I have no problem with the garbage fee; my problem is that the money will not be used to improve our garbage service. There is no way $25 million will fix the problems we are experiencing. Our heavy trash sits on the curb or, too often, on the street for months.
The mayor claims that he drives Houston, and he must have a limited number of places that he drives because if he were to visit many of Houston’s poorer neighborhoods, he would find what I have just written about.
The biggest problem is that they are taking away approximately $250 million from the water and sewage funds to claim they balanced the budget.
Those funds are needed where they are. On my street, there is a water leak that was reported over six months ago; it is still leaking. Within a two-block radius of my house, there are leaks that are over a year old, and one was reported in late 2023. There are seven water leaks within a two-block area of my home that were reported over six months ago.
Much of the money that he took went to the police and fire, and now Whitmire is pounding his chest about how, because of the few extra police, violent crime is down. I have no idea if that is true, but I know that LexisNexis, as of the end of May, indicated that NO Crimes had been reported in the neighborhood where I live. There have been crimes, but people are just not reporting them. Many of my neighbors are mixed families where one or more of the family members is not legally here. For instance, in one family, the parents are not here legally, but all the children who are over 18 are citizens. Another family: the husband has a Green Card (permanent resident), but his wife is not here legally.
Probably 20 to 40 percent of the population here in Houston might be the same as the neighborhood I reside in.
Is crime down, maybe, but I am fairly certain that many of the crimes are not being reported as before Whitmire and his police became agents of ICE.
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Ranking the cities in your chart by overall safety
Using recent safety studies and crime statistics, a reasonable ranking would be:
Rank City
1 San Jose
2 San Diego
3 San Antonio
4 Phoenix
5 New York
6 Houston
7 Dallas
8 Los Angeles
9 Las Vegas
10 Philadelphia
11 Chicago
Why San Jose comes out on top
Recent analyses of the 50 largest U.S. cities found that:
San Jose ranked among the top performers on every major safety measure examined.
It had one of the lowest violent-crime rates among large cities.
It had one of the lowest property-crime rates.
It ranked well in terms of traffic safety and overdose deaths.
San Jose also recently recorded one of its lowest homicide totals in years.
Why is Chicago not the safest
The image assumes that more police officers automatically mean more safety. However, Chicago’s high officer-per-capita ratio does not translate into the lowest crime rates. Recent safety studies place Chicago near the bottom half of large U.S. cities because of its violent-crime and property-crime rates.
Conclusion
Based on actual crime and safety data, not officer staffing levels, the safest city on the list is San Jose, California. The chart in the image measures police staffing, not safety. In fact, San Jose has the fewest officers per capita on the chart, yet it performs better on most real-world safety measures.
Whitmire and Police Chief Diaz
Should we look at what San Jose is doing that makes it so much safer?
Maybe they have better police officers, just a thought, or maybe a better police chief or mayor?