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Austin City Government - Circus of the Insane

skittlebrau

By skittlebrau
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TKthunder2

TKthunder2 4985

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, Pasken said:

Yea, Adler is basically just a city council member that is elected at large.

I get that, some bylaws I’ve seen in organizations Ive worked with don’t allow the head guy/gal to vote on their #2.  Wasn’t sure if this was one of those types of situations.

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Deej
Deej

Are we sure the City didn't pay an artist $50k for that?

Deej
Deej

There would be nothing worse than getting pulled over and then having to listen to a cop talk about cross fit for 20 minutes. 

Gardner Barnes
Gardner Barnes

I’ll be quite honest here. A homeless man killed my best friend here in town 8 years ago. Fuck them. Get them the fuck out of here. I don’t care how or where.

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Bozo_Casanova

Bozo_Casanova 26438

Posted
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17 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

I get that, some bylaws I’ve seen in organizations Ive worked with don’t allow the head guy/gal to vote on their #2.  Wasn’t sure if this was one of those types of situations.

FWIW the MPT isn't really even #2. They chair the meeting when the Mayor is off the dais or absent. Apart from that it's a ceremonial honorific. 

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89630

Posted
Posted (edited)
32 minutes ago, HenryJames said:
2 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

The fight over the next mayor pro-tem is ... really something.  Greg Casar had the votes, then he didn't. Pool supported him, now she's with Alter. He's willing to stand aside for a female MPT, but only one from East Austin, which would mean Natasha Harper-Madison. 

As always, the subtext of this is a symbolic signal about the direction of land use. Casar is for LDC reform and so is Harper-Madison. Alter is, in a word, not. Neither is Pool.  Now there are semi-competing MPT threads on the council message board.

 

 

Always good to see that in a high-tech town, they are using phpBB with a default theme.

 

Edited by atomheartbevo
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Wally Pryor

Wally Pryor 5261

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

Do you even Austin? This city spent $15 million on a Mopac bridge to help a couple dozen bike commuters a few years ago.  

To be fair the artist renderings also had people in professional attire walking across the bridge, the assumption being that people from Travis Country were making the easy 8-mile walk to downtown for business meetings.   No word if the artist renderings were made with July or August in mind.  

(And it's actually closer to 3 dozen bikes.)

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted

^

 I just remembered that ridiculous rendering and your post made me laugh.  We should be infuriated, but as Ron Burgundy says, "We are laughing!"  I literally remember thinking, "What the fuck are those people in suits doing on that bridge?  I guess walking from the Park at Barton Creek offices to the Terrace offices for the 3 Austinites that have meetings each year in both office complexes." 

It is a little fun, even though it was also a TXDoT project, to point out to our imbecilic City Council that all the pedestrian/cyclist bridge did was not move joggers or bike riders, but rather open up at that 3rd lane choke point at 360/MoPac for more cars!  It's impossible we're this stupid.  

 

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Pasken

Pasken 1309

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

Do you even Austin? This city spent $15 million on a Mopac bridge to help a couple dozen bike commuters a few years ago.  

Just quick fact check. The city spent about 8 million on the beige. 4.5 million came from the state and 2 million came from the feds. Doesn't change the bigger point but let's get the details of project partnerships right.

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Guest Lobo

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Posted
Posted (edited)
35 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

To be fair the artist renderings also had people in professional attire walking across the bridge, the assumption being that people from Travis Country were making the easy 8-mile walk to downtown for business meetings.   No word if the artist renderings were made with July or August in mind.  

(And it's actually closer to 3 dozen bikes.)

Can you find that rendering?  I can see it in my head, but I'm sure City of Austin took it down because it was so misleading. When you google image search it, it's just pictures of the actual bridge (of course the city's stock photo is opening day when 100s of cyclists showed up to bike on it).  Full confession, I live really close to it so we use it from time to time in the Spring and Autumn just for family jaunts.  It's nice, but it's not $15mm nice.  But again, law of unintended consequences, it did open up that third lane underneath on Mopac.  MORE CARS BITCHES!    But we took it down to behind Best Buy and then went exploring in that neighborhood back there off Stearn's Lane.  Holy shit, not judging the homes back there...but at least they have gorgeous views of the greenbelt and some can see the skyline as well.  now that Toys 'R Us is about to be developed because of how beautiful the views are back there.....I promise you that little neighborhood off Stearns & Dudmar.  They're next.  Drive or bike thru there when you get a chance.  It's one of the last well kept secrets in Austin.  

