pension system that the mayor claims is pushing the city towards insolvency, a Texas appeals court ruled.

Houston sued the Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund in January 2014, seeking a declaration that a state law setting how the fund is operated, and giving the city no control over the amount of its contributions, is unconstitutional.

The city paid $350 million in pensions to firefighters, police and city workers in 2015, but its unfunded pension debt is $6 billion and growing.

A state judge sided with the fund in May 2014 and granted it summary judgment.

The city appealed, pressing its argument that the subject state law, passed in 1997, gives too much power to the pension fund's board that is comprised of a majority of firefighters who are beneficiaries of the fund, and thus are inherently self-interested in maximizing firefighter pension benefits to the detriment of the city's financial health.

The 10-member board is made up of six active or retired firefighter fund members who are elected by other firefighters, the mayor or an appointed representative of the mayor, the city treasurer and two citizens who are elected by the other trustees.

Houston claimed on appeal the state law violates the separation-of-powers principle in the Texas Constitution by delegating authority to a nonlegislative entity, the fund board.

The city cited Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Fund v. Lewellen. In that case, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that a foundation established by the Texas Legislature to exterminate boll weevils that were threatening to destroy the Texas cotton industry unconstitutionally gave too much authority to the foundation to tax private farmers to pay for weevil killing.

But the 14th Texas Court of Appeals decided Thursday that the boll weevil foundation is fundamentally different from the pension fund board because the board includes public employees.

From the Houston Chronicle: Municipal Utility Districts in Texas have sweeping power to sell bonds, levy taxes

MUDs are among the smallest of the special districts, and are primarily a device used by developers to fund infrastructure, like "water and sewage systems, drainage, parks, recreational facilities, roads and fire stations." The Chronicle reports that their numbers are increasing, which increases the amount of debt held in the state - a state like likes to brag about not having any. Multiple other complaints about them exist as well, as this story lays out.

- Click here for the article.

Across bright-red Texas, where many politicians tout small government and low taxes, MUDs and other so-called special purpose districts are proliferating - and selling bonds - at a rate many experts inside and outside government find increasingly problematic. They cite high indebtedness, insufficient state oversight, cozy relationships with developers, a lack of responsiveness to citizens and potential conflicts of interest. MUDs can be created either by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or the Legislature.

Their spread throughout the prairies that once surrounded Houston and other municipalities has helped fuel "growing unrest" about the property tax burden in Texas, said John Kennedy, senior analyst for the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, a nonprofit group based in Austin. Many taxpayers like Gay find it hard to track all the property tax bills they receive from counties, school districts, MUDs and other special purpose districts, Kennedy said.

"Those special purpose districts sort of operate in kind of a semi-netherworld out there," he added.

There are 1,751 active water districts in Texas, a class of special purpose districts tracked by TCEQ, ranging from large river authorities to tiny irrigation districts, including 949 MUDs, according to the state.

The epicenter of water district financing: Houston's suburbs.

Forty-four percent of those 1,751 districts are in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. Sixty-five percent of the 949 MUDs are in those three counties - 389 in Harris County, 146 in Fort Bend County and 85 in Montgomery County.

MUDs are the most popular type of water district in Texas with developers, in large part because they hold enormous sway over how they're created and because MUDs are empowered to issue tax-exempt bonds covering the developers' infrastructure costs.
Taxpayers' advocates increasingly view them as a problematic way to pay for infrastructure in the face of climbing local government debt, given their sweeping power to sell bonds and raise taxes.

 

From the Houston Chronicle: Shell Oil helped ignite the growth of Houston's downtown skyline - Oil company's consolidation supported city's claim as world's energy capital

This helps underscore a claim we make in 2306 that cities are primarily economic entities.

- Click here for the story.

At the time, it was considered revolutionary to move researchers and engineers away from the oil fields and consolidate them in a centralized locations like Houston because conventional wisdom in the industry held that these specialists would lose their feel for the oilfield. Instead, consolidation allowed for far greater collaboration among workers as they tried to find better ways to discover and exploit oil reserves.

