Pretty Simple

What happened at the Astrodome 51 years ago today?

Let’s hope Dem voters show up in record breaking numbers today in Georgia.

It is pretty simple if you ask Commentary and of course, they are not going to ask Commentary. I am talking about building a new multi-service center in Sunnyside on the site of a former landfill. The folks don’t want it there because of contamination. If the Sunnyside folks don’t want it there, why shove it down their throats? It is a pretty simple call to me. What is the harm in going back to the drawing board?   Here is from the Chron:

Mayor Sylvester Turner faced an edgy crowd Monday night at the Sunnyside Multi-Service Center during a boisterous town hall about plans to move the facility and a city clinic to Sunnyside Park beside a former dump.

The defunct Bellfort Landfill sits on 300 acres bounded by Bellfort, Texas 288, Reed Road and Comal. Sunnyside Park is in the northwest corner of those boundaries. The existing multi-service center is less than two miles away on Cullen at Wilmington.

An increasingly vocal and organized opposition troubled about potential contamination at the proposed site has formed over the last few months, with community leaders airing their concerns at city council meetings. The red-and-white signs of that group were planted Monday evening along the perimeter of the center prior to the two-hour meeting attended by about 200 people.

Monday was the first time city officials visited the community to address the center upgrade with information from a current environmental assessment. The latest study was completed and released this month on Sunnyside Park. Prior assessments tested the landfill property in 2004 and 2010.

Here is the entire read: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Mayor-Turner-faces-edgy-crowd-over-plan-to-move-11079555.php.

I think folks know their community better than H-Town City Hall does. That’s a no-brainer.

Here is a response on the Bill King pension take I put out yesterday:

I’m not at all surprised that Mr. King, who still pursues a fantasy to be Houston’s first tea party mayor, did not include who signed the paychecks of those on his list of supporters. I smell stinky bias from big business and managers who have an aversion to public employees getting any benefits. What Mr. King proposes is to substitute a stable and guaranteed retirement for the common worker, for a plan that makes the worker’s retirement subject to the whims of the stock market and economy. It’s not surprising that the movement lords don’t care if the workers’ pensions are wiped out. Why should they? They will have theirs, no matter what. And, to them, that is ALL that matters.

From TB

Jay Root and the Trib put out great investigative reporting on TABC that now has some heads rolling. State government failed us again. Always remember that state government has been led by the GOP for over the past two decades. It is their corruption.

Texas Monthly has a great take on the ‘Stros season to date. Here it is:

Prepared For Takeoff

The Houston Astros won their fifth-straight game on Monday, propelling the team to a 9-4 record to start the 2017 season, tying the mark for the best start in franchise history, according to the Houston Chronicle. Pretty much everything is clicking for the Astros right now. As of Tuesday, they’re tied for the best record in baseball among teams that have also played thirteen games (the Orioles, 8-3, are the only team with a better winning percentage, but they’ve played two fewer games). They’re currently sitting atop ESPN’s MLB power rankings. They’re among the American League leaders in team batting average, ERA, and strikeouts, led by Jose Altuve (.320 average) and a resurgent Dallas Keuchel, who is 2-0 with a sparkling 0.86 ERA through 21 innings. To top it off, some of Houston’s bigger bats haven’t really gotten going yet—star shortstop Carlos Correa is hitting just .234 and Cuban third baseman Yuli Gurriel is hitting .243—so you know better days are on the horizon for that lineup. It’s only the second week of the season, but it seems like the Astros might finally be able to put it all together this year.

51 years ago today, at the Astrodome, the ‘Stros and the Dodger played the first game ever on Astro-Turf of course.

Only 23,501 showed up last night at The Yard. We can do better.