The revolution in oil and natural gas production has been a windfall for trucking companies and commercial drivers across the state. But it's also led to a surge in fatal accidents on Texas highways. All this week, Houston Public Media News 88.7’s Andrew Schneider and the Houston Chronicle’s Lise Olsen have collaborated in a series of reports called “Boom in Oil and Traffic Deaths,” which has examined the risks to drivers, in and out of the oil industry.
We talk with Schneider and Olsen about this phenomenon on this edition of Houston Matters.
Also: A conversation with Terry Garrison, Chief of the Houston Fire Department, about lessons learned a year after four firefighters lost their lives in a hotel blaze.
Then: For some time now, Houston gang movement has become more prevalent in suburban areas. Among the reasons: a crackdown by law enforcement in the city, pushing gangs to operate out of town, a wealth of wholesale illicit drug suppliers, and high profit expectations from suburban drug operations. Folks in the burbs tend to associate gang crime with city life. We talk with Mark Schmidt, a gang specialist from the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, about how suburbanites may want to re-think their long-held beliefs about gangs.
Plus: The Houston Arts Alliance is promoting Houstonians’ love affair with movement, transformation, and reinvention, through a series of community-based and contemporary art projects this fall, from concerts to visual art installations in Houston’s East End. We learn more about “Transported and Renewed” as we talk with Pat Jasper, Director of Folklife and Traditional Arts with Houston Arts Alliance.
