Tag: houston

Why is the deep-pocketed NFL looking for Super Bowl volunteers?

In a recent Houston Press story titled “If the NFL Really Needs You, Then Make the NFL Pay for It”, John Royal describes how the Houston Super Bowl Committee is seeking a large number of volunteers to help make the Super Bowl and the festivities around it a success. From the article:

[T]he Houston Super Bowl Committee is seeking volunteers for the game. Ten thousand volunteers, to be exact. You won’t get paid, though, because, duh, you’re a volunteer. You also won’t get to see the game because, duh, you’re a volunteer.

For its volunteers, the Super Bowl committee seeks team players who are open, full of integrity, respectful and strive for excellence. If a person meets those qualifications, then he or she has to attend three training sessions while working 18 to 24 hours the week of the game. Which, when you think of it, is a lot of time to waste for a non-charity event that is going to pull in tons of cash.

If it seems outrageous that the Super Bowl would need volunteers, given that it’s an obvious for-profit event, well, maybe that’s because it is. Given the financial backing and the obscene amount of money the NFL makes from the Super Bowl, there’s money in there to pay people to fill these positions. Ten thousand people working 24 hours each at $10 per hour adds up to $2.4 million. (With a $15 per hour minimum wage it would jump to $3.6 million, which is still not that much money; read on.)

Split evenly between the 32 teams, that $2.4 million comes out to $75,000 per team, or one-sixth of a rookie player’s guaranteed minimum salary ($450,000). Put next to the $3.2 billion the TV networks pay to broadcast the NFL season, that $2.4 million doesn’t look like a whole lot of money at all. In fact it seems like a sensible investment to make sure the event is a success.

It is noteworthy that last year (2015), the NFL gave up non-profit status after criticism came to a head. This makes the decision to solicit volunteers all the more puzzling.

I have been a football fan ever since the Houston Texans brought professional football back to Houston in 2002. But every once in a while, something happens that makes it harder to be a football fan. This is one of those things. It really does not sit well with me that a for-profit event, run by an organization that is for-profit now (at least in the legal sense and for tax purposes), would need to solicit volunteers, which implies that they are unable to pay. Whether tax-exempt or not, the NFL is definitely not a charity.

The only thing that makes sense is that they are simply unwilling to pay, not unable, and yet, I’m sure the NFL and the local committee will get their volunteers anyway. H.L. Mencken was on to something when he famously said “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” The saying of disputed origin “There’s a sucker born every minute” quite possibly applies here as well. (The latter saying has been attributed to P.T. Barnum but was more likely originally said by David Hannum, one of his rivals.)

If you want to volunteer in the Houston area, there are other places to go to find opportunities. Other cities have similar sites and programs. Look before you leap. Don’t give your time away for free to someone who is just looking to make a buck with no charitable purpose.

Let’s keep music as our Houston song, please

What the hell are they thinking with this petition?

A recent CW39 Newsfix story details a petition to replace the current Houston song, titled simply “Houston Municipal Song“, which has served us well for over a century (not that it was performed all that much after 1916; the video linked may well have been the first performance of that song in an entire century and change).

Not all change is bad, but the issue I have is what the aural turd they want to replace it with: Tops Drop by Fat Pat. Most of this track isn’t music. At least our current Houston song is actually, um, a song as opposed to a monotone. I’m not even going to bother linking it, it’s that bad, but a video of it is available on YouTube. (Ironically, the minute or so I had to skip to get to the actual track, I probably should have let just play as that was better than when the track actually started.)

If we want a new Houston song that is actually music (and I do emphasize those words on purpose), there are plenty of other candidates per Wikipedia. And I realize that list has a couple of choices in it that I would also disqualify as non-music, but many are still fair game. If we must change, let’s start the deliberations with the Gatlin Brothers tune “Houston (Means That I’m One Day Closer to You)” which got so much airplay on country stations back in the day.

Or one of us could write a new one. Or we could stick with the status quo. I’m fine, as long as the new song still has a melody. Anything but a crap track, please.

The great bus route do-over: thoughts on Metro’s New Bus Network

Not too long ago, fans of public transit in Houston were eagerly awaiting the opening of two new light rail lines, the Green Line and Purple Line, to complement the existing Red Line. The new rail lines were great, but the bus routes around them did a poor job of bringing riders to them. For that matter, in certain contexts the bus routes did a poor job of connecting people to destinations at all.

