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What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?


crash_davis

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3 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

We all know our neighborhoods pretty well and we all have suggestions to make things better.  The city often asks for feedback about something they have already decided to do, probably because they are required to ask for feedback.  In my experience, they want affirmation for decisions already made, not suggestions about what to change.  

This x a billion.

I really resent the city's refusal to engage the neighborhoods and come up with reasonable, workable solutions. Any dissent is met with being called a NIMBY or worse. It's like they've hired consultants to just overlay a new plan onto a map, pat themselves on their backs, and collect a check. Maybe I'm being hyperbolic in thinking that, but the utter refusal to listen to street-specific concerns and dismissal of alternate ideas sure makes it feel like that's what's happening.

The City won't answer basic questions about whether we have the infrastructure (electric, gas, and sewer lines, to start) for this, what happens to the tree ordinances that will get in the way of three homes per lot, and (I'm being dead serious about this) how the city is going to pick up my trash and recycling if I have nowhere to put it because of all the cars parked up and down the street. 

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1 minute ago, Cap33 said:

how the city is going to pick up my trash and recycling if I have nowhere to put it because of all the cars parked up and down the street. 

This shit right here. Every inch of curb parking is taken up in my neighborhood. Cars can't pass each other without one pulling into the space created by a driveway. Mailboxes are on posts at the curb and if a car is blocking it, you don't get your mail because the mail lady ain't getting off her phone and getting out to walk to your mailbox. 

 

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A few years ago we got google fiber in my neighborhood.  They left notes on our door about when it was happening, when to have our cars moved off the street, etc.  They dug the tiny trench and buried the cables within a couple of days.

A few weeks ago the city (I assume) just showed up unannounced and started burying a new cable in basically the same place along the street.  Luckily, my car was in the driveway, but they just dug the trench around other cars that were blocking them.  They then strung another cable along the curbs on both sides of the street with those little sticky patches of that textured black tape stuff, presumably to be buried later as well.  Those cables are still just hanging out on the curb more than a month later.

Never any communication as to what the hell is going on or what it's for.

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welp anti-flouride activist voter-fraud moonbat and former D4 candidate Laura Pressley, who unsuccessfully contested her 30 point election loss to Greg Casar for five years* and most recently was seen losing a school board election in Florence 233-69 on a platform of stopping the woke CRT drag queens from whitening our teeth almost killed somebody with crazy. Then she made the county apologize to her

 

Quote

A poll worker in Williamson County had a heart attack Monday while working at an early voting site. County officials initially blamed the medical emergency on a tense interaction with a voter fraud activist and poll watcher, but on Thursday retracted the accusation after the activist threatened legal action.

Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell Jr. had emailed Laura Pressley Monday, claiming her actions at the voting site were responsible for “single-handedly almost costing someone their life.” The email, which was obtained by Votebeat, instructed Pressley to subsequently deal only with him. “Enough with castigating and harassing our county employees and election workers. Let them run the election,” he wrote.

In response, Pressley’s lawyer sent a letter Wednesday to Gravell accusing him of defamation and saying Pressley and her associates weren't responsible for the poll worker’s heart attack. Rather, the letter said, Pressley and an associate had been speaking to another election worker about election procedures at the time of the incident and drew attention to the poll worker’s medical emergency.

The statements Gravell made, the letter says, are “particularly damaging given Dr. Pressley’s extensive and well-known consulting work and advocacy in election integrity matters.”

On Thursday, Gravell apologized and retracted his initial statement in a letter to Pressley’s lawyer, Ana Eby of the Eby Law Firm.

“It is clear there are two sides to every story or situation,” he wrote. Gravell, per Pressley’s lawyer’s request, also agreed to retract his statements publicly and read it during a commissioners court meeting, as well as provide a copy of his letter of retraction to members of the press who request it.

The flurry of statements highlights tensions between partisan poll watchers and election workers, which have escalated as election workers have increasingly contended with baseless accusations of malfeasance and wrongdoing since the 2020 election. Advocates who have been closely tracking such clashes say this incident shows how unmanageable the situation has become.

 

But sure - what's wrong with Austin?

 

* So as to embarrass themselves while ruling correctly, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that her meritless lawsuit was moot because the term was concluded, but not completely baseless simply because they had no evidence and the claims were patently nonsensical. They therefore reverse sanctions against her and her lawyer, and made Casar pay the court costs.  So, Gravell and the Willco Commish are reasonable to think that her behavior could be rewarded again. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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2 hours ago, Deej said:

This shit right here. Every inch of curb parking is taken up in my neighborhood. Cars can't pass each other without one pulling into the space created by a driveway. Mailboxes are on posts at the curb and if a car is blocking it, you don't get your mail because the mail lady ain't getting off her phone and getting out to walk to your mailbox. 

