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PROGRAMMING CHANGES

Posted by Bill Cherry on Friday, September 26, 2008 12:47:55 AM

I am pretty much bent out of shape about the programming changes that have been made at the Dallas Salem Communications station.  Perhaps the entire network has been shaken up as well.

Laura Ingraham's morning show has been replaced, and Dr. Laura has been added in a late evening slot.

Broadcasting in general has had a bad habit of tinkering with the status quo for years.  Once a listener punches up the radio button with the expectations of hearing a program he likes, and it's no longer there, chances are he immediately changes the station.  He's now been lost as a listener in that time period and probably as a listener to the segued program that follows.
 
But then I'm a fan of Laura Ingram, and I can't tolerate Dr. Laura, so maybe it's just me who's upset with the changes.
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New Galveston Insight: Another Hurricane Ike Legacy

Posted by Bill Cherry on Friday, September 26, 2008 12:40:36 AM

New Galveston Insight: Another Hurricane Ike Legacy

By Realtor, Bill Cherry

Since World War II, Galveston has had increasing numbers of federally funded housing projects for the poor.  One reason is that the city has a huge state medical school and hospital known to Galvestonians as UTMB but that stands for University of Texas Medical Branch.

Loads of charity patients are treated there every year, in fact they move there from all over Texas for free treatment.  And it's now to the point that the hospital is continually finding itself in the red and looking for more money.

WELL HERE'S WHAT THE BLOG POST IS ALL ABOUT:  You are probably aware that when the Federal Government has passed building safety requirements, handicap service provisions and the requirement that new buildings be built above the 100 year floodplain, that it has excluded itself.

What's good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander in "Federal Government speak."

Consequently there are federal buildings all over the US that would not meet the specifications required of private sector owners.

Soooooo, most of the federally funded housing projects in Galveston were built at grade, and grade is slightly above sea level.  And rather than tear them down and rebuild them above the flood plain when they've become functionally obsolescent, they have just remodeled them.

All of those poor people came home to find all of their possessons destroyed and no place to go.  And to get federal assistance (FEMA), you must have an address.  They no longer have addresses!

No one is there to help them...many are elderly and disabled.

Congratulations to the U.S. Government.  This is one more example of why government's involvement in our lives must be reduced and not expanded.

 
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Dallas Wind Symphony -- A Family Treat Tht's Not Expensive

Posted by Bill Cherry on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 5:25:46 PM

I suppose families in every town across America make a conscious effort to look for activities that they can do together.   Our family has for generations.

<<===DALLAS WIND SYMPHONY

And one of the first things that quickly moves to the top of the list when trying to choose is what the total cost will be.  This is especially a consideration when the event could be a fine arts performance or series.

Big bands and orchestras have been dribbling away a bit at a time since the end of World War II, and classical orchestras, ballets and the like have followed right along.  It all has to do with the cost of salaries for the performers. 

Fortunately, this one has some strong sponsors, and that keeps the price of tickets down.

So here's a special way to have fun as a family and to experience superb classical music performed in Dallas' famed Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. 

The Dallas Wind Symphony is far from "your grandmother's stuffy, fussy concert....We make it our job to raise the roof, to surprise you, to make you laugh," the current brochure points out. 

This series begins tonight, September 23rd, and the title of the program is "Globetrotters."

It's pieces from across the globe:  Slavonic Rhapsody. Suite Francaise, Chant Funeraire for an example. 

October 21st is "Band's Greatest Hits": November 18 is "Americans We," with Stampede, American Salute, Ava Maria, Tull's Rhapsody mad Bernstein's Suite from On the Waterfall. 

January 13th is "Wonderwinds"; February 10th is Big Band Boogie with the music of Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman - you get the idea.

March 17th's concert is titled "Marches in March," April 8th's is "Song and Dance," and December 22nd is the annual and very famous "Christmas at the Meyerson."  That one's our favorite.  

And the final program is July 4th.  "A Star-Spangled Spectacular," flag waving and everything. 

Season's tickets range from $84 to $245 a person.  Let me quickly add that I haven't found any bad seats at the Meyerson, so you can do just fine with the 84 buck ones.  That works out to $12 per person per concert. 

OK, here's how to order by telephone: 214 528-5576.

 

 

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

214 503-8563

800 314-7110

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas!

