I showed 'em!
Dinner time came a little earlier than I expected, and I really needed a beer to relax because I got kicked out of a politically-charged community meeting. I got word through a community activist online newsletter that there was to be a meeting in Houston’s Galleria-Uptown area on the proposed Uptown BRT project. I was not expecting ex-congressman (and convicted felon) Tom Delay from Sugarland and Congressman John Culberson (the “tea party fascist who misrepresents my district) to show up at the meeting. When both crooks were announced, I booed both of them and got dirty looks from the Republicans who surrounded me.
I listened to the presentation by the Uptown Houston civic association and heard good and bad points about the proposed transit project. Some Republicans were upset because they thought the Bus Rapid Transit line being proposed in 2014 on Post Oak Boulevard was really an attempt to sneak in another Light Rail line. I was upset because the Light Rail line APPROVED by the voters in 2003 has been delayed for years and may not ever get built due to unethical political dealing by Culberson.
Houston Metro’s first Light Rail Transit line that connects our downtown with the Texas Medical Center via Main Street and Fannin Street began operating January 1, 2004. Even though ex-congressman Delay’s district is not even in Houston Metro’s service area, Delay stopped federal funding on Metro’s original Red Line, so Metro had to raise the funds entirely from its sales tax. The voters approved a plan to build a large system of 7 lines by 2025, and the first phases of 5 lines were to be up and running by 2012. The corrupt Bush 2.0 junta tried to stop all rail transit projects by cutting as much federal funding as he could get away with. The 2008 Great Recession caused by Bush’s unwise policies also caused our local sales taxes to dwindle and slow down the environmental approval, engineering planning, and actual construction of the new lines. The North Line started running in December 2013, and the Southeast and East End lines are supposed to begin running in December 2014. Rail cars have been doing test runs in the last few weeks. Those three lines are on the other side of town from me.
In my part of town, the east-west University Line and the north-south connecting Uptown Lines got environmental approval and preliminary engineering plans, but since most of the pathway is in Culberson’s fiefdom, he has succeeded in blocking federal funding (and halting construction) because all “tea party” fascists are against ALL rail projects and favor ALL highways. He is a tool of the big, greedy oil companies and claims credit for getting Interstate 10 expanded through “his” district. Of course, the I-10 widening came in years behind schedule, way over budget, and resulted in the destruction of thousands of big trees and hundreds of businesses and homes along the older freeway that was built originally in the 1960’s (also at great cost and destruction).
What really pissed me off at the meeting was that Culberson spoke up and claimed that the I-10 expansion was a consensual process. It was NOT a consensual process with the public. The “no build” option was never given any serious consideration, nor was mass transit considered in lieu of freeway expansion. The superhighway expansion was always treated as a “done deal” in spite of the high financial price tag or heavy environmental cost. His lies caused me to lose my cool, and I stood up at the meeting, faced him, and told him that there was no public consensus on the I-10 expansion. He made me so damned mad that I said the I-10 expansion was shoved up our ass (instead of “down our throats” as I thought afterwards), so I was told to leave by the cops. Well, I showed ‘em!
I wore this cotton print dress with my Richmond Rail button. I’m part of Richmond Rail.org, a civic group that got the University Line approved in 2007 as Light Rail running down the center of Richmond Avenue for several miles of its 10 mile projected length. The plan is still on the table, but there is no funding at present. Even though voters approved the Uptown Line for Light Rail, it looks like it may be built as Bus Rapid Transit without an option to upgrade to LRT. That really won’t help our transit system very much.
I showed 'em!
Dinner time came a little earlier than I expected, and I really needed a beer to relax because I got kicked out of a politically-charged community meeting. I got word through a community activist online newsletter that there was to be a meeting in Houston’s Galleria-Uptown area on the proposed Uptown BRT project. I was not expecting ex-congressman (and convicted felon) Tom Delay from Sugarland and Congressman John Culberson (the “tea party fascist who misrepresents my district) to show up at the meeting. When both crooks were announced, I booed both of them and got dirty looks from the Republicans who surrounded me.
I listened to the presentation by the Uptown Houston civic association and heard good and bad points about the proposed transit project. Some Republicans were upset because they thought the Bus Rapid Transit line being proposed in 2014 on Post Oak Boulevard was really an attempt to sneak in another Light Rail line. I was upset because the Light Rail line APPROVED by the voters in 2003 has been delayed for years and may not ever get built due to unethical political dealing by Culberson.
Houston Metro’s first Light Rail Transit line that connects our downtown with the Texas Medical Center via Main Street and Fannin Street began operating January 1, 2004. Even though ex-congressman Delay’s district is not even in Houston Metro’s service area, Delay stopped federal funding on Metro’s original Red Line, so Metro had to raise the funds entirely from its sales tax. The voters approved a plan to build a large system of 7 lines by 2025, and the first phases of 5 lines were to be up and running by 2012. The corrupt Bush 2.0 junta tried to stop all rail transit projects by cutting as much federal funding as he could get away with. The 2008 Great Recession caused by Bush’s unwise policies also caused our local sales taxes to dwindle and slow down the environmental approval, engineering planning, and actual construction of the new lines. The North Line started running in December 2013, and the Southeast and East End lines are supposed to begin running in December 2014. Rail cars have been doing test runs in the last few weeks. Those three lines are on the other side of town from me.
In my part of town, the east-west University Line and the north-south connecting Uptown Lines got environmental approval and preliminary engineering plans, but since most of the pathway is in Culberson’s fiefdom, he has succeeded in blocking federal funding (and halting construction) because all “tea party” fascists are against ALL rail projects and favor ALL highways. He is a tool of the big, greedy oil companies and claims credit for getting Interstate 10 expanded through “his” district. Of course, the I-10 widening came in years behind schedule, way over budget, and resulted in the destruction of thousands of big trees and hundreds of businesses and homes along the older freeway that was built originally in the 1960’s (also at great cost and destruction).
What really pissed me off at the meeting was that Culberson spoke up and claimed that the I-10 expansion was a consensual process. It was NOT a consensual process with the public. The “no build” option was never given any serious consideration, nor was mass transit considered in lieu of freeway expansion. The superhighway expansion was always treated as a “done deal” in spite of the high financial price tag or heavy environmental cost. His lies caused me to lose my cool, and I stood up at the meeting, faced him, and told him that there was no public consensus on the I-10 expansion. He made me so damned mad that I said the I-10 expansion was shoved up our ass (instead of “down our throats” as I thought afterwards), so I was told to leave by the cops. Well, I showed ‘em!
I wore this cotton print dress with my Richmond Rail button. I’m part of Richmond Rail.org, a civic group that got the University Line approved in 2007 as Light Rail running down the center of Richmond Avenue for several miles of its 10 mile projected length. The plan is still on the table, but there is no funding at present. Even though voters approved the Uptown Line for Light Rail, it looks like it may be built as Bus Rapid Transit without an option to upgrade to LRT. That really won’t help our transit system very much.