Book plug, funny story, discussion topic
Just a few misc items before the Thanksgiving break.- Erik Slotboom has sold out his book run of 5,000 copies of "Houston Freeways: A
Historical and Visual Journey", and is now offering the eBook free for download on his site. I highly recommend the book, although printing it might be a full one or two color toner cartridge endeavor. If you can find a used copy, by all means buy it. From his site:
"Houston Freeways is the most comprehensive book ever written about a regional freeway system. A central theme of the book is that Houston, not Los Angeles, is the world's most freeway-influenced city, mainly because of Houston's extensive use of frontage roads on 82% of its freeways. There is no better city for a freeway book. Houston earned the book, and Houston got it!"
- I have to pass along a very funny story I heard last week. So a few years back during the Brown administration, the Fed decided they were going to build a new Houston branch building on Allen Parkway (very nice if you haven't seen it
). They offered the city an interest-free $10 million loan for improvements nearby, like a pedestrian bridge over Allen Parkway and landscaping. The city ultimately decided not to take the loan, but here's the hilarious part: during discussions, the administration asked for a letter of credit from the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States of America! Note to bureaucrats: about the last entity on the planet you need a letter of credit from is the Federal Reserve. If they welch, it will be because of the end of civilization as we know it, and you'll have bigger problems at that point.
- Finally, a topic for discussion in the comments from nmainguy. He originally published it in the comments here, but I wanted to bring it to the front page for a little more visibility.
"As a born [1952] and raised Houstonian, I have never been surprised at the lack of riots here. I'm not a Pollyanna but it seems we were never really a city consumed by racial tension and hate. Sure, there are huge inequities as far as race and ethnicisity goes, but it just seems less prevelant here-and this coming from a hard-core Liberal.Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. See ya next week.
You would think a city our size would be more at tension regarding the haves and have nots - yet we aren't. Is it because there is more opportunity? More of a hand-up rather than a hand-out? I'm not sure. I just know-after traveling the world-there is something here that makes us a less tense community. This might be a great topic for a discussion. Just something I've thrown out there."
posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:26 PM
2 Comments:
Surprised I haven't seen any mention of the news of the week: School prop taxes being unconstitutional. Seems like this would have wide impact on houston and prob. every other city in Texas. Guess it'll be discussed in 10 years.
Yeah, I thought about posting on it, but I don't really have the answer or much to contribute on the topic, and I don't generally like to just link to news all my readers are going to see anyway, since it's the lead story in every news outlet in the city.
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