What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?

[bolverk 30323]

2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

What bugs the fuck outta me is the continued Capitol Plaza complex north of the Dome.  Their argument continues to be that they needed all that land and money for new builds to provide services for Texans.  When we all know goddamned well none of us goes in person to any of those buildings, even those of us who do business with the State.  It's bullshit. 

I'm baffled that you don't recall that the primary impetus for consolidating state offices in the complex was to save money for the state by no longer dumping $millions into leases all across town, which has the added benefit of those aging properties like the TXDOT offices on Riverside to be redeveloped. 

48 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Yeah, I get it.  But when I think of your words, 'Talent Pool", i don't really think of paper pushers at the Texas Workforce Commission or GLO.  I get they need to a few days every 2 years walk over to the Capitol, but last I checked they're still allowed to drive over and park for free.  I have business in the Capitol regularly and I somehow make it work without having 500 square feet of office space and a reserved spot costing taxpayers $15,000/year just in overhead.  I mean, it's cooler now with that plaza and all between UT and the Dome, but it's just 10,000 workers taking up valuable space that could just as easily do their job in another part of town or remotely and hoof it in a couple times in odd-numbered years to deal with their overseers.  

You should keep in mind that the north complex's planning and construction began before the pandemic and before remote work became a thing. You should also know by now that many, if not most, of the agency executives are politically appointed assholes who often don't have a vested interest in public service and who regard view staff as moochers on the state teet, barely worthy of holding their jobs, and who should be treated with high suspicion.  

21 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

Great! It succeeded. Now downtown is fully revitalized and doesn't need any more support.

The City can now sell that premium piece of property to a private developer build a 40 story tower that will actually contribute to the tax base, and they can use the proceeds of the sale to move to site less economically valuable. Anything left over they can just dump into more bike lanes or black hole of homeless spending.

Sure, let's move City Hall to a vacant lot next to 183 on the east side or maybe out somewhere by the airport! By that same logic, maybe we should move the Capitol, the State Complex, and UT to Temple, where not only is real estate cheaper but also more centrally located to the state's population midpoint.

[Guest]

Yeah, of the things this city gets wrong, having a government building in the city center isn't one of them for me.  

[Deej 77813]

47 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

Great! It succeeded. Now downtown is fully revitalized and doesn't need any more support.

The City can now sell that premium piece of property to a private developer build a 40 story tower that will actually contribute to the tax base, and they can use the proceeds of the sale to move to site less economically valuable. Anything left over they can just dump into more bike lanes or black hole of homeless spending.

If we just hadn't built a new city hall, we could have avoided all the growth?

 

[YGIFS 19458]

Fair points all.  I just get pissy this time of year after cutting a massive check for my property taxes On 1/31 when we could easily add so Much prime real estate to our tax Rolls and 50% of the employees and 95% of our citizens wouldn’t even bother to notice.  
 

and for the record, the consolidation makes sense.  But I’d rather spend the money on real time lease payments than variable rate construction bonds/loans.  They had numerous opportunities to hang back and re-assess office/workforce conditions at the outset of pandemic.  Not like the government was gonna cancel their permits over development/land use delays.  The kickbacks had to be made and it’s a fucking waste of space.  The next inter-agency collaborative in-person task force meeting will be the first.  

[Texas Jeff 1999]

City and state policies have created a ton of dead space around downtown.

I visited the new library three times, and the third time an insane homeless person was running around in front of the circulation desk yelling and lunging at people, while city employees were calmly trying to help people checkout books.  For my family's safety, we nope'd out of there and I haven't been back.  It has to be the largest collection of staircases west of the Mississippi.  The library has a great service that moves books between branches and I do use that, but because of that I have no need to go to the downtown location.

The Faulk library, which the new library replaced, now appears to have no role.  it's on the same block as the Austin History Center, which was the library before the Faulk library was built.  The AHC is a cool historic building .... but Austin now has three libraries downtown.

On the other side of Guad, two entire city blocks are worthless because of city and state capitol view corridors.  These two blocks are someday going to be right next to a rail stop.  A rail stop for who?  People will get off the train and wonder why two blocks of downtown are either parking lots or one story buildings.  Other than riding the rail to the courthouse once every two years for jury duty ... there's little point.

