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What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?


crash_davis

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2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


Maybe that’s because there really aren’t any that can actually be achieved - that’s the rub. We have the system we have, and there is no political will or willingness at the Legislature to change it.
All kinds of possible solutions. None can be achieved. Want to change things? Change your government. But I suspect you’ll just keep voting for the same old same old.
We get the government we vote for. We keep voting for “let local law enforcement be our sole mechanism of addressing mental health dangers, and let’s not even give them any real tools to do that.” So that’s what we get.

Is the Texas GOP’s aversion to forcing them into mental health facilities purely financial? My family is almost all republicans in the Austin area and they are all for it. Now I don’t get into how we are going to pay for it with them….

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8 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Maybe that’s because there really aren’t any that can actually be achieved - that’s the rub. We have the system we have, and there is no political will or willingness at the Legislature to change it.
All kinds of possible solutions. None can be achieved. Want to change things? Change your government. But I suspect you’ll just keep voting for the same old same old.
We get the government we vote for. We keep voting for “let local law enforcement be our sole mechanism of addressing mental health dangers, and let’s not even give them any real tools to do that.” So that’s what we get.

I still get it. There are no good options. But that is exactly why I am asking what some of y'all think should be done right now with the violent/aggressive/repeat offenders? Just keep letting them out until some magical cure that everyone agrees on and funds?

At some point, the most violent repeat offenders have to be locked up to protect society. No one wants that. No one if hoping that is the permanent fix. But RIGHT NOW, in this immediate environment, that is the only option. Repeatedly freeing them to commit progressively more dangerous and violent crimes is ridiculous.

Anytime there is discussion here of a violent/aggressive/ repeat offender, it seems that it cannot be discussed here in a vacuum of "this one particular guy is fucking crazy and needs to be locked up". It always devolves into the context of trying to solve the entire homeless/mental illness issue in one conversation that goes in endless circles.

 

 

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@Orange&White when I say there are no good options, it’s because there are no good options. There are also no other options for “right now.” 
The system we have is working as designed within the real life limits of budget and manpower, at the bottom rung of a declining civilization and a diseased culture. 
I voted against Garza. I am actively working towards his defeat in November. But the Garza aren’t doing anything differently than their predecessors on this particular issue and people who say otherwise aren’t telling the truth. 
when you say “this one guy is crazy and should be locked up” I agree. Who should lock him up and whether they will take/have space for him is a different question. The prisons don’t want him, the jail doesn’t want to manage him,  prosecution will never be a priority, and there’s no money to be made getting him square. So it’s intake, stabilize, release, repeat, again and again. 
The only thing we can do that has any immediate direct impact is support ML&F, because they are they only ones breaking that cycle.

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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I think the conservative aversion to Mental Health: it becomes a very slippery slope if we start admitting people into mental health institutions who we deem to be mentally unstable.  At what point do people abuse the system and claim their wives or girlfriends or neighbors are acting crazy and getting them incarcerated in a mental hospital.

 

I fully agree, our state-funded mental institutions are spread extremely thin, and we need more private mental health facilities.  But the stigma behind mental health and the real lack of funding really keeps the status quo where it's at.  Until someone takes it up as a priority at the txlege or at the Whitehouse, we're stuck sending a bulk of our homeless to ASH or TSH for lobotomies.

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Adding- for whatever reason the police aren’t doing much to enforce the camping ban, and I suppose chasing them back to the woods is what most people really want anyway. That might make a difference by making crime a little less convenient, but like the other stuff it’s a question of priorities/money/manpower. 

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Just now, PvilleStang said:

I think the conservative aversion to Mental Health: it becomes a very slippery slope if we start admitting people into mental health institutions who we deem to be mentally unstable.  At what point do people abuse the system and claim their wives or girlfriends or neighbors are acting crazy and getting them incarcerated in a mental hospital.

 

lol perfect example. It’s the same thing with mass shootings. We have a huge mental health crisis and it creates mayhem and violence, but we can’t actually do anything about it because “conservative” men keep tagging themselves in revenge fantasies about pissed off neighbors and scorned women.

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11 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

@Orange&White when I say there are no good options, it’s because there are no good options. There are also no other options for “right now.” 
The system we have is working as designed within the real life limits of budget and manpower, at the bottom rung of a declining civilization and a diseased culture. 
I voted against Garza. I am actively working towards his defeat in November. But the Garza aren’t doing anything differently than their predecessors on this particular issue and people who say otherwise aren’t telling the truth. 
when you say “this one guy is crazy and should be locked up” I agree. Who should lock him up and whether they will take/have space for him is a different question. The prisons don’t want him, the jail doesn’t want to manage him,  prosecution will never be a priority, and there’s no money to be made getting him square. So it’s intake, stabilize, release, repeat, again and again. 
The only thing we can do that has any immediate direct impact is support ML&F, because they are they only ones breaking that cycle.

