Making growth pay for itself!

Tag Archives: brian rodgers

The Real News on Water Treatment Plant #4: From the Comical to the Real Estatesman

When big news stories broke in the good old days, Austin citizens relied on their one daily paper to get the details.  Along came the Austin Chronicle as the new boss, the progressive alternative to challenge the old boss American-Statesman; a rivalry good for coverage of community issues.  But a while back, the new boss Austin Chronicle (despite the good sensibilities of its publisher Nick Barbaro) decided to be damn nearly the same as the old boss Austin American-Statesman, and kowtow to the real estate growth lobby.  Which maybe explains why some people call them the “Comical” and the “Real Estatesman”. 

This issue will be coming back in May 2010 for a vote of the Austin City Council.  So far, they are split 4 in favor (Leffingwell, Martinez, Cole and Shade) and 3 against (Spelman, Riley and Morrison). 

Get the story the Statesman and Chronicle failed to report, watch the debate yourself and YOU decide a major decision on Austin’s critical future on water policy!

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What Now After the Protest?

Thanks to all who protested with us last week at City Hall.

It took us a few days to think about our next steps.

Thanks to SouthernShift.com, you can watch this wonderful 5″ video on “Travis County’s Dirty Little Secret” on the residential property tax inequity that is driving Austinites out of their homes.

We love you KXAN!  Scroll down this page to watch the 2.5 minute piece they did that helped us reach thousands.

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Will Travis Co. Listen to the Little Guy & Gal?

10:30 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday), Brian Rodgers will address the Travis County Commissioner’s Court along with Chief Appraiser, Patrick Brown.

Rodgers, ChangeAustin.org co-founder, founder of CostofGrowth.com and a longtime commercial real estate investor himself, will discuss the under-valuation of large commercial properties in Travis County.  Brown will respond and Rodgers will have an opportunity to rebut.

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Our first meeting

ChangeAustin.org had its first meeting last Saturday at Opal Divine’s and it was a great success. Over thirty people showed up to learn more about us and to hear a presentation about Impact Fees by Jim Duncan and one about the candidates in the May election by Brian Rodgers.

Many of the attendees joined as voting members and even more signed up to join one of our organizing teams. If you are interested in joining one (blogger team, research team, speakers bureau, administrative team or organizing team) please contact Albert @ 512-775-7617 or albert@ChangeAustin.org.

Brad McClellan, Carol Strayhorn’s son and Perla Cavazos, who is running for the open seat soon to be vacated by Lee Leffingwell were present and introduced themselves to the crowd.

Representatives from several other organizations including Vote Rescue, Texans for Accountable Government and others also joined us in our efforts to clean up City Hall.

Our first volunteer day is this coming Saturday when we are going to be hitting the pavement and the phones.