Many routes in their current system trace their lineage back to the days of streetcars, and so we had bus routes that existed just because there at one time used to be a streetcar running on a given street or set of streets. It also did not help our bus network’s organization that many changes to bus routes been made in a somewhat haphazard fashion. A quick bandage fix for keeping part of a route when the rest of it needed to be discontinued was often to just slap that route onto the end of an existing route that terminated nearby. The “best” examples of this are the 58 Hammerly (which conveniently took on the end of the 48 West Dallas when the latter route bit the dust) and the 24 Northline (which absorbed the end of the 15 Fulton when the majority of the latter route was made redundant by the opening of the Northline extension of the Red Line).

Thankfully, as of Sunday, 2015 August 16 (a little over two weeks ago as of the time I am finishing up this post), not anymore. Metro launched the New Bus Network. Most existing bus stops remained, though the routes serving them changed in many cases. The first week was a free ride week; I got to ride during that week twice. I had hoped to ride more, but both of the trips I made were either impractical or impossible under the old bus route network, so I did get to use the new network to at least some of its potential. Before getting into the details of those trips, I’ll compare three routes of the old and new bus networks to give an idea of the changes that were made.

First I’ll compare the 78 Irvington on the old bus network, with the current 79 West Little York (its effective replacement) on the new bus network. There were at least three routes with alternate “via” routing on the old network, and the 78 Irvington was one of them, with the main routing via Irvington (north of Berry) and Turner (east of McGallion), and the other “Via Berry” routing had the bus turn left on Berry and then right on McGallion before rejoining the main route on Turner. In addition, the 78 did not directly connect to the rail line until Fulton/North Central Station, and furthermore the 78 did not connect to any other routes north of Tidwell. In short, it only made sense to ride the 78 north of where I live to go to Dairy Queen, Shipley’s, and maybe the convenience store on Rittenhouse.

Contrast this with the new 79 West Little York, which takes over a large portion of the 78 Irvington route. After the right turn on Bauman, the 79 turns left on Turner, right on Irvington, then right on Berry and left on Fulton stopping at the Northline Transit Center (the northern terminus of the Red Line). After that, the 79 turns left on Crosstimbers and then right on Irvington where it picks up most of the old 78 Irvington route before terminating at the Burnett Transit Center. (Downtown-bound passengers are expected to transfer to the Red Line at either Northline TC, Fulton/North Central, or Burnett TC.)

One of the bigger changes is to three routes on the old system: the 56 Airline Limited, the 24 Northline, and the 34 Montrose Crosstown. (Quick sidenote: the entire “Crosstown” label has bit the dust with the new network, as its purpose was to differentiate routes that did not go downtown when the majority of them did.) Under the old system, the 34 Montrose Crosstown looked nice on paper, but was almost useless for the actual trips I wanted to make on it. It ran infrequently and ended service rather early. Also, many trips that would otherwise be a relative straight shot down Airline required a transfer from the 56 to the 24 or vice versa, due to the former’s routing onto I-45 into downtown.

The new 56 Airline/Montrose route essentially combines the most important parts of all three of those routes. Instead of getting on I-45 to go downtown, the new 56 turns left on Berry, right on Fulton (serving the Northline TC including connecting to the rail), then right on Crosstimbers and left on Airline. To connect to Studemont and Montrose, the route turns right on Cavalcade and then left on Studemont. The new 56 is a much more useful route, which also runs later and much more frequently than the old 24 and 34 while retaining connectivity to the other routes, including the TMC Transit Center and thus the Red Line. (You may notice the new 56 is no longer a “Limited” either, due to the fact it no longer gets on the freeway.)

Finally, the old 44 Acres Homes Limited has been changed up ever so slightly. Instead of going downtown via I-45, it serves the portion of North Main between Crosstimbers and I-45, and then turns on Houston Avenue to connect to the frontage road of Memorial Drive which become Capitol Street and Rusk Street downtown. It’s a small change made necessary by the fact the old 9 North Main no longer exists in the new system. (The new 44 is also no longer a “Limited” and it would appear that at least for the moment there is no such thing as a “limited” route in the new system.)

