I've added a Bluesky account to my social media. I should delete Twitter because it is a right wing sewer. But for the moment I'm keeping Twitter.

(My Bluesky address is @neilaquino.bksy.social Please follow me and I'll follow you back!)     

Bluesky says it would be difficult for a billionaire to show up in the future and ruin the place like happened with Twitter.   

From NPR:

And Bluesky...is "billionaire-proof," since the company is not one centralized feed of content, but rather a "protocol" from which endless feeds can be created. Think of a protocol like email, or the internet itself, Graber says. It would be difficult for a single person or company to control it, since the underlying technology is open-sourced and maintained by many contributors, like Wikipedia.

The full NPR story is interesting.  

I don't believe Bluesky is billionaire proof. Or immune to becoming a right wing network. Why should anyone have any confidence about these things at this point?    

I've never watched much MSNBC. It seems I won't be starting now. The Morning Joe hosts who genuflected to Trump did a lousy thing. Morning Joe viewers appear to think the same. Ratings are down.

Comcast now says it is going to spin off MSNBC. Who knows what'll it end up being. Musk has already "joked" about buying it.  

We need our own channels of communication.

One channel of communication is in front us of each day. We must be strongly-connected with each other. We must build local networks of trust, democracy and mutual assistance. 

These networks have value in the volunteerism that helps win elections (In exploitive labor markets where the consultants get paid win or lose), and in knowing who can be trusted no matter what happens in the days ahead.

We must be able to contact one another without relying on big social media networks. Keep the addresses, e-mail and phone numbers--whatever you need--of people you'd want to communicate with in a political  or authoritarian crisis.

Support independent local media. A great source of independent local media is Politics Done Right hosted by Egberto Willies on KPFT each weekday at 6 AM. He does another independent version of the show each day at 3. The Houston Democracy Project has a weekly hour long segment on Politics Done Right on  Thursday mornings. Politics Done Right has earned your support.        

Another source of information, local connection and power is the Houston Democracy Project.  I have full autonomy. I show up for others. Please help the effort.    

A network of autonomous advocacy I'm part of is the Texas Grassroots Alliance. TGA is a statewide organization of grassroots activists working to change Texas politics with new voices and new approaches. TGA held its 2nd annual statewide summit last week in Fort Worth.   

I'm also going to be talking here soon about the Unified website and app which is an invite-only organizing tool for Texas activists. The folks at Unified are looking to create a platform activists can rely on.
    
There is a lot of trouble ahead. We don't have to confront it alone or rely on social media platforms or sources of information built for profit. Use and consume well-known social media and news infrastructure as it works for you. That's what I do.

Don't neglect the resources that you and the people around you bring to the fight. There are a lot of good and hopeful tools right here at home. Make use of them.        
​         
I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is offering Donald Trump land for a detention camp for people apprehended in migrant round-ups.

I'd have no confidence that American citizens or political opponents won't end up in these camps as well.

(Above is Commissioner Buckingham & Mayor Whitmire earlier this year. Picture taken from the HTV broadcast of city events.)  

From the Texas Tribune: 

"The Texas General Land Office is offering President-elect Donald Trump a 1,400-acre Starr County ranch as a site to build detention centers for his promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a letter the office sent him Tuesday."

From a General Land Office press release:

​"Today, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D. sent a letter to the incoming Trump Administration offering over 1,400 acres of newly acquired General Land Office (GLO) state land in Starr County, Texas, for the construction of deportation facilities and staging areas to carry out the Trump Administration’s plans to deport illegal immigrants beginning in 2025...."As Texas Land Commissioner and steward of over 13 million acres, it's been my promise to all Texans since assuming my role at the GLO to use every tool at my disposal to gain complete operational control of our southern border," said Commissioner Buckingham. "This is why I am offering President-elect Trump over 1,400 acres of state land on the southern border to aid his administration in carrying out their deportation plans to place the safety and well-being of all Americans first and foremost."
 
Mayor John Whitmire earlier this year told Houston City Council what a good partner Commissioner Buckingham is for Houston because she was willing to give us back our own tax dollars for disaster relief.

Is Mayor Whitmire talking to Commissioner Buckingham about what mass deportations would mean for Houston? Did Mayor Whitmire give Commissioner Buckingham a call when she referred to opponents of Trump as "demonic?"  

