What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?

[Eskimohorn 5615]

This applies to all of Texas. At least in Austin, you can get on a paddle board and spend a 100 degree day chilling on the water. 

As the sun reflects off the water that is borderline toxic? So you stand in the heat? I dont get it.

[Eskimohorn 5615]

Feel like Project Connect should get its own damn thread. Can't believe that passed after the mess that Mopac toll lanes were to build. Sure... let's give the city a ton of money to build billion-dollar tunnels.

The Mopac toll lane has improved things, even if you dont take it. It was way late and is a drop in the bucket, but im grateful. I was cutting thru Tarrytown to get North-South.

[Guest]

12 hours ago, Eskimohorn said:

The Mopac toll lane has improved things, even if you dont take it. It was way late and is a drop in the bucket, but im grateful. I was cutting thru Tarrytown to get North-South.

I have to admit, it has. It was a complete disaster to get built and I really thought it would be a "Lexus Lane" but I'll be darned if it doesn't help things out.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11810]

2 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

I have to admit, it has. It was a complete disaster to get built and I really thought it would be a "Lexus Lane" but I'll be darned if it doesn't help things out.

If they would just finish it south of the river it would help a lot more. 

[YGIFS 19449]

12 hours ago, Eskimohorn said:

As the sun reflects off the water that is borderline toxic? So you stand in the heat? I dont get it.

Yeah, water recreation on Town Lake is not all it's cracked up to be.  I enjoy it for exercise, but I wouldn't consider it 1-2 hours "chilling all day on the water"

The water is fucking horrific looking up close, so it does you no good to cool off in it unless you tip your kayak and have to get in.  And it's slightly cooler down there with a downtown breeze, but it ain't exactly "nice."  I keep trying to find a day to take my daughter out on the new kayak before it gets too hot, but each time I go down there by myself and look at the water...I know she'd freak out.  

[YGIFS 19449]

31 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

If they would just finish it south of the river it would help a lot more. 

They are extending that chokepoint on-ramp by Barton Skyway.  There's certainly room to add another lane but it would just create issues at the River and over Barton Creek.  They did talk for awhile about a second deck, which was superbly dumb even for Texas.  

Side note-just read that there were two stabbings on south end of Rainey last night.  What the fuck is going on down there?  We have like our own hipster Dexter or what? 

[Wally Pryor 5244]

23 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Montopolis, represent!

 

Guy in the car okay?

[Judge Roybeanbag 11810]

4 hours ago, YGIFS said:

They are extending that chokepoint on-ramp by Barton Skyway.  There's certainly room to add another lane but it would just create issues at the River and over Barton Creek.  They did talk for awhile about a second deck, which was superbly dumb even for Texas.  

They need to do away with that ramp and make that traffic go through the light at 360.  The reason that section is so bad is people trying to get over from the ending toll lane to exit 2244, and then the Barton Skyway people getting on and trying to go three lanes to the left to exit 360.

 

 

[YGIFS 19449]

Yeah, but the issue with funneling all that access road traffic from Bee Caves down to 360 is the light at Capital of Texas Highway only has one thru lane (and it's actually an optional lane-left turn or thru).  that's not enough capacity to get through all the cars to the barton creek elevated deck.  Remember Loop 1 access road at Barton Skyway has the ramp just before to get on, then at the light-three lanes.  One left only, one left or thru, and one thru.  You take that away and the 360 light becomes a shitshow of epic proportions.  But to your point, there may be a balance because that 1/360 light is usually very lightly attended even during rush hour.  There must be a compromise in there somewhere, which of course means---Texas/Austin will never find it.  

If you really want to see the bottom of humanity.  Take a u-turn sometime under MoPac at 2244 to head back south.  You have your own turn lane to enter the southbound access road.  And people turning right from 2244 to 1 have their own lane on the access road.  Invariably, every single fucking time, that 2244 turner will drift immediately into the far left lane despite the law saying they need to yield to both oncoming traffic and the person turning from the u-turn lane into the far left lane (if that makes sense).  Blows me away every fucking day and that's supposed to be a "smart" part of town.  

[Armybrat 40740]

18 hours ago, Eskimohorn said:

The Mopac toll lane has improved things, even if you dont take it. It was way late and is a drop in the bucket, but im grateful. I was cutting thru Tarrytown to get North-South.

