Lubbock Left

Recently, the LPD cracked down on the homeless population of downtown Lubbock and confiscated some possessions left in the little gazebo area to the east of Mahon Library. The possessions were mostly sleeping bags and bedrolls. Perhaps this action reflects the tone set by our new mayor.

NTS, a local telecommunications company, is collecting sleeping bags for donation to the downtown homeless population. They can be dropped off with NTS on the 14th floor of Metro Tower (1220 Broadway), or to Brother Barry at the Mission Parish of St Benedict (1109 Main St), who interacts with many of the downtown homeless on a daily basis. He can help your donation of a sleeping bag find an immediate use.

Lubbock’s homeless population is on the rise, and how we as a city treat this group will be an important question for years to come.

Richard Lopez — Community activist, leader, and Executive Director of Guadalupe Economic Services Corporation (GESC) — passed away on Sunday. He was 74 years old. Funeral services will be Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in the Guadalupe neighborhood.

Contributions in his memory may be made to:

GESC “Richard Lopez Memorial”
1502 Erskine
Lubbock, Texas 79413

District 4 is headed to a runoff.

Paul Beane won a plurality of the votes with 45.33% (about 3,100 votes) of the vote, with just under 7,000 votes cast total. Jerry Bell won 31.57% of the vote, and Tom Keisling won 23.10% of the vote. Bell and Beane will face off with early voting beginning on Tuesday.

Let’s look at how the May 10 election went:

As you can see from the map above, Paul Beane did well throughout the district.

In my mind, it’s not clear what Tom Keisling’s supporters will do in this runoff election. Will they support Bell, Beane, or stay home? Since District 4 has excellent turnout no matter the election, the preference of Tom Keisling’s supporters is likely to be one of the deciding factors of the runoff election.

Another deciding factor will be which way the highest-turnout precincts lean. Precinct 54 (Honey Elementary) alone accounts for nearly 18% (1,194 votes) of the total vote and is always the highest-turnout precinct in any election in Lubbock County.

Other high-turnout precincts in this election are:

• Precinct 52 (11%)
• Precinct 127 (10%)
• Precinct 12 (10%)
• Precinct 30 (9%)
• Precinct 123 (8%)

As with District 2, the outcome of the runoff election is unclear. Both candidates have their work cut out for them.

Lubbock City Council Districts 2 and 4 are headed for a runoff election Saturday, June 7. With that in mind, I have decided to try a little analysis of the May election results.

Lubbock City Council District 2 (LB2) straddles Interstate 27 from 19th street on south. The Interstate is a physical barrier as well as a psychological and cultural one. The situation is improving over time, but the three precincts west of I-27 (19, 25, and 29) are still “anglo precincts,” and the four precincts east of I-27 (6, 20, 26, and 40) are still “minority precincts.” Each half on either side of I-27 accounts for 50% of the votes cast in the Council 2 race.

In the picture above, Floyd Price carried the green precincts and Armando Gonzales carried the purple precincts. The gray precinct (29) was a tie between the two; Armando Gonzales carried it by a single vote.

I believe this runoff is up in the air. Price missed winning outright by less than 5 percentage points, but, as Todd Klein showed us in 2007, a runoff can be won by the underdog. Time will tell if a 46.47% to 37.39% gap can be closed in this race.

I will look at the district 4 results this weekend if I have time (there are more precincts involved). I will say that Jerry Bell has his work cut out for him — Paul Beane won a plurality in every single precinct in district 4.

What are your thoughts on the City Council runoff races?

With all the talk about the Visitor Center these days, I find myself brainstorming other ways to attract overnight visits in Lubbock.

First, how about some more brochure racks? Check out River Smith’s:

River Smith’s is right next to at least 5 hotels as well as the intersection US84 and the Marsha Sharp Freeway. It’s an excellent place to leave information about what to do in Lubbock.

So, why not put similar brochures in all the nearby businesses? There are several other restaurants, a Wal-Mart, and a strip mall nearby.

How about similar brochure racks in all the businesses that surround Texas Tech? How about in all the nicest restaurants in town?

The cost of these racks is negligible, and putting them where visitors will already be makes good sense to me.

Second, we need a world-class Lubbock tourism website, and one that is optimized for search engines and linked to from already prominent Lubbock websites. This one seems like a no-brainer to me, and is also an inexpensive and maintainable option.

The initial website design could really involve the community as well. Hold a contest for the best-designed page, with the prize being a permanent link to the winner, or have web design classes at Tech take a shot at it. Ask for content suggestions and pictures from Lubbock citizens. Let existing businesses contribute content in exchange for links.

