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Orange&White

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Orange&White

  1. 56 minutes ago, Bolero88 said:

    That's just straight paranoia with nothing to back it up whatsoever. 

    Is it though?

    Remember when the citizens voted to re-instate the camping ban and the City made a map that showed that they would re-locate all of the homeless to the neighborhood parks, even though that was illegal?

    Now, incorrectly counting votes to achieve their outcome is a bit cray cray, but making it difficult to vote for your neighborhood to be de-annexed is exactly the type of petty bullshit the city staff has shown themselves to not be above.

    • Hook 'Em 3
  2. The ETJ Dis-annexation thing is backfiring spectacularly already.

    All the people who lived out in the ETJ and wanted the cities to "just leave us alone" got what they wished for, and now developers can decide to leave the ETJ with no regard. Once those developers leave the ETJ of the city, there are literally no controls on what they can build.

    So now there are MASSIVE manufactured housing developments being developed with on site sewer treatment and wells, massive industrial complexes, etc, right next to some pretty spectacular properties. And those adjacent owners are completely shellshocked there is nothing anyone can do to stop it from happening next to their family ranch. 

    It was obvious knee-jerk, ill written legislation that was basically a middle finger to Austin and it is now backfiring all around the state.

    It will all swing back the other way in a few years when everyone realizes how bad it is.

    Making it difficult for the cities to annex puts a huge burden on the counties. They are left to provide law enforcement and, ems in some cases, in little donut holes in and around cities which makes patrolling them and getting to them in an emergency a clusterfuck. They also get stuck with more ongoing road maintenance. I suspect the County lobbyists will eventually get some of this relaxed.

    • Like 1
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  3. 1 hour ago, BrazilHorn said:

    Need that guy that was on the board before they bond election spewing pro project connect bullshit to come back and apologize. 
    Complete grift/money suck. 

    Holy Fuck was that guy a piece of shit. You could tell he lives in some sort Fantasy Utopian city planner wet dream and was wrong about just about everything eh stated but had the arrogance of Terrell Owens. Complete fucking shitstain. It is definitely not  shock that he doesn't come around anymore since his fantasy land choo choo train has gone not even as bad as we told him it would, but actually worse.

    • Rage+1 2
  4. 56 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

    CapMetro built a new McKalla Place stop (great idea, honestly).

    Um, it cost $60 million dollars? The downtown library was $120 million. Q2 Stadium was $260 million.

    Then the thing didn't even operate right, stranding people. Holy shit we are in deep.

     

    Just wait until you see the final bill on Project Connect. Its already doubled in cost and halved in scope and they haven't even turned a shovel yet.

  5. 4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    From the story I heard from a dude with a table and some pamphlets outside a gun show around 1989, they're in tunnels under Detroit, operating under the guise of the UN, just awaiting orders to come to the surface and conquer the US.  The key to which is, of course, controlling the vital crossroads that is Detroit.

    It's like in Red Dawn when the Russians chose to send their first paratroopers to invade the US into ......... Colorado. A State in the middle of the country and 1000+ miles from Canada, Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.

    Where did their planes take off from? How did they not get shot down before making it all the way to Colorado?

    It's all just a mystery.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  6. 12 hours ago, B00M said:

    I assumed they enforce traffic along mopac so more of the tickets they write actually get paid and they’re less likely to get shot or run over 

    racist comedy central GIF

     

    I get it, but my main point is that if you have limited officer coverage, and skyrocketing crime, maybe you should dedicate fewer officer to writing tickets and more of them towards assaults and thefts. 
     

    But we all know why. They are more concerned about revenue than actually helping stop real crimes.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  7. 3 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

    There aren't enough officers right now.  Any given shift there are sometimes only 30-40 officers for the entire city of Austin.  

    Then why do they dedicate so many of them to traffic enforcement in the same three sections of Mopac all day long?