We used it yesterday morning to get down & back from Brushy Creek by Round Rock to our tax accountant on Southwest Parkway. About 30 minutes & $1 each way.
Well worth it for the stress-free driving by not having to deal with the shifty assholes in the other 3 lanes.

[Armybrat 40740]

I will add though, what’s up with assholes tailgating me in that toll lane when I’m doing 82-85 most of the way down?

[MissingInAction 24819]

4 hours ago, Armybrat said:

I will add though, what’s up with assholes tailgating me in that toll lane when I’m doing 82-85 most of the way down?

Lemme guess... it was a bro dozer or beemer..

[Armybrat 40740]

4 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

Lemme guess... it was a bro dozer or beemer..

Ram pickup

[crash_davis 23084]

Interested to read opinions on this. IMO this was coming. Austin leadership haven't been able to make changes because Austin but also because NIMBYism. The Lege is getting involved. 

 

https://www.kut.org/austin/2023-03-21/austin-tried-and-failed-to-rewrite-its-land-code-republican-lawmakers-might-do-it-for-them

In Austin, 5,750 square feet is a magic number.

It’s one-tenth of a football field. Half of an Olympic standard swimming pool. And precisely the size of the American dream.

“If you're driving around urban Austin, through Hyde Park, Clarksville, Crestview,” said Scott Turner, a local homebuilder, “then most of [these lots] are going to be 50 feet wide.” And 115 feet deep. Which gets us to 5,750 square feet, the amount of land Austin requires to build a house in most parts of the city.

In land use terms, this number is called minimum lot size. Austin’s minimum lot size is larger than that of other major Texas cities. (Houston’s, for example, is 1,400 square feet.)

Turner, unsurprisingly, is not a fan. Austin’s minimum lot size means he can’t build as many homes as he’d like. But it also means that anyone looking to buy a house has to buy 5,750 square feet of land — and likely the large home built to justify that amount of land.

“Until we start to try and address our minimum lot size problem, all we’re going to get are big expensive homes because that’s all the code will allow,” Turner said.

Austin tried to address its “minimum lot size problem” — and the problems many people saw in the land code as a whole. Nearly a decade ago, the City Council embarked on a rewrite of the city’s land development code, a lengthy manual dictating what can be built in the city and where. Elected officials reasoned they needed to tweak regulations like minimum lot size and height restrictions to let developers build more in central neighborhoods — to better accommodate the city’s population, which had more than doubled in three decades.

But, ultimately, these revisions never came to pass. After spending a decade and more than $10 million on the project, the city was stopped short in 2020 when a group of property owners successfully sued and halted the land code revision.

Since then, the cost of housing in the city has skyrocketed and builders and advocates for more housing have turned to the state for help. What Democratic-led Austin couldn’t get done, now the Republican-led state may do, much to the chagrin of local leaders.

Republican legislators are now wading into Austin’s land code debate.

Lawmakers have filed several bills that, if passed, could greatly impact what kind of housing gets built in the city. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, has filed a bill that would lower minimum lot sizes in at least a dozen counties, including Travis, to 1,400 square feet — about a fourth of the requisite amount of land needed to build a house in Austin.

“Clearly, if you have a smaller footprint and cost structure, then you have more affordable housing,” Bettencourt said, an idea backed by research on three decades of home sale data. Senate Bill 1787 also requires that cities allow for a certain number of homes to be built — no less than 31.1 per acre. That's akin to a neighborhood with townhome or apartment-style buildings.

Other lawmakers have filed bills to loosen so-called compatibility rules, which limit how tall developers can build within a certain distance of a single-family home. Last year, Austin council members voted to amend the city’s rules, although several members lamented that the changes were too modest.

While many of these bills are being carried by Republicans in both the Texas House and Senate, at least one Democrat has weighed into the debate. Rep. Carl Sherman, Sr., D-Lancaster, has filed a bill that would make it harder for neighbors to block zoning changes on nearby property, a process called a valid petition.

Currently, if owners with property representing at least 20% of land near a parcel proposed for new zoning oppose the change, the local government has to approve it with a larger share of votes than usual. Sherman and Rep. Justin Holland, R-Rockwall, who has filed a duplicate bill, have proposed upping this to the owners of 50% of land.

