AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; Pearland City Council fires City Manager Clay Pearson; Harris County commissioners approve canvass of midterm elections; Inadequate road striping raises safety concerns among some Houston City Council members; Hostile Architecture Is Evil and Should Be Banned; Texas Guard to send tank-like military vehicles to the border; More Texans turn to home schooling after the pandemic showed them what learning outside of schools could be like; Kevin McCarthy wants to block three Democrats from committees if he becomes House speaker;More.

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT-HD2, Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:

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Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. My co-host and show editor is Andrew Ferguson.

• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter InformationTEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   1. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
      1. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
      2. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
      3. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
      4. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
      5. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
      6. Waller County (TX) Elections
      7. Chambers County (TX) Elections
      8. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, Consider visiting Vote.ORG.   Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
      9. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
      10. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers, HARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
          1. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
          2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
          3. Current utility bill
          4. Bank statement
          5. Government check
          6. Paycheck
          7. A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
          8. You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
             1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
             2. Sick or disabled;
             3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
             4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
             5. Make sure you are registered:
             6. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
             7. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
             8. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
             9. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL NEW MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2023 AFTER JANUARY 1, 2023.
   
   1. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. Pearland City Council fires City Manager Clay Pearson; By Daniel Weeks | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 9:23 AM Nov 22, 2022 CST, Updated 9:22 AM CST, Nov 22, 2022 CST
   1. SYNOPSIS: Pearson was removed at the end of a regular meeting where the council also discussed the city’s budgetary crisis due to a property value assessment error that officials overlooked.
4. Harris County commissioners approve canvass of midterm elections; By Rachel Carlton | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:44 PM Nov 22, 2022 CST
   Updated 5:44 PM Nov 22, 2022 CST
   1. Harris County commissioners voted 2-0 to approve the canvass of the Nov. 8 elections and adopt the official election returns during a special meeting Nov. 22nd.
   2. Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia were the only members present to vote; the Texas Election Code provides that two members constitute a quorum to canvass an election.
   3. The results included over 2,000 provisional ballots cast during a one-hour extended voting period on Election Day [ordered by a court after some polls opened late].
   4. The Texas Supreme Court then … directed the Harris County Office of the Elections Administrator to segregate the ballots cast between 7-8 p.m. On Nov. 21, the Texas Attorney General’s office asked the Texas Supreme Court to order the county to throw out the late-cast ballots entirely …
   5. The Texas Supreme Court did not rule directly on the attorney general’s petition, instead issuing an order just before the Nov. 22 meeting directing commissioners to conduct the canvass with the provisional ballots included in the final count.
   6. But because the provisional ballots had the potential to change the outcome of certain races, the Texas Supreme Court’s order also made the election’s office create a second, separate report for the provisional ballots “so that the parties can assess the extent to which further litigation is warranted.”
   7. ANDREW: So the litigation may not be over. Still, at least the provisional ballots were included in the count, and that should at least mean they will affect who takes office for at least part of this term, even if they do get thrown out later.
   8. REFERENCE: Texas Civil Rights Project: “The extension was granted by the 334th District Court after the [Texas Civil Rights Project] filed a lawsuit …”
5. Inadequate road striping raises safety concerns among some Houston City Council members; By Leah Foreman | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:32 PM Nov 18, 2022 CST,
   Updated 4:32 PM Nov 18, 2022 CST, Updated 2:29 PM Nov 21, 2022 CST
   1. … An agenda item that came before the Council at a Nov. 9 meeting to authorize a settlement with Professional Traffic Control for pavement marking work completed last year kicked off a conversation among the council members over the issue of road striping altogether.
   2. At-Large Council Member Sallie Alcorn said the issue hit home for her while she was on a drive to her church on San Felipe Street, where she said lanes were indiscernible. She said she called Houston’s 311 line, and officials with the Public Works Department told her there was a backlog of 400 striping requests dating back to mid-2020.
   3. However, Erin Jones, interim communications director with Houston Public Works, disputed the use of the word “backlog” to describe the situation. She some proposed pavement projects may not have met a “service level agreement”—a timeframe that has been agreed upon among the mayor, City Council and the city departments on how long they have to fulfill those requests. …
   4. Various council members, such as District C’s Abbie Kamin and District A’s Amy Peck, said they had attempted to use their own respective council district service funds to amend the issue and received different answers. [MIKE: In the interest of full disclosure, Amy Peck is my ex-wife’s niece, though not my Council person.]
   5. “We’ve offered to use council district service funds to just get [striping projects] done, and we’re told that we don’t have a contract in place to even do that,” Peck said.
   6. After her call to 311, Alcorn said she received the following statement from Houston Public Works, a copy of which was provided to Community Impact:
   7. “Through connecting with [Transportation & Drainage Operations], our team has learned that the status of the lane striping backlog is a combination of being understaffed and having limited budget availability, which resulted in a long backlog of requests going back as far as mid-2020. The traffic markings requests that cannot be performed in-house (by TDO staff) are performed by a contract (outside contractors), and the contract is not currently active due to legal issues. TDO is working diligently to resolve this situation and expects to resume the pavement marking program soon.”
   8. The statement also said no stripers, or striping machines, were at work at the time of Alcorn’s call because there had been no new striping contracts awarded. …
   9. Vice Mayor Pro Tem Martha Castex-Tatum said that in a recent meeting with Public Works Director Carol Haddock, she mentioned, with regard to pedestrian crosswalks, the possible use of a more sustainable, longer-lasting paint for road markings.
   10. “The comment [from Haddock] was, when you use a different type of paint, it gets more expensive,” Castex-Tatum said. “But I think we should make the investment in a better quality marking so that it lasts longer.”
   11. Throughout the meeting, Mayor Sylvester Turner maintained that this was the first he had heard of the issue. The mayor went on to say that if these issues go to departments and do not make it up the chain to him, he needs to be notified.
   12. … Community Impact has filed a public information request and will continue to report on the story as more information becomes available.
   13. UPDATED PORTION: [Erin] Jones said the Public Works department had over 700 requests for pavement markings in March 2020. Since then, 2,476 pavement markings were completed between in-house Public Works crews and contractors, she said.
   14. Crews cut the backlog to 513 open requests—including 355 requests for centerline and lane markings. Public Works has received bids for a new contract and plans to clear the backlog by Dec. 2023, Jones said.
   15. MIKE: I’ve noticed road marking issues in Houston and over most of Texas for decades. It’s one of the motivators for my saying that you get the government you pay for. My first experience after landing in Dallas in 1977 and renting a car in a pouring rain was that it was impossible to see road markings in the rain.
   16. MIKE: The same has been true in Houston almost as long as I’ve lived here, whether it’s a city street or an interstate. Sometimes, reflective heat-melted stripe tapes [Technically called, “PREFORMED THERMOPLASTIC PAVEMENT MARKING TAPE] are used for markings. Reflective markings are great; essential for driving safety, I would say. But if that tape is not applied properly, it peels off the roadway in weeks or months.
   17. MIKE: Reflective markers glued to the roadway between stripes or along solid stripes are great, but not used often enough. Presumably, they are expensive to buy and apply, but they have the added benefit of being red reflectors on the wrong-way traffic side; a vital safety feature.
   18. MIKE: Why am I spending so much time on this topic? Because I’ve lived in Houston for 45 years, and this has been an ongoing safety concern almost everywhere, especially on rainy nights. It’s essential that this issue be properly dealt with on a long-term, ongoing basis.
   19. MIKE: FYI, if you don’t know who your Houston city council person is, you can click this link.
   20. MIKE: Finding your other area representation is trickier because of redistricting still taking affect into the first of 2023. Best way might be to see who was on your 2022 sample ballot.
