Only a nerdy type of person like me would listen to two hours or more of what most people would find boring. But as to the use of stormwater funding for the demolition of buildings. Well, basically, if the dangerous building meets one of four criteria, it can be demolished using Stormwater funding. Number one on the list is;
Is it within 100 feet of either a 100-year or 500-year flood plain?
Since the founding of Houston flooding has been an invariable hazard. Over time it has become even more frequent, as acre after acre is paved over. 614 square miles of Harris County, an area nearly equivalent to the size of Houston, is either in a floodway, 100 year, or 500-year floodplain, this is 35% of all land area. In Houston nearly 500,000 people live in a flood zone. A major flood occurs in our city on average every two years. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison flooded 73,000 homes. More flood insurance claims have been paid here than anywhere else. Flooding isn’t constrained to good or bad neighborhoods. While the flood waters don’t discriminate, accessing the resources to recover are inequitable.
If the City of Houston has found a magic pool of money that they can take from to give to Public Works to use as a sludge fund, then use it for heavy trash pickup. When people place their heavy trash, they do so on the sidewalk, in the street, or as close to the street as possible. When that debris builds up, guess where it goes? Did you guess the ditches or the storm sewers, if yes give yourself a price.
Mayor, if you’re going to rob Peter to give to Paul for storm-related impediment, use it for heavy trash pickup.
Chris Hollins pissed off the mayor. He provided some information I had been wondering about. How or why was the Stormwater fund so much more than in previous years?
Answer: The city had not been doing as much work on stormwater maintenance as previous mayors.
Link to HTV Video of Houston City Council, January 7, 2026
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