HARTFORD, Conn. — Houston was the first word spoken from the moon. It’s home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center and with an exploding population of more than 6.7 million, it rose above seven finalists to host the 2023 Men’s Final Four, which welcomed thousands of Husky fans to downtown Houston over the past couple of weeks.
But ‘Houston, we have a problem.’
If you’re the leader of the third smallest state in the nation making quips about the fourth largest city, be prepared to take a hit. Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner has a problem indeed with comments made by Gov. Ned Lamont Wednesday on WPLR’s Chaz and AJ Morning Show.
“You walk around downtown Houston, which is butt ugly. It’s not much there,” Lamont said on live radio.
The Space City’s New England-educated mayor hit back.
“Oh no. Hell no,” said Turner, a graduate of Harvard Law. “We’re not going to feed you, dine you, host you, house you, and you go back and talk about ‘butt ugly’ which end was he looking from?”
Lamont walked back his comments Thursday.
“We were joking around,” he said to reporters inside the Legislative Office Building after leading a meeting of the State Bond Commission in which he touted state investments in affordable housing.
“Houston, the people there were incredibly gracious and welcoming for us,” Lamont added. “I love the mayor’s comments. He said, ‘maybe the Governor is looking at the wrong end of a beautiful horse and I guess I resemble that comment.”
Both Lamont and Turner are Democrats.
But the comment struck a chord with H-Town residents who took to Twitter in droves to strike back with comments like “If you don’t like one area of the city, there’s another area you will like. Connecticut probably isn’t all sunshine and roses either.”
The mayor of Connecticut’s Capital City is no stranger to Houston, having spent holidays there with his family. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin’s wife, Sara Bronin, is a self-proclaimed seventh-generation Texan from the Houston area. Bronin, however, declined to comment on Lamont’s comments.
Lamont would later call Mayor Turner to apologize after Turner tweeted their conversation.
Samaia Hernandez is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at shernandez@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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