This is a throwaway. I was privy to efforts to shield the taxis from Uber competition. I advised a guy who was advising them (taxis) on a few things. I get paid to tell people how to use the legislative and regulatory processes at different levels of government to their benefit. Here's what you should know.

1. As much as everyone thinks the $8.6 million spent by Uber and Lyft is awful, you should be more upset that a mere $54,000 given directly to elected officials resulted in the elimination of an industry that generated a ton of money locally as well as other convenient benefits for locals and visitors. The strategy was to spin their spending on advocacy efforts towards the "big money buys policy" theme that people already buy. It worked even though the uber money actually benefitted the local community because they hired people in Austin to help with advocacy efforts. It was a boon for a lot of my friends in that industry. The taxi lobby had to make sure nobody saw the difference between what they were paying for (direct access to politicians) and what Uber/Lyft was paying for (access to voters). I feared that Uber would get smart and say "we don't want to buy politicians, we want to inform voters." Thank God they didn't because it would have ruined the narrative set out that they "buy elections."

2. The Taxi lobby doesn't want any ride sharing competition. That was the directive to insiders. It doesn't matter if ride sharing companies agree to the rules or not - the taxis don't like the competition and directed council to write rules that would eliminate all possible competitors. The finger printing issue was just a red herring that they could grab headlines with. Everything in that ordinance is designed to screw with ride sharer's business model. The taxi lobby made sure it was written in such a way that it would back any ride sharer out of the market. The requirement that they report all of their pick ups and drop offs dug into their proprietary modeling that helps them be profitable. Once the city had access anyone could get that data with an open records request and thus directly compete with those companies. By design it was made to put them at a competitive disadvantage. I can't believe we got away with putting that in there and the business community didn't lose their minds. Proprietary data in banking, health care, retail and in other industries are the basis of private business advocacy all across the country. To think nobody even mentioned this is beyond belief. To think voters would make a private company cough up their proprietary data so that others could steal it is pretty scary. The badging and pick up restrictions was designed to make uber/lyft emulate cabs so that if they complied the taxi cabs could say they are pretending to be cabs and must follow the exact rules cabs follow... which would mean they'd need a hack license and there are none to give out. It was a clever way of setting them up to fail. I still can't believe city council put all of this into the ordinance knowing that it was specifically designed by the taxi lobby to keep ride sharing from being able to operate even if they complied. You can't comply with these rules unless you are taxi cab. Brilliant move on their part.

3. They knew putting this to a vote at this time of the year which voters would show up. The modeling showed that a vote in November would be a loss for the Taxi. The primary election date would have been tricky, but that didn't come into play. This May date was ideal because they could depend on a certain demographic to come out. A demographic they knew would vote against anything they see as a change that might cost tax dollars. It was not a coincidence the vote was held now and not in November.

In closing, the real genius here was by the Taxi lobby. They convinced everyone that the ride sharers were playing games when it was in fact themselves who were gaming the system in a way that would qualify as principally unamerican. Spend your money on politicians, not voters. You always want your competition eliminated not by market forces, but by codified regulation handed down by people who depend your money to retain their political position. They like being politicians and you like having a monopoly - get together and figure out how you two can help each other achieve your goals. This was a masterful example of that happening.

Y’all need to chill and stop destroying Austin stuff and y’all are going for the wrong police department, not the same, they just look the same.

And let’s be real, massive peaceful protest has been turning into violent ones with looting lately.

Probably going to get downvoted but someone has to say something. Like Austin is my home.

No Kings was amazing and Austin - and especially small town Texas - showed up and stood out. But that can’t be the end of your activism.

I personally have fallen on rough times before and needed mutual aid from others to get through. So here are some resources in Austin you can donate to - time or money - to help out.

• Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs - Ending Homelessness Fund: https://www.tdhca.texas.gov/ending-homelessness-fund

• I Belong In Austin: https://www.austintexas.gov/rent

• The Society of St. Vincent de Paul: https://www.ssvdp.org/

• Look on social media for the hashtag #mutualaid or #mutualaidrequest to either donate to someone in need or make a request for funds

Even donating $5 to someone goes a long way. I promise. Even if they need a large sum of money, instead of need $1000 for rent, now they need $995 for rent. Plus, the more that person can update their need for assistance with a declining number, generally the more other people will also chip in $5. It snowballs and helps folks reach their goal.

• Amplifying marginalized voices is important.

Especially without adding your own story or your own voice to the mix. I will first retweet the post and then also quote the social media post with a ⬇️ or a 👇 to bring ads attention to the original post without adding my personal comments.

• Pay people for their time and energy.

If you can, if the original author of a post has a Kofi or a website where they take donations, donate! It’s as simple as that.

• Call elected officials.

I know with most of our elected officials, it feels pointless to call. What’s Abbott or Cruz going to actually do? But the alternative is our voices aren’t heard. I’d rather they are inundated with messages from unhappy constituents every single day than not hear from us Texans that we are unhappy with how they are doing their job. They may not hear us, but someone will. Someone has to listen to us speak and take the message or listen to the voice message. If we are flooding them every day with our disapproval, eventually they will hear about it.

• Talk to your friends and family.

Sure, politics is one of those impolite subjects, but if you approach the subject with kindness and tact, it can go a long way towards chipping at cracks in their ideology. We have major elections coming up next year. We need to be doing the work to bring more people to our side.

• Vote.

Don’t dismiss the smaller elections just because it’s for the local school board. Who is deciding what books are in the school library and what kids get to attend prom is a HUGE deal and we need to show up for even the smallest election and make sure that we’re voting for progress and change. It doesn’t matter how small you think the position is, change starts at the bottom.

