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Odd
Lots of Common Sense
Commissioner
David Gray - in exile
2015 - 2016
City of Austin Commission on Seniors
davidTgray@SeniorCommission.info
SeniorCommission.info
512-913-0326
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Adulthood is where dreams come to die.
In old age they come back to life.
Smile at a Senior and
living
history
Smiles Back
Delve
deeper, and the wisdom of the ages may be revealed
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FORTRESS AUSTIN
A time has come when we must think about
protecting the Dream of Austin
- the allure
of low stress
living is gone. In our quest accommodate
our neighbors we have destroyed a soft and gentler
lifestyle. We cleaned-up the air and water
only to pollute our lives with stress. Bump-into the person next-to-you. Defenses
go-up and in a crowded city you're on-all-the-time. Drive down
crowded narrow lane streets, it's like running a gauntlet.
This is STRESS.
The average
car is on the road 10% of the time. Run 10% of
the cars, 100% of the time and accomplish the same. Recycle
existing transportation funds employing newer rideshare technologies to lighten-up
the roadways.
I
imagine a moat surrounding Austin. There is a drawbridge
and every visitor who crosses will pay, contributing
to roadway costs. They line-up like race horses at 7, 8, 9 in the
morning flooding into our sleepy city. About a million people live
here and a million live
out-there. They spend half their time here. They can pay half of
our city's cost - that's fair. We do this by placing a payroll
tax on the visitors, amounting to about half of our tax burden, reducing
our living cost, making Austin Affordable again.
Of course, the visitors cannot vote
here and will complain about Taxation Without Representation. A war was fought over this back
in 1776 but we need to protect the Dream of Austin.
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THE DOLLAR DRAIN
In 1973 there were oil shocks.
Prior to that the Depletion allowance allowed the Texas Railroad Commission
to manufacture oil shortage thereby affecting world oil prices. In that year,
the emerging Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC)
took control of world oil markets. Whether the Texas Oil Men were defacto
members of OPEC is a matter of debate.
Long lines formed at the pump, gas prices went up.
America retaliated by inflating the money supply, thereby paying for energy with
cheaper dollars - turnabout
is fair-play.
By 1980, inflation was 13%. With higher energy
prices, all prices went-up but wages didn't.
The women stepped-up and like the women of WW II, they went to-work,
restoring the middle class life-style at the expense of the single-earner
household - "hurray" for WomensLib, life went back to a new normal.
Fed-Up
being paid in inflated dollars the Texas the Oil-Men
wanted their fair share. Taking control of the White
House, Two Gulf Wars ensued disrupting
world oil supplies. The second Gulf War
in 2003 used the pretext of Weapons-of-Mass Destruction to manipulate public
opinion for an invasion of Iraq - America fell-for-it.
By year 2000, inflation has run-its-course. Record oil
prices were paid-for in real dollars. The stock market went
flat for 8 years and Texas was living-high - three-cheers for Texas.
Oil prices are about supply,
demand. Disrupting oil supplies
from the Middle East brought Skyrocketing
energy prices, gasoline prices rose to $1, $2, $3 and $4
a gallon redistributing
the wealth of America to the Middle East. For America which is energy dependent, all facets of modern life are in one way or
another touched by petroleum-hydrocarbons.
But oil
pricing is more complicated. Oil
prices are actually controlled by the little-understood futures
market. In the futures market prices are based on future-price-expectations - the
fortunetellers have taken-over financial markets.
During this is era, for a
generation, a wave of paranoia had slept across America reminiscent of the
McCarthy era red menace. Al-Qaeda had emerged then ISIS
- is your neighbor a terrorist? And like the child who misbehaves
seeking attention, the more they misbehaved, the more
we retaliated. The stress-of-uncertainty drove-up energy costs.
Commencing in an unending drain on the wealth
of America - a failed foreign policy.
The reality is that America was
built on cheap energy, much at the expense
of the Oil Industry. Unfortunately the psychological ramifications of the wave-of-fear and the decline of the middle-class into the new-normal
has left a black mark on history.
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BANNED by order of the office of the Chief Appraiser for distribution
on the premises of the Central Appraisal District.
IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION
TEXANS believe in PRIVACY - the
sales price is NOT on the Deed.
Tax Appraisers
cannot Trespass
on the property.
They rely on visual OPINION, but there is ANOTHER WAY.
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PROTEST YOUR PROPERTY TAXES
2
Tax Appraisal Methods by
David Gray
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During the 1989 market crash,
a fire-truck rolled out of the fire station on MLK across 4 lanes of
traffic into my living room. During the turmoil, home
prices had dropped
50%. Tax appraisals didn't. They disregarded
the wave of foreclosures assuming them to be aberrations.
Actually this
happens every generation. The cycle repeats itself every 18 years. Those
who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it!
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The Wrong Way!
COMPARABLES
based on OPINION.
Each year, Prices rise because of scarcity - there is only a limited supply of properties available.
Each year the buyer
forms an OPINION and makes a
purchase. The tax appraiser doesn't know what the buyer paid.
Each year the tax appraiser cleans the OPINION data of aberrations assembling a
sample of
property sales - called comparables.
Based on the sample, the tax
appraiser acts as a real estate appraiser
pretending that all property sold at the new price level - posting on the internet,
mapping the new valuations
over the landscape.
WOW! Everybody is RICH - the cycle continues... until the CRASH
- the HURT sets-in, the wife
runs off with he kids, the guy's in bankruptcy, and property values revert to COST.
This is the
Greater Fool Theory of market manipulation - the appraiser is the unwitting fortuneteller of a sell-fulfilling prophecy.
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The Right Way!
COST
based on FACT.
Each year the tax appraiser ignores OPINION
data.
Each year the tax appraiser rebuilds the house at today's builder's cost.
Then uses Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles to age
the home arriving at a value - if it's life is half-up, cut the price in
half! Then the land is added.
When you buy a soft-drink, you pay tax on something you own, IRS
income tax is on your own income.
Property should be taxed on the
value of what you own
rather than on the OPINION-of-others.
This a more sensible approach
to taxation,
taking the HURT out of the impending CRASH, relieving the tax appraiser of having
to provide hearsay-evidence from
spies and paid informants to assemble comparables.
The taxing jurisdictions don't
care how the valuations were assembled, they get their money
anyhow.
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THERE
ARE PROBLEMS IN TRAVIS COUNTY
Land value: Real estate is a bundle of rights. In Austin the bundle
is smaller than in the County because
we have Zoning (in appraisal theory
this is called economic obsolescence). Identical
houses on lots zoned for a single-family home have about the same value
regardless of size in a given area. The housewife
selects the house and in the mind of the buyer, about 86%
of overall value is vested in the home.
Beware, tax appraisers don't respect
zoning and allocate 20%, 30%, 40%,
even 50% of overall value to the land.
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Depreciation (%Good):
Travis county does not use Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles to age
the home. If occupied it's visually 80% Good. Add a
fresh paint, it's 85% Good. This the FaceBook
approach.
FaceBook
was originally designed for guy's to rate the hotness of the girls at Harvard.
The tax appraisers rate property hotness as %Good
- pretending it to be depreciation.
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Older
properties are visually valued as almost new. A fresh coat of
paint is like putting lipstick
on a pig, overvaluing the house driving the old folks out
of the their homes, in the spirit of urban renewal, gentrifying Austin - good work tax-guys your parents would not
be proud of you!
Today's replacement
Cost:
Travis county does not use wholesale
price data to rebuild the house, instead they use retail data from the local home
improvement store - after-all the local store buys wholesale then marks-it-up.
Home-builders buy wholesale.
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The social impact
of the Comparables and the
percent-good (%Good - android app) depreciation of the Cost
method, tends to drive those on fixed incomes, the elderly, disabled
and financially less-fortunate
to the streets. Remember,
renters are tax-payers too. The apartment owner gets the
tax bill, divides it by the number units - everybody's rent
goes-up.
Why pay tax on OPINION? Sales tax and IRS income tax are
based on proven-value. Property
tax is based on the opinions-of-others. Taxation should be based
on FACT!
AGING
THE PROPERTY IS CALLED Depreciation
It is a mathematical means of measuring
invisible deterioration based on Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
The IRS, Insurance, Accounting and Financial companies world-wide use this measure.
Locally called %Good
- a form of Orwellian
DoubleSpeak!
OPINION
When we look-around we might have
the visible OPINION that the average person is 80%
Good.
When taxmen look-around they have
the visible OPINION that the average
home
is 80% Good.
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FACT
To translate OPINION to FACT:
Invisible
%Depreciation
is wear and tear (age
of home / life
expectancy).
Visible %Good is
(100% - Invisible %Depreciation). This is straight line depreciation
of Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles.
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This is a high-school algebra
test: Observe the average home
in Austin. It's 80% good
and has a life expectancy of 50 years. How old is it?
Answer: It's 10 years old
or (100% - 80%) x 50 years).
50 Year Old House |
10 years old |
20% used up |
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40 Years left |
80% good |
This is a perception test:
How old is the average house in Austin?
Answer: Older than 10 years,
since Austin is over 100 years old - the Travis Central Appraisal
District treats most homes as almost
new. The
average home in
Austin is an older home and has invisible
disabilities accumulated over a lifetime of wear and tear.
The pier and beam
foundation has life of 50 to 70 years. Cellulose
is biological polysaccharide providing flexibility in wood. Oxidation
causes broken links in the molecular chain, the wood becomes brittle - a rickety old house.
The concrete slab
foundation has life of 40 to 50
years. Exposed to the
elements, heat and cold, wet and dry on shifty ground, concrete
is porous. The metal reinforcing
in the concrete
oxidizes (rust/corrosion).