 

The message being sent by these assholes is clear:  You're a piece of shit for driving a car and should find other ways to get places even though they have no interest in actually providing them. 

This city has, for a long time now, insisted on implementing solutions that work really well in older cities with cooler climates that will not and never will work here.  Austin is a western city and for better or worse is laid out like one.  The opportunity to build a city with reasonable public transportation options passed decades ago, and Austin Metro will remain vehicle dependent long after these twats have lived and died.  Instead of acknowledging this reality and finding solutions to improve environmental impact that actually works within the framework we're stuck with, these idiots will keep trying to jam that square peg into this round hole until the city is completely unlivable for almost everyone.  It's difficult to imagine this being a place anyone wants to live in another thirty years, especially when the tech jobs inevitably move elsewhere.

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On 10/31/2023 at 2:02 PM, Not that Bob said:

Beer! Beer! For old Austin High!

Bring on the whisky! Bring on the Rye!

We never stumble! 

We never fall!

We sober up on

Wood alcohol!

 

Beer beer for old Austin high

bring out the whiskey bring out the rye

send those freshman out for gin

dont let a single sober senior in

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8 hours ago, Shaggy3.0 said:

got em.

 

https://www.fox7austin.com/news/road-rage-incident-justin-justice-teressa-ferguson-austin-texas

Man arrested for shooting, killing woman in North Austin road rage incident: APD

Austin police have arrested a man they say shot and killed 46-year-old Teressa Ferguson after a minor crash on Sept. 30. Ferguson, who went by Tressa, had been heading home from work.

Fuck this guy to death. How was that an acceptable mugshot? Where is good old police brutality when you need it? 

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1 hour ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

I want to know where the hell the hundreds of millions in "transformative" mobility bond money has gone. Sure don't seem like shit has changed.

To be fair, all of the construction projects around my neighborhood in the past few months have had signs saying the funds came from the 2016 bonds. Just takes forever for them to get shit done it seems. 

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I've seen a lot of narrowing of streets and widening of sidewalks in neighborhoods that absolutely don't need it.  That money is being spent, just stupidly.  Did anyone really expect anything else? And yes, lots of bike lanes that almost never get used for commuting, but provide a nice place to exercise for 50yo old assholes at the expense of everyone else. All based on studies done in cities with nothing in common with Austin.

Ideology uber alles. 

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21 hours ago, Deej said:

Seven years later and the projects those bonds pay for are out of date.

But the encumbered notes on them aren't.  The money we have pissed away on just debt service that our own Capital Projects dept. keeps delaying is enough to fund a city of the size of.....................Well, Austin.

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On 11/3/2023 at 3:18 PM, FirstTimeCaller said:

I want to know where the hell the hundreds of millions in "transformative" mobility bond money has gone. Sure don't seem like shit has changed.

An independent audit would be quite revealing, but the state prison system is already overcrowded.

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On 11/3/2023 at 3:18 PM, FirstTimeCaller said:

I want to know where the hell the hundreds of millions in "transformative" mobility bond money has gone. Sure don't seem like shit has changed.

Those who voted for these bonds are almost as foolish as the ones that approved the train bullshit.  

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image.png.95e4078b24a55d4b077cd161fae98944.png

Look, these beauties aren't free. You may not recognize them from this picture which appears to show them just after installation. The ones you're probably used to seeing are black and damaged from UPS trucks running over them.  

If you're really lucky, you get the posts and the speed bumps that fuck up your car like these along Shoal Creek.

image.png.4ac34b288c2d4f4d638fdf7356e7c973.png

Mobility bond funds at work!

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9 hours ago, Cap33 said:

image.png.95e4078b24a55d4b077cd161fae98944.png

Look, these beauties aren't free. You may not recognize them from this picture which appears to show them just after installation. The ones you're probably used to seeing are black and damaged from UPS trucks running over them.  

If you're really lucky, you get the posts and the speed bumps that fuck up your car like these along Shoal Creek.

image.png.4ac34b288c2d4f4d638fdf7356e7c973.png

Mobility bond funds at work!

Seriously these things are stupid as fuck. They narrow the roads hundreds of cars take an hour for fucking weekend road warriors. I never see anyone fucking using these mother fucking bike lanes during rush hour.

Multiple road I frequent have had the ability to right turn completely fucked up leading to more congestion and even more dangerous traffic situations for these fucking bike pylons.

Such a great “mobility” project. I hope anyone who supported these gets an infected hemorrhoid that pops while riding their ten speed.

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To be fair to our fair city...Alder's second term was a 180* batshit insane grifting pivot from his first term.  Like some other prominent Austin-based elected officials we can't talk about on DT forums.  But the, "Oh this guy isn't so weird.  Let's just wait it out.  (flash forward 2-3 years)...Oh what in the fucking fuck?!?!?!?!?" 