The Texas Governor race will be on and if we don’t start getting folks involved now, it’s going to be that much harder to get them involved when it’s time to clean house.

Let’s do this Texas. No Kings was an amazing start. But now we have to keep the momentum going through real action.

Stay home. Just. Stay. Home. I’m watching a PEC crew trying to repair my power and people are stopping and asking them when powers gonna be back on, they’re driving through slick intersections fast weaving around down limbs and almost hitting the line crew, and are generally being nuisances.

It’s going to take forever to get power back on if all y’all keep this shit up. Stop it. Go home and stay there.

If you have a pet or care abt wildlife at all, don’t frequent or buy anything fireworks. They don’t deserve that from us. We have already abused our power over pets and taken away wildlife’s homes. Don’t you think we have done enough damage?! Fuck fireworks!

Besides, WHO can celebrate being an American right now? We have nothing to be proud of. Our president is a psychopath, the Supreme Court are his lackeys and the representative portion is overrun by republican scaredy cats that kneel when the orange gas bag threatens. I’m not proud, I’m ashamed.

I get that you feel threatened by cars and are standing up for your rights yada yada, but the entitlement is getting a little out of hand.

Yesterday I was jogging through an intersection with a two-way (not four-way) stop in the direction of the street that didn't have to stop, and a cyclist coming the other way (ie with the stop) starts yelling at me because I'm violating his God-given right to fly right through all stop signs everywhere on Earth. I stop, he flies by, and gives me the finger, presumably because I didn't stop soon enough.

Today in a parking lot near a park I get in my car and start to pull out but cyclists arrive at both cars on either side of me and start loading their bikes onto the bike racks behind the cars. I'm trapped between them. I wave and smile at one group to let me get out before they do it all and they see me but ignore me, so I sit there for a second and then think "this is fucking ridiculous," so I pull out anyway and they move but they all give me dirty looks.

Once upon a time I whenever I read stories about cyclists getting killed or having near-death experiences on the road I assumed it was the car's fault, but now, honestly, my first thought is "he was probably ignoring traffic laws."

Cyclists, you're rapidly burning through all the good will we normal people have towards you.

Whoever started shootings off GIANT fireworks at 2am in SE Austin, you are a jerk! At least 6 loud bombs were shot off in close succession. My dogs are losing their minds and now I can’t get back to sleep. I hope you are blessed with fleas and cactus spines in your pillow for the foreseeable future.

Now I have to take out my leaf blower because my neighbor hired a lazy, way fatter than my fat ass, punk who really stood there in the front yards blowing all the neighbor's leaves into my front yard.

I'm not even going to start on how many of the neighbor's leaves are now blanketing the street.

I tried to order a cyber cab 🚕 and their price is more expensive than uber and they will arrive in 30 minutes as opposed to 15 minutes with uber! No good!

My faith in humanity has been shake to the core and I’d love to hear others offer their plans for a path forward.

It doesn't take a genius to know the expansion will only make Austin worse by increasing congestion, putting people at risk for asthma and displacing homes and businesses.

But TxDot is going full steam ahead so I've come here to ask what more can be done to stop the expansion. Who can I call? Who can I write? What rallies can I go to?

This development breaks my heart, especially with project connect running into constant hurdles despite so much support. Austin has stopped highway expansion before so why can't we do anything about this now?

We've enjoyed all the posts over the years but as 2018 comes to a close, as a reddit community, maybe it's time we retire all things Chili's at Lamar and 45th in /r/austin. All the posts have been the same thing for a while now and it's really not adding anything to the sub but clutter. (Except the dude that did the sweater. That was pretty good.)

Do we really need the references to "skillet queso" or "frosty margs"? Is it even possible to ban?

Discuss.

I tested positive for it this morning and let me tell you this is some shit you don't want.

Stay safe, whatever that means to you.

I would also add I have both moderna shots plus the booster so take that as you will

It's finally nice enough weather to sit in the yard but every weekend, evening, and weekdays if I'm off work, I get hours of super loud, wailing motors. Kudos to the lawn care crews for their racket of getting paid to blow leaves into someone else's yard, and then getting paid by THAT person to blow them back, but for everyone else, this sucks! (Blows).

Problems with leaf blowers are:

1. They're a very inefficient motor that is super loud for its size and has unusually high carbon emissions

2. Lawncare companies and individuals not actually collecting the leaves, so they just blow around perpetually - have y'all heard of THE WIND??

3. decomposing leaves are good for the ecosystem and should remain in place anyway. They restore nutrients to our drought-stressed lawns and support insects that help do the same.

I've read about some municipalities that have banned these. Maybe we could at least ban them on Sundays, for example? What do y'all think?

I moved to Texas 5 years ago from Tennessee. Started off in Houston and I’m slowly making my way to South Austin. I’m currently living in San Marcos.

I go to Austin pretty regularly, mostly 4th street, but I’ve not really been able to get my witchy fix.

The part of Tn I’m from wasn’t very big of witchcraft, small bible belt town, so i never really had a like minded crowd to hang around. Austin is a completely different and welcoming experience! Everyone is loud and proud and I love it.

Now where I’m struggling is finding events, or something like that, where I can meet people with the same witchy affinity as me. I have a hard time meeting and talking to people in social situations. And unfortunately the only places I know to meet others are a bar/club and work.

Ideally I’d like to find a coven. I’m still a baby witch, you can guess why. I want to learn, grow, find myself and who I am in my craft. Unfortunately I don’t know where to meet others or find a coven.

If anyone would be able to help I would greatly appreciate it!!

Blessed be