“I liken it to having a publicly traded company or even a private company,” Sherman told KUT. “Unless you have more than 50% ownership, you can’t decide what direction the company is going to go in.”

 

But at the same time that local leaders and housing advocates decry the state’s involvement in local land use issues, many say they understand why it has come to pass.

“When we cause so much decision paralysis and are not able to move forward as a community … people decide to essentially bypass the city,” said Awais Azhar, a city planning commissioner and a board member of HousingWorks Austin.

Years ago, Austin set affordable housing goals. The city is far from accomplishing them.

This includes members of a nonprofit called Texans for Reasonable Solutions, made up of new and notable Austin residents like the founder of PayPal and Claire Boucher, a musician known by the name Grimes. The group has been advocating for these bills at the state, lamenting local leaders' inability to make the changes they say they want.

Others think these changes, no matter who is implementing them, infringe on the rights of homeowners in Austin. Fred Lewis, a local attorney, is one of the plaintiffs in the case against the city over several zoning changes. He was also a plaintiff in the land code rewrite lawsuit.

"The bills at the Lege will take away local control and are an assault on people's property rights and desire to live in single family homes," he wrote in an email.

It's unclear what traction any of these bills will get — and if they'll cross the many hurdles needed to become law. But state legislators getting involved in the minutiae of municipal land rules feels like a natural conclusion to some.

[texasdago 7553]

1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

This includes members of a nonprofit called Texans for Reasonable Solutions, made up of new and notable Austin residents like the founder of PayPal and Claire Boucher, a musician known by the name Grimes. The group has been advocating for these bills at the state, lamenting local leaders' inability to make the changes they say they want.

[demos 2992]

[We’reTexas 1468]

6 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Interested to read opinions on this. IMO this was coming. Austin leadership haven't been able to make changes because Austin but also because NIMBYism. The Lege is getting involved. 

 

https://www.kut.org/austin/2023-03-21/austin-tried-and-failed-to-rewrite-its-land-code-republican-lawmakers-might-do-it-for-them

In Austin, 5,750 square feet is a magic number.

It’s one-tenth of a football field. Half of an Olympic standard swimming pool. And precisely the size of the American dream.

“If you're driving around urban Austin, through Hyde Park, Clarksville, Crestview,” said Scott Turner, a local homebuilder, “then most of [these lots] are going to be 50 feet wide.” And 115 feet deep. Which gets us to 5,750 square feet, the amount of land Austin requires to build a house in most parts of the city.

In land use terms, this number is called minimum lot size. Austin’s minimum lot size is larger than that of other major Texas cities. (Houston’s, for example, is 1,400 square feet.)

Turner, unsurprisingly, is not a fan. Austin’s minimum lot size means he can’t build as many homes as he’d like. But it also means that anyone looking to buy a house has to buy 5,750 square feet of land — and likely the large home built to justify that amount of land.

“Until we start to try and address our minimum lot size problem, all we’re going to get are big expensive homes because that’s all the code will allow,” Turner said.

Austin tried to address its “minimum lot size problem” — and the problems many people saw in the land code as a whole. Nearly a decade ago, the City Council embarked on a rewrite of the city’s land development code, a lengthy manual dictating what can be built in the city and where. Elected officials reasoned they needed to tweak regulations like minimum lot size and height restrictions to let developers build more in central neighborhoods — to better accommodate the city’s population, which had more than doubled in three decades.

But, ultimately, these revisions never came to pass. After spending a decade and more than $10 million on the project, the city was stopped short in 2020 when a group of property owners successfully sued and halted the land code revision.

Since then, the cost of housing in the city has skyrocketed and builders and advocates for more housing have turned to the state for help. What Democratic-led Austin couldn’t get done, now the Republican-led state may do, much to the chagrin of local leaders.

Republican legislators are now wading into Austin’s land code debate.

Lawmakers have filed several bills that, if passed, could greatly impact what kind of housing gets built in the city. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, has filed a bill that would lower minimum lot sizes in at least a dozen counties, including Travis, to 1,400 square feet — about a fourth of the requisite amount of land needed to build a house in Austin.

