What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?

[956 Worldwide 34422]

3 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

Not to totally thread shit off topic in a different direction, but one flaw in your theory is that 50 years ago one might have compared both teaching and nursing as comparable employment for a skilled female otherwise underemployed elsewhere due to her gender.  I'd think most nurses make 2X over a teacher today, to the point where it's diversifying by pulling a greater proportion of males into it (than earlier generations; it's still overwhelmingly female). 

Anyway, no disagreement here with prescription, but I think your diagnosis may be off.

Ha, I almost mentioned nurses in my OP. This is kind of what I’m driving at. We pay nurses a bunch more and now it’s a super attractive profession to people who wouldn’t have considered it a generation ago.  We need to do the same with teachers, just make it a well-paid and attractive profession to a broader base. 

[gsoda3 3236]

He just retired at 65 with 105% of his highest 3 year’s salary (which was his last 3) that’s is good until the day he dies.

Is he grandfathered in to a different calculation than someone who started teaching in the 90s? Your account isn't reconciling with my experience nor is it reconciling with what the TRS website says. In any case, good for him. I'm glad to hear he's going to be taken care of in that regard.

[We’reTexas 1468]

14 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Thanks for the follow. And it’s not just homelessness, it’s the biggest single contributor for cost of living crisis among working people, even professionals. 
 

The solution is absolutely the one that a six year old could figure out: build more houses/housing, and build them close to where people need to work. 
 

But that’s also the solution that upsets almost everyone who is already living somewhere. 

That guy is a YIMBY organizer who goes to city hall meetings to live tweet NIMBY opposition to California’s recently bolstered housing mandates - that recent thread that went viral happened to be about supportive housing. It’s interesting to see the situation in Austin play out similar to housing fights in CA and NY - namely, the flat out denial of a supply issue in the first place from anti-growth contingents. Edit: but also different as well, as Greg Casar has, from what I’ve seen, been a bit of a YIMBY. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by We’reTexas

[AUS-97HORN 11672]

9 hours ago, Shaggybevo said:

 

City of Austin is adding sidewalks on both sides of the street and adding dedicated bicycle lanes to Bull Creek Road between 45th and North Loop.  Street parking will be removed on one side of the street to make room.  Homeowners will also be giving up some of their front yards adjacent to the street.  The work is being funded by the 2016 Mobility Bond that was approved by voters.  Mobility will be improved for walkers and cyclists. Construction has started. 

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2ea053bb2794484880f485b0775b1186

My guess is that the roads were temporarily re-striped to give construction crews some elbow room to work.

Unsure why the center lines are jutting out like that - maybe as a "traffic calming" scheme during construction?

 

The mobility bond absolutely fucked up 183 & Ohlen's intersection.   This was how the intersection used to look.

3 lanes.  Far left was for turning left under 183

Middle was for going straight through and staying on Ohlen

Right lane could go straight, but since its a major intersection, the vast, vast, vast majority of drivers in the right lane would take a right on Research.

 

 

The blue line represents where these fucking morons put a god damned HALF LANE bike lane - complete with those white standing lane blockers in the right lane that if ANY car is in the former middle lane trying to go straight, it completely blocks off any fucking chance of anyone taking a right on red.   

end result, the fucking backup in rush hours and school hours is astronomical.  I just dont fucking understand what god damned idiot traffic engineer signed off on that fucking bullshit. 

[texasdago 7552]

7 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Damn right. PLEASE Dallas my Austin. 

I know I know... that fenced off surface lot and blue dumpster had strong Armadillo World Headquarters vibes.  It was much more authentic then.  

[TKthunder2 4980]

15 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

 

 

Is he grandfathered in to a different calculation than someone who started teaching in the 90s? Your account isn't reconciling with my experience nor is it reconciling with what the TRS website says. In any case, good for him. I'm glad to hear he's going to be taken care of in that regard.

 

Okay I see where I fucked up, slight mea culpa.

My dad is 67 about to be 68 (65 was just stuck in my mind somehow probably just because that was the last big birthday we did together and retirement age and whatnot) and he started mid year so he has 46 years of service.