   21. ANDREW: I recently drove into Houston and was shocked at how many of the roads I drove on were wide enough for multiple lanes yet had no visible lane markers. Granted, this was at night, so I may just not have been able to see them, but if that’s true it’s an issue in and of itself. I think public works funding should absolutely be increased– perhaps by redirecting some of the police budget, because after all, it is a public safety issue, isn’t it? I’m also in favor of longer-lasting paint. If you use higher quality materials, the job stays done longer, reducing maintenance and saving money in the long run.
6. Texas Guard to send tank-like military vehicles to the border; A document obtained by The Texas Tribune and Army Times shows that the Vietnam-era M113 armored personnel carriers will be sent to 10 locations along the Texas-Mexico border. By Davis Winkie (Military Times), and William Melhado (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Nov. 18, 2022, Updated: 3 hours ago
   1. Three days after Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted a legally dubious invocation of the “invasion clause” of the U.S. and Texas constitutions over the high number of migrant encounters at the Texas-Mexico border, his border mission is set to include armored personnel carriers designed to carry troops into battle alongside tanks, according to a planning document obtained by Army Times and The Texas Tribune.
   2. The order issued Thursday by Texas Military Department officials to the headquarters overseeing Operation Lone Star reveals that the National Guard will soon deploy 10 M113 armored personnel carrier vehicles to the border. …
   3. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, sending thousands of soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to the border while accusing the Biden administration of failing to secure the border. The effort has included placing shipping containers and rows of DPS and military vehicles along the Rio Grande to deter migrants from crossing, plus using state money and donations to build border barriers.
   4. Armored personnel carriers like the M113 are designed to carry infantry troops across modern battlefields alongside tanks. They can be equipped with … heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, antitank missiles or even large cannons similar to those mounted on tanks. It’s not clear what weapons, if any, will be on the Texas Guard’s M113s at the border.
   5. Such vehicles are by definition bulletproof and can withstand small explosions. In the civilian world, lighter, wheeled armored personnel carriers are sometimes used to carry police SWAT teams.
   6. [T]he Vietnam-era M113 features tracks instead of wheels, leading observers to sometimes confuse them for tanks. …
   7. It’s not clear why the Texas Military Department plans to deploy the vehicles to the border. Since Operation Lone Star began, the agency has not publicly acknowledged any incidents in which the protection provided by the more nimble Humvee vehicles deployed there was inadequate. …
   8. Since Operation Lone Star began, the number of migrants apprehended along the Texas-Mexico border has increased despite the expenditure of $4 billion and the involuntary deployment of up to 6,500 Texas Military Department troops.
   9. Concerns with Operation Lone Star’s misdemeanor trespassing arrests of migrants also have sparked a Department of Justice civil rights probe.
   10. Additionally, Texas Guard troops have complained about pay problems, poor living conditions and inconsistent guidance from leaders since the operation expanded massively last fall. …
   11. Ten soldiers linked to the mission have died since September 2021, all via accident or suicide.
   12. MIKE: So, let’s do some math-y stuff. So far, Operation Lone Star’s use of National Guard troops has generated no important apprehensions of illegal immigrants.The troops have no power to arrest due to the Posse Comitatus Act. Their weapons are unloaded. The lives of the Texas National Guard troops have been severely disrupted for no purpose other than political show. Unnecessary deaths of Texas National Guard Troops — Texans who are friends, family, and citizens in Texas — are tied to this xenophobic PR stunt. To say nothing of their maltreatment while on mission
   13. MIKE: I would like an answer to the question of what $4 billion could have paid for in terms of accommodating legal sanctuary requests and just generally following Federal border law? I have seen a lot of coverage of Operation Lone Star since it began, but I’ve seen nothing on what the money spent on this political boondoggle might have bought in legal and humane management of illegal immigration for $4 billion.
