Quote:
Originally Posted by enragedcamel
Sooooo what does everyone think about the astronomical house prices?
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Glad you brought this up. It’s something I think about daily. Sorry you’ve lost some friends due to the higher cost of living we’re dealing with—I’ve lost far too many to the same issue. It is horrible for Austin in that it drives displacement, is fuel for sprawl and ramps up traffic.
Recall we were weeks from adopting a new land use code on third reading that increased Austin’s unbuilt housing capacity to over 400,000 units! It also legalized a diversity of housing types for a diversity of income earners. The Housing Opposition Group lawsuit led by CNC, after years of failing to stop progress, finally found a NIMBY-curious judge who gave them everything they wanted. We have enough housing-deniers on city council and such entrenched aversion to growth embedded in the city staff level that housing faces an uphill battle on every front.
The most important opportunity to change course IMO are our 2022 elections. Districts 1,3, 5, 8, 9 and the Mayor are up for election with Renteria (3), Kitchen (5), Tovo* (9) and the Mayor’s seats open as they are all termed out. My guess is we’ll have some housing-deniers try to run for mayor (so far Austin has avoided this bullet). Two of the four members who voted against land use reform (5&9) are termed out giving further hope for housing progress. We all must get involved in elections next year. They are the most important since ’14.
*She had already termed out last time around but claimed there was “confusion” so she ran again. Nobody seemed confused except her but here we are.
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