Simon Cruz timidly approached the lectern at the March 12 meeting of the Harris County Commissioners Court. The 79-year-old resident of Park Place, a predominantly Hispanic subdivision near Hobby Airport in southeast Houston, nervously introduced himself and told the court he was worried. He'd lived in the area for more than five decades, and now he was afraid the addition of a new development nearby would cause his home to flood when the next big storm struck. His testimony was followed by that of a neighbor, an environmental advocate from the Sierra Club, and a half-dozen others interested in flood control issues, totaling nearly an hour.
Just a few months earlier, such a banal scene — residents and stakeholders testifying before local government and receiving immediate feedback from elected officials — would have been unusual for the commissioners court. For decades, the twice-monthly meetings rarely ran longer than an hour and a half, and only a handful of citizens got the chance to speak. Now, the meetings have ballooned into seven- or eight-hour affairs.
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