OpinionOpinion
 

Staff Editorial

                            Bridget Brown    Matthew Dulin 
Geronimo Rodriguez      Keenan Singleton     Lisa Street

Quit yer whinini

Until recently, the only thing that could stop Metro was a red light or an elderly lady sauntering across a thoroughfare. Add the City of Houston, its poor-planning and lack of a backbone to the list.

Metro promised five years ago that by Sunday, 14 streets in downtown would be renovated, remolded and ready for use. 

Itis time to re-evaluate. 

The project, which included some light-rail construction, is now expected to be completed sometime in March 2005.

All thanks to the City of Houston and its penchant for doing the wrong things at the wrong time in the wrong place.

As of Sunday, Metro had only completed four of the 14 streets. Surprisingly, it wasnit the Metropolitan Transit Authorityis fault. The city pleaded with Metro to delay construction to alleviate the congestion downtown.

So, Metro could have, would have and should have smoothed over the final piece of pavement Sunday if not for the interference of the city?

"We couldive finished in five years," Metro project manager Roy Trevino said in the Houston Chronicle. "We were just told not to."

Note to Mayor Lee P. Brown: This is exactly how riots get started.

OK, massive closures create less convenience. Deal with it. 

How did two entities vital to the progress of the city get their signals crossed? Winos, er, whiners.

Constant whining contributed to downtownis latest shutdown. Complaints from residents and businesses caused city officials to call for a more lax schedule. Your personal or businesses needs donit out-weight the aspirations of the city as a whole. 

That only calls for two more years of construction. The line should have been busy when the city received that call.

There arenit any guarantees the next "promised" date will be met. A major hurricane or flood could damage the progress achieved. 

In all likelihood, Sundayis promised date would have been met sans city governmentis influence.

Metro isnit totally innocent. Some projects took longer to complete than expected. Some independent contractors werenit up to snuff. But the bulk of the blame belongs to the city.

Next time, the city needs to bite the verbal bullets from city residents.

 Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu