Rick Perry Walking the Tight Rope

Governor Perry has been walking a tight rope lately.  According to the the San Antonio Express-News, to  keep the party faithful happy he rails about the need for protection on the border, but he also needs to depend on part of the hispanic electorate, so he told a gathering of La Raza members that the Arizona law would not be a good fit for Texas.

But I think their reasoning is too simplistic.  Texas and Mexico are bound together by ties of history, geography and commerce that Arizona does not share.

On July 2, 2010 Texas Public Radio's Texas Matters broadcast a show honoring former Texas governor Dolph Briscoe.  Part of the show played some tape from an interview with Briscoe in 2004.  During the interview, host David Martin Davies asked Briscoe what he thought of the proposed Border Fence.  He said he didn't think it would work and it sends a negative psycholigical message: we're fencing you off we don't want you. 

Texas has always been closely tied to Mexico, at one time Texas was actually part of Mexico.  Texas also has a longer border with Mexico than any other state.  The Secretary of State is the Governor's chief liaison for Mexico and border affairs.  According to a speech given by Secretary of State Geoff Conner in 2003

The length of the Texas-Mexico border is around 2/3 of the total U.S.-Mexico border. Over half of all crossing points between the two nations are here in Texas. Mexico is our largest trading partner, accounting for almost half of Texas exports.

Not only do more than half of the border crossings exist on the Texas border, some very large Mexican cities also sit on or near our border.

Monterrey, just 2 hours from Laredo, Texas is the 3rd largest city in Mexico with almost 4 million residents. Ciudad Juarez (1.4 million pop) abuts El Paso (563,000 pop) and is the 8th largest city in Mexico. Nuevo Laredo with a population of 718,000 sits across form Laredo (221,000 pop) on the Texas side. Reynosa has 498,000 people and sits across from McAllen (106,000 pop), Matamoros with 422,000 residents, meets Brownsville (140,000 pop), Ciudad Acuna (145,000 pop) across from Del Rio (37,000 pop), and Piedras Negras (140,000 pop) across from Eagle Pass (22,000 pop).  In every case the city on the Mexican side is at least 2/3 bigger than its sister city on the Texas side.  The three Largest Mexican cities on Arizona border are miniscule by comparison: San Luis Rio (157,000) Nogales (193,000) Agua Prieta (68,000).

I saw a question on Quora asking why there were so many people crossing into the US when they saw the pictures of the bridges over the flooded Rio Grande in Laredo.  My answer, TO SHOP.  Ever since the passage of NAFTA, Mexicans have been able to bring more goods back home, because they were no longer considered contraband.  All of the Texas border towns and most of the cities in south Texas, probably in most of Texas, rely on Mexican Nationals to keep their retail economies running.  Free buses run continuously on the Mexico side to bring shoppers across the border to visit malls on the US side.  And if you shop in San Antonio, you run into Mexican Nationals everywhere talking on their cell phones and walkie-talkies, saying "hey Mom, I'm at Macys and they have a great sale", or "meet me at Marshalls in ten minutes."  If you work retail in SA and you don't speak Spanish, you are at a huge disadvantage.

We also have issues with Mexico over water rights.  Both the Falcon Resevoir and Lake Amistad lie astride the border pretty much half in Texas and half in Mexico.  The Falcon Resevoir runs about 30 miles along the border. During the flooding caused by Hurricane Alex, the release of the Amistad and Falcon dams was a joint decision by the US Parks and Fisheries, Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Mexican government.

I agree with the late Governor Briscoe, Texas does not want to send messages to Mexico saying we don't want them.  It would be bad for our economy and our way of life.

Is Spending Stimulus funds on Fitness Initiatives Irresponsible?

Mayor Julian Castro recently announced that the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District had just received
$15.6 million in stimulus funds to improve fitness and reduce obesity in SA.  The funds are part of the Health and Wellness initiative backed by First Lady Michelle Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  There were 44 grants in all.  San Antonio's proposal is

To improve opportunities for physical activity, nutrition, and active living, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District will work with community partners to expand the number of public facilities, including schools that are available for after-hours use for physical activity. San Antonio also will encourage city development projects to improve protection for vulnerable users, in accordance with Complete Streets recommendations. The project also will implement voluntary healthy food and beverage guidelines for local restaurants and will conduct trainings for education leaders to improve physical activity and the availability of healthy foods in schools.

This sounds good, but as my fellow blogger Albatross at Strange in San Antonio points out you can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink.  As far as he is concerned this is a waste of taxpayer money.  If people really want to lose weight they can go outside and exercise and eat healthy food.  Everyone knows this, but many people don't chose to follow the recommendations.  His other complaint is how are these funds going to stimulate the economy.

So first, let's look at the facts.

