July 17, 2025 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I tell you what, the stories that have come out
of Kerrville, they're just incredible, incredible story. Had heard another
one this morning out of Waller County. I'm trying to
track down a Waller County Sheriff's deputy by the name
of Brad Metcalf, and I don't want to get the
(00:22):
details wrong, but as I understand it, he recovered a
flag in the flood debris. He was there to do
search and rescue, and he recovered a flag and they
brought it back to Waller County and flew it half
(00:45):
staff over the Waller County Justice Center in honor of
those who were lost in the flood. I don't know
if I got those details exactly right, but that's what
I was told, and we are trying to track him
down right now. If you have access to him, then
(01:05):
please ask him to call seven one three nine one thousand,
or you can email me, but we have a call
into him right now seven one three nine one thousand.
I got a message this morning on a woman that
several people I know apparently knew very well, whose name
was Molly Smith, a big, big part of the community.
(01:28):
She served as an unopposed elected Harris County judge for
twenty years in Precinct eight position one. As a judge,
she chartered the JPCA changed the way Harris County handled
truancy matters. She started a teen court with her bench,
a program that brought many truancy repeaters into active courtrooms
to become a part of the system. From the other
side of the bench, she served every civic organization in
(01:51):
the area, from the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, Sanjasento Republican
Women to the Harris County Hometown Opry and good God
that woman could say. Molly was an avid supporter of
women's sheltered groups, for the Bridge over Troubled Waters and
Sarah's House, which she initially founded. Molly was committed to
Santa Cento College Board of Directors as a San jan
(02:13):
alumni and made it possible for so many seeking secondary
education to have full access to further education. She has
survived by her husband, Carol Smith, owner of Monument Chevrolet
on Highway to twenty five formerly Timurs Chevrolet of Pasadena,
a business with fifty year routes serving the Pasadena and
(02:34):
surrounding areas. Her life has made us all very proud
and she was a longtime listener, but never call her
of your show, Michael Berry and your voice in Houston.
If a mention of her passing and services not possible,
may I ask you to please say a silent prayer
with us. The community has lost a good one, perhaps,
and in my humble opinion, the very best of them. Understand,
(03:01):
because I have some other friends who are friends with her,
is that I think she had a fall and hit
her head. You know, look, death is not easy any
way it happens. There's no way around that. But my goodness,
a tragic accident like this for a person still presumably
(03:28):
in good health, I find that much much harder to reconcile.
I've said it many times and I'll say it again
because the people constantly going through these things as difficult
as my mother's passing was, and particularly physically on her,
(03:49):
it was a blessing to us to get to say
everything we needed to say. I am a big believer
in telling the people around you how you feel about them,
and things they did for you that mattered most to you,
and why they mattered, and all the way down to
(04:09):
the you know, I remember when you wore those moccasins
and they had a hole in them, and I guess
moccasins were the style of the time in the seventies
and all to make sure that we had, you know,
a new pair of genes to start to school. I mean,
looking back now, that really means something to me to
realize the sacrifice you made, especially when you are the
(04:32):
age your parent was, when you're remembering what happened at
that moment. I think it's important to say those things
because you just never know when the curvel flood is
going to come, or a drunk driver is going to
hit you, or a heart attack, Well will happened. You
(04:52):
have to live your life. We're all going to die.
But I also think it's important in the process of
living your life to be my meaningful and present that
life is so precious and fleeting and short, and to
be more engaged in our human connections than a screen
(05:14):
or money or kissing somebody's ass because they can get
you a better job or a bigger contractor this or that,
and focusing or making a client happy. I left practicing law.
I remember it like it was yesterday because I had
(05:38):
a mentor who was a managing partner at the firm,
and he treated me like I sudden, he adored me.
He was grooming me to be the next you know,
managing partner or whatever that would have been at the firm.
And my wife and I had tickets to the Alley
Theater and I had worked several days in a row
(05:59):
until late at night, and if I worked past a
certain hour, they would get me a driver, which I
referred to as a limo because it was a Lincoln
Town Cars. A limbo to me and my first professional job,
and I'm straight out of law school. And if I
was at the office past a certain time, I think
(06:20):
it was seven, then I didn't have to drive home
or back in. They would send a driver because they're
building a bunch of hours and they would order in
food even if I was the only one working, because
it was the project I was working on, and I'd
done this several days in a row, and so my
wife got tickets to the Alley Theater to see on
(06:42):
August Wilson play Jitney, and I was excited. We're gonna
have date night. We were going to go to Bira
Parrettes for dinner and then two, which is right next
to the Alley, and then we're going to go to
the Alley Theater and see this for And at about
(07:03):
three thirty in the afternoon, a managing partner, my mentor
and I are on the phone with a client and
the client says, we sent He sent the work that
I had completed over the last couple of days. And
guy says, oh, this is great. I'm not going to
have a chance to get to it until Monday. This
was a Thursday. I'm not gonna have a chance to
(07:24):
get to it till monday. But it looks great. And
he said, oh, by the way, can you do and
you give a little project And my managing partner said,
we'll have it to you by the morning. And he said,
you don't need to have it. I won't do it.
And he said, no, no, we will. I had to
stay late and miss and I said, you know what
I'm out. I said that MAC has three locations of
(07:44):
gallery furniture. Will have to fix that. It's only two now.
He just reminded me the Postoke location has closed. Very
interesting what happened along that post Oake location when MAC
came in. It brought a lot of attention to that
(08:07):
Postoake corridor, once the premier shopping district in Houston. That
area has suffered mightily. First of all, the galleria has
had a horrible, horrible decline. Just go over there and
(08:31):
check it out. I've had officers who work that beat
tell me, don't let your wife park in the galleria
and walk to the stores, because when you're coming out
of the stores, a woman with shopping bags walking out
of the stores is a target. They'll run up her
(08:51):
and punch her in the face and grab what she
has and run. They're carjacking people in the parking lot.