Austin should be thinking now about what CVCs should be revised.  There is still a CVC from Mueller airport, which was put in so that new arrivals could see the capitol building as they were taxiing to their gate.  No one has landed at Mueller for a very long time, but the CVC persists.  IH-35 has corridors from an upper deck that is about to be torn down.  Get rid of them and open up downtown's east side.

 Austin ISD owns Pease Elementary, another cool historic building.  AISD is going to reopen it as a child care center, but it's taking up an entire city block.  Child care is needed, but it is the best and highest use of that land?  How about maybe a new taller building with a child care center in it?

Trinity St is almost 100% parking garages from 12th to MLK.  Seven blocks of dead zone.

A lot of land is there, it's just covered by a policy preventing its use, or owned by a government that does not want to let go.
 

[bolverk 30323]

3 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Fair points all.  I just get pissy this time of year after cutting a massive check for my property taxes On 1/31 when we could easily add so Much prime real estate to our tax Rolls and 50% of the employees and 95% of our citizens wouldn’t even bother to notice.   

No one enjoys the high property taxes in Austin, but the problem isn't the lack of prime real estate on the rolls. Save your ire for our tax structure, whose over-reliance on property taxes has left a deep imbalance in how public education is funded across the state, resulting in them taking 50+% of AISD revenue to spend elsewhere to shore up other districts. 

[texasdago 7770]

11 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Yeah, of the things this city gets wrong, having a government building in the city center isn't one of them for me.  

Not to mention that while people complain about the library, that building is phenomenal and I think it is a great addition to the city.  I love it.  Very well executed.  Reminded us a bit of the NEMO museum in Amsterdam.  I also think Seaholm was nicely done. 

"BUT Austin was so much better when that space looked like this..."

Seaholm sucks?  Beats an empty grass field...

Reminds me of the Old Austin Facebook groups.  

"AuSTin DIeD wHEn thE ArmADIllo cLoSED!!!!?!!?"

[texasdago 7770]

2 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

Trinity St is almost 100% parking garages from 12th to MLK.  Seven blocks of dead zone.

A lot of land is there, it's just covered by a policy preventing its use, or owned by a government that does not want to let go.

...and that's not Austin's fault. Blame the state. They own that.

[bolverk 30323]

1 minute ago, texasdago said:

...and that's not Austin's fault. Blame the state. They own that.

Those things are full 8am-5pm M-F and will see increased demand with the consolidation of state offices in the Complex.

[YGIFS 19458]

Oh we’ve talked before about the regressive/ridiculous nature of our property tax system and recapture.  I readily admitted I’m even more salty than usual this time of year because of the massive amount of money I have to part with to start off the year.
 

I just got appointed to our ISD long-term facilities/planning/bond commission.  Got a deep dive look at the books and just how bad of shape many of our campuses are in physically.  We have non-functioning HVAC and 50 year old pipes but some two bit Aggie-run ISD upstate with no reading programs gets a $30mm football stadium to show off.  Meanwhile, our district has to bring in port-a-lets because so many bathrooms don’t work.   

[Bolero88 286]

My family and I love to go to the central library. It's beautiful and useful and even has free parking. It is literally a tourist attraction now. I don't understand the hate for that building at all. 

[YGIFS 19458]

The building itself and parking are lovely.  It was the cost and location some of take issue with. 
 

it was literally delayed 9 months for delivery because their sprinkler system wasn’t up to CoA code because the lead engineer didn’t know where to go for guidance.  Hint—-two blocks down.  It’s just indicative of our city leadership stupidity.  I finally resigned as the city’s bond oversight co-commissioner because it got to a point to where I either played ball and accepted kickbacks and enabled grift or I quit and hit the road.  And I’m a fucking asshole, imagine what the rest of them are like?

[texasdago 7770]

32 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

The building itself and parking are lovely.  It was the cost and location some of take issue with. 
 

it was literally delayed 9 months for delivery because their sprinkler system wasn’t up to CoA code because the lead engineer didn’t know where to go for guidance.  Hint—-two blocks down.  It’s just indicative of our city leadership stupidity.  I finally resigned as the city’s bond oversight co-commissioner because it got to a point to where I either played ball and accepted kickbacks and enabled grift or I quit and hit the road.  And I’m a fucking asshole, imagine what the rest of them are like?

