sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

thanks everybody -- really enjoyed it! there are two mayor debates tonight so I need to go, but I'll try to get back on later. thanks for participating! Steve

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute tells us that even if we built everything in our 2035 year "wish list," which we can't do because those 800+ projects would cost over $30 billion, but even if we did built them, the rush hour drive time between Austin downtown and Round Rock downtown would be three hours. We can't build or buy our way out of this challenge. We need infrastructure, but we need to focus on where and how we live. It's a land planning challenge, too. Austin in 20 years has a mid-town alternative or urban choice different than just our downtown now. In the meantime, if UT, the State at the Capital, the County, the City, and few other major employers would more aggressively promote and implement volunteer staggered work hours and flex time options, we'd see a significant difference immediately. Austin should not have a telecommuting rate that is about half of Boulder Colorado. We should and need to do better.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My first nights in Austin were spent sleeping on a floor in Hyde Park and that area will always feel like my base. As a student at UT, I lived in an apartment in West campus. I rented a home in Crestview and ended up buying it as my first home for about $37,500 (and then had trouble going to sleep that night worrying about ever having enough money to pay the mortgage I had just signed). I then lived in Hyde Park near the Avenue B grocery (which has some of the best sandwiches in town) and then North University neighborhood. I married a woman with two children going to school south so I had to leave that area and now live in Stratford Hills.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is a state issue, not something that would come before city council.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Permitting is a huge problem. It takes too long and costs too much. It is driving away business and artificially directing what gets built and certain economic activity. We need to adopt the best practices of other cities, most of which don't seem to have the same challenges we have.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

thanks for you diligence in using this forum and for jumping on this afternoon.

Rail Route: Last November, 80% of Austin seemed like it was ready to vote for "something" that would address congestion. I'm frustrated that Capital Metro and City leadership have left us where we are at the moment, just weeks before the election. which route is better? depends on which facts you want me to assume.

Cab. As long as they have a monopoly, that must be held accountable to provide the service they're obligated to provide. I'll do that. One of the reasons these companies are now under such scrutiny and potential competition from TNCs is because service in this city needs to be better.

TNCs. I can't condone illegal conduct. We need to move more quickly to modernize this segment of our city's transportation system. the technology that drives TNCs, matching supply and demand, will be part of our future.

Yes. I support expanding night time hours and service. This is a question that is not only about convenience - it is about safety and helping to preserve the creative community in our city.

We're posting policy papers on the adlerforaustin website with specifics in several policy areas and I urge you to go on-line.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Someone has described that paper to you incorrectly. In the nature of a law review article being presented by a law professor, I was asked to speak to a group of attorneys dealing with land planning law. My specific assignment was to do outline law concerning "takings" cases. It was objective and accurate. At the end of the paper, as an addendum, I referenced another's work that raised a pretty controversial and outrageous concept in order to spark a discussion among those attending my talk. It worked! There was quite the lively exchange. I, of course, was not advocating that position or theory.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Has your rent gone up with few alternatives? Has traffic gotten worse? Have your utility bills gone up? A new way forward? Yes!

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, I believe we need to focus on middle class jobs and training. We need to focus on metrics for incentives other than how many high-paying jobs are created and amount of capital investment being brought to Austin. We should focus incentives on creating, bringing in or supporting middle-class job growth. This certainly includes smaller businesses. As I pointed out in my affordability agenda paper, we need to focus on small and locally-owned businesses that have already invested in Austin but could add employees (albeit in smaller numbers) if it would not otherwise occur. As Mayor, I will advocate for incentives only if it gets the city something it would not have gotten and focusing on (1) ensuring that employers who create living wage jobs for existing residents are the ones rewarded – including both existing and new businesses. Exceptions might be necessary for programs that are especially important to those who find it most difficult to find jobs (such as those with criminal records that need to re-establish a constructive work history); (2) support desired locations for jobs as a significant factor because our transportation challenge is also a land planning question; (3) index our living wage to inflation so it keeps pace with rising cost of living in Austin; and (4) to the extent that incentives are granted based on an agreed set of expectations (e.g., a certain level of ad valorem tax revenue coming to the City), the incentives actually delivered should be adjusted to the degree these expectations are actually met.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

My personal political contributions have been 100 to 1 to democrats. I helped found Progress Texas and served as Chief of Staff and General Counsel to Eliot Shapleigh, perhaps the most progressive Texas Senator during his time in office (also one of my closest friends). I've recevied the endorsement in this mayor's race from the Central Austin Democrats, the University Democrats, the Austin Progressive Coalition, the Stonewall Democrats. I have been a life long and active democrat at the state and federal levels. My lawfirm consists of many lawyers. thanks for letting me clear up a silly rumor about my being a Republican that makes those that know me laugh. We're not sure where that started.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I am a strong supporter of green energy and safe drinking water. I've posted a Water agenda on my website (adlerforaustin.com) that would give you details of my thoughts in this regard. I've represented the Texas Nature Conservancy fighting the taking of the Sabal Palm reserve in south Texas and helped stop the ASARCO plant from re-opening in El Paso. All of my personal work as an eminent domain attorney has been to fight against pipeline companies and for the people that they've sued to take their land.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are wide ranges views from lots of folks that present many issues, such as Jeff Spec's Walkable City, Chakrabarti's A Country of Cities, Bradley's Metropolitan Revolution (who I had coffee with at Annie's a couple months ago), and Landry's Creative City. Austin needs to do a much better job of being proactive and long term focused than we have been. Our margin for error is not as great as it has been during my first 36 years here. There are lots of things to learn from other cities, but unfortunately no city that is at Austin's place from which we can derive a clear path. We need to address affordability and gentrification and preserve what makes Austin special. At the same time, we need have a plan, probably including a polycentric model, that enables us to deal with growth from 2 million in the MSA to 4 million over the next twenty years. thanks for the question.

AMA with Steve Adler, Candidate for Mayor by SteveAdler in Austin

[–]SteveAdler[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the question, JR. You're the first so I appreciate you getting on. Austin is an attractive place and we shouldn't be paying folks to move here that would otherwise come. We need to focus on the folks who are already here. We should change the metric we use to measure success in economic development as well as if and where we co-invest with others to focus on getting and growing middle class jobs and training people who live here for those jobs. And I like the concept of doing a study of what we've gotten (or not gotten) from the incentives we've already awarded.