46 x 2.3 = 105.8

and yes he apparently grandfathered in…

*An individual who, as a TRS member on Aug. 31, 2005, was at least 50 years old, or met the Rule of 70, or had at least 25 years of service credit should use the three highest years of salary for this calculation.

https://www.tcta.org/professional-resources/teacher-employment/benefits/trs-retirement/how-to-calculate-your-standard-trs-benefit

[BabaYaga 15208]

11 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

The solution is absolutely the one that a six year old could figure out: build more houses/housing, and build them close to where people need to work. 

There are thousands of developers trying to do this.  The big one now are apartment to condo conversions.  I'm working with a developer out of CA and the municipality is declining around 95% of the developer bids.  The math doesn't work out because the note on the condo far exceeds what the tenants were paying in rent.  The problem, it's become so cost prohibitive in so many areas that the acquisition and conversion costs can't make the numbers work to keep payments close.  The one I'm helping with, they'd need to condo's to be at max around $450K......but with everything involved, the deal won't work unless they are at $600K +/-.

The state of CA also recently tried a down payment assistance program utilizing shared appreciation to the tune of 20% DP assistance -  meaning the state was giving applicants a "free" 20% DP in the form a DP that was later recouped as a percentage of equity from the sale.  They ran out of money in a matter of days, some reports say hours.  

 

[PvilleStang 2844]

13 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

Not sure why anyone thinks TRS is not enough to live off of. I literally just went with my dad to TRS and helped him file for retirement.

He started teaching at 22 years old. At 62 he started teaching summer school for his last 3 years. He just retired at 65 with 105% of his highest 3 year’s salary (which was his last 3) that’s is good until the day he dies.

I’m not sure what you mother fuckers are smoking but there is no reason someone like him would need social security.

He was a career teacher doing exactly what the system was designed for. It was NOT designed for people who only teach for 20 years (and neither is social security for that matter).

See, your old man was a tier 1 I'd bet, and seeing he's probably bound to a rule of 70, which he more than qualified for.  65 + 43 = 108, so he gets a ton of credit for going over his retirement age.  According to their calculations:

The newer generation jumps to highest 5 years of salaries, which is another turn-off for new teachers.  Also, big difference is the normal retirement age.  In earlier tiers, you can retire once you satisfy the rule of 80, but in Tier 5 you have to be at least 62 to qualify for normal retirement age, regardless if you've met rule of 80.  So consider your dad here, he would be eligible to retire under normal circumstances at age 51 with roughly 67% of his highest three years, while if he were to started today, he'd need an additional 11 years of service (but would get a bump in his total percentage after the additional 11 years, bringing his total to 92% of his pay).

The other irritating thing: legislature will tweak the newer tiers in ERS and TRS, changing the retirement requirements every few years until a new tier is released, and usually those tweaks mean less money in retirement, additional years of service, etc.  Big reason I yanked my state pension after the better part of a decade working for the state.

[crash_davis 23083]

19 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

This is absolute shit and these people need to be put on blast, but I understand why the media doesn’t want to give them attention.

Schools should be a safe place for kids, and not have to deal with a bunch of adults showing up and bothering them because they are LBGTQ

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/protesters-stood-outside-austin-high-school-with-anti-lgbtq-abortion-messages/

 

Pics are on Nextdoor. Just a few dudes holding signs and yelling at kids. One was wearing a Jesus shirt. I'm so fucking shocked! 

 

 

[Guest]

I'm in Pool's district. What are some of the biggest issues facing Austin? Affordability? Traffic? Homelessness? Climate? Well the big newsletter from my council member this week is titled "Austin paired with Mérida as part of international sustainability initiative"

"First the good news! The City of Austin has been selected as one of 24 cities to participate in an international program that assists local governments in creating sustainable futures with other select cities.

The program, Cities Forward, was launched earlier this year at the Cities Summit of the Americas, and is dedicated to helping cities in the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean work with other "paired" cities to collaborate on building inclusive and resilient communities
 
Austin is fortunate to have been paired with Mérida, Mexico, the capital of Yucatán, a fascinating region of Mexico that's steeped in Mayan history with unique ecological features. "

I can't tell you how happy this makes me when I'm paying $8K a year in property taxes to have our city leaders really working on what matters.