I remember the rendering guy in the blue suit looks like he had a bad day at the office and is gonna do a header off that fucking bridge.  Seriously, if you were biking or jogging on that thing and saw somebody on that bridge in a suit in August, you'd assume he was either an assassin or about to jump.  

Anyway, back to our idiotic council...

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blacklab

blacklab 11926

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, Pasken said:

Just quick fact check. The city spent about 8 million on the beige. 4.5 million came from the state and 2 million came from the feds. Doesn't change the bigger point but let's get the details of project partnerships right.

Ah, so the city of Austin is a leech on the fine citizens of this state and country. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted (edited)
21 minutes ago, blacklab said:

Ah, so the city of Austin is a leech on the fine citizens of this state and country. 

No, because people frequently walk on that bridge while getting from Hays County to Round Rock.  The bridge is really in the best interest of the entire region.  45% of the cyclists on it are from out of town, according to a study I've just made up, so it stands to reason that 45% of the funding come from outside Austin.  

In all seriousness, I would have love to have been in the meeting when they pitched the Feds on this thing.  We know why Council threw money at it.  TXDoT pitched in because it would alleviate that bike/3rd lane chokepoint on Texas Loop 1.  But how did Austin convince the Feds to throw in $2m?  

Feds:  "If I'm looking at this aerial map right, and I'd like to think that I am considering I'm the Assistant Secretary of Transportation.  This bridge doesn't seem to connect any places where people live or go to school.  It looks like (squints) a Best Buy on one end and a half-empty office park on the other end."  

Adler: "Well no, I mean...nobody lives there...But you see it'll become a destination bridge.  People will want to walk on it in the summers." 

Feds: "I was in Austin last year for a conference in July.  You're out of your fucking mind." 

Adler: "There's a $20k lollipop under your chair that says I'm not out of my mind."  

Feds: "What color should we paint it?"  

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Wally Pryor

Wally Pryor 5261

Posted
Posted (edited)
46 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Can you find that rendering? 

 

I feel bad for the woman in the high heels but especially bad for the men who someone thought it was a good idea to purchase vests and then actually wear them.   But, then again, with only 5 to 10 people using that bridge it's not like many will see and mock them. 

http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Public_Works/Bicycle/Combined_Mopac_Rendering.pdf

Edited by Wally Pryor
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Guest Lobo

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Posted
Posted

Yeah, when you see it blown up at one of those bullshit community impact meetings, you can see the guy in the suit way down at the far southern end.  

Working a lot in CRE, I get to see lots of renderings in rough draft form.  And I often wonder, is there just some stock people pool they pick from without any regard for what they're drawing?  You can see from the fucking time stamp at the bottom, Mark made it in late June in Austin.  So he thinks, "Okay probably 95 degree day...let's see...woman in heels on a fucking 4-mile long trail, guy biking in khaki pants, three people in vests, homeless woman waving at nobody, also to demonstrate how this will help people connect back with nature---let's have several people on their cell phones, and ah yes...token black guy teal shirt." 

I miss when grifters used to try.  They put on some pageantry, paid attention to the little things.  That's how you pull a con, it's the details.  When the people with the money see that your rendering has appropriate clothed people doing appropriate activities, you're more likely to get the project because they know you know the local landscape.  

I once worked on Fall with an impeccably attired gay black British man, and not even he ever wore a vest in Austin.  

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Bozo_Casanova

Bozo_Casanova 26438

Posted
Posted (edited)
31 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

 

I feel bad for the woman in the high heels but especially bad for the men who someone thought it was a good idea to purchase vests and then actually wear them.   But, then again, with only 5 to 10 people using that bridge it's not like many will see and mock them. 

http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Public_Works/Bicycle/Combined_Mopac_Rendering.pdf

I love that rendering. When I first saw it I suggested somebody animate it with a bunch of GTA-type  mayhem happening. 
 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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Guest Lobo

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Posted

^

Love that idea.  No autos though (because Council).  Can we do like a "Grand Theft Cyclist" thing? 