​In any case, Mayor Whitmire should call Commissioner Buckingham and tell her it is a bad idea to help Trump with detention camps.  

​The Houston Chronicle recently asked Mayor Whitmire what he thought of the possibility of mass deportations. He did not have much to say.

From The Chronicle:

...."But with two months until the new administration takes office, and few details about how a deportation program would work, local leaders are hesitant to say if and how they’d participate....“My job is to ensure our resources stay focused on what falls within our local control and jurisdiction,” Mayor John Whitmire said. “We have plenty to do leading the city of Houston. That’s what Houstonians expect me to do.”

Mayor Whitmire just hopes it'll all go away. 

It won't though. In fact, Trump is saying local police forces that do not assist in the deportations will lose federal funding.   

Mass deportations will harm the economy and create a humanitarian crisis in Houston and Harris County. 

From the Chronicle:

While the brunt of those direct costs would be born by the federal government, a mass deportation would undoubtedly send shock waves through the economy in the Houston area, which is believed to be home to nearly 600,000 immigrants living here illegally and leave over 300,000 children without at least one of their parents......Greater Houston Builders Association President Matthew Reibenstein said: "The future of housing attainability in our region depends on a consistent and reliable flow of entrepreneurs and workers," referring to immigrants of all legal statuses.

I spoke at Houston City Council about the prospect of mass deportations in October. I asked where members of Council stood on the issue. (I did not ask Mayor Whitmire because he was absent from the public comment session that day without any explanation offered.)  I didn't get any reply or comment from any member of Council. 

Republican Councilmembers such as Twila Carter appear just fine with anything Trump proposes.    

Houston/Harris County elected Democrats are for the most part going to have to be pushed by rank & file citizens to respond with energy and courage to the threats ahead. Most of them did not show up in any meaningful way in the recent election. Most won't act to protect us from the right unless we are aggressive in pushing them to fight for us.     

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​

Above is a picture I took off our TV last week of Channel 2 Chief Meteorologist Anthony Yanez talking about the very warm weather we've been having over an extended stretch in Houston. The chart is of average high temperatures in Houston. (I think. In any case, it was about abnormally warm weather.)  Sorry the picture is tilted. When I saw what he was talking about, I got my phone from the other room. I said to myself--I want to get this picture to report what Mr. Yanez says or does not say about climate change impacting the weather.

Mr. Yanez offered an explanation for the warm weather that involved some air being wherever it was in relation to a ridge or pressure dome or a jet stream. I'm certain he had it right as far as he went. Climate change, however, was not part of the explanation. 

Here is information about the impact of climate change on our weather from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Read it quickly because getting rid of NOAA is part of Project 2025.  

(I stopped watching local TV news for the most part because I got tired of all the murder and crime played up every night. How about covering the authoritarian and pro-corruption movement called the Republican Party which has many local followers?) 

I have no problem with Mr. Yanez. He knows way more about the weather than I do. But with facts under attack and climate change hitting even harder than many experts had projected, Mr. Yanez and science-based journalists--which is exactly what the weather man or woman on TV is--have an obligation to tell the full story.          

From the Channel 2 website about Mr. Yanez--

"Anthony was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism/Mass Communications from the University of New Mexico. He earned his broadcast meteorology certificate from Mississippi State University...2022 recipient of the American Meteorological Society’s award for Excellence in Science Reporting by a Broadcast Meteorologist."

​You look at that chart above and you see that the 79.1 degrees is 4.2 degrees higher than the next highest temperature of 74.9. That is a big gap. I wager many people were sitting at home and thinking--"I wonder if that has something to do with climate change?"

The science says climate change causes excessive heat.  

If Mr. Yanez felt climate change was not part of this current heat in Houston, he could report that as well. But the question is clearly there.  

A few weeks ago Channel 13 meteorologist Travis Herzog actively took on people who were asserting that the government had created or had selected the path of Hurricane Helene. Local weather journalists can, and should, tell the full story.    

I encourage Mr. Yanez and our local press to meet the challenge of the days ahead. Everyone in public life has decisions to make about how they will proceed with truth under attack. Mr. Yanez is in a public role where he can make an important difference.

Houstonians must have all the facts so that they can evaluate what is taking place around them and so they know where to most effectively direct political action.        

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​

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The revision process of Houston's sidewalk ordinance is, with undue haste, ongoing. 