 

[Wally Pryor 5244]

Some shock. Conveniently nice place for the tribe of clowns to do a site visit and work on resiliency exercises.

What's Pool's bad news? That she'll only be able to stay two weeks? 

[texasdago 7552]

I love live music

I hate this idea - https://www.kvue.com/article/money/economy/boomtown-2040/dripping-springs-fitzhugh-music-venue-petition/269-f819ea38-2342-406f-a629-60d785844cd1

That road is a semi death trap as it is... add the venue there and its guaranteed weekly crashes.  Literally one of the worst ideas.  I'm sure TCEQ will also do the right thing............................. 

 

[PvilleStang 2844]

See that sign for fighting the music venue all the time heading to a few of the breweries out there.  I'm in agreement, the roads aren't ready for a large scale venue out there.  They can barely handle the brewery traffic that's out there.

[safe sex 11678]

On 8/23/2023 at 9:23 PM, 956 Worldwide said:

. We pay nurses a bunch more and now it’s a super attractive profession to people who wouldn’t have considered it a generation ago.  

Slow your roll a little bit there lmao. Some nurses are paid a bunch now, but there is still a nationwide nursing shortage that will devolve into a crisis by 2030 (when demand will completely outstrip supply in Texas), and big reason for why so many nurses leave is because the pay disparity between the work in our job descriptions and the work actually expected of us. Not to mention the devolution of the public's feeling toward service workers, similar to teachers, waiters, etc, where people think they can spit on us because they're the "customer" or "taxpayer" or whatever

[Armybrat 40725]

The two nurses in our extended family work for private entities after leaving the hospital scene.

[Wally Pryor 5244]

41 minutes ago, texasdago said:

I love live music

I hate this idea - https://www.kvue.com/article/money/economy/boomtown-2040/dripping-springs-fitzhugh-music-venue-petition/269-f819ea38-2342-406f-a629-60d785844cd1

That road is a semi death trap as it is... add the venue there and its guaranteed weekly crashes.  Literally one of the worst ideas.  I'm sure TCEQ will also do the right thing............................. 

 

There's nothing "semi" about it.  290W is full blown, take-your-life-in-your-own-hands shit.  Every day. At night, it just gets worse. 

 

 

[texasdago 7552]

2 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

There's nothing "semi" about it.  290W is full blown, take-your-life-in-your-own-hands shit.  Every day. At night, it just gets worse. 

 

 

Yeah but 290 is a walk in the park compared to the windy two-lane road on Fitzhugh.  Mind you, I love that road.  I like how it is set up.  Now add even more drunk a-holes in the dark after a concert and you have shenanigans.  

[ChickenSandwich 9798]

Fuck the “Rambler” for shutting down Nueces between 25-24th to all trafic except their move ins and moving companies. 
 

West campus is in full grid lock from 29th-24th and all cross roads in between. Firefighters struggling to get to homelessness man suffering in the heat on nueces and 27th.  
 

pure shit show

Edited August 25, 2023 by ChickenSandwich

[texasdago 7552]

6 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Fuck the “Rambler” for shutting down Nueces between 25-24th to all trafic except their move ins and moving companies. 
 

West campus is in full grid lock from 29th-24th and all cross roads in between. Firefighters struggling to get to homelessness man suffering in the heat on nueces and 27th.  
 

pure shit show

All the construction in that area + all the new students is crazy right now.  Avoid avoid.

Edit: that's the place that wasn't ready?  Drove past it a few times... that specific area is a mess.

Edited August 25, 2023 by texasdago

[Bozo_Casanova 26277]

19 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Firefighters struggling to get to homelessness man suffering in the heat on nueces and 27th.  

"a good start"

- @crash_davis

[Texas Jeff 1932]

7 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Fuck the “Rambler” for shutting down Nueces between 25-24th to all trafic except their move ins and moving companies. 

Nueces is the road that will "replace" Guadalupe when Project Connect closes Guadalupe to vehicular traffic.

Imagine everyone moving in while the traffic previously on the Drag tries to go up and down that street.

[ChickenSandwich 9798]

It was literally 2 hrs to travel south on nueces from 28th to 24th.   Fools just sat there. 