A friend who's pretty well to do, and he was
mentioning that his wife had purchased this or that item
from I don't know, one of the high end stores.
Not Lord and Taylor. They're not there anymore, but whatever
(09:15):
the one is on that far west end. No, it's
not Spencers. What is the name of the darn place.
It has the restaurant too. It has little Foo food
restaurants about. It's a multi story department store. It's down
on the west end. It's probably the fanciest of the
department stores. It's left at the gallery. Anyway, he said
(09:39):
his wife had bought it there, and I said, man,
let me tell you what I hear from law enforcement
tells me there's a lot, way more crime in the
galley than you would imagine, especially for single women. And
so because it's thugs, right, there's certain cultures that prey
(10:00):
on single women. We all know this. The data bears
it out anecdotally. Everybody's got a story, and you've got
a lot of thug culture gathering around the galleria. And
he said no. She pulls up to the valet parking,
she goes into the store, she buys what she wants,
(10:20):
she comes back out, and she gets in the cart
and she leaves. They live in the suburbs, so they
don't have to live around the trash. Anyway. You've got
the galleria and all the problems have happened there. And
then you've got you head north on Post Oak that area,
(10:41):
you know when you head north on Post Oak out
of the galleria. So you've got was that Dillard's across
the street. You've got that Shell station in the corner.
I don't know what it is about that Shell station
in the northeast corner of West Timer and the six Loop.
I'm sorry that that would be the southwest corner. So
(11:05):
Southwest corner, there is a Shell station right there. I
have had officers tell me it's one of the worst
gas stations in America, and you wouldn't. I mean, this
is Uptown, this is Galleria area, right They rebranded the Galleria.
Did you did you say something? They rebranded the Galleria
(11:25):
to Uptown because the Galleria came to have a bad name.
Then you head north on Post Oak. Right there on
the west side of Post Oak, that used to be
Sacklewitz first, that was that was the taj mahall of
of you know in Houston based, you know, department store.
(11:49):
You on the on the east side, you've got the
Container Store, You've got the whole Earth. You start going
along there, you've got a really really high end Indian
jewelry store that came there about two years ago for
really really rich Indians. That is the premier jewelry store.
(12:12):
Then you keep going you had Kenny and Ziggy's. It's
not a surprise that Ziggy moved out of there. Ziggi
Gruber doesn't want to get mugged. Then on the far
end you had what used to be I think Ashman's
and then it became Sports Authority and now it's Dick
(12:33):
Sporting Goods. Which in and of itself has lost a
luster because of their anti gun position. So Mack had
located in the middle of there and has had nothing
but problems. He's had the crime, which he's complained about constantly,
and they won't do anything about it. But also they
(12:56):
decided right after he moved in, you know, will be
a great idea. It's hard enough to get people to
come back into the city when they do get here.
You high end retailers, Let's do to you what we
did to downtown. Let's rip the road up so we
(13:16):
can put a trolley car in between there. A trolley car.
Why would you do that, because when it's one hundred
and seventy eight thousand degrees, what people want to do
is go stand out on the road and wait on
a trolley car. That way, at least if there's not
a homeless person on the trolley car when they get
(13:37):
on and off, maybe they can get water splashed on them,
or if nothing else, they can get a good sign
of sweat in while they're waiting on the trolley car
to take them up and down the corridor. So for
years they ripped up the roads and mac ranted and
raved and nobody cared because we had to have the
(13:59):
trolley car. Go look at that trolley car any time
or day. There is nobody on it, and the few
people who are on it, you didn't get them out
of their cars. See what happens. This is This is
how you trick people. People say, oh, there's too much traffic,
too many cars on the road. Yes, you're right. We
(14:20):
will solve that with a trolley car system like we
ripped out when we had in the nineteen twenties. We'll
put everybody butt you in a trolley. Yes, I'm for
a very very very expensive trolley because everybody will ride
the trolley butt me. Oh okay, well why aren't you
riding it? No way. I want to control my air conditioning.
(14:41):
I want to control what I listen to. I want
to be able to move here and there if I
stop on the way home. I don't just go from
point A to point b.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I went to New York and I ride the sideway
and it was really nice on that sideway. My whole
family had a nice time on the sideway. So people
come home from New York and there's enough of these people.
I don't know, why can't we have that in Houston.
We got drive here. It's all time and from well
to do people. We got a driver everywhere in Houston.
You know, you know a lot about New York. You
can walk. I like fat you know you walk. You
(15:12):
don't have to have car. You can walk here. We
got buses everywhere here. Go get on one. Go wait
at the bus stop, walk around in the heat.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
With them.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Michael Berry for here is the story from March twenty,
first of last year. Metro may reduce service on Silver
Line rapid Transit along Post Oak beginning in June. That
was love last year. Metro may reduce service on Silver
(15:49):
Line rapid Transit along Post Oak beginning in June. Houston's
first bus rapid transit line won't be so rapid anymore.
According to a new plan under consideration by Metropolitan Transit
Authority officials, buses along the Silver Line route between the
(16:12):
lower Uptown West Park Transit Center south of the Galleria
and Northwest Transit Center near Interstate ten and Loop ten
Loop six' ten could go from running every twelve minutes
to every twenty. Minutes metro officials said the reasons for
less frequent service are the result of quote lower than
(16:36):
anticipated end quote use of the line and the better
use of some of those buses in other, places said
The director Of service And planning For. Metro moving to
a twenty minute frequency places the rapid line Between metro's
frequent core, routes which can come every ten to fifteen
minutes at peak, times and the lesser used community routes
(16:59):
that come every twenty to thirty. Minutes since its debut
In august of twenty, twenty during THE covid nineteen, pandemic
the line has carried only a fraction of the ridership
officials envisioned for the. Route on a Typical january work,
(17:20):
day the line carried an average of one thy thirty three.
