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Welcome to Our Blog
Monday, January 08, 2007 2:48 PM

 

Only eight percent of Fortune 500 companies – 40 firms – have blogs as of October 2006. Worldwide, 253 chief executives or business leaders are blogging, according to Socialtext.net, a blogging Wiki.

 So why is METRO blogging?

We think it will be a new way to talk with you. It’s our way of putting a human face on a huge agency. As a government agency, METRO's activities are public, anyway, but sometimes it’s hard to dig out the information.

We hope our blog will help fill that role. We want to start a dialog, listen to what you have to say and be more responsive.

 As someone new to METRO and new to blogging, what do I bring to the table? A sense of curiosity, a reporter’s eyes and ears - someone who can take you behind the scenes and introduce you to the people who help make public transit work in the nation’s fourth largest city. We want to give you information you won’t find anywhere else.

We will post every day – and hope you’ll post your comments, too, although I will not be able to respond to each comment. Please follow the User Guidelines:

1. Stay on topic. If the day's posting is about rude bus drivers, don't comment on the Richmond rail line.

2. Follow the "Living Room Policy" by author/blogger Robert Scoble.

    a. "If I'm throwing a dinner in my home, and you show up at the doorstep, and I don't know who you are, I won't let you in. In short, with few exceptions, I don't allow anonymous comments."

     b. "If you do come in and are rude to me or my guest, I will ask you to be nice - once. If you continue to be rude, you will be thrown out and not allowed back in."

3. Comments may be reviewed to ensure they follow the User Guidelines before being posted.

4. Have fun!

Posts that don’t follow these guidelines will be removed. If you have a subject you want to talk about, e-mail me.

Blogs by nature are squishy – they can be whatever the authors want them to be. We hope “Write On METRO” will spawn a community of interested readers who will engage in lively discussions. I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Let’s talk. I’m listening.

Posted by Mary Sit
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    • Comments

    Sandra Aponte Salazar said:

    Write on, Mary!

    # January 8, 2007 3:03 PM

    happyguy said:

    Hey, Mary.....this is sorta like giving birth, huh?  Glad it's up and running.  Best wishes for some happy blogging.

    Mazeltov

    # January 8, 2007 3:07 PM

    Laurence Simon said:

    Since you're new to blogging, some free tips on your first day.

    Be liberal with the links... almost scattershot. Link out your references like Scoble at http://scobleizer.com/ and Socialtext at http://socialtext.net/ (also make mention that registration is required when there's a barrier to entry). Maybe even a link to the METRO Solutions site that covers that project.

    Study MeMo & TMI @ chron.com for examples on shotgun linking.

    At least y'all have RSS, unlike Clearchannel's "blogs." ;)

    Toodles,

    -ls

    # January 8, 2007 3:16 PM

    ScottB said:

    Welcome to Blogging. Please turn on your RSS feeds. You have links but they don't work yet. When you do, please turn them on to FULL instead of PARTIAL feeds. Full allows commuters such as myself to read your posts while on the bus instead of just the first paragraph.

    # January 8, 2007 3:40 PM

    jasonact said:

    This is a great idea. Let me offer my METRO wish list:

    1. More transit options for the suburbs, especially where I live in Clear Lake.

    2. Making mass transit more convenient, accessible, and appealing to middle-class Houstonians. (i.e. make it easier for them to leave their cars in their garages)

    3. Commuter rails for the airports and outlying suburbs.

    4. Trains, trains, and more trains.

    I know METRO is trying to expand its rail service, and funding doesn't simply fall from the sky, but I see this as a huge priority, whether the local public realize it or not. Environmental concerns, freeway congestion, freeway maintenance, and many other factors make rail expansion a large priority for me. Whatever we can do to convince the voters and the general public of this, we should do.

    Thanks for the blog. I look forward to future postings!

    # January 8, 2007 3:52 PM

    gatorgirl said:

    You go girl!  It's cool the way "Write on Metro" sounds like "Ride on Metro". Well done!

    # January 8, 2007 4:02 PM

    Erik Oistad said:

    Mary,

    Thank you for the 'welcome' to your Blog, and best wishes for a successful program.

    Regards,

    Erik

    # January 8, 2007 4:42 PM

    Royko said:

    Has METRO limited the scope of what you can discuss or comment on?

    # January 8, 2007 4:52 PM

    Byron said:

    Sorry, but I like Laurence Simon's site better!

    http://metro.isfullofcrap.com/index.html

    # January 8, 2007 5:50 PM

    Anne Linehan said:

    <i>Let’s talk. I’m listening.</i>

    Is anyone in Metro's uppper management listening?  There's not much point if they aren't.

