Austin Homeless Free for All Ordinance

[Guest Lobo]

I think I can safely guess where about 90% of this board's Austin residents will come down on most of the props being voted on this next couple weeks.  

NoCR, because the consensus is Adler's a corrupt incompetent and Austin only has a short window to get its house in order.  

Having said that (and we can start a new thread on this that can be active just for the next couple of weeks), curious where y'all fall on Prop E (the ranked voting ballot deal) &  Prop F (strong mayor deal).  I have some thoughts on both, particularly on Prop F...but would like to hear more from our residents here.  

(side, side note---have a real fucking strong opinion on one of my local school board races but will leave that for another tirade).  

[JimmyJames 12271]

13 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I think I can safely guess where about 90% of this board's Austin residents will come down on most of the props being voted on this next couple weeks.  

NoCR, because the consensus is Adler's a corrupt incompetent and Austin only has a short window to get its house in order.  

Having said that (and we can start a new thread on this that can be active just for the next couple of weeks), curious where y'all fall on Prop E (the ranked voting ballot deal) &  Prop F (strong mayor deal).  I have some thoughts on both, particularly on Prop F...but would like to hear more from our residents here.  

(side, side note---have a real fucking strong opinion on one of my local school board races but will leave that for another tirade).  

Given some of the people we have had serving as mayor in the past (and present) I am definitely voting against the strong mayor one. The good ones we’ve had seemed to do just fine without it. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26451]

I'm yes on Prop E, because it would effectively eliminate runoffs and make traditional power coalitions a -little- less powerful. It also makes a kook with a highly motivated plurality less likely to win. 

Here's a good discussion.

I'm a very hard no on strong mayor. I think it's the worst idea ever put to Austin voters. We vote for politicians based on mouth noises, not how well they can actually run things. I want a professional executive manager running enterprise departments, not somebody who was chosen based on primarily on how they look/sound and whether randos agree with them.

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Bozo_Casanova

[Guest Lobo]

Won't Prop E just get bogged down in state courts for awhile though?  (just devil's advocate, I am...as I indicated...kind of a toss-up on that one right now, and I'm dead set on the rest).  

[Bozo_Casanova 26451]

Just now, Lobo said:

Won't Prop E just get bogged down in state courts for awhile though?  (just devil's advocate, I am...as I indicated...kind of a toss-up on that one right now, and I'm dead set on the rest).  

Maybe. But it still seems like a good idea to me. 

[B00M 6415]

Ranked voting is currently a "for?" vote from me. Strong mayor is firmly a "fuck yourself, against" vote. 

[Michael Knight 12977]

So the solution to homelessness is to house them in prison? Sounds like a winner.

 

Ranked voting is a yes but also dead on arrival, the state will fuck Austin on this forever.

Hell no to godking mayor

Edited April 19, 2021 by Michael Knight

[B00M 6415]

5 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I'm a very hard no on strong mayor. I think it's the worst idea ever put to Austin voters. We vote for politicians based on mouth noises, not how well they can actually run things.

Well put, I'm stealing that.

 

[Hate 20108]

I drove down Ben White for the first time in a couple of years this weekend and couldn’t believe what a shithole that area has become.

[bschoolprof 6252]

20 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

So the solution to homelessness is to house them in prison? Sounds like a winner.

 

 

Prop B is not a solution to homelessness, regardless of how it's marketed.  It's a return to old policy, which is lightyears better than current policy.  

[Guest Lobo]

When Mayor Adler finally reveals his plan to combat homelessness, I'll listen and I'll get bond money to fund it.  Until then, his homelessness solution rings about as hollow as Trump's "Two Weeks!" pledge.  They can both goatfuck each other into eternity.  

[Deej 76766]

1 hour ago, Hate said:

I drove down Ben White for the first time in a couple of years this weekend and couldn’t believe what a shithole that area has become.

And it was kind of a shithole before all this. 

[Wally Pryor 5261]

It would take some unbridled lunacy to pass F.

Thus, you can expect to see it become law given the idiocy of Austin voters. 

[phdhorn 6224]

1 hour ago, Deej said:

And it was kind of a shithole before all this. 

It's all been downhill since the Red Rose closed.

[Deej 76766]

Amen.

[Brisketexan 105114]

15 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

It's all been downhill since the Red Rose closed.

Fun fact -- as a law student law clerk, I was central in the relocation of the RR from its former location to the current location of The Landing Strip.  I had to research regulatory/zoning overlays on multiple pieces of property and make a recommendation for the best place to put a booze-selling titty bar.  They went with my recommendation.  Thus, I am a crucial part of Austin titty bar history.  You're welcome.

[Guest Lobo]

So your legal career is basically the cleavage of Austin's adult entertainment real estate?  

[washparkhorn 9939]

3 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I'm a very hard no on strong mayor. I think it's the worst idea ever put to Austin voters. We vote for politicians based on mouth noises, not how well they can actually run things. I want a professional executive manager running enterprise departments, not somebody who was chosen based on primarily on how they look/sound and whether randos agree with them.

Amen. Denver's Strong Mayor system should be a warning for Austin.

https://denverite.com/2020/11/05/if-denvers-voting-results-stick-city-council-will-gain-some-power-in-a-mayor-strong-government/

 

[Bozo_Casanova 26451]

26 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Fun fact -- as a law student law clerk, I was central in the relocation of the RR from its former location to the current location of The Landing Strip.  I had to research regulatory/zoning overlays on multiple pieces of property and make a recommendation for the best place to put a booze-selling titty bar.  They went with my recommendation.  Thus, I am a crucial part of Austin titty bar history.  You're welcome.

They could have used you on the Foxy's Firehouse case. 

[Brisketexan 105114]

26 minutes ago, Lobo said:

So your legal career is basically the cleavage of Austin's adult entertainment real estate?  

My resume from that era has traces of glitter and boob sweat, so....yeah.

[Guest Lobo]

I agree on the Strong Mayor thing, just enjoying reading the room on the prop is all.  I was 10% open to it because Spencer Cronk being present seems as incompetent as Marc Ott not being present.  I'm really proud of him spending two years talking about how honored he was to be an openly gay city manager of a major U.S. City.  But it would also be nice if he'd get the fuck to work.  Everybody, and I mean fucking everybody, I know and talk with and work with at City Hall thinks he is just content to have the job.  he enjoys looking sharp, and talking the talk.  But he doesn't do shit, he delegates everything.  Maybe that's the real job, I dunno.  But according to really deeply-embedded career civil servants downtown---he's smart but lazy as fuck.  

[Deej 76766]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Thus, I am a crucial part of Austin titty bar history. 

Well, you're no Don King. 

[Brisketexan 105114]

43 minutes ago, Lobo said:

he's smart but lazy as fuck.

Whoa there, big fella.  Let's not get TOO judgmental.  Hitting a little close to home there....

[SKA the boss 729]

Man stabbed at the Academy on N. Research on Saturday. I have no evidence that the psycho perp is from one of the homeless tents under any nearby underpass, but his booking photo would suggest that.
I don’t want to get stabbed when I go to Academy.
Fuck the city council for ever believing this shit show was a good idea.

[Deej 76766]

Just now, SKA the boss said:

Man stabbed at the Academy on N. Research on Saturday. I have no evidence that the psycho perp is from one of the homeless tents under any nearby underpass, but his booking photo would suggest that.
I don’t want to get stabbed when I go to Academy.
Fuck the city council for ever believing this shit show was a good idea.

Saw that. Seemed like a homeless guy. I was in there on Friday, so this hits close to home. 

[Brisketexan 105114]

17 minutes ago, SKA the boss said:

Man stabbed at the Academy on N. Research on Saturday. I have no evidence that the psycho perp is from one of the homeless tents under any nearby underpass, but his booking photo would suggest that.
I don’t want to get stabbed when I go to Academy.
Fuck the city council for ever believing this shit show was a good idea.

Yeah, actually got a worried call from my mother, as she knows I hit that Academy all the time.

[Bevo 13576]

4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, actually got a worried call from my mother, as she knows I hit that Academy all the time.

How far is that from the Arboretum stuff that happened this weekend?  Is the Catfish Parlor next door/down the road any good?

[phdhorn 6224]

1 minute ago, Bevo said:

How far is that from the Arboretum stuff that happened this weekend?  Is the Catfish Parlor next door/down the road any good?

Not really that close, three or four miles.

Haven't been in the Catfish Parlours recently but unless they've gone downhill (which I doubt), they're worth it.

[Hate 20108]

And it was kind of a shithole before all this. 

Yeah maybe, but it didn’t look like a third world shithole back when I lived in Austin. I haven’t been in downtown Austin in 3 1/2 years. After seeing those pics of what it looks like now, it makes me wonder why anyone would move to such a shithole. I know I’ll never move back there.

[Brisketexan 105114]

2 minutes ago, Bevo said:

How far is that from the Arboretum stuff that happened this weekend?  Is the Catfish Parlor next door/down the road any good?

 

Just now, phdhorn said:

Not really that close, three or four miles.

Haven't been in the Catfish Parlours recently but unless they've gone downhill (which I doubt), they're worth it.

I mean, they're closer than you think -- you can easily travel between the two locations on Jollyville without ever getting on the freeway.

And yeah, dig that Catfish Parlour.  Haven't been since pre-Covid, but it is a couple times of year treat.

[MAUFRAIS 6624]

nice.  tell 400,000 of your closest friends.

