Results tagged “citycouncilwoman”

Good morning, Houston. Remember the city's smoking ban, which went into effect in September? Well, so does KPRC. The station checked around and found something that will shock you to your very core: Houstonians are still smoking in bars and restaurants! No, . One of the bars Channel 2 visited was Henry Hudson's Pub on the west side, where reporters found customers and the bartender smoking — and "we even bought a pack of cigarettes out of a machine inside the pub," according to reports. We're just as surprised as you are — and as City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado is. "To be breaking the law so blatantly, obviously these people have no concern, no care, no sensitivity," she said. And no Nicorette, it would seem. KPRC reports that two city smoking inspectors have followed up on 228 complaints since the ban went into effect, which have resulted in more than 60 warnings and four citations.

Good morning, Houston. Have you ever wondered why our freeways have multiple names — for example, I-45 south of downtown is also called the Gulf Freeway, the section through downtown is the Pierce Elevated and the part north of downtown is the North Freeway? Yeah, we have, too — and it seems we're not alone: The Chronicle's Tex-Arcana column tackled that question this weekend. The answer? In Houston, at least, the names tell where...

going to look, and apparently, its design isn't sitting too well with residents of Commerce Towers, the condo development across Walker Avenue.

Good morning, Houston. Have you wondered lately what Music World Entertainment founder Matthew Knowles is up to? You might never have guessed: He's releasing a new line of toys aimed at urban toddlers. The line is called Baby Jamz, and they're meant to be a twist on traditional kids' toys: "Think about it," Knowles told KTRK. "'Old McDonald' has been the same since we were kids. So what if we change 'Old McDonald' and...

So here's something interesting about the city's full-on smoking ban, which is set to take effect in about a month and a half: According to KTRK, there's still no permitting process in place for cigar bars, one of a handful of types of businesses that are supposed to be exempt from the ban. Mike Shapiro, who owns a cigar bar downtown, is one of the people who's trying to figure out what's going on: "I...

Good morning, Houston. Hot weather? Rain? Another week in our cube farm? Looks like Houstonist has a case of the Mondays. We'd better just move on to the news ... >> Mayor: I'll find money to keep day-labor site open: A spokesman for Mayor Bill White said Friday that the mayor will help find $100,000 to fund a day-labor site after city officials voted to cut its public funding. Critics of the site, which...

We're not ashamed to admit it: We love the little train that goes around Hermann Park. The tiny cars, the meandering route, the tunnel, the bridge — all of it, we suppose, reminds us of our childhoods, when it didn't really matter that we were riding a train that just went in a big circle. So we're interested to see how a proposal to overhaul the train works out: Will it preserve what we love...

Good morning, Houston. Or should we say happy National Zucchini Bread Day? Yep, April 25 is the day to celebrate the delicious Southern tradition — so why not hit the kitchen and whip up a batch based on Emeril's recipe? And don't forget to send your friends a National Zucchini Bread Day e-card. No, seriously. >> Appeals court: Bible fight moot: The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the legal battle...

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles and KTRK's Miya Shay reported earlier this week on the "courtesy" program that allows certain local elected officials to park free at Houston's airports, noting that more than 100 city officials, state legislators and members of Congress have racked up around $100,000 in free parking under the perk. Officials have been offered the free parking since the 1980s; it's intended for use during official business, but some of the instances were...

Some breaking news from KHOU: There's a lot of development going on in Montrose, and it's causing traffic problems! Well, gee — seriously? You mean that townhomes, large apartment blocks and midrise residential development aren't what the neighborhood was built to support? You learn something new every day. KHOU's report quotes City Councilwoman Sue Lovell, who worries that the flurry of development in and around Montrose could have an adverse effect: "I have never...

We rang in 2007 with a mixed message about Houston's crime rate: Though the homicide rate reached a 12-year high in 2006, instances of other crimes decreased last year. Today, thanks to KTRK's mystical Crime Tracker, we know a little more about exactly how those stats break down — and in short, things are better in the notorious Fondren/southwest district, but not so good on the east side. The Crime Tracker found that the Fondren...

A group of downtown residents gathered last night to talk with city leaders about what development that they'd like to see in their 'hood — and, not surprisingly, at the top of their list were more retail markets and fewer nightclubs. "I'm sick of seeing [downtown] slide, going into a burlesque environment," Annette McBride, who has lived downtown for more than 10 years, said.

Good morning, Houston. You know what the problem is around this town? We'll tell you: mismatched news racks. But never fear — City Council is trying to save us. Under an ordinance presented to council this week, newspaper vendors would have to make their racks relatively the same size, keep them clean and in working order and paint them all the same color: forest green (we had some details back in the summer). The reaction?...

Via Off the Kuff, it seems some residents along West Alabama are wondering when they're going to get their old street back — you know, the pre-Spur 527 reconstruction version, sans contraflow lane and with the old bike lanes back in place. Alabama between Spur 527 and Shepherd, you may remember, was reconfigured to better handle increased traffic expected while the spur and parts of the Southwest Freeway were under construction. Originally, the street had...

On what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 78th birthday, some Houstonians are saying the city hasn't done enough to commemorate the life of the civil rights leader through the years. Sure, there's the street in southeast Houston that bears his name and there's the bust of MLK at Bricker Park, but maybe that's not enough for a city like Houston. By this time next year, the Chronicle reports, at least two groups hope...

