Almost a year and a half after Mayor Steve Adler, Greg Casar and Delia Garza spearheaded the radical homeless agenda currently wreaking havoc throughout Austin, Adler is now admitting that the city’s camping ban “is not working.” Mayor Adler suddenly is open to listening to all the Austin citizens who objected to these enabling tactics from the beginning.
Despite three contentious town hall meetings, where concerned citizens explained the problems with the short sighted homeless plan, Adler is now claiming he is finally willing to listen to the citizens of Austin. Governor Abbott has finally drawn a line in the sand saying, “If Austin doesn’t reinstate the ban on homeless camping the state will do it for them. Contrary to what Austin leaders think no one has a right to urinate & defecate wherever they want. Homelessness promoted by Austin has also endangered public safety. Abbott has threatened to take away funding from cities that do not promote public safety, so it is anyone’s guess whether Adler has backed down simply because of the threat of losing funds or because of the huge increase in crime, trash, and tent cities.
Rather than learn from the mistakes and problems of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, Adler unfortunately decided to follow their playbook and hope for a different outcome. While expectations around Austin could not be lower for Mayor Adler, finally admitting that his plan is not working is a step in the right direction for the city and especially for the rapidly expanding vulnerable homeless population.
The typical sentiment around social media has been pretty much all the same, “Democrat Austinite here – thank you [Governor Abbott]. I am not a fan of 99% of things you do or say, but you are right in this regard. This moronic group of “leaders” should be absolutely ashamed. Please go ahead and take over so we can save our city before it’s too late.”
“You should see under i35 and 7th street – what a fucking mess. Trash everywhere. Homeless everywhere. It’s like LA. What a disgrace of a city council. ”
“Amazing news! Now let’s not waste another year with words and let’s actually see some action!!”
“Thank you. Unfortunately with Austin’s homelessness comes untreated mental illness and rampant drug use. We don’t need our kids and families near that. Check out the Cezar Chavez tent city as it grows bigger by the week.”
“This yea i agree with facist Abbott on. It has destroyed Austin completely! Where I live looks a mess. Not only that, they drink and do drugs in the tents as well. Nothing productive about this! It must end!”
“My husband’s shop is overrun with homeless and every night the security cameras make it look like Crazy Town! They bang on the doors, smash bottles, dig through the dumpsters, steal anything that isn’t locked up triple tight and shit and piss all along the outside walls!”
“Setting up a centralized location with tents, security, showers and some medical care might be helpful. Simply sending the homeless to live under bridges is dangerous for both the homeless & residents. The problem is that many of the homeless reject any limits on their freedom.”
“There are shelters where these people can bathe, get a hot meal and have shelter from the cold; however, most of them or either drug addicts or mentally ill and don’t want to follow the rules of the shelter, which includes no drugs or alcohol.”
“I visited Austin two years ago, and swore I would never visit it again. What a dump.”