[crash_davis 23107]

On 4/15/2021 at 2:23 PM, blacklab said:

$515 million / 3000 homeless = $171k a piece.

that's 14 years of giving each one of them $1000 a month for rent.

 

On 4/15/2021 at 3:23 PM, ChickenSandwich said:

515 million on top of the 150 million already spent that managed to only increase the number of homeless. 
 

$665 million in 3 years, during Covid. Fuck all of them. If there were any middle and working class citizens left in the city maybe they could vote for change. But they have already left. 

this is what i've been saying for years. where does it fucking end? these assholes pay no taxes. my property tax was just raised 35%. we have to spend hundreds of millions to house and feed these asswipe leeches. fuck them.

i spent a glorious week in colorado. drove from austin through santa fe to spend a lot of time in durango and pagosa springs areas. it was FUCKING AMAZING hardly seeing any homeless people. no tent cities. no junkyards full of stolen shit under overpasses. no drug out homeless shitheads on every street corner.

santa fe had no panhandling signs all over the streets. guess what? i didn't see any homeless.

fuck spending hundreds of millions for forever. spend my 35% property tax increase on something more productive.

Edited April 19, 2021 by crash_davis

[dcar00 14182]

30 minutes ago, SKA the boss said:

Man stabbed at the Academy on N. Research on Saturday. I have no evidence that the psycho perp is from one of the homeless tents under any nearby underpass, but his booking photo would suggest that.
I don’t want to get stabbed when I go to Academy.
Fuck the city council for ever believing this shit show was a good idea.

rumor is that he had come in a few times before and was known as homeless and employees had actually reported him previously.  again just rumor but I could see it being likely.  the motel 6 over there is known drug/vagrant spot as well.

[StassneyHorn 6575]

20 minutes ago, Hate said:

Yeah maybe, but it didn’t look like a third world shithole back when I lived in Austin. I haven’t been in downtown Austin in 3 1/2 years. After seeing those pics of what it looks like now, it makes me wonder why anyone would move to such a shithole. I know I’ll never move back there.

The manchaca cross street is loaded because the Sunrise church across the street feeds them everyday.

[SKA the boss 729]

rumor is that he had come in a few times before and was known as homeless and employees had actually reported him previously.  again just rumor but I could see it being likely.  the motel 6 over there is known drug/vagrant spot as well.

I asked the door greeter there if the homeless were much of a problem maybe two weeks ago. Guy was like, nah, they come in for the restroom, but don’t cause problems.
Sure they don’t.

[Cajun 11705]

On 4/15/2021 at 3:20 PM, Lobo said:

 

-Steve Adler (who is a cock-sucking piece of human shit that deserves to be incarcerated and beaten).  

As are ALL the voters who contunually put him in that position.

Every last one of them.

[Cajun 11705]

On 4/15/2021 at 4:14 PM, MissingInAction said:

One of these fucking cunts busted into the leasing office here to expose himself to my hot apartment manager. 

Wish I had thought of it first.

That along with 10 home/car break ins over the past couple of weeks....

Give me a flame thrower. 

Oh no, no, no, no, no!  BradinATX assures us all that Austin is the place to be and not the shithole that your eyes tell you that it has become.

Mind your tone sir!

[Deej 76766]

34 minutes ago, SKA the boss said:

I asked the door greeter there if the homeless were much of a problem maybe two weeks ago. Guy was like, nah, they come in for the restroom, but don’t cause problems.
Sure they don’t.

Between them letting that guy just wander the store and the fact that their fishing tackle section looks like the final days of Fry's, I may start driving up to Bass Pro Shop. 

[GW Hayduke 1953]

We should get rid of all of the telescopes, so we never have a problem with asteroids.

[Guest Lobo]

^^^ They make a topical cream for that, you know.  No need for proctology instruments.  

[Wally Pryor 5261]

Home Depot space?   Meh.  

 

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin could choose a new developer for the empty Home Depot property this summer.

 

In 2018, a KXAN investigation highlighted the city-owned property. Voters approved a bond in 2006 to turn it into a police substation and municipal court, but the project fell through due to lack of funding.

The city wants to turn the property into a mixed use-development district with affordable housing and space for recreation. Six bids had been submitted when the RFP process closed last month.

A.J. Smith and Daniel Loe of Forsite Studio, an Austin-based architecture firm, thought it would be ideal for homeless housing.

“This was our opportunity to put this out there and say this is what we can do,” said Loe.

In the last few months, they sent their concept to council members and city homeless officials. Under the plan, 400 shipping containers would serve as “microunits,” where individuals or families could live. The containers would be placed inside the Home Depot structure. More details on the plan can be found here.  The architects say their plan didn’t gain traction with city leaders, and the deadline for developers to submit bids has already passed.

https://www.kxan.com/investigations/city-gets-6-bids-to-redevelop-vacant-home-depot-property-homeless-housing-not-an-option/

 

 

[DalTxHornFan 3101]

15 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

Home Depot space?   Meh.  

