Results tagged “mayorbill”

>> Wintry mix blasts Panhandle, North Texas with sleet, snow: They came from the north and helped freeze your tootsies. Yep, those darn north winds are to blame for the uber chill around town today writes Meteorologist Tim Heller on the Houston Weather Blog. The same system that blanketed North Texas with nine inches of snow and caused Dallas-Ft. Worth airport to cancel 200 flights will share its chill with Houston. "This type of storm system is very typical of the end of winter and early spring, and the same storm may cause different impacts on different places," said Ron McQueen, an NWS meteorologist. Houstonist says bring on the spring. Of course we'll likely be regretting that statement as August rolls around.

If you missed out on the Beer Can Opener last Friday (because you were embroiled in the LRPC - any other excuse will not be accepted, unless accompanied by a note from your Dr.), you have a second chance to attend a special event. Join Mayor Bill White as he honors and officially opens the Beer Can House to the public, along with the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. This Thursday, March 6th at 10 a.m. brings the official ceremony to open the Beer Can House to the public for the first time. Previously, we could only drive by and peep at this legendary home. After all, who can resist sneaking a peek at a home that has been adorned with over 50,000 beer cans, along with marbles, tiles, concrete, pull tabs and bottle tops. Now, there's no more sneaking around, you can drop by any Saturday or Sunday, beginning March 8th, from noon until 5 p.m. and have an up close "look-see". Or, you can make a special appointment, either way, there will be guides on hand to answer your questions and even give you a tour. If you're nice, you may even get a cold beer, after all, this house is an homage to all beers, particularly those that were "on special" between 1968 and 1988, when upholsterer, artist and beer lover, John Milkovisch passed away.

Happy bissextile day, Houston. If you're reading this from jail — we're actually not even sure if you can use the Internet in jail — well, don't feel alone: According to a new report from the Pew Center on the States, 1 of every 100 American adults are behind bars today. The good news: Texas is one of the states that has tried to slow the growth of its inmate population through community supervision of low-risk offenders and alternative punishments for some former prisoners who violate parole and probation rules. Inmate populations increased in 36 states and the federal prison system last year, the report says.

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.

>> There are some big changes coming to Memorial Park: Houston's most popular park with a running trail and a burger joint is slated to get more improved features to help you sweat to the oldies. According to ABC13, Mayor Bill White's improvement plan will include a bridge across Memorial Parkway for cyclists and pedestrians, extended running trails, an improved tennis facility and a new shower facility for you dirty folks. Sounds pricey, huh? Yep. The City needs another $10 million bucks to combine with the $4 million currently earmarked for the project. Houstonist is awaiting confirmation of the rumor that EZ Tag stalls will be installed along the running trails to help pay for the project.

Good morning, Houston. We freely admit that we don't like bugs, so we've tried quite a few home extermination methods — but we've never blown the roof off our house while doing it like Patricia Espiricueta of Galveston did. It seems Espiricueta was fed up with her home's roach problem, so she set off five bug bombs and left the house. While she was gone, the fumes hit a pilot light and exploded, lifting the roof off the house and separating a rear addition from the main part of the home. "It sounded like an explosion, or like a car had crashed into the building," neighbor Corinna Carubba told KTRK. The damages totaled about $15,000; there's no word on whether Espiricueta solved her bug problem, but she said she would try a different approach next time. "I'm not going to use [bug bombs] no more," she said.

Today, Friday the 18th, our very own Mayor Bill White invites us all to check out the newest addition to Houston’s growing fleet of Green Buildings. Firstly, the fact that anything environmentally conscious is happening in Houston nearly knocks us off our rockers, but now the Mayor’s behind it?! And extending invitations ta-boot! This all just might be a little too much to believe so go see for yourself. Make the Mayor proud.

