Wizard of Sphere
This is from Houston Public Media:
Bike lanes, police department policies, street closures and crosswalks — those were among the topics addressed by more than 90 speakers during the Houston City Council’s first-ever evening-time public comment session on Tuesday.
“I think this is a great first start,” said council member Mario Castillo, who spearheaded the push to move the public comment sessions back by four hours. “2 p.m. on a Tuesday is hard for a lot of folks, and we need to hear from Houstonians as to how they think we’re doing, ideas that they want to share with us, feedback. So if we continue to see this kind of engagement, I would absolutely support keeping this going.”
Through the end of 2025, the city council will host one session per month at 5:30 p.m. The remaining evening sessions are Sep. 16, Oct. 28, Nov. 18 and Dec. 16. Castillo hopes the pilot program will become permanent if turnout remains high.
Available data from the city shows the number of public speakers for 20 of the 29 previous meetings this year. Before Tuesday, there were between 14 and 84 speakers at those meetings, with an average of about 45.
Tiffany Valle came to City Hall for the first time from Houston’s East End, where a project to overhaul Telephone Road was recently redesigned to no longer include proposed bike lanes. She told Houston Public Media she’s “really passionate about multimobility here in the city,” but she previously wasn’t able to share that passion with the city council.
“I would have had to take a day off of work, which I don’t really want to do,” Valle said. “I’m too busy for that.”
It is always good to see folks participate in their local government.
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“Today” had a feature on “The Wizard of Oz” getting the Sphere treatment starting this evening in Las Vegas. Wow! Ticket prices start at $100. Here is the “Today” story: See How ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Was Adapted for Las Vegas Sphere.
According to the story, they went all in to give folks a very cool experience. The reporter said the tornado scene was the best part of the experience. I need to get to Vegas to check it out. The featured photo with poppies and the yellow brick road is from this morning outside of Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza.
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It was good to get a win last night. Cam and Yordan each had a dinger. Framber pitched a great game. That is what it is going to take. We wrap up the series with the Rockies this afternoon.