   14. ANDREW: Republican “fiscal responsibility” at work. No price is too high and no suffering is too immoral as long as it keeps people afraid and voting Republican.
   15. REFERENCE: The Posse Comitatus Act Explained — ORG
7. More Texans turn to home schooling after the pandemic showed them what learning outside of schools could be like; Some new home-schoolers disagree with how race and sex are taught at schools. Others cite safety concerns after the Uvalde shooting and poor academic outcomes. by Brian Lopez | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Nov. 21, 20225 AM Central
   1. Christina Hernandez, a mother of two and a former San Antonio theater teacher, knows firsthand how difficult it is to give every student the attention they deserve.
   2. [A]s class sizes have gotten bigger amid a statewide teacher shortage exacerbated by the pandemic, she started suspecting her public school district was not meeting her kids’ needs.
   3. So she pulled them out and started home-schooling them. …
   4. Hernandez and her family are among the Texans who started home schooling when the pandemic hit.
   5. Research suggests home schooling was already growing in popularity before the pandemic, but according to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey … effort to examine the impact of COVID-19 on American life, the percentage of Texas families that home-school their children went up in 2020 — from 4.5% at the end of the 2019-20 school year to 12% at the start of the 2020-21 school year. The increase was particularly notable among Black families.
   6. According to data collected by the Texas Homeschool Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes and advocates for home schooling in the state, about 30,000 students across the state withdrew from a public or charter school and switched to home schooling during the spring of 2021, an increase of 40% compared with the previous year. The figure is likely higher because [Texas] does not track withdrawals from public schools below the seventh grade, said Jeremy Newman, the coalition’s deputy director.
   7. Peggy Semingson, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Arlington who tracked home schooling during the pandemic, said the increase can be attributed to a number of factors. Some families were worried about the spread of COVID-19 at schools; others who had been thinking about home schooling finally took the step after remote learning gave them a glimpse of what teaching their kids at home could look like. The Uvalde school shooting on May 24, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed, might have led some parents to switch to home schooling this year, she said.
   8. Differences over how race and sex are taught at schools also played a role. While the topic had stirred tensions between families and educators in the past, they intensified during the pandemic as more public school lessons were transmitted to family computers during lockdown. The debate spilled into last spring’s school board races as conservative groups rallied against critical race theory, a college-level discipline that examines how racism is embedded in laws and culture. Although the approach is not taught in public schools, it became a shorthand to attack how race is discussed in classrooms.
   9. Newman said he’s heard from parents who have chosen to home-school because they don’t like how politicized schools are becoming. That sentiment is coming from both sides of the political spectrum, he said.
   10. Traditionally, Newman said, parents have home-schooled their children to give them a religious education. But that has shifted in recent years, with growing concerns about bullying, drugs and poor academic achievement. For people of color, fears that their children will face racism at school can drive them out, he said. …
   11. When a student leaves a public school[,] the district stops receiving money for that student, though its operational costs remain the same, said Brian Woods, superintendent of the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio.
   12. “That’s the challenge when you hear people talking about school choice and the need for school choice,” he said.
   13. Woods said the number of students who left his district for home schooling peaked in 2020. Some returned after pandemic restrictions loosened, but many never did. …
   14. Woods said parents are allowed to educate their children in whatever way they feel is best, but the Texas Legislature needs to make sure schools receive the appropriate funding to serve the families that stay with them. …
   15. Opting to home-school in Texas is fairly simple and mostly unregulated. If a child is pulled from a public school, the parents must notify their local school district that the child will now be home-schooled. (Parents don’t need to notify the district they live in if their child was never enrolled in a public school.) The only requirements are that the child’s learning must be in a visual format, like workbooks or online courses, and that the curriculum must go over reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and what the state calls “good citizenship.”
   16. Home-schooling parents can either do these courses at home or in co-ops, where home-schooled students get together to learn together in a classroom-like setting. …
   17. Families also have to weigh the impact on home-school children of not getting the socialization they would get in a public-school setting, [said Asst. Prof. Peggy Semingson].
