On Voting
by JS
I took advantage of early voting today. The only real decision on my part was what to do about Proposition 2. I found the best analysis at the Burnt Orange Report, but Austinist also has coverage. I did my due diligence and read through both the websites for the proposition and those against.
There are a lot of terrible arguments on both sides. My impression is that the Domain deal was particularly bad, but that the wording of the proposition itself was entirely too broad a prescription for bad judgment on the part of the city in that case. I’m not sure the Mueller development rises to the same level of incompetence. It actually seems like a decent deal to me.
I hope that by failing (narrowly), the proposition just might succeed if it convinces enough council members of the political risk of subsidies to stimulate short sighted growth. I know this is kind of a best of both worlds pipe dream, but Austin should focus on quality of growth, not quantity.
On a related point, this whole “new urbanism” is pile of crap. Pasting some yuppy facade on (and duplexes over) vampiric national chain stores does nothing for me. The only thing going for it is that, relative to every other failed idea in urban planning, this particular approach might – just might – stink a little less.
Comments
Howdy. Prop 2 was written to put a stop to retail subsidies. 500 local retailers support this. Why? Because funding one retail sector (in the case of the Domain, it’s high-end national chains, mostly) — will hurt another sector (in this case our local homegrown retailers). And, retail is highly competitive — you don’t need to fund it!
Charter amendments are never perfect, no matter who writes them. Frankly, I think a lot of the critique of the language is really a bias against a citizen’s initiated effort. We vetted Prop 2′s language — for many months — and tried to sit down with the City, but they refused.
Bottom line is the City Council (6 out of 7) wants to give their Domain candy to their developer supporters. Mueller can be amended in a few sentences, the Domain deal can’t because of a court settlement that allows the City to walk away without penalty.
When will government stop giving away the store to corporate predators like Simon Malls — who don’t need the money? Get the facts! Go to http://StopDomainSubsidies.com.
Thanks for writing about this. Linda Curtis, Stop Domain Subsidies