Prostitution on Bissonnet, Election Bills, and Goodbye State Inspections

Hey everyone, it's Reheel. I know you're thinking about the long weekend, but a lot happened this week in H-Town, from new bills targeting elections in Harris County to a literary champion of Houston passing away. And there's more freeway construction on the way, but it could be a good thing. I'm bringing in political contributor and Pulitzer Prize finalists Evan Mintz and culture contributor Andrew Shell Dorsey to recap those stories and more. It's Friday, May 26th. I'm Reheel Romsnollie and here's what Houston's talking about. Alright it's a long weekend edition. Andrew Shell, welcome in Evan. How are you? Oh man, we've got an extra day off. How's everybody doing? Well I am doing great. What's up? Let's get it. Well let's start first and foremost, Evan, how are you going to be spending Memorial Day weekend? Well I am a little stressed right now, but proud because I am a solo parent for the weekend as my wife travels off to Prague to provide mental health training for Ukrainian refugees. Wow, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. It is incredible, but it means I'm watching the two kids over Memorial Day weekend. Now we're going up. They care. I know. We're going up to Austin, hanging out with my whole family so it'll be 12 of us in one big Airbnb house, having a lot of fun plus two dogs, but I miss her. So it is a bittersweet weekend. Nice. That's going to be a good weekend. How about you, Andrew Shell? Listen, if you don't know, you're going to know, I am busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. So what I'm going to do this weekend is rest, rest and more rest. I am going to spend a lot of FaceTime with my husband and my son because they really do need it. I appreciate them for holding it down while I have been running and ripping around the city, but I'm going to lay it down. I like that. Hey, you know what? A nice nap and some rest and some catch up time is always worth it. And it's a great weekend to do it. It's been a busy week. So let's recap some of the news that's been happening. Evan, final week of the session and everyone's talking about it. What's your biggest story? Oh my God. This has been an awful legislative session. It really has. Good bills have died and bad bills are headed to the governor's desk. I think two of the worst are the ones that are aimed specifically at Harris County elections. Senate Bill 1750, that would abolish the elections administrator and Senate Bill 1933, that would allow the Secretary of State to remove local election officials. Now the circumstances under which the Secretary of State could do this would be if there's a recurring pattern of problems with election administration, but I'm old enough to remember when Republicans ran elections in Harris County in 2018 and earlier. And there were problems every time. There were long lines every year. There were slow results that even Texas Monthly wrote about. There was the time the warehouse that held all the voting machines burned to the grounds just 51 days before early voting. There are the times when people complained that the machines weren't doing straight to good voting right and in 2012 votes that were counted twice accidentally flipped election results in a constable primary runoff. It just feels like that you can't have an election in Harris County as big as we are without finding one thing going wrong. And I worry that people who care more about partisanship than democracy are going to use this as an excuse to overturn our elections. It really is a threat to self governance and attempt to control Harris County from somewhere else and really this sort of change would have been unthinkable under the Voting Rights Act before it was gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. We are an uncharted territory here and it's a little scary. So Evan, these bills are they unchecked pretty much like they can just literally come in and overturn elections or are these bills more like political points to try to get their side rallied up like look, we're changing things and we're going to make our elections fair. What's the truth in this? You know, every now and then you'll see these bills going through that aim at how elections are administered and there's a lot of worry around them. And in the end, the effect doesn't seem to be too big. But this is the sort of thing where when you're removing election officials, it feels like the sort of thing that could have real ramifications. But when I talk to Democrats, what they're concerned is that even if you have these new authority not really going anywhere and not really using it, it can be used to suppress turnout by just little bits, just shaving a few percentage points in ways that allows Texas to stay red and really keeps Democrats below the threshold they need to flip the state because if you have Harris County turning out at rates, you see like in Dallas or Travis County, basically means Democrats are going to win Texas. And they're not going to let that happen. It's just crazy because listen guys, I live in a world of unicorns and rainbows. And so when I hear things like this, it sounds like a horror movie. And I often say, is it really that deep? But it really is for a lot of people. And it just really lets me and people like me to know that like we got to wake up and pay attention, right? And this is serious. Your voice matters. The power to vote matters. And we need to figure out what can we do to help this? Because this is crazy. Evan, is there going to be any kind of legal action being taken by Harris County now? The county attorney has already said he's going to sue the governor the moment he puts his pen to these bills. So expect to see some litigation happening. What do you think comes from that litigation? You know, as my Torx professor would say, that's for the judge to the side. Ooh. All right, let's go to Andrew Shell's biggest story. What was