June 19, 2021

Friends –
Years back the powers that be decided to build an underground jury assembly room in downtown Houston. Apparently,  these geniuses neglected to consider the fact that for good reason- NO ONE has a basement in Houston.

So they built an underground jury assembly room a stones throw  from the bayou. After that you will never guess what happened. Of course, the Damn thing flooded. It flooded more than once.

The last time it flooded was in August 2017. During Hurricane Harvey, the jury assembly room was 13 feet under water. Historic replicas of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights which were gifted to the jury assembly room by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, were left to float and were destroyed. ( This was personally irritating to me as it was my idea for HCCLA to gift these to the jury assembly room.)

Almost four years have passed since Harvey. You may ask, dId  the county learn its lesson? Did the county have a lightbulb moment and go,
“oh Gee maybe we should not keep rebuilding  an underground jury assembly room that will flood again?”

No, there has been bo such epiphany in this county. Instead, Harris County simply persists in rebuilding the world’s dumbest underground  jury assembly room. Harris County’s jury assembly room will remain underground  apparently because someone in power in unable to concede the obvious.

Years back, They wanted to connect the jury assembly room to all the courts. They built  tunnels that do this. These tunnels have also flooded in the past.

The solution is simple. The solution is to to rebuild the jury assembly room ABOVE GROUND AND TO CONNECT IT TO THE  COURTS   using  sky bridges that we see all over downtown.

That solution is apparently oo simple. The county stubbornly persists in rebuilding underground.  As the county persists in its stupidity one cannot help but see what’s coming.

I can 100% guarantee that Harris County’s Underground Jury Assembly Room will flood again. It will continue to flood so long as they keep it underground. The rain is coming and when it comes that jury assembly room will flood again and again and again. That will keep happening until reason prevails and the county stops digging Down and starts build up.

Robb Fickman, Houston