The metal expands and eventually cranks the foundation - look at old sidewalks or
bridges falling down.
Look inside the walls it's like a petri-dish -
a whole other life lives there - mould and bacterial. A fresh coat of paint covers-up a lifetime of natures abuse.
As a result of lifetime
of seasonal environmental fluctuations,
homes deteriorate invisibly
at an annual linear pace.
This why we use the straight line depreciation of Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles - taxmen should abandon the Visible
FaceBook
method.
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AGING in PLACE a taxation initiative
65 and becoming WARDS of the STATE, forced to live on their mandatory
subsistence lifetime retirement plan, pension funds, IRA's, 401K's
and/or social security;
This is plight of the elderly. No longer
wage slaves, 65 and can can now do all things dreamed of, heading
out the door, but, hips, knees and clouded cataract eyes don't
work as well, destined to watch daytime TV - inactivity
breeds decline. Maybe a professional or a housewife?
The best job available is a "greeter" at WalMart.
The world keeps spinning, friends and family
die off, the world grows smaller - big buildings go-up, taxes
go-up, the quality of life goes down. The kitchen knife
scratches on the doorframe marking the kids ages and the child's
footprints in the concrete of the backyard patio are the
architectural memory's
of a life to be abandoned as the family home becomes unaffordable.
We, the VOTERs,
DEMAND that the elderly 65 and older be exempt from
all city of Austin TAXES, including but not limited to school taxes, sales taxes, fees and
assessments making Austin the Age Friendly Capital of
America.
download voter sign up
petition to force the city to put it to a voters
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Discontinue the
KILL THE KIDS program.
Remove bike lanes from the busy streets. Put the bicycles back on
extra-wide sidewalks where possible - a bicycle collision with a
person causes scrapes and dings, with a car it's often
death.
Design a short-cut network through neighborhoods. Bicyclists can travel north,
south, east
and west across Austin without having to ride-along busy street.
The city often has utility easements between homes.
Turn some of these into sidewalk bike-shorts cuts - especially between
one-way-in, one-way-out cul-de-sac neighborhoods - some neighborhoods in west Austin have already done
this. Reconnect shopping center parking lots. Let cyclists travel
seamlessly to their destination without encountering a public street -
we put alarms on windows around home
swimming-pools - we care more about the kids drowning-in-the-pool than
dying in the-streets????
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This Web Site is Wi-Fi BLOCKED at
the CEDAR PARK REGIONAL
MEDICAL CENTER
This
site is hosted in Milan, Italy (a Catholic
Country) by the largest publishing house in Italy. The hospital is a Catholic hospital - somebody should talk
to the POPE about this.
Censorship
is the first step to tyranny
MEDICARE
CUTS DOCTORS 20%
this
will reduce
life expectancy 40%
where the doctors manta is, patients should
be SEEN and NOT HEARD
Forbs 201
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GIVE your LIFE for your
COUNTRY
and save social
security! |
BUT WAIT,
Welfare's not running out of money? Hmmmm!
Some suggest - it's all about the money.
KILL-OFF the old folks
and balance-the-budget.
WHY do we put-up
with this Misbehavior?
and Medical costs are OUT-OF-SIGHT
Remember when plumber bent the float in the toilet to keep
it
from running? This was an very expensive because you are paying for his knowledge.
If he charged by-the-hour the cost would be quite different. This is the
concept of value-added which is prevalent a realm
where the profit motive is the objective.
The medical device called an MRI will
diagnose a 100 knowledge things.
Though the machine costs a little more than a couple of expensive cars and will
run for 10 years, the charge
is $8,000 for a short ride - what if they charged by-the-hour?
The question is,
are the 100 knowledge things worth more than
the ride? Is the sum of the knowledge parts worth more
than the whole? The
answer is YES. BUT IS the value-added profit-motive appropriate
in the medical field? Doctors only
want to treat healthy people, insurance
companies want healthy people, the profit
motive has corrupted health care. After-all the maintenance
of human life is a higher-calling.
We see from mass-produced consumer products that
when the knowledge component has been paid-for, the price of the product converges
with the cost of the raw materials. In cost accounting there are hard
costs and soft costs. In the medical realm the
soft costs, the intangible
costs, are out-of-proportion.
Much of medical care
is old
technology - bandages
and blood tests. Why should we pay over-an-over
again for that which is already known? What if we removed
the profit-motive
from the medical realm and paid by-the-hour.
Put the doctors on salary
and stop paying kickbacks for
ordering medical tests and pharmaceuticals, maybe we could bring medical costs under
control.
THE
NEW MEDICINE
Go
to the doctor for body repair. Run a whole
body scan, an
MRI or CT scan. The real problem
might be a convergence of minor things or something other than the primary
focus. The managing physician having sent copies
of the MRI/CT imaging electronically to his colleagues is engaged in an online
web-conference with specialists, all the while searching the National
Institute of Health worldwide database. A database which
includes socialist countries where they don't mess-around and can do things
we cannot because of privacy laws. Things like run the DNA of everybody in
the county. This is a HOLISTIC
approach rather than the piece-meal, one appointment at a time, method, which may take
years of appointments with specialists and thousands of
dollars to cure the whole-thing.
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MOBILITY EMPOWERING SENIORS TO
HELP THEMSELVES
In Austin, public transportation is
funded by 1% of Sales Tax Revenue, we all pay Sales Tax which amounts to about 1
Billion dollars every five years. In addition to buses, cars provide rides
for those who are disabled, called PARATRANSIT.
This is only available in certain preferred areas of Austin.
These areas are called corridors. Though
we all pay for-it, it's only available to some of us.
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This
is JERRY
Jerry had a seizure while
driving to work on MoPac. He ended-up
wrapped around a light post. He is now 73, disabled
and home-bound, he pays Austin Sales Tax and lives next to a
paratranist corridor. He is denied a ride.
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This
is VIRGINIA
She was 58, her dementia qualified
her for paratransit but she lived several hundred feet
outside of the
paratranist corridor. Home-bound, she was
denied a ride - in 2016 she died of Alzheimer's.
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FEDERAL LAW: American
Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II
State and Local Government Activities
Title II covers all activities of
State and local governments regardless of the government entity's size or
receipt of Federal funding. Title II requires that State and local
governments give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from
all of their programs, services, and activities (e.g. public education,
employment, transportation, recreation, health care, social services,
courts, voting and town meetings). http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm
- anchor66477
POLICY
CHANGE PROPOSAL:
1. Expand paratransit
to span all of Austin - in the spirit of the
American Disabilities Act.
2. Allow those with invisible disabilities,
like seniors, to qualify for paratransit.
3. Incorporate existing risesharing programs into the network.
To accomplish
this we retool existing transportation systems for people who are
home-bound called paratransit that currently provides personal curb-to-curb
transportation. Retool by employing an
Air Dream Network out of Artificial
intelligence to supervise the cars.
Call and
request a ride, by conventional phone or cell phone, specifying your
location and destination. The supervising computer in the cloud locates a
car nearby and reports the expected arrival time.
The signals are traveling at the
speed of light and the cars are going 20, 30, 40 miles per hour. The
cars are equipped with a cell phone the equivalent of the mini-computer of
yesterday. The cell phones are doing the heavy-lifting throwing-up
coordinates (phone#, altitudes and longitude) to the cloud all-the-while
receiving navigation instructions updating the car's heads-up display. An
electronic voice instructs the driver to, "turn left in 500 feet, your
designation is on the right".
We could start off with 4 cars, one
traveling north, others south, east and west. Then add cars as necessary
to reduce wait time with goal of reducing wait time to 15 minutes which should
be adequate for most time sensitive appointments.
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Traffic is Awful - Austin is rewriting the zoning
ordnance called CODENEXT.
The suspicion
is they want to:
Double the density
of Austin.
Doubling the number of cars.
Doubling traffic congestion and living stress.
An alternative would be to:
Cut the density in half.
Cutting the number of cars
in half.
Cutting traffic congestion
and living stress -
this would make more sense.
Another suspicion is that CodeNext
is a Trojan-Horse
brought to you by the development community at the Texas legislature greasing-the-wheels for massive in-town re-development - the same people
that surrounded us with toll-roads to
the parasite communities. Who-now, hope to finalize their invasion
of Austin and have proposed HB-2861 - turning part of I-35, MoPac
South, U.S. 290W and others into toll-roads
- it's all about the money.
As with all new things, the devil is in the details.
After the city is remapped, properties that do not conform
with the new-way of doing-things, would be grand-fathered.
However, the manner in which building
inspection will implement this can be problematic. Imagine, your
house does not meet the setback requirements,
all-is-good until
you want to add a shed on-the-back.
You would be required to bring the whole-house
up-to code - maybe, moving the house - ouch!
To avoid these aggravations - casting-out the devil, I would
suggest phasing-in the new zoning
ordnance - a two tier system.
While keeping the older-one intact,
until a lot is cleared or a new territory is added.
Then over the next 50 years as the city is re-developed
the new zoning code can take hold.
Making
Austin more AFFORDABLE
- WRONG!
Austin is
land-locked but the people come anyhow,
seeking the mythological allure
of a better life. It
is thought that increasing density by
rewriting the zoning ordinance will make
Austin more AFFORDABLE.