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20 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

To be fair to our fair city...Alder's second term was a 180* batshit insane grifting pivot from his first term.  Like some other prominent Austin-based elected officials we can't talk about on DT forums.  But the, "Oh this guy isn't so weird.  Let's just wait it out.  (flash forward 2-3 years)...Oh what in the fucking fuck?!?!?!?!?" 

What exactly did he do in his first term that you considered positive?

Sure, the second term was 100% grift, but nothing came from the first term that warranted re-election.

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On 11/3/2023 at 10:09 AM, Biff Tannen said:

A few years ago we got google fiber in my neighborhood.  They left notes on our door about when it was happening, when to have our cars moved off the street, etc.  They dug the tiny trench and buried the cables within a couple of days.

A few weeks ago the city (I assume) just showed up unannounced and started burying a new cable in basically the same place along the street.  Luckily, my car was in the driveway, but they just dug the trench around other cars that were blocking them.  They then strung another cable along the curbs on both sides of the street with those little sticky patches of that textured black tape stuff, presumably to be buried later as well.  Those cables are still just hanging out on the curb more than a month later.

Never any communication as to what the hell is going on or what it's for.

You should cut the cable and see who comes out.  Quick way to figure out what it's for, and to get it reburied.

55 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

To be fair to our fair city...Alder's second term was a 180* batshit insane grifting pivot from his first term.  Like some other prominent Austin-based elected officials we can't talk about on DT forums.  But the, "Oh this guy isn't so weird.  Let's just wait it out.  (flash forward 2-3 years)...Oh what in the fucking fuck?!?!?!?!?" 

Is this just trying to justify pissing away a vote for that con artist?

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Didn't vote for him, didn't say his first term was "positive" as another poster stated.  Just saying he was rather benign, or as harmless as an Austin mayor in a 10-1 system can be, during his first term.  Not meant as a compliment.  His second term was unbridled crime and he will live to pay for it.  

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I feel like he kept his image right to get that second term, then tried to do anything to benefit his Real Estate empire during his second term.  Dude was a con artist that did everything to benefit his and his wife's portfolios.  I'd be interested in how much equity he just earned in this new multi-unit deal.

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22 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Didn't vote for him, didn't say his first term was "positive" as another poster stated.  Just saying he was rather benign, or as harmless as an Austin mayor in a 10-1 system can be, during his first term.  Not meant as a compliment.  His second term was unbridled crime and he will live to pay for it.  

That is exactly my point. If candidates are going to get re-elected simply because they are "harmless" or "benign", then the cycle of shitty candidates and incumbents will never end. Austin continues to do this over and over and over and over and can't figure out why nothing ever changes.

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18 minutes ago, PvilleStang said:

I feel like he kept his image right to get that second term, then tried to do anything to benefit his Real Estate empire during his second term.  Dude was a con artist that did everything to benefit his and his wife's portfolios.  I'd be interested in how much equity he just earned in this new multi-unit deal.

Austin voters should perform due diligence when researching candidates for local office by inquiring what their exact ties are to real estate sales & development, plus vendor groups that do business with the city.

And how long they have lived within the city limits. plus previous places of residence.

 

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Fair point.  Every week in Austin, somebody tells me that all these transplants are bad for Austin.  But half of them say they're fleeing corrupt, ineffective liberal bastions on the coasts for a more conservative Texas.  The other half says they're bringing their failed, progressive politics with them to ruin the Lone Star State.  

Obviously both sides are mathematically incorrect.  At this point, all I can hope for is at least some of these people have to show up and live here for a few months and think, "Wait, what?  This city council makes no fucking sense.  Let's vote differently."  Not a huge leap to wish for...

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On 11/3/2023 at 2:16 PM, TXLNGHRN10 said:

Why the fuck did they change the light at Lamar and MLK? I truly appreciate the changing of the left turn light from flashing yellow, yield, to only red stop. The back up and 4 cycles to get through that light are outstanding.

This is a total goatfuck by the way.  Lamar needlessly backs up for hundreds of yards now and it takes an extra 3-4 minutes to get through.  

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Man, I thought that was just me.  But I used that light twice this past weekend when usually traffic is markedly lower (not after the game even BTW), and it was beyond a shitshow.  That was one of the few busy intersections that kinda actually worked okay in Austin until you got below Enfield or so anyway.  WTF?

Stevie Wonder coordinating our stoplights now or what?  

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40 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

This is a total goatfuck by the way.  Lamar needlessly backs up for hundreds of yards now and it takes an extra 3-4 minutes to get through.  

Their plan is working perfectly. They want to make any driving a completely miserable experience in hopes that you'll just stop driving. 

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