Astros New Leader, Justice a Century Later, and Gym Fears

Hey everyone, we have a major update to a story from a century ago that our history classes forgot to teach us about. Plus that dreaded downtown traffic is about to get a lot worse. And I explain why I'm afraid to walk around the gym. Producer Carlyon Jones joins me to talk about some of the stories impacting Htown this week. It's Tuesday, November 14th, 2023. I'm Raheel Rumsonoli and here's what Houston's talking about. Carly, I've been reevaluating life here and I love what I do. I love working with this team. I love where I am in life. But if I could go back, I should have been a college football coach because Jimbo Fisher who used to coach a Texas A&M Aggies, he was fired over the weekend and he's going to get $75 million for his troubles. That means every single penny that he was supposed to get on this contract that he signed, he is going to get paid just because he got fired. We should have been a college football coach. Oh my God, that is crazy. The money college football coaches make, I think it's your homelessness at this point. This is crazy. $75 million for football. Yeah. College football is known for this where they will give their coaches long term contracts and as soon as things go bad, they get fired, they have to pay out every single penny and here's the best part. Jimbo can go get another job and that won't be offset. Usually what happens is let's say you get another job and you get paid a million dollars a year. So A&M wouldn't be on the hook for that. No, this one, he can double dip. So hey, yeah, he finessed the game. Congratulations to him. But I just wanted to start the show with that and that, look, we should have been a college football coach because that is why it's not too late. Let's go back to college. Come on. So Carly, start us off here. What is the biggest story that you want to talk about? Okay, so Veterans Day just passed and in light of that, I wanted to highlight this story that I saw in the Houston Chronicle. The Army is finally overturning the convictions of a hundred and ten black soldiers in the case of the 1917 Houston race riots. Now a lot of people don't know this story. I have to go educate myself on it as well. So it's understandable. But I feel like this is an important story to know. So let me give you all some background real quick. The 24th Infantry Regiment, which is a part of the Buffalo Soldiers, was ordered to guard the construction of Camp Logan, which was a part of what we know today as Memorial Park. So basically during this time while they were guarding this camp, they were experiencing a ton of discrimination and it boiled over August 23rd of 1917. And 156 black soldiers basically marched to downtown and it sparked a two hour long riot that ended in 17 deaths, which included some white civilians, Houston police officers, and Camp Logan soldiers as well. So after this happened, 110 of the soldiers were convicted of mutiny. 63 of them were sentenced to life sentences in prison, and 19 of them were hanged and executed. Now almost a century later, the Army is finally citing false testimonies, a lack of physical evidence, and also bad representation for the black soldiers to overturn this conviction. It's a long time coming and I'm happy that it's finally happened, but I wish it would have happened during their lifetimes where they could have actually had the justice and be freed or anything like that because you know, they're all passed on at this point. But this was such an interesting story to me. And I really wanted to highlight it. Yeah. And what you started with is what I want to start with as well is that you didn't know about the story. I didn't know about the story. And I think this speaks to more about what we're taught in school, right? I know who the Buffalo Soldiers are, but I had no idea this event even happened, right? So it's almost like we get a picked out point of history, right? Like, hey, this is what you're going to learn. And the rest is kind of up to you. So it's nuts that we're just learning about this. And you and I, like we both went to college. We have both taken a lot of history classes. And I would say we're pretty, you know, in tune with what's happening here around the city and sort of the history of it. But to not even know about this kind of speaks to the volume of we only get a filtered version of history in school. Absolutely. Because I don't understand how we don't know about something that happened at home. You know, like it's so close to home. Like, and we don't even know about it. That's kind of just insane to me that it took a Hustle Chronicle story to educate me on something that I should have learned in school years ago. But yeah. Yeah. And I know a lot of people are like, yeah, well, duh. This is what happens. This is why public education is so flawed at times. And so many people are fighting, you know, to fix this. But again, this just shows you this is another example of it. So, um, pretty crazy story there. And I know the family members of those who have now received justice are very happy about the ruling. And that's good for them. But man, just yeah, heartbreaking that it comes so later on. And this is more of a justice related story and clearing up their names as opposed to, you know, they're free