downtown austin

Roundup – Austin politico's websites

Jude Galligan | January 30, 2009 |

Sheryl Cole - Place 6 incumbant — Sheryl Cole - Place 6 incumbent

These days its pretty much unacceptable to not have a website if you are running a campaign. You should be able to do a Google search for “candidate’s name + city council” and your campaign page should be #1 or #2 on the search results page. Some of you candidates have work to do!

Mayor:

Brewster McCracken – http://www.brewstermccracken.com
Lee Leffingwell – http://www.austinleadership.com
Carol Strayhorn – http://www.caroleforaustin.com

City Council:

Chris Riley (place 1) – http://www.chrisforaustin.com
Mike Martinez (place 2) – http://www.martinezforaustin.com
Perla Cavazos (place 1) – http://www.voteperla.com
Rick Cofer (place 1) – http://www.rickcofer.com
Bill Spelman (place 5) – http://www.billspelman.org
Sheryl Cole (place 6) – http://keepsherylcole.com

Candidate’s in green are those which I am currently supporting. I think the best coverage of city hall comes from the BurntOrangeReport.com and Wells Dunbar’s (Austin Chronicle) City Hall Hustle. If you find bias, it should be easy to filter.

Okay, everyone with local political aspirations, you should right now purchase FirstnameForAustin.com!

Blight

Jude Galligan | January 29, 2009 |

Downtown Austin - Parking Garage Nirvana

Blight: Something that impairs growth, withers hopes and ambitions, or impedes progress and prosperity.

In Downtown Austin nothing kills hopes, dreams, ambitions, old ladies and little children like under-developed land. According to DANA board member Roger Cauvin, in economic terms, blight can be considered an “externality,” which “are the indirect costs imposed on society by an economic activity. Pollution is an example of an externality. If economic agents (e.g. developers) aren’t made to pay for the externalities, we are effectively subsidizing harmful behavior.”

In Downtown Austin, blight manifests itself in the primary forms of:
1) parking lots (or razed lots)
2) parking garages
3) chain link fence
4) perpetual disrepair

The Northeast quadrant of Downtown Austin takes the cake for parking garages. The area is desolate and completely void of human interaction. Unimproved parking lots are scattered throughout Downtown. It could easily be argued that Downtown Austin blight reaches it’s zenith on 6th Street. (slideshow) Broken doors, windows, tattered chain link fence, destroyed ATMs, it’s all there.

As I see it, the problem of blight is rooted with the owner of the property that is creating or hosting the blight. The economic behavior of hoarding undeveloped property in the CBD is contrary to the density goals of Downtown Austin stake holders. It is also contrary to the city’s and county’s goals of collecting ad valorem taxes. Perhaps more importantly, razing your lot and wrapping it in chain link fence is contrary to the sense of community.

Over the past couple of months you’ve seen related topics discussed at Austin Contrarian. According to Chris Bradford, “We badly need a mechanism for discouraging property owners from warehousing vacant lots downtown. The solution is not to shut out all redevelopment to eliminate the risk of this kind of behavior. What we need is a vacant-lot surcharge or something like it. A surcharge calibrated to compensate the other downtown property owners, businesses and visitors for the very real cost of blighting a block. This might encourage property owners/developers to leave existing buildings in place or to fill in currently vacant lots, even if the structures are inexpensive and small.”

Well said.

-Jude

Tattered chain link fence along Waller Creek

Chris Riley for Austin City Council Place 1

Jude Galligan | January 26, 2009 |

Chris Riley - Downtown Austin resident and candidate for Austin City Council

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.”

ChrisForAustin.com

Club FUZE – citizen stakeholders want it gone

Jude Galligan | January 23, 2009 |

Club FUZE is the next venue on the Downtown stakeholders’ list of night clubs identified as hosting recurring criminal activity. A letter was sent on behalf of several Downtown stakeholders (including DANA, Capital Metro, and multiple residential buildings) to Don Garner, the owner of 505 Neches where Club FUZE is located. According to the letter:

“In the past year the criminal activity inside and surrounding Club Fuze has escalated considerably. Reports obtained from the Austin Police Department data base reveal a serious escalation of violence, public drunkenness, prostitution, and illegal drug activity both in the club and on the adjoining street.”

The letter goes on to state,

“The club’s dangerous and illegal activities have reached the point that visitors are now being warned to not walk down Neches during peak club hours, hotel guests are being encouraged to avoid the area, and local residents have been forced to avoid the area and to warn their friends to not park near the club.”

Part of the challenge for the Police is coping with venues that have recurring problems. According to data found at Krimelabb.com you might want to avoid club FUZE and the area around it. Below is a list of criminal activity inside or in front of FUZE in December.

2008-3432326 2008-12-08 POSS OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA
2008-3360157 2008-12-01 AGG ASSAULT
2008-3360157 2008-12-01 CUSTODY ARREST TRAFFIC WARR
2008-3500238 2008-12-15 DISTURBANCE/OTHER
2008-3360157 2008-12-01 ASSAULT W/INJURY-FAM/DATE VIOL
2008-3371894 2008-12-02 POSS OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA
2008-3550403 2008-12-20 UIPP
2008-3382492 2008-12-03 PEDESTRIAN ON ROADWAY
2008-3360157 2008-12-01 POSS MARIJUANA
2008-3360157 2008-12-01 FAILURE TO IDENTIFY
2008-3360157 2008-12-01 VIOL OF EMERG PROTECTIVE ORDER
2008-3361590 2008-12-01 PUBLIC INTOXICATION
2008-3361590 2008-12-01 REQUEST TO APPREHEND

Citizen stakeholders have recently been successful in purging the neighborhood of offending night clubs. Last month, Tim Finley, the owner of the building housing Club Paradox and Club Planeta, was urged to clean up his tenant’s act after discussions with residents, police, hotels, and the convention center. After years of increasing crime and violence in and around clubs Paradox and Planeta, it was clear to Tim Finley that change was needed. He terminated their lease.

Downtown Austin – Is Opportunity Knocking?

Jude Galligan | January 19, 2009 |

“NY Times article of interest: OK, so it’s NYC, but the buyer sentiments are not unlike those of many Austinites I believe. (Note the negotiated price reductions…)”

He’s dead on. Traffic at my last few open houses at the Sabine has picked up significantly over the past couple of weeks. This makes sense for two important reasons: 1) Mortgage rates are at record lows, and 2) sellers understand the need to negotiate.

From the article “Many of these buyers have never received a fat bonus check, so they don’t miss it now. They did not suffer huge stock market losses, because they didn’t have huge stock market investments. They aren’t mourning the loss of value in their existing co-ops or condos, because they have never owned one….They have jobs and good credit ratings, and they are looking to buy.”

link to article “For The Brave, The Moment Is Now”