KUT Attacks Austin Citizens As Racist - Fake News!

KUT, which has now shown it's nothing more than a biased elite blog, attacked Mary Ingle for simply caring about neighborhood character by trying to stop Austin from becoming Calcutta! Outrageous! FAKE NEWS! "Neighborhood character" is not a dog whistle for racism! Mary even said in the KUT article linked to below, "I used to teach squash at UT with all the Indian students. I love Indian people. Why would I make a racial statement?" She's even been to Calcutta and has Indian friends and so it's not even possible to be racist towards those people! Everyone knows that if you have a colored friend, then you aren't racist - and everyone should at least keep one of them around. Just because she doesn't want those types of people living around her doesn't mean she's racist. NO! Those types of people are still allowed in her neighborhood when people want a maid or roofer or whatever. What else could they want? That's plenty of opportunity for them and they don't have to live there to work there! It would be too much of a change and a hardship for the people that currently live in central Austin to be forced to live around new people that look different from them. We don't want less expensive housing options within our central Austin neighborhoods for them to live in! People don't have more opportunities if they can afford to live in high opportunity neighborhoods. That's another elite lie! We have plenty of areas in East Austin where it's perfectly fine for lower class people to live. If they want backyard trailers or apartments that they can afford, then put them where they already live around their own people! Please help stop the city council from voting on a new land development code that would change the Austin that we've spent years cultivating to get people to where they live now! Don't fall victim to the elite media like KUT and their lies!

LINK TO WHERE KUT TALKS ABOUT THEIR LIES:

http://kut.org/post/beyond-buzzwords-coded-language-obscures-real-issues-codenext-fight

Judge Blocks Apartments Near Good Neighborhoods - A Thanksgiving Treat!

Happy Thanksgiving to us all! I'm thankful to be part of a group of people that will do anything to win and we're always winning! Bill Aleshire, bless his heart, sued the city to stop an already approved apartment complex near RM 2222 and Loop 360. We all know that west Austin is not the place where we want those types of people to live! Who cares if this was done on a technicality?! We won! We need to put up every road block we can to stop housing from being located near good neighborhoods. If they wanted to build these apartments in East Austin where those types of people want to live, then we wouldn't have needed to challenge this, but we can't have them in the neighborhoods where we live. Bless you Bill Aleshire and your handsome mustache!

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/breaking-judge-voids-austin-approval-controversial-development/LLhDfmINxUjuwFxttluexM/

Children Are Ruining Our Neighborhoods

Recently, a little house sat on the property line between 2 lots next to where I live and was sold to a developer (probably the cause of CodeNEXT somehow). We were horrified to see it go, but now hoping that building will start before CodeNEXT sets in. Under CodeNEXT, as many as 6 units could be build on these two lots and could become coops, senior living (that's what single family homes are for), or daycare facilities. Can you imagine the noise that children would bring at 3 pm in the afternoon at a daycare facility when people are trying to take their naps?! What if those smaller homes had children because the poor or people with kids could afford them because they aren't as expensive?! We've carefully crafted our current zoning rules to remove children from our neighborhoods by increasing the cost of housing to be out of reach of families. AISD enrollment has been going down for years, which has been a great success! CodeNEXT could change that and we need to stop the #CodeWreck!!!!

Supply and Demand Is A Myth

Finally the uppity elite are starting to understand that supply and demand it a myth and does NOT apply to housing! If you build a lot of housing and there's too much housing, prices will only go up! Neo Urbanists say that we can't solve traffic problems by building more roads, so why would they believe that we can build more housing and that'll help somehow? Doesn't seem to work other places.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/academic-takes-on-vancouvers-housing-supply-myth/article37015584/

Important Event! Decoding CodeNEXT - 7 Experts Help Decode CodeNEXT Nov 12!

Join everyone for this important event on November 12! Learn how CodeNEXT will impact your neighborhood at this approved AustinNeighborhoodsCouncil.com event (TM)! These balanced speakers will teach you everything you need to be worried about!