For me, the sum total of these changes are that I’ll wind up riding the 79 northbound much more often than I ever would have taken the old 78 northbound. If I’m going north, I ride northbound to connect to the 56, 44, 96 (Veterans Memorial), etc. The old system required me to ride south to wind up going north. (Though, due to the low frequency of the 79, sometimes Google Maps transit directions will tell me it is faster to connect to the 56 at Airline and West Little York by riding north/westbound, even if I’m eventually going south. The same is true for trips connecting me to the 27 Shepherd at North Shepherd Park & Ride.)

The only oddity with the new 79 is the new timetables list “westbound” and “eastbound” which stem from the fact that’s the direction the route’s new namesake street runs. I expect there are more of these quirks to be found, though many of these quirks will at least make more sense than the quirks in the old bus network. Overall I am quite happy so far.

Some of the other more notable changes:

  • All routes which are not “peak only” run seven days per week. Each such “peak only” route has alternative service which runs seven days per week (pretty sure on this, but I may need to double check). No more swearing when you realize you need to make a trip on Sunday when your closest route only runs on weekdays!
  • The 1 Hospital is gone, and the number has yet to be re-used for a different route. The service has been taken over by several different routes, most notably the 97 Settegast, 51 Hardy/Kelley, and 52 Hardy/Ley, with parallel service to the TMC on the Red Line.
  • The 26/27 Outer Loop/Inner Loop Crosstown routes are gone. The numbers were reused for the 26 Long Point/Cavalcade and the aforementioned 27 Shepherd. Most of the former 26/27 route still has service in some form, with the remainder being taken up by the 28 OST/Wayside and the 80 MLK/Lockwood except for a very short stretch of Cavalcade between Waco and Lockwood, which does not have direct service on the new network.
  • The remaining express buses were renumbered, with the Memorial Express and new Wilcrest Express becoming the 160, 161, 162, and the new Harwin Express and Westpark Express numbered 151, 152, and 153.
  • The new 44 Acres Homes takes over the University Park/Louetta Road branch of the old 86 FM 1960, a change that is long overdue.
  • Instead of the old two-branch 86 FM 1960 route, we now have an 86 FM 1960/Imperial Valley and a 99 Ella/FM 1960. Both routes connect east of Ella and again at Spring Park & Ride.
  • The new 65 Bissonnet connects to the new 4 Beechnut on the west end. In addition, the Mission Bend Park & Ride now connects the 2 (Bellaire), 4, 25 (Richmond), 75 (Eldridge), and 151 (Westpark Express) routes.
  • The Heights Transit Center no longer has service; the transit center is still standing for the moment. Buses still serve the area, just not the transit center itself.
  • Most stops on the former 163 Fondren Express are now served by the 63 Fondren, with the exception that service for the new 63 now goes north to Westheimer connecting to the new 82. Downtown-bound riders should transfer to the 152/153 Harwin Express at Harwin and Fondren.
  • The new 45 Tidwell and 46 Gessner routes connect at Fairbanks-North Houston and Tanner (near Hempstead Highway). The 45 Tidwell remains one route for now; drafts of the reimagined transit network showed separate West Tidwell and East Tidwell routes but this has not actually happened yet.
  • The 108 Veterans Memorial Express is now a peak-only route, with the new 96 Veterans Memorial providing local service during non-peak hours and on weekends.
  • The 73 Bellfort, in addition to losing its “Crosstown” label, no longer runs north of the Fannin South Park & Ride. It consists solely of West Bellfort between Fannin South Park & Ride and Broadway, before turning south on Broadway to Hobby Airport.
  • The new 23 Clay/West 34th no longer runs east of Fulton. The new 29 Cullen/Hirsch connects Northline TC to Kashmere TC.
  • The 40 Telephone/Heights no longer has branches, instead going straight down Telephone Road to Airport Boulevard and then to Hobby Airport.
  • The 81 Westheimer-Sharpstown and the 25 Richmond’s Sharpstown branch don’t exist in the new system. There are alternate routes within walking distance of the old service.

For further reading:

Breaking the language barrier, or making it even tougher to overcome?

A recent story on click2houston.com (KPRC-TV) describes an executive order signed by Houston mayor Annise Parker, calling for the “translation of essential public information” into no less than five other languages besides English. While on its face the move seems like an admirable attempt at accessibility, I suspect the actual result will be the exact opposite.

