The future under 10-1 (Mart, Point: neighborhood, school, living)

[tildahat]

Splitting off from this thread:

ATX city council considering sculpture to homeless

I continue to be surprised how confident people are in the results of the move to 10-1. After all, Leffingwell, Martinez, Riley, Morrison, and Tovo are all elected by theoretically the exact same electorate, but they are very different on a number of issues. ANC hates Riley and Martinez and loves Morrison and Tovo. Shouldn't the council all agree on everything if the underlying district is deterministic in policy outcomes? Point being, elections are funny things.

It's also not clear to me what the affect of 10-1 will be on development. The ANC Nimbys are central and generally left and think the pro-development crowd is in the pocket of Coc and RECA types. But shouldn't at least old line conservatives (as opposed to Christian Right and Tea Party types) then support CoC policies?

Even year elections will probably help with turnout, but by definition the districts are smaller and that adds a lot more variability. (See school boards all over the country.)

I guess I'm just not convinced that the big picture policy will be all that different, even if the underlying coalitions shift.

I do think we'll have an inefficient government until we move to a strong mayor system.

One final thing - I was talking to a friend of mine involved in the implementation of 10-1 and what struck me is how many proponents mention the City Council wasting money. But it is going to be extremely expensive for the city. First just to implement, but now we have more council members needing offices, staffs, etc.

Just random thoughts for the morning. Discuss if you like.

[Austin97]

People who live in an area will fight harder for the improvements in their area. For example, when all the NIMBY westlake people opposed making 360 a tollroad why would the central austin living city council members fight for that? Someone whose neighbors have to drive on 360 at rush hour every day from nw austin are more likely to make that an issue.

By the same token, someone from NW austin can recognize that creating density in the urban core is good for reducing traffic from the burbs. Even if the neighborhood councils oppose it. Their neighbors arent the ones yelling at them so they are more likely to support it.

NW austin representatives would be less likely to support homeless initiatives, vs central austinites who are more heavily impacted by them.

There will always be horsetrading of votes, but now there will be people from each area which will make it harder to pass things that only benefit central austinites.

I dont think there will be a dramatic difference, but over time I think there will be more subtle shifts that represent the spread of power to a broader base.