CodeNext
intends to double
the number of units on each lot, but we
also we double the number of cars
in residential neighborhoods. Of course, there is not enough room for the
additional cars. The overflow cars park in the bike lanes,
congesting the street. Traffic flow is reduced, neighborhood streets
may turn into, dangerous, one lane alleys. Additional impervious cover
will double
water runoff. To prevent flooding, our 2400 miles of streets will be
torn-up to install new storm drains. Twice as many cars means we need to double
the size of highways - maybe even open-up environmentally sensitive areas to
development, all-the-while destroying the allure
of Austin.
Cut a
thing in half. Cut cost in
half. But the economics of Real Estate
are different.
Real Estate is defined as bundle
of rights - not, land and buildings. Increase the number of rights
in the bundle
and the value of the bundle
increases. This is particularly relevant in cities like Austin which have zoning
- land use controls. In the case of land which conveys the rights to 1 single family
unit, increase that to 2, the value of the whole lot doubles. But, the price
of each home remains the same - where there was one home, now there are two. Look
at the price per square foot of a condominium unit vs. a single family home next
door - the market price is the same even though one has more land
than the other, because land is virtually worthless deriving it's value from the
improvement placed thereon (note: the tax department doesn't agree with
this theory).
But it won't be more AFFORDABLE.
Austin has used expansion policies in the past, spreading the city over 300
square miles, annexing new tax-payers to fill it coffers. Now landlocked, CodeNext
density will double the number of tax-payers to fund the trickle-down financial policies of the downtown
Mother-Land.
Another way to increase density is
to go-up. High-rise housing, which, within in 50 years will end up like Cabrini-Green
in Chicago, where a beautiful high-rise housing development evolved into a slum
. It was demolished in 2011. Density increases living stress
- defenses are up - you are on all-the-time.
A DIFFERENT SOLUTION Instead of doubling
living stress (density). what if we encourage new
comers to live out-there and pay
to come-here.
Remove the tolls
from highway 130, recapturing IH 35 routing pass-thru traffic
around Austin. Then turn IH 35 and
other major roadways into a toll roads. Levy a payroll Tax,
on people who live out-there but work-here,
much like the 9% Hotel Tax on other temporary residents thereby requiring contribution
to the maintenance of the city infrastructure. Then issue Austin residents a pre-paid
Austin-TxTag. Pre-paid because it is paid out of the proceeds of the non-resident payroll
tax using excess funds for roadway improvements.
Alternatively: Most of
major pass-thru-roads (IH 35, HWY 183, MoPac,
etc... are owned by somebody else (the State of Texas, the Federal Government,
etc...), the cars line up at 7, 8 and 9 in the morning flooding into our sleepy
city. But when cars exit onto our
roadways then they can pay our toll -
Austinites are exempt.
FORTRESS
AUSTIN SOLUTION
Instead of expansionist policies,
either inward or outward, we embrace our lower density and encourage people
out-here to pay to come-here then
redistribute the wealth equally over our 10 districts. I
imagine a moat surrounding Austin. There will be a drawbridge
and every visitor who crosses will pay. There are million people living
here and a million out-three, They spend spend half their time here.
They can pay half of our city's cost - that's fair. A payroll
tax on temporary residents equivalent each year to half of Austin
property tax can used to offset local taxes making Austin
a most affordable city.
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LOW INCOME HOUSING
a reverse
ROBIN HOOD
effect.
In Austin
we have Districts with median incomes of over $100,000 and other Districts
below $50,000. Low income is
defined to be some percentage of median family income. The Travis County Median
Family Income is $75,400. Families
that earn 60% the Travis County Median Family Income qualify. 60% of
Median
Family Income $45,240.
Let's
build in districts 1, 2, 3, 4
Based on Travis
County Median Family Income
|
District
1 |
District
2 |
District
3 |
District
4 |
Median
Family Income |
$42,150
|
$42,650
|
$36,185
|
$39,200
|
Qualifying rent |
1,053
|
1,066
|
904
|
980
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OOOPS! Everybody in
these districts is low income. Land
value is less in those areas, overall building cost is less. Let's build
a 100 unit complex. Set the rents
at fair market value for the area (about $1,000
per month) and in addition to normal investment returns, receive bonus tax credits
of ONE MILLION DOLLARS of
tax money. WOW!
WHAT-A-DEAL.
Based on
District
Median
Family Income, qualifying
rent would much less, around $600 per month. This world benefit actual
low income residents in the area. Of course that may not be our
intent? Maybe we want to displace lower income people?
PROPOSAL: Use the DISTRICT
median family income
instead of the COUNTY-WIDE
median family income for eligibility - otherwise we defeat the
stated purpose of
the program.
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THE
BIG WASTE
Most city buildings
are vacant half-the-time while environmental systems are running all-the-time to make-ready for the next
day.
WHY NOT
- be open 24 hours day, 7 days a week? Spread work
schedules accordingly thereby lightening-up traffic and making government available when we
are. It won't cost more!
What happened to the days when the
phone is answered, you ask a specific question and an answer is found? Today
nobody answers
the phone, it's always voice-mail
or check the website. Email ends up in the Spam
Folder. The implied message is GO-AWAY - figure it out
yourself! Or, maybe it's just me? I don't answer the phone
either and only occasionally dig through email. But government
should behave better.
WHAT IF
we organize government like a grocery store where everybody knows something about the product line
or will take you to somebody who does - this will handle most of inquiries.
When the
PHONE RINGS,
the wait-time should be no longer than stop-light, a
person
answers - no more voice-mail. A computer system randomly distributes
the calls to any open line - maybe the mayor or a janitor - nobody is left-hanging!
Make public-service a helping-hand
again.
|
AUSTIN WATER USAGE - Lift the Drought Restrictions
and Clean the Air
The darkened areas on the map are the Austin rainforests - areas of highest water usage. There were 2 droughts during the last 77
years. Living in FEAR, Austin is in
permanent drought restrictions.
Why live in FEAR? Most of the time we
are in the rainy
season!
Plants photosynthesize
the greenhouse-gas carbon dioxide
and water releasing
oxygen.
Humans breath oxygen.
carbon dioxide |
+
water |
+
sunlight |
→ |
glucose (plant
food) |
+
oxygen |
6 CO2 |
+
6 H2O |
+
photons |
→ |
C6H12O6 |
+
6 O2 |
What if we
lifted the drought restrictions to clean up the air
producing a BEAUTIFUL green city?
Currently we are dumping excess lake-water over the dam to the gulf of Mexico.
Instead, if we used the water to clean the air and green the city, excess
water not absorbed by plants will recycle into the aquifer.
On your water bill there is a fixed infrastructure cost, then add
water usage. Use one drop of water and you are mostly paying for the
city's water pipe. The more water you use the unit cost is less.
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Why?
TOLL -
ROADS
WHY? DOUBLE - TAXATION
|
Nationwide roads costs 2,
3, 5, 10
million a mile. The toll-road barons charge 20, 30, 50, 100 million
dollars a mile. They both use the same concrete, reinforcing steel bars,
labor etc. State govenment has been STARVING
the cities for roads in favor of toll-roads because they
get the WINDFALL of gasoline tax what would normally be
used to construct the road. |
Communication is a primary function of government - that's why we created
the interstate highway system;
Historically: States and
the Federal Government have viewed fuel taxes as an attractive revenue
source for highway construction and maintenance programs... https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/05nov/02.cfm
Theory: When a new person
moves to town, they need X number of feet of new
roadway. We take out a mortgage (called Municipal Bonds) to keep the
payment low, then repay the loan with the $X of
Gasoline Tax revenues
paid by the new driver. Traditionally this is how we financed
roadways.
Since: Toll Road financing has
been a murky topic. Unethical political
maneuvers were often used to by creating off-shore
ownership of our public right-of-ways, but in reality the money stays here,
just the paperwork moves offshore to facilitate the old-time wheeling and
dealing out of public view defeating the public's
right-to-know called,
transparency
- who knows where the money goes. This method of Toll Road
financing is called U-BOATING;
Since: In addition to
paying a fee to drive the Road,
drivers also pay the Gasoline Tax that traditionally would have used for building the road
providing a WINDFALL for State and Federal Tax revenues.
Next: The
Toll-Road-Trolls
will put a TxTag-Camera on every STOP light -
and it will cost an extra 50 cents to
the next light!
Proposed City Ballot item:
that the City of Austin PAY Toll-Road-Fees billing
the Gasoline Tax for reimbursement.
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TRAFFIC
IS AWFUL
the old
folks can't get around
nobody
can get around
what is going on?
TAKE
the FAST LANE - RIDE the TRAIN
bring urban BLIGHT
and CONGEST Austin
Some years back the bus company, the Austin Metropolitan Transit Authority
was taken over by the people down the street at the Capital. Calling it,
the Capital Metropolitan
Transit Authority (capital metro), they stole our money
- a billion dollars every five
years of Austin sales tax, leaving behind a fleet of empty busses paid-for long ago.
It is a mystery as to where our billion dollars has
gone?
But, there were
clues. The development community needed
ways to develop outside of Austin and Travis County avoiding development restrictions.
Enter the TOLL-ROAD and TRAIN
people. The State of Texas
authorized the 183A toll-road and required their Capital Metropolitan Transportation
Authority run the Austin-Leander train-line in
the wild west of unregulated
development.
The the idea was pattern Austin
after the "beehive model" of New York,
Chicago and Los Angeles with sprawling suburbs fed by toll-ways and
commuter trains. People with money moved to the wide open spaces in the suburbs where taxes were lower and
living is easy. The downtowns declined. This is about to happen to Austin.
