You've probably seen the news this week that Mike Martinez, Chris Riley and I are calling for the phase-out of single-use plastic check-out bags in Austin. Our resolution will be taken up at the next Council meeting, on August 4th.
Single-use plastic bags are both harmful to the environment and costly to our economy.
They create litter in our rivers and streams, they're harmful to wildlife, they're produced by petroleum products and because they are not biodegradable, they are around forever.
Single-use plastic bags also cost Austin taxpayers a significant amount of money. In fact, Austinites use about 263 million plastic bags annually, costing the city about $850,000 per year for collection, litter clean-up, landfill management and recycling contamination. This figure does not include the cost to our environment.
We've been working on this effort for almost 5 years now, since my first term on the Council. During that time, we've engaged a wide array of stakeholders - retailers, environmentalists, plastic bag manufacturers, small business owners and more - to try to come up with voluntary, market-based solutions.
Though we made some headway with voluntary efforts and pilot programs, the results simply did not produce the success we were looking for. We've tried everything we can think of to reduce the number of plastic bags that enter our waste stream.
(This is probably the most awesome post by a candidate I've seen on BOR in some time. Lee Leffingwell is running for Mayor, and if you know his humor, it's evident in this post. I encourage those interested and undecided in the Austin Mayor's race to read it to get a sense of him and his campaign. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Hello BOR community.
I want to start my way-too-lengthy-I-know inaugural Burnt Orange Report post with a heartfelt salute to KT, Matt, Phillip, the BOR staff writers, and the whole BOR community for creating a fascinating and exciting place online.
In my view, BOR has proven itself to be a superb source of news and insightful, colorful (sometimes extremely colorful) commentary about Texas politics, life in Austin, and life in general. It’s also a great place to keep up with the political career of Tom Musselman. Bottom line: It’s a heck of a good read.
The most exciting thing about BOR to me is the opportunity it gives us to talk with each other about what’s going on in the world around us every day, and sometimes to actually organize ourselves to work for positive change.
As it was for many BOR readers, 2008 was an exhilarating year for me. After eight long years of mostly reprehensible behavior in Washington, America finally chose to embrace hope and change. While I began 2008 as a Hillary Clinton supporter, in the end Barack Obama genuinely inspired me – as he did so many other people in every part of America – to re-think what it means to be an active citizen in a democracy.
In fact, it was the night Barack Obama won the presidency – surrounded by thousands of my fellow joyous Democrats at the Driskell Hotel downtown – that I made the decision to run for Austin mayor.
WHY I’M RUNNING FOR MAYOR
After many months of consideration, the reason that I finally decided to run is pretty simple. I’m running because I believe I know the direction Austin needs to go at this critical crossroads, and I feel confident that I can help lead us in that direction.
As of now, most of Austin hasn’t yet experienced the full impact of the national recession. But times are already very tough for lots of people in our community, and they seem likely to get worse before they get better.
For City Hall – just like for any struggling Austin family – that means having less money to spend, but just as many basic expenses to cover. And like any family, City Hall now faces some very hard choices – choices that could help determine if Austin moves steadily in the direction of a healthy recovery, or swiftly in the direction of a deepening recession.
I believe that right now we need a new leader in the mayor’s office who can and will stay focused on the fundamentals of our quality of life: jobs, traffic, public safety, social services, environmental protection, and effective, efficient basic services and infrastructure.
I also believe our next mayor must be committed to building renewed trust between City Hall and the citizens of Austin. Austin city government should be more inclusive, more transparent, and more accountable, and there is some real work to do in the years ahead to make it so.
I’ve said many times since announcing my candidacy for mayor last month that this race should be a contest of ideas for a city of ideas. That’s why I’ve laid out what I believe is the broadest and most specific platform of any candidate in the race to help us get through the tough times ahead and get back on track to a better future. WHAT I’ll DO IF ELECTED
To help save and create jobs, my platform includes creating a “Green Collar Jobs Council” to coordinate the training initiatives of all local workforce development groups, educational institutions, and major local employers, to best prepare Austin workers to take advantage of new job opportunities in our changing economy.
I also believe that we should continue and expand our efforts to recruit targeted, desirable new employers to Austin, including clean energy companies, digital media companies, and medical technology companies. I’m especially enthusiastic about the ongoing efforts to attract a medical school to Austin, and will make it a major focus of Austin’s economic development strategy if elected.
To help solve our traffic problems, my platform also includes a proposal to hold a transit election by 2010. If approved by voters, this bond package would help us make investments in roads, sidewalks, and bike lanes. I believe the package should also include funding for expanding our rail system, and if elected I’ll work with Capital Metro and potential funding partners like UT and Travis County to craft a viable plan to present to voters. (Capital Metro would actually have to hold the election to win approval to expand our rail system.)
Another idea to fight traffic congestion that I’ll pursue if elected mayor is to convene a working group of our largest local employers and ask them to examine the possibility of adopting “flextime” work schedules. If even a few of Austin’s big employers adopted flextime policies that allowed for variable work schedules, we might be able to accomplish a meaningful reduction in rush-hour traffic congestion.
Of course, at a time like this, some people might be happy to be stuck in the traffic if it meant they were on their way to work. When the economic challenges are as big as they are right now, I believe City Hall must reaffirm our commitment to maintaining a strong safety net. That’s why my platform includes a pledge to not only oppose budget cuts that impact public safety services or social services, but also a pledge to expand funding for mental health care services as soon as possible.
I can’t overstate the importance of this, in my view. Already, there are people in Austin who are losing their jobs, their insurance, their cars, and in some cases their homes. What we can’t afford to let them lose is their dignity, their health, or their sense of safety. More than anything, Austin is a caring, compassionate community. Now is exactly the time to reaffirm our commitment to those core values.
