On Thursday, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett met with the nonprofit Urban Land Institute to seek guidance on his idea for turning the Astrodome into the "world's largest indoor park." Judge Emmett has received a lot of feedback since unveiling his idea for the Dome last week, some good, some bad. “Yeah, I've had a lot of people, you know, send me e-mails, that say I've been a buffoon and an idiot, and this and that,” says Emmett, “but overall, people have been very positive about saying, ‘well, this is a vision worth pursuing.'"
The plan remains a vision, for now. Judge Emmett has tasked the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation with determining initial cost estimates for, minimally, creating green space on the field and air conditioning the facility. He expects to have better answers to questions about costs, and what might actually exist in the Dome, within the next three months.
On this edition of Houston Matters, we’ll talk with Judge Emmett about his proposal for the Dome, whether it might move forward with or without voter approval, and what – if any – specifics he can offer about it.
Also this hour: When is tipping appropriate? At a restaurant, sure, but how much? And what about for other services? “Complimentary” valet parking? Do you drop money in a tip jar? Again, how much? We’ll discuss tipping etiquette in Houston with Mary Lee Kennedy from Manners Pro.
Then: From a firefighters union head resigning, citing threats from his own rank and file, to a court challenge to the Texas voter ID law, to Carl Lewis joining the full-time track coaching staff at the University of Houston, we explore The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in this week’s news with our rotating panel of “non-experts.” Today, we’re joined by Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg, "Texas Leftist" blogger Wayne Ashley, and Russ Capper, Founder and Host of The Business Makers Show and the Energy Makers Show.
Plus: the NFL regular season kicked off last night, and with it, another season of fantasy football. We’ll talk with Houstonian Howard Agnew, who’s been playing fantasy football for 25 years, and Bob Harris, who hosts a SiriusXM satellite program called Football Diehards, about how fantasy football has changed the way fans watch and analyze the sport, and whether it impacts how we support our hometown Houston Texans.