Well, that second paragraph is crap so I understand the frustration

That said, the location is perfect... maybe not cheap for certainly best to have a library that has truly become a destination be in a great location in downtown.  When my friends or parents from Houston visit, they always comment on how much more life there is downtown and having destinations like the library helps.  That and most of the construction going up is either residential or hospitality.  I think there are a lot of good things being done downtown but, yes, bureaucracy sucks in all its forms.  

[YGIFS 19458]

Yes, again—-the building and stacks are lovely.  Totally agree.  Few years ago when we were coming out of 1st/2nd waves of pandemic…we went there for a meeting to host some distanced book panels for Texas Book Festival.  Only people there were us, Skeleton staff, and a homeless dude jerking off in the corner.  I support libraries in every way imaginable.  But the cost and location are woefully mis-directed..  

[Deej 77813]

 

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-city-council-considering-bond-election-to-address-climate-change/

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Deej said:

 

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-city-council-considering-bond-election-to-address-climate-change/

I've got to stop reading this thread. Puts me in a bad mood.

[YGIFS 19458]

Whew, I can’t imagine why anyone elected or appointed would resign over such a futile effort that won’t accomplish anything but fucking over lower working-class renters.  Certainly didn’t see this coming when I turned in my ‘fuck you’ paperwork last year.  

[Brisketexan 106886]

3 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Yes, again—-the building and stacks are lovely.  Totally agree.  Few years ago when we were coming out of 1st/2nd waves of pandemic…we went there for a meeting to host some distanced book panels for Texas Book Festival.  Only people there were us, Skeleton staff, and a homeless dude jerking off in the corner.  I support libraries in every way imaginable.  But the cost and location are woefully mis-directed..  

I'm not homeless.

[YGIFS 19458]

But you are compulsive bibliophile?  

[Brisketexan 106886]

6 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

But you are compulsive bibliophile?  

Yes.  Why, just the other day I was perusing "Fifty Shades of Gravy."

[Brisketexan 106886]

Nicole is back in town....

Quote

AUSTIN, Texas — First responders recovered a body from Lady Bird Lake on Monday afternoon.

According to Austin-Travis County EMS, medics got a call around 1:31 p.m. for a body in the water.

They arrived on the scene at 1:37 p.m. and found an adult victim dead.

No other information is available at this time. The Austin Police Department is expected to provide an update on the body later this afternoon.

 

[YGIFS 19458]

It’s like Groundhog Day all over again.

/NicoleBerra

[Bozo_Casanova 26846]

7 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Yes, again—-the building and stacks are lovely.  Totally agree.  Few years ago when we were coming out of 1st/2nd waves of pandemic…we went there for a meeting to host some distanced book panels for Texas Book Festival.  Only people there were us, Skeleton staff, and a homeless dude jerking off in the corner.  I support libraries in every way imaginable.  But the cost and location are woefully mis-directed..  

Well for starters it’s the one and only good public buidling we’ve got and it’s so popular that pretty millennial women take their instagram shots and hang out in groups on nice afternoons on the outside terrace of the upper floors. 

Sometimes I go to the library to work, and it’s quite busy most days, mainly people working remotely, mostly millennial professionals, and lots of high school kids. 

But I don’t expect most of the people on this board to support anything they don’t use themselves or understand how dumb and bitter it sounds to talk about vacating and demolishing downtown city hall, so the hate for the library here is pretty much par for the course. 

 

Edited February 6 by Bozo_Casanova

[Deej 77813]

4 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

t’s quite busy most days, mainly people working remotely

So we paid out the ass for a glorified Starbucks. 

[bolverk 30323]

14 minutes ago, Deej said:

So we paid out the ass for a glorified Starbucks. 

Do you ever find yourself on the courthouse square of some quaint small town and think to yourself, "How could they have wasted so gotdam much taxpayer money on that fancy fucking courthouse when most folks in town didn't have indoor plumbing back then?"

[Deej 77813]

All the fucking time. 

How many people are checking books out? It wasn't needed.