[demos 2992]

Nueces is the road that will "replace" Guadalupe when Project Connect closes Guadalupe to vehicular traffic.

Imagine everyone moving in while the traffic previously on the Drag tries to go up and down that street.

Just glad they’re not really bothering with S Austin.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11806]

17 hours ago, texasdago said:

Yeah but 290 is a walk in the park compared to the windy two-lane road on Fitzhugh.  Mind you, I love that road.  I like how it is set up.  Now add even more drunk a-holes in the dark after a concert and you have shenanigans.  

I lived out there for 20 years and still have property off West Fitzhugh that I go to on weekends.  With the current brewery/distillery/wedding traffic plus bikes I have to time my travel carefully.  It can be a shitshow.  I don’t drive it at night on weekends either.  

[ztejas 43262]

On 8/25/2023 at 1:56 PM, ChickenSandwich said:

Fuck the “Rambler” for shutting down Nueces between 25-24th to all trafic except their move ins and moving companies. 
 

West campus is in full grid lock from 29th-24th and all cross roads in between. Firefighters struggling to get to homelessness man suffering in the heat on nueces and 27th.  
 

pure shit show

West Campus is always a shit show. It's by far and away the worst place to try and drive and/or park in Austin. 

[crash_davis 23083]

On 8/25/2023 at 10:34 PM, ChickenSandwich said:

It was literally 2 hrs to travel south on nueces from 28th to 24th.   Fools just sat there. 

The Rambler apartments were a week late opening. They finally opened on Friday. You, my wife and daughter, and a few hundred people were stuck in the same line waiting to get their shit picked up and moved to their apartments.

[atomheartbevo 89409]

On 8/23/2023 at 4:22 PM, atomheartbevo said:

This is absolute shit and these people need to be put on blast, but I understand why the media doesn’t want to give them attention.

Schools should be a safe place for kids, and not have to deal with a bunch of adults showing up and bothering them because they are LBGTQ

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/protesters-stood-outside-austin-high-school-with-anti-lgbtq-abortion-messages/

Hopefully they are gone this week.  Turns out they were “professional” protestors who were hoping to get somebody to physically start shit with them and then they could sue the parents, school district, or the City of Austin, etc.  They apparently did it in Los Angeles and got a payout from LAPD for not protecting them.  Kids and parents were told they were professionals trying to get somebody to start something, and the kids ignored/mocked them.

 

[YGIFS 19449]

Who was the actual group protesting, as in org name?  I saw something last week about Christ Warriors or some shit but nobody ever confirmed it (media/school/police)?  I don't want to pick on the wrong people.  

Edited August 28, 2023 by YGIFS

[CooterBrown 17904]

28 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Who was the actual group protesting, as in org name?  I saw something last week about Christ Warriors or some shit but nobody ever confirmed it (media/school/police)?  I don't want to pick on the wrong people.  

Official Street Preachers.

Here's the Facebook page of one of them: David Harold Grisham 

They last protested at the Travis HS memorial for the girl that killed herself last week.

Edited August 28, 2023 by CooterBrown

[YGIFS 19449]

Are they based here in Austin or something?  I don't have a facebook account and can't see any details about the guy other than that landing page.  

I mean, there's the harmless Street Preachers from the Drag/West Mall...but this is something altogether different.  Is there a way to contact them or get more names?  I like to do some due diligence before we start getting people fired. 

[Armybrat 40725]

Sounds like those church nuts that used to go around the country protesting at military casualty funerals. 
IIRC, they were from Kansas.

[crash_davis 23083]

23 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Sounds like those church nuts that used to go around the country protesting at military casualty funerals. 
IIRC, they were from Kansas.

Westboro Baptists Church. 

[Armybrat 40725]

Yep. That’s the cabal.

[texasdago 7552]

37 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

I mean, there's the harmless Street Preachers from the Drag/West Mall...

Did the friar who used to preach in front of the Union lose it?

[bschoolprof 6232]

On 8/25/2023 at 9:25 PM, Texas Jeff said:

Nueces is the road that will "replace" Guadalupe when Project Connect closes Guadalupe to vehicular traffic.