it? Listen, the biggest story for me this week was Houston police shutting down, bissonnette track at night to fight sex trafficking. Baby, if you did know now you know bissonnette forever, I have been a Houstonian my entire life. I am 43 years old this year. And the first time I ever seen a naked lady was on bissonnette. Okay. And I was a little girl, but now they are finally shutting it down. This came after the mayor Turner stated that this was one of his priorities. And so they have started making efforts to tap down on sex trafficking in the area. They have also including an increasing law enforcement presence, undercover operations and more. Now the main difference this time is the officials are now trying to discourage visitors to the neighborhood using environmental factors. Let me tell you something. If you guys go to TikTok right now and you just search bissonnette, it is crazy. All the videos there. There are people who are from Houston who are talking about bissonnette like it's a wonderful place to be showing these videos. And now social media is powerful. So now more traffic is now coming to bissonnette and law enforcement is saying they're not having it. Another good thing that I thought about this that I've read here, they are now patrol officers now spurred the idea of block cating the streets after business hours. And they are saying that they are notifying the local business owners and the business owners are with it. They are supporting. They are helping. They are into the idea. So now you can't get on bissonnette after 10. Yeah, they're putting blockades and no more car traffic, which is great. And they're using police overtime to make sure this happens. But what's the long term solution? Are they really going to do this every single night and put blockades up? There needs to be actual solutions that solve this area, right? Like it's not just blockades every night, right? But what can they do? This profession is the oldest, oldest professional life. And although bissonnette has been uncharted territory forever, it has just been like the place that you know, didn't go to get what you need. Amen. But what can we do? Is this going to stop you? Like you said, what's the real solution here? I do like the fact that some business owners are stating that they are going to block off their parking lots as well. So I don't know, but we have to stay tuned to keep watching on what's happening on bissonnette. Mm hmm. I know a bunch of listeners are going to TikTok right now, Andrew Shell, and searching bissonnette for those who live and see it. You have to go because it's crazy. All of this stuff has been going on for years. It's just now we can see it. Absolutely. My biggest story of the week is more construction, but this is for a good, good future project in future population. Text.has begun construction on a new highway along spur five, which will connect I 45 and the six and south loop. It's going to be eight lanes deep and it's going to help with that never ending congestion on I 45. This project is going to be about 3.4 miles and eventually we'll go a little bit longer as well. So anytime I 45 is crazy, you can just cut through this little new spur area and you can get to pareland. You can get to gavelson a little bit faster. This is awesome. Okay, because the Texas Clear lanes program is thinking about the future and that's where this new construction is getting approved through. Text. knows that it's going to be a rough future here for the city of Houston in terms of population. More cars on the road. So they're thinking ahead and they're getting more lanes or getting more bypass areas. So we can one fight traffic and two also be ready for the hurricane evacuations that will eventually come. Okay, I know you excited and I'm happy to hear, but I immediately thought about the spur five and how little it is and how to make it massive. How long is this going to take? Because you know, it gets worse before it gets better. And so I'm really thinking about, okay, I'm with it. But how long is this going to take? That's the million dollar question. I'm skeptical of any new freeways that you get inside the loop. You know, that's not the place that you're going to be putting new concrete. That's the place you want to put new homes and businesses. That's not how you design a city. You know, Evan, I just noticed something when you and I are excited about something, where heel is like, man, now look how exciting he is. And we're both like, I don't know. You should never be excited about new construction. I will give you that. All right, especially on our freeways and our roads. I'm with you on that one. I'm just excited that somebody's thinking about this big population boom that's going to happen every single year and we're going to have more cars on the road. So might as well think ahead right now because those eight lanes will help whenever they're built in 20 years, because that's how long it takes. But I like the forward thinking more than anything. Okay. I'm waiting. Let's go. All right, Evan, let's talk about your most overlooked story of the week. My most overlooked story of the week is a sad one. It's the passing of John Novo Lomax. Now this was a big story among riders in Houston, but I think for the general population, it might have been missed. And I'd say don't miss it. Read Mimi Swartz's obituary for Lomax in Texas monthly. For those who don't know, Lomax was a prolific writer and he died at 53, all too young. He'd been riding in Houston since 2001 for the Houston press and Houstonia and Texas highways and Texas monthly. He also had some national presence and spin in New York Times in the Village Voice in LA Weekly and wrote two books about Houston about dive bars and about murder and crime. And I think more than any other writer I've seen in our lifetime, he wrote about Houston. He would reflect it on our city. This isn't a real place of navel gazing. People move here for work. They move along the