I wasn't aware that the prisons got a vote or an option on who the courts sentence to prison? Are you saying that the prisons have a right or ability to deny a prisoner that has been convicted to prison time?

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2 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

I wasn't aware that the prisons got a vote or an option on who the courts sentence to prison? Are you saying that the prisons have a right or ability to deny a prisoner that has been convicted to prison time?

No, but the justice system is (broadly speaking) aware of and somewhat sensitive to the capacity and capability of the prison system to manage. And for what it’s worth, it’s already the biggest provider of mental healthcare in the state, which puts a strain on our ability to incarcerate, rehabilitate, and punish the prison population that isn’t crazy.

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1 minute ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

lol perfect example. It’s the same thing with mass shootings. We have a huge mental health crisis and it creates mayhem and violence, but we can’t actually do anything about it because “conservative” men keep tagging themselves in revenge fantasies about pissed off neighbors and scorned women.

Riddle me this: what are the implications of having been admitted into a mental health institution?  You're going to get red flagged on a lot of future applications for anything from gun ownership to security clearances to TSA Pre, etc.  There's a negative connotation, just like there is with DWIs, Class A-B misdemeanors, etc.  Someone found to be mentally unstable and tagged as such will have a barrier to overcome in their future.

And it is not unreasonable to believe that people will abuse this for their personal or financial gain.  It's all politics around these parts, anyways.

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Just now, PvilleStang said:

Riddle me this: what are the implications of having been admitted into a mental health institution?  You're going to get red flagged on a lot of future applications for anything from gun ownership to security clearances to TSA Pre, etc.  There's a negative connotation, just like there is with DWIs, Class A-B misdemeanors, etc.  Someone found to be mentally unstable and tagged as such will have a barrier to overcome in their future.

It’s true.And I was being somewhat tongue in cheek- under the old system there was a ton of abuse. Like anything that deprives someone of their liberty it requires well designed independent oversight and high standards. 

8 minutes ago, hornian said:

BUSCAR disagrees. 

 

 I stan Toeflop

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1 minute ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

It’s true.And I was being somewhat tongue in cheek- under the old system there was a ton of abuse. Like anything that deprives someone of their liberty it requires well designed independent oversight and high standards. 

Austin is truly the pinnacle of cities when it comes to oversite and standards.  Just look at Project Connect!  And Austin Energy and their brush management, and Austin Water, and our homeless strategy department...

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11 hours ago, crash_davis said:

The troll is completed in Pease Park. How long until some deranged, repeat offender, homeless dude burns it down? I give it a year.

uhu5ml6jocpc1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg

How much did that cost? Still don't have the money of pay lifeguards at park pools, though, right?

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4 minutes ago, PvilleStang said:

Austin is truly the pinnacle of cities when it comes to oversite and standards.  Just look at Project Connect!  And Austin Energy and their brush management, and Austin Water, and our homeless strategy department...

Thankfully local government would have no role to play in something like this, but can we honestly expect the state of Texas to do better? See also schools, child protective services, foster care, prisons, etc.

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1 minute ago, Deej said:

How much did that cost? Still don't have the money of pay lifeguards at park pools, though, right?

It was practically free.  It was all recycled wood and volunteer artists.  How dare you look a gift grift in the mouth!

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Just now, Bozo_Casanova said:

Yes. The statue is the problem. If not for the statue they would have lifeguards.
This is KLBJ-AM Brain right here.

It's just one more useless thing this city spends money on. It adds up, but judging from your postings, you are part of the grift. 

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6 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

No, but the justice system is (broadly speaking) aware of and somewhat sensitive to the capacity and capability of the prison system to manage. And for what it’s worth, it’s already the biggest provider of mental healthcare in the state, which puts a strain on our ability to incarcerate, rehabilitate, and punish the prison population that isn’t crazy.

So the guy that is crazy can be locked in prison. That is exactly my point.

I understand all of those other things you mentioned about ability to incarcerate and that the prisons are the biggest provider of mental health, etc . I know that because those facts have been brought up in this thread, and every other like it, ad nauseum. Again, no one thinks this is ideal or best practice or what the long term solution is.