Have roving gangs up there just tossing bike commuters off the top of the bridge down into Barton Creek whilst acoustic guitar playing hippies look up in horror from Twin Falls?  And then the last thing you see is that guy in the vest pinning down that woman, you hear clothes being ripped off, and all you see are her two high heels in the air being moved apart while he whispers, "Next time...take the train."   

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Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen 5310

Posted
Posted

Holy shit this hits too close to home for me.  Believe it or not though, the county is way more turbo fucked on development than the city right now.  To the point where I expect the legislature to hear loudly from developers and home builders.

Central Texas is going to spike in home prices even worse because of the bottlenecks being put on new housing stock.

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Bozo_Casanova

Bozo_Casanova 26438

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, Hefeweizen said:

Holy shit this hits too close to home for me.  Believe it or not though, the county is way more turbo fucked on development than the city right now.  To the point where I expect the legislature to hear loudly from developers and home builders.

Central Texas is going to spike in home prices even worse because of the bottlenecks being put on new housing stock.

The housing shortage is mainly a function of Austin's aggressively terrible land development code in my view, not county stuff. 

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Guest Lobo

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Posted

^

that's a huge reason.  Geography/topography is another.  Building codes (different from land codes) is another.  Speed of growth is another.  Lack of intelligent corridor layout.  barriers to urban infill, brownfield, and greenfield development projects in huge pockets of town.  And of course, our rapidly exploding cost of living---because property taxes weigh so heavily into that particular equation.  For all these reasons, and more, we're fucked down the road.  The 10-1 model intended to cure some of that has only proliferated the breakdown of sensible land code rewrites.  

And it's just strange that a city of geographic footprint has this dilemma.  Whenever we fly into K.C. to see the some of the wife's family, I am just astounded at how far apart the airport is (far north side) from where her sister lives at the far southern edge.  And then I realize that Austin is the exact same size, about 320 square miles.  And with the expanse of our downtown, growing density of East Austin, the Domain, near South Austin, etc.  We're still only at the density of a Raleigh or Lincoln, Nebraska or Albuquerque.  

I've been listening intently to the Dais for a solution to the housing situation for years, and I ain't heard a fucking peep. 

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Pasken

Pasken 1309

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Goodman said:

I've only been here 25 years, in that time they've "managed" to destroy this city. No one is held accountable. Just higher taxes and spending.

Merry Christmas mofos. Stay safe & well.

Why are so many people moving to a destroyed city? Did they not get the memo?

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40826

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Pasken said:

Why are so many people moving to a destroyed city? Did they not get the memo?

They believe the Internet hype.

The Slacker Austin is almost gone, and it has been replaced by Hipster Austin. Some may be looking for one or the other.

In spite of what you think, I generally like the massive changes in the city.

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TKthunder2

TKthunder2 4985

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Pasken said:

Why are so many people moving to a destroyed city? Did they not get the memo?

They are moving here because it’s a great combination of our states lower taxes/friendly business environment and cheaper housing cost (though they are trying their hardest to “fix” that) along with being the State’s trendiest/coolest city thanks to UT, ACL/SXSW, and a few other things that have little or nothing to do with the way the city has been “managed”.  

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dcar00

dcar00 14159

Posted
Posted

If they would clean up the homeless issue stat. quit spending money on stupid bike/pedestrian crap, get a real bus transportation program and actually make loops that loop, with real highways, everything would be good.  360 and 620 would be a good place to start. 

then we can work on the monorail, the underminer/musk chunnel, fairpark sky tram.  which reminds me..we need a big ass ferris wheel somewhere.

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Texas Jeff

Texas Jeff 1945

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Pasken said:

Why are so many people moving to a destroyed city? Did they not get the memo?

We have zero income tax and lower housing costs and better traffic than the Bay Area.

Bay Area execs think that the Austin vibe is similar to the Bay Area vibe, but cheaper.

Austin employees can get to their tech jobs at 9am, which is 7am on the west coast, and work two hours before the Bay Area arrives for work.  However, this does not stop Bay Area employees from scheduling meetings at 4pm their time, which means 6pm our time.  Home by 7:30, maybe. Companies pay less and can stretch out their employees' days.