On average the poorer the city the higher the obesity rate.  Slightly more than 18% of the population and 26.7% of children live in poverty in San Antonio, which means the poverty rate in SA is 1% higher than the state of Texas as a whole and 5% higher than the US poverty rate of 13%.  Poverty is associated with obesity because poor people usually live in areas where fast food is abundant but grocery stores are scarce (otherwise known as food deserts), fatty foods are less expensive and more energy dense (and tasty) than fresh produce and lean meats, school playgrounds either have no playground equipment or the playgrounds are surrounded by chain link fences, and playing or walking outdoors is discouraged because of safety issues, poor or no sidewalks and few if any nearby parks.  San Antonio has the added bonus of hot weather for about 5 months out of the year.   And a personal observation of my own, lots of people across all socioeconomic levels don't cook, either because they don't know how, they don't like doing it or they don't have time.

Here is a local example.  I was on Fresno at Blanco yesterday. The census tract for this area has an urban residential population of 7,619 and has lots of impervious ground cover that contributes to higher temperatures in cities. Today's temperature, (as of 1:19 pm taken at Thunderbird Hills about 5 miles away) is 97.5 degrees, the highest temperature listed on Weather Underground for SA. The persons living below the poverty level in this area is estimated to be about 24.2 % and the median household income for the area is just above $30,000.  (the US poverty threshold for a family of 4 is just over $22,000)

There are several fast food chains represented on the corner of Blanco and Fresno (MacDonald's, Tink-a-Tako, Burger King, Las Palapas) and a Culebra Meat Market that sells fresh meat, a little bit of produce and lots of packaged food.  Down the street about 1/2 mile is a La Fiesta grocery store.  In this week's ad, chicken drum sticks cost the same per pound as fresh peaches, and plums cost 20 cents more per pound.  Tomatoes and jalepeno peppers are 10 cents more per pound than the drum sticks.  There is also an HEB about 1/2 mile away in the opposite direction.  It's ad has similar pricing for produce and lots of processed food on special.

The nearest park is Kenwood Park, about 1/2 mile away, it has a pool, 2 playgrounds, athletic fields, basketball court, and a hard-surface trail.  The nearest elementary school, Rogers in SAISD, has no visible playground.  All of it's open space seems to be taken up by parking lots and portable buildings.  The nearest indoor recreation facility, Indoor Soccer Club, is about 3 miles away and costs $600 for men, and $450 for women and children to join a team, plus referee fees and the cost of an ISC approved team uniform.  So it appears that access healthy food and recreational activities is somewhat limited in this area.

The national Food Stamp program does make special provisions to use WIC funds to buy fresh produce, but this is only for pregnant women and children under 5.  The free lunch program also makes sure to include fresh produce, but as most moms will tell you, most kids would rather eat cereal (a daily item on the breakfast menu at South Side ISD) than an apple or an orange.

But wait, the HEALTHY study, sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, found that

a school-based program can help lower obesity and certain risk factors for type 2 diabetes in youth at high risk for the disease,” said Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

The intervention significantly lowered the obesity rate among children whose body mass index, or BMI, was initially at the 85th percentile or more. 

Researchers were surprised to find that the number of overweight and obese students had declined in comparison schools as well as program schools. “The decline in the number of overweight and obese children in comparison schools was a welcome but unexpected finding,” said study chair and lead author Gary D. Foster, Ph.D., of Temple University, Philadelphia.  “Future analyses will try to clarify the reasons for the improvement in these schools.  For example, we’ll look at the comparison schools to see if they made healthy changes to the school environment because of increased awareness about the problem of childhood obesity.”

So interventions in schools do work (six middle schools in SAISD participated in the study) , but families have to be involved as well. Right now San Antonio Sports is sponsoring the Fit Family Challenge.  They are trying to get 10,000 people involved in the free program and are offering prizes such as family vacations, $1000 in cash, free gym memberships, and free athletic shoes as incentives.  They also have free fitness events occuring throughtout the city.  The challenge started at the beginning of May and they are still accepting applications, but there's no data on how many people are actually participating.
 
But what about economic stimulus?

According to the Texas Comptroller's office, obesity cost Texas employers about $3.3 billion in 2005, and obesity levels have risen since then.  Health care, absenteeism, decreased productivity and disability all contributed to these expenses.  So, first off, if you save employers money, then they will have more money to hire workers.  Also healthier workers lead to higher production which also contributes to the bottom line.  So it appears that making people healthier will be good for the economy.

Many companies have started programs to increase fitness levels among their employees, switching their health benefits to encourage fitness programs.  This is great for people who work for these companies and have health insurance, but wait a minute, obesity rates are highest in low income areas where people are less likely to have health insurance.

But obesity doesn't just effect employer pocket books, it effects all tax payers.   According to the Texas Comptroller's office

an analysis of data from the 1998-2000 BRFSS found that, while 20 percent of the total U.S. adult population was obese, the adult Medicare and Medicaid populations were 20.7 percent and 29.6 percent obese, respectively. During the same period, 22 percent of all Texas adults were obese, while 20.7 percent of the state’s Medicare population and 35.8 percent of its Medicaid population were.