Ana Aguirre
Carmen Llanes Pulido
Bobby Levinski
Robin Rather
Fred McGhee
Ed Wendler
Laura Morrison

Fred Lewis on protecting our neighborhoods from realtors and land developers!

Fred Lewis on protecting our neighborhoods from transients, drunken students, walkable businesses, and change!

----------------

> Dear Neighbor,
> 
> Realtors and land developers are used to getting what they want in Austin.
> 
> Seven of the 13 individuals who sit on the City’s Planning Commission have professional ties to that industry, and their recommendations will weigh heavily when it comes to CodeNEXT, the controversial land-redevelopment plan that will make it easier to demolish single-family neighborhoods and replace them with luxury residences.
> 
> That’s not just unfair—it’s also a violation of our City’s charter <http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/group-says-planning-commission-roster-violates-austin-city-charter/qldEx400KFTagKZFEItR7M/>, which limits the number of land-development professionals on the Planning Commission.
> 
> I am taking action. I have joined Nelson Linder of the Austin NAACP, Bill Bunch of Save Our Springs Alliance, and others in filing a complaint <http://www.statesman.com/news/local/group-asks-district-attorney-investigate-planning-commission/nFv3JZLE8ILJLIDpRfLgPO/> with our local district attorney. It asks her to remove any planning commissioners who are serving unlawfully.
> 
> A copy of that complaint is attached to this email. Please review it and feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions, or wish to offer your neighborhood association’s support. I lead Community Not Commodity <https://communitynotcommodity.com/>, and we are always in need of the following:
> 
> Signatures for this petition <https://communitynotcommodity.com/wp-content/uploads/Petition-for-an-Austin-Ordinance-Requiring-Waiting-Period-and-Voter-Approval-Before-CodeNEXT.pdf>, which demands that CodeNEXT be put to a public ballot
> Block-walkers and other neighborhood-based volunteers
> Financial donations <https://donateway.com/donate/jrK7BSBb/community-not-commodity/payment>
> 
> Thank you for your continued support!
> 
> Your friend and ally,
> 
> Fred Lewis
> 
> 
> About Community Not Commodity
> Community Not Commodity (CNC) provides Austinites with useful information about CodeNEXT, the sweeping new land development code being proposed by city leaders. We will fight for a code that protects our community, does not displace you or your neighbors, and maintains Austin’s livability. For more information, see communitynotcommodity.com <https://communitynotcommodity.com/>.

Austin Commission Wants to Encourage Backyard Trailers (ADUs) in CodeNEXT

Oh boy just what I've always dreamed of doing. Renting a tiny house in some one's back yard to raise my family in. Accumulating no equity. Accumulating no assets. Raising them in a large City festering and over ran with all the things we should have learned by now; always come with big city living. Such a bright future for our children and grandchildren .... not!

https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2017/11/commission-embraces-adus-codenext/

Austin Commission Goes Rogue With Irresponsible Obama Recommendations

The Planning Commission, which has been shown to be an illegal commission in a previous post, set out to cause more chaos at their November 2 meeting. There was an irresponsible resolution that passed 9-1-3 that told city staff to follow the Obama Housing Development Toolkit. Anyone that knows anything about Obama knows that he's in the pockets of big developers and wants to give our neighborhoods over to them! Obama says we should eliminate off-street parking, streamlining the permitting process, and establishing by-right development. It also puts a strong emphasis on high-density development. WRONG!

"Accumulated barriers to housing development can result in significant costs to households, local economies, and the environment" - NOT TRUE! Barriers to housing help keep our neighborhood character!

"Modernized housing regulation comes with significant benefits." - NOT TRUE! Modern regulations are bunk!

“when new housing development is limited region-wide, and particularly precluded in neighborhoods with political capital to implement even stricter local barriers, the new housing that does get built tends to be disproportionally concentrated in low-income communities of color, causing displacement and concerns of gentrification in those neighborhoods. Rising rents region-wide can exacerbate that displacement.” -NOT TRUE! Gentrification happens when you allow too much housing and people leave their neighborhoods so they don't have to live next to the types of transients that live in apartments!