Writers critics of the Line that'd be me said well
before its opening it would, underperform and have said since
its lackluster numbers became clear that it and future major
projects should be. Reconsidered let me explain this to, you
(17:41):
AND i know that everybody has an opinion on this
and you're locked into, it but just give me five
minutes to make my, pitch would?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
You?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
SO i came To houston nineteen eighty. Nine in nineteen ninety,
One Bob lanier run Against Kathy. Whitmeyer Kathy whitmeyer is the.
Mayor Bob lanier is the chairman Of. Metro Sylvester turner's
of State. Rep Kathy whitmeyer had in her mind that
(18:14):
we needed light rail because all the big cities need. Lightrail,
now the unspoken in all of this is there are
people whose job it is to sell big, projects because
you'll never guess their company performs big, projects building, stadiums
doing bond offerings of a billion dollars to renovate. Stadiums
(18:37):
you get the. Point those people will do anything for
a political leader who will take on these big. Projects
Bob lanier was a longtime land. Developer started as a.
Lawyer Backer botts Realized i'm not a big firm, Lawyer
i'm a deal. Guy he got into real, estate and
(18:57):
what he was really good at was getting into real
estate in areas where roads were going to be, built
because the value of that real estate goes through the
roof and. Apartments and he made a lot of money
in real estate and he was a believer in. It
he ended up being on The texas on The Texas Highway,
(19:21):
COMMISSION i think it was called at the. Time Think
Mark white put him on, it and he was a
big transportation. Guy if you ever Saw Bob, lanier you
wouldn't know, This But Bob lanier had the most analytical
mind of ANYONE i have ever met in. Politics So
(19:41):
bob lemir in ninety, one So bobliner, says we got
to stop with this metro. Thing this metro. Thing Kathy
whitmeer was wasting all this. Money and remember this is
nineteen ninety. One crime is through the. Roof fox started
the city under. Siege mister k m the brains behind the,
(20:06):
galleria was murdered in his driveway for his. Watch crime
was through the. Roof In, houston people were moving out
the Downtown Rice, hotel Where JOHN. F kennedy had stayed
the night before he had been. Assassinated beautiful architecture Downtown
centerpiece was vacant and homeless people would sleep under the.
(20:29):
Awning the white flight out of the, city which was
going on across the, country was. Demoralizing crime was. Terrible
the police department was. Understaffed the gang problem was through the,
roof And Kathy whitmyer wanted to spend a lot of
(20:50):
money on a rail. System lanier killed it at his,
announcement there were buttons it said six fifty five was
a number officers he would put on the street if
we killed the light. Rail, well you couldn't put six
hundred and fifty five officers on the. Street he did
it with, overtime but he did, it and he, won
and all of a sudden and they brought The Rice hotel.
(21:12):
Back he brought randall doesn't. Matter our can't members and
they can't remember anything. Anymore they they kind of empowered
him to do that. Deal they brought the baseball stadium.
Downtown they did a number of things that were very
positive for bringing people back into the. City United airlines
(21:38):
signed Or Continental, Airlines Gordon bethune signed a big contract
to bring his workers back down to. Downtown So lanier staved,
off staved that off for six. Years but the big
mistake he made was Supporting Lee, brown Because lanier, was after,
all even if a Moderate, democrat A, democrat and he
(21:59):
had the, guilt we have to have a black mayor In.
Houston and so they Chose LEE. P, brown, who in
addition to being, stupid was incredibly incredibly. Corrupt one or
the other would have been bad, enough but he was.
Both so there we go. Again we're going to do the.
Rail we're gonna have the light rail system is gonna be.
(22:22):
Downtown it's gonna be. Great they spent hundreds of millions
of dollars on a system nobody. Rides now they'll, say, Well,
michael well it's not. True there's a couple people that ride.
It you know how they got a couple people to ride.
It they shut down the bus service along that. Route
two thousand and. Three i'm running From. Ara i'm the
only guy that comes out against the, rail And i'm spouting,
(22:43):
FACTS i mean left and, right spouting. Facts and do
you know what people would say to, Me, well we
got to do. Something traffic's. Bad we got to do.
Something we gotta do something because you, know traffic is so.
Bad and do you understand all the money you've tied
up in this and continue to tie up in. This
(23:06):
we are not a mass transit. City we're Not New,
York we're NOT. Dc people will, say, yeah but WHEN
i go TO, DC i get in that. Subway do
you understand That congress subsidizes their own little pet. Project guess?
What you also don't get a congressional retirement. Package you
also don't get exempted From obamacare like they. Did you
(23:28):
are Not. Congress that is not a sustainable. Model mass
transit is never financially. Sustainable it is always subsidized subsidizing
a bus, service, which by the, way when it's, flooding
you can get people out of, town you can't move the.
Rail subsidizing a bus service is pennies on the dollar
with these stupid fixed rail. Systems and by the, way
(23:49):
we had one in the. Twenties we ripped it out
because it's too hot and nobody wants to use.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
It theary.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
He most people know the story of his. Daughter he
has told the story many many. Times but in case
you don't, know his, daughter a very very beautiful, woman
was plagued by a, horrible debilitating, condition and she tells the.