But as bad as those things are, they should still not be a deterrent to locking up someone that attacked a person with a machete for no reason.

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5 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

But as bad as those things are, they should still not be a deterrent to locking up someone that attacked a person with a machete for no reaso

I agree with you, but they are in fact, deterrent in every city in this state, and in the country really. It’s always case by case basis.
Machete guy should be locked up. Full stop. But- and not to sound cynical, if it’s not machete guy, it will be hammer guy later.

 

There is a hammer guy. There’s a 2X4 guy, like chainsaw Jim Duggan. There’s a pervert (not homeless, but seriously deranged) who gets his jollies making eye contact with people and then pulling his pants down and pooping on the ground, mainly moms and kids at bus stops. The police know these people, but won’t do anything about it until someone is seriously hurt/raped etc. 

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10 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

J’accuse!!!

The other feature of KLBJAM brain is an absolute refusal to use Google.

Pease Park conservancy paid for the statue. Try to keep up.

The sculpture cost around $300,000 to install and was funded by private donors, according to Allison Johnson, director of community engagement for the Pease Park Conservancy. Most of the funds came from the Tejemos Foundation. H-E-B and the William Knox Holt Foundation also donated money for the project.

 

KUT article -- Pease Park Troll

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12 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

J’accuse!!!

The other feature of KLBJAM brain is an absolute refusal to use Google.

Pease Park conservancy paid for the statue. Try to keep up.

Yeah the city gets involved in plenty of stupid projects and plenty of grifty projects, but this one was privately funded all along.  I saw the articles when they first announced it and thought the trolls were pretty cool-- I think Austin is as good of a place as any to have one.

I do seriously wonder, though, how long it'll be before some asshole tags it or destroys it.  That'll suck.

Edited by utee94
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I hate how this city spends money as much as the next guy (remember the $10,000 artist in residency with the water department or some shit?), but public buildings and works are generally good. I don't like the price tag of the library, but I like having the library. I feel like investing in the public is woefully bad in this state. Even if CofA had to pay for the troll, I think that would be a good thing.

Project Connect, however, is a GD boondoggle.

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1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

 

The sculpture cost around $300,000 to install and was funded by private donors, according to Allison Johnson, director of community engagement for the Pease Park Conservancy. Most of the funds came from the Tejemos Foundation. H-E-B and the William Knox Holt Foundation also donated money for the project.

 

KUT article -- Pease Park Troll

Damn. Seriously, why so fucking much? That's as much as it would cost to build a complete home and this is reclaimed wood and the land was free.

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I think the Troll is cool. Now the what-the-fuck-whalebones-thing sprouting from under I35 over 6th St is bullshit, but the Troll is tangible and will attract a shitton of people to see it and experience it. The one in Breck is a very popular tourist spot.

Art is important to communities. There's a ton of shit to bitch about Austin, a $300k statue mostly privately funded is probably the last thing to worry about.

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That troll is a cool work of art and just in time for the hippies to worship next month in Pease. 

But, yeah, its days are numbered. When not going after body parts the bums enjoy taking out windows, front doors, etc. Imagine what they'll do to that pile of kindling. I'm guessing the over on Malin surviving is 10 months. Smart play is the under. Hope that's wrong. 

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1 hour ago, Deej said:

It's just one more useless thing this city spends money on. It adds up, but judging from your postings, you are part of the grift. 

Some people don’t see cultural amenities  as useless. They see them as something that adds to the fabric of a community. People complain about Austin no longer being cool or weird and then bitch about the cultural things that make a city unique.

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2 minutes ago, royiv said:

Some people don’t see cultural amenities  as useless. They see them as something that adds to the fabric of a community. People complain about Austin no longer being cool or weird and then bitch about the cultural things that make a city unique.

open neighborhood pools during the blast furnace summers would be more important.

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Pease Park has private security now. Troll guard can be added to their duties, in between keeping adults from pooping in the splash pad and making sure the bathrooms don’t revert to their historically romantic status.

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21 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

That troll is a cool work of art and just in time for the hippies to worship next month in Pease. 

But, yeah, its days are numbered. When not going after body parts the bums enjoy taking out windows, front doors, etc. Imagine what they'll do to that pile of kindling. I'm guessing the over on Malin surviving is 10 months. Smart play is the under. Hope that's wrong. 

Aggy's next bonfire location for the Texas game in 2025.  