    # January 8, 2007 6:43 PM

    Rorschach said:

    I realize this is not the "Complain about the idiot driver" post, but since this is the ONLY post at this point, I don't have much choice as to where to post this.

    My wife takes the 204 home from downtown and there is an idiot driver that if another bus for another route is AT the stop at Travis and Capitol when he gets there (he was driving the 4:30PM run today) Instead of pulling up behind the bus and letting people board, or waiting until the bus ahead of him pulls away from the stop so he can pull up to the stop, he pulls AROUND the bus back out into traffic and then refuses to let anyone on, forcing everyone to have to wait until the NEXT run 8 minutes later (assuming it is on time). And of course he does this whether it is sunny and warm or cold and raining. He apparently does not care if he forces everyone to wait until the next bus which is then so packed that you're lucky to even be able to stand. Nor does he appear to care if people have to get home in time to pick their kids up at daycare.

    # January 8, 2007 7:32 PM

    Squawkbox Noise said:

    Welcome to "our" world Mary.  A bit of advice from a blogger/moderator.

    1.  Have fun

    2.  Grab the fire proof suit and chain maille

    3.  Have Fun

    # January 8, 2007 8:39 PM

    Rorschach said:

    Mary Sit wrote: "As a government agency, METRO's activities are public, anyway, but sometimes it’s hard to dig out the information."

    Sort of like when METRO ignores TXPIA requests from Tom Bazan and tries to hide behind a law that shields government agencies from lawsuits arising from required safety studies to prevent data about stray current damage from being released?

    What about the logic of canceling a 1 million dollar a year contract for security guards at Park and Rides and then turning around and spending sixteen times that amount for cameras and call boxes? Neither of which can or will prevent a single crime. Was this not the sole purpose that METRO Police was founded for? Security at Park and Rides? Why is it that  guarding Park and Rides is now so beneath them that they must abdicate that role to contract security guards or a camera? Has METRO Police become yet another profit center like HPD has become? Is that why they spend inordinate amounts of time running speed traps now? If securing Park and Ride lots is not their mandate, what exactly IS their mandate? Do they even have one any more? If not, why are we wasting taxpayer monies paying for them? Why are we spending money to train and maintain a METRO SWAT team? Should that not be HPD's bailiwick after all? Or is this merely a means of milking some of that Federal Homeland Security money? Surely we could find a better use for that money than a SWAT team can't we?

    # January 8, 2007 9:05 PM

    chris_s said:

    looking forward to the new blog, although I really prefer the normal red/blue/black/white over this purple color scheme...

    # January 8, 2007 9:18 PM

    TX-Aggie said:

    Just thankful that I do not have to pay for the METRO BUREAUCRACY.

    New motto "Deny everything, admit nothing, blame the taxpayer"

    You gotta take the good w/ the bad.

    Good luck with the blog.

    # January 8, 2007 11:03 PM

    j.a. said:

    I have jury duty tomorrow and would like to take metro downtown since parking is so difficult, HOWEVER, when I tried to plan my route using the trip planner on the METRO site, it isn't up and running!  Great!  So how are you suppose to figure out how to go somewhere when you usually don't ride METRO and you are going somewhere you usually don't go?  I'm trying to think 'green' so I really could have used the help!

    # January 8, 2007 11:17 PM

    AustinBoston said:

    Enjoyed the first blog and looking forward to the next one.

    # January 8, 2007 11:22 PM

    Anonymous9 said:

    Comments (required)  Duh, that's what we are writing -- COMMENTS!!

    Hello Mary, Welcome and Good Luck.  You will need it.  

    It is our job, as taxpayers, to chew you up and spit you out.  You have become the fall guy (girl) for Metro.  You, new to Metro and new to Houston, are being thrown under the wheels of the bus (figuratively speaking) because the management can't take the heat.  

    Let's start off by you telling us how each one of the eight persons named in the Director section of the Metro main page CURRENTLY uses the bus or Death Train EVERY DAY.  Do they sweat in the 110-degree summer at bus stops??  Do they hike through puddles, frustratedly punch non-working crosswalk light buttons, and jump back from right-turn-on-red-drivers-at-night-who-can't-see-you in our ever-so-interesting rainstorms??  How do they get from, let's say, Hobby Airport to Imperial Valley to Bissonnet to Gessner, to complete their errands and still look fresh as a daisy at the end of the day?  Yes, that will be a good first assignment for you.  