(24:29):
Story he tells the. Story she couldn't get out of
the shower for hours on, end and she was suicidal
and it was very. Traumatic, Well mac is not one
to ride to hide from such, things so he went to.
Work and her name Is. Liz she ended up in.
(24:50):
Treatment she ended up studying her own condition and became
an expert on. It she went on to get a.
PhD i think From. Harvard she went on to get
a PhD in the subject and to be a, practicing
practicing doctor in the. Field pretty amazing story if you
(25:11):
think about, it although it's not uncommon for people to
suffer a malady and in the studying of that to
make that their professional. Focus So max sat down After
curville with everything that was going, on and he's running
loads of, stuff still is To curveville to help, people
(25:33):
and he sat down with his Daughter, liz and a
fellow by the name of Doctor, perry Who i'm told
is a world famous child. Psychiatrist used to be At
Czech Texas children and At Baylor college Of. Medicine apparently
he's written a lot of. Books one report was hundreds of.
BOOKS i don't know how many books he's. Written his
(25:55):
most famous book is about a little boy who raised
his dog In Acres, holmes whose grandmother was. Raising she
died and her living boyfriend was. Retarded so he raised
his kid like a, dog and then Doctor perry had
to straighten the kid. Out it's one of those crazy,
(26:18):
cases one of those crazy stories where as a doctor
he had an. Opportunity, obviously you learn from the experience
he's been To Sandy, Hook columbine helping people deal with,
trauma and they recorded the podcast AND i came upon
it AND i asked mac, hoy would you mind if
(26:41):
we post this on our, podcast as we do with
things like The saturday, podcast to amplify this, message and
he said. Absolutely here are a couple of clips from that,
podcast but you can go to our podcast from. Yesterday
it says bonus podcast and it's actually their. Conversation but
here's the first. One matt talking to Doctor, perry the child.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Psychiatrist i'm here to listen and. Learn how do we
make things better so people can get through. THIS i
could only imagine the horror of not only the people
that can't miss, it but all the people that also
were drowned by this horrible. Storm so we're here to
listen and, learn and it's a thrill to have lives
on and Doctor, perry and for all You texans out,
(27:25):
THERE i think Doctor perry is at heart a.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Text we heal from these tiny little doses of, kindness of,
thoughtfulness of, understanding of, listening of giving a, hug of being,
present of bringing a. Meal you, know these things provide
this relational regulation of these systems in our body that
make us feel connected and safe. Again and this is
(27:51):
what you. Know this is WHAT i think is going
to happen In. TEXAS i, Mean texas has got so
many great.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Communities we heal from kindness sounds like a. Cliche when
we're done with this IS i want to come back
to that. Line he, says we. Heal he, says here
we heal from little doses of. Kindness here is the,
same Doctor.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Parry we heal from these tiny little doses of, kindness of,
thoughtfulness of, understanding of, listening of giving a, hug of being,
present of bringing a. Meal you, know these things provide
this relational regulation of these systems in our body that
(28:37):
make us feel connected and safe. Again and this is
what you. Know this is WHAT i think is going
to happen In. TEXAS i, Mean texas has got so
many great.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Communities we'll come back to that, line we heal from
little doses of. Kindness and, finally here's a combo Of
mac and Doctor.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Perry how do we help all The houstonians and the
thousands of people that are affected by this? Tragedy So
i'm here to listen and learn how do we make
things better so people can get through. THIS i can
only imagine the horror of not only the people that
can't miss, it but all the people that also were
(29:17):
drowned by this horrible. Storm so we're here to listen and,
learn and it's a thrill to have live on and Doctor,
perry and for all You texans out, THERE i Think
Doctor perry is at heart A.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Texan you. Know The serenity PRAYER i have always found to.
Be the OLDER i, get the more it means to.
Me and you know, It god grant me the serenity
to accept the THINGS i cannot, change the courage to
(29:55):
change the THINGS i, can and the wisdom to know the.
Difference that prayer is credited to a fellow Named ryan
harp rin Hold, nebor and it became widespread mainstream because
(30:23):
it is used at alcoholics anonymous meetings and twelve step.
Programs As i've told you, BEFORE i have a number
of relatives who went THROUGH, aa and my Uncle, preston
WHO i was very close, to did many many stints
(30:44):
in rehab AND aa and struggled his entire. Life but
WHAT i have come to learn from The Serenity prayer
in that conversation and little acts of. Kindness we need.
Control if you're a person who loves a roller, coaster
you're a person who loves to give up. CONTROL i.
(31:04):
Don't and the more Study i've done of, myself As
i've come to try to be more attentive to you,
know what kind of person are? You what are?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Naturally because you can be a good person despite bad
intentions or despite bad. INCLINATIONS i believe that you can
be a skinny person despite slow. Metabolism. Right you can
be a strong person despite a weak. Frame you can
be fill in the. Blanks But i've come to understand
THAT i am a person like many, people particularly TYPE a,
personalitism who likes. Control AND i find, that you know,
(31:37):
what we can't control the. Flood we can't control the
possibility we could die in an accident or, whatever and
that bothers. Me that troubles. ME i struggle with. That
but what we can control is little acts of. Kindness
what we can control is fixing a problem for somebody.
(31:58):
Else and so that gives me that UTILITY i. Need
it's bigger than. Joy it's utility the economists called a.
Utility it gives me a sense of, meaning to have.