Remember the Domain, that mini-city on MoPac
(loop1), home of the beautiful people, the big box stores, Dillard's, Macy's,
Neiman Marcus, etc. The developers plan to build another mini-city four times
that size near the Lakeline and Leander train stations in north west
Austin. The hill country landscape near
Lakeline, Cedar
park and Leander is being plowed as far the eye can see for housing to take advantage
of the train and toll-roads to downtown. Already, at 7, 8, and 9 in the morning the cars
line up like race horses flooding into sleepy Austin.
This new construction acts like a big sucking-force pulling the
wealth out of Austin. The driving force behind real estate development is
OPM
(Other People's Money). The suspicion is that
Austin is being suicidal, and that this development is
being financed with our billion dollars.
Population growth will drive that
billion dollars to become 2 billion over the next 10 years. It's a ripe-plum
for the taking. Agencies make proposals and get a hunk of change. Maybe
a thousand or a million dollars but it's only good the duration of the
contract. But to get it forever? Now, the surrounding counties want their
cut.
We can FIX
this
Fortunately, we can take the
wind-out of their sails by
re-establishing
the Austin Metropolitan Transit Authority recapturing our billion
dollars (1% of sales tax) and focusing on Austin, thereby
strangling the sucking-force,
trashing the train
and buses sending them to the
dumpster, burning the real-estate
developments there-by bankrupting the toll-roads (183A) re-capturing
our public right-of-ways.
In the meantime
we can MAKE IT MORE
EXPENSIVE TO LIVE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF AUSTIN - We can levy
an employment tax on non-Austin
residents. Then use the funds to pay
toll-road fees on behalf of Austin residents and pay
for roadway improvements.
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|
Pay $1 dollar
and get 5
cents worth, you got ripped-off. The bus company called capital
metro gets 1 billion dollars of taxpayer money every five
years and only 5% percent ride buses.
|
Make Austin the MOBILITY CAPITAL of TEXAS
The
average car is driven 10% of the time. What we kept 10% of the cars running
100% of the
time?
With point-to-point rideshare, providing a supplementary
volunteer driver employment, freeing up the roadways, all done at no additional cost
recycling our existing transportation
resources.
What if you could GET
PAID to DRIVE,
maybe TO
WORK or around town?
What if
you could RIDE
WHEN you WANT, go WHERE you WANT?
Ridesharing is free but there is a charge for a single ride. This can be as easy as getting into your own
car.
Well now we can, get out of the house - pedal to the metal. Press a button on your cell phone, announce you want to drive
today. Pick up and drop off neighbors on your way, you are paid like
any other driver. The money automatically goes to you bank account.
Buy a chicken sandwich and 1% of Sales Tax recycles to support this effort.
From a cell phone or 311 call from the
home phone, it knows where you are. It
communicates your destination. The cars are continuously reporting
their location. One person may want to go north, the next may want go south.
In the GPS world this called "the bearing". The north cars are
with matched with north riders etc.. This uses high-school trigonometry to locate the nearest car.
Anybody can slide into car, it would be like getting on an elevator, and there will be other people the
car. Let's bring back a sense of community - you can ride
around with your neighbors.
A car will be
SECONDS AWAY.
Like bees,
thousands of cars circulating
in Austin - the cars go forever.
Imagine, a
fleet of cars all
containing a call phone - the modern day equivalent of the mini-computer
doing the heavy-lifting reporting to the cloud. Where a very fast idiot,
called a computer, is doing trigonometry matching coordinates to find the nearest
car going your direction. This
called a AIR DREAM NETWORK in artificial
intelligence.
We use a supervising overseer. In the morning all the cars may end up downtown, at 3 am
fewer cars needed, weekends and holidays are different. The network
manages the slack time observing the behavior of the cars. Get dropped-off,
a dot goes on an imaginary map. The
network allocates cars much like a sliding puzzle game gravitating cars toward
concentrations of dots - nobody is left stranded.
This is called a NEURAL
EVOLUTIONARY NETWORK.
Click to download network grid manager spreadsheet.
And the ride is pre-paid
out of sales taxes (1 BILLION DOLLARS every 5 years) when you buy a chicken sandwich or soda pop.
Your home may have two $30,000 cars
in the garage, used
10% of the time, 1/3
the value of the house – now we can get rid of those and have an extra room.
WHAT HAPPENED? The
bus company (capital metro) was hired in 1985 to provide a public service.
This was back in the days when service was a helping hand. Now it's called
fee-for-service. We gave the bus company an endowment - hooks into our
sales tax, i.e. 1% of sales tax. For 1 year Austinites rode for FREE.
But there was a problem, slow-pokes, the fixed income old folks -
don't-do-stairs (difficult to climb into buses) - knees, hips, breathless lungs and
foggy cataract eyes messed up efficient bus schedules of long lines of
riders. But this was not the real reason. They just wanted
more
MONEY. Bus schedules were arranged to pick-up
where people are spending money (paying
sales tax) and take them to
spend
more - they get you coming and going. It's our fault by
tying their income to the sales tax instead of a fixed endowment.
Capital metro's budget (350mil) has grown to about half the size of the city
of Austin's (911-200 to cap metro=700Mil). We would expect half of us
use public transit since we all drive city streets. The reality is that
only 5% of us use public transit at a cost to the public of $22 a ride.
Do
you remember those days? -
not so long ago.
In 1985 we had typewriters and
carbon paper and buses. Today we have word processors, high-speed smart
cars and cell phones. I have attached a spreadsheet projecting that
with existing funds (the amount we pay capital metro) we can provide 30% of
Austinites with ONE
HOUR of rides each
day to go where you want, when you want and the worst case, everybody
riding, a little less than 20 minutes costing the public $2 a ride and we can
do-it without any additional spending.
Parking is awful downtown. This would be
pick-up and drop-off. Downtown could be an easy place to visit again,
we could enjoy intoxicants again without fear, get the old folks off the road
and lighten-up traffic taking 25% of the cars off the road.
The Original Austin - a Rectangular GRID
Parking lots can be smaller. Low dentistry areas are
arranged in a loop and lollypop arrangement, cul-de-sac neighborhoods
- one-way in - one-way out - almost touching. We could put in short-cuts with authorized
access only - it would be like adding an extra lane on to the highway REBUILDING
the GRID to absorb
traffic when the main artery is clogged. We
could and install in high occupancy lanes and because each car has
multiple occupants taking cars off the road thereby reducing traffic congestion.
Let's put the numbers to it: Imagine 4,000
cars like a swam of bees. At any one time one car going north, south, east
and west
near you. You catch the one going your direction. I suggest
minivans - lower to the ground - easier to get into. In New York and
Chicago they are using SUV's. Four thousand cars times 7 riders is 28,000 rides
- we give
hour
rides. Ten hours a day is 280,000 rides, we have a
population of 850,000, that's about 1/3 of Austin
riding. Since they are riding in our cars, their car is not on the road - we
have just freed up the highways.
It's up to you the voters. When we think of opting-out of capital
metro like Cedar Park and others, it's like one of those thoughts we cannot
think, like "killing
the kids", but the kids have to grow-up, the days of fixed-route buses are
over. I suggest putting it up for competitive bids. Capital metro can bid like everybody
else - let's get the most for our money.
Click to download network
coordinate manager spreadsheet.
The model
is completely scalable. It could be used for a small community or the whole planet
- just modify the assumptions.
download voter sign up petition to force the city
to put it to the voters
SPECIFICATIONS
2 to 4 thousand minivans and drivers depending on time of day – a public
service, paid-for out of existing sales taxes.
7 riders per car
Austin has 272 square miles, a population of 855 thousand people and we spend
$200 million on public transportation. For the same amount, a car can be 1
minute away, we can an average of 1 hour of rides for 30% of the population and
fee up 1 lane on 4 lane highways and 2 lanes for 8 lanes.
-
Goal
Providing hour of rides each day. Nobody is left stranded, subsequent rides
that are delayed.
-
All Drivers Welcome - compensated like any other driver.
-
Vehicle Availability
A vehicle is available "when you want it, where you want".
The vehicle will be several minutes away.
-
Ride Request
By cell phone or conventional phone transmitting starting and destination
coordinates to the network.
-
Rider Cost – none .
-
Vehicles - Minivans
Generic low cost mass-produced vehicles. Preferable, avoiding fossil fuels. The
vehicle's GPS is reporting its location to the network every few minutes.
-
Computer Technology
The network coordinate manager receives rider requests relaying them
to the closest vehicle going your direction.
|
-
The computerized grid manager, overlaying the
city over an imaginary framework independently
scanning the grid, observing vehicle behavior throwing around coordinates to
adjust vehicle locations during slack times guaranteeing that a vehicle is
near-by.
-
Ride Sharing
There will be other people in the vehicle. The first rider sets the destination.
The vehicle will zigzag picking-u and dropping-off riders in the vicinity along
the way.
-
For the network coordinate manager it
will be like catching a fly to add a new rider whose destination might extend
the path even change general direction and final destination. At a final
destination the vehicle will await a new rider request unless the computerized grid manager
moves the vehicle to a new rest position to keep the grid well distributed.
-
Time of Operation
10-hours per day of driving time distributed over the 24-hours.
-
ADA Compliance
Easy to get into vehicles (no steps - to accommodate visible and invisible
disabilities).
-
Financing
1% of sales tax revenue currently allocated for transportation.
-
Contracting
By competitive bid.
|
The Computer CODE
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join EMPTY
EATERS anonymous
HALF-PORTION for HALF-PRICE
Eat
that big meal then work-it-off
relieving gluttony-guilt or eat half without the guilt.
You
are what you eat.
Eat half as much and be half size.
Remember your stomach is about size of your fist.
Take half the meal home. Un-refrigerated meats
turn poison in 1 hour, vegetables in
2. If a few of us demanded
half-portion for half-price. The food Industry would
get-the-idea.