Medicaid, then, has a more obese population, and Medicaid costs for obesity, as a percentage of all Medicaid costs, are greater than for Medicare recipients or the total population. The percentage of Texas’ 2003 health care expenditures attributable to adult obesity in Medicaid (11.8 percent) was 73.5 percent higher than for Medicare (6.8 percent) and 93.4 percent greater than for the total population (6.1 percent).

In all, about half of the health care costs attributable to obesity fell under Medicare and Medicaid in 2003. Medicare and Medicaid recipients in the U.S. accounted for 52.0 percent of all obesity health care costs; in Texas, they accounted for 44.7 percent of all obesity health care costs.

So, is spending stimulus funds on obesity a irresponsible?

Reducing obesity rates would definitely improve our economy. Better access to healthy food, recreational activities, sports activities parks, bike routes and sidewalks could encourage physical activity and lower obesity rates, but here again motivation is key.

Remember back in the 1960's when it seemed like just about every adult smoked?  The government enlisted us kids to stop the smoking.  I remember being very anti-smoking in elementary school, to the point of throwing away cigarettes (and getting into trouble for it.)  And now the smoking rate among men is 30% lower.  (of course there was some legislation thrown in too.)  So what's the key to motivation:  youth indoctrination, better access to a healthy life style, and yes, probably some legislation (like the NYC transfat law) will probably all have to be used to get the obesity epidemic under control.

The Gulf Project

I am a believer in sound scientific approaches to problems.  The biggest problem with the BP oil spill is that they never really expected a drill failure, so they have no tested way of dealing with it.  All of the fixes being tried in the gulf right now are experimental, and in a way are a good testing ground for new approaches, but at what a terrible cost. 

I don't always agree with Governor Perry on his policies, but I think the Gulf Project is a great idea.  Perry has enlisted scientists, engineers, policy experts, researchers, and other state officials from NASA, Rice, Texas Tech, U of H, A&M, and other agencies to research and develop safer oil drilling techniques and to come up with a more effective response strategy to future oil spills.  Oil is a big industry in Texas and Perry is right on target to protect the industry in this proactive approach.

The Two-Step continues in Texas

Well, despite a lot of controversy and misunderstandings the Texas Democrat's Two-Step primary continues.  Most people didn't even know it existed until the primary between Obama and Clinton.  Clinton opperatives apparently had never heard of it either and even though she won the voting part of the primary, she ended up losing Texas to Obama in the caucuses.  I participated in the caucus just to see what it was like.  Some of the people who participated actually voted for Clinton and then sided with Obama in the caucus, I don't think they got it either.

Texas New Home for Refugee Pelicans

While everyone from Congress to BP to Obama to ordinary citizens are busy playing the blame game, the Coast Guard is actually doing something positive.  They just transported rescued, oil cleaned pelicans to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge for release back into the wild.  This was a joint effort by the Coast Guard, Texas Parks and Wildlife and US Fish and Wildlife Departments with money from BP. (Click on the links for volunteer opportunities.)  I'd like to see more stories like this in the news.  Passing the blame around is just talk, what we need to see is action.

Find other posts on this topic here and here.

Texas as leader in Gulf Restoration

Texas has been exceedingly lucky in the gulf oil spill debacle.  So far our beaches and wetlands have been unaffected and it seems likely to remain that way due to ocean currents that are carrying the oil in the opposite direction.





The Nature Conservancy along with the Texas Parks & Wildlife and US Fish & Wildlife Departments have been working together for four years to protect under water oyster beds and sea grass meadows "that comprise the foundation of the gulf's delicate ecological structure."  Two years ago the Conservancy started an oyster reef restoration project by colonizing live oysters and creating self-sustaining reefs in Copana and Matagorda bays on the Texas coast.  With these two projects Texas could lead the way to recolonizing oyster beds along the gulf coast once the spill is cleaned up.

Who knew that oysters were so important?  The average oyster filters 40 to 60 gallons of water a day, sort of like a mini water reclamation plant.  Without oyster beds the ocean would be extremely polluted, don't think I'll be eating any raw oysters any time soon. 

The Text Book Wars

The, socially conservative heavy, Texas School Board has been duking it out over the last year to come up with new social studies and history standards for textbooks. Why does this matter? Because Texas is one of the biggest textbook markets in the country. Many other smaller states will have to buy the same textbooks. The battles range from excluding Thomas Jefferson's position on the separation of church and state to explanations for the Civil War that don't include slavery. Many liberals, minorities, historians and teachers are up in arms about the standards.

One of the more intriguing additions the Republicans want to make is a side-by-side comparison of the Lincoln and Davis (President of the Confederacy) inaugural addresses. Republicans want to emphasize the issue of state's rights which Davis argued was the reason for the War between the States. I find this bizarre because the fledgling Republican party headed by Lincoln, with it's anti-slavery platform, won the election of 1860 and incited the secession of South Carolina. Lincoln believed that states did not have the right to secede thus claiming the superior authority of the federal government. I don't think Lincoln would recognize the Republican Party of today.

The standards come up for a final vote today. Many opponents are urging the legislature not to buy the new textbooks, a move that might appeal due to the projected $18 billion budget deficit.