    Oh, and do any of them have a commercial driver's license?  You need one of them to pilot a bus.  After all, everyone knows that a good leader must be able to show his subordinates how to do their job.  

    Next, pick any one of Rorschach's questions and answer it for us.  Be sure and include source contact persons and phone numbers/addresses.  Then go through the rest of his list.  

    That should keep you busy for a couple of weeks, maybe a month.  

    Look forward to seeing your answers!  

    And by the way, I am NOT disabled!  

    # January 9, 2007 4:05 AM

    margbm2 said:

    Why do your colors on this blog so closely resemble the EZ Tag colors on the Tollroads????  

    # January 9, 2007 9:01 AM

    Mary Sit said:

    Thank you, everyone, for your comments. Appreciate the good wishes, free tips, links and generally supportive responses to our first day in the blogosphere.

    Some answers:

    The RSS feeds are fully working now. There's a METRO Solutions link on our METRO Web site home page, if you want to read more on that. I'll be writing about METRO solutions from time to time, in addition to all things METRO.  I have not been given a list of "do not touch" topics - so far. :-)

    Yes, upper management is very interested in this blog and vp's and executive vp's are reading your comments. It was Frank Wilson's idea to start a corporate blog. In an executive staff meeting, the first thing he asked my boss was, "Did you hire the blogger yet?"

    Sorry, to the reader on jury duty who said the Trip Planner didn't work. The IT department looked into it and said there were no problems reported yesterday, and it was apparently working fine - we'll check again.

    To those of you who have complaints - you can still leave comments here if it's on topic. But the best place is to also send your comment to our "Compliments/complaints/concerns" link on our METRO home page. Go to "Contact Us" and leave your cursor on that and click (Ignore the "Lost and Found" box that pops up). Your complaint will go to our Customer Service department.

    And finally, I'm not new to Houston. See the "About Us" page. I'm a native Houstonian, grew up here as a kid, went to school here. I don't think METRO's agenda is to chew me up and throw me under the wheels as the "fall gal" - I'm really the person who has been charged to to start a conversation with you...and

    make it easier for you to talk to METRO. Just don't chew me up in cyberspace! :-)

    # January 9, 2007 12:01 PM

    Mary Sit said:

    It's pure coincidence that this blog's colors look like the EZ Tag...or the LA Lakers, for that matter. Our Web designer presented us with some choices - and I picked this because it appealed to me. I like it.

    From the designer's perspective - the blog is meant to show another side of METRO and hopefully, the different colors convey that.

    # January 9, 2007 1:01 PM

    Marilynn said:

    Are all your posts going to be shortened so we have to click on Read More in order to read the entire post? I sure hope not. It's a very reader-unfriendly way to have a blog, IMHO.

    # January 9, 2007 2:00 PM

    Anonymous9 said:

    Sorry, meant "new to Metro, new to blogging" .  

    So, instead of answering legitimate bloggers' questions, such as those presented by Rorschach, you chose to post pictures of employees who physically touch customers??  (not that I don't mind hugs myself, but...only in the right context!!!!!)

    Looks like a PR splash to me.  UGH.  

    When will you answer Rorschach's questions?  Or mine??  Timeline, please.  

    # January 9, 2007 3:45 PM

    LoriM said:

    Hi, I ride the 214 bus (Hwy. 290.) What is the best way to notify authorities about single riders in the HOV lane? Occasionally there a police monitoring, but it's not stopping the cheaters.

    Also, there has been a lot of speculation as to new routes METRO is exploring for the northwest part of town. Could you please relpy with the options under consideration?

    Thank you, Lori

    # January 10, 2007 10:22 AM

    Matt Bramanti said:

    Mary, please inquire about adding the following items to Metro's website:

    -Budget

    -Board meeting minutes (there aren't any after August)

    Also, it would be nice if you would respond in the comments to specific questions.

    # January 10, 2007 10:48 AM

    unhappy said:

    I would like to suggest a topic - new fares and the Q card. My fare is increasing 158% and I would like to know if others are affected in this dramatic way. Thanks.

    # January 15, 2007 10:57 PM

    adrian guillot said:

    I was wondering about metro bus service for tomorrow 01 16 07 because of the ice storm situation?

    # January 16, 2007 12:41 AM

    kidcaki77 said:

    i do not think that blogging METRO will be effective... the core/local riders would even know or will ever know that metro has a blog set
    # February 3, 2007 1:07 AM

    zanthia taylor said:

    how can i view the metro blog title was is e.d.d.

    # September 26, 2007 2:11 AM
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