Thumbs up, down

Whooping cranes, natural beauty and the Texans pursuing a blackballed quarterback.

Texas likes its snowbirds whether they’re motoring to Padre Island in the RV or flapping their wings en route to wintering grounds at High Island or Aransas Pass. There’s a late migration this year coupled with a Harvey effect that has the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department sounding alarm bells on behalf of the 431 fragile whooping cranes. These 5-foot beauties, TPWD says, may be going to different spots this fall because of storm damage, and they may be flying south along with thousands of sandhill cranes, also known as “Ribeye of the Sky” because they’re tasty game birds. Hunters need to be exceedingly careful.

Humble Congressman Ted Poe announced a seventh term will be his last in Washington. An advocate for transparency, we’re not so sure we buy his explanation for coming home. Instead of pointing to dysfunction in D.C., he used the “I want to spend more time with the grandkids” excuse. The former criminal district court judge wasn’t afraid to take on colleagues like John Culberson over issues such as expansion of light rail in Houston. But he also worked across the aisle, teaming up with Gene Green to get the San Jacinto Waste Pits designated as a Superfund site.

Pennzoil Place, the Philip Johnson/John Burgee masterpiece on Milam Street, is not only one of the most innovative architectural landmarks downtown, it also is one that supports the visual arts. Management this week has engaged Texas artist J Muzacz to paint a temporary large-scale cube in the lobby.

Beauty of the living type can be found in a block of giant oaks that forms a perfect canopy over Steel Street in Upper Kirby. The mayor can save us from a stroke and a Thumbs Down by making sure the developers of vacant lots that border the street don’t take down the trees.

Houston First manages our major arts venues and facilities like the George R. Brown, a Hilton hotel and many parking garages. It’s consumed right now with rebuilding the flooded Wortham Theater, home of the opera and the ballet. Hidden damages (like E. Coli in the walls), are elevating costs and pushing a projected reopening deep into 2018. City Councilman Dave Martin told Houston First board members this week there’s another pending hurdle: getting expenses reimbursed in a timely manner from institutions like FEMA. “The city just received the last installment of reimbursable expenses for Hurricane Ike damage,” he said. Ike came ashore in 2008.

One reasonable takeaway from this week’s election: The only thing keeping Democrats viable is Donald Trump. It certainly isn’t the party’s narrative. It has none. Our state’s Dems were either hubristic or delusional at a Texas Tribune panel discussion Sunday in Austin. Former San Antonio mayor and HUD Secretary Julián Castro suggested he might mount a run for the White House in 2020. One problem: He likely can’t win in his home state. Meanwhile, Wendy Davis didn’t rule out challenging Greg Abbott one more time for governor. Another problem: Her last campaign was one of the most poorly run in Texas history.

Voter turnout in Texas on Tuesday was less than 6 percent of the 15 million registered voters. In Harris County, 6.7 percent of 2.2 million voted. State Rep Eric Johnson, D-Dallas, said the totals were “unacceptable. We’ll never have a government in Texas that reflects the true will of the people until this changes.”

Texans owner Bob McNair could have atoned for his sins (remember his “we can’t have the inmates running the prison” comment) with one move: signing blackballed quarterback Colin Kaepernick as a replacement for the injured Deshaun Watson. That would have been a bold move, one that would have brought the team a player in the mold of the one carried off the field with a knee injury. What we get instead is Josh Johnson, who hasn’t completed a pass in the NFL in six years, and this cryptic explanation from coach Bill O’Brien: “Colin Kaepernick’s a good football player. Hasn’t played football in a while.”