 
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AN IRONY OF HURRICANE IKE

Posted by Bill Cherry on Sunday, September 14, 2008 12:25:39 PM
When the hurricane of 1900 struck Galveston it was almost to the day 108 years before Hurricane Ike came on September 11-12, 2008. 
 
The part of the 1900 Storm story that is not often told is that Galveston was in such financial straights prior to the 1900 Storm, that it was on the brink of bankruptcy.  It had no bond rating because the city had allowed property owners to become and stay delinquent on their property taxes.  And it had been that way for years. 
 
And it was just as likely that the rich avoided theirs as it was that the poor didn't pay because they couldn't.
 
The city government was impotent.
 
When the 1900 Storm hit, Galveston had to decide which fork in the road to take -- one to rebuild the city, the other to abandon it entirely.  If it was to rebuild, it would have to straighten out its fiscal affairs.  It would have to reorganize its government and it would have to become fiscally responsible.
 
A banker and cotton broker, I.H. Kempner, agreed to be the city's treasurer under a new form of city government, and he immediately began collecting the back taxes.  Within two years, the city's financial position was acclaimed as strong by financial markets.
 
And it was that new position that encouraged lenders to provide the money necessary to raise a major portion of the island to above sea level, and to build the great 17 foot seawall on the island's south side.  That the two projects were accomplished is just shy of beyond belief.
 
Now here's the paradox:
 
Last week, 108 years later, a storm with arguably the same intensity struck Galveston.  None since the 1900 Storm had been that evil.  The hurricane was named Ike.  Interestingly, the granddaughter of I.H. Kempner, Lyda Ann Thomas, is Galveston's current mayor.  And Mr. I.H. Kempner's nickname was Ike.
 
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS
214 503-8563
Selling Texas for 43 Years
 
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Galveston Machoism Needs Re-thinking

Posted by Bill Cherry on Sunday, September 14, 2008 7:10:14 AM
Galveston, Texas is a barrier island.  And it is where I was born and lived for most of the first 65 years of my life; the last three in Dallas.  I know the island so well -- its past and its present -- that for 10 years I wrote its history and its people's stories through weekly columns for the Galveston paper.  And I told them on camera for a Houston TV station's news reports.
 
My book, Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories (Van Jus Press 2000) has sold thousands.  I continue to write them for the monthly issues of Texas Escapes Magazine.
 
Today I face thoughts and ideas that I have glossed over in the past.
 
After 108 years, with the visit of Ike, the Island has seen destruction that would likely be on par with the famous 1900 Storm if it weren't for the many-mile seawall that was completed in 1902, and that has been added to several times since.
 
But the facts remain the facts.  God and nature never meant for life and property to be safe on barrier islands. Yet enormous amounts of building has been allowed to continue, year after year, on Galveston Island, and most of it no better protected from destruction than those that went down in 1900. 
 
You see, during my lifetime, massive amounts of residences, primarily vacation homes, have been built on those parts of the island that are at water's edge and that are not protected by a seawall.  Some of those homes cost $2 million or more.
 
Today, we find many have been reduced to toothpicks by Hurricane Ike that came for a visit on September 12-13.  Zillions of dollars worth of toothpicks that will be the only collateral for insurance claims.  And all of them, even those that survived without extensive damage should have never been built.  Not one of them.
 
God and nature never meant for life to be safe on barrier islands.
 
And then there is the machoism, the machoism I once subscribed to.  "I'm not afraid.  I'm not evacuating.  I'll ride it out at home."  Another idiotic and a very selfish decision.
 
So what't the purpose of my piece?  It is to ask that the public, mortgage lenders and property insurers will discontiue supporting further building on land in Galveston that is not quasi-protected by a seawall.  And it is to ask that the state pass legislation that will allow the governor to put entire areas under martial law when a threat like Ike is near; thus giving the right to law enforcement officers to arrest those who refuse to leave.
 
After all, why should the public pay for the poor financial decisions of the cavalier?  Why should public servants risk their own safety to straddle idiotic personal decisions of others gone bad?
 
In the meantime, how will this mess that has been left behind ever be sorted out?  How will life ever return to normal for those who live on Galveston Island?
 
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS
214 503-8563
Our 43rd Year Selling Texas
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