“Clearly, if you have a smaller footprint and cost structure, then you have more affordable housing,” Bettencourt said, an idea backed by research on three decades of home sale data. Senate Bill 1787 also requires that cities allow for a certain number of homes to be built — no less than 31.1 per acre. That's akin to a neighborhood with townhome or apartment-style buildings.

Other lawmakers have filed bills to loosen so-called compatibility rules, which limit how tall developers can build within a certain distance of a single-family home. Last year, Austin council members voted to amend the city’s rules, although several members lamented that the changes were too modest.

While many of these bills are being carried by Republicans in both the Texas House and Senate, at least one Democrat has weighed into the debate. Rep. Carl Sherman, Sr., D-Lancaster, has filed a bill that would make it harder for neighbors to block zoning changes on nearby property, a process called a valid petition.

Currently, if owners with property representing at least 20% of land near a parcel proposed for new zoning oppose the change, the local government has to approve it with a larger share of votes than usual. Sherman and Rep. Justin Holland, R-Rockwall, who has filed a duplicate bill, have proposed upping this to the owners of 50% of land.

“I liken it to having a publicly traded company or even a private company,” Sherman told KUT. “Unless you have more than 50% ownership, you can’t decide what direction the company is going to go in.”

 

But at the same time that local leaders and housing advocates decry the state’s involvement in local land use issues, many say they understand why it has come to pass.

“When we cause so much decision paralysis and are not able to move forward as a community … people decide to essentially bypass the city,” said Awais Azhar, a city planning commissioner and a board member of HousingWorks Austin.

Years ago, Austin set affordable housing goals. The city is far from accomplishing them.

This includes members of a nonprofit called Texans for Reasonable Solutions, made up of new and notable Austin residents like the founder of PayPal and Claire Boucher, a musician known by the name Grimes. The group has been advocating for these bills at the state, lamenting local leaders' inability to make the changes they say they want.

Others think these changes, no matter who is implementing them, infringe on the rights of homeowners in Austin. Fred Lewis, a local attorney, is one of the plaintiffs in the case against the city over several zoning changes. He was also a plaintiff in the land code rewrite lawsuit.

"The bills at the Lege will take away local control and are an assault on people's property rights and desire to live in single family homes," he wrote in an email.

It's unclear what traction any of these bills will get — and if they'll cross the many hurdles needed to become law. But state legislators getting involved in the minutiae of municipal land rules feels like a natural conclusion to some.

Not sure why they frame this as a D+R thing, NIMBYism transcends ideology - see CA, NYC, etc. Good to state leges getting involved. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26280]

Fuck everything 

[HenryJames 65890]

Build more houses.

[Blotto 23434]

6 hours ago, texasdago said:

made up of new and notable Austin residents like the founder of PayPal and Claire Boucher, a musician known by the name Grimes.

[HenryJames 65890]

 

[YGIFS 19449]

Okay, then don't sell the paper on the other $4bn.  

(narrator running for mailbox to stop bank transfer): "Oh...............................no....................."

[blacklab 11850]

 

[YGIFS 19449]

I would encourage y'all not sufficiently disappointed yet in Austin leadership to watch either KVUE or KXAN at 10:00p.  A friend a business partner's historically awesome building almost went up in flames last night in the 900 block of Congress Avenue.  There's 3 adjoined, abandoned buildings to the north of him that the city and owner let stay in absolute decay.  You've driven/walked past them 1000 times and not paid much attention.  Well, they're gonna tell you about the fire tonight.  Then the city's gonna say another thing tomorrow.  Then we'll talk about the truth.  It could have literally taken out a full city block if things had broken another way with a minute here or a minute there.  

[ztejas 43266]

7 minutes ago, blacklab said:

 

If we summarily executed everyone that voted yes for project connect we'd be back to the population level of heyday Austin. 

[demos 2992]

I would encourage y'all not sufficiently disappointed yet in Austin leadership to watch either KVUE or KXAN at 10:00p.  A friend a business partner's historically awesome building almost went up in flames last night in the 900 block of Congress Avenue.  There's 3 adjoined, abandoned buildings to the north of him that the city and owner let stay in absolute decay.  You've driven/walked past them 1000 times and not paid much attention.  Well, they're gonna tell you about the fire tonight.  Then the city's gonna say another thing tomorrow.  Then we'll talk about the truth.  It could have literally taken out a full city block if things had broken another way with a minute here or a minute there.  