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ChickenSandwich

ChickenSandwich 9829

Posted
Posted
On 12/22/2020 at 12:05 PM, Bozo_Casanova said:

The fight over the next mayor pro-tem is ... really something.  Greg Casar had the votes, then he didn't. Pool supported him, now she's with Alter. He's willing to stand aside for a female MPT, but only one from East Austin, which would mean Natasha Harper-Madison. 

As always, the subtext of this is a symbolic signal about the direction of land use. Casar is for LDC reform and so is Harper-Madison. Alter is, in a word, not. Neither is Pool.  Now there are semi-competing MPT threads on the council message board.

 

Depressing to see the same terrible candidates. All of these should be replaced. 

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ChickenSandwich

ChickenSandwich 9829

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

They are moving here because it’s a great combination of our states lower taxes/friendly business environment and cheaper housing cost (though they are trying their hardest to “fix” that) along with being the State’s trendiest/coolest city thanks to UT, ACL/SXSW, and a few other things that have little or nothing to do with the way the city has been “managed”.  

We have a winner. 5 years later they are out of Travis county but stil live “in” Austin. 

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Pasken

Pasken 1309

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

We have zero income tax and lower housing costs and better traffic than the Bay Area.

Bay Area execs think that the Austin vibe is similar to the Bay Area vibe, but cheaper.

Austin employees can get to their tech jobs at 9am, which is 7am on the west coast, and work two hours before the Bay Area arrives for work.  However, this does not stop Bay Area employees from scheduling meetings at 4pm their time, which means 6pm our time.  Home by 7:30, maybe. Companies pay less and can stretch out their employees' days.

Do you think the only people moving here work for tech companies relocating from Cali? Good lord.

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Goodman

Goodman 3273

Posted
Posted

mums the word.

City of Austin IT Network HACKED by Russian Hacking group Berserk Bear Since October 2020, STILL Infected with Malware - Huge Patriot

Teddy Brosevelt
2-3 minutes

The City of Austin’s IT Network has been HACKED and compromised by the state-sponsored Russian Hacking group ‘Berserk Bear’ since October 2020.

The Intercept broke the story on December 17, 2020:

“STATE-SPONSORED HACKERS believed to be from Russia have breached the city network of Austin, Texas, The Intercept has learned. The breach, which appears to date from at least mid-October, adds to the stunning array of intrusions attributed to Russia over the past few months.”

Here’s the scary part:

“By compromising the network of America’s 11th-most populous city, they could theoretically access sensitive information on policing, city governance, and elections, and, with additional effort, burrow inside water, energy, and airport networks. The hacking outfit believed to be behind the Austin breach, Berserk Bear, also appears to have used Austin’s network as infrastructure to stage additional attacks.”

The Intercept reports that Austin’s IT network is STILL infected with malware as of December 15, 2020.

Screenshot-2020-12-24-at-5.18.57-PM-e160

The Austin American-Statesman asked Austin City Council for a comment on the report, and they didn’t have much to say. Seems like they just want they whole thing to go away. But the grid is still infected the malware.

From Austin American-Statesman:

“City of Austin officials remained mostly mum Friday as to whether the city’s network had been breached by hackers, declining to officially confirm whether a cyberattack had occurred or to provide any detail on the scope of the reported incident.”

“On Thursday, media reports surfaced that Russian hackers had breached the city’s network. Austin officials said Thursday evening that they were “working with federal authorities as part of this investigation” and said the city’s “critical systems” had not been affected.”

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Texas Jeff

Texas Jeff 1945

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, Pasken said:

Do you think the only people moving here work for tech companies relocating from Cali? Good lord.

Companies aren't relocating here, they are choosing to expand here.  Silicon Valley is full.  Austin is a lower cost option with better traffic.  I know it's hard to believe for those that think our traffic is bad and our housing is expensive, but it's much better here than there.

I could be wrong, I can't point to exact data, but tech seems to be driving the growth in the area.

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The University

The University 851

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, Goodman said:
“By compromising the network of America’s 11th-most populous city, they could theoretically access sensitive information on policing, city governance, and elections, and, with additional effort, burrow inside water, energy, and airport networks. The hacking outfit believed to be behind the Austin breach, Berserk Bear, also appears to have used Austin’s network as infrastructure to stage additional attacks.”

this shit has been going on for at least a decade. buncha lazy incompetent cios whistling past their plc/infosec graveyards.

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