Urban News

(HOUSTON) -- The mayor of Houston, Lee Brown, says he's replacing the city's director of the Department of Public Works and Engineering. In a statement, Brown noted that he wanted to change the image of the department, which many in the city claim is best known for burst pipes and overly long street reconstruction.

In the announcement Brown noted that the current director, Tom Rolen, was resigning. Jon C. Vanden Bosch has been nominated to the post.

Vanden Bosch led the department in the 1980s under Mayor Kathy Whitmire.

The salary would also be upped from the current $131,000 a year to $138,000 when Vanden Bosch assumes office.

Recently, to add insult to injury, a sign was sighted at a construction site in Houston that, in official lettering, noted the city was building a new "strom sewer."

(DALLAS) -- Stanley Marcus has died. During his years as an entrepreneur and merchandiser, his name became synonymous with service and style. He was the chairman emeritus of Neiman Marcus.

A daughter told Texas media outlets that her father simply "died of old age."

Back in 1995 he told an interviewer that he doubted that the business could have flourished in any other place than Texas. The Chronicle says that one of Marcus's favorite stories was about a young girl who once came into his store in a cotton farm dress. She ordered over $10,000 worth of new clothes. Her daddy had just struck oil.

Stanley Marcus was 96.

(CINCINNATI) -- Civic leaders in Cincinnati say they are alarmed at the potential loss of millions of dollars if a predominately black group asks that conventions boycott the city. Leaders of the African-American Baptist Church are meeting in South Carolina this week. They are expected to discuss an all-out boycott of the Queen City at their meeting.

The Enquirer is reporting that the group is threatening the action because it sees Cincinnati as a city that is not coming to grips with the problem of racism, witness the shooting of a young black man by officers last year and ensuing rioting in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of the city.

Meanwhile, many black leaders in Cincinnati say the flow of tourist dollars is essential to keep the community strong, which is a vital factor in creating an atmosphere where progress can be made.

(SEATTLE) -- A changing world climate means that far fewer tall ships will be visiting Seattle harbors in the coming months as part of an annual celebration. The Post-Intelligencer says it has learned that instead of as many as 40 high-masted ships anchoring in Seattle for the annual fall festival on Lake Union, fewer than a dozen will be there this time around.

Once billed by the American Sail Training Association as a "monumental gathering of windjammers," the Seattle event is now being called a "Summer of Sail" -- a far less ambitious moniker.

Organizers say they are determined to keep the event afloat, but this year will see a scaled-down version. The festival annually brings tens of thousands to the city to see the incredible ships and their miles of rigging.