Good morning, Houston. Remember Mayor Bill's agreement with Clear Channel that would result in the removal of nearly 900 billboards across the city? Well, it's not necessarily a done deal after all: On Wednesday, six City Council members voted to delay the plan, saying they still had questions about its ramifications. The problem, they said, was that the deal would allow Clear Channel to move remaining billboards: "We're allowing new billboard locations to pop up, and they will pop up in disadvantaged neighborhoods," Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck said. Most billboards in the city are scheduled to come down in 2013, deal or no deal; White said his proposal is the best hope for cleaning things up before then. Council will consider the plan again next week.

Good morning, Houston. Did you know that we're now in a bold new Fluorescent Age thanks to Mayor Bill White and his colleagues in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso? The collective His Honors gathered in San Antonio on Friday to name the compact fluorescent bulb the "state bulb of Texas." If that doesn't make you want to switch to CFLs, try this: December is Compact Fluorescent Light Month in Texas. What's so...

::Houston Dynamo MLS Championship Rally at City Hall:: Help welcome our team home today as they return from DC after defeating the New England Revolution for the second year in a row. Yikes, Reis, let another one slip past ya?! By defeating the Revs, the Dynamo become only the second team in the history of Major League Soccer to conquer back-to-back championships. Glenn Davis will serve as the event's Master of Ceremonies. Other speakers include...

Americans for the Arts' Vice President Policy and Research, Randy Cohen, makes a trip to Houston today to discuss economic impact of the arts results from a recent Cultural Impact Study, which Mayor Bill White formally introduced at the Business of the Arts Luncheon hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership in September. You can view a copy of the study here. This morning's discussion will convey how arts organizations can utilize the findings to...

Could Houston be one step closer to zoning? A few days ago the Houston Chronicle reported that the administration of Mayor Bill White has fast tracked an ordinance that could “whittle the proposed 23-story building — and others like it — down to size.” The ordinance would require developers of certain buildings, in certain areas to submit a traffic study to the city for approval. According to the ordinance's language, "certain types of high-density...

::MFA Presents Movies Houstonians Love:: "Singin' in the Rain" Guests Speaker: Lauren Anderson, Houston Ballet We are big fans of this MFA series, as past participants include Bun B, Barbara Bush, Larry Dierker, and Mayor Bill White. Tonight's film, "Singin' in the Rain," will be presented by principal ballerina, Lauren Anderson, who danced with Houston Ballet from 1983 to 2006, starring in classical ballets, appeared across the world to critical acclaim. In January, Anderson assumed...

Good morning, Houston. Here's one of those things that ended up selling for much more than we would have expected: A Rosenberg man bought a lock of Che Guevara's hair yesterday for $100,000. Bill Butler, a bookstore owner, was the only bidder; he said he collects items from the 1960s and that the hair will fit in well. "A lot of his writings are still worth reading today," Butler said of Guevara. Gustavo Villodo,...

Good morning, Houston. We suppose Tex-Mex is finally official: The New York Times wrote about it yesterday in an article that looked at famed Mexican joints in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. "Neon signs flicker above pastel storefronts promising excellent Mexican food in virtually every block of the city," the Times' Joe Drape writes of Houston. "The trick is to figure out which places will deliver on that promise." Indeed. Drape visited El Jardin...

Bayou City Arts Festival - Downtown Need tickets to this weekend's Bayou City Arts Festival? We gotcha covered. We scored a few pairs, so drop us an email at monica (@) houstonist dot com and we'll hook you up. (And not like the time we tried to hook you up with our boyfriend's 3rd cousin. Sorry about that.) This all can be yours, for the low, low price of free (aka send an email to...

Good morning, Houston. It's always nice to see our fair city get some love from outside — so we were happy to hear that Lester Holt and a crew from the Today show were in town filming yesterday for the show's "Cities They Love" segment. The point of "Cities They Love" is to showcase off-the-beaten-path attractions, so Today visited the Beer Can House, took a ride along Buffalo Bayou and checked in at the...

Good morning, Houston. Looks like there's another tropical disturbance out in the Gulf of Mexico — this one is called Invest 90L, and it looks like it could be headed for the upper Texas coast. The Chron's Eric Berger is keeping an eye on the system, which is located west of Florida and is headed in a general northwesterly direction; Berger reports that it could become a tropical storm by tomorrow, but isn't likely...