I was at lunch with
friends. That yummy sandwich was too much. I proposed
purchasing half - they declined, instead
I ordered
a glass of water. Later the manager and several staff appeared
inquiring as to what-was-what - they got the
message - try it!
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What About
the HOMELESS?
|
50 years ago somebody would be
smoking a Cigar, other guys - Camels and Lucky Strikes and the women Virginia
Slims. Today the smoke is all gone. We did this by dealing with
it as a social problem - its no longer "cool" to smoke.
Maybe the warm fire of home and companionship could have a similar effect?
If you can feel-it you can heal-it. |
Sanctuary Pocket Parks
In group theory people
congregate around a central core. Those in the center are the most
popular, those on the periphery are the most isolated, then there are the
drop-outs.
Imagine a rest stop along Hwy
183, not for cars, but for people who dropped-out. A restroom, a shower maybe a climate
controlled glass enclosure with tables and chairs for community emotional engagement
- the feeling of home. Veterans could trade war stories. A
facility equipped with Wi-Fi and electrical
outlets for cell phone charging in a grassy field, with bushes and flowers.
A camp fire area. Social organizations would encouraged to visit
helping to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our homeless
citizens. The rule would-be, it has to
be cleaned up by 1 hour
after daylight available 24 hours a day for wanderers.
Be it
resolved that, we create Sanctuary Pocket Parks along
major road ways where the homeless hangout.
Proposed by
me with observations from Nubia, Ester, Don and others in the community.
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|
ABOUT the
OLD
FOLKS
OLD
AGE is an INVISIBLE DISABILITY - cataract clouded
eyes, night blindness - we don't go out at night anymore,
knees, hips and breathless
lungs - we slowdown - don't
do stairs anymore - the rusty old frame doesn't work as well. Our
world has grown smaller
until nobody is left. In Austin there are 140,000 of us.
Government is like a bunch of kids. We, the-voters, the-parents, the-owners of this city create government. And
like our kids, government, a reflection of our collective mind takes on
human
characteristics. It is both the best and
worst in all of us. We
give them an allowance, they call it taxes. When the kids want an extra
piece of candy, they call it fees -
- charging us to go to our swimming hole, Zilker-Park,
- charging us to drive our streets - Toll-Roads,
When the kids misbehave -
- violate simple freedoms - it's
illegal to buy pharmaceuticals from foreign suppliers where they cost
less,
- become afraid of the voters - Darth Vader searching us at the front door
to city hall... - do you search your neighbor at the front door?
It's up to us to set-them-straight.
Remember the days when public-service meant a helping-hand?
We
are LIVING HISTORY
We are the SENIORS
I
suggest
looking to the past to move forward. For those of us who grew-up in a world where kids
"kids were to be seen and
not heard" - a sense of alienation. Much of life was about being beaten-down,
don't-do-this, don't-do-that, you can't-do-it.
Don't-speak until
spoken-to. Don't-talk-back. Growing-up in this world of DON'T.
We were inadvertently
programmed, with a lack-of self-confidence - lest
the child be "spoiled."
This feeling has infected
generations. For the old folks, as recent memory declines, life-before becomes clearer.
There is a regression toward our former-selves as the feelings from the past have emerged into everyday reality. We can change that! The
programming was based on the Opinions-Of-Others.
|
Leonard S Bronik had the notion
that we could reverse this, reprogramming ourselves. His thought
was, if they could PROGRAM-US. We could use the same
technique to ReProgram ourselves
undoing the damage.
He proposes a series of positive affirmations. Say this over and over again:
I love myself. I am calm, cool,
comfortable, competent, confident and complete - Don't you feel better NOW?
His website is lsbff.altervista.org
|
Even-now going the doctors
office. I have a sense of déjà vu - it's hurry-up and wait - Patients
Should be Seen and NOT Heard. |
|
Dr. Spock whose book Baby and Child Care -
spared the stick. The book's premise to mothers is that
you know more than
you think.
|
|
|
For young adults,
John Gray's book Men are from Mars Women are
from Venus brought the sexes together.
Men are motivated and empowered when they feel needed. Women are
motivated and empowered when they feel cherished.
All fostering a more well adjusted civilized world.
|
|
Come to the TRIBAL GATHERINGS
of the CLAN
If you are OLD,
you are member regardless of the social-cast of your former-life, you are reincarnated.
They told us of Everlasting-Life,
WELL.... don't believe everything they-told-you.
Fifty
years ago at the University of Texas there were
1,000
kids with my similar life experiences, today being almost three-quarters
of century old, I can count these on
one-hand but still desire to be connected.
Business are getting smart.
For pennies of goodwill. Treat-them-right, and old folks who are the top
of the family tree of generations of kids,
grandkids and great-grandkids become ambassadors for the product line,
it's a WIN-WIN - inexpensive advertising with a high return.
|
|
Cedar
Park Regional Hospital Cafeteria: Mon/Wed/Fri: Join SeniorCircle.com
for $15 a year. Members get free coffee at the cafeteria, a discount on food
and a limited membership at the Twin Lakes YMCA. Come as my guest, at
7-9am. The men - engineers, chemist, ministers
from all walks of life [age 65 to 80] - congregate at
one end of the cafeteria, the ladies to
the other, it's like high school. In the hospital cafeteria it's like getting
a Flu shot receiving low-level
exposure to all the pathogens in the local environment - that's why doctors and nurses are so healthy.
HEB:
Tuesdays: Free coffee, cakes, donuts, yogurt and fruit at the cafe.
Join me at 7-9am in the cafe located at LakeLine Blvd. and 183. I arrive
around 7am and and line up the tables. The guys -mostly military age 65
to 90 -congregate at one end the women at the other.
What-A-Burger:
Thursdays: Ask for senior coffee/drink (free) at Lakeline Blvd. and Cypress
Creek Rd. Join me around 8:30 for the senior gathering.
These are guys - mostly an agricultural background, I affectionately call them
red-necks age 62 to 85.
PC users Group:
Saturday (see calendar) at Old Quarry
library. Computer Special Inertest Groups - forget
the PC, it's all about the cell phone.
Wendy's: For good junk food.
Get the dollar burger or chicken sandwich and ask for a free senior drink.
TIP: Wherever you go, always ask for
the Senior discount. Many Stores are afraid to ask you if you are a
Senior because some get offended when asked their age.
Need
a Ride NW: Age 60 or older. Live in our service area (click
here for a map or scroll down to see the zip codes we serve). Able
to make own arrangements with our office to schedule rides Mobile (using a
cane or walker is just fine, our volunteer drivers can't transport
wheelchairs). Potential clients just need to call
our office (512-250-5021) to start the enrollment process. Proposed by
Diane via
NextDoor.com site.
|
AGING
in PLACE
a taxation initiative
65 and becoming WARDS of the STATE, forced to live
on their mandatory subsistence lifetime retirement plan, pension funds, IRA's,
401K's and/or social security;
This is plight of the elderly. No longer wage slaves, 65 and
can can now do all things dreamed of, heading out the door, but, hips,
knees and clouded cataract eyes don't work as well, destined to watch
daytime TV - inactivity breeds decline. Maybe a professional or a
housewife? The
best job available is a "greeter" at WalMart.
The world keeps spinning,
friends and family die off, the world grows smaller - big buildings go-up, taxes go-up,
the quality of life goes down. The kitchen knife scratches on the doorframe
marking the kids ages and the child's footprints in the concrete of the backyard patio are
the memory's of a life to be abandoned as the family home becomes unaffordable.
We, the
VOTERs, DEMAND
that the elderly
65 and older be
exempt
from all
city of Austin TAXES, including but not limited to school
taxes, sales taxes, fees and assessments making Austin the Age Friendly Capital of America.
download voter sign up petition to
force the city to put it to the voters
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Old-Timers vs. Alzheimer's
Keep misplacing your keys, losing memories, thoughts and words.
Brain cells become DISCONNECTED
to cause this
dysfunction.
Normal cognitive skills will trace a path through your brain
to find memories, much like the GPS on your cell phone can find your destination.
When you can't remember
a word because a disconnection has
damaged the brain's mapping. You STAMMER
SEARCHING for the word. Messages in BRAIN
CELLS called neurons, are transported in the brain
in plasma which fires across gaps between connectors, called
synapses. Higher-level cognitive functions take over trying to explore back roads through memory to
find the lost connections.
The average brain weighs about 1350 grams
and occupies about 1350 centimeters of space but as we age SHRINKAGE
- probably due to neuron death and pathway pruning - has occurred.
We call this OLD-TIMER'S
Get in your car. You draw a
BLANK. You can't remember
how to make it go. Higher-level cognitive skills have
deteriorated and the memory paths have become dead-ends.
We call this ALZHEIMER'S
or more correctly called dementia.
While we assume these SENIOR
MOMENTS are of little consequence, these can be symptoms of
SOMETHING MORE SERIOUS.
For instance a lost signal, broken
neurotransmission can cause a malfunction.
Maybe the scavengers, called MACROPHAGES, seek out foreign
invaders in the blood stream and activate a memory
T-cell alert from the immune system to destroy the
invading antigen and the alert gets overlooked and PNEUMONIA
progresses unabated.
Maybe a
cardio-vascular event gets ignored, a sudden stop of
blood supply to part of the brain. You have strokes without ever knowing it.
So-called SILENT STROKES
either have no
easy-to-recognize symptoms, or you don't remember them,
but they do cause permanent damage in your brain. You
may have slight memory problems or a little difficulty
getting around.
As we age, these disconnections accumulate.