Here is the Houston Planning Department website about the ordinance.  

​Here are the remaining steps in the process-- 

November 21: Planning Commission recommendation
December 2: Quality of Life Council Committee meeting
December 11: City Council meeting

This is a matter for the Houston Democracy Project because Mayor Whitmire recently gutted the existing sidewalk ordinance with a memo rather than by a vote of Council. No democracy involved. 

Three Councilmembers--Tiffany Thomas, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz & Ed Pollard--sought to change a provision in the law that requires developers to either build a sidewalk, or pay a fee to a city sidewalk construction fund when building new homes. They didn't have the votes for this bad idea. Instead, Mayor Whitmire worked it out for them by simply writing a memo allowing exemptions from the requirement to either build the sidewalk or pay up. Not very democratic at all.

It should be called The Gutting The Fee Ordinance. There is nothing else going on here but gutting the fee. There is no urgency to any of this. No longterm planning for Houston sidewalks is taking place. The process is being rushed along through the distractions of the recent election and the holiday season to make it possible to kill the fee.

​Beyond the shifty anti-democratic way Mayor Whitmire watered-down the ordinance, this issue is relevant to fighting for democracy because sidewalks are an important place where people meet up and connect. Sidewalks are such an important place for protest, that Mayor Whitmire unsuccessfully tried in August to restrict the rights of Houstonians to protest on the sidewalk.      ​

The Houston Planning Department took public comments on the Gutting The Fee Ordinance.  Most all the comments oppose the changes.   

Here is a fine comment from a Houstonian about the issue: 

"The City of Houston has a history of being overly accommodating to developers to the detriment of the general public. It was a mistake to not require sidewalks in the past and it makes most sense to build out sidewalks as a property is constructed. A fragment of a sidewalk (“sidewalk to nowhere”) is an incremental improvement towards a more accessible, safe and equitable Houston. We have an obligation to provide safe and accessible streets for everyone."

The Houston Planning Commission discussed the revisions at its monthly meeting last week. The discussion and public testimony starts within a few minutes for the start of the session. Houston City Councilmember Sallie Alcorn spoke against simply removing the fee without a real plan for more sidewalks. I hope she keeps up the opposition and works to, at the least, slow down the process so something productive can come from this.

Planning Commission members who spoke appeared to be of the view that the process should slow down and involve more thought and actual public policy.         
​
Here is information about speaking or offering input at the November 21st Planning Committee hearing. 

Here is information about Council's Quality of Life Committee which is taking up the ordinance on December 2nd.    

Here is how you can speak at Council and here is how to contact your councilmember.

So much of Houston is uninhabitable from heat, bad air, stray dogs, aggressive driving, poor streets and bad or non-existent sidewalks. Do we have to make it worse? When we stick up for public space, we stick up for better lives for ourselves. We stick up for the healthy public sphere that strengthens faith in openness and democracy. Why are we doing the work of Trump and the right by actively diminishing the quality and best uses of public space?   

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show each Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. 

​




There were some narrow Harris County Democratic victories in the recent election.

Rank & file volunteers made the difference. Weekend after weekend, volunteers canvassed in the heat, fending off the Republican voters on the door-knocking lists Colin Allred was supplying & dodging stray dogs on the streets and aggressive dogs at doors.

Day after day, rank & file volunteers phone banked, posted on social media and made sure people they know voted Democratic. They also purchased, on their own dime, stamps and post cards to send to voters.

This free labor carried some Harris County Democratic candidates over the finish line in 2024. 

​Here are the narrowest wins--  

County Attorney Christian Menefee won his race with 50.51% of the vote. He won by 15,722 votes out of 1,454,054 total votes.

District Attorney-elect Sean Teare won his race with 50.87% of the vote. He won by 25,530 votes out of 1,463,852 total votes.

Tax Assessor-Collector-elect Annette Ramirez won her race with 51.16% of the vote. She won by 34,087 votes  out of 1,468,239 total votes.

164th District Judge Cheryl Elliott Thornton won her race with 50.52% of the vote. She won by 15,213 votes out of 1,450,051 total votes.

333rd District Judge-elect Tracy Good won his race with 50.19% of the vote. He won by 4,580 votes out of 1,442,200 total votes.