    • Hook 'Em 3
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  8. A few years ago bozo blamed me for being a Bob and Todd fan because I said that the "official" homeless count from the CoA was obvious bullshit.

    https://www.fox7austin.com/news/austin-homeless-population-estimates-data-texas

    AUSTIN, Texas - New data shows a much larger homeless population in Austin than previously estimated.

    According to Austin ECHO, a January 2023 point-in-time count indicated a homeless population of about 2,300 people.

    The Austin Homeless Strategy office presented new data from ECHO in which the non-profit estimated in October there were about 6,600 homeless people in the city.

     

    • Hook 'Em 4
  9. 2 minutes ago, Pimphand said:

    Technically didn't she just drive her psycho boyfriend to Mexico to evade arrest?  But yeah when you date a psycho murderer/dismemberer and then think it's a good idea to help him flee the country to evade arrest you know you are far to high above the hot/crazy line.

    I think Laura was the one that cut up the body.

    • Hook 'Em 3
  10. Of all of the crazy, coincidental, random shit that ended up having a direct connection to HFs/shaggy/surly over the years, my absolute favorite was that we had a poster who had fucked Laura Hall (Jennifer Cave murder) who confirmed to us that she was as legit crazy as she appeared to be. 

    • Hook 'Em 1
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  11. 1 hour ago, SubliminalHorn said:

    When is this city going to get some gotdamn museums? Even Fort Worth beats Austin in this category. Yeah the Bullock museum is cool and all but it’s almost a quarter century old

    Blanton, Ransom Center, Elizabet Ney, LBJ, there are more than just the Bullock.

  12. 1 hour ago, Samson's Wig said:

    Building more condos doesn't seem like a solution to anything other than satisfying more developers, short-term rental investors, and foreign money launderers.  More investment in things like the library appeals to me much more.  Make downtown a place people actually want to live, then build the condos.  We've put the cart way before the horse, and I don't see a single benefit to Austin residents and taxpayers.

    So you want the city to use MORE taxes collected from citizens in the outer edges of town, in order to build MORE government owned stuff downtown, that uses more city taxes to run, and generates no property tax and removes more potential land for taxable uses, in order to lure more people to live downtown?

    So like tax subsidies to lure people to the already most expensive place in town to live?

    Makes perfect sense.

     

    • Like 1
  13. So the Council tried to call a meeting to ask Garza (Jesus, not Jose) about the hiring of Acevedo and Garza threatened to quit. 

    Being the council that they are, the missed the opportunity to get him the fuck out, but instead decided to capitulate out of fear that it would make hiring a permanent City Manager harder. Apparently the guy from Bozeman was on to something.

    This is the highest leadership of what bozo calls a "successful city".

  14. 3 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    The housing first/only people are some of the most delusional people in this town. I’m being charitable calling them that, because I want to believe they actually care, or at least some of them do. But the fact is that what they were going was just another version of stashing the problem in the woods.

    Both approaches are by far more expensive than actually giving the homeless what they need, because of the cost of healthcare, EMT, etc. 

    It is actually possible to virtually eliminate permanent homelessness in Austin. Not just possible, but cost effective.
    But we will never do it, because the know-nothings would rather throw good money after bad by pretending it’s a law enforcement problem to vent their anger at the world, and the know-everythings would rather pretend it’s a real estate problem so they can demonstrate moral superiority. 
     

    “Let them have hotels!”

     

    You've been preaching about this for at least a decade that I can remember and the city has collected and distributed billions of dollars in that time period and the issue has done nothing but get progressively worse. Are you saying we should just keep falling for the same banana in the tailpipe?

  15. 7 hours ago, bolverk said:

     

    Cities have to take on debt to pay for new infrastructure of all types to accommodate growth, especially fast-growing ones such as Austin. I haven't looked up when the old library was built, but the thing was way too small and way too old. It was time for a new one. It was put on the ballot, and the voters in Austin collectively agreed through a bond election to take on debt to build a new one.

