The plan is being implemented. The premiminary phase of burying utility cables and eliminating above-ground telephone and electric supply poles has begun. Trees growing in the right-of-way have been destroyed before the trenching began.
Those trees will not be replanted, by the way. Where the underground conduit goes in, it is covered with concrete, so any future right-of-way landscaping will have to be shallow-rooted. Are the tree owners compenated in any way for having their trees cut down? I doubt it, though in one case I know of, the trees were planted in a position to somwwhat reduce cooling bills for the building they shaded.
There are more McDougal Realty signs up in the downtown area. Which is the synergy effect by which McDougal profits multiplyvariously from every activity in which they engage.
McDougal;s renovation of the Lubbock Hotel is nearing completion after stagnating for a couple of years.
There are other downtown renovations ompleted or in progress. TTU is occupying the old Southwestern Public Service / Excel Energy building it acquired as part of the LP&L buy-out deal. The county is fixing the roof of the old post office on Broadway; beautiful building, wish it could be put to use; far more distinguished looking courtroom in that building than the low-ceilinged, carpeted courtrooms at the courthouse across the street.
There have been demolitions. The old Chamber of Commerce building on the corner of what used to be Municiple Square was torn down months ago.
To be continued...
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Political Uses of the Fait Accompli
"Fait accompli" means a act already done.
Parents, some of them, know the value of the fait accompli. Removing a band-aide is accomplished with the least fuss and anticipation of pain if the parent just grabs one end and pulls it off fast, maybe while talking about something else.
Tooth pulling is the same. grab a loose tooth telling the child that the parent wants to see how loose it is, then a sudden yank, and the deed is done with a minimum of tears and worry.
Or getting into a fight. Some people have to work themselves up to a fight, make faces, yell, pound the chest preparatory to the actual fisticuffs itself. While with others you find yourself lying on the ground, blood pouring from nose and mouth, and then you realize you had just been in a fight and lost before you knew it had begun.
For some years now, there has been a mastermind in city government who understands voter resistance and the fait accompli. I say "a mastermind." It may be a cadre, the last two city managers, some higher-up in city administration, and/or Mayor Martin.
If we can't precisely identify who the mastermind is, we can see their handy work. Normally, things do not move at light-speed at the city. But sometimes they do, and those are the instances I'm talking about.
If the city moves slowly when they do something that offends a block of voters, voter resistance can build, grow and organize. The city doesn't have that problem with a fait accompli: what's done is done, and once a thing is crushed into ravel and sand there is no puttng it back and less weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Some instances I've identified; the footprints of the mastermind--
Item: The razing of the little park at 9th & K.
Item: The demolition of South Beach on Crickets Ave..
Item: Destruction of the civic center fountain and park.
Item: Demolition and filling in of the old Lubbock swimming center at Mackenzie Park.
Item: Undermining of resistance to the abandonment of the city health department via the bootstrapping I wrote about in my previous blog.
Parents, some of them, know the value of the fait accompli. Removing a band-aide is accomplished with the least fuss and anticipation of pain if the parent just grabs one end and pulls it off fast, maybe while talking about something else.
Tooth pulling is the same. grab a loose tooth telling the child that the parent wants to see how loose it is, then a sudden yank, and the deed is done with a minimum of tears and worry.
Or getting into a fight. Some people have to work themselves up to a fight, make faces, yell, pound the chest preparatory to the actual fisticuffs itself. While with others you find yourself lying on the ground, blood pouring from nose and mouth, and then you realize you had just been in a fight and lost before you knew it had begun.
For some years now, there has been a mastermind in city government who understands voter resistance and the fait accompli. I say "a mastermind." It may be a cadre, the last two city managers, some higher-up in city administration, and/or Mayor Martin.
If we can't precisely identify who the mastermind is, we can see their handy work. Normally, things do not move at light-speed at the city. But sometimes they do, and those are the instances I'm talking about.
If the city moves slowly when they do something that offends a block of voters, voter resistance can build, grow and organize. The city doesn't have that problem with a fait accompli: what's done is done, and once a thing is crushed into ravel and sand there is no puttng it back and less weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Some instances I've identified; the footprints of the mastermind--
Item: The razing of the little park at 9th & K.
Item: The demolition of South Beach on Crickets Ave..
Item: Destruction of the civic center fountain and park.
