Rise Up Austin

[image] The Other Ones Foundation is receiving $60,000,000 to build 325 of these units. That cost averages over $180,000 per unit. These don't look bigger than 12'x8'... ~100sqft. Austin's average building cost is $180-$300 per square foot. Where is the rest of the money going?

[image] The Statesman reports that Austin's median monthly mortgage payment is $3,323, while median rent is $1,531.

[image] There is something BIG going down at the apartments behind Sprouts on William Cannon and Manchaca. There are a half dozen unmarked police cars lining Manchaca in the Sprouts lot and more police cars, with lights flashing, between the two properties. What's going on?

[image] A 16-year-old boy named Jonathan De La Garza Jr. was shot this weekend, one of the victims of the senseless shootings in South Austin. He was shot twice - in the stomach and leg - at a Del Valle apartment complex in South Austin. He will live with the resulting trauma, both

[video] Project Connect is a mere shadow of what voters approved. Senator Cornyn was on News Radio KLBJ on April 16th and was asked "Do you support federal funding for Project Connect here in Austin?" His answer "No, I don't." We need more leaders, at every level, speaking out against

[text] Anyone here interested in interviewing with me on how the homeless community has impacted them/quality of life? Especially anyone living in the downtown area?

[video] Just last week, the President of Austin/Travis Local AFSCME urged the City Council to audit Austin Police first, citing their pattern of overtime. Had these APD shifts been cut to reduce overtime, the lives of the brave EMS employees would have been in even greater danger.

[image] Y'all this is the coolest accountability site for the city of Austin that I've seen. Bookmark this.

[image] 🕯️ What is happening to Austin? Destruction, decay, and demise will be this decade's legacy unless we take a stand against those who seek to destroy Austin's community values. @KirkPWatson @JosePGarza @Austin_Police

[image] The Austin City Auditor is earning their pay. Check out this report, to be presented at the Audit & Finance Committee tomorrow. Objective: The objective of this audit was to determine whether the City is managing consultant contracts in an efficient and economical manner. What

[video] As I testified at Austin City Council, these numbers simply don't add up. They make homelessness look less like a problem and more like an industry. The contract with The Other Ones Foundation for Esperanza II doesn’t just support housing development, it locks in taxpayer

[video] Parsolvo recommends that the city of Austin retire 230 technology applications, about a 20% reduction, for a potential annual savings of $49M-$142M. Just software contract changes. Not a single city job cut.

[text] THREAD: Last night's @AustinISD board meeting was a masterclass in deflection. A $181M budget gap for next year. A $49M hole this year. And the explanation? Blame immigration. Blame the state. Blame everyone but themselves. Let's go through it. 🧵

[image] How's that camping ban working out? Saw this mess along Shoal Creek and under the foot bridge at 4th and Rio Grande.

[image] Top 10 Annual Salaries of Austin Executives: $4.85M in 2024 Austin Energy GM $475K City Manager $470K Airport CEO $425K Airport CDO $376K Deputy City Manager $325K Austin Energy Deputy GM $322K Austin Energy Execs $317K Chief Medical Officer $315K Assistant City Managers $298K

[video] Presentation and unanimous vote, less than three and a half minutes: • $1,825,000 to financial advisors • $750,000 to real estate advisory & transaction services • $28,500,000 to outside legal services Voters have been paying for half a decade and we have zero miles of rail.

[image] AUS airport's South Terminal opened in 2017, after $12M in renovations. Just 9 years later, it's being demoed but not before the city spent $88M on an eminent domain settlement. Now ABIA is building Concourse M to temporarily fill service gaps & doesn't open until spring 2028.

[video] The most frustrating part of this week's Austin City Council was waiting over an hour to speak only to be sabotaged by the Mayor. I research and prepare my statements. I'm sure the Council *feels* like I'm wasting their time, but this week the Mayor actually wasted mine.

[image] AI analyzed 2,600+ Austin public meetings (5,100 hours, 47 million words) from 2020-2026, revealing patterns in Austin's public meetings. The findings are interesting and also disheartening.

[video] Austin's recently adopted Homeless Strategic Plan fails to include the taxpayers' perspective. For weeks I've worked to understand the gaps this creates. I presented my findings at City Hall this week, if only for the record. My thanks to everyone who gave me their perspective.

[image] A naked man broke into a southeast Austin home at 4:30 AM on March 23rd, confronted the homeowner, and fired shots. He then shot at arriving officers, sparking a 4-hour SWAT standoff. I can't find any update on this story... Who the hell is this guy?

[video] Listening to Mayor Pro Tem Vela discuss Front Yard Businesses has me wondering if this is a way for Austin to make it easier for immigrants to make money without a work visa. It sounds like we already have people selling goods without filing with the State or paying sales taxes.

[text] Stuck in traffic in Austin and need a public toilet. You know what sucks? When all the public toilets are closed to the public so that homeless people can't camp out in them.

[image] Leaked Austin ISD messages expose admins mocking parents as “poisonous” and “ugly,” privately doubting their own school closure rubric, questioning property-sale motives, and trashing dual-language programs while trying to delete chats to hide it all.

[image] I know most of you who signed this personally. I respect you. So I’ll be direct: This statement defends the adults in the building while the children in the building are failing. The facts: * 23 F-rated campuses in Austin ISD Dallas ISD: 0 Houston ISD: 0 * only 172 districts

[video] If I had been given ten minutes to explain the problems with all the zoning and parking policy changes proposed by council this week, I don't think I could have said it any better than Council Member Marc Duchen. Thank you @Marc4AustinD10 for being an eloquent voice of reason.