now. So that's crazy. All right. Carly, my biggest story. There are a few things in Houston that we hate with a passion, right? Traffic being the biggest one in my opinion. Well, downtown traffic is almost another level of hate sometimes. And guess what? Traffic in downtown is about to get really, really, really, really, really bad because the controversial I 45 expansion project is going to get underway with community meetings starting here in December. And the construction is going to kick off an early 2024. Now this project is going to expand lanes on I 45, which is much needed because of the increase in population. And just in general, because it is so hard to get around on I 45 during rush hour. And it's going to open up more lanes all the way up to beltway eight. This is great, right? Like we're good with that. The expansion is good. Traffic is going to suck. Can you guess how many years this project is going to take? I don't know. Like at this point, they take so long with construction. I'm going to guess like 15. You actually overshot there. It's going to take between seven and 10 years. But if I'm a betting man, I'm kind of going with your number. I'm going closer to 15 because there's going to be delays as always. I mean, just think about it. I feel like 290 has been under construction for 30 years. Exactly. I 10 was under construction for 15 years. It seems like so. It's never going to stop. But this project is really controversial, as I mentioned, because the expansion is going to kick out a lot of businesses and homeowners. And this is why it was fought so hard not to do. But finally, they agreed with the city to get this project done. So it is starting and in 2024, early 2024, construction is going to be a nightmare and traffic is going to be a nightmare. That sounds terrible. I mean, I guess it's like it has to get worse before it gets better. But at the same time, when you're like mentioned in the business owners and the people that have to move out of their houses, they might have been in for years and years of their life. It's kind of like, I don't have to feel about this one, honestly. But it's happening. I don't really have a choice. But to just go with it at this point, huh? Yep. That's exactly it. And they are going to be doing it in phases. So hopefully it's a little bit smoother. But if we have to think about a major construction project, think about the 59-610 project that they did it in phases, but it was still a nightmare getting around 59-610, that intersection right there by the Galleria, Chimmy Rock area. So we're in for it here, Carly. It's always even bad if they close off one little road. If they close off an exit, it's terrible down here. So I can't just, I can't even imagine it's about to be a mess. It's about to be a mess. Okay, let's wrap it fire through some stories here and turn the mood around because I know you and I are like, oh my god, this is going to be so bad getting to downtown and getting to businesses in Edo. So let's wrap it fire some good stories here, right? To maybe turn the mood around. Houston was named a top 10 best warm winter destination by Wallet Hub. Coming in at number eight, we beat out Phoenix and LA. How about that? Look at that. What? What? And we also came in as number one for easiest to get to and travel costs in the winter. So shout out to a Bush airport and hobby airport, making things really easy. Now we did lose to Dallas and San Antonio. Unfortunately, in the state as a top destination for warm winters. But we're still looking at the top 10 that's pretty cool. The rest of the list here for the top 10 includes cities like Phoenix. As I mentioned, Las Vegas came in at number one. San Diego was number two. Austin was number three. Dallas for San Antonio five. So three four five going to our neighbors here in Texas. Charleston came in at number six. San Francisco was number seven. All right. So of those 10 cities, which one are you picking for a warm weather winter vacation? First of all, I don't know. Is it good that we're like good for warm winters? Like that sounds like global warming problems. I don't know if that's a good thing to be like at the top. I think warmer than yeah, warmer than our neighbors to the north, right? Like warmer than Chicago and New York. So we are warmer in that sense. Like think about it around Thanksgiving. We're going to be in the 70s, which is great. Okay. Okay. I see where it going here. Okay. So if I had a pick a place out of that list, I would probably go with San Diego because I haven't been to San Diego yet. And I love California. So I feel like it'll be a nice little beach vacation away. Like, you know, I don't know about the beach in the winter time, but if they're saying it's going to be warm still, it might not be that bad. So I'm going to go with San Diego. Okay. Nice. I've done L.A. and San Francisco in December and L.A. is warm. Like it's okay. You can still go out. You can still stand on the beaches. You can't go in the water. It's impossible. The Pacific water is too cold at that point. But San Francisco is freezing. I don't know why they like we were in layers in San Francisco. And this was early December. So yeah, I don't know why San Francisco is on that list. It is cold up there. It is cold up there in the summer. Yeah, I was about to say