Imagine everyone moving in while the traffic previously on the Drag tries to go up and down that street.

I don't think most people appreciate/understand how much of a total goat fuck this will be.  All in the name of the shiny train god.  

[Samson's Wig 3179]

On 8/23/2023 at 9:28 PM, AUS-97HORN said:

 

  I just dont fucking understand what god damned idiot traffic engineer signed off on that fucking bullshit. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by Samson's Wig

[Samson's Wig 3179]

5 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Hopefully they are gone this week.  Turns out they were “professional” protestors who were hoping to get somebody to physically start shit with them and then they could sue the parents, school district, or the City of Austin, etc.  They apparently did it in Los Angeles and got a payout from LAPD for not protecting them.  Kids and parents were told they were professionals trying to get somebody to start something, and the kids ignored/mocked them.

 

The smart play is clearly to wait and follow them home.

[texasdago 7552]

14 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

Same person who signed off on this...

[crash_davis 23083]

3 minutes ago, texasdago said:

Same person who signed off on this...

[Samson's Wig 3179]

In my experience, if you dig deep enough into who is responsible for any fucked up interchange in Texas, you'll eventually find an aggie engineer.

[crash_davis 23083]

40 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

In my experience, if you dig deep enough into who is responsible for any fuck up in Texas, you'll eventually find an aggie.

fixed for truth

[Not that Bob 734]

1 hour ago, Samson's Wig said:

I that a dog on the sidewalk taking a shit?

[Ghost of LL 15477]

6 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

I don't think most people appreciate/understand how much of a total goat fuck this will be.  All in the name of the shiny train god.  

On the upside, it'll never happen since it has to be voted on next May.

[Texas Jeff 1932]

2 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

On the upside, it'll never happen since it has to be voted on next May.

Really?  I thought the re-vote to authorize bonds got nuked, but perhaps there is another...

Edited August 28, 2023 by Texas Jeff

[Ghost of LL 15477]

41 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

Really?  I thought the re-vote to authorize bonds got nuked, but perhaps there is another...

Oh, shit--you're right.  The bill got killed in that shitshow between the House and Senate at the end of the session.

But--and this is pretty critical--nothing is going to happen before the next session.  And I guarantee you there'll be another push in the Lege to kill it.

[YGIFS 19449]

Yeah.  It got usurped by the other end of/special session bullshit.  It's gonna get gutted though in 2025, and perhaps rightfully so.  When your initially promised 4 directional system only ends up going to the terminus of one of those lines...that's kind of a fucking problem.  

Plus, let's just be adults on here for once.  We all know how this ends.  You just call it the "TRANS" bill and I can get it killed 90-60 and 19-12.  Sure it's "transportation" but we don't open with that, we build to that...

[PvilleStang 2844]

I mean, of all the freaking things going wrong in this city, I'm glad these are the two things they're taking up.  And pretty sure 88 will get nuked with the DeathStar bill.  It's all virtue signaling from this clown show that has lost touch with any sense of reality in Austin.

[bolverk 29397]

1 hour ago, PvilleStang said:

I mean, of all the freaking things going wrong in this city, I'm glad these are the two things they're taking up.  And pretty sure 88 will get nuked with the DeathStar bill.  It's all virtue signaling from this clown show that has lost touch with any sense of reality in Austin.

After this summer, you don't think that AC is a necessity in Austin? Trying to make sure people don't keel over from heat stroke is "virtue signaling"?

Get the fuck out of here.

[PvilleStang 2844]

21 minutes ago, bolverk said:

After this summer, you don't think that AC is a necessity in Austin? Trying to make sure people don't keel over from heat stroke is "virtue signaling"?

Get the fuck out of here.

I think it's pointless.  Show me an property that DOESN'T have HVAC.  I think the bigger issue is people who do have HVAC and can't afford to repair it.  Does the city condemn and seize a property of a low income property because the HVAC is in disrepair?  Does the city offer services to help with HVAC repairs or offset emergency after-hour repair services?  It's complete BS because it looks great on paper, but can really hose someone over in the end.

[YGIFS 19449]

I think I may have seen a few tent cities that didn't have central air.  Is that anything?