   18. Still, the approach can be appealing for several reasons. Hernandez summarized hers with one word: flexibility.
   19. Her family now starts their mornings around 8:30 a.m, two hours later than when they were in public school. They get to relax and eat breakfast before digging into the lessons of the day. They do this until about noon, when they take a lunch break and use the rest of the afternoon to either go to a museum or do outdoor activities.
   20. Jaime Johnson in League City, southeast of Houston, said she started home-schooling four of her kids this school year for religious reasons and to provide them with a better academic setting. Johnson said she felt politics and social issues were playing an oversized role in classrooms, which was distracting to her kids. Things like using people’s correct pronouns and discussing LGBTQ themes went against their family beliefs, she said. …
   21. Corie Juniel and her husband, Raphael, a Black couple in Madisonville, about 40 miles northeast of College Station, have been home-schooling their children since 2008. Most recently, their 15-year-old son became the youngest student to graduate from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. …
   22. Juniel tells parents they don’t need to be experts or have a college education to home-school, but they must have the dedication and willingness to craft a curriculum that fits their children’s needs. …
   23. The Juniels have also heard from parents of color worried about racism in schools and how history is taught.
   24. Juniel said home schooling has allowed her to talk to her kids about things that might not be touched on in public schools, like how getting pulled over as a Black man in America can be a deadly encounter. She can also teach them not only about the struggles and discrimination that Black people have faced in America, but also about their successes, she said.
   25. “We create a space for truth,” Juniel said.
   26. MIKE: I’m struck by the impression that the people homeschooling in this story have the luxury of staying home, but that is not explored in the story.
   27. ANDREW: There are many reasonable concerns that are motivating parents to choose homeschooling, but I still believe the risk of isolation and abuse outweighs any potential benefits. There have been many high-profile child abuse cases where the parents were legally homeschooling their children, and whether they were actually educating or not, the effect was that the child had fewer interactions with the outside world, making it harder for them to report what was happening to them. Even in cases where abuse isn’t happening, homeschooling means they aren’t going to school, removing a major opportunity for a child to meet other kids like them, make friends, and experience the world around them, whether it conforms to what their parents have taught them or not. I think the best way to address the difficulties and failings of public education is to provide more funding both for learning and for things like food and clothing, encourage more empathy among educators and fellow students, and shore up and enforce existing civil rights and equality laws. If homeschooling remains an option, though, I strongly believe it should be regulated more heavily, and require regular home visits by state evaluators.
8. Kevin McCarthy wants to block three Democrats from committees if he becomes House speaker; David Jackson | USA TODAY |
   1. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy served further notice Sunday that his potential speakership will be politically volatile …
   2. In stumping for the position, McCarthy has targeted Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., members of the House Intelligence Committee.
   3. McCarthy and other Republicans have for months said these members’ past statements and actions regarding issues like Israel, China and Russia should keep them off these committees.
   4. “I’ll keep that promise” to remove them, McCarthy told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
   5. Schiff and other Democrats said McCarthy is trying to court support from hard-right conservatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. – who was expelled from committees during a 2021 vote of the full House because of her incendiary statements about Democrats.
   6. “I suspect he will do whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week. …
   7. MIKE: In a separate Washington Post article, it is noted that, “If McCarthy is elected speaker, he would not have unilateral power to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. It would require a vote of the full House.”
   8. MIKE: IMHO, for at least the past 25 years, the only consistent policies of the Republican Party are tax cuts and revenge. Bill Clinton was impeached because of revenge for Nixon and Watergate. Nancy Pelosi tried to break the cycle when the Democrats recaptured the house in 2006 by stating up front that they would not impeach George W Bush (for which she was roundly attacked by Democrats who thought that lying us into a war deserved impeachment).