CONTROL i can control an act of kindness that can't
be taken away from, me that can give me a
Certain all, right it is, time as. Promised several of
you have emailed because you KNOW i. FORGOT i promised
(32:20):
A i truly, believe and it is coming. Up rehearse
it in your, head get right to. It, no, bluetooth
no speakerphone seven one, three nine nine, nine one, thousand
I tell you what, the stories that have come out
of Kerrville, they're just incredible, incredible story. Had heard another
one this morning out of Waller County. I'm trying to
track down a Waller County Sheriff's deputy by the name
of Brad Metcalf, and I don't want to get the
(00:22):
details wrong, but as I understand it, he recovered a
flag in the flood debris. He was there to do
search and rescue, and he recovered a flag and they
brought it back to Waller County and flew it half
(00:45):
staff over the Waller County Justice Center in honor of
those who were lost in the flood. I don't know
if I got those details exactly right, but that's what
I was told, and we are trying to track him
down right now. If you have access to him, then
(01:05):
please ask him to call seven one three nine one thousand,
or you can email me, but we have a call
into him right now seven one three nine one thousand.
I got a message this morning on a woman that
several people I know apparently knew very well, whose name
was Molly Smith, a big, big part of the community.
(01:28):
She served as an unopposed elected Harris County judge for
twenty years in Precinct eight position one. As a judge,
she chartered the JPCA changed the way Harris County handled
truancy matters. She started a teen court with her bench,
a program that brought many truancy repeaters into active courtrooms
to become a part of the system. From the other
side of the bench, she served every civic organization in
(01:51):
the area, from the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, Sanjasento Republican
Women to the Harris County Hometown Opry and good God
that woman could say. Molly was an avid supporter of
women's sheltered groups, for the Bridge over Troubled Waters and
Sarah's House, which she initially founded. Molly was committed to
Santa Cento College Board of Directors as a San jan
(02:13):
alumni and made it possible for so many seeking secondary
education to have full access to further education. She has
survived by her husband, Carol Smith, owner of Monument Chevrolet
on Highway to twenty five formerly Timurs Chevrolet of Pasadena,
a business with fifty year routes serving the Pasadena and
(02:34):
surrounding areas. Her life has made us all very proud
and she was a longtime listener, but never call her
of your show, Michael Berry and your voice in Houston.
If a mention of her passing and services not possible,
may I ask you to please say a silent prayer
with us. The community has lost a good one, perhaps,
and in my humble opinion, the very best of them. Understand,
(03:01):
because I have some other friends who are friends with her,
is that I think she had a fall and hit
her head. You know, look, death is not easy any
way it happens. There's no way around that. But my goodness,
a tragic accident like this for a person still presumably
(03:28):
in good health, I find that much much harder to reconcile.
I've said it many times and I'll say it again
because the people constantly going through these things as difficult
as my mother's passing was, and particularly physically on her,
(03:49):
it was a blessing to us to get to say
everything we needed to say. I am a big believer
in telling the people around you how you feel about them,
and things they did for you that mattered most to you,
and why they mattered, and all the way down to
(04:09):
the you know, I remember when you wore those moccasins
and they had a hole in them, and I guess
moccasins were the style of the time in the seventies
and all to make sure that we had, you know,
a new pair of genes to start to school. I mean,
looking back now, that really means something to me to
realize the sacrifice you made, especially when you are the
(04:32):
age your parent was, when you're remembering what happened at
that moment. I think it's important to say those things
because you just never know when the curvel flood is
going to come, or a drunk driver is going to
hit you, or a heart attack, Well will happened. You
(04:52):
have to live your life. We're all going to die.
But I also think it's important in the process of
living your life to be my meaningful and present that
life is so precious and fleeting and short, and to
be more engaged in our human connections than a screen
(05:14):
or money or kissing somebody's ass because they can get
you a better job or a bigger contractor this or that,
and focusing or making a client happy. I left practicing law.
I remember it like it was yesterday because I had
(05:38):
a mentor who was a managing partner at the firm,
and he treated me like I sudden, he adored me.
He was grooming me to be the next you know,
managing partner or whatever that would have been at the firm.
And my wife and I had tickets to the Alley
Theater and I had worked several days in a row
(05:59):
until late at night, and if I worked past a
certain hour, they would get me a driver, which I
referred to as a limo because it was a Lincoln
Town Cars. A limbo to me and my first professional job,
and I'm straight out of law school. And if I
was at the office past a certain time, I think
(06:20):
it was seven, then I didn't have to drive home
or back in. They would send a driver because they're
building a bunch of hours and they would order in
food even if I was the only one working, because
it was the project I was working on, and I'd
done this several days in a row, and so my
wife got tickets to the Alley Theater to see on
(06:42):
August Wilson play Jitney, and I was excited. We're gonna
have date night. We were going to go to Bira
Parrettes for dinner and then two, which is right next
to the Alley, and then we're going to go to
the Alley Theater and see this for And at about
(07:03):
three thirty in the afternoon, a managing partner, my mentor
and I are on the phone with a client and
the client says, we sent He sent the work that
I had completed over the last couple of days. And
guy says, oh, this is great. I'm not going to
have a chance to get to it until Monday. This
was a Thursday. I'm not gonna have a chance to
(07:24):
get to it till monday. But it looks great. And
he said, oh, by the way, can you do and
you give a little project And my managing partner said,
we'll have it to you by the morning. And he said,
you don't need to have it. I won't do it.
And he said, no, no, we will. I had to
stay late and miss and I said, you know what
I'm out. I said that MAC has three locations of
(07:44):
gallery furniture. Will have to fix that. It's only two now.
He just reminded me the Postoke location has closed. Very
interesting what happened along that post Oake location when MAC
came in. It brought a lot of attention to that
(08:07):
Postoake corridor, once the premier shopping district in Houston. That
area has suffered mightily. First of all, the galleria has
had a horrible, horrible decline. Just go over there and
(08:31):
check it out. I've had officers who work that beat
tell me, don't let your wife park in the galleria
and walk to the stores, because when you're coming out
of the stores, a woman with shopping bags walking out
of the stores is a target. They'll run up her
(08:51):
and punch her in the face and grab what she
has and run. They're carjacking people in the parking lot.