487th District Judge-elect Stacy Allen Barrow won her race with 50.32% of the vote. She won her race by 9,225 votes out of 1,438,335 total votes.

Probate Court #5 Judge Fran Watson won her race with 50.38% of the vote. She won her race by 10,872 votes out of 1,445,360 total votes.   

(And since this post was written, the final Harris County vote count put Democrat Nicole Perdue ahead for the win by just 774 votes.)     

Here are full Harris County results.   

There are multiple reasons these candidates prevailed. But it must be said that for all the money Colin Allred spent and for all the consultants who make money off these races year after year, the efforts of volunteers was essential.

Meriting strong credit for these volunteer wins/free labor is Clubs In Action. CIA is an association of Harris County Democratic clubs. Above is a picture of one of many Clubs In Action-connected events in 2024 working with local clubs. I'm pretty sure this is Humble Area Democrats. You see some of the freedom loving Americans are holding a CIA sponsored handout.   

CIA was also active to good effect in 2022 & 2023.

The mainstream professional political system in Harris County could not get the job done without volunteer labor. Nor has the mainstream political system in the United States been able to stop our descent to the return of King Trump to the White House.   

Rank & file Democrats and the people who work hard to make our local Democratic clubs so impactful are vital to the party. They will be necessary in the battles ahead to save what we can of our democracy from Trump's 2nd term. They deserve the respect and appreciation of the candidates they assist. They have earned a voice in how campaigns are conducted and in how we can best fight the Republican menace.          

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show each Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​

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​

Texas Democrats lost two seats in the Texas House of Representatives in the recent election, & look to be in an 88-62 minority in the next legislative session. Democrats will also remain a minority in the Texas Senate. Donald Trump won Texas by a margin of 56%-42% over Kamala Harris.

(Above is a picture I took of the Texas House chamber while visiting Austin last year.)    

At bottom line, political parties have an obligation to win elections and keep supporters safe. Texas legislative Democrats cannot accomplish these goals. We are not safe from the extreme right either physically or in terms of our freedoms.  Nor can our caucus legislate effectively because they do not have enough votes.  
 
The political philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) said that because people can't get along, we should yield our freedom to a king beyond accountability. This a strategy we seem to be trying in the United States.  

From the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy regarding Hobbes:     

"His vision of the world is strikingly original and still relevant to contemporary politics. His main concern is the problem of social and political order: how human beings can live together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict. He poses stark alternatives: we should give our obedience to an unaccountable sovereign (a person or group empowered to decide every social and political issue). Otherwise what awaits us is a state of nature that closely resembles civil war – a situation of universal insecurity, where all have reason to fear violent death and where rewarding human cooperation is all but impossible."

People do seem to have a difficult time getting along. But instead of an unaccountable monarch, like the far-right Supreme Court is trying to give us with Donald Trump, we should have elected officials of varying viewpoints who do a good and effective job & who help work out the differences between people.   

What are ways Democratic Party legislators could proceed after this disastrous election & during the legislative session?  

Here are some ideas:

1. Sponsor self-defense courses, including responsible firearms trainings, for constituents. We were told-correctly-by our Presidential nominee that Donald Trump is hateful and a threat to democracy. The mainstream political system does not keep us safe. We have a right to protect ourselves and should be empowered to do so. (I know people have well-merited reservations about guns. Guns kill. But the right has a lot of guns and the 2nd Amendment is not just for them. People have a right to consider all the options for self-defense.)  
       
2. Work to heal anger and mistrust between core Democratic Party constituencies. So many of us live in extremely diverse cities and counties. We have to be able to work together and move forward together. There is no viable future if we can't get along. I'm a 57 year old white guy from Ohio. I can't fix these tensions. But our whole Democratic coalition is impacted by these fights. Many Texas Democratic legislators are in safe gerrymandered districts. They can use the time freed up by not having to campaign to work to bring people together.                

3. Work year-round to rebuild the Democratic Party. Stop relying on low turnout election wins. The health and strength of the Democratic Party is more important than legislation we can't pass, or cozying up to authoritarian bigots for committee assignments. 

4. Act with courage and imagination. The way we've been doing things up to now has taken us to this terrible place.      

5. Accomplish what you can in the legislature without losing sight of the more important work outside the Texas Capitol.       

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show each Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. 

​Today the John Cornyn Houston Office Protest was out for our 405th week. This was our first time out since the election last week. 