Good morning, Houston. If you've ever thought that Halloween needed a little more, uh, spice, you might want to check out HauntXXX, "Houston's most titillating haunted house." The titillating part apparently has to do with nearly naked women wearing neon body paint — and as for the haunted part, well, we're not so sure (maybe these are some super-scary sexpots we're talking about). The haunted house isn't sitting well with some of its neighbors,...

Good morning, Houston. Want to hear something weird? Investigators say a North Texas man had a stolen bone implanted in his neck. The man, Jim Livingston, had a herniated disk in his neck; in 2005, a surgeon replaced it with a small bone from a donor. Everything was fine until last year, when Livingston got a call informing him that the bone was believed to have been stolen from a body at a funeral...

Good morning, Houston. In case you didn't hear yesterday, we'll soon see the end of an era in air travel: Beginning Oct. 2, Southwest Airlines will assign passengers a place in line based on the order in which they check in. That means no more of the airline's (in)famous "cattle call" boarding process, which means there's no longer any point in arriving at the airport 16 hours early to get in the A group...

Good morning, Houston. Imagine that you're driving along one day when a traffic light falls from an overhead line and crashes through your car's windshield. You'd think the city would be responsible for the accident, right? Wrong! Just ask Lei Zheng, who was on a shopping trip with his wife and son last year when a traffic light fell on his Volkswagen. Zheng and his family weren't seriously hurt, but they did ask the...

Good morning, Houston. Looks like we'll have a tougher time cracking out those fake Benjamins next year: The $100 bill will soon be getting a high-tech makeover to thwart counterfeiters. The key feature: 650,000 tiny lenses embedded in each bill, which will magnify the printing so that the portrait of Benjamin Franklin appears to move up and down or side to side, depending on which way you move the bill. "It makes for a...

Good morning, Houston. Pardon us, but we seem to have lost our phone number. Can we borrow yours? Yeah, we know — it's lame. And apparently we're not the only one with a bad pickup line: Houston is the country's 14th best city for singles, according to Forbes magazine. We lag behind Dallas-Ft. Worth (No. 9) and Austin (No. 12), but we're far ahead of San Antonio (No. 28). On the bright side, Houston...

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. City WiFi Still On Hold It's been a few months since Mayor Bill White approved a multi-million dollar deal with EarthLink to provide over 640 square miles of wireless service to Houston and we are still waiting. Earthlink should have already started installing wireless nodes on light poles around the city but has failed to do so. EarthLink is still within time constraints set by the...

The Houston Light Guard Armory, 3816 Caroline, is one of Houstonist's favorite buildings in town, with its brick and limestone facade, arched windows, relief panels and imposing main entrance. Unfortunately, the building has been abandoned since we can remember — which means its street facade is overgrown, its windows have been smashed and its front doors are boarded up. But that won't be the case for much longer if the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum has...

Good morning, Houston. If you ever stop to think about all the ordinances in effect in the city — admit it, you do — you probably wonder just how much space all those laws would take up if they were written down. Well, now we know: around 5,000 pages. That tidbit comes from the Chronicle's Matt Stiles, who recently reported that the city approved a new three-year contract with the Municipal Code Corp. of...

Remember back in May, when news broke about the possibility of building a new stadium for the Houston Dynamo downtown? Back then, everyone said negotiations between the city and the Dynamo would wrap in in -mid-July — but now that we're actually in the middle of July, that's changed. The new target for an announcement, the Chronicle reports, is September — but that doesn't mean talks are breaking down, apparently. "We believe we've made some...

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...

Despite initially vowing to keep writing tickets for drivers with obscured license plates until a revised state law takes effect in September, HPD Chief Harold Hurtt announced Tuesday that his department would stop writing such tickets after all — apparently feeling the heat from Mayor Bill White, who called obscured plate tickets a "gotcha system" earlier this week. As you'll recall, the state gave police the authority to write tickets for obscured license plates with...