     

    That said, let's take a look at some of Austin's comps in terms of debt per capita, according to the Texas Comptroller (link provided so you can see for yourself), to see where the City of Austin as a single taxing entity stands:

    Austin             $1,548 
    Houston         $1,476 
    Dallas             $1,447 
    San Antonio   $1,237 
    Fort Worth       $824 

    So, we're pretty much in line with Houston/Dallas and a little above San Antonio, but Austin has also been growing much faster than all of them. I don't know what the heck is going on in Fort Worth, but good for them.

    Now, let's compare Austin to some of our really responsible, fast-growing Central Texas neighbors who are obviously the models of good governance compared to Austin's spend-thrift ways.

    San Marcos     $5,078 
    Georgetown    $2,606 
    Cedar Park      $2,202 
    Leander          $2,058 
    Round Rock    $1,711 

    Wait, hold up a minute. Are you trying to tell me that Austin has the lowest per capita debt burden? I'm so confused...

     

    Okay, well, surely Austinites are paying out the wazoo in taxes to keep the debt so low because we know this City is fucking incompetent (link to rates).

    Dallas             0.73570
    Fort Worth     0.67250
    San Antonio   0.54159
    Houston         0.51919
    Austin             0.44580

     

    Against our neighbors:

    San Marcos    0.603000
    Leander          0.417282
    Georgetown   0.374000
    Cedar Park      0.370000
    Round Rock    0.342000

    "Ha! I told you Austin's taxes were too high!"

    Well, you see, those suburban areas are largely trying to grow themselves out of debt by keeping low taxes to draw development stemming from Austin's growth. They're also taking out bonds that don't really increase the existing tax rates to fund new infrastructure. In essence, they're betting that their growth will pay for itself over the long term. Also, those suburban areas have the added benefit of developers often footing the bill for new infrastructure to new subdivisions. Finally, they don't have a whole lot of aging infrastructure that needs to be replaced (San Marcos might be the exception, and look at their rate). With the debt burden and the tax rates comparisons, it seems to me that we've got a pretty manageable situation.

    Is Austin perfect? Fuck no. Are there some stupid things the City does? Fuck, yes. But sometimes some of y'all get yourselves in way too much of a hissy fit and obsessed over the dumbest shit like a goddamned new library that was sorely needed. Maybe look around at what's going on in other places before you freak the fuck out.  

    I completely understand all of that.

    However, when I drive through those places, they don't look like a cesspool of trash. The roads are in decent shape and the lane markings are not all worn off and barely visible. They are not losing billions of gallons of water to decaying water lines. Their electricity isn't failing in large swaths every time there is a wind or ice becaue there is not money to keep the trees around the lines trimmed. They aren't paying out hundreds of millions in lawsuits for stupid decisions their leader regarding airports or crime labs. They don't have a history of boodoggle, failed infrastructure projects.  They don't have a history of overpaying for hotels and then letting them decay and burning tens of millions of dollar for empty hotels in the name of homelessness.

    The library in a vacuum is fine. Not in the face of the financial status that this city currently in.

    Ferraris are awesome cars, but you don't go out and buy a Ferrari while your kids are starving and you are living in a shack.

    But I guess the city needs to have more vanity so when the guests come to down, before they get murdered, they can stroll through some homeless camps, walk down some decaying streets and walk into our awesome library and check out an ebook to read in their hotel.

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  16. 1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    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.”

    That all sounds really successful.

    • Haha 1
  17. 2 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    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. 

    Tell us the ways you find this city to be “successful”. 

  18. 2 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

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

    If that piece of property had been sold to a condo developer it would have:

    1. Been an immediate cash infusion to city coffers from the sale. Maybe it could have paid for like 10% of the botched Waller creek tunnel.
    2. added tax tax revenue in perpetuity instead of being a non taxed piece of property in the most expensive part of town. Maybe that added tax could fix the leaking water pipes that lost billions of gallons of water per year
    3. added housing units to the shortage that you mentioned.

    But thankfully people have a place to check out ebooks.

     

    As to bolverk’s statement about old courthouses on the square, I doubt they would have been built if the counties were in tremendous debt, decaying infrastructure, and unbalanced budgets. Don’t try to equate those times to current day Austin.

     

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