I went this summer and it was like actually cold the whole time. Every down there was, yeah, it was literally summertime like July. So yeah, they lied right there. You know what? That's the West Coast bias right there. West Coast bias. Okay. My second story here for you, the largest princess cruise line ship, the regal princess has now docked in Galveston and we'll be sailing seven to twelve day cruises, which is really cool for over 3500 guests until March of 2024. Now it's going to do a total of 21 voyages to the western Caribbean. And that's a lot of people going from the port of Galveston to these destinations on this awesome cruise line. So Carly, this is a question that I think we've talked about off air, but never on air. Are we pro cruises? Yes, I love cruises and I'm excited about this because I always go on carnival cruise ships and I've been really wanting to like expand to different brands of cruise ships just to see what other people have to offer. So I'm excited that another cruise line is coming here and I'm going to get to like, you know, go check it out. I'm hoping that they go somewhere different than the carnival cruise ships though, because at this point, I feel like I've been on each island that carnival offers. So I want something a little bit different. So I'm excited about this. This is really cool. Yeah, so the minimum is a seven day expedition and you can get room starting at 499 for seven day cruise. That is wild. So Princess has sailed out of Galveston before and they do, but the regal princess, which is the big one now, that one is sailing here, so that's pretty cool. I love cruises, but seven day cruises, I don't know, we've done a seven day cruise before and I think by day five, I was over like, okay, this is I'm good. I don't mind like a four day one. Like boom, you get in, you go to a couple places and you're out. The seven day one got a little exhausting. Okay, I'm opposite. I'm a seven day cruise girl. Like I don't want to go if it's less than seven days because I've done like the three day or maybe a four day before and then after that, I think we did a five day and then we got to the seven day and I was like, okay, this is perfect. Like by the seven day, I'm really ready to go home, but like I get to enjoy the vacation where I can like go on the islands a couple days and then also really enjoy the boat a couple days. I feel like the other ones you move back and forth too much. It's too much moving around. It's yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's not much relaxing on the four or five day ones. You're like, you're a boom, you're only get one day at sea on the way out. You're at two destinations and then you're back. Exactly. Yeah, it's quick. It's definitely quick. Okay, I want to do a sports story here because this is a major one. The Houston Astros have named Joe Aspada as their new manager keeping a consistent force with the team. Now, he's been with the team since 2018 as a bench coach and actually came over from the New York Yankees. So this makes it a little bit sweeter because we get to gloat on our rivals that look, you should have kept this guy and we actually got him and he's our new manager. Now, he's a guy that the players love and he's also a good blend of analytics and personal skills, something that a lot of MLB teams are looking for, especially the Houston Astros. So a big update here. We have a new head man here for our Houston Astros. I love that. The Astros are like, you know, always transforming, always making the team, you know, better and better and hopefully all these improvements that we continuously make put us back where we need to be next year, you know. I love that. Yep. A players coach and this will keep that momentum going, the golden era going hopefully. Now they got to figure out, you know, figure out the future in terms of some players, settle that roster out. So a lot left to be done and hopefully we get one more world series appearance and a title here shortly. So I'm excited. This is the guy that I wanted and I can't wait. So this is big news and good news and happy news here for our Houston Astros. Okay. Carly, I'm going to give you a moment here. You can air out some grievances that you have. What's a gripe? What's on your mind? Tell me. Okay. So this is like fresh dating to me like seriously at this point. Last Sunday, I believe. I was at a pay of use like homecoming and they had like a trail ride that I went to which we were out there having so much fun and then a mass shooting occurred while we were out there. Everybody's takes off running. It was it was a mess and it was really scary like seven people were shot during this the shooting at the trail ride and then this past Sunday, one juvenile was killed and four people were injured in a shooting at a flea market My grievance here is that I didn't just so tired of like going places and having to kind of like live in fear almost. It's like you can enjoy life and just have fun without being worried about people bringing a gun and being reckless in the area that you're at. Even at the trail ride, when we went in, they had people searching prices. There were people like there to like be security. There were police officers out there and it's like it still happened. So it's like at this point, I don't know what to