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What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?


crash_davis

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Good god, the police officers/police reps just come across as bullies. Just huge threats if the 4-year plan isn't passed.

Four-year plan may be the right direction, I honestly don't know enough to say. But the way they frame it is just BS.

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15 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

Between this and @Bozo_Casanova's frequent condemnation of their dereliction of duty, it would seem there is some severe chain of command issues. 

Look I'm a big fan of police in general and have no real inside visibility to the situation. But the relationship between the police department, City Management, and the Council has never been worse, and considering what a large majority of officers don't even live in the city it's dangerous.

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2 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Not really. The relationship between Council and APD is roughly analogous to the relationship between Congress and the Army.
Council provides indirect oversight, controls the funding and legislates, but the police dept doesn't answer to the council on enforcement matters. 

The COO / City Manager manages the police chief and the city council gives marching orders to the City Manager, yes? I'll defer to you as it seems like we've been down this path.

Until the council collectively quits masturbating over the thought of having a zip code like a place in the Pacific Northwest then we're going to continue to see more camping in the city, voter mandate be damned. 

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7 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

The COO / City Manager manages the police chief and the city council gives marching orders to the City Manager, yes? I'll defer to you as it seems like we've been down this path.

Until the council collectively quits masturbating over the thought of having a zip code like a place in the Pacific Northwest then we're going to continue to see more camping in the city, voter mandate be damned. 

Don't get me wrong, council is ultimately accountable to the voters for everything at the local level. But its very naive to think some council preference or ideological bent is the reason the ban isn't being enforced right now.

Anyway, getting the BB's back in the box is the mayor's top priority, and one clear sign of that is announcing Jesus Garza  as interim city manager.  When I heard that my reaction was similar to when Marcellus Wallace told Jules he was sending the Wolf. 

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15 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Anyway, getting the BB's back in the box is the mayor's top priority, and one clear sign of that is announcing Jesus Garza  as interim city manager.  When I heard that my reaction was similar to when Marcellus Wallace told Jules he was sending the Wolf. 

Can you elaborate? Know zero about Jesus Garza other than seeing he was city manager when Watson was mayor previously.

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32 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Don't get me wrong, council is ultimately accountable to the voters for everything at the local level. But its very naive to think some council preference or ideological bent is the reason the ban isn't being enforced right now.

Okay, help me get across the finish line because I must be missing something. If for some odd reason Chacon is choosing not to enforce a city law on his own volition, shouldn't he be held accountable by superior(s) who have made it a priority to hold cops accountable in following the law? (And good for them.) And since we see no evidence of Chacon being held accountable, why do we think that's occurring except for a council preference to effectively pretend the ban / law doesn't exist?

Either the police chief is being grossly insubordinate and needs to pay for it or he's simply following directions from his supervisors, direct or indirect. 

Appreciate your feedback.

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5 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

Okay, help me get across the finish line because I must be missing something. If for some odd reason Chacon is choosing not to enforce a city law on his own volition, shouldn't he be held accountable by superior(s) who have made it a priority to hold cops accountable in following the law? (And good for them.) And since we see no evidence of Chacon being held accountable, why do we think that's occurring except for a council preference to effectively pretend the ban / law doesn't exist?

Either the police chief is being grossly insubordinate and needs to pay for it or he's simply following directions from his supervisors, direct or indirect. 

Appreciate your feedback.

I want to hear @Bozo_Casanova's analysis, as well, but my conjecture is that we've had a mayor for 8 years that has the attention span of a honey bee and a council that, for a number of reasons, both institutional and otherwise, is made up of the politically inept.  Their main achievement is rarely agreeing on anything substantive; if you had a skilled city manager this might actually be beneficial (as the council would be hands off), but in the hands of the unskilled (or indecisive) it creates a struggle for power between city staff and the city manager that leads to inaction, conflict, or action in directions opposite the will of the people (as reflected by council preferences). 

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12 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I want to hear @Bozo_Casanova's analysis, as well, but my conjecture is that we've had a mayor for 8 years that has the attention span of a honey bee and a council that, for a number of reasons, both institutional and otherwise, is made up of the politically inept.  Their main achievement is rarely agreeing on anything substantive; if you had a skilled city manager this might actually be beneficial (as the council would be hands off), but in the hands of the unskilled (or indecisive) it creates a struggle for power between city staff and the city manager that leads to inaction, conflict, or action in directions opposite the will of the people (as reflected by council preferences). 

And that may well be. If the city government's collective ineptness (both CM and council) is effectively neutering any ability to enforce the law, then that's the end game that the ACC wants to achieve anyway.

And since there's no one that can / will hold the city's feet to the fire to enforce the ban, we'll just continue to see it grow more and more.

 

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4 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

And that may well be. If the city government's collective ineptness (both CM and council) is effectively neutering any ability to enforce the law, then that's the end game that the ACC wants to achieve anyway.

And since there's no one that can / will hold the city's feet to the fire to enforce the ban, we'll just continue to see it grow more and more.

 

Again, this is conjecture, but I think Watson’s election over Israel may be understood as a re-establishment of control by the chamber of commerce types.  They will want someone in the City Manager role who is professional, can herd the cats on the council, and can be the bad guy with city staff if needed (the latter appears where Cronk tripped up).  
 

I *think*, from a governance perspective, Austin may be kind of a weird city to run (although they probably all have their special characteristics).  UT wants to be left alone, the state wants to point fingers but not actually fix anything, and the tech companies don’t have the kind of community ties that capital interests in previous generations led to the noblesse oblige.  With 10/1 we have a particularly fragmented power structure and no one has really figured out how to govern effectively through it.  