A friend who's pretty well to do, and he was
mentioning that his wife had purchased this or that item
from I don't know, one of the high end stores.
Not Lord and Taylor. They're not there anymore, but whatever
(09:15):
the one is on that far west end. No, it's
not Spencers. What is the name of the darn place.
It has the restaurant too. It has little Foo food
restaurants about. It's a multi story department store. It's down
on the west end. It's probably the fanciest of the
department stores. It's left at the gallery. Anyway, he said
(09:39):
his wife had bought it there, and I said, man,
let me tell you what I hear from law enforcement
tells me there's a lot, way more crime in the
galley than you would imagine, especially for single women. And
so because it's thugs, right, there's certain cultures that prey
(10:00):
on single women. We all know this. The data bears
it out anecdotally. Everybody's got a story, and you've got
a lot of thug culture gathering around the galleria. And
he said no. She pulls up to the valet parking,
she goes into the store, she buys what she wants,
(10:20):
she comes back out, and she gets in the cart
and she leaves. They live in the suburbs, so they
don't have to live around the trash. Anyway. You've got
the galleria and all the problems have happened there. And
then you've got you head north on Post Oak that area,
(10:41):
you know when you head north on Post Oak out
of the galleria. So you've got was that Dillard's across
the street. You've got that Shell station in the corner.
I don't know what it is about that Shell station
in the northeast corner of West Timer and the six Loop.
I'm sorry that that would be the southwest corner. So
(11:05):
Southwest corner, there is a Shell station right there. I
have had officers tell me it's one of the worst
gas stations in America, and you wouldn't. I mean, this
is Uptown, this is Galleria area, right They rebranded the Galleria.
Did you did you say something? They rebranded the Galleria
(11:25):
to Uptown because the Galleria came to have a bad name.
Then you head north on Post Oak. Right there on
the west side of Post Oak, that used to be
Sacklewitz first, that was that was the taj mahall of
of you know in Houston based, you know, department store.
(11:49):
You on the on the east side, you've got the
Container Store, You've got the whole Earth. You start going
along there, you've got a really really high end Indian
jewelry store that came there about two years ago for
really really rich Indians. That is the premier jewelry store.
(12:12):
Then you keep going you had Kenny and Ziggy's. It's
not a surprise that Ziggy moved out of there. Ziggi
Gruber doesn't want to get mugged. Then on the far
end you had what used to be I think Ashman's
and then it became Sports Authority and now it's Dick
(12:33):
Sporting Goods. Which in and of itself has lost a
luster because of their anti gun position. So Mack had
located in the middle of there and has had nothing
but problems. He's had the crime, which he's complained about constantly,
and they won't do anything about it. But also they
(12:56):
decided right after he moved in, you know, will be
a great idea. It's hard enough to get people to
come back into the city when they do get here.
You high end retailers, Let's do to you what we
did to downtown. Let's rip the road up so we
(13:16):
can put a trolley car in between there. A trolley car.
Why would you do that, because when it's one hundred
and seventy eight thousand degrees, what people want to do
is go stand out on the road and wait on
a trolley car. That way, at least if there's not
a homeless person on the trolley car when they get
(13:37):
on and off, maybe they can get water splashed on them,
or if nothing else, they can get a good sign
of sweat in while they're waiting on the trolley car
to take them up and down the corridor. So for
years they ripped up the roads and mac ranted and
raved and nobody cared because we had to have the
(13:59):
trolley car. Go look at that trolley car any time
or day. There is nobody on it, and the few
people who are on it, you didn't get them out
of their cars. See what happens. This is This is
how you trick people. People say, oh, there's too much traffic,
too many cars on the road. Yes, you're right. We
(14:20):
will solve that with a trolley car system like we
ripped out when we had in the nineteen twenties. We'll
put everybody butt you in a trolley. Yes, I'm for
a very very very expensive trolley because everybody will ride
the trolley butt me. Oh okay, well why aren't you
riding it? No way. I want to control my air conditioning.
(14:41):
I want to control what I listen to. I want
to be able to move here and there if I
stop on the way home. I don't just go from
point A to point b.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I went to New York and I ride the sideway
and it was really nice on that sideway. My whole
family had a nice time on the sideway. So people
come home from New York and there's enough of these people.
I don't know, why can't we have that in Houston.
We got drive here. It's all time and from well
to do people. We got a driver everywhere in Houston.
You know, you know a lot about New York. You
can walk. I like fat you know you walk. You
(15:12):
don't have to have car. You can walk here. We
got buses everywhere here. Go get on one. Go wait
at the bus stop, walk around in the heat.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
With them.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Michael Berry for here is the story from March twenty,
first of last year. Metro may reduce service on Silver
Line rapid Transit along Post Oak beginning in June. That
was love last year. Metro may reduce service on Silver
(15:49):
Line rapid Transit along Post Oak beginning in June. Houston's
first bus rapid transit line won't be so rapid anymore.
According to a new plan under consideration by Metropolitan Transit
Authority officials, buses along the Silver Line route between the
(16:12):
lower Uptown West Park Transit Center south of the Galleria
and Northwest Transit Center near Interstate ten and Loop ten
Loop six' ten could go from running every twelve minutes
to every twenty. Minutes metro officials said the reasons for
less frequent service are the result of quote lower than
(16:36):
anticipated end quote use of the line and the better
use of some of those buses in other, places said
The director Of service And planning For. Metro moving to
a twenty minute frequency places the rapid line Between metro's
frequent core, routes which can come every ten to fifteen
minutes at peak, times and the lesser used community routes
(16:59):
that come every twenty to thirty. Minutes since its debut
In august of twenty, twenty during THE covid nineteen, pandemic
the line has carried only a fraction of the ridership
officials envisioned for the. Route on a Typical january work,
(17:20):
day the line carried an average of one thy thirty three.