The more things are translated into another language, the less incentive new residents have to learn English. Less incentive means fewer actually do, in turn meaning that trying to patronize a business in some parts of town becomes an exercise in frustration. And thus the problem I run into, where I walk into, say, a restaurant, and have a bunch of Spanish babbled into my face (apparently people think I’m Hispanic-looking enough; I self-identify as white, and I don’t know what I can do to make myself look more white and less Hispanic.

Maybe it’s just me slowly becoming a curmudgeon, but I consider it downright rude to start talking some other language based on such an assumption. It’s either that, or the waiter/waitress really does not know much English. I can’t tell the difference, and honestly I feel like if we have reached the point where it’s acceptable to try Spanish first, then we’re damn close to the point that those that fought for the independence of Texas and for the entirety of the current state of Texas to remain part of the United States did so in vain.

This isn’t a race issue. It’s the same for anyone who speaks a language besides English, which should be the official language of this country, being the language the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the laws, and the road signs are written in. It’s high time that “for English, press 1” and similar over-reaching attempts at accommodation of non-native languages go the way of the rotary dial telephone. The less information is available in other languages, the faster those who don’t know English get the message that they need to learn English to function in the United States. The faster they get the message, the better the result is for all of us.

Picking up the pieces and moving forward, part 4

(Due to technical and other issues, I was not able to get this posted on Friday afternoon as I had hoped. Here it is now, after some editing to reflect the current state of affairs.)

In part 3, you got to read what wound up being basically an indictment of Meetup, which I probably should have shortened a bit now that I look again. But, I digress.

I had originally split this post into five parts. I’m going to condense the last two into one, leaving four. So this will actually include my final commentary for the time being.

I have about another week to cover, from approximately March 6 to the present. Which makes it easy, because nothing of consequence happens between the 6th and 10th.

The late evening of the 11th/early morning of the 12th, I submitted my application to be WordCamp Houston lead organizer for 2013. Since that’s the logical next step, I figured I needed to know if it’s a go or not sooner rather than later. The evening of the 12th, We had our second meetup in recent memory, this time at Caroline Collective thanks to new organizer David Lee. David, along with previously-mentioned Claudia Franco, are the whole reason we’re actually having WordPress meetups in Houston again.

Yesterday, Friday, 2013 March 15, the ides of March, one of the “organizers” of the original, dead, 400+ member group (i.e. either Christopher Smith or Chris Valdez) did what I’d expect any chicken who can’t stand being held accountable to do. He decided to remove me from the (currently inactive) 400+ member Houston WordPress Meetup group and prohibit me from rejoining. This crosses all sorts of lines. I’m not even going to go into the details of just how stupid of a move this is from a PR standpoint–then again, it’s likely Monica Danna (who, I might add, used to have a company called co.lab which unceremoniously co.lapsed not that long ago) taught them most of their PR skills, so the colossal fail here isn’t all that surprising.

Today, Christopher Smith finally posts an announcement to the group. I’m not going to re-post it here, but suffice it to say it is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. I’m only going to say the following (and parts of this are repeats of things I have said elsewhere):

  1. None of the alleged “out of bounds” discussion would have happened if there had been some attempt at communication with the community over the past several months.
  2. If one’s safety is so easily threatened by simple attempts at contact, at the very least, one should not hold themselves out as a community leader in any capacity.
  3. Documented lies are still lies. Perjury and filing false police reports are both against the law. I would expect someone with relatives in law enforcement to know this.
  4. Habitual lying is no way to lead a community. None of this dog and pony show changes that it is in the best interest of the community for Christopher Smith and Chris Valdez to resign and let someone else lead.
  5. The excuse of “protecting privacy” to hide the truth about what one did is reprehensible, unethical, conduct unbecoming of community leaders, un-Texan, and un-Houstonian.
  6. This is retaliation for my assertion of my legal First Amendment rights. In other words, censorship. Until and unless proven otherwise in a court of law I have the legal right to talk about those who hold themselves out as limited public figures, which would include community leaders and thus include Monica Danna, Christopher Smith, and Chris Valdez.

For what little good it will do, I have asked for this to be reversed. At a later date I may republish what I have of the deleted threads (which, incidentally, comprised most of the discussion group activity over an entire month.) In the meantime, as a temporary measure, I’ve joined the new group on meetup.com. I don’t expect this to last longer than a few months; I don’t think meetup.com is the best way forward anymore, and it is my hope to have a realistic alternative to meetup.com available at least to WordPress-oriented groups by the end of the year.