I’ve walked through the alley behind that building many times. It’s been obvious people where living in there for a while now. We looked in yesterday: beer bottles and cans, wine bottles, 711 branded refuse, etc.

[DalTxHornFan 3085]

13 hours ago, YGIFS said:

I would encourage y'all not sufficiently disappointed yet in Austin leadership to watch either KVUE or KXAN at 10:00p.  A friend a business partner's historically awesome building almost went up in flames last night in the 900 block of Congress Avenue.  There's 3 adjoined, abandoned buildings to the north of him that the city and owner let stay in absolute decay.  You've driven/walked past them 1000 times and not paid much attention.  Well, they're gonna tell you about the fire tonight.  Then the city's gonna say another thing tomorrow.  Then we'll talk about the truth.  It could have literally taken out a full city block if things had broken another way with a minute here or a minute there.  

The Death and Life of Congress Avenue’s Neglected Historic Buildings

https://austin.towers.net/the-death-and-life-of-congress-avenues-neglected-historic-buildings/?pro=caitlyn@towers.net

[Ghost of LL 15492]

17 hours ago, YGIFS said:

I would encourage y'all not sufficiently disappointed yet in Austin leadership to watch either KVUE or KXAN at 10:00p.  A friend a business partner's historically awesome building almost went up in flames last night in the 900 block of Congress Avenue.  There's 3 adjoined, abandoned buildings to the north of him that the city and owner let stay in absolute decay.  You've driven/walked past them 1000 times and not paid much attention.  Well, they're gonna tell you about the fire tonight.  Then the city's gonna say another thing tomorrow.  Then we'll talk about the truth.  It could have literally taken out a full city block if things had broken another way with a minute here or a minute there.  

Those buildings have been full of homeless for years.  It was only a matter of time until this happened.

I'm sure the owner is thrilled.  Now presumably he can demolish those buildings.

[Guest]

Up to 20 murders this year... barely beating out 2020 so far, so we have that going for us.

[Guest]

Lol. And it takes CM Kelly to finally say "hey, these scooters are a pain in the ass how everyone leaves them everywhere. Let's do something about it."

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/city-of-austin-to-discuss-regulations-for-e-scooters-in-downtown/

[crash_davis 23084]

2 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Lol. And it takes CM Kelly to finally say "hey, these scooters are a pain in the ass how everyone leaves them everywhere. Let's do something about it."

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/city-of-austin-to-discuss-regulations-for-e-scooters-in-downtown/

This hits close to home. Across street neighbors had a party 2 weekends ago. One of their guests road a Lime to the party. That damn scooter has been sitting on my curb for almost 2 weeks. Thoughts and prayers needed!

[crash_davis 23084]

On 3/21/2023 at 9:50 PM, YGIFS said:

I would encourage y'all not sufficiently disappointed yet in Austin leadership to watch either KVUE or KXAN at 10:00p.  A friend a business partner's historically awesome building almost went up in flames last night in the 900 block of Congress Avenue.  There's 3 adjoined, abandoned buildings to the north of him that the city and owner let stay in absolute decay.  You've driven/walked past them 1000 times and not paid much attention.  Well, they're gonna tell you about the fire tonight.  Then the city's gonna say another thing tomorrow.  Then we'll talk about the truth.  It could have literally taken out a full city block if things had broken another way with a minute here or a minute there.  

 

 

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime/congress-avenue-building-fire/269-50a7e61e-eca8-42f5-9a4a-286a408d2b7e

Later on Tuesday, AFD arson investigators arrested John Daniel Banks, 32, in connection with the fire. Banks has been charged with arson, a state jail felony that carries a punishment of up to a $10,000 fine and between two and 10 years in jail. 

 

Looks like he was previously arrested for public lewdness. Imma guess he is just another shitstain homeless plaguing our city.

 

edit: Yep homeless.

https://services.austintexas.gov/police/warrants/warrantresults.cfm

Edited March 23, 2023 by crash_davis

[crash_davis 23084]

I am sure there is shit missing from this story. With that said, I'm not sure what else added to this story could change the fact that this is fucked up. Maybe she was acting batshit crazy but the fact that APD, the airline, and the jailers couldn't de-escalate the situations with a 71 year old lady is fucking depressing. I'm sure she was stressed as fuck. This is fucking crazy.

