Houston Realtor Bill Baldwin launches quality of life PAC

Hurricane Harvey hero Bill Baldwin Hurricane Harvey hero Bill Baldwin Photo: Courtesy Of Bill Baldwin Photo: Courtesy Of Bill Baldwin Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Houston Realtor Bill Baldwin launches quality of life PAC 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Bill Baldwin, a longtime real estate broker, volunteer and member of Houston's planning commission, has launched a political action committee aimed at improving the city's neighborhoods, schools and local governments.

The tenets of the nonpartisan PAC, called Your Houston, will center around issues of quality of life, resiliency, mobility and neighborhoods. It will focus on local elections and referendums.

Baldwin, founder of residential real estate firm Boulevard Realty, launched the group at an event Tuesday night in his historic Heights home.

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The new PAC, he said, will work to support the efforts of local advocacy groups, many of which lack funding and influence.

"All of these groups are doing great advocacy work, but they don't have money. They don't have political power," Baldwin said. "I'm going to add money and political power to advocacy, and elect amazing officials that think of our city as a 21st century city."

A 15-member advisory board is being assembled with representatives from across the city. The board includes Beth Martin, executive director of Houston Bike Share; former city councilwoman Melissa Noriega; Nick Hall, chairman of the city's Land Assemblage Redevelopment Authority; Rebecca Reyna, executive director of the Greater Northside Management District; and others.

More people from different parts of the city will be added, Baldwin said.

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The PAC will release monthly white papers, tackling such issues as government transparency and affordable housing across geographic and economic boundaries.

"It's quality of life for people who rent, own or live in a particular area across the city to make the entire city -- west, north, east, south and inside the loop -- a better place to live for all of us," Baldwin said.

One of the group's first efforts will be Harris County's flood bond measure, urging the county to clearly define the projects involved and then educating the public.