Above is our team today. We are at 5300 Memorial Dr. each Tuesday from 11:30 to 1. Please join us.  

​Even though the election did not go our way, we did not storm the building where the Cornyn office is located. A few police cars went by. We did not attack them.

What a contrast from how Trump partisans handled defeat last time around.  

We are not going to storm any building or attack anybody.

We are not going to do those things even though Senator Cornyn told King Trump the Senate will not be an obstacle or a check and balance on his horrible appointments.

Senator Cornyn is content to easily toss away our freedoms and Constitutional protections. 

Today reports say King Trump wants to set up a panel that would have the capacity to purge generals.

The Cornyn Protest will stay on the streets each Tuesday. It's important that people see others like themselves willing to be on the streets. A central premise of the Cornyn Protest is that voting is not enough to keep us safe from the authoritarianism of the right. We've seen nothing of late that contradicts our view.

We fully expect our rights will be under constant attack over the next four years. We'll fight back to the best of our abilities. Please consider your role in the fight ahead.  

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. 

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​*Today is Veterans Day. 

Will there be parades in the future for the veterans who helped conduct mass deportations?

​Donald Trump says he'll use the Alien Enemies Act from 1798 to help round-up immigrants.   

Today Trump appointed Stephen Miller to be his deputy chief of staff.   

From CNN:

"Miller is also a lead architect of Trump’s plans for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. He has said that a second Trump administration would seek a tenfold increase in the number of deportations to more than one million per year."

Many Americans support putting migrants scheduled to be deported in militarized camps.  

From Axios:

By the numbers: 50% of Americans surveyed oppose setting up encampments for undocumented immigrants, while 47% favor the idea, according to the annual survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), in partnership with the Brookings Institution.

Nearly 79% of Republicans favor putting undocumented immigrants in encampments, compared with 47% of independents and 22% of Democrats.

The vast majority of Americans who most trust far-right news (91%) or Fox News (82%) favor militarized encampments for undocumented immigrants, compared with 44% of Americans who do not watch TV news.

Concerns about the uses of the military under Trump go beyond the prospect of deportations.

Military officials are concerned Trump will use the military against domestic protestors.     

Will future Veterans Day observations honor veterans of attacks on the civil liberties of Americans? 

It's not militarism or forgetting full American history to say there are proud traditions of service and sacrifice in our nation.

How have we so completely lost our way?     

*My father-Corporal Anthony S. Aquino of Providence, R.I.-was a Korean War combat medic.

Above is a picture of the Korean War Memorial I took in Washington, D.C. this past July.

Trump often says good things about the North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un.

North Korean troops are fighting on the side of Russia in the war with Ukraine. Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, is one of new co-presidents here in the United States along with Elon Musk.

This coddling up to the murderous North Korean dictator spits on the service of my father, and on the service of everyone who fought the Nazis and the confederacy.              

This is no surprise from someone who called our troops "suckers and losers." 

How have we so completely lost our way? 

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. 
​
The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County.

Here are Houston Democracy Project notes & observations for November 8th. Today's theme is sticking up for public space. 

*There is a giant real estate development going on along Allen Parkway and near Buffalo Bayou.   

From the Houston Chronicle:

"Perched above Buffalo Bayou, a 13-acre mixed-use project is gradually helping to reshape the retail real estate landscape along Allen Parkway in Montrose....Autry Park has opened in stages since 2022 — a handful of restaurants and shops and two apartment buildings are already open — but will soon come to life in a way it hasn’t yet before. The project is welcoming a string of retailers and restaurants over the next several months, plus an additional 38-story apartment tower by next summer. The development takes its name from the small city park it surrounds..."

That's all fine. Whatever. But the small city park referenced in the story and that gave the development it's name, has not benefited from all this investment. Above you see a picture of Autry Park I took yesterday. The grass is patchy, there are a couple of picnic tables, an ill-defined walking trail, a garbage can and not much else.

​In proximity to such wealth and investment, can't the developers offer up a few bucks to plant some nice flowers, add some amenities and just in general show some appreciation for a community resource they are profiting off?  

Next week I'll write an e-mail to the District Councilmember-I think it may be Mary Nan Huffman-and the five at-large Councilmembers, as well as to the developer & ask for Autry Park get some needed attention.  I'll make updates here if I can get any response.          

