I first learned about Sam Oser when she covered the Valero release of Hydrogen Cyanide in Houston Neighborhoods. While local papers are too busy licking the boots of the Oil and Gas industry or rank every new gastropub within Houston city limits as a 10/10. She is diligently covering the eviction crisis, the HISD privatization and contract talks, police brutality, falsified flood maps, and all the topics where class, gender, and race intersect within the city. She also hosts a show at All Real Radio called “Unconventional Journalist”, Saturdays 1:30 pm - 2:30 CST.

She was recently in a panel for local organizers and storytellers for the city of Houston, and she will be doing an AMA with us the afternoon (3-4pm CDT) of May 27th.

Post your questions

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    https://samthemullet.medium.com/falsified-houston-flood-map-looks-like-it-26a4c299eefe

    This is an older article but still interesting, I had no idea developers would/could be falsifying flood maps.

    • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Yeah I think they had to update some of this shit after harvey bc some repercussions of it came to a head

      Where I used to live is literally in a flood reservoir that was man made to keep the rich areas nearby from flooding. They really weren’t meant to build housing there but they did anyway and that led to some of the worst flooding in that side of houston. They’ve been building more since harvey lol

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        My parents live next to two neighborhoods that were built after they moved in, one was built on wetlands, the other they leveled up and completely fucked all the drainage locally. Developers seem to be able to do whatever the fuck they want in Texas.

        • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          100%. They’re not gonna let a little thing like “giving a fuck about what it’s like to actually live in these neighborhoods” stand in the way of making as much money as possible.

          The drainage is completely fucked where I lived and I imagine it’s only gonna get worst as they build more. You literally have to drive over a little wall that keeps the water in that forms the reservoir to get into the area. It’s actually insane the city let them build homes in that area