Building "Bridges" Across the Bayou City!
After a sharp decline in the first quarter of 2023, Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) spending rebounded slightly in the second quarter. Second quarter spending did not recover to recent peaks, but at least exceeded pre-2018 Flood Bond levels. One Third of Bond Money Spent in Half the Projected Time However, HCFCD is still […]
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Read MoreAccording to Fourth Quarter 2022 data obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), the San Jacinto Watershed has fallen further behind other watersheds in flood-mitigation funding on a number of measures. Since 2000, HCFCD has spent $3.437 billion. The San Jacinto Watershed is the county’s largest […]
The post Flood-Mitigation Funding: San Jacinto Falls Further Behind appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
Read MoreIn the last few weeks, Michael Bloom, a fellow member of the Harris County Community Flood Resilience Task Force, and I have debated the inherent bias and limitations of a Flood-Mitigation Benefit Index (FMBI) proposed by a majority of the Task Force to Harris County Commissioners Court. According to Mr. Bloom, the index will: Reveal […]
The post Inherent Bias and Limitations of Flood-Mitigation Benefit Index appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
Read MoreHow do you fairly allocate flood-mitigation funds? Voters have argued about that since the day Harris County Commissioners Court redefined the conventional meaning of “equitable” with the first equity formula in 2019. Since then the formula has changed several times to ensure low-to-moderate income (LMI) areas continue to receive the lion’s share of mitigation funding, […]
The post Formula for Allocating Future Flood-Mitigation Funding Deceives appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
Read MoreNew data obtained from Harris County Flood Control District via a FOIA Request breaks down flood-mitigation funding by watershed through the end of 2021. It shows where your flood-bond money is going. It also debunks some popular myths. Those include the oft repeated: Rich watersheds get all the funding; poor watersheds get none. Partner funding […]
The post Latest Flood-Mitigation Funding Trends appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
Read MoreA myth being promulgated in the Harris County Courthouse and certain low-income watersheds these days goes something like this: The FEMA Benefit/Cost Ratio used to rank grant applications for flood-mitigation projects favors high-dollar homes. That disadvantages poor, inner-city neighborhoods compared to affluent suburbs. Therefore, poor neighborhoods get no help and the rich neighborhoods get it […]
The post Equity Myth Buster: “Rich Neighborhoods Get All the Flood-Mitigation Funding” appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
Read MoreFifth in a series of eight articles on flood-mitigation funding in Harris County On April 11, Russ Poppe, executive director of the Harris County Flood Control District, resigned after two years of hounding by Commissioners Rodney Ellis and Adrian Garcia over the distribution of flood-bond money. Ellis and Garcia kept pushing Poppe to accelerate flood-mitigation […]
The post Racial Rhetoric Distracts from Focus on Real Solutions to Flooding Problems. Here is Why. appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
Read MoreFourth in a series of eight on flood-mitigation funding in Harris County Since 2019, Commissioners Ellis and Garcia have harped on the need for more “equity” in flood-mitigation funding. They and some residents in their precincts allege that all the money is going to high-income watersheds while minority, low-income watersheds get “none.” Ellis repeatedly complains […]
The post Low-Income Watersheds Get Three Times More Flood-Mitigation Funding Per Square Mile appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
Read MoreThird of an eight-part series on flood-mitigation funding in Harris County Some people and their representatives in low-to-moderate-income (LMI) watersheds have complained that they get “no” flood-mitigation funding and that the money is all going to richer watersheds. Allegedly, that’s because home values are higher there and thus favor higher benefit/cost ratios (a sort of […]
The post Six Low-Income Watersheds Receive More Funding than 15 Higher Income Watersheds Combined appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
Read MoreSecond in a Series of Eight Articles on Flood-Mitigation Funding in Harris County If the charges of racial and income bias in flood-mitigation funding in Harris County were true, you would expect the poorest neighborhoods to get less funding than the most affluent. But the opposite is true. They get a billion dollars more Contrary to the “equity” […]
The post Six Low-Income Watersheds Receive One Billion Dollars More than Six High-Income Watersheds appeared first on Reduce Flooding.
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