Leave the Huntsville bats
Artificial ‘dilemma’
Regarding “Texas wants to demolish an old warehouse. They just need to figure out what to do with 750,000 bats first,” (Oct. 29): There is no dilemma at all. First of all the old former Texas Department of Criminal Justice cotton warehouse, now bat house, has been and still is the perfect habitat for the bats. The “dilemma” was artificially concocted.
If TDCJ doesn’t want to have to deal with the building or the bats, a simple interagency transfer could take place in which the building is turned over to the Texas Historical Commission or Texas Parks and Wildlife with the caveat that prisoners would be able to volunteer to care for the building and protect the bats from harm. An alternative could be for the state to sell the building to Bat Conservation International for $1 with the blessing of the Legislature.
As a potential Texas Historic Landmark eligible to be on the National Register of Historic Places, the building — along with its amazing bats — would automatically be a tourist draw that could bring millions of dollars into our local economy. It is estimated that the bats in Austin generate at least $8 million in tourism revenue.
Leave the bats alone, otherwise there will be serious problems all over Huntsville, especially in our Museum District just a block away from the cotton warehouse, where the desperate bats would seek shelter if their current home is senselessly and needlessly destroyed.
As a former preservation specialist on the Walker County Historical Commission, I would be more than happy to impart my 48 years of historic building preservation experience as a pro-bono adviser.
George H. Russell, Huntsville
This article never raises the question of “why did the TDCJ own a cotton warehouse?” The building was likely part of the Texas prison system’s work-to-death torture and murder of Black prisoners for the profit of the system. This grisly history is not “critical race theory” but a well documented fact profoundly more horrific than bats in the belfry.
Britt D. Davis, Katy
Leading by example
Regarding “Countries pledge to cut heavily polluting coal, with caveats,” (Nov. 4): The hypocrisy is on full display at the global climate conference. Our president rides in with an 85-gas-fueled-car entourage, John Kerry flies in on a private jet, and our leadership is asking OPEC to produce more oil, while restricting what we can produce here in the United States. Countries and corporations are pledging to get to net zero by buying carbon credits to offset emissions while not offering to reduce any emissions or doing so minimally, all while China, India and Brazil, which lead in pollution, are insufficiently contributing to meeting the Paris Agreement goals. Was this just all for show?
Brian Binash, Houston
So, our “leaders” flew to Glasgow in over 100 private jets to tell the rest of us that we need to stop putting so much carbon in the air or we are all going to die. Until they start walking the talk, I’ll continue to assume that this is a fabricated emergency designed to transfer wealth from one group of people to another and I’m not going to worry about it. Chris Alba, Spring