Time to pay the piper for the City of Houston

Over the past few weeks, the bad news has slowly but surely trickled out -- gang fights in schools, crime rate way up, housing problems continuing, costs skyrocketing.

So how will the City of Houston manage the ongoing, enormous needs of New Orleans evacuees, who seem to be taxing every aspect of the community's public and non-profit resources?

In addition to being a political issue, it's also a sensitive public relations issue.

Houston received lots of goodwill for its initial willingness to take in Hurricane Katrina evacuees, and the caring way the city and its residents responded.

Now the question is: Can Houston maintain that goodwill while extricating itself from the ongoing care of thousands of new residents? The city has to manage these problems without appearing to blame the evacuees, not an easy task.

How would you handle this if you were responsible for the city's PR?

Technorati Tags: Public Relations, PR, Houston