freeways. They don't think about the world around them. John Novo Lomax looked at the city from the perspective of a person. He'd walked the length of West Timer and wrote about it. He wrote about the couches that you find on the sides of the streets. He wrote about what it really meant to be here. And there's just this one line at the end of Mimi's piece that I want to quote. I think I can speak for so many friends and acquaintances when I say we all wanted so much more for him. Maybe fame and fortune sure because his talents warranted it. But more than that, the peace and quiet that might have settled his mind and heart. So that we could have had more time with him. More time in which he could show us what he needed to see and told us what he wanted us to know. I'm really going to miss Lomax. He was one of a kind. And John was kind enough to do an episode here on Citycast with us as well. We've linked that in our show notes. It's a really interesting listen and really captures his personality. We are going to miss him. Alright, P. Andrew, how about you? What was your most overlooked story of the week? Listen, Houston, we have a problem in a Forbes study. It shows Texas ranked number one for the worst drivers in the country. In the country, guys, we have a parablam. It shows Texas leading the country in fatal accidents involving a drowsy driver and a driver going the wrong way on a road for every 100,000 drivers in Texas. 17.24 are involved in drunk driving related fatal accidents, which is the third highest in the country. This is a parablam, guys. I know, I know it's hard to take in. It's hard to stomach, but I must share with you some of the notes from the study as well. It shows Texas is also followed by our Eastern neighbor, Louise Yana ranked to have the second worst drivers in the country, followed by Kansas, followed by Oklahoma, followed by Kentucky, and the number of fatal car accidents annually in the U.S. is trending up. According to the Forbes advisor, they reported 10% increase in fatal crashes from 2020 to 2021. Y'all, we got to do something about this. I know what we can do. Take away phones and cars. Cars are a good start. That is a good start. There's a lot to be said about the way we design our roads to facilitate speeding or safer driving. Often, the mandate is to build roads that move people more and faster. That's an always safest. But maybe at the end of the day, people need to stop being shitty drivers. Pay attention to what's going on around you. Don't speed. Don't get mad when someone cuts you off. We're all going the same way. Absolutely. We all got to get there. We just all want to go home at the end of the night. That's it. My most overlooked story is also about bad drivers, but not in terms of how they drive, but what they drive because a new bill is eliminating state inspections. You no longer have to make that appointment. Go into the mechanic shop for 15 minutes, sometimes up to an hour because it just takes that much longer because of people are in line. You will still have to pay an annual registration fee and Harris County drivers will still have to get emissions testing done. The bill is expected to get signed here pretty soon by Governor Abbott. Now safety issues. That means no more state inspections. What's going to happen when you have broken tail lights? Your tires are worn out. The biggest thing for law enforcement, window tint. Now who's going to be checking that super dark window tint? Because when you do go get that state inspection, I get it. You can tell the inspector like, hey, yeah, I didn't get this window tint and they kind of passed your car anyways. But now there's nobody checking window tints as well. That is going to happen here pretty shortly. September 1st, no more state inspections. I'd really be interested in seeing an assessment of what impact this has on the state. Maybe it doesn't really do anything. Maybe it has a difference. I want someone out there studying this. Yeah, guys, this makes me nervous. Why? Because I'm a girl. Listen, I break all the rules, right? I don't like following any type of rules and regulations, but I feel that some things are put in place that keep us in line or, you know, and I feel like removing this for some reason, it just feels wrong. I'm sorry. I cannot explain it. It just feels it feels wrong. So there's only 11 states that require inspections still and now Texas will not be one of them. There is a number out there that says that safety inspections do lead to 5.5% fewer fatalities per year, which when you round up all the numbers, it goes to about 261 less dead Texans, right? So there is an impact, but now we'll really see the impact for how this applies to Texas and not just the averages from other states. Okay. Let's go to our moment of joy. Evan, what sparks of joy for you? My moment of joy was seeing this week Houston based Axiom Space Company send a mission to the International Space Station. They used a SpaceX capsule and rocket to send a crew of four to American astronauts, to Saudi astronauts to connect to the International Space Station. And the whole thing reminded me of this Iggy Pop song called Houston is Hot Tonight, Arabian Sheeks and Money Up in the Sky. They've got a moon man on the telephone, Project X. Hey, Houston control. It's like what's happening. Sometimes I worry is Houston still where it's happening during the oil booms in the 80s or the early 20s or during the Apollo mission and the shuttle mission really feels like the world orbits around Houston. And I worry, are we getting away from that? Is the rise of renewables mean it's going somewhere else? The rise of commercial space agencies mean that it's going somewhere else. But when I see a Houston based company send people into orbit, it feels like we still got it. Yep, we still got it. And hopefully one day us Houstonians will be launching to orbit, right? Who knows? I'm not going to try. 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