   9. MIKE: While in the minority and then as the majority from 2008 to 2014, Republicans claimed that Obama should be impeached for no less than 7 alleged offenses, although no bills of impeachment of Obama were actually passed in the House.
   10. MIKE: Now, aside from tax cuts, Kevin McCarthy’s proposed agenda is revenge against Democrats by denying the ones he doesn’t like from sitting on committees.
   11. MIKE: The modern Republican Party has evolved into many things over the past 40 years, and none of them are good.
   12. ANDREW: And all of them should prompt Democrats to take the gloves off. There is no aisle anymore– it’s a chasm that no bridge can cross.
9. Hostile Architecture Is Evil and Should Be Banned; Attacking homeless people with spikes is morally tantamount to assault. Designers should not be permitted to incorporate the threat of pain into the built environment. By Nathan J. Robinson | CURRENTAFFAIRS.ORG | filed 17 August 2022 in Architecture & Design
   1. I am sure that if you have been in a city, you have encountered hostile architecture.¹ [1—Euphemistically called “defensive” architecture, just as the Department of War was replaced with the Department of Defense ↩] Some park benches have an extra armrest in the middle so that you can’t lie down. Some are wiggly, or tubular, or slanted, or have a piece missing, or have uncomfortable bumps, in order to achieve the same effect. Some you can’t sit on at all—see the famous “leaning” bench of New York City. The goal is for anyone who tries to sleep to be put in physical pain or extreme discomfort. Essentially, the bench purposely attacks you if you make unauthorized use of it. 
   2. There are other examples. Random spikes and bolts. Clusters of poles, big rocks. Fire hydrants with little jagged cages over them so that you get poked in the ass if you dare to sit on one. Gaps in awnings so that it rains on you if you try to take shelter under it. In New York, “privately owned public spaces” (outdoor spaces that should be public but aren’t) are filled with “an array of spikes, bars, railings and other obstructions on benches and ledges.” In Japan, there is apparently at least one place where the floor itself will lift up and dump you off it if you try to sleep there. Even birds have been subjected to hostile design—see this tree full of “pigeon spikes.” (As a protest/parody of the way the poor are discriminated against in design, a German designer once produced a “pay and sit” bench that drives spikes into your butt if you don’t keep feeding it quarters.) 
   3. There are also less subtle means of menacing the homeless, such as playing loud music or intolerable high-pitched sounds, or spraying them with water (as the Strand Bookstore in New York was reported to have done in 2013). Because these measures do nothing to actually reduce homelessness, but instead just make it even more difficult to find a place to sleep, we see one of the more tragic scenes of our time: people trying to find a way to sleep amid the uncomfortable boulders placed beneath a bridge. …
   4. There are ways that people can take direct action against these inhuman design features. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, last year a heroic group conducted civil disobedience by removing the middle armrest from a number of benches. A Frenchman did the same thing in the city of Lyon in 2018. For those who prefer slightly less risky misdemeanors, you can buy a set of stickers to put on these features to call attention to them as a “design against humanity.” …
   5. In fact, in some ways the fight against obvious hostile design should be the most easily winnable, because the designs are so cruel that removing them would be so easy. One problem is that some hostile design choices aren’t  Rather than the presence of a poky or knobbly thing that gets in your way, these designs exist as an absence—a failure to provide benches or bathrooms (why shouldn’t we be able to pee for free?) or shady places. “Ghost amenities” are the water fountains and picnic tables that aren’t in a space because those in charge of it have decided that any place fit for human beings will be fit for the homeless. It is no good just removing the spikes if we still have desolate public spaces where nobody can rest. The failure to build public space at all is also hostile, because it means that only the rich will have comfy places to go. 
