A Little Good News

» Chron: Crime down, but don't tell the candidates (Matt Stiles)

Shhh ... don't tell this to any hyperlocal, "objective," non-partisan Republican bloggers about town. But crime in Houston is actually down. Chances are, they won't try to confuse their audience with such measurably good news about a town that they're either "embarrassed" to live in or don't even bother to live in.

There's also some great reporting in this story. Which shouldn't come as a shock since it's Stiles doing the writing. As much grief as I do offer over the over-reliance of number-crunching-as-reporting rather than the more gruesome task of tackling more subjective matters, this story actually combines the two approaches rather well. Sure, there's some cold hard math ... but it's framed in a way that stands at odds with the prevalent political meme of Houston being a hub of rising crime ... and as some have argued, that it's all the fault of either the Democratic mayor or the black guy in charge of the police. Not that they're trying to play a role in the politics, mind you.

ADD-ON: Again ... not that they're trying to play a role in politics, mind you.