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Yeah, it was 2021 & 2022 that the pool openings were severely drawn down.  There is still a staffing shortage though (or was in 2023 and likely will be again in 2024) in terms of maintenance and lifeguards.  But I am absolutely signing up for daughters to do swim lessons at Westenfield Pool off Mopac.  I got to swim laps while they were in class and conveniently have to stop every 50 yards to clean my goggles because the lifeguard situation there is a combination of UT ladies and daughters of Tarrytown MILF's home for summer, all with a penchant for suit wedgies.  It's a scene man, it's a scene.  It's like Evil MoPac's version of Baywatch.  

In other news, my former Bond Advisory Commission passed on a report to Council (according to the new Chair and a friend of mine) to review before proposing the substantial issuance for what we'd do for the cap-over parklands on the new IH-35 (which I'm in favor of, FTR).  It was given a 2-3 minute cursory look and then dismissed.  We're going to start encumbered debt service in 2027 on something we won't break ground on until 2035 at the earliest.  We're one more fuckup from another agency downgrade.  

And yes, let's all be honest.  The Troll art project is awesome.  And also, and, in addition to........there's no fucking way homeless people don't start that thing on fire.  

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10 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

Is the Texas GOP’s aversion to forcing them into mental health facilities purely financial? My family is almost all republicans in the Austin area and they are all for it. Now I don’t get into how we are going to pay for it with them….

There's some "horseshoe theory" at play here.  Originally, the aversion to having a more robust involuntary commitment apparatus came from the left ACLU types: the concern was that too many people were losing their liberty for dubious reasons (this is many decades ago, BTW -- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was published in 1962).  For a long time, the opposition to robust involuntary commitment was a flag carried by the left.  Not anymore.  See Bozo's comment about how the right has now decided it's the debil because it's a back door to TAKING AWAY OUR GUNS!!!!

Layer on the current GOP/conservative visceral hatred of ANYTHING that even sniffs of "helping other people...for free!", and you have a real problem.  A mental healthcare apparatus that houses and treats people on MY DIME???  No fucking way. Now, if you build that same apparatus, for the same price (or even more), and it doesn't waste any dollars HELPING FREELOADERS, but instead spends all those dollars PUNISHING BAD PEOPLE, then I'm all for it!

The thing is - and I promise, I'm NOT trying to go Cloakroom here, but we can't discuss the impediments to fixing this local problem without discussing the politics that are the impediment - I am sure you are RIGHT about your family, and republicans in Texas in general, being conceptually in favor of mental health facilities.  The problem is the cognitive dissonance of that voting bloc: on ISSUES, they often stand for things that are relatively centrist and common-sense.....but when it comes time to vote, they vote for (and thus reward and encourage) only candidates of the most extreme flavor.  AND, they hold two dueling beliefs: we need mental health facilities.....but NOTHING NEVER EVER FOR FREELOADERS!  It's incredibly frustrating to watch us collectively cut off our nose to spite our face, over and over and over.

There are many common-sense solutions.

But there is a dearth of common sense.

Thus.....no solutions.

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35 minutes ago, Deej said:

Good. Maybe they can work on operating other services full time, then. 

https://www.kxan.com/investigations/are-missed-compost-pickups-on-the-rise-in-austin/

Have you still not picked up on the fact that the troll was paid for with private funds? I guess you could start a fundraiser for compost pick-ups, but in the pantheon of public needs how important are compost pick-ups? If that’s your biggest bitch about COA, you’re living life right.

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19 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

 But on KLBJ they were closed, so…

Ah, right out of the CR playbook...

"You don't agree with me so I'll make baseless accusations."

How many years before last could the city not "afford" to keep the pools open? 

 

Edited by Deej
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8 minutes ago, Deej said:

How many years before last could the city not "afford" to keep the pools open? 

It wasn't a question of "affordability", they couldn't attract enough lifeguards.  The budget was already fixed.  Ultimately they increased wages a bit and have not had that problem any longer.

You do realize wages pretty much went up across most service industries coming out of the pandemic, right?

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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

It wasn't a question of "affordability", they couldn't attract enough lifeguards.  The budget was already fixed.  Ultimately they increased wages a bit and have not had that problem any longer.

You do realize wages pretty much went up across most service industries coming out of the pandemic, right?

So they didn't have the cap in the budget to raise wages high enough to attract life guard applicants?  Essentially they didn't budget for inflation / growth and hamstrung themselves.

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44 minutes ago, PvilleStang said:

So they didn't have the cap in the budget to raise wages high enough to attract life guard applicants?  Essentially they didn't budget for inflation / growth and hamstrung themselves.

Yes?

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