"It was a very high-risk decision," Little recalled. Other companies eventually followed Shell's lead.

The news of Shell's plans to consolidate operations in Houston became public in August 1969. "Shell to Move 1,000 Workers Here," the Houston Chronicle's banner headline blared. The final number was closer to 1,400.

New York, meanwhile, had become increasingly expensive and Shell's president, Dick McCurdy, wanted to shrink the company's footprint there.

Shell started relocating people from New York in 1970 as One Shell neared completion. Shell moved people in shifts: after they finished work on a Thursday in New York, and they'd start on Tuesday in Houston. Only one day of work was lost each week.

Shell also had to hire a lot of new people. Roughly 700 of the New York workers refused to move.

"Let's face it: It was a little bit of a culture shock," Little said. "Most who made the move were pleasantly surprised."

By 1971, only the uppermost Shell Oil executives remained in New York. That soon changed. The new president, Harry Bridges, decided to move the corporate headquarters to Houston and One Shell Plaza.

From the Houston Chronicle: Now the hard part Mayor Turner's first 100 days have been a sprint, but real challenges await.it

Some background for out look at the strong mayor form of government.

- Click here for the article.

Today marks Mayor Sylvester Turner's 100th day as mayor, and during his short stretch in office one thing has become perfectly clear: There are a lot fewer potholes on Houston streets.

Turner rushed from day one to fill the teeth-shatterers and suspension-killers that had become a hallmark of the daily commute and a chorus on the campaign.

Houston's new mayor also tore up potentially corrupt airport expansion contracts, saved curbside recycling, let a police chief retire and appointed an education czar and new leaders at Metro, the city attorney office and the Department of Neighborhoods.

We're still waiting for him to fill out the rest of his roster.

Beyond those mayoral duties that make headlines, there's a palpable change in tone at City Hall. Once icy relations between City Council and mayor have warmed, and could even be described as friendly. Fears that a partisan election season would seep into the daily work of running our city haven't come to fruition.

However, it is still too early to give anything but an incomplete on the mayoral report card - the real hurdles sit further down the line.

The city faces a $160 million budget gap that has to be closed by July 1 - Turner's 182nd day. He also needs to have a pension plan in hand before the next legislative session is gaveled in on his 375th day.

Tick-tock.

But even with those challenges months away, Turner still appears to be sprinting toward his goal. Council has been told to expect a preliminary budget plan by April 15 and a finished budget on May 10, with a vote on May 25.

The truncated timeline is supposed to send a sign of good faith to the credit rating agencies that recently downgraded Houston's debt. This rush also signals to voters that their elected officials are prioritizing the right issues.

As for that second big challenge - pensions - Turner has said that he'll have reform plans ready by the end of the year. That's an improvement on Mayor Annise Parker's strategy of going to Austin and unilaterally asking for local control. Parker was right when it came to identifying the problem of pension obligations growing faster than the city's ability to pay them, but sometimes it isn't enough merely to be right. Politics requires cooperation, as well.

Annexation History - Planning and Development Department - City of Houston

From the Houston Chronicle: City bond rating downgrade reflects oil bust, pension problems

What is impacting the state, is also impacting cities.

- Click here for the article.

The sluggish oil market and Houston's underfunded pension funds led Moody's to downgrade the city's credit rating this week, a move that underscores the challenges Mayor Sylvester Turner faces in wrestling the city's finances into shape. 

The change, the first time Moody's has revised Houston's rating in at least a decade, is expected to marginally increase the city's borrowing costs. But the announcement's real weight, observers said, will be the psychological impact at City Hall. Turner announced Friday about 40 layoffs will be needed to balance the budget he is preparing to submit to the City Council.

"It only reinforces the need for us to address these long term systemic problems we have," said Controller Chris Brown, the city's elected financial watchdog. "It heightens the sense of urgency."

