Let me see if I’ve got this straight.

On one hand, private businessmen invest millions in buying a run-down property and following the city’s existing laws and regulations in preparing to build the Ashby high-rise, a large-scale residential redevelopment similar to dozens of others that dot Houston’s landscape. When neighbors of the development object to the scale of the development relative to the surrounding neighborhood, Mayor White orders one of the city’s approvals relating to traffic ingress and egress to be revised to delay or undermine the development altogether.

On the other hand, Mayor White proposes that the city spend at least $15-20 million to buy six blocks of downtown Chinatown property at a premium price for a soccer stadium that will block more east-west thoroughfares in a part of downtown where Minute Maid Park, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Toyota Center already block a large number of such thoroughfares. Moreover, Mayor White is pushing this deal through City Council even though the city already owns six blocks nearby that is a better location for the soccer stadium (it wouldn’t block any additional east-west thoroughfares and wouldn’t require a major modification to another boondoggle). Meanwhile, the city has no financial commitment from the local soccer team even to build the stadium.

This is making the Harris County Commissioners’ dithering over the Astrodome hotel project look downright prudent in comparison.