The $200 million consolation prize
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The Mayor of Houston had some choice words about the Commissioner for the Texas Transportation Agency. Of course, Annise Parker must not have been thinking about public records when she sent the e-mail to her Chief Development Officer Andy Icken.
Her target was Commissioner Jeff Moseley, who along with Congressman John Culberson was standing in the way of what the Mayor and her Uptown friends said they really wanted, a light rail line down Post Oak Blvd.
“Moseley is still pimping for the congressman,” Parker wrote. “BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) is supposed to look like rail. I assume the ROW, station spacing and turns will still allow conversion if desired in the future.”
“Pimping?” Wonder what the commissioner thinks about that? Or the Congressman?
The backroom deal on the Uptown dedicated bus project is now coming to light. The Mayor and Uptown clearly wanted language that would leave open the chance to eventually turn the bus lanes into a rail line, but without a prohibition against rail Moseley wouldn’t clear the way for the state money for the freeway flyover that would take buses from the Northwest Transit Center into Uptown.
In February 2015, Uptown’s boss told the Mayor’s development czar Metro was still asking for a drawing of a potential rail line. Uptown didn’t even want to put their name on a drawing of a potential rail line on Post Oak because of politics.
And now the political deal has been made, long before they bothered to tell you. Voters would have to now approve any move to put rail on Uptown.
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