So here's something kinda interesting about the news earlier this week that most of the West 11th Street Park will be saved from development: The Chronicle reports that Bob Perry, who has spent the last few years trying to cover the inner Loop with townhomes, gave $100,000 Wednesday to try to preserve the rest of the property. On Monday, the city agreed to buy the site from HISD, which has owned the wooded land...

Well, it looks like Mayor Bill White has given up on his quest to avoid holding a special election to fill former City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs' seat: Yesterday, the mayor asked for a special election to be held May 12, setting off a process he has estimated could cost as much as $4 million. White had planned to ask the state Legislature for an exception to Texas election law so that the city wouldn't have to hold a May election, then hold another election for the seat in November, but then he found out Sen. John Whitmire was going to block that plan.

City Council took the first step Monday toward an ordinance that could restrict where registered sex offenders live, requiring them to live a certain distance from schools, churches and parks and preventing clusters of offenders from living in residential neighborhoods. "You don't have alcoholics living next to a liquor store, and you certainly don't want to have five or six sex offenders living in a neighborhood with children," Andy Kahan with the mayor's crime victims...

Remember Patricia Gutierrez and Melissa Rojas, the two women who were killed when they drove into a flooded underpass during the flooding a couple of weeks ago? Finally, the spot where they died is getting some markers that could keep more people from getting stuck in high water there — though it's not clear to us exactly how effective they'll be. TxDOT announced this weekend that the underpass at the Gulf Freeway and Tellepsen...

Three months after the investigation into serious problems at HPD's crime lab was put on hold for lack of funding, not a lot has changed: The probe still isn't funded, and it looks like the city might not be willing to turn loose of the $1.5 million needed to complete it.

It's time to clear your mind of all the problems you think the city has and focus on the real public menace: downtown newspaper racks in various colors and materials. What's that? They're not a public hazard? Well, don't tell that to City Council, which has a revised proposal to clamp down on dilapidated, poorly constructed, abandoned and non-green news racks in the central business district. According to KHOU, downtown boosters have complained about...

A man who caused a Gulf Freeway traffic accident that killed three will face charges of intoxication manslaughter Ex-TSU President Priscilla Slade appeared in court this morning, but her case was reset for Sept. 14 Autopsies were performed this morning on the bodies of two men found on the west end of Galveston Island yesterday morning City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs will seek Tom DeLay's seat in Congress, she announced today Capital murder charges have been...

Remember City Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck's idea about running the University light rail line along the north side of the Southwest Freeway between Mandell or Dunlavy and Edloe? The one that would reportedly require the demolition of between 50 and 75 homes and part of Chew Park? Yeah, well, Clutterbuck says she's sorry for any confusion, but she didn't really mean she wanted to send the rail line through any neighborhoods — what she would like...

Not surprisingly, U.S. Rep. John Culberson's announcement last week that he won't support a proposal to run a light rail line down Richmond Avenue has sent Metro into something of a tailspin: The agency has now pushed the date it expects to recommend an alignment for the University Line back a few weeks while it conducts cost and ridership estimates for a variety of routes that would take the line from the Third Ward...

Back in March, we talked about how the city was getting ready to re-bury some bones unearthed 20 years ago during construction at the HFD complex off Houston Avenue and Dart Street. The fire department office/training facility was built in the 1960s on top of the old City Cemetery, where Houstonians of all stripes (including quite a few Confederate soldiers) were buried between about 1840 and 1870. UH anthropologist Ken Brown, who had criticized the city for continuing to dig after the bones were found, took the remains to his lab to study them. What happened for the next 20 years isn't clear: The city claims Brown hung onto the bones, but Brown says he asked the city to re-bury them and nothing ever happened. Whatever the case, the bones were forgotten until City Councilwoman Ada Edwards heard about them and led a push to have them buried again.

A new report on the dangers of second-hand smoke has authorities across the country scrambling to strengthen their local smoking ordinances — including Houston, where City Council could push for a ban in all public buildings when the ordinance comes up for review in September.

The Houston school district could have done more to prevent Gabriel Granillo's murder at Chew Park last week, City Councilwoman Sue Lovell said — which, as you'd expect, made HISD a little defensive. Remember that Ashley Paige Benton, the 16-year-old girl in custody for Granillo's murder, attends Lamar High School and some of the kids involved in the ambush at the park June 6 were reportedly wearing clothing with Lamar insignia? Lovell says parents have...

Despite the allegedly gang-related murder of a teen boy in broad daylight at Chew Park on Tuesday — and the memories of crime that used to plague the area — residents of the neighborhood near Dunlavy and the Southwest Freeway say they still feel safe. Mostly. Over the last few years, run-down apartment complexes in the blocks around the former Dunlavy Park had been torn down and replaced with upscale townhomes. Older houses were restored,...

City Councilwoman and former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado used at least four city employees to set up meetings with a personal client who has paid her nearly $75,000 in consulting fees since 2002, despite her earlier assertion that she never asked staffers to do non-city work, the Chronicle reports today. Messages from Alvarado's city e-mail account show Alvarado asked city workers to set up meetings on several occasions with San Antonio buinessman Rudy Rodriguez,...

A new development in the invesigation into City Councilwoman and ex-Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado: Prosecutors have subpoenaed records from Alvarado's outside consulting jobs, which we assume is just another part of the Harris County DA's probe. DA investigators have spent the past couple of days in San Antonio and the Austin area subpoenaing documents from a couple of political consulting firms for which she’s done contract work. Alvarado’s personal financial statement on file at...