Our bodily
systems deteriorate toward the inevitable conclusion if
life.
We call this DEATH
|
It's
all about Neurotransmitters
To overcome these disconnections, what if we
overload the signal generators and flood the brain with
messages. The old folks shuffle when they
walk, handwriting turns to chicken scratch. MUSCLES are
GOOD, BONE structure is FINE.
Maybe something is missing?
What happens
when nobody is listening?
For diabetics, insulin receptors shut down, we shoot-up with insulin to overload the remaining receptors.
Parkinson's patients
are shaky, we overload them with dopamine (a neurotransmitter that stimulates
motor control) to light-up their remaining receptors. In
the movie Cocoon they went for a swim and came out with the functionality of a young
person. What if we could do this?
Design a neurotransmitter protocol. Measure how well the signal receivers
are functioning, then prescribe the appropriate pill to overload the remaining
receptors to light-up the brain. Padding
between joints wears down, maybe the repair is an age related signaling problem,
after-all when we were younger things worked better. This comes with
consequences, the old folks intuitively do this with
illegal/unsanctioned
drugs - maybe saturating the receptors - our body resists -
we sleep-it-off, the receptors have a short memory.
But then over time we need more-and-more, but, what if we could design maintenance
dose to stabilize the overload-restorative cycle. Perhaps the waking day becomes shorter but the quality of life is better.
We all come with an expiration date but life
is good till the end.
Unfortunately most substances that LIGHT-UP
neurotransmitters are BANNED. Doctors are not allowed to prescribe these
and research is prohibited. BUT NOT ALL, those that DISRUPT
neurotransmitters
are encouraged. In fact these are BIGGEST SELLING drugs in America for
seniors - let's shut the old folks down! WHAT
IS GOING ON HERE, is America bi-polar? Dementia is a disruption neurotransmissions. The FDA has
done studies:
Antipsychotic
drugs DISRUPT
neurotransmitters, those on-the-drug died twice as
fast. I quote:
FDA BOXED WARNING
WARNING:
Increased Mortality in Elderly Patients with Dementia-Related Psychosis - Elderly
patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with Antipsychotic drugs
(Abilify,
Seroquel, Zyprexa, Resperdal and hundreds of others)
are
at an increased risk of death. Analyses of seventeen placebo-controlled trials
(modal duration of 10 weeks), largely in patients taking atypical
antipsychotic drugs, revealed a risk of death in drug-treated patients of
between 1.6 to 1.7 times the risk of death in placebo-treated patients. Over
the course of a typical 10-week controlled trial, the
rate of death in
drug-treated patients was about 4.5%, compared to a rate of about
2.6% in the
placebo group.
These
are the BIGGEST SELLING DRUGS
in America Today
- prescribed mostly for the elderly cutting life expectancy in half.
BUT this is the CLUE!
The antipsychotic drugs are euthanasia drugs disrupting neurotransmitters shutting-us-down.
The REVERSE strategy can be used to build-us-up
(the antipsychotic drugs target the dopamine and serotonin
neurotransmitters).
Could the DRUG FREE AMERICA
program be an EUTHANASIA
program for the OLD FOLKS reducing in life
expectancy to save social security?
|
SENIOR VOICES
(submitted members of
the senior community, and me)
0000 Government for the
Sake of Government - When staff takes over boards and commissions -
capital metro which is a 350 million dollar bus company and subcontractor with
the city of Austin has a vote on the senior commission - the fox is in the
hen-house. Proposed by
me.
1201 PROPOSAL: Make Austin the
Gray Capital of America. Since with good fortune we all will become
senior citizens in the future, therefore it should be the goal of the City of
Austin to work toward the highest quality of life today. Proposed by Mike
at What-A-Burger free senior free coffee.
TRANSPORTATION
1302 PROPOSAL: Let's get the
slow-pokes off the highways. Seniors should be automatically
should be eligible for the Capital Metro ParaTransit
services. (ParaTransit service proves all most free taxi service under federal
ADA
guidelines for people that are mobility impaired.) Proposed by
me.
1303 PROPOSAL:
That, bicycle lanes be removed from major roadways (like over 40+mph streets)
because of hydro-carbon pollution poisoning and traffic dangers to bike
riders. Instead, put bicycle shortcuts between the dead-end/cul-de-sac
neighborhoods. Interconnect with local retail and connect the parking
lots so as provide a seamless path.
This is a lower cost solution - better
than squeezing traffic lanes to accommodate the bicyclist.
Proposed by Ester H. at the free
senior breakfast provided by HEB.
1304 PROPOSAL:
Living in the shadows:
When I took a senior shopping. We drove his preferred path between and around
parking lots then behind stores and apartment houses to our destination. I thought
this to be
very strange, but upon reflection realized that from the standpoint of the
elderly it was a
more desirable to take the back roads than trying to navigate the modern six lane highway in
front.
Be it resolved that - instead of
encouraging loop-and-lollypop
retail development, inter-connect shopping center parking lots facilitating traffic flow
between. This can be encouraged in the zoning ordnance. Proposed
by Jerry at senior breakfast.
1305 Gridlock
Central Austin is a sewer of traffic congestion. Proposed by
me.
1306 Mobility
Let's try a new traffic solution. Proposed by
me.
1307 ADA
Districts I got mine, why should I share? Proposed by
me.
1307a PROPOSAL:
Whereas: Persons
in the ADA Paratransit corridors who are mobility impaired get an almost
free transportation.
Whereas:
Paratransit is designed to be in parallel with the existing fixed-route
system, thus the ¾ mile service area boundary surrounding the Capital Metro
fixed-route.
Whereas: Citizens pay 1% for their
sales tax to support capital metro.
Bet it resolved that; Bus service be extended
to cover all of Austin, thereby making Para transit available to all
Austinites.
Proposed by
me.
1308 PROPOSAL: In the
interest of transparency, have capital metro un-fog the windows so the public
can see if the busses are occupied. Proposed by
Daniel at Gateway church gathering.
|
Austin ADA paratransit coverage -
yellow areas are skipped - District 6 (the largest yellow area) is about
10% of Austin, contributing $20,000,000 of sales tax revenue to capital
metro. |
1309 PROPOSAL:
Whereas: It is first responsibility of a mobility system to service those who have
physical or cognitive disabilities restricting mobility. This is called
paratransit providing almost free transportation;
Whereas: Federal ADA guidelines in 14.... require that paratransit
to be available within 3/4 mile of a bus route;
Whereas: Austin has expanded. Many of the outlying are not being serviced by
bus routes.
Whereas: Capital metro is unable to modify the guidelines to remove the 3/4 mile
distance limitation;
Whereas: Capital
metro has failed to provide bus service to the outlying areas of
Austin;
Whereas: Austinites all pay sales tax of which 1% is allocated to support capital
metro to provide these services.
Be it resolved that: Austinites
that are excluded from the bus
service and/or paratransit be issued a special 1% sales tax discount
card. Proposed by
me.
|
Austin ADA paratransit coverage -
yellow areas are skipped - District 6 (the largest yellow area) is about
10% of Austin, contributing $20,000,000 of sales tax revenue to capital
metro. |
1309a PROPOSAL - Austin didn't
build new roads and surrounded itself with green belts to avoid newcomers, but
they came here anyway.
Since: Capital-Metro
has forgotten about District
6. Almost no bus service or paratransit
exist in our district.
Whereas: District
6 is 10% (10 Districts) of Austin, and contributes 10% of $200mil
in sales tax revenue that is allocated to Capital Metro -of which District 6
contributes about $20mil. Note: Capital Metro gets 1% of total Sales Tax
Revenue.
What If: Capital-Metro
installed an UBER
Like taxi model in District 6. "Take
me to HEB - "Take the Kids" to school - opps!
"I'm feeling a little tipsy - it must be that pain pill?", "Take
me Home" - let's let people enjoy life and
get those who are chemically challenged off the road. Recommended by
Herb.
How much would it cost? 20mil/(100k
per van that includes the driver, van, gas, maintenance... ) is about 200
vans. Each ride 10min avg, 5 riders in each vehicle ... (60 min/10 min
per ride)*(5 riders)*200 cars = 6,000 rides per hr and over 10 hours that's
60,000 rides per day. There are about 80,000 people in District 6.
Since we are in out cars about 10% of the time 60k/(80k*10%) is about 7
trips per day for each resident.
Not only that! District 6 is 48 square
miles and with 200 vehicles - that is one per 1/4 mile (48/200= 0.24).
There is a car around the corner from you. You could almost
pull-out-your thumb and hitchhike
creating a ride-around-with-your-neighbors environment and at the
same time incorporating people with both visible and invisible disabilities.
Better yet, let's make it really nice: Fewer
cars but more up-scale vehicles, change the image from the mini-van to the
chauffer driven Cadillac. This would get people carpooling alleviating
traffic congestion.
The best part: Your
cost $0, because it's already paid for.
Be it resolved that, Capital Metro devote 10% of there Sales Tax revenue
to an UBER like taxi service for District 6. Proposed
by me, Errol wants it
for District 10 too.
Suggestion: Start off small
- a few cars. Use the ADA paratransit machinery for communication.
Posted to neighborhood 73% in favor.
1310 PROPOSAL - Capital metro bus fees
Whereas: The University of Texas pays
a fee, students ride-for-free;
Whereas: The City of Austin pays a fee,
but Austin riders-pay-a-fee;
Since: Transportation service is
prepaid;
Be it resolved, that, capital metro discontinue
bus fares.