Anyway… Coincidentally, the same day, I also heard back that I’m “not a good fit” “not the right fit” for WordCamp organizer. To say the least, I disagree with this. [Edit 2013-05-07: Oops. I mis-remembered the quote in between getting the email and making the post.]

In closing, there are quite a few things to learn from WordCamp Houston 2010 for those thinking about running a similar event in the future. There are about four things really stand out.

First, communication is important. If you are unwilling or unable to keep the community “in the loop” with updates, then being an organizer of an event like a WordCamp probably isn’t for you. I never should have had to get Andrea Middleton or anyone from Automattic or the WordPress Foundation involved, and I would not have were the lines of communication with the community kept open and utilized while the award of the scholarship from 2010 was still pending. (Andrea did a great job handling the investigation started by my inquiry. However, I feel she never should have needed to be involved to begin with.)

Second, if you speak, especially as event organizer, you should assume it is being broadcast and/or recorded. Remember what you said, especially when referring to proceeds. Some shady salespeople (particularly car and furniture salespeople) do a little ruse. They mark the sales price up so it can be marked down again, giving the illusion of a big discount. Of course, for a total paid out, one would want to manipulate the numbers in the opposite order; this may well have been what our community “leaders” were trying to do.

Third, before taking on a position that requires, by its nature, interaction with potentially anyone in the community, think it over. If your comfort zone is such that you feel you cannot interact directly with certain members of the community, or that you find yourself reaching for the block button even when logged in to the event/community Twitter account or Facebook page, it’s likely the public relations and social media aspects of organizing a WordCamp are not for you. If you are a public relations professional, act like one; acting in a volunteer capacity is not an excuse to throw professionalism (i.e. pride in one’s work) out the window and it’s quite possible for one to be professionally judged by one’s actions as a volunteer. (It can be for better as well as for worse; see Alan Rosen, recently elected Harris County Precinct 1 Constable, for an example of the former.)

Fourth, organizers of an event such as a WordCamp are responsible for the monetary proceeds of the event until such time as the proceeds are disbursed to the charitable organization or purpose for which they were designated, and it is also in their best interests as well as that of the WordCamp and WordPress brands to not communicate for an extended period while the money is still outstanding. If you and everyone on your team lack the time to see the award of a scholarship through to the end, then maybe this is not how your WordCamp’s proceeds should be distributed. A simple donation to a non-profit organization is probably a better choice in this case.

Finally, just a couple of more items about how I feel. I am happy the scholarship has finally been awarded. If proceeds from our future WordCamps in Houston go towards a scholarship like the one in 2010, I don’t ever want to see it take this long for the money to be awarded again. Not in Houston, not anywhere.

I want honest, trustworthy, transparent, reasonable, and law-abiding people in charge of our Houston WordPress community and its events, such as future WordCamps and the Meetup group. I don’t think that’s a lot to ask, and I would like to think this is the majority viewpoint in the community.

Originally I had a whole paragraph here formally asking Christopher Smith and Chris Valdez to resign. I still don’t think it’s appropriate either of them continue to enjoy the visibility, in light of the circumstances. Most importantly, to preserve the high standard of ethics among creative companies in the Houston area, I recommend NOT doing business with either Design Bigger or Primer Grey, their respective companies, in hopes they will both go bankrupt. Contact me if you need alternatives.

Lest we forget, this is Matt Mullenweg’s hometown. For those reasons I find it especially outrageous that our WordPress community scene, or lack thereof, is what it is. And I now know I’m not the only one. I’ve probably said things that other people in the community just wish they could. I have no idea yet what it’s cost me.

Looking forward, I believe Houston deserves better in 2013. I’ve said it before, but it needed to be said again. And on that note, it is my endeavor to help deliver a better WordCamp Houston in 2013 in whatever capacity I can. I will admit I don’t need to be lead organizer to help, but I could sure benefit from the visibility. I should note that recently some events transpired in my life which could have resulted in my leaving the Houston area for several months to a couple of years, or possibly even for good. However, I found a way to remain here in Houston (at least the area if not Houston proper), and my anticipated future contributions to WordCamp Houston 2013 and the Houston WordPress community did factor into my decision to stay.

Comments are open. My usual comment policy is in place.

[Edited 2021-07-23 to fix some unfortunate typos/misspellings]