Elon Musk’s $760M flood tunnel pitch raises eyebrows
It appears Elon Musk’s Boring Firm would possibly quickly be constructing tunnels in H-town.
Musk’s firm has proposed developing two 12-foot-wide flood mitigation tunnels below Houston’s Buffalo Bayou watershed for about $760 million, with Congressman Wesley Hunt serving to steer the pitch.
Although far cheaper than the unique multi-decade county-led tunnel plan –and far bigger – some specialists query whether or not the scaled-down tunnels can be ample for main flooding occasions. Extra considerations embody the Boring Firm’s lack of related expertise, restricted public transparency and the bypassing of ordinary aggressive bidding.
As excessive storms stay a part of Houston’s future, this undertaking proposes a novel however controversial method to flood resilience.
Per an investigation by The Texas Newsroom and the Houston Chronicle, Musk and West have been pushing state and native officers to rent Musk’s Boring Co. to construct the tunnels.
In the meantime, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whose employees met with Hunt’s staff through the legislative session, is open to the plan.
It stays to be seen how the plan performs out or how Houstonians will obtain it. Till then, it’s crucial to comply with how the negotiations happen and who helps and objects to the proposal.
Texans brace for brand spanking new legal guidelines as they go into impact
On Sept. 1, Texas entered a brand new chapter below Gov. Greg Abbott’s sweeping agenda. The governor hails this session as “one of the crucial consequential in Texas historical past,” however Texans should pause and ask: Consequential for whom?
Abbott’s slate of legal guidelines doubles down on conservative priorities. Payments like Senate Invoice 2, which establishes a billion-dollar faculty voucher program, promise “selection” whereas diverting public funds towards non-public training. In the meantime, Home Invoice 2’s document funding in trainer pay is overshadowed by measures like SB 12, which bans range coaching and mandates inflexible parental management over curriculum. These strikes might appease culture-war constituencies, however critics say they threat stripping school rooms of inclusivity and autonomy.
The governor additionally touts new restrictions on abortion assist, bail reform designed to undertaking “robust on crime” credentials and recent limits on “sister-city agreements between governmental entities and overseas adversaries.” On the similar time, laws addressing water infrastructure and cyber protection displays actual, long-term wants.
As these legal guidelines take impact, Texans will likely be watching intently. For some, they characterize overdue protections and reforms. For others, they mark troubling limits on rights and freedoms. The true influence will likely be measured not in rhetoric, however in day by day life.
Houston’s new guidelines push poverty out of sight, not out of existence
Houston is drawing new boundaries for all times on its streets, tightening the foundations on the place individuals can exist in public.
In current weeks, the Metropolis Council has handed two measures that reshape how pedestrians, panhandlers and folks experiencing homelessness navigate public area. One bans sitting, standing or strolling on slim visitors medians, whereas one other expands town’s “civility ordinance” to bar sleeping or storing belongings on sidewalks in Downtown and East Downtown, now enforceable 24/7.
Honest sufficient. Nobody desires to see a pedestrian struck by a automobile. However it’s also truthful to ask if the ordinance targets town’s most seen poor, lots of whom panhandle from medians as a result of there’s nowhere else to go.
Supporters body these legal guidelines as common sense security instruments. Council members backing the median ban say it may stop tragic accidents. Mayor John Whitmire and his staff argue the expanded homelessness ordinance is about outreach, not punishment, pointing to the risks of encampments and the promise of extra shelter beds. They stress that fines and arrests are uncommon, with most encounters geared toward connecting individuals to companies.
But critics increase pressing questions. Will these ordinances merely push poverty and homelessness out of sight with out addressing root causes? Council members Tiffany Thomas, Letitia Plummer and Abbie Kamin warn of unintended penalties: Criminalizing low-income residents, creating new cycles of warrants, or ignoring limitations in shelters that hold individuals on the streets.
Houston prides itself on being a nationwide mannequin for lowering homelessness. Sure, it’s sophisticated. Many individuals residing on Houston’s streets wrestle with psychological sickness, habit, or trauma. However whether or not these ordinances protect that legacy, or compromise it, will rely upon what follows enforcement: Sustained funding in housing, well being care and human dignity.