1311 PROPOSAL: Instead of providing
parasite communities like Round Rock a fast lane to South-by-South-West and
downtown, we incorporate the MoPac (Loop 1) improvements as extra lanes
for the benefit of Austin residents.
1312 PROPOSAL: Transportation Self-Determination for
Districts
Be it resolved,
that, each District work with city staff to access District transportation
needs. Then put-it-up for competitive bids in accordance with the manner in
which we normally manage with sub-contractors.
1313 PROPOSAL: Transportation Self-Determination for
District 6
|
|
City of Austin |
Capital Metro (Bus Company) |
|
District 6 Transit Demographics
|
Whereas; Capital metro's budget is about half
the size of the City of Austin's (excluding the Austin's
contribution).
Whereas; We all use city
roads. We would expect half of us to use public transit.
Whereas; In District 6, only 1.5% use public transit.
No bus service.
No pick-up and drop-off for the elderly with visible and invisible disabilities.
With the exception of the 183 corridor, the district has been neglected for
27 years.
43 years ago we put a man on the moon, today we
can't get around town.
Be it resolved,
that,
- District 6 opt-out of the capital metro
bus service..
- Utilize district 6's share of sales tax collections
allocated to capital metro and;
- Hold public hearings and get with city staff to build its own transportation
plan and;
- Solicit competitive bids.
1314 Agenda Item - Pilot project for
District 6
- Opt-out of the capital metro bus service;
- Utilize district 6's share of sales tax collections
allocated to capital metro;
- Hold public hearings getting with city staff to build
our own transportation
plan and;
- Solicit competitive bids.
1315 Agenda item - Paradigm
shift for mass transit.
Imagine, a fleet of cars cars taking you where you want, when you want.
We employ a neural-evolutionary-network to supervise
an UBER style coordinate manger (latitude/longitude) to direct vehicle
destinations. In the morning all the cars may end up downtown, at 3 am
fewer cars needed, weekends and holidays are different. The network
manages the slack time observing the behavior of the cars as prescribed by
the riders in order to allocate driver work schedules..
A car will be minutes away. Like ants, several hundred cars circulating
in the neighborhoods - the cars go forever.
Your cell phone knows where you are. It
communicates your destination. The car is continuously reporting it's
location. This requires high-school trigonometry to locate the nearest car.
Like getting on an elevator, there will be other people in the car.
You can ride
around with your neighbors.
And the ride is pre-paid out of sales taxes you
pay every time your buy a chicken sandwich or soda pop and your home
may two $30,000 cars in the garage - 1/3 the value of the house – now we
can get rid of those and capture the extra room.
All the districts have 75 to 80 thousand
residents and pay a little less than 20 million dollars in sales tax each
year which would be adequate to fund this for their district.
1316 Agenda item - Street naming
to provide sense of location.
- Rename Cesar Chavez street to back to
it's original name 1st. street to provide a sense of location relative
to grid mitigating high speed traffic confusion along I35 and Mopac for
the old folks and new comers.
- We could add on --- in memory of Cesar
Chavez on the sign.
1317 Proposal - Eliminate small car lanes
Many roadways in Austin have narrow
lanes. For instance, in downtown Austin some cars and busses are as
wide or wider than the street lane striping leaving very little room for operator
error.
Be it resolved, that, we fix this.
BOOKS - LIBRARIES
1401 PROPOSAL: That, since
Recycled Reads costs nearly $200,000 to maintain. Since it so expensive
to sell the books, we can save $200,000 by giving them away. Put a free-book
shelf in the our pubic libraries. Proposed by
guys at computer club meeting.
|
1402 PROPOSAL: Recycled Reads is valuable public
resource that we are disappointed to see discontinued. With the funds
saved, home
owners could be encouraged add pick-up and drop-off book houses.
The libraries could provide free book houses along with supplementary
reading materials that would otherwise be discarded.
Proposed by Steve's
wife at Olive Garden senior lunch.
My neighbors daughter would like to add her book
called "A Dragon with a Cookie at Night" .
|
1402 PROPOSAL: Cataracts dress
code - I was asked to remove my base-ball hat in the Library and Court House
Whereas: Austin public
facilities have dress code that does not permit wearing hats.
Whereas: Many seniors
have cataracts.
Whereas: A cataract
is a clouding of the normally clear lens of your eye scattering
incoming light. The light from a lamp may seem too bright or glaring.
Whereas: The brim of
simple base-ball hat can block the glaring light.
Be it resolved, that, the
City of Austin dress code be revised to allow hats in public facilities.
STREET PEOPLE
1501
PROPOSAL: That the city
provide public restrooms under underpasses. Proposed
by Chase he lives under an underpass on 183.
1502 PROPOSAL:
Get
rid of the homeless. Turn them into productive citizens. Get them
jobs, make them work, educate them if you need to. I don't care if they
are cleaning parks, sprucing up the community. Proposed
by Herb at senior breakfast.
1503 PROPOSAL:
That, Sanctuary
cities are wrong. You can't send 100 million people back across the border but
you can send felons back.
Propose by Daniel at HEB breakfast.
1504 PROPOSAL:
Whereas:
I used to take the left over snacks from senior gatherings to the
homeless. I was informed by management that this was against Travis
County Health Department Regulations.
We request:
That the Travis Count Health
Department to explain this. Proposed by
me.
1505 PROPOSAL: Sometimes
curing the symptoms can cure the disease.
Whereas:
Long ago the homeless were young free-spirits, today they are older and
damaged by life. Many are in physical or psychological pain and
self-medicate with pain killers supplied by the legal and illegal drug
cartels.
Since: Over
a certain age kids are allowed to consume alcoholic beverages.
Be it
resolved that, drugs be legalized for those over a certain age.
Proposed
by Daniel.
1505a PROPOSAL:
In group theory people
congregate around a central core. Those in the center are the most
popular, those on the periphery are the most isolated, then there are the
drop-outs.
50 years ago somebody would be
smoking a Cigar, other guys - Camels and Lucky Strikes and the women Virginia
Slims. Today the smoke is all gone. We did this by dealing with
it as a social problem - its no longer "cool" to smoke.
Maybe the warm fire of home and companionship could have a similar effect?
If you can feel-it you can heal-it.
Imagine a rest stop along Hwy
183, not for cars, but for people who dropped-out. A restroom, a shower maybe a climate
controlled glass enclosure with tables and chairs for community emotional engagement
- the feeling of home. Veterans could trade war stories. A
facility equipped with Wi-Fi and electrical
outlets for cell phone charging in a grassy field, with bushes and flowers.
A camp fire area. Social organizations would encouraged to visit
helping to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our homeless
citizens. The rule would-be, it has to
be cleaned up by 1 hour
after daylight available 24 hours a day for wanderers.
Be it
resolved that, we create Sanctuary Pocket Parks along
major road ways where the homeless hangout.
Proposed by
me with observations from Nubia, Ester, Don and others in the community.
Suggestion:
-
Instead of using
public funds for housing - further isolating them;
-
In a culture of 30 year
olds, who wants their parents hanging around;
-
Instead
provide public hangouts enabling those isolated to
find to their own path.
1505b
PROPOSAL: That churches and other religious organizations be encouraged
to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our homeless
citizens. Proposed by
Bob at Cedar Park Regional Hospital.
CEMETERIES
1601 PROPOSAL:
Whereas
the city of Austin is responsible for city cemeteries which are declining
condition. We recommend that the city establish a Cemetery Commission to
provide a direct communication to the city council for oversight. Proposed
by Sharon at cafeteria.
SENIOR COMMISSION ORGANIZATION AND RULES
- the devil is in the details
1001 PROPOSAL:
That, commission members be allowed to use the email programs they are
familiar with connected to the city public servers thereby allowing
transparency (the publics-right-to know). Proposed by
me.
1002 PROPOSAL:
That, the City Of Austin provide all members of the commission with
"bc-your.name@austintexas.gov" email boxes/addresses placing
their email communications on the public record. Proposed by
me.
1003
One District One Vote
Rigging the vote, let's level the playing field. Proposed by
me.
1004
District Meetings Lot's of
little meetings spanning Austin. Proposed
by me.
1005 PROPOSAL:
Radiating seniors
Whereas: The public is subjected to
radiation screening to access the public forum at city hall. As we age cancer incidence increases
exponentially with advancing age, a major cause of cancer is
accumulated exposure to radiation.
Ionizing is high-frequency radiation
that has enough energy to remove an electron from (ionize) an atom or
molecule. Ionizing radiation has enough energy to damage the DNA in cells,
which in turn may lead to cancer....
https://www.americancancerfund.org
Remember when electric
blankets were discontinued because of causing leukemia?
In 2012, when the Europeans discovered that airport screening
was causing cancer, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) began
dumping the old machines to local court houses and city halls.... http://www.motherjones.com/
Be it Resolved, that, we error on
the side of caution and remove the radiating screening equipment from
city facilities.
Proposed
by me.
1006 PROPOSAL: Paranoid security screening
at the front door
Whereas: After 911 a wave of paranoia
swept across America reminiscent of the Cold-War-era - remember (HUAC - the
House on
Un-American Activities) the search for communist traitors during the 1950s.
Whereas:
Some believe that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are a suicide pact
and the guarantees;
- the protections against search and seizure
- the 4th Amendment,
- the assumption in jurisprudence of
"Innocent till proven Guilty",
- the rights again Self Incrimination - the
5th Amendment,
- and simple privacy;
have become irrelevant.
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ― Benjamin
Franklin.
Whereas: Our public
spaces should be open and free for anonymous citizen discourse.
Be it Resolved, that the City of
Austin remove security screening at the front door. Proposed
by me.
