Mayor White and the shirtless neighbor
As a politician, you dread those made-for- YouTube moments. Mayor Bill White had one of those earlier
this week. There he was, launching the Houston's million tree program. He was standing at the podium, near Memorial Park, looking all Mayoral.. when.. a guy who lives across the street walked over. He went right up to the mayor, sans shirt, and said something like "There are cars parked on my property, you need to move them." The Mayor was pretty calm, and the man was quickly hustled off by HPD officers.
Following that, the Mayor quipped, "I thought about showing up without a shirt... but my son says he wouldn't be able to go to school and I couldn't be his father anymore." You can see the video via abc13.com here.
The back story is that my friend lives next door to the shirtless man! He's apparently well known for giving his opinion, having shown up at my friend's house to offer his own opinions during a Super Bowl party one year. The city folks wanted to point out that all the cars were parked on the city's right of way and none were in the man's yard. Still, it's good to know that citizens are entitled to their opinions and others are entitled to YouTube.
Mayor White is cool!
I am proud that he is our Mayor.
Posted by: Jeem | October 08, 2008 at 05:43 PM
Why on earth does the city need to spend money better spent on police on planting a bunch of trees? People will plant their own trees, developers will plant trees, trees will plant trees, squirrels will plant trees, God will plant trees, birds will plant trees, do-gooders will plant trees, run-off from rain will plant trees, accidents will plant trees, dogs will plant trees, hurricanes and tornadoes and fires will plant trees, homeless people will plant trees, wind will plant trees, Johnny Appleseed will plant trees, cemeteries will plant trees, nurseries will plant trees.
So why does the city need to spend money planting trees? Stop spending public money for stupid purposes!
Posted by: W. Zeis | October 08, 2008 at 06:28 PM
Trees are part of our environmental future. Without them, humanity will be extinct.
A wasteful use of public money is to bail out individuals who bought the American dream who at the time knew they could not afford it and overextend themselves on a daily basis and want the government, i.e., public money, to bail them out. A waste is saving the individuals who did not evacuate with the mandated order and needed rescuing. A waste is the thousands of individuals who will not fix their own fences because they want FEMA to do it. A waste is the thousands of individuals who will not go buy a blue tarp because they want the County to buy it and install it for them. Need I go on?
Posted by: Houstonian | October 08, 2008 at 06:42 PM
. . . . but I am, as well, proud of our mayor for his infinite coolness!
Posted by: Houstonian | October 08, 2008 at 06:43 PM
Humanity would be extinct without trees, plants, algae, and whatever produces oxygen from carbon dioxide. My point was that we have a sufficiency of sources to plant trees; we don't need government expenditures to do it, unless the government wants to reward certain friends in the tree-producing business. We can argue about other government waste. "Government waste" is redundant, yes?
Posted by: W. Zeis | October 08, 2008 at 07:33 PM
By the way, Miya Shay, qui bono? Who benefits from this city expenditure of nearly a million dollars? The Sisters of Mercy? Not likely. Which corporation is providing the goods?
Posted by: W. Zeis | October 08, 2008 at 07:46 PM
I think Mayor White is great. I wonder where the heck the Mayor's security detail was? If I was Mayor White I would be pretty upset that they did not stop the man.
Posted by: Hailey | October 08, 2008 at 08:06 PM
After seeing the video I still think the Mayor's security details should have stoped the man before he got that close to the Mayor. It wasnt until the mayor was intreupted that 2 of the officers did anything.
Posted by: Hailey | October 08, 2008 at 08:13 PM
Hailey - Honey - use spell check if you can't spell interrupted. It makes you look ignorant.
Posted by: PeggieC | October 08, 2008 at 10:19 PM
i think most of us knew what she meant....no reason to get all corrective here
Posted by: cameron | October 08, 2008 at 10:27 PM
how dare you call someone you don't know ignorant
Posted by: taina | October 09, 2008 at 07:13 AM
Taina is ignorant of the definition of the word ignorant...
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ignorant
Posted by: Robert | October 09, 2008 at 04:06 PM
Research indicates that while Houston's existing tree canopy removes 83 million pounds of ozone, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and other pollutants--for a savings of $208 million annually--the loss of trees is contributing to the region's air quality problems. Had the existing tree cover in 1972 been maintained, it would have removed 98.5 million pounds of pollutants for a value of $247 million annually. That's an important point for Houston, which has failed to meet air quality standards under the federal Clean Air Act.
Houston's trees also are reducing stormwater runoff, energy use, and the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere. The study shows Houston's existing tree cover reduces the need for stormwater management by 2.4 billion cubic feet per peak storm event, saving the area $1.33 billion in one-time construction costs. The region's trees reduce the amount of energy used in residential neighborhoods, saving consumers $26 million annually. And 10.8 million tons of carbon are being sequestered annually by the area's trees.
Posted by: rc | February 10, 2009 at 02:24 AM