Candidates for Mayor Respond to Environmental Poll

    The following are the unedited responses received from City of Houston mayoral candidates to the following question: What are the top environmental priorities facing the Houston-Galveston region, and what strategies do you feel will be most effective in addressing them?

    Several follow-up calls were made to candidates to ensure that participation was as complete as possible.

    The following candidates did not respond:

  • Richard Barry
  • Helen Huey
  • Rob Mosbacher

    Lee P. Brown:

    The environmental problems facing our region are complex. Poor air quality resulting from a combination of mobile and fixed sources of pollution will not be reduced without better enforcement of existing regulations and a comprehensive transportation plan. The continued shift from ground to surface water to ensure water quality and relieve the problems of subsidence must be continued. Additionally, a regional solid - waste management plan that continues to emphasize recycling to reduce our need for more landfill space must be developed.

    I am committed to addressing these very serious problems of air, water, and solid waste pollution. Houston must take a leadership role in working with other cities in the area to formulate a regional approach to solving our environmental problems. Only through cooperation and a long-term approach to the environment, can Houstonians be assured of clean air, water, and sufficient landfill space for future generations.

    Several weeks ago I introduced a comprehensive transportation plan that will help improve our air quality. In addition, I will convene a regional summit to directly address environmental issues with all municipal, civic, environmental and business leaders. By working together we can create a comprehensive approach to managing our valuable environmental resources.

    Bernard E. Calkins:

    In my opinion, automobiles contribute a large part of air pollution, especially during peak periods when cars are in stop and go mode.

    Developing a Rail Rapid Transit System for Houston would go a long way in reducing those emissions. I have proposed a Duo-Mode (Electric) Powered Overhead Guided Tramway System. It would operate on a fixed guideway, but be able to leave the guideway and operate at grade level on main streets in neighborhoods and in Downtown as well as business centers (such as the Galleria, etc.).

    By leaving the guideways, this would allow the trams to become feeder line operations and provide flexibility as opposed to rail which requires transfer at stations to either feeder line buses or automobiles.

    Such a system, serving ten corridors, would eliminate up to 100,000 cars per day, mostly during the peak period.

    The local portion of this system could be paid for in six years, if the City of Houston discontinued siphoning $55,000,000 from METRO.

    George Greanias

    Houston's most clear and present environmental challenge is air quality. The City must continue to work with local industries to get them to reduce their air emissions. We must be business partners - not adversaries - in improving air quality. Businesses will also benefit from pollution prevention and reduction because it saves money. It makes businesses more competitive in the long run. It enhances the public image of the entire city, especially with consumers, who support a better environment.

    Relative to our air quality challenge is better public transportation. We need a balanced mobility program that includes first-class freeways and streets, and it is time to include some element of rail in our public transportation system.

    I also believe Houston is being challenged to balance its growth and the protection of neighborhood integrity. In working on that challenge, I will give the City Attorney's Office and our Municipal Courts full authority in enforcing deed restrictions. I will also work to direct beautification and parks programs to low and middle income neighborhoods.

    I am the only candidate in the mayors' race who made the environment a part of my campaign platform when I said in my announcement speech that we need an environmental policy that protects our health and our jobs. Development, industry, and conservation can coexist and Houston can show the rest of the world how.

    Jean Claude Lanau

    There are two issues:
  • Galveston Bay
  • Air Quality

    Both have to be addressed and the sooner the better. It is not only a City Issue, it is a regional issue. As mayor I would get together a symposium of all city, county, state officials along with members of the Greater Houston Partnership and federal representatives to look at the air problem we know we won't be able to solve by 1999, ask for an extension of the time limit imposed by the EPA regulations. To show our good faith, we will demonstrate our willingness to solve it as a regional issue.

    Houston alone cannot do much, as most major pollutants are outside city limits. I would use all my power to push industry to comply. I know there will be some trade off because of jobs, but we cannot keep having the second worst air quality in the country. This is totally unacceptable.

    We as a city can improve air quality by installing some electric heavy rail on the Katy and Westpark corridors, by using guided buses that use batteries on guideways on other corridors and speeding traffic by creating overpasses and underpasses at major intersections, by synchronizing traffic lights.

    Finally I want to turn the proposed Westside Airport into a Municipal Waterfowl Preserve as it is too small to be effective. No other world city I know has four airports. We don't need it. We cannot fight millennia of evolution. The birds will remain there creating danger to aviation.

    Gracie Guzman Saenz

    I believe the top environmental priority facing our region is improving the quality of our air. We know we have an air quality problem in Houston and it is time we do something about it. We don't need more studies and we don't need to spend more time arguing about the methodology of determining air quality and attainment status. As mayor, I will utilize our City departments to the fullest in enforcing emission violations by industry. The City should take the lead in the effort to clean our air by converting its fleet to clean-burning natural gas from conventional gasoline.

    It is also imperative that the City maintain its "Superior" water quality rating and look for new ways to provide cleaner water at the lowest possible rates.

    Some of my other top environmental priorities include increasing forestation within the city, acquiring new parkland, and forever preserving Katy Prairie as protected wetlands and as a wildlife refuge. There will not be an airport built on that site under my administration.

    I have said repeatedly in this campaign that my aim as mayor is to make Houston a "cleaner, safer, healthier, more livable city for us and for our families." Cleaner air and water, more green space and preserving what part of nature we can are key elements in meeting those goals. I hope you will agree with my vision and join me to make that vision a reality.