TLDR: 71 yr old hearing impaired lady misses flight, ends up in jail for 3 days with a broken arm

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2023-03-24/austin-jailer-breaks-elderly-deaf-womans-arm-after-misunderstanding-at-airport/

 

Karen McGee, a deaf, 71-year-old Florida resident, is considering a lawsuit against the city of Austin after what was supposed to be a three-hour layover at Austin-Berg­strom International Airport turned into an arrest, a weekend in the Travis County Jail, and an arm broken by a jailer and left untreated for three days.

McGee's ordeal began on the afternoon of Sept. 13, 2022, as she waited for a connecting flight from Austin to Seattle. She was flying alone for the first time in her life and nervous because her hearing aids weren't working well, so she sat within sight of the ticket desk to see when her plane would begin boarding. After noticing that it hadn't boarded on time she spoke with a ticket agent and was distressed to learn that she had missed an announcement that her gate had changed. With her plane already gone, she was issued a ticket for a flight leaving that evening.

While McGee waited for this flight, she texted with her cousin and learned there was another plane parked at the same gate, going to the same destination. She approached the ticket agent and asked if she could switch her ticket to this flight. She had trouble hearing the agent's response but understood the answer was no. She then made the same request to a different agent. Unbeknownst to McGee, this second agent called the police.

“This case, in my opinion, is Exhibit A for why Travis County and the city need to stop saying they can’t put [counsel at first appearance] in place.”  – Attorney Rebecca Webber

McGee's attorney, Rebecca Webber, said she has video showing that the officers who responded did not ensure that McGee could hear them. During the exchange, an airport employee read McGee a trespass warning. "He doesn't get down on her level at all, which is the only way to get her to hear you," Webber said. "If they had any training about how hearing aids work they would know that in a loud area she won't be able to distinguish just one voice. The person needs to get down on her level, speak slowly, and then she'll be able to put it all together."

McGee was placed in a wheelchair and pushed to the front of the airport, believing she was in the process of rebooking her flight. Once outside, officers handcuffed her and took her to the Travis County Jail on suspicion of trespassing. "All I did was stand up and then they were all around me," McGee said. "And I don't remember them saying anything to me, or even to each other."

At the jail, McGee said, she was shoved against a wall as officers stripped off her clothes, and she screamed, "Not my ring!" when officers began to remove it. She said an officer then told her something she did not understand, she asked, "What?" and in response a different officer twisted her handcuffs with enough force to break her arm.

McGee says that she "lost time" and awoke in a jail cell with her clothes back on, but inside out. Her arm was aching and she held it close to her body. She was given Aleve but not taken to an emergency room. Upon leaving the jail after three days of detention, she collapsed. A police officer called an emergency medical technician, who helped her contact her husband and get her to a hotel for the night. She had surgery on her arm after making it home to Florida. After examining the trespassing case, County Attorney Delia Garza chose not to prosecute.

Webber said that McGee's ordeal could have been avoided if the city would commit to guaranteeing free defense attorneys to people when they are brought to the jail, a process known as "counsel at first appearance," or CAFA. "If Travis County and the city of Austin had instituted counsel at first appearance, every single person involved would have realized that Karen McGee does not belong in jail," Webber said. "This case, in my opinion, is Exhibit A for why Travis County and the city need to stop saying they can't put CAFA in place."

Edited March 23, 2023 by crash_davis

[HenryJames 65890]

47 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

This hits close to home. Across street neighbors had a party 2 weekends ago. One of their guests road a Lime to the party. That damn scooter has been sitting on my curb for almost 2 weeks. Thoughts and prayers needed!

I throw them in the empty lot across the street from my house.

[MissingInAction 24819]

Give her $100 million for a study concerning the hearing impaired and their effect on bike lanes.

[YGIFS 19449]

51 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

This hits close to home. Across street neighbors had a party 2 weekends ago. One of their guests road a Lime to the party. That damn scooter has been sitting on my curb for almost 2 weeks. Thoughts and prayers needed!

There was one for weeks at Barton skyway outside our hood.  And there was a lone crutch next to it. I was beyond intrigued at the story behind it.  The only comparable experience I have was getting shitfaced at one of my cousin’s legendary raging parties and woke up to my aunt asking me why the fuck there was a wheelchair at the bottom of the pool.  
 