Third, let’s take Councilman Klein’s suggestion and put kiosks in popular Lubbock destinations like The Mall. They could be interactive, and feature attraction tours by type. Like the website and brochure racks, this option is inexpensive and effective because it targets Lubbock visitors where they already are.

Fourth, the City of Lubbock should advertise in other newspapers in Texas and New Mexico. Ruidoso, NM advertises in Lubbock, and I’m sure it helps their visitor traffic. (Also, they have a spiffy, thorough website geared toward tourism — compare to Visit Lubbock’s website.) People in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio should be marketed to by the City of Lubbock.

Fifth, how about encouraging the nearby small town traffic to Lubbock? Residents of the surrounding communities already visit Lubbock, so why not put some extra effort into advertising to them so that they visit a little bit more?

I think there are many ways to promote Lubbock, from the obvious to the very creative, and many of them make more sense than the current Visitor Center project.

As of this moment, over 10,000 people have early voted in the May Elections in Lubbock County.

This morning, an online petition to reconsider the current implementation of the Visitor Center was launched. (I do not necessarily support or oppose this particular petition, nor do I have anything to do with the group that is circulating it. I am just pleased to see an online petition dealing strictly with a Lubbock issue.)

Over the weekend, Lubbock City Council Member Todd Klein released the Visitor Center research documents which he requested on Friday on his website. This is the right direction for local government to take — openness with information that is used to make decisions. In the future I hope we have this type of openness without having to ask.

I think these are milestones along the way to a more transparent city government with a more engaged citizenry.

Like it or not, the City of Lubbock has started to tear down the South Beach nightclub building, which was purchased in order to build a visitor center.

The visitor center — and more importantly the manner in which one is constructed or even conceived of — has come under intense public scrutiny recently. Also, Council members Klein and Leonard tried to revisit the current 6-10 million dollar plan with no success.

Some even consider the closing of South Beach to be a catalyst for much of Lubbock’s political activity in the past two years. It provided an excuse to circulate three petitions to attempt to recall Linda DeLeon. It got Armando Gonzales on the radio and running for the City Council. It’s drawn attention to the real consequences of downtown redevelopment. It’s called into question who stands to benefit from downtown redevelopment and whether it’s above-board.

I think that downtown redevelopment is a worthy and even necessary goal, and that it’s okay for both public and private money to be used to make it happen. But, the particular details of how it happens will have to be watched very closely indeed.

Well, this certainly is interesting:

demandanaudit.com

I would like to see a side-by-side rebuttal from the Martin Campaign or from someone who can explain the Martin side of the AAG issue. Any takers?

Normally I’m not the biggest fan of KFYO AM 790, but, since Chad Hasty has taken over the morning show there, things have opened up a great deal. Case in point: KFYO will host the first (and likely only) Lubbock Mayoral debate featuring all four candidates. It will take place on their morning show Tuesday, April 29 from 7AM-9AM.

Via Chad Hasty’s blog:

This debate will feature ALL the candidates. That’s right you will hear from Mayor David Miller, Tom Martin, Roger Settler, and Gilbert Montes. This is the only debate that has all 4 candidates participating. We felt that it was important to invite all the candidates since they will appear on the ballot, and all the candidates have a right to express their opinion. People want to hear others ideas and beliefs on the City, and we think it’s important to hear them.

The debate will be 2 hours long and will focus on the issues that concern you. The candidates will also be allowed to interact and ask each other questions. The debate will be moderated of course by myself and Rex. Listeners will also be invited to submit their own questions via email. All you have to do is send an email to chad@kfyo.com

Way to go, KFYO and Chad!

Also, don’t forget that Todd Klein’s town hall meeting will take place at 6:00pm on the evening of the 29th at Parsons Elementary. Hooray for two great strides for political openness in Lubbock in one day!

I’m looking forward to a talk Tuesday night at Texas Tech’s Allen Theatre — renowned climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe will speak at 7:00 pm as part of Texas Tech’s Earth Day celebration.

From the news release:

A Nobel Laureate will speak as part of the Earth Day event presented by Texas Tech University’s Grassroots organization at 7 p.m. April 22 in the Allen Theater.

Katharine Hayhoe, a research associate professor in the Department of Geosciences and part of the Nobel Prize-winning U.N. panel on climate change, will give a speech about climate change and the effects it has on Earth. She will discuss how seemingly contradictory theories about the cause of climate change can all be rooted in scientific truths established for more than a century. Hayhoe will also discuss small, everyday changes that can better the world for future generations.

I have heard Dr. Hayhoe speak before, and she’s great.

I would be thrilled if global warming skeptics would attend this free talk and see if their blustering stands up to real science. I’m looking at you, Robert Pratt and Donald May.