---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jeffery Bowen <jlbowen01@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, Aug 8, 2022 at 9:03 PM
Subject: Mayoral candidates outline plans to make housing more affordable
To:
Austin Monitor / link checked
https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2022/08/mayoral-candidates-outline-plans-to-make-housing-more-affordable/
Evening,
This is long, but worth the time to read and decipher.
I detect a little basis but it may be me. Too many comments to copy and
paste.
Just the highlights.
“I think affordability and cost of living in Austin right now is the
number-one issue, and the biggest part of that is the expense of housing,”
Watson said, calling the situation an “emergency.”
Where the HELL has he been? Oh yea in the Senate and Houston.
Watson stressed that his plan will “get us out of the old fights that have
been an all-or-nothing, winner-take all, zero-sum-game fight for the last
decade.” The plan details six strategies as well as 10 other policies that
will *“make it easier and cheaper to bring new housing online while
protecting our existing neighborhoods and environment.”*
Let this comment, especially the last sentence soak in.
Israel called Austin’s housing predicament a “crisis.” When she launched
her six-step Home for All <https://www.celiaforaustin.com/homeforall> platform
in May, she said, “This election is about who can afford to live here and
who gets to decide.”
For Israel, rising housing costs are personal; her rent increased $300 this
past year. “I didn’t need to do a poll to tell me that this was the
number-one issue and that people are hurting,” she said.
So does she think the increase in taxes and city fees only EFFECTS her?
In Virden’s housing platform
<https://myemail.constantcontact.com/VIRDEN-on-Housing--Permitting----the-LDC.html?soid=1134684006831&aid=H9bs6md__OI>,
released in February, she wrote, “The different stakeholders must realize
by now that an ‘all-or-nothing’ approach hasn’t worked, and that we must
all work together to cut a path of *compromise.*”
That word is never spoken at City Hall.
*Permitting*
All three candidates say the city’s slow and expensive permitting process
needs an overhaul.
I think we can all agree on *SLOW & EXPENSIVE* and surely on the *"NEEDS AN
OVERHAUL".*
While the city has known about the flaws of the process for years – a
scathing several-hundred-page audit
<https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Development_Services/ZuckerFinalReport/ZuckerFinalReport.pdf>
came out in 2015 – builders say not much has improved.
This *audit *is also known as (AKA) - *"The ZUCKER REPORT"*. You just have
to "LOVE" the several - hundred pages comment.
I think *814 pages* goes a little beyond several hundred. So the audit was
in 2015 and what if anything has been changed from that AUDIT? That is a
different topic.
Following court rulings affirming the right of property owners to petition
large-scale zoning changes, both Israel and Watson say they support passing
land use changes with less than a supermajority – unless a valid petition
is present. City Council has been wary of passing such zoning changes
without a supermajority for fear of legal action.* Virden said she respects
the court rulings*.
So only "ONE" of the top THREE candidates ``*RESPECT*" the Court Ruling on
Protest Rights. WOW. One would think former Sate Officials would have
more consideration for State LAW.
Wasn't Mr. Watson indicating, "*protecting our existing neighborhoods” ?*
Too many other items in the article. This article is worth the read for you
to gather information regarding this upcoming election.
I realize there are other candidates for Mayor. The Austin Monitor covered
the top three.
I detect some basis, or it could be just me.
Be Safe
Jeffery L. Bowen