*The sidewalk ordinance revision process is ongoing.  

This is a matter for the Houston Democracy Project because Mayor Whitmire recently gutted the sidewalk ordinance with a memo rather than by a vote of Council. No democracy involved. 

Three Councilmembers--Tiffany Thomas, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz & Ed Pollard--sought to change a provision in the law that requires developers to either build a sidewalk, or pay a fee to a city sidewalk construction fund when building a new house. They didn't have the votes for this bad idea. Instead, Mayor Whitmire worked it out for them by simply writing a memo allowing exemptions from the requirement to either build the sidewalk or pay up. Not very democratic at all.

It really should be called The Gutting The Fee Ordinance.    

Beyond the shifty anti-democratic way Mayor Whitmire watered-down the ordinance, this issue is a matter of democracy because sidewalks are an important place where people meet up and connect. Sidewalks are such an important place for protest, that Mayor Whitmire unsuccessfully tried in August to restrict the rights of Houstonians to protest on the sidewalk.      ​

The Houston Planning Department has been taking public comments on the Gutting The Fee Ordinance.  Most all the comments oppose the changes.   

Here is a fine comment from a Houstonian-- 

"Houston urgently needs more safe and continuous sidewalks. By expanding exemption criteria, we risk widening the existing gaps in our sidewalk network, which compromises public safety, discourages walkability, and hinders connectivity between neighborhoods. Sidewalks are not merely infrastructure; they are essential pathways for pedestrians of all ages, including those with disabilities, parents with strollers, and individuals without access to cars. Moreover, this ordinance revision appears to shift responsibility away from developers and onto the community, which will ultimately bear the cost of missing sidewalks. Rather than expanding exemptions, I urge you to consider a complete removal of exemption criteria to ensure that all new developments contribute to a safe, accessible, and connected Houston for everyone. Modeling all of Houston after select neighborhoods that already prohibit sidewalks is regressive and archaic. Say goodbye to your trick-or-treaters!"
 
Here are the remaining steps in the process:

​November 14: Planning Commission public hearing
December 2: Quality of Life Council Committee meeting
December 11: City Council meeting

Here is the Planning Department website about the ordinance.  

Take part in the process if sails your ship to do so. Here is how you can speak at Council and here is how to contact your councilmember.

Today's post has been about parks, sidewalks & about public and private obligations to protect and improve public space. So much of Houston is uninhabitable from heat, stray dogs, aggressive driving, poor streets and bad or non-existent sidewalks. When we stick up for public space, we stick up for better lives for ourselves. We stick up for the healthy public sphere that strengthens faith in openness and democracy.       

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. 
​
The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County.

Here are Houston Democracy Project notes & observations for November 7th. I'm still processing the election. You may be doing the same if you can bring yourself to do so.   

*There will not be pink hats ( I did not make light of the pink hats back at the time and still don't. Women wearing those hats did a lot of work against Trump.) or suggestions to read Hillbilly Elegy this time. (I was always dubious about that book.) There will be a hardness and awareness that comes from the clarity of the choice made at the ballot box, full responsibility to those who made those that choice and frank discussions of self-defense.   

We don’t owe allegiance to institutions or standard ways of doing things that can’t deliver results or keep us safe. Trump & the right are aligned with Musk and a global authoritarian movement. We're in a fight for our freedom. Trump is returning to the White House after having inspired and encouraged an insurrection attempt on January 6th, 2021. How was this allowed to happen? 

​Our Texas/local Democratic Party political and consultant class is not getting the job done. We’ve been at war with Trump for nine years & we see the absence of results in Texas and the significant backsliding in Harris County.

So much money and volunteer effort expended over recent years. These resources must be more successfully employed. Where does all the money go? It's all just extracted from donors-many of them small donors- &  leaves nothing permanent for the next campaign. And we don't win. We don't win and we aren't safe.

There won't be pink hats and Hillbilly Elegy this time. We'll fight as required and demand that the political structures that exist off us fully join the fight.     

*For anybody who needs to hear it--You don't need to seek unity or understanding with Trump supporters in your life. It's your business how you mange them. But you don't need to not let politics come between you and them & you don't have to sit at a Thanksgiving table with them. Trumpism will always be cultish and cruel. It's not looking to make peace with you.   

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. 
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The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County.