Yesterday’s ‘Stros game was a day game so I knew parking would be a hassle so I took the light rail.
A few weeks ago the Mayor sort of addressed parking lot price gouging during key events held Downtown. The Chron E-board has a take on the issue today and here is how it starts:
An exasperated mother driving her daughter to a Taylor Swift concert in downtown Houston added an interesting word to our city’s lexicography. After paying a whopping $60 to park her car, Jennifer Moncrief coined a term to describe the startling avarice of parking lot owners near Minute Maid Park: “landsharking.”
Just when you thought it was safe to go downtown, visitors venturing into the city’s central business district are getting gouged with outrageous prices for parking. All too often, prime parking spaces in private lots cost even more than some of the tickets to concerts and ballgames.
Well it turns out that maybe the Mayor actually can do something about it. Here is more from the E-Board’s take:
It’s especially troubling that one of the most expensive lots during these concerts sits on public property. That $80 lot at the Beyoncé concert? It belongs to taxpayers. It’s the Diamond Lot adjacent to Minute Maid Park.
And:
Although the Astros control the lot next to Minute Maid Park, the mayor and the sports authority should encourage the team to set an example by avoiding the temptation to boost prices for popular concerts. What’s good for downtown is good for the Astros and good for the team’s owner, Jim Crane, who should step up to the plate by holding the line on high parking prices.
Houston First is about to open a new garage adjacent to the convention center, adding 1,900 new spaces within walking distance of Minute Maid Park and the Toyota Center. A couple of years ago, this government-created entity quietly imposed a price hike in the garages around the Theater District, raising the old $7 evening rate to $10. We hope the mayor will remind Houston First the new garage’s primary mission is easing downtown’s parking problems, not generating a bonanza of revenue for Houston First.
Here is the entire E-Board take: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Parking-lot-bandits-7463146.php.
I am thinking the ‘Stros will continue to charge whatever they want for parking despite what the Mayor opines on the issue. After all, they are getting away with charging $10.50 for a Saint Arnold and $5 for a bottle of water.
Same thing for Houston First. Why should they? They look at those 1,900 parking spaces as a potential gold mine. They will give us some BS line that the parking money helps pay for the Thanksgiving Day parade or something like that. You know, a kind of convoluted public service thing. Oh, well, get used to the landsharking.
This tweet came out yesterday after the game yesterday:
Julia Morales @JuliaMorales 14h14 hours ago
5 hours and 9 minutes. Third longest game in Minute Maid Park history.
What is the longest game in Minute Maid Park history?
You know you are in a world of hurt when you have to pull the God card. I am talking about the Texas Attorney General. Here is from today’s Statesman:
The next step in the criminal case against Attorney General Ken Paxton begins Thursday morning with oral arguments before a state appeals court that will consider Paxton’s bid to have the felony charges dismissed.
In anticipation of the hearing before the Dallas-based 5th Court of Appeals, Paxton released a video Wednesday evening in which he labeled the criminal charges against him politically motivated and false, blaming his legal trouble an unnamed “political adversary” and those “who are mad that I am a conservative Christian and made no bones about it.”
Here is the entire article:
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/with-hearing-looming-ken-paxton-proclaims-innocenc/nrLrq/.
Here is Paxton’s first line from his opening argument:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
I am thinking that Game 4 of the 2005 NLDS was the longest game ever at The Yard with the ‘Stros taking the The ATL in 18 innings in 5 hours and 50 minutes by a 7-6 score of course.
We are certainly having a winning May but now play four in Fenway beginning this evening. Yesterday, in the first two innings we loaded the bases but we could not score. Luis Valbuena is hitting a measly .202 and Carlos Gomez a pitiful .204. You can’t contend with this kind of production from your third baseman and center fielder.
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