Writers critics of the Line that'd be me said well
before its opening it would, underperform and have said since
its lackluster numbers became clear that it and future major
projects should be. Reconsidered let me explain this to, you
(17:41):
AND i know that everybody has an opinion on this
and you're locked into, it but just give me five
minutes to make my, pitch would?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
You?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
SO i came To houston nineteen eighty. Nine in nineteen ninety,
One Bob lanier run Against Kathy. Whitmeyer Kathy whitmeyer is the.
Mayor Bob lanier is the chairman Of. Metro Sylvester turner's
of State. Rep Kathy whitmeyer had in her mind that
(18:14):
we needed light rail because all the big cities need. Lightrail,
now the unspoken in all of this is there are
people whose job it is to sell big, projects because
you'll never guess their company performs big, projects building, stadiums
doing bond offerings of a billion dollars to renovate. Stadiums
(18:37):
you get the. Point those people will do anything for
a political leader who will take on these big. Projects
Bob lanier was a longtime land. Developer started as a.
Lawyer Backer botts Realized i'm not a big firm, Lawyer
i'm a deal. Guy he got into real, estate and
(18:57):
what he was really good at was getting into real
estate in areas where roads were going to be, built
because the value of that real estate goes through the
roof and. Apartments and he made a lot of money
in real estate and he was a believer in. It
he ended up being on The texas on The Texas Highway,
(19:21):
COMMISSION i think it was called at the. Time Think
Mark white put him on, it and he was a
big transportation. Guy if you ever Saw Bob, lanier you
wouldn't know, This But Bob lanier had the most analytical
mind of ANYONE i have ever met in. Politics So
(19:41):
bob lemir in ninety, one So bobliner, says we got
to stop with this metro. Thing this metro. Thing Kathy
whitmeer was wasting all this. Money and remember this is
nineteen ninety. One crime is through the. Roof fox started
the city under. Siege mister k m the brains behind the,
(20:06):
galleria was murdered in his driveway for his. Watch crime
was through the. Roof In, houston people were moving out
the Downtown Rice, hotel Where JOHN. F kennedy had stayed
the night before he had been. Assassinated beautiful architecture Downtown
centerpiece was vacant and homeless people would sleep under the.
(20:29):
Awning the white flight out of the, city which was
going on across the, country was. Demoralizing crime was. Terrible
the police department was. Understaffed the gang problem was through the,
roof And Kathy whitmyer wanted to spend a lot of
(20:50):
money on a rail. System lanier killed it at his,
announcement there were buttons it said six fifty five was
a number officers he would put on the street if
we killed the light. Rail, well you couldn't put six
hundred and fifty five officers on the. Street he did
it with, overtime but he did, it and he, won
and all of a sudden and they brought The Rice hotel.
(21:12):
Back he brought randall doesn't. Matter our can't members and
they can't remember anything. Anymore they they kind of empowered
him to do that. Deal they brought the baseball stadium.
Downtown they did a number of things that were very
positive for bringing people back into the. City United airlines
(21:38):
signed Or Continental, Airlines Gordon bethune signed a big contract
to bring his workers back down to. Downtown So lanier staved,
off staved that off for six. Years but the big
mistake he made was Supporting Lee, brown Because lanier, was after,
all even if a Moderate, democrat A, democrat and he
(21:59):
had the, guilt we have to have a black mayor In.
Houston and so they Chose LEE. P, brown, who in
addition to being, stupid was incredibly incredibly. Corrupt one or
the other would have been bad, enough but he was.
Both so there we go. Again we're going to do the.
Rail we're gonna have the light rail system is gonna be.
(22:22):
Downtown it's gonna be. Great they spent hundreds of millions
of dollars on a system nobody. Rides now they'll, say, Well,
michael well it's not. True there's a couple people that ride.
It you know how they got a couple people to ride.
It they shut down the bus service along that. Route
two thousand and. Three i'm running From. Ara i'm the
only guy that comes out against the, rail And i'm spouting,
(22:43):
FACTS i mean left and, right spouting. Facts and do
you know what people would say to, Me, well we
got to do. Something traffic's. Bad we got to do.
Something we gotta do something because you, know traffic is so.
Bad and do you understand all the money you've tied
up in this and continue to tie up in. This
(23:06):
we are not a mass transit. City we're Not New,
York we're NOT. Dc people will, say, yeah but WHEN
i go TO, DC i get in that. Subway do
you understand That congress subsidizes their own little pet. Project guess?
What you also don't get a congressional retirement. Package you
also don't get exempted From obamacare like they. Did you
(23:28):
are Not. Congress that is not a sustainable. Model mass
transit is never financially. Sustainable it is always subsidized subsidizing
a bus, service, which by the, way when it's, flooding
you can get people out of, town you can't move the.
Rail subsidizing a bus service is pennies on the dollar
with these stupid fixed rail. Systems and by the, way
(23:49):
we had one in the. Twenties we ripped it out
because it's too hot and nobody wants to use.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
It theary.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
He most people know the story of his. Daughter he
has told the story many many. Times but in case
you don't, know his, daughter a very very beautiful, woman
was plagued by a, horrible debilitating, condition and she tells the.