I prefer to believe in miracles.  

[Orange&White 5516]

I am willing to wager that Ms. McGee is about to get a $500k check.

[ztejas 43266]

2 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Lol. And it takes CM Kelly to finally say "hey, these scooters are a pain in the ass how everyone leaves them everywhere. Let's do something about it."

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/city-of-austin-to-discuss-regulations-for-e-scooters-in-downtown/

She's growing on me. Not that being in the top half of city council members is a very high bar. 

[drt 637]

6 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

I am willing to wager that Ms. McGee is about to get a $500k check.

I'll take the over.

[MissingInAction 24819]

5 minutes ago, ztejas said:

She's growing on me. Not that being in the top half of city council members is a very high bar. 

Same here. I think her real world experience gives her an edge. Like she learned from It or something.

[HenryJames 65890]

The city has passed scooter regulations multiple times.

Austin Now Has Rules For Dockless Scooter Riders | KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station

City to limit amount of scooters on Congress Ave. to keep sidewalks clear | KXAN Austin

Her proposal: document.cfm (austintexas.gov)

It's always going to come down to enforcement. 

[MAUFRAIS 6573]

Same here. I think her real world experience gives her an edge. Like she learned from It or something.

We all float down here, McKenzie!

[Deej 76568]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

She's growing on me. Not that being in the top half of city council members is a very high bar. 

I'm calling bullshit that mothers are approaching her claiming they can't get their strollers down the streets of downtown. I work downtown and you rarely, if ever, see anyone pushing a stroller. 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Deej

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Deej said:

I'm calling bullshit that mothers are approaching her claiming they can't get their strollers down the streets of downtown. I work downtown and you rarely, if ever, see anyone pushing a stroller. 

Because there are too many scooters, duh!

I just think the scooters suck. People get injured on them. They are a blight around the city and they take up sidewalk space. It's a shame because I think the idea is pretty good, but it's implemented in a very Silicon Valley "let's just roll something out as fast as we can without worry about consequences" sort of way.

Edited March 23, 2023 by FirstTimeCaller

[Ghost of LL 15492]

1 hour ago, HenryJames said:

The city has passed scooter regulations multiple times.

Austin Now Has Rules For Dockless Scooter Riders | KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station

City to limit amount of scooters on Congress Ave. to keep sidewalks clear | KXAN Austin

Her proposal: document.cfm (austintexas.gov)

It's always going to come down to enforcement. 

It's not an enforcement thing.  The scooters can be programmed to prevent them from being used or stopped in specific places.

I was in San Diego last year, and they have specific scooter stops.  If you're not at one of the stops, then the scooter/app won't let you end the ride.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

It's not an enforcement thing.  The scooters can be programmed to prevent them from being used or stopped in specific places.

I was in San Diego last year, and they have specific scooter stops.  If you're not at one of the stops, then the scooter/app won't let you end the ride.

"I want to get off!"

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

[Ghost of LL 15492]

2 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

"I want to get off!"

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

You can get off.  You're just going to keep getting billed for the ride.

[texasdago 7553]

4 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Up to 20 murders this year... barely beating out 2020 so far, so we have that going for us.

Yes, and 20 sucks because we were making some progress in 2022 and after 2021 BUT anytime people use raw numbers of murders in Austin (# of murders vs homicide rate) remind them that the glory days of Austin... you know, "the good ole days that are gone and now Austin sucks" were deadlier.

Oh...and in this shows numbers from 2019 but using the numbers from 2020, 2021 or 2022, Austin would not sniff this list... https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/murder-map-deadliest-u-s-cities/3/

Edited March 23, 2023 by texasdago

[Guest]

The only issue is we're more than halfway to 2006-2019 and not even three months into the year. Shit has gotten crazy. 

Under Pressure

[LCHorn 2585]

52 minutes ago, Deej said:

I'm calling bullshit that mothers are approaching her claiming they can't get their strollers down the streets of downtown. I work downtown and you rarely, if ever, see anyone pushing a stroller. 

I've pushed a stroller downtown probably 45 Saturdays a year for the past six years carrying one kid or the other.  On the other hand, I'm not a mother.