Former Houston mayor Bob Lanier dies at 89

[TexasTowelie]

Former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier, who rose from poverty to prominence as a lawyer, developer and popular urban leader, died Saturday afternoon. He was 89.

Dave Walden, Lanier's former chief of staff, confirmed the death.

Lanier served as Houston's 50th mayor from 1992 through 1998, leaving office because of term limits. Public officials and business leaders turned to him for advice for the rest of his life, and Lanier appeared regularly at public policy conferences.

"He was a renaissance man and that rare occurrence when you have someone who is able to change the actual trajectory of a city," said attorney and mayoral candidate Ben Hall, who Lanier selected to be the city's first black city attorney. "He refocused on what I think was the true function of local government: to provide basic services that would make it convenient for individuals to live in the city and to encourage development inside the city."

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/article/Former-Houston-mayor-Bob-Lanier-has-died-5971148.php

[shenmue]

1. Rest in peace

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. His nickname was "Concrete Bob".

He was well liked.

The nickname came when he was the head of METRO, the bus/toy train agency. He got a billion dollars out of D.C. for METRO to use for the light rail, widening freeways and so forth. He was a poor boy from Baytown. Baytown is east of Houston on the ship channel and home of the Exxon refinery.

My dad had Concrete Bob for a professor in law school and took Administrative Law from Mr. Lanier in approximately 1948 or 1949.


Rest in peace, Mr. Lanier.

[Gothmog]

3. May he rest in peace