The Planning Commission is not being honest with the public. If they TRULY had Austin's best interests in mind, they'd posture less at PC meetings and instead listen and learn about real land use planning. They wouldn't offer up the poorly thought-through resolutions they constantly offer up. They really don't know what they are doing. They crow loudly and dishonestly ats PC meeting for their own political gain. Their actions created way more chaos that night than it did solutions. They need to their crap together, lest they become an anchor that snags CodeNext on a reef.

https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2017/11/land-use-commissions-diverge-ahead-codenext-third-draft/

Planning Commission Violating Austin City Charter

This is what we've been saying for years! Most commissions appointed by the city council are corrupt, but especially the planning commission! Who else would allow zoning changes to properties. They are just a bunch of well-heeled architects and even wealthier habitat for humanity employees that are paid by the real estate industry to change our neighborhoods into a bunch of apartment complexes under the guise of "affordable" housing! It's about time someone with money has stepped up to challenge these obvious violations that are destroying the fabric of our society!

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/group-says-planning-commission-roster-violates-austin-city-charter/qldEx400KFTagKZFEItR7M/

Jeff Jack in Community Impact For Being Elected New Leader of ANC!

Jeffy Jack, as his friends call him, made it into a printed daily! The ANC membership unanimously elected him to represent ANC! ANC recently kicked out the Downtown Neighborhood Association and other members that didn't agree with Jeffy, which makes it a lot easier to be unanimous on all decisions that help the agenda of the ANC executive committee! Jeffy is proud he represents all of the true characteristics of the average Austinite with the best mix of age, income, race, ownership, and creed that our membership has to offer. He truly speaks for the oppressed who don't have a voice in this city!

https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/city-county/2017/10/25/austin-neighborhoods-council-unanimously-elect-codenext-critic-jeff-jack-new-president/

Support Soccer Stadium to Prevent Public Land From Being Used For Housing!

Support Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo in finding the largest tract of land in central Austin to use for a new soccer stadium! We all know that the worst use for any land is new housing and if we can get a soccer stadium to put on our public land we can prevent it from being used for housing forever! We don't know anyone that plays soccer, but maybe those people in East Austin enjoy this type of thing! However, it's better than having renters near us! Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo understands real Austin values! Also, say no to Amazon that would only bring more people that our neighborhoods don't need!

Read more: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2017/10/city-look-public-land-soccer-stadium/

Austin is not Calcutta!

Mary Ingle rightfully told the Zoning and Platting Commissioners that "Austin is not Calcutta," which is exactly what the city council wants to turn Austin into through #CodeWRECK! "Imagining so many brown people living so close together in one place" is horrifying! Are we supposed to live among a bunch of yurts and tent cities with trash piling up? We don't want to live around so many different people and they don't want to live around us. People want to live in places that are familiar and not a bunch of transients that might rent a place for a year and then move. You'd never get to know who your neighbors are! Not to mention the flooding caused by all of these "homes?!" Gross. Things are fine how they are. Neo Urbanists talk about an affordability crisis, but I paid off my mortgage 20 years ago. What housing crisis?! No one is stopping anyone else from doing the same thing! Maybe they should get better jobs if they can't afford a house. Millennials want everything handed to them like special snowflakes. We shouldn't be forced to live near transients and people that aren't like us just because millennials are lazy.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2017-10-20/point-austin-the-amazon-invasion/

The Mayor is Fomenting Panic!

Community Not Commodity is right! The mayor is wrong! You should panic! This is not "irresponsible." The idea of having bars and other commercial enterprises next to neighborhoods is repulsive to think about. Where would all of the cars park? What about drunk driving? Would the children be safe?! Oh, the "new urbanists" think that people will walk everywhere, ride their "bikes," or take the "bus" with homeless people and transient students. WRONG! People drive cars! That's what our central Austin suburbs were setup for since the start. American way! Community Not Commodity is the group that's sticking up for the downtrodden! If you have to, take out a reverse mortgage and give to them and they will fight for you!