[image] The City of Austin's IT is bloated, spending ~$210M annually (81% more money than peer cities and 98% more staff) per audit. AFSCME Local opposes consolidation into one department, protesting it as counterproductive, claiming it disrupts specialized, non-transferable roles.

[image] Daniel Vasquez, accused of elbowing then stomping on a man's head at Austin Central Library, leaving the victim critically injured - has a record of attacking people, including an 11-yr-old boy & his mother on a CapMetro bus (cases were dismissed via mental health diversion).

[image] Y'all need to take a look at Item 6 - the COTA Convention Center Incentive Program approves up to 30-year hotel tax rebate deal and waives all the transparency requirements - no presentations, no public hearings 🧵 Might be the only chance to speak up 📨

[image] Last fall, the City of Austin told taxpayers that we needed to approve a tax rate increase for basic EMS and fire services. Meanwhile, they were sitting on an IT audit that showed a savings opportunity multiples of the budget gap - and they weren't planning on sharing it with us.

[image] Austin City Council is voting to approve the Homeless Strategic Plan on March 26th, Item 31. No input from taxpayers. This will have vast reprocussions. This will be used to justify more funding, more shelters & navigation centers. Share your thoughts📨

[image] Take note Austin 👀 City Council is pushing a "Safe to Call" policy, under the guise of protecting victims of crimes and to encourage safe reporting without fear of enforcement. This is a sweeping set of recommendations that will have tremendous consequences. Read the full

[image] It's a common argument, Austin's budget is so big because we run so many enterprises. Perhaps we just don't run them well? The more I learn about the airport, the more frustrated I become with the incompetent management and planning. There's no end to the BS.

[image] Past arrest affidavits indicate Vasquez was homeless. Our homeless system is incapable of providing mental health support. State run mental health institutions don't take the mentally ill until they've committed atrocious crimes. The gap between the systems endangers us all.

[image] Read this and tell me how Travis County voters have allowed her to keep her job. The only option to fire her now is to recruit and rally behind a write-in candidate. Austin needs a lawyer to step up. We can't get criminals off the street without ethical and competent judges.

[image] KUT reports that Austin has spent more than $35M since 2020 on outside attorneys for legal services and lawsuits across departments. This includes tens of millions tied to police litigation after 2020 protests. The city paid out more than $48M in settlements since then. The

[image] Frequent Felony Friday. Vince was on deferred adjudication for violent gun-related crimes near a school. While on deferred took police on a car chase where they found a gun. Instead of revoking probation, Garza just let him go. Last week, he was arrested trying to smuggle

[image] Austin ISD is slashing performance bonuses for top teachers under the Teacher Incentive Allotment, cutting take-home pay by thousands, due to budgets. Yet continue facing fallout from poor student outcomes while undermining incentives meant to reward & retain effective educators.

[image] Thank you, Austin taxpayers, to all of you who have shared your feedback on the city's homeless strategies. I've received many messages & emails which have helped me to prepare this taxpayer perspective for the Homeless Strategies Office. I welcome more feedback. Full document

[image] This op-ed deserves a closer look. "After Prop Q, Austin’s budget crunch demands ‘margin of safety’... First, Austin should separate recurring spending from one-time projects... Second, Austin should build and protect real slack... Third, Austin should treat transparency as a

[image] Combining CapMetro and Austin Transit Partnership offices in one space is a great plan. Plus it'll make it easier to pivot from buses and rail, if Austin ever figures out the future of public transit is electric, autonomous, point-to-point, and on-demand. Mayor's comments 👇

[image] A family friend of Aiden Hearn, the Austin man who stepped in to save a stranger on a CapMetro bus, has launched a GoFundMe to cover his medical expenses and lost to income while he recovers from knife wounds. If you're inclined to donate:

[video] I challenged the city to take their job of oversight more seriously. From public records, it's not clear that they attend to the details of the agendas or reports before voting or implementing policies. As the saying goes, take care of the pennies...

[image] Yet the city doubles down on light rail instead. As @ATXVideos says - "All transit advocates should be supporting 1) reasonably safe transit 2) efficient spending in regards to the expansion of transit 3) useful routes that will benefit the highest number of people possible."

[image] The Austin American-Statesman has expanded on reporting of murder suspect, Luis Fernando Benitez-Gonzalez. He's a 26-year-old transient Mexican national who has shown a repeated pattern of violence against vulnerable female victims. He has been accused of two homicides so far.

[text] Every week I'm discovering a new independent journalist covering important facets of Austin, but y'all can be hard to find. I'd like to start a chat group for Austin's independent journalists - a place to share ideas and discover new voices. Who's interested?

[text] Chatting with a parent of a student in Kealing's magnet program who's frustrated about her child falling behind in math because lessons are delivered via video for the whole class. When students miss an idea, there's no way to pause and review it. Excuse me?! What is the

[text] Travis CAD reports declining property values, but that doesn't mean your property taxes are going down. The city can increase revenue 3.5% over last year. To get the extra revenue, they will have to increase the tax rate. Lower property values means a larger tax rate increase.

[image] You know what's really counterproductive? Austin doesn't have a homeless dashboard yet because there's no one in the homeless strategy office with the skills to build one. True story. Maybe consolidating IT will help all departments access the IT services they need?

[video] On March 12th, Austin City Council reversed a long standing policy to require offices to track meetings with lobbyists. On April 9th, I testified about the unintended consequences - broken trust, missed opportunities - and appealed that they revisit the ordinance.