Edited February 6 by Deej

[Bozo_Casanova 26846]

40 minutes ago, Deej said:

So we paid out the ass for a glorified Starbucks. 

A glorious, dramatic Starbucks, except with Kipling and Virginia Woolf, and without the burnt roast coffee.

[bolverk 30323]

9 minutes ago, Deej said:

All the fucking time. 

How many people are checking books out? It wasn't needed.

Libraries are much more than just a place to check out books. There once was a time in this country when people believed in having nice public spaces and wanted to show local pride by promoting civic architecture. Do you think the UT Tower was a waste when they could've built it cheaper by it not being a tower? Or the waste of material and money by putting a giant pink granite dome on top of the Capitol? Hell, they could've done Memorial Stadium on the cheap, and it'd still serve its function.

But, God forbid, Austin decided to invest in a public building that sometimes has a few homeless people in it. Come to think of it, we should probably get rid of all our parks, too, to ensure homeless people never camp out. And, man, can you imagine how much new property could be on the tax rolls if we sold off Auditorium shores to developers?

[Deej 77813]

I work with a lot of people under 30. They all read e-books on their phones. Libraries are dead.

[Deej 77813]

2 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Libraries are much more than just a place to check out books. There once was a time in this country when people believed in having nice public spaces and wanted to show local pride by promoting civic architecture. Do you think the UT Tower was a waste when they could've built it cheaper by it not being a tower? Or the waste of material and money by putting a giant pink granite dome on top of the Capitol? Hell, they could've done Memorial Stadium on the cheap, and it'd still serve its function.

But, God forbid, Austin decided to invest in a public building that sometimes has a few homeless people in it. Come to think of it, we should probably get rid of all our parks, too, to ensure homeless people never camp out. And, man, can you imagine how much new property could be on the tax rolls if we sold off Auditorium shores to developers?

Whatever this city can do to spend money on not helping make it an affordable place to live. 

Build temples for the wealthy and the homeless. Everyone in between can get fucked. 

Edited February 6 by Deej

[Bozo_Casanova 26846]

26 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Do you ever find yourself on the courthouse square of some quaint small town and think to yourself, "How could they have wasted so gotdam much taxpayer money on that fancy fucking courthouse when most folks in town didn't have indoor plumbing back then?"

You could put a gun to their downy heads and they wouldn’t be able to tell you how much the library cost, how it was financed, or whether/how long they were paying for it. Hell there’s a 60%+ chance they voted for it, if they were even here.

But they sure are angry about it. 

2 minutes ago, Deej said:

I work with a lot of people under 30. They all read e-books on their phones. Libraries are dead.

Libraries lend out e books. Real popular.

[Deej 77813]

2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Libraries lend out e books. Real popular

And then lend them out over your device. No need for that building. 

Edited February 6 by Deej

[Deej 77813]

I'm starting to believe Bozo is Adler.

[bolverk 30323]

Just now, Deej said:

And then lend them out over yiur device. No need for that building. 

No need for parks either. Everybody should just stay in their own backyards.

[Deej 77813]

1 minute ago, bolverk said:

No need for parks either. Everybody should just stay in their own backyards.

Nobody can afford a house with a yard. 

Look, there was zero need for a library there.

Edited February 6 by Deej

[royiv 9782]

6 minutes ago, Deej said:

I work with a lot of people under 30. They all read e-books on their phones. Libraries are dead.

In 2022, Austin Public Library had a total circulation of 6.75 million items. Of those about 2.4 million were electronic. That doesn't scream libraries are dead to me. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26846]

5 minutes ago, Deej said:

Whatever this city can do to spend money on not helping make it an affordable place to live. 

Build temples for the wealthy and the homeless. Everyone in between can get fucked. 

There’s a housing shortage because we spent 40 years attempting to stop time. Welcome to the party pal!

[Deej 77813]

Just now, royiv said:

In 2022, Austin Public Library had a total circulation of 6.75 million items. Of those about 2.4 million were electronic. That doesn't scream libraries are dead to me. 

Still zero need for one there. What percentage are checked out from that location?

[royiv 9782]

Also, for what it's worth, Austin Public Library has 455k members and about 1.6 million annual visits.