Turner agreed the Moody's report - which chiefly highlighted continued weakness in oil prices, the pension burden, and a cap on city property tax collections - "without question" underscores the need for a fiscal fix.

While Turner said the oil market is outside his control, he pointed to the praise the Moody's analysts gave his administration for beginning work on a longterm plan to shore up the budget.

"They did note ... that we are taking conservative projections," Turner said. "The road map to balance the city's budget is already finished on my part. In the absence of the changes that we have already taken, it probably could have been worse."

Turner said he hopes to present council members with a plan in mid-April explaining how he will bridge a budget deficit that had been estimated at $126 million. Falling sales tax collections have pushed projections as high as $160 million.

The revenue cap, which voters approved in 2004 and modified two years later, lets Houston collect more property taxes each year than the year prior, but limits the increase to the combined rates of inflation and population growth.

For more on the subject:

- Moody’s Downgrades Houston’s Bond Rating, Cites Low Oil Prices & High Debt.
- Moody's Downgrades Houston's Credit but Mayor Turner Has a Plan. Sort Of.
- Houston Undaunted by Downgrades Ahead of $600M Deal.

From the Houston Press: RICE'S KINDER INSTITUTE GIVES THUMBS UP TO MAYOR TURNER'S POTHOLE INITIATIVE

You can't get more local than potholes.

- Click here for the article.

On Wednesday, Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research confirmed that Mayor Sylvester Turner is not kidding about obliterating Houston’s pot holes.

Kinder Institute researchers set out to make sure that the stats Turner has been keeping on the pothole project's very own website, houstonpotholes.org, are accurate. Between January 4 and February 16, Public Works crews have filled a total of 9,815 potholes — 1,976 of which were reported by citizens on 311 calls. Ninety-five percent of the time, crews fixed potholes reported by citizens within the next business day, as Turner promised upon taking office.

When Kinder did its own analysis of the data, it turned out correct.

“This independent verification confirms that we are delivering on the promise to quickly respond to pothole complaints,” Turner said at a press conference. “This is an example of the new level of customer service I expect city employees to deliver. Now it’s time for us to focus on achieving success for more complicated street repairs.”

Those more complicated repairs include things like street paving and panels that need to be repaired on skid patches — more extensive work that may be covered under ReBuild Houston, an initiative to repair Houston’s streets and drainage infrastructure. If a citizen calls in a pothole that falls under an existing ReBuild Houston project or larger repair project, that pothole won’t be fixed. Potholes also won’t be fixed if they’re on private property or if the crew doesn’t think they're actually hazards. The Kinder Institute recommended that the city find a better way to make this clear to 311 callers, so as to avoid angering citizens.

As for funding the pothole obliteration, Turner said that the city is only using existing funds and those left over from Mayor Annise Parker’s $10 million initiative to do the same.

But to continue at this rate, he said the city might have to expand repair funds for 2017’s budget — and given Turner’s promise to make budget “sacrifices,” that could be tricky.

From the Houston Chronicle: Visualizing the country's fifth largest city Unincorporated Harris County may soon bypass Houston's population

Lot's of people live in the unincorporated part of Harris County. This raises interesting questions about the relative wisdom of the complex way that local governments are designed in the state.

Should the Houston and Harris County be consolidated?

- Click here for the article.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and his colleagues frequently note that if the unincorporated parts of the county were a city, it would be the second largest in Texas and the fifth most populous in the United States. Patched together, these unincorporated areas have more residents than 12 U.S. states.

The population in unincorporated parts of the county is ballooning at record pace. Since 2000, 87 percent of the county's population growth has occurred in this unincorporated area. The unincorporated portion now accounts for 42 percent of the county's residents.

This map, based on data from the county engineer, illustrates how much of the county's growing population lives north and west of the downtown hub. If no further annexation occurs, the county budget office anticipates the population in the green area will surpass Houston's population by 2020.

Having an urban population skew this way makes governance complicated and difficult, said Stephen Klineberg, author of yearly population and attitudinal studies at Rice University's Kinder Institute.

