City Finances

The Chron E-Board has a take on the City of H-Town finances. See the featured photo. Here is a part:

In fact, in 2010, Houston voters went to the polls and agreed to raise taxes on themselves in order to address Houston’s drainage issues, along with our pocked streets, which torture our tires and suspension systems regardless of the weather.

That vote, to create a “lockbox” for drainage and street repairs, was years before Hurricane Harvey unleashed its biblical floods, well before the Memorial Day floods, and all the other holiday disasters. Voters even approved the special fund a second time in 2018. 

Anything to save us from flooding and flats — even more taxes. Houstonians are largely united on that, east and west, Democrat and Republican.

And yet, as we saw again Tuesday, little has changed. Why? In part, because the city for years used fuzzy math to shortchange the lockbox in order to prop up its perpetually sagging finances. 

The good news is that on January 31, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the city must end that practice once and for all. 

The bad news is now the city has to find a way to pay for all that promised drainage and road work. 

Commentary worked on the effort to get the above drainage fee passed by the voters in 2010. It was the two previous H-Town mayors, Annise Parker and Sylvester Turner, who diverted the funds for other uses. Now Mayor John Whitmire must fix things.

Here is also from the E-Board take:

(City Controller Chris) Hollins called on the mayor and City Council to join him in forming an “emergency task force” to address the budget crisis. It’s not a bad idea.

Here is the entire E-Board take: Houston can’t shortchange the drainage ‘lockbox’ anymore | Editorial.

It is a lousy idea. Hollins is bent on making Mayor Whitmire look bad, if you haven’t figured that out by now. Plus, we didn’t elect Hollins to run the city. The voters overwhelmingly elected Mayor Whitmire to run the city. Hollins has no clue on what it is going to take to get this city’s finances back on track. Hollins is just posturing.

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“Today” is on the flatscreen as always in the morning. Co-Host Craig Melvin is in Milan today, the site of next year’s Winter Olympics. NBC correspondent Stephanie Gosk is in Cortina, also a site for next year’s Olympics. Stephanie was at the downhill skiing venue, and she can certainly ski. Her colleagues all commented on her skiing ability. Nice.

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What a surprise if you are a Paul McCartney and Beatles fan and living in New York City. See this story that I saw this morning about an event in New York City last night:

NEW YORK (AP) — Paul McCartney’s previous New York-area performance took place three years ago at MetLife Stadium, capacity 82,500. His surprise show Tuesday night at the Bowery Ballroom fit, at most, 575.

It was probably less than that since McCartney’s sound board and gear — too much to fit backstage — occupied a portion of the floor space at the venerable downtown theater. The whole thing felt like, and was, a lark. McCartney announced the show just hours before taking the stage.

Like an echo of Beatlemania, the news swept through Manhattan and beyond earlier in the day, sending New Yorkers sprinting down Delancey Street for a chance to snag one of the few tickets at the Bowery. Most in attendance, including McCartney, himself, could hardly believe it was happening.

“So, here we are,” McCartney said, grinning. “Some little gig. New York. Why not?”

Later, he added before launching into “Let Me Roll It”: “I can’t quite believe we’re here, doing this. But we are here, doing this.”

It was not McCartney’s first impromptu concert. The Beatles, of course, famously performed atop the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row in London in 1969. Since then he’s made something of a habit of it on trips to New York.

In 2009, McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater, site of the Beatles’ famous U.S. debut, and performed above the marquee. In 2018, he popped up in Grand Central Terminal to promote the release of his “Egyptian Station.”

With temperatures in the low 30s on Tuesday, McCartney, 82, this time opted for an intimate, indoor show. Tickets were sold only physically at the venue, one per person. All were snapped up within about 30 minutes.

For those quick enough, it was like hitting the lottery.

Amy Jaffe, 69, was at home about 30 blocks north when she saw the announcement on Instagram. “I thought: I can do this,” Jaffe said before the show. “I put on jeans, grabbed a coat, called a Lyft.”

Jaffe has seen McCartney many times before, including with the Beatles in 1964 in Forrest Hills, Queens. But she was still incredulous, smiling and shaking her head: “I don’t actually believe it.”

Phil Sokoloff, 31, was on his way to work nearby when he saw the news. He ran in and told his co-worker, Mat Fuller, and they rushed over to the Bowery Ballroom.

“We just got lucky,” Sokoloff said. “I’m always learning about these things the day after.”

McCartney took the stage roughly on time at 6:30 p.m. with his regular band, along with a three-member horn section. They had only rehearsed once, the day before, McCartney said. Someone shouted: “You don’t need to rehearse!”

If the location was stripped down, the former Beatle didn’t come with a minimized show, packing in a blistering tour through his entire catalog, from Beatles classics to Wings hits. He began with “A Hard Day’s Night” and also performed “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Lady Madonna,” “Jet,” “Get Back,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Let it Be” and “Hey Jude.”

“Blackbird” was a solo number on acoustic guitar, and afterward McCartney reflected on how he wrote it for the Civil Rights Movement, a memory that brought back his first trips to the United States.

“We were just kids,” McCartney said. “I’ve got grandchildren older than that now.”

In the early days, he said, he and John Lennon were always writing for the audience, and the songs were all about reaching out: “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “From Me to You.”

“It had everything to do with the fans, really,” McCartney said.

Before playing the Wings song “Mrs. Vanderbilt,” McCartney spoke of playing it in front of 350,000 people in Kyiv, when Ukraine was exuberant with a newfound freedom. “Let’s hope it gets back to that soon,” he said.

Conversation, mixed with shouts from the audience, peppered the set. After one particularly shrill scream, McCartney responded. “That was a Beatles scream.” Then he asked for more, saying, “OK, let’s get it out of the way. Girls, give me a Beatles scream.” All in attendance obliged.

McCartney also performed the so-called last Beatles song, “ Now and Then,” a ballad penned by Lennon in the late ’70s but only released in 2023 with the help of the some of the technology used in Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary, “ The Beatles: Get Back.” The song made McCartney wistful for his songwriting partner, whom he noted loved New York.

“Let’s hear it for John,” he said.

Here is the entire story: Paul McCartney rocks the Bowery. Inside his surprise NYC concert | AP News.

Wow. That is all one can say. Wow.

Spring Training for the Astros gets underway tomorrow.