Better Know a Candidate: Ken Weiss
1. The Austin Music Commission is considering reducing the decibel limit under the city noise ordinance. Do you think that the noise ordinance should be changed?
If I’m not mistaken; I believe it is already at 85 decibels now. People need to understand that if they purchase a condo near a live music venue they may have to contend with some noise. I do believe that some compromises can be made for weeknights after 9p.m. or 10p.m. and weekends after 12 midnight. Let’ all sit down, talk, and come to some sort of understanding or agreement.
2. Has the McMansion ordinance been successful? What do you think of City Council's recent decision to reject OCEAN's request to further restrict home sizes on small lots in East Austin?
To some extent I believe it has, however, I have heard of several instances where people have built sometimes up to 5,000 square feet larger homes than their site plan called for. Also, many, many, people are asking for variances on their property east of IH-35. I also believe that we need a few more zoning enforcement officers to make sure people comply with their site plans.
3. Some neighborhood groups have attempted to opt-out of the vertical-mixed-use program for most or all eligible properties in their neighborhood. Would you vote to approve or reject those decisions?
No, I believe a neighborhood should have the say in what developments are built in their neighborhood. If they opt out of VMU, I will support that decision.
4. What should the city government do to promote or discourage suburban development? What about condo/apartment development downtown? What about condo/apartment development in other parts of the city?
I don’t think there is any way to discourage suburban development however; we can promote more town center concepts along with multi model transportation to move those folks living outside of Austin to Austin in order to cut down on vehicular traffic on our streets.
5. Homes near downtown are generally more expensive than homes in the suburbs. Should the city do anything to change that? What?
One thing my Accounting Professor said to me was “land is getting more expensive everyday because they aren’t making any more of it.” As downtown Austin expands, it takes away more and more houses near by so the ones left are more expensive. Is there anything we can do about it? Probably not. If you can imagine for a moment ….it’s Austin and the year is 1850. Congress Avenue is nothing more than a dirt road that stops at the Colorado River. Along the east and west sides of Congress are businesses and homes intermixed as there is no zoning or very little at most, in 1850. As Austin gets more and more people, more and more businesses start building more buildings on Congress and the home owners can’t afford to live next to businesses. So, they sell their homes and move off Congress, several streets away. Ten years later, the same thing happens. Businesses build in the neighborhoods surrounding Congress and the homes disappear and people have to move further out to stay affordable. This has happened tens if not hundreds of times over the past 150 years. If you can imagine a big target placed over Austin with the bulls-eye right over Congress Avenue, you can see how as one area or circle becomes unaffordable, the adjacent circle is now the affordable one until it become unaffordable. The only thing that has changed in the last 150 years is the amount that makes Austin unaffordable. In 1850, two dollars a year property taxes might have been a lot. In 1900, five dollars, in 1950, five hundred dollars and in 2008, it might be 10,000 dollars. Again, it’s all in the eye of the beholder as to what’s affordable to whom in Austin. The same applies to home mortgage payments.
6. Austinites love cars (80% of us drive to work by ourselves), but hate traffic. What would you do to get Austinites to commute differently and/or reduce traffic? How often do you get to work by some method other than driving? What is your alternative method?
I would like revamp CAPMETRO. I believe that one reason that ridership is low is because it takes two or three hours to get to your destination on the bus. No one wants to spend that much time on the bus. I’m proposing that CAPMETRO go to a hub and spoke system. The hub and spoke system is utilized by every major freight company in the world, including FedEx and U.P.S. The hubs would be the current transfer centers located around town. Express buses would be uses solely at direct one stop buses from point A to point B. For example, you would get on an express bus at North lamer and 183 transfer center and ride all the way to the new transfer center at Congress Avenue and Ben White Boulevard. Limited buses would be confined to major roads like Lamar, Burnet Road, Congress, Guadalupe, Springdale Road, Airport Boulevard, and the like. These buses would stop only every 15 or 20 blocks and at those stops are where people could transfer to local buses. The local bus would be the bus making all the stops in a particular area or neighborhood. This route would utilize smaller buses such as a 15, 20 or 25 foot bus or even 15 passenger vans as the case may be rather than a 40 foot bus. These buses would stay strictly in the local neighborhoods. Currently during the campaign, I have been carpooling with my wife to events and forums when practical. However, it’s not always practical due to our schedules. I would however, have to ride my bicycle to city hall as your next council member and would encourage all city employees to either ride a bicycle, walk, or take mass transit to work.
7. Austin has the potential to be a great biking city and a lot of people bike recreationally, but it is difficult for most people to bike to work. What should the city do to improve the opportunity to bike-commute? Do you own a bike? How often do you ride it to work?
See answer 6. I will encourage city workers to ride, walk, or take mass transit to work. I would consider giving a monetary bonus or time of bonuses for those participating in riding a bike, walking or taking mass transit to work. I believe one of the easiest ways to get people to bike either to or from work would be to allow them either to ride the bus one way and bike the other way. For example, say you don’t have a shower facility at work, maybe ride the bus to work, then ride your bike home, where it won’t matter when you arrive or how sweaty you are. Yes, I owned several bicycles and I owned a bicycle shop for over 13 years. I raced competitively for almost 20 years in BMX. I used to ride everyday to work when I owned my bicycle shop, but now I just ride occasionally.
8. Are you happy with the apparent resolution of the Las Manitas/Marriott controversy? If not, how do you think it should have been handled differently?
It seems as if this one ordinance was past just for this case. Although, Las Manitas is a small business and I would have helped in any way possible, but I sure wouldn’t have given them a $750,000 loan. I do not believe that is fair to other small businesses I Austin. Let’s help all small businesses not just the privileged few. From what I have heard, Las Manitas actually owned the property they were on. I would have thought if this was the case that the funds of the sale of the property would have been more than enough to purchase another site.
9. Do you think Austin is better now than it was 10 years ago? Do you think it will be better 10 years from now than it is now?
No, I believe it was worse today. We have more traffic, more crime, higher taxes, schools that are failing the grade, and more budget spending. I could go on and on but I believe you get my point. I have hope for the future of Austin. I believe that with some of the proposals I am bringing to city hall, we can help make Austin a great place for all too live, work, and play.
Click here to see the responses from other candidates. We haven't heard from Jennifer Gale, Sam Osemene or Ken Vasseau. If you talk to them or see them around, tell them to send us an email!
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