Thumbs up, down
Can a cute kitten overcome a week of racist place names and outrage over the anthem?
Happy Valentine’s Day! Which is tomorrow, Feb. 14, 2021. We mention the year because if you’re headed for a socially distanced picnic down at Negrohead Lake in Baytown, you might think it’s still the 1950s, or heck, even 1991, which was the year that then-Texas Sen. Rodney Ellis spearheaded a bill that would strip the word “negro” from 19 places around the state. The measure passed; case solved, right? Well, only one of the 19 names was changed and that was in 2018. Apparently renaming is up to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which tried to make the changes but was overruled by local officials. Researcher Jennifer Runyon told NPR they had reached out to the counties back then and “a lot of them said, ‘No, don’t change those names.’ ” At least now the Baytown mayor and the Harris County Commissioners Court are on the same page, introducing resolutions to do away with the offensive name. Here’s to Valentine’s Day 2022 at Baytown’s new, long time in coming, Lake Henry Doyle. It took almost 30 years to notice that racist place names were still a thing in Texas. It took a little over a month to figure out the Dallas Mavericks had stopped playing the national anthem this season. It took barely a day for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to bravely wade into the fray and declare the “Star Spangled Banner Protection Act” one of his legislative priorities (glad nothing else is going on). Team owner Mark Cuban said his decision was made to reflect “those who feel that the anthem does not represent them.” If Cuban was expecting a cogent discussion on the matter, including the importance of rituals and the unifying role an anthem can play, he was disappointed. Faster than you can scream “shot clock!” the NBA declared all teams would play the anthem. The NBA’s decision has everything to do with the Founding Fathers — mostly the Benjamins — but Patrick clearly needs a refresher course on American liberty and freedom.
From downbeat to up, let’s change our tune and sing the praises of a melody born out of Marshall Project reporter Keri Blakinger’s Twitter wish for a sea shanty about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Her call found its response in Grace Gilker’s amusing ditty, “Paxton’s Privateers,” which features such lines as “I investigate and prosecute crimes, but to be honest I’m kind of busy with mine,” “I filed a suit to overturn the election, but I still didn’t get that sweet legal protection,” and, of course, its catchy refrain: “I just thought these laws did not apply to me, I’d gotten away with everything.” The fact that Paxton — who is awaiting trial on fraud charges and is being investigated by the FBI — is still AG may strike a sour note, but Gilker’s ode is music to our ears. No one’s written a song about Harris County District
Attorney Kim Ogg (yet), but the DA did inspire a Change.org petition. Headlined “Remove Kim Ogg as a Public Health Menace,” the appeal was posted shortly after the New York Times reported on Dr. Hasan Gokal, the Harris County Public Health physician who was charged with stealing COVID vaccine doses. While it looks like Gokal may have violated vaccination protocol, his version of events has him trying his best to make sure that surplus vaccines did not go to waste. Gokal was fired and Ogg is going ahead with taking the case to a grand jury, even after a judge blasted her office for attempting to prosecute. The petition had garnered a little more than 500 signatures as of Friday morning (“Paxton’s Privateers” has over 10,000 views), so while Ogg shouldn’t sweat it, maybe she should reconsider.
The internet is not all about trying to get people fired. A GoFundeMe page started by a Houston teen, who used her college savings to keep her mother from being evicted after she lost her job, had more than $165,000 in donations Friday. It’s the kind of news that is both cheery and dreary, but we’ll focus on the positive and wish YES Prep East End senior Alondra Carmona, who has been accepted to prestigious Barnard College, the best.
Staying on the light side, a Texas lawyer made international news this week when an errant Zoom filter left him facing a court hearing as a cat. Presidio County attorney Rod Ponton was surprised when a cat’s face — which mirrored his own mouth and eye movements — appeared on screen. “I’m here live. I’m not a cat,” he said. We never thought we would hear such a profound, existential cri de coeur on Zoom. The hilarious video was catnip to a pandemic-stricken world and Ponton is feline fine about his newfound fame. “If I can make everybody have a chuckle at my expense, I’ll take it,” he told the Chronicle. That’s one cool kitty.
Hines and 2ML Real Estate Interests unveiled renderings of the initial building in Levit Green, the 53-acre life sciences district that will begin to take shape near the Texas Medical Center this year.
Architecture firm HOK designed the five-story, 270,000square-foot Phase I building to serve tenants with advanced laboratory needs. JLL has been selected as leasing representative for the project.
“Houston is quickly emerging as a top life science cluster city and has been able to do so without the purpose-built product established in other locations,” Hines Senior Managing Director John Mooz said in an announcement. “The Phase I project at Levit Green has been thoughtfully designed from the inside out to include features that are required of a top-tier research environment.”
The building will have 100 percent redundant emergency power, enhanced mechanical systems and floors with 55,000 square feet or more to enable teamwork and collaboration among research and office teams. It will be situated on the first of several lakes planned in the development.
Waterfront amenities will include a 5,800-square foot fitness center and outdoor garden, 7,000-square-foot conference center, 3,500 square feet of restaurant space and on-site parking. The ground floor plan will have more than 25,000 square feet of lab incubator space geared toward entrepreneurs and early-stage life science companies.
The project is being built near Holcombe and Texas 288 on land that formerly housed the Grocers Supply Co., a longtime Houston grocery wholesaler founded by Joe Levit in 1923. 2ML Real Estate Interests changed its name from Grocers Supply Co. after selling its wholesale business and the name in 2014.
Levit Green’s first building is
expected to break ground in the second quarter and be ready for tenants in the fourth quarter 2022. The initial building is one of nine planned projects that could contain up to 4 million square feet of lab-centric mixed-use space.