 

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin could choose a new developer for the empty Home Depot property this summer.

 

In 2018, a KXAN investigation highlighted the city-owned property. Voters approved a bond in 2006 to turn it into a police substation and municipal court, but the project fell through due to lack of funding.

The city wants to turn the property into a mixed use-development district with affordable housing and space for recreation. Six bids had been submitted when the RFP process closed last month.

A.J. Smith and Daniel Loe of Forsite Studio, an Austin-based architecture firm, thought it would be ideal for homeless housing.

“This was our opportunity to put this out there and say this is what we can do,” said Loe.

In the last few months, they sent their concept to council members and city homeless officials. Under the plan, 400 shipping containers would serve as “microunits,” where individuals or families could live. The containers would be placed inside the Home Depot structure. More details on the plan can be found here.  The architects say their plan didn’t gain traction with city leaders, and the deadline for developers to submit bids has already passed.

https://www.kxan.com/investigations/city-gets-6-bids-to-redevelop-vacant-home-depot-property-homeless-housing-not-an-option/

 

 

Loved this quote: 

"The former Home Depot building is in severe disrepair and is not habitable,” said a City of Austin spokesperson. “Water, wastewater and electricity to the building have not been maintained since the building was acquired in 2008. The only operating electrical service at this time is servicing the remaining light fixtures in the parking lot, and no other utility services are available outside the existing building."

So -- the City of Austin is admitting that they let the place that they bought with bond money designated for specific municipal purposes just go to shit during their decade-plus ownership?  Nice job, gubmint servants!

 

[Guest Lobo]

Yeah, and they purposely opened up bidding on the rehab work and architectural, without public notification and for the bare minimum amount of time required by law, before closing it so they could announce there was no recourse to repair/upgrade the building without an additional bond green-light.  We offered to move money over from the 2018 affordable housing bond amount that we have already sold at market, but have not yet earmarked for cap-ex (despite already paying 15 months of debt service on).  

I wish you fucking old school Austin progressives knew that we love you, you make this city full of life and character.  But you make one stupid fucking financial and electoral decision after another, after another, after another.  I mean, it's not even a joke, or a cliche, or trite banter at this point.  You're criminally naive and enabling one clusterfuck after another after another after another.  I know you care about your fellow citizens from the homeless to the billionaires.  Can You just stop for a minute this election cycle and look in the mirror.  Seriously, it's not personal but give a handful of adults with no development ties to any of this shit (you know, unlike your beloved Mayor) 18 months and we'll sort it all out from our dropping credit rating to our unnecessary debt service ratios to maximizing already owned city assets to mental health/addiction treatment for a huge portion of our homeless.  I can find the money tomorrow.  Shit, I find it every quarter almost.  
 

I know the inventory was obviously cleared out before sale, but think about how moronic we sound as the City of Austin, with an 8-figure debit card account, can't figure out how to do basic repairs to a fucking Home Depot.  Mayor Adler, "Well, we also need to feed the homeless.  We bought an old Albertson's site but we just can't figure out where to put all these loaves of bread that we bought for the hungry."  

[demos 3003]

The manchaca cross street is loaded because the Sunrise church across the street feeds them everyday.

Sunrise has been feeding them for a long time; long before the campsite arose. They’d be there regardless of Sunrise was feeding the homeless; just look at other overpasses around town where no services are adjacent.

[StassneyHorn 6575]

No they’d definitely move to a nearby spot if they stopped getting food

[Wally Pryor 5261]

23 hours ago, SKA the boss said:

Man stabbed at the Academy on N. Research on Saturday. I have no evidence that the psycho perp is from one of the homeless tents under any nearby underpass, but his booking photo would suggest that.
I don’t want to get stabbed when I go to Academy.
Fuck the city council for ever believing this shit show was a good idea.

This guy, homeless?

 

 

[Deej 76766]

Damn, Mensa really took that firing hard. 

[Biff Tannen 45678]

If there's an early voting thread, my bad, but anyone have an idea on how people are turning out?  Prop B is literally the only reason I'm voting in this election.  I'm voting tomorrow.

[Guest Lobo]

All I know is two early voting places I drove today were in overflow parking mode.  But based on the signage and barkers out front, it’s for Prop a and to get two MAGA folks on school board.  Nocr/just a fact of my local races.  I’m guessing close in south Austin where we are is so choked out with homeless camps, we’re probably taken for granted as bulk vote on Prop B..:no need to waste resources in us.  I can anecdotally, I saw 2-3 sites daily this past week, at myriad times of day, during and after work, and turnout is very very high for an obscure May local election 

[Somnio 751]