1007 PROPOSAL: Secrecy is the enemy of transparency
Whereas: Proprietary software is secret
computer code subject to hidden outside agendas. Microsoft Outlook Mail, that we use, is
proprietary.
Whereas: Microsoft Outlook Mail relies
on remote computers far away to process our communications.
Whereas: Remote access, called The
Cloud, relies on slow-speed internet transmissions reducing our modern
high-speed computer hardware to the dumb-terminals of yesteryear - we have gone
back to the future.
This is the dream of internet
providers, get us into the cloud, then charge monthly rent and they make
dollars$$$.
Whereas: The alternative is keep our work
here, only the work-product goes there - to the Cloud.
Be it resolved: The City of Austin look to a more decentralized
open alternative for email communication. Proposed
by me.
1008 PROPOSAL: Back
to the future
The dream of internet
providers, get us into the cloud, then charge monthly rent and they make
dollars$$$.
Whereas: With
the success of the cell phone, everyone wanted to get on the gravy train -
the monthly subscription plan.
Whereas: Remote
computing, relies on slow-speed internet transmission for communication
reducing our modern high-speed computer hardware to the dumb-terminals of
yesteryear dependent on a back-end mainframe called the cloud.
By 2004 desktop/notebook computers ran fast
enough, the computer chip manufactures forgot about speed and instead went
green, focusing on reducing energy consumption hoping to let the
internet speed catch up.
The industry dream was to speed up the
internet to catch the computer. Migrate users to the cloud. Then charge a
monthly subscription fee to make dollars$$.
Whereas: Microsoft
couldn't get their software debugged by time of release. Normally this would require a recall. But, Microsoft provided us with
the fixes, they called them updates. Later they were called
security patches because of inherent vulnerabilities in
the operating system design to outside intrusion.
Every now-and-then Microsoft sold new versions
of Windows (XP, 7, 8 etc..). But these were really the same-old-thing
made to look different with few enhancements.
Windows XP.., 7 and 8 are mature operating systems that will run for 100 years.
To keep the dollars flowing Microsoft has developed a subscription version of Windows (Windows 10)
oriented toward remote computing in the cloud. Instead
of desktop computing, where the work product stays here, the work product
resides in the cloud - forget to pay your rent - you loose and not very
secure.
Note:
The Chinese are using a public domain Linux version of Windows which doesn't
have the inherent vulnerabilities of Microsoft versions of Windows and which
is free.
Be it resolved that, the
City of Austin get off the Microsoft treadmill and either stay with already
paid-for mature versions of Windows or migrate to Linux instead of
upgrading to Windows 10. Proposed
by me.
1009 PROPOSAL: Voting
- 2 votes
Be it resolved that, in case there is controversy,
we take 2 votes. One vote of the 10 distinct representatives (with
the mayor's representative only voting as a tie breaker like the US Senate), and a second vote
of remaining 5 members. When there is disagreement present both vote
tally's to council. Proposed
by me.
1010 PROPOSAL:
Whereas; in accordance the 10-1
concept and the voters divided the city into 10 Districts;
Be it resolved that, each district be
allocated one-tenth of public $dollars$.
Proposed
by me.
1011 PROPOSAL:
Whereas:
Our meetings run for 1 1/2 hours while other boards and commissions such as
the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities
run for 2 hours;
Be it resolved that, we add an extra
30 minutes to our meetings length to bring us in compliance with other city
board and commissions. Proposed
by me.
1012 PROPOSAL: Creeping disability
Whereas: The elderly, for one reason
or another, often live in isolation.
Whereas: From time-to-time they are
in need of emergency services;
Whereas: Many of the elderly
have hidden disabilities that are NOT covered by other public
programs and/or commissions.
Whereas: These conditions are
things like Night Blindness, Cataracts, Motor Neuropathy,
Mild Cognitive Decline a precursor of Dementia etc... and though they are
not debilitating, they are invisible disabilities.
Whereas: Though many elderly do
not consider themselves disabled, but over time, their world has grown
smaller till there is nobody-there, no-place-to-go, new relationships
are problematic because of psychological baggage and they
find themselves living in isolation.
Be it resolved, that we discuss
creating a working group to address the physical and psychological needs of
Seniors with invisible disabilities living in isolation. Proposed
by me.
1012 PROPOSAL: Remove the
requirement of a second to place an item on the agenda.
Robert's Rules of Order: http://www.robertsrules.com/faq.html#14
For a proposed agenda to become the official agenda for a meeting, it
must be adopted by the assembly at the outset of the meeting. At the
time that an agenda is presented for adoption, it is in order for any
member to move to amend the proposed agenda by adding any item that the
member desires to add, or by proposing any other change.
It is wrong to assume, as many do, that the president “sets the
agenda.” It is common for the president to prepare a proposed
agenda, but that becomes binding only if it is adopted by the full
assembly, perhaps after amendments as just described.
Be it resolved that, any member can
place an item on the agenda in accordance with the Open Meetings Law.
HOUSING
1701 Section
8 Housing Section
8 is also the militaries designation for the mentally unfit -
Sometimes the kids can be cruel - let's call it something else. Proposed by
me.
TAXES
1801
Double Taxation
We give the kids an allowance, called taxes. We expect them stay within
their budget, but some are greedy - want an extra piece of candy, they
call it User Fees. Proposed by
me.
1802 PROPOSAL:
Since: We the Seniors
graduated long ago and our kids are gone.
Be it
resolved that, seniors be excluded from paying the school tax.
Proposed by Elana at
HEB coffee.
1803 PROPOSAL:
The kids want an extra piece of candy.
We all ride the wave. The money supply expands and contracts,
prices rise, wages rise and fall. It's called inflation and it's all proportional.
Whereas: City staff wants a 3% pay increase.
We, the Seniors, got a 1.7% increase from last year and projected 0% (because
of expected deflation) for next year.
Be it
resolved that, city staff gets what the Seniors get.
Proposed by me.
1804 ALERT:
The kids want an want more.
Slip your boat into the water under into 360
bridge over town lake. Now there is new tax/fee to float your
boat. Proposed by
Danny.
1805 PROPOSAL: The public
right-of-way's have become the public pay-for-way's.
Whereas: User fees are only appropriate
when there are identifiable recipients who enjoy special benefits derived from
government activities beyond those received by the general public. - United
States Government Office of Management and Budget.
Be it
resolved that, when using public
services, since they are prepaid, present your tax receipt. Renters -
present your rent receipt. Federal, State, County and City taxes are
built into rent. Proposed by me.
1806 PROPOSAL: Let's do away with taxes.
Whereas: Some cities are organized around a
volunteer board of directors allowing private companies to
provide city services on fee-for-service basis. Pay-for-it when you
Use-it.
Be it
resolved that,
Austin convert to a co-op model eliminating taxation in
favor of fee-for-service. Proposed by
a District 6 resident at the Don&Jen..Z.. art gallery event.
1807 PROPOSAL: Removal of stealth
urban renewal taxation of older neighborhoods.
SENIORS ISSUES
1901
Doping Seniors
Kill off the old folks, these are the biggest selling drugs. This is of
concern, because, by the time we are eighty 50% of us will have Alzheimer's.
Proposed by
me.
1902
Planned Obsolescence
The old folks don't understand technology, let's help. Proposed by
me.
MISCELLANEOUS
2001 Don't Shoot the
Messenger Sometimes the kids misbehave. Proposed by
me.
2002 PROPOSAL:
Right to Know
Whereas: Sealed records
prevent adoptees from knowing their biological origins;
Whereas: The child's right to know supersedes secret agreements made
long ago;
Whereas: The child was not a party to these agreements;
Additionally: These agreements conceal critical up-to-date medical
records which only the biological family has knowledge of;
Be it
resolved that, when a child comes of
age and assumes his or her full rights and responsibilities as citizens of
the United States, all documents, including sealed court records, pertaining
to the child's origins and/or identity should be made available to the child
upon request. Proposed by
me and the Adoption-Search community.
Suggestion: If our Judges
were to support this, all state adoption records are warehoused at the
Bureau of Vital Statistics at 49th and Lamar.
2003 PROPOSAL: Deceptive ballot
wording for the November 3, 2015 election.
TRAVIS COUNTY BOND PROPOSITION
The issuance of $287,275,000 of bonds for the
purpose of
constructing, improving and equipping civil
and
family courts facilities and the levying of
the tax in payment
thereof
Whereas: The money
was for a new Court Court House not a remodeling project.
Be it resolved that,
next-time, let's come up-front and saying what-we-mean.
2015 The flu season is upon us.
Whereas: There is a attitude in the senior community
- boycott the flu shot. If you do this, when
infected you become a carrier - spreading the virus, to your
friends, your kids, grandkids - your family.
There is one cell living
thing called a virus, a little piece of RNA, convertible to DNA inside the
cell - airborne - floating around waiting to visit you. It slips
inside your cells, into your DNA control center to do its damage.
This
is a stupid parasite because it not-only kills you but kills it's self
- violating basic laws of survival of the species.
The flu shot is marvel of modern technology, a training
program for immune system, subjecting you to low levels of the killer so-as
learn to defend again the impending invasion.
Be it
resolved that,
we Join the fight -
get the FLU
SHOT! Proposed by
me.
2016 PROPOSAL: Public funding for
Charities should be focused on the truly needy not-so-much on those who are
talented and can improve their own lives.
Proposed by
me.
In order for us to discuss this, you
must show interest, called a SECOND. A SECOND doesn’t mean you support it, it
only means it will be placed on the agenda so we can all discuss it in the
public forum at the meetings. Contact staff.