   6. Hostile design doesn’t just punish its intended victims, but ends up hurting everyone. There have been times when I’ve wanted to lie down on a bench and couldn’t because of the wretched third bar, and one reason I find visiting New York City so stressful is because there’s hardly anywhere to sit down unless you go to a cafe and buy something. Of course, the elderly and disabled suffer the most—there is nothing more “ableist” than making a public space that physically punishes the need to stop and rest your body. And if you make your spikes jagged enough, they’re an injury risk to everyone, not just would-be nappers. …
   7. We should be able to agree as an absolute matter that deliberately hurting people who don’t have a place to sleep is monstrous. Spokes, bolts, etc. are all inhuman, and park benches should be comfy to take naps on. We need public spaces that welcome people and take care of their needs. If that results in places being full of people who don’t have a place to sleep, well, we have a choice between ruining the public spaces with hostile design or simply taking care of everyone compassionately and treating universal design (making places that meet everyone’s needs) as a nonnegotiable first principle. The real challenge is to build compassion and care into every space, but in the interim, we can at least get rid of the features that directly physically assault the poor, tired, and ill.
   8. MIKE: I believe Andrew first introduced the term “Hostile Architecture” by, but I’ve noticed it for years without thinking much about it.
   9. MIKE: If you’ve ever had to spend an overnight layover in an airport and find no place to lie down for the hours you’re stuck there, you’ve encountered hostile architecture.
   10. MIKE: If you’ve walked in an urban center and couldn’t find a place to sit due to an absence of benches or an abundance of the human equivalent of pigeon spikes on any flat surface, you’ve encountered hostile architecture.
   11. MIKE: In Houston and other cities, we keep hearing about creating walkable environments to reduce the need to drive, but are walkable environments LIVABLE environments? There is a minimum number of parking spaces per store, apartment, etc., but what if in the midst of walking, someone wants to sit down? Is there a minimum standard of public seating every so-many feet?
   12. MIKE: Walkable cities disenfranchise me. Worse, they scare me, because my back gives me increasing pain after walking a certain distance or standing for a certain period of time.
   13. MIKE: So the advocacy here is for a “sittable” city and maybe a “ly-able” airport.
   14. MIKE: And if you’ve been following this, the next question becomes, “But won’t the homeless take advantage of all these “sittable” and “ly-able” places?” Well, probably. But shouldn’t the problem to resolve then become dealing with homelessness instead of creating places with spikes, bumps, rocks, and other dystopian solutions to people — everyone — who are just trying to rest for a spell?
   15. MIKE: FYI: After a brief search, I didn’t find any regulations in Houston for required seating in public areas or walkways or City Easements.
   16. ANDREW: I want to emphasize that a “walkable” city is, in fact, a “sittable” city. It’s also a wheelchair-accessible city, and a poverty-accessible city. The concept considers at its core that not everybody is going to be able to walk, or walk for as long as each other, and a city that doesn’t rely on cars needs to be accommodating for those people. Some unthinking or uncaring urban planner might draw up walkability plans that aren’t accessible– but as this article explains, that’s more likely because the city council doesn’t want its unhoused citizens to be seen there. And that lack of accessibility should be fought whether it’s the product of ableism or classism. The walkable city concept and the fight against hostile architecture are both about saying that cities should be just as accessible for people like you, Mike, as they should for fat people like me, or wheelchair users, or houseless people, or anyone.
   17. REFERENCE: How to use design to make public spaces unusable and unappealing; By BrittanyBarajas | UXDESIGN.CC | Sep 14, 2021 (6 min read)
   18. REFERENCE: How Seating Shapes Welcoming Cities — Kathy Madden, Fred Kent and Katherine Peinhardt | SOCIALLIFEPROJECT.ORG | November 8, 2021 (15 minutes read)
   19. REFERENCE: DESIGNS AGAINST HUMANITY – ORG
   20. REFERENCE: Artist Sarah Ross Creates Wearable Workarounds For “Hostile Architecture” (Jan. 12, 2022) — COM/ARCHISUITS
   21. REFERENCE: Parking Requirements: Houston Parking Requirements by Use —MUNISTANDARDS.COM

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