[Deej 77813]

1 minute ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

There’s a housing shortage because we spent 40 years attempting to stop time. Welcome to the party pal!

Yet we spend our tax dollars on superfluous shit. We could have built a library for much cheaper somewhere else. Fucking vanity project. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26846]

Just now, Deej said:

Yet we spend our tax dollars on superfluous shit. We could have built a library for much cheaper somewhere else. Fucking vanity project. 

Successful cities are proud of themselves and rightly so. This city could do with a lot more vanity, if only we aspired to something better than yesterday. I still can’t believe we built the library. We would never do it today. 

[bolverk 30323]

Just now, Deej said:

Nobody can afford a house with a yard. 

Soviet block housing for everyone, then, but still no parks. Kids should go play in the street, too. Let's get really utilitarian.

Let's also get rid of the Moody Center, Disch-Faulk, Bass Concert Hall, and the Long Center. People can watch games or listen to music at home instead.

[Deej 77813]

I live in a neighborhood that should be encouraging kids to read, but we have the smallest, shittiest library. Maybe they should have put that money into neighborhood libraries. 

[royiv 9782]

4 minutes ago, Deej said:

Still zero need for one there. What percentage are checked out from that location?

Can't find that statistic yet, but I'm still digging as I would be interested in knowing. I was surprised that the number of books checked out electronically wasn't a higher percentage of the total circulation as I know tons of people who check out books that way. I guess there are more people out there like me that like a physical book than I thought.

[Bozo_Casanova 26846]

44 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Libraries are much more than just a place to check out books. There once was a time in this country when people believed in having nice public spaces and wanted to show local pride by promoting civic architecture. Do you think the UT Tower was a waste when they could've built it cheaper by it not being a tower? Or the waste of material and money by putting a giant pink granite dome on top of the Capitol? Hell, they could've done Memorial Stadium on the cheap, and it'd still serve its function.

But, God forbid, Austin decided to invest in a public building that sometimes has a few homeless people in it. Come to think of it, we should probably get rid of all our parks, too, to ensure homeless people never camp out. And, man, can you imagine how much new property could be on the tax rolls if we sold off Auditorium shores to developers?

Right on!

[YGIFS 19458]

1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Well for starters it’s the one and only good public buidling we’ve got and it’s so popular that pretty millennial women take their instagram shots and hang out in groups on nice afternoons on the outside terrace of the upper floors. 

Sometimes I go to the library to work, and it’s quite busy most days, mainly people working remotely, mostly millennial professionals, and lots of high school kids. 

But I don’t expect most of the people on this board to support anything they don’t use themselves or understand how dumb and bitter it sounds to talk about vacating and demolishing downtown city hall, so the hate for the library here is pretty much par for the course. 

 

I pay my property taxes.  I served the Texas Book Festival for 15 years, whose secondary mission is library funding.  My wife and I volunteer at the Westbank libraries on a weekly basis.  But you hang out and co-work with high school girls on weekdays.  You do you, brutha   

 

[texasdago 7770]

God, a bunch of grumpy olds here

[YGIFS 19458]

Well yeah, we're talking about libraries.  Of course we're old.  Dumbass    

[Bozo_Casanova 26846]

2 minutes ago, texasdago said:

God, a bunch of grumpy olds here

Imagine looking around and seeing a tax code rigged to rip you off, so as to give people in the top 1% a break, and a land use code rigged to create generational wealth for the top 1% in part by making it hard to stay in your home, in a town where they import high end talent who make more than you, where your kids probably won’t stick around because the highest paying employers actively avoid local talent, and you look at that and say: “man, this public library is a problem.”

[bolverk 30323]

3 minutes ago, texasdago said:

God, a bunch of grumpy olds here

They sound like a gaggle of aggy. This might be a tad harsh, but here it goes:

"We don't need no dang libary or books cuz we got dem lektonic thingies. Furk, even are skool is purdy nuff when they's grass. It don't need a big ol' 'spensive tur to get gussied up like dem sips cuz we already got a tall watertur to show oft."

This aggitude is why we can't have nice things, and I'll be on the lookout for the next time they make fun of A&M's campus in the aggy thread.