(24:29):
Story he tells the. Story she couldn't get out of
the shower for hours on, end and she was suicidal
and it was very. Traumatic, Well mac is not one
to ride to hide from such, things so he went to.
Work and her name Is. Liz she ended up in.
(24:50):
Treatment she ended up studying her own condition and became
an expert on. It she went on to get a.
PhD i think From. Harvard she went on to get
a PhD in the subject and to be a, practicing
practicing doctor in the. Field pretty amazing story if you
(25:11):
think about, it although it's not uncommon for people to
suffer a malady and in the studying of that to
make that their professional. Focus So max sat down After
curville with everything that was going, on and he's running
loads of, stuff still is To curveville to help, people
(25:33):
and he sat down with his Daughter, liz and a
fellow by the name of Doctor, perry Who i'm told
is a world famous child. Psychiatrist used to be At
Czech Texas children and At Baylor college Of. Medicine apparently
he's written a lot of. Books one report was hundreds of.
BOOKS i don't know how many books he's. Written his
(25:55):
most famous book is about a little boy who raised
his dog In Acres, holmes whose grandmother was. Raising she
died and her living boyfriend was. Retarded so he raised
his kid like a, dog and then Doctor perry had
to straighten the kid. Out it's one of those crazy,
(26:18):
cases one of those crazy stories where as a doctor
he had an. Opportunity, obviously you learn from the experience
he's been To Sandy, Hook columbine helping people deal with,
trauma and they recorded the podcast AND i came upon
it AND i asked mac, hoy would you mind if
(26:41):
we post this on our, podcast as we do with
things like The saturday, podcast to amplify this, message and
he said. Absolutely here are a couple of clips from that,
podcast but you can go to our podcast from. Yesterday
it says bonus podcast and it's actually their. Conversation but
here's the first. One matt talking to Doctor, perry the child.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Psychiatrist i'm here to listen and. Learn how do we
make things better so people can get through. THIS i
could only imagine the horror of not only the people
that can't miss, it but all the people that also
were drowned by this horrible. Storm so we're here to
listen and, learn and it's a thrill to have lives
on and Doctor, perry and for all You texans out,
(27:25):
THERE i think Doctor perry is at heart a.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Text we heal from these tiny little doses of, kindness of,
thoughtfulness of, understanding of, listening of giving a, hug of being,
present of bringing a. Meal you, know these things provide
this relational regulation of these systems in our body that
make us feel connected and safe. Again and this is
(27:51):
what you. Know this is WHAT i think is going
to happen In. TEXAS i, Mean texas has got so
many great.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Communities we heal from kindness sounds like a. Cliche when
we're done with this IS i want to come back
to that. Line he, says we. Heal he, says here
we heal from little doses of. Kindness here is the,
same Doctor.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Parry we heal from these tiny little doses of, kindness of,
thoughtfulness of, understanding of, listening of giving a, hug of being,
present of bringing a. Meal you, know these things provide
this relational regulation of these systems in our body that
(28:37):
make us feel connected and safe. Again and this is
what you. Know this is WHAT i think is going
to happen In. TEXAS i, Mean texas has got so
many great.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Communities we'll come back to that, line we heal from
little doses of. Kindness and, finally here's a combo Of
mac and Doctor.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Perry how do we help all The houstonians and the
thousands of people that are affected by this? Tragedy So
i'm here to listen and learn how do we make
things better so people can get through. THIS i can
only imagine the horror of not only the people that
can't miss, it but all the people that also were
(29:17):
drowned by this horrible. Storm so we're here to listen and,
learn and it's a thrill to have live on and Doctor,
perry and for all You texans out, THERE i Think
Doctor perry is at heart A.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Texan you. Know The serenity PRAYER i have always found to.
Be the OLDER i, get the more it means to.
Me and you know, It god grant me the serenity
to accept the THINGS i cannot, change the courage to
(29:55):
change the THINGS i, can and the wisdom to know the.
Difference that prayer is credited to a fellow Named ryan
harp rin Hold, nebor and it became widespread mainstream because
(30:23):
it is used at alcoholics anonymous meetings and twelve step.
Programs As i've told you, BEFORE i have a number
of relatives who went THROUGH, aa and my Uncle, preston
WHO i was very close, to did many many stints
(30:44):
in rehab AND aa and struggled his entire. Life but
WHAT i have come to learn from The Serenity prayer
in that conversation and little acts of. Kindness we need.
Control if you're a person who loves a roller, coaster
you're a person who loves to give up. CONTROL i.
(31:04):
Don't and the more Study i've done of, myself As
i've come to try to be more attentive to you,
know what kind of person are? You what are?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Naturally because you can be a good person despite bad
intentions or despite bad. INCLINATIONS i believe that you can
be a skinny person despite slow. Metabolism. Right you can
be a strong person despite a weak. Frame you can
be fill in the. Blanks But i've come to understand
THAT i am a person like many, people particularly TYPE a,
personalitism who likes. Control AND i find, that you know,
(31:37):
what we can't control the. Flood we can't control the
possibility we could die in an accident or, whatever and
that bothers. Me that troubles. ME i struggle with. That
but what we can control is little acts of. Kindness
what we can control is fixing a problem for somebody.
(31:58):
Else and so that gives me that UTILITY i. Need
it's bigger than. Joy it's utility the economists called a.
Utility it gives me a sense of, meaning to have.
CONTROL i can control an act of kindness that can't
be taken away from, me that can give me a
Certain all, right it is, time as. Promised several of
you have emailed because you KNOW i. FORGOT i promised
(32:20):
A i truly, believe and it is coming. Up rehearse
it in your, head get right to. It, no, bluetooth
no speakerphone seven one, three nine nine, nine one, thousand
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