Friday night at Threadgill’s World Headquarters, Downtown Austin resident Chris Riley launched his campaign for Austin City Council Place 1. Riley spoke about his platform of repairing the economy and environment together, improving transportation, and preserving Austin’s character:
“We need to create green jobs. We need to reduce our dependence on cars, and promote alternate forms of transportation. And we need to make sure that Austin lives up to the things we expect it to be: a place that provides secure homes to people across the economic spectrum; a place with a great arts and music scene; and place with a rich history that prides itself on tending to the needs of our whole ecosystem and all of its inhabitants.”
Chris Riley campaigned in 2011 on housing affordability and now he supports short term rentals that increase the cost of housing. A 3% cap on a zip code is entirely unrealistic. Neighborhoods involved are much smaller than a zip code. You could ruin a neighborhood with short term rentals illegal under state law before you run up against the 3% cap in the wider zip code. This is an ignorant, sophomoric idea by Councilmember Riley.
I was there with my wife and 4 year old, but we circulated through the crowd quickly and then ate dinner out in the main room when the speeches went on.