---------------------------------------------------------

From: Amanda Boyd <amanda@communitynotcommodity.com>
Subject: Tuesday October 24th Rally!
Date: October 20, 2017 at 10:36:22 AM CDT

Dear Neighbors:


Are you “irresponsible” for being concerned about CodeNEXT? Mayor Steve Adler’s office seems to think so. His top aide recently tweeted that “[CodeNEXT] panic is explicable - panic being intentionally and irresponsibly fomented.”

The mayor’s office is wrong.

If you’re concerned (or even panicked) about bars popping up in your neighborhood, you aren’t acting irresponsibly. You’re standing up for your neighbors’ quality of life.

If you’re concerned (or even panicked) about your street becoming congested with twice as many cars, you aren’t acting irresponsibly. You’re trying to keep your surroundings safe.

If you’re concerned (or even panicked) about CodeNEXT driving up your property taxes and forcing middle-class families out of Austin, you aren’t acting irresponsibly. You’re committed to your community.

Let’s send the mayor and city council a message. First, download and sign our petition calling for a public vote on CodeNEXT. Then, bring your signed copy to our rally this coming Tuesday:

WHAT: Community Not Commodity’s “Surviving CodeNEXT” Rally
WHEN: Tuesday, October 24th, 5:30 – 8:00 PM
WHERE: Austin City Hall Plaza, 301 West 2

We’ll have speakers, music, and free food and drink. Wear black and tell the mayor and city council that our neighborhoods come first!

Thank you!

CNC

Habitat for Humanity is a Real Estate Front Group (Among Others!)

Community Not Commodity, one of the groups protecting us from the destruction that is CodeNEXT, pointed out (RIGHTLY!) that there are many groups in Austin that have been front groups for the real estate industry for a long time. They have so much power that they've taken control of all of the following groups! This should be concerning for everyone! You can see all of these front groups at the Evolve (Wreck)'s website in order to know what groups to stay away from! The tech industry could also be behind these groups.

Austin Habitat for Humanity
Ecology Action
Environment Texas
Bike Austin
Walk Austin
The Austin Justice Coalition
One Voice Central Texas
TexPIRG
Austin Housing Coalition
Austin Music People (AMP)
Austin Tech Alliance
Austin Technology Council
Alliance for Public Transportation
College Houses
Congress for the New Urbanism Central Texas
Desegregate Austin
Downtown Austin Alliance
AND MANY MORE!

https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/whispers/anti-density-org-calls-pro-codenext-coalition-real-estate-front-group/

CodeWreck!

The Austin City Council and city staff continue to push their agenda on our neighborhoods by forcing more people to live in OUR neighborhoods. CodeNEXT mandates ALL houses in ALL neighborhoods be torn down within 5 years after CodeNEXT passes and replaced with duplexes or worse! Who do they think they are! WE bought our houses. If renters or other undesirables and transients wanted to live near us, they should buy a house so they have a stake in our neighborhood. Tell the city council to vote against CodeNEXT and save our neighborhood!

Austin's New Zoning Code CodeNEXT Will Cause Gentrification and Displacement!

The Neo Market Urbanists say that by allowing more housing in the better neighborhoods near the city center that would allow more people (density!) to live there and there wouldn't be the housing pressure to cause rising home prices in the less good neighborhoods. NOT TRUE! It's actually the opposite! Enough people live central already! Please get involved with your local neighborhood association and tell them to pass a resolution that asks the city to stop creating the new land development zoning code that would do this!

“We cannot vote for and we cannot continue to support a system that is largely incentivizing [large, unaffordable single-family homes] near central Austin when we could have smaller and more affordable homes; we cannot continue to support a system that is keeping working families and income restricted units out of some of our highest opportunity areas—areas where working people should have greatest opportunity to live.” - Austin Council Member Casar WRONG!

“Our current land development code encourages sprawl and has pushed families to areas where they have less access to basic services,” Garza said. “It has created an inequitable system. - WRONG! Home prices have been getting higher in central Austin, which allows for us to accumulate wealth with little effort and it works in everyone's best interest!

"Coalition of 4 council members vows to fight for CodeNEXT proposal that addresses gentrification and sprawl"
https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/city-county/2017/08/22/coalition-4-council-members-vows-fight-codenext-proposal-addresses-gentrification-sprawl/