ostalugo.com
CoA Zoning & Platting Commissioner
Democracy + Housing + Transportation + Justice
@aura-atx.org Board Member
78 posts
235 followers
68 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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Lengths people will go to not* lol
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The lengths people will go to actually reforming public schools to focus on helping kids excel and growth is beyond me. We give up on solving hard problems and instead give a massive hand up to the upper classes as a golden parachute out of ones of the greatest public goods ever invented
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Way too close for comfort we gotta pump those numbers up!
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Heartbreaking to see Austin merely beating the competition instead of lapping them
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Thank you for your leadership on housing Senator!
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😂 I regret nothing and you'll never catch me alive
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With this much tree growth, you could say the city has caught... the cedar fever
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Now that's what I call architecture
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Even when they discuss the dangerous and radical things some in the state they to do they miss why and how it happens. And they miss all of the great and wonderful things that happen at every level every year.
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As a broad rule I try to ignore online and political discussions about Texas since they're so far outside of reality as to be useful. As a Texan, it's best to just focus on making our home better and let others keep talking while their states continue to sink deeper and deeper
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This is a pretty bold anti demon stance Parker. Have you considered how demons play to swing voters in Maricopa County? Hard to say without doing at least a few dozen polls
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How can we be sure of anything without first mathematically proving the true metaphysics of the universe really gotta wait at least 10 more years before doing anything
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I mean if its anyone's fault its probably Elon's or random chance lol. Though please no tweeting about Project Connect until like 2029 lmao
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I feel like the theme of this season is great vibes and bad plays lol
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"We've never fully committed to nuking the economy" lol
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Many people are saying that this is the place to be on Wednesday
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I'm out on travel right now but I'm back by Tuesday and I'm 100% down
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Awesome stuff on the horizon for Austin
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You should get Eric Goff to talk energy and water policy, he's quite smart on those if he's available
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and fwiw, there is a pretty easy path to feeling like a "hero" if a given man wants to take it — it is being a responsible member of your community, a provider for your family and being a good role model for the younger men around you.
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I'm surprised its not in Austin considering that most if not all of the high end trading firms in Texas are in Austin. Plus we have the technical infra for it
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While I'm sure that some folks in the urbanist camp may be unhappy that compromise, I think we can learn a lot from folks like kirkpwatson.bsky.social who have done a great job of finding a path where we can bring everyone along towards a better Austin
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Folks understandably want a cohesive vision for what a modern neighborhood that doesn't look and feel like Downtown. The Cambridge model + Point Access Blocks I think serve as the ideal vision of the future of an urban neighborhood: PAB Condos, Townhouses & Single Family Homes co-existing seamlessly
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Unless you count a detached tall and skinny townhouse as a single family detached lol. But even those will be more expensive than equivalent land 20 years ago
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After that comes building code reform and zoning costs which are being worked on. HOME helped with zoning costs but the land value and development costs are still too high. We've has plans to tackle all of these
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Generally most of the policies being worked on and discussed are more beneficial for renters than homebuyers. Subdivision reform and site plan lite should help here but we're very far from where we need to be there
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I've got a specific policy in mind that I'm laying the groundwork internally. But before then the first step is legalizing point access blocks and an effective site plan lite implementation.
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If we want to create the classic American starter home (200-300K) in Austin then we need to understand that we'll something stronger than HOME
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Can you drop the link to the letter?
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Yeah I mean my comment was meant to be broader than Marc, he's got a bone to pick cause he went all in on crypto whose companies have a cowboy attitude to fraud and risk management. Agreed that civic responsibility being missing from people like him is part of why we're where we're at
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I potentially don't follow the media press side as much as others I'm just talking about the actual things getting built. Only part I'd disagree with you is probably autonomous vehicles and AI but I wholly agree about the other issues
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Starting from 2015 onwards? I mean there's a ton of stuff happening even if it's not what grabs headlines. I know that for instance the last 10 years of changes to Whatsapp, Shopify, et al. Have been massive for small businesses, I know folks who couldn't have startedwithout them
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To be fair tech founders and technologists more broadly have built incredible life changing things that have made life better. But I think they're still missing the civic mindedness that previous industrialists respected. Which is why Houston has so many museums and the like but Austin doesn't
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Welcome!
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Always appreciate your leadership in housing 🙏
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Thank you! She's an ML Engineer so probably she'll be fine, you never know though
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My fiancee was unfortunately affected, very sad but hope for that best for Icon
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Did you talk to him about what the tall building crane job market is looking like?