Item: Demolition and filling in of the old Lubbock swimming center at Mackenzie Park.
Item: Undermining of resistance to the abandonment of the city health department via the bootstrapping I wrote about in my previous blog.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Behind the Scenes Machinations to Close City Health Dept.
They say you can't fight city hall. Sure you can. You just can't win, unless they want you to.
Last year it was announced that the City of Lubbock Health Department would be shut down. Before that announcement and since, the machinations to close it have not stopped.
This last week, an article appeared in the newspaper about the building, attacking it on the basis of age and efficiency and reporting that it is barely occupied. About 12% occupied, the article said.
And Paul Beane added his two cents calling the building "old and ragged." One wonders if he was thinking of himself.
Well, hell, why is the building onl;y 12% occupied, assuming that to be correct?
Simple. Before the announcement, before the city council had a chance to vote, already the city manager was moving departments out of the building. That move-out has not stopped.
First it was codes and all their files. Then it was various sub-units of health, then vital statistics. This year vector control has been moved out, even though they did not occupy much of the building itself but the outbuilding where chemicals were stored. Even the big tractor that had been in a fenced off area for years has been moved.
To put it simply, the city manager (with allies on the council) have been moving everything they can out of the health department building and environs in order to circumvent public opposition to health department closure!
One warm Sunday several weeks ago I was cycling by the health department building. As I passed the mass of gray painted natural gas pipes for the building, I heard deep hissing. That was caused by the flow of natural gas into the building. Why, one may ask, is a building on an 80 degree Sunday afternoon consuming natural gas? A lot of natural gas?
Obvously, someone did not turn the thermostat down when employees left on Friday. My opinion is that it was not an oversight but a direct order by the city manager's office intended to maximize utility usage in order to justify a decision to abandon the building. I don't care how old the building is, it is not that inefficient.
And let us look at where those city departments evacuated from the health department building are now located. Some are shoehorned into the old building on 10th Street that had housed the SBA and then First State Bank offices that was acquired by the city last year as part of the plan to close the health department. That building is itself about 50 years old and has inadequate parking -- each day 20-30 vehicles overflow into a lot that does not belong to the city, which will not continue for long.
The string pullers at city hall always find a way to have their own way.
It's like capturing a fortress. You may be unable to openly storm the walls, but you can tunnel under like so many moles and eventually the walls will fall, undermined from below.
Last year it was announced that the City of Lubbock Health Department would be shut down. Before that announcement and since, the machinations to close it have not stopped.
This last week, an article appeared in the newspaper about the building, attacking it on the basis of age and efficiency and reporting that it is barely occupied. About 12% occupied, the article said.
And Paul Beane added his two cents calling the building "old and ragged." One wonders if he was thinking of himself.
Well, hell, why is the building onl;y 12% occupied, assuming that to be correct?
Simple. Before the announcement, before the city council had a chance to vote, already the city manager was moving departments out of the building. That move-out has not stopped.
First it was codes and all their files. Then it was various sub-units of health, then vital statistics. This year vector control has been moved out, even though they did not occupy much of the building itself but the outbuilding where chemicals were stored. Even the big tractor that had been in a fenced off area for years has been moved.
To put it simply, the city manager (with allies on the council) have been moving everything they can out of the health department building and environs in order to circumvent public opposition to health department closure!
One warm Sunday several weeks ago I was cycling by the health department building. As I passed the mass of gray painted natural gas pipes for the building, I heard deep hissing. That was caused by the flow of natural gas into the building. Why, one may ask, is a building on an 80 degree Sunday afternoon consuming natural gas? A lot of natural gas?
Obvously, someone did not turn the thermostat down when employees left on Friday. My opinion is that it was not an oversight but a direct order by the city manager's office intended to maximize utility usage in order to justify a decision to abandon the building. I don't care how old the building is, it is not that inefficient.
And let us look at where those city departments evacuated from the health department building are now located. Some are shoehorned into the old building on 10th Street that had housed the SBA and then First State Bank offices that was acquired by the city last year as part of the plan to close the health department. That building is itself about 50 years old and has inadequate parking -- each day 20-30 vehicles overflow into a lot that does not belong to the city, which will not continue for long.
The string pullers at city hall always find a way to have their own way.
It's like capturing a fortress. You may be unable to openly storm the walls, but you can tunnel under like so many moles and eventually the walls will fall, undermined from below.
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