A few practical ways for the City of Houston to increase revenue, decrease the budget shortfall, and make everyone’s lives a whole lot easier by adapting to 15-year-old technology. By Omar Afra Illustration by Tim Dorsey Despite Houston’s relative resilience to the recession and actual job growth, our municipal government is pretty much up shit’s creek when it comes to fiscal responsibility. With an accumulated deficit of 2.5 billion dollars and an annual budget deficit of 130 million dollars, it is critical that the city both finds efficiencies and raises revenue. Mayor Parker has launched a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’-type ... Read More »

By Alex Wukman Over a month has passed since an HPD officer pulled a shotgun on a party being thrown by the Houston Free Thinkers. In that time the story went viral and prompted an internal affairs investigation. At the height of the media coverage Free Press Houston did our due diligence and sent in an open records request to get HPD’s side of the story, they just sent it over. And while the results of the investigation and the final outcome of the court case won’t be known for some time, the initial incident reports created by the officer ... Read More »

By Alex Wukman This shit is getting too predictable. Honestly, another week brings another report of HPD overreacting to the noise ordinance. Last week it was a cop pulling a gun this week it’s a report that Dubstep DJ Badbwoy BMC was arrested for an alleged noise violation. Apparently a little after midnight on Wednesday, February 8, an HPD officer rolled up to Mango’s where BMC was working some tracks from his upcoming “Dubbed Out” LP, which drops in March from Swisha House, into his weekly gig. According to BMC, real name Billy McCain, HPD stopping by is all too ... Read More »

WORST OF HOUSTON 2011 ” The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.” - Friedrich Nietzsche They say sunlight is the best antiseptic. They also say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Why those are relevant, I don’t know. But we are proud to offer up our annual Worst of Houston list this year in our continuing efforts to make Houston a better place by exposing some of it’s worst components. We can’t vouch for factual accuracy, positive motivation, or anything else for that ... Read More »

By Alex Wukman It seems that the old adage that when it rains it pours is true, for HPD at least. For the last month or so local news has been filled with stories that keep getting more and more depressing and raise serious questions about what is going on at the city’s largest law enforcement agency. From the loss of a high profile suspect to a spate of questionable shootings the culture of the Houston Police Department has come under increasing scrutiny since the start of the year. The avalanche of bad press has led some in the community to lose faith with the department.  The ongoing suspicion the ... Read More »