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It's early, but I was impressed today with council/mayor. Watson seemed to make it clear he was the leader and was forceful without being condescending. Only saw a few council members speak, but they all seemed solid -- including Kelly.

I'm hopeful that this group is more serious about getting things done. 

 

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Meanwhile, in Northwest Hills : local house flipper would like you to pay back money she loaned herself.

Quote

I am now focused on retiring my personal $80K campaign debt, so I can continue to positively affect the future of Austin, and so we can continue working to influence policy at City Hall. Your generosity by contributing up to $450 (per person limit) will help chip away at this debt. We are now a known and important voting bloc, but it will take money, tenacity, and effective leadership for us to maintain and to build.



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Quote

we've had a mayor for 8 years that has the attention span of a honey bee and a council that, for a number of reasons, both institutional and otherwise, is made up of the politically inept.

Here's what we fucking have, and you can extrapolate it exponentially state and federal wide.  You have a bunch of booger eating morons in every governmental position between school boards and the federal senate.  Mackenzie Kelly for gods sake.  The whole thing is fitlumps, from the turtle on down...

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28 minutes ago, hornian said:

Whose kids organized a “mansion rager” at a house they don’t even live at?

https://www.fox7austin.com/news/mansion-rager-party-northwest-austin-family-home

@Porterhouse thinks the homeowner is a little bitch for being unhappy about having teenagers trash his house. It's just a couple of cool Westlake teens trying to have a little fun and blow off some steam. Rager at his place this weekend!

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On 2/15/2023 at 3:07 PM, LCHorn said:

I want to hear @Bozo_Casanova's analysis, as well, but my conjecture is that we've had a mayor for 8 years that has the attention span of a honey bee and a council that, for a number of reasons, both institutional and otherwise, is made up of the politically inept.  Their main achievement is rarely agreeing on anything substantive; if you had a skilled city manager this might actually be beneficial (as the council would be hands off), but in the hands of the unskilled (or indecisive) it creates a struggle for power between city staff and the city manager that leads to inaction, conflict, or action in directions opposite the will of the people (as reflected by council preferences). 

I think you underestimate Adler, Cronk(and the CC).  Everything went exactly according to their plan while they were(and as far as CC, still) in charge

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2 hours ago, royiv said:

@Porterhouse thinks the homeowner is a little bitch for being unhappy about having teenagers trash his house. It's just a couple of cool Westlake teens trying to have a little fun and blow off some steam. Rager at his place this weekend!

Homeowner is not just a bitch. He’s a cunt. 

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Between the non existent response to the dark traffic signals and the lack of a coherent response to this group shutting down a major intersection, APD is showing that even with record funding they refuse to do simple police work like traffic control. Not exactly making the case for a better contract when they don’t even meet simple metrics like this under their current one. 

Seriously. When your negotiation strategy is “oh yeah? Wanna see us REALLY not do our job?”….fuck you.
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I have a number of informed opinions on all of this.  But for now, I'm watching them toss fireworks at the squad car going backwards on Barton Springs and all I can think of is: "Oh Lawd, back it up Terry!  Put it in reverse Officer Terry!  Oh Lawd, no!"  

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1 minute ago, Armybrat said:

Give them to the Ukraines.

Oh, I like this idea very much.  sure it's not the most stealth tactic to roll up on a fortified Russian position in a glowing purple Civic that can't clear the average Crimean road, with bass thumping from a mile away.  But the look on the faces of the Russian troops right before they get an artillery shell in advance of the approaching Civic would be fucking priceless.  

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Given the amount of pedestrians that are out on Barton Springs and South Lamar on a Saturday evening, no way APD would risk hitting people during those two high speed chases.  It is quite possible they let things escalate as a negotiating tactic (the contract vote is sitting even worse with them than the public realizes).  But I doubt very highly that was a false flag operation. 

This is all a ridiculous shame though.  The public was finally realizing the "DEFUND THE POLICE" thing, at least in the case of Austin, was bullshit.  They are adequately funded.  What they were though was under-staffed for a city of our size.  We even had the money to hire a huge chunk of them, but forces all over the country are having recruiting issues.  And living anywhere near Austin on a new policeman's salary is a non-starter given our cost of living.  I doubt any rookie cop with a wife and baby at home, wants to drive home to Belton or Seguin after a long day on the beat.  Late last year, we also tacitly signed off on their previous two bonds requests for another encumbrance sale of paper through the city's underwriters. So they can finish up some much needed capital projects that were delayed from 2020-22 sale cycles.  Things were going okay financially for APD despite all the ignorant rhetoric. 

Now our problem is Cronk ordered for the whole table before he planned to walk the tab.  Now this 1 v 4 year contract thing has fucked us over again.  Just when stupid people finally accept facts and data that conflict with their spoon-fed talking points.  The "smart people" at City Hall went and did some real stupid shit.  

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1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

One huge apd false flag operation. Apd let things escalate, prove me wrong. Now the general public will be outaged today, screaming for increased budgets to get more apd patrols on the street with increased salaries !! 

Everyone with a Travis Co registered Dodge Charger gets a ticket. Make your own budget 

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9 hours ago, 3adays said:

Fuck those racer idiots, that’s a situation where I’d be good with cops beating the shit out of them.

As an aside, hat tip to whoever finally found the stones to clean up the homeless city by Central Makret south. Now keep it that way! 

There's a large camp that doubles as a flea market for their stolen bikes and other goods on a piece of property that butts up next to an elementary school in my neighborhood. Seems like a bad idea to have them that close to a bunch of little kids.

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