Greater Houston has evolved into a multi-centered metropolitan region, he said, with unincorporated sections governed by municipal utility districts that provide "very uneven degrees of governance."

This reality, according to Klineberg, "puts a strain on all the things government tries to deal with -- affordable housing, traffic, park land, crime control."

"It affects the central role of government in improving quality of life and helping urban areas operate," he said.

While some municipal utility districts contract with constables, the unincorporated areas rely on the county for a variety of services including law enforcement, road maintenance, park trails and indigent medical care, said Commissioner Steve Radack.

About the traffic: Does building more highways make things worse?

That argument has floated around a while. New lanes alleviate traffic for a little while, but it encourages people to buy more cars. Soon enough traffic is just as bad as it was before - maybe worse. Click here for a critical assessment of the consequences of widening I-10 - a $2.8 billion project. Should alternative means be used to lessen traffic? Apparently power brokers in Houston increasingly think so, including the newly elected mayor.

In a recent speech, the mayor called for a "paradigm shift." Instead of concentrating on widening highways and encouraging more use of autos - with single occupants - the city broaden the types of transportation opinion available to residents.

For more on the subject:

- Houston Mayor Calls for “Paradigm Shift” Away From Highway Widening. 

- Talking Points for Turner's speech to the Texas Transportation Commission.
- Turner's transportation platform.
- New Houston Mayor to Texas DOT: Wider Roads Mean More Traffic.

As of yet, these are still merely proposals. Texas continues on a trajectory the focuses primarily on highways construction. Much of this is built into the Texas Constitution. Funding for highways is designated in the document and strong constituencies exist to continue highways construction in the state. There's lots of money spent on highways, and the businesses who profit from those expenditures are not anxious to give it up. As of now the Texas Department of Transportation plans to continue widening highways stateside and in the local area.

- Click here for an announcement of current plans.

Here's what s planned for the Houston area, more widening of highways lie ahead:

• I-45 Gulf Freeway widening from NASA to FM 518. This project is expected to cost $112 million. Congestion relief funding will be $106.4 million. Construction is proposed to begin in Spring 2017 and be completed by Summer 2020. This project will aid in improving mobility on a heavily traveled hurricane evacuation route and primary freight corridor. This project is part of the overall project to widen IH 45 Gulf Freeway from NASA 1 to Galveston Island.

• I-10 Katy Freeway widening from FM 359 to the Brazos River in Waller County. This project is expected to cost $242 million. Congestion relief funding will be $131.8 million. Construction is proposed to begin in Summer 2017 and be completed by Spring 2021. This project is one of the pieces of the overall project to add two lanes on I-10 between Houston and San Antonio. The project will aid in improving connectivity as well as improving mobility on a hurricane evacuation route and primary freight corridor.

• IH 610 West Loop/ IH 69 interchange improvements. This project includes the reconstruction of multiple connector ramps and is projected to cost $287 million. Congestion relief funding will be $209.2 million. Construction is proposed to begin in Summer 2017 and be completed by Spring 2021. Reconstruction of the I-610/I-69 interchange

The battle over the future of transportation in the state promises to heat up - perhaps this winds up on the agenda of the 85th session.

From the Texas Tribune: Comparing Nondiscrimination Protections in Texas Cities

Five cities in the state - all big ones - have discrimination ordinances based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

- Click here for the story.

Despite a recent loss in Houston over the city's embattled anti-discrimination ordinance, gay rights activists across the state can still claim successes in enacting protections elsewhere. There are now 10 Texas cities with populations of more than 100,000 that have some rules or legislation in place to protect residents or city employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

For at least a decade, Dallas, Austin andFort Worth have had comprehensive ordinances offering lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents some degree of protection against discrimination in employment, housing and other public areas like buses and restaurants.

San Antonio passed a similar rule in September 2013 and was followed by Plano, where the city council voted in December 2014 to extend its nondiscrimination policy to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.