Following a White House directive, Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold funds from any city or county that didn’t erase “political ideologies” from their streets.
This includes the rainbow crosswalk at Westheimer Road and Taft Street in Montrose, a historic center of Houston’s LGBT community. The crosswalk was created in 2017 to honor Alex Hill, who died from a hit-and-run accident at the intersection.
Mayor John Whitmire, so far, is remaining silent. Concerns about losing state and federal road dollars give the mayor little wiggle room, but can’t he at least offer a rhetorical or symbolic defense defense of our city?
Anyone hoping to see Mayor Whitmire stand up to Trump and Abbott’s bureaucratic game of smear the queer will be disappointed. Metro, whose board is largely controlled by the mayor, quickly acquiesced to Abbott’s demand and said they’ll remove the rainbow crosswalk. Now that’s wasteful government spending: Metro just replaced the crosswalk after completing road work.
Meanwhile, San Antonio’s mayor, Gina Ortiz Jones, is pushing back.
“There are no immediate plans to make changes to any roadways, and any future changes will occur with City Council input,” her office told Axios.
If our mayor can’t be as courageous as San Antonio’s, he can at least be clever. How about installing a colorful, pro-safety, crosswalk that just so happens to look like a rainbow?
The editorial board hopes the mayor can be clever, which would be like having the magic wand of the good witch of the North to accomplish this.
Then yesterday, the Chronicle took another swing at Whitmire when it endorsed a candidate for an at-large position.
Finally, we endorse Thomas because he has the unique ability to fill a much-needed role at City Hall — dedicated opposition.
Since the election of John Whitmire, we have watched as the City Council has been cowed by our strong mayor system. With 50 years of political experience, Whitmire has had little difficulty using his power to steamroll his opponents and force his allies to fall in line. Behind the scenes and off the record we hear elected officials and civic leaders muttering about how the mayor has gone astray, but few are brave enough to speak up out of fear that they’ll earn his ire and political punishment.
Now, if the Chronicle could just be as concerned for the Hispanics that masked men are whisking away, to disappear into an abyss.
The video has nothing to do with the topic, but it features one of the most beautiful women doing a snake dance.