June 21, 2004, 09:07 PM
Cohen covers the hard news... in Conroe
Apparently, it's been a slow news day at the Chronicle.
How else to explain the fact they've sent staff off to chase a hot story on Hispanic outreach in the city of... Conroe:
Spurred by a new mayor, this Montgomery County city is beginning to shine a neighborly spotlight on its fast-growing Hispanic population.
Mayor Tommy Metcalf says it's time for the city to remedy years of community relations neglect.
“This is a fairness issue — this is the right thing to do,” he declared in a recent interview. “These people have been left behind and dismissed for too long. They come here and work for us, but they're too often not getting acclimated to our community. We ought to make them welcome.”
Among the mayor's near-term goals are recruiting local lawyers for no-fee work on Hispanic consumer complaint cases, providing better bilingual publicity for city and other governmental services, and encouraging the police to work even harder at polishing their image in Hispanic neighborhoods.
With the city's population of roughly 40,000 now more than one-third Hispanic, the new mayor and others in leadership positions believe the city's future rests substantially in the hands of a minority group that a generation ago was barely on the political radar screen.
People like Ruby Sanchez, a 66-year-old hairdresser who's lived here since 1972, see a new day dawning. “Things are different today. Things are changing. It's better today. It would be great if we (eventually) have political visibility, but that still may be sometime off in the future.”
A new day dawning?
Good gawd.
That cliched phrase alone ought to be enough to get this one spiked. At least at a serious newspaper.
The Chronicle has lost one of its few serious reporters, in John Williams, who made a valiant effort at covering City Hall.
It's hard to tell if anyone is trying to cover City Hall in his place. Why bother, when there are hot stories breaking on Conroe's Hispanic Outreach and the HCC Chancellor's Wife's Nationbuilding (one classroom at a time) efforts.
You know, those stories really important to Houstonians.
Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen's priorities are just confused.
Now that we've had our dose of multicultural education from you Jeff, could we have some metro news tomorrow? Please?
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