do and it's really frustrating because it's like you want to enjoy life. You want to be with your friends and family but you never know what's going to happen. Like you're not safe anywhere. Yeah, that's the frustrating part right now for a lot of people and I'm glad that you came out okay and everything at the homecoming trail ride and I think people don't realize that fear until you're part of it, right? Like just going through that motion of oh my god, there's gunshots and we're running and there's this masked crowd and that fear almost lives with you forever, right? Like I've been involved in one where I was at a park and there was a shooting and we all like everyone kids, we have to grab kids and just run and it is terrifying and that always lives in the back of your mind and when you go to a place with that many people, you go, okay, I just got like what's my exit route, what's my plan? So it is frustrating and it is scary times for sure. Yeah, I think that that's a good point that you just brung up is that whenever you go places, I guess just come up with the exit route at this point because if you don't then you know you're going to be scrambling trying to get out of there like we were running and I know that like I twisted my ankle, I fell and twisted my ankle, it was like three times the size and I've just been stuck in my house since because I've been trying to get the swelling down but it's yeah, it's terrifying, it's so sad and heartbreaking and I just pray for our community that we can like start going places and actually enjoying being together without it being frightening, like terrifying, you know, like yeah. I don't know how to transition to my gripe here because mine isn't as serious so I'm just going to do it. So I have been working out at home for the last three years of course since the pandemic and before the pandemic I used to go to a gym on my way home, I love going to the gym, I like the energy of being at a gym and of course all the equipment and all that stuff right. So I recently went back to a gym here and I've been going for the last two weeks and Carly I think the internet has ruined the gym for me because everywhere I go around the gym people are recording their workouts right and which is fine like you want to you know like whether be you want to flex on Instagram or you just want to make sure that you have good proper form all that stuff. I'm okay with that. I don't care if people are recording their workouts but where my fear is I've seen so many videos for the last two years of people walking and just you know accidentally looking at somebody working out or watching somebody work out you're like oh like what is this person doing and then you end up as a meme on the internet like somebody calling you a stitch which I still don't know what that means but Carly helped me here because I literally walk around and fear at the gym and I put my head down I don't look at anybody because I don't want to end up on a TikTok or an Instagram reel and then it takes one person to recognize me like oh that's the CityCash Houston hose what a creeper and I just don't want to do that so now I'm terrified and I literally go in I do my workout in a corner I try not to move that much but that's just my gripe I know it's first world problems but it is what it is. Oh that's hilarious I think that's the only way that you're gonna be able to get past it is staying in that corner like just to the side just just bring all your equipment over there because besides that you can go have to go back home because it's not gonna stop it's the new age it's like everybody's trying to be personal trainers and get their like content out there so it's not stopping any time soon. And what sucks even more is that my workouts I try to do a lot of different workouts that I see on Instagram from trainers that I appreciate right like really high-level trainers so sometimes the movements and exercises can be kind of like we're just guy doing so I don't want to end up as that guy either where somebody just records me doing some kind of work out and they're like oh look at this guy what is what I was literally about to say that because I was about to say don't do anything crazy in there either because if you fall you slip like I'm telling you somebody's recording somewhere and you're gonna be on TikTok like it's no way not helping me you're supposed to help me here Carly you know just be you oh my gosh yeah that's my that's my gripe right now and you know what it is what it is and I I'm still gonna go I guess when I do go viral don't make too much fun of me okay I got you my gosh Carly thank you so much for bringing all these important stories to the table here's to a good week here on CityCats Houston all right see y'all later bye that was producer Carly on jones you can find all the stories we discussed with the links in our show notes hey thanksgiving is next week and I want to know how do you celebrate do you gather for a big lunch or dinner or are you heading out to one of the few restaurants that are open around Houston let us know with the contact info in our show notes so we can feature your traditions in a future episode that we'll do it for today thank you for listening and I hope you learned something new what is the biggest story that you're you're good at