Urban is Core - Austin Super Forum: Mike Martinez

City Life

2. What is the city's role in creating jobs?

A city’s role in creating jobs is arguably one of the core functions, but at a minimum should be the top priority of our Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services office. The City of Austin plays a vital role in ensuring the world that Austin is open for business, and companies are welcome to come to Austin. Another key responsibility of the city is to ensure that our economy is diverse enough to be sustainable during the ups and downs of the global and national economy. My goal during my next term will be to do all we can to create a green economy for Austin, but keep in mind that we cannot put “all of our eggs in one basket” in terms of companies we recruit to come here. We must have jobs that can employ a diverse work force…not just high tech.

3. What should the city do to address conflicts between music lovers and neighborhood residents? Should the city implement any recommendations of the Live Music Task Force that have not already been implemented?

I was proud to have worked with Council Member Morrison on this issue over the last several months. The review process gets to what I consider to be the heart of the matter -- taking compatibility into consideration when issuing permits. A previous action authored by Council Member Morrison and myself attempted to streamline enforcement of decibel levels and hours of operation. The review process will allow us to address the consistent violators, and structured restrictions could be a way to get them to be better neighbors. I am hopeful that the series of reforms we instituted in the past several months will address neighborhood concerns and provide for more dialogue between venues and their neighbors. Recommendations from the Live Music Task Force should be given serious consideration when changing City policy, but we also have to take the needs of neighborhoods into account as well. Music is a huge part of Austin’s culture and identity as well as an economic engine, and we have to find a solution that will accommodate music lovers and neighborhood residents.

4. What role do you think public art plays in the creation of the built environment? Do you consider public art an important part of urban development? If so, what are some ways to include and finance art in development?

Public Art plays a valuable role in urban development and we should continue our efforts in creating and implementing as much public art as possible. The current funding source for arts and culture is derived from our hotel/motel bed tax. We also have minimum set asides for all city projects that mandate investments in our Arts in Public Spaces program. I remain open to other proposals and will continue our efforts in the future.

5. Sixth Street is arguably Austin's best-known brand, a National Registered Historic District, and the gateway between the Waller Creek District and the heart of downtown. Sixth Street is also primarily a nightlife district - crowded most nights, but quiet during the day. Are those in conflict? How should Sixth Street change?

I believe that 6th Street still has a lot of room for improvement. We should ensure that the 6th Street experience is safe and enjoyable for all patrons, and provides an atmosphere in which businesses can thrive. One way we can quickly and positively impact the character and inviting aspects of 6th Street is to actively enforce and initiate historic zoning cases for this street. This is already a historic district and we would be well served to step up enforcement of these aspects along 6th Street. I was proud to sponsor the BRE program to attract and retain retail establishments (other than bars) into the 6th Street area. I will remain committed to those values and principles during my next term. 6th Street is an Austin trademark, and we need to find a balance between daytime retail businesses and the nightlife atmosphere to ensure that businesses can thrive without losing the night culture that brings so many people to Austin.

6. The Waller Creek revitalization project could dramatically improve a sizable portion of downtown. As it stands today, which aspects of the plan are you for and which are you against?

I am completely in favor of the entire revitalization of the Waller Creek corridor. There is one element that we must address in order to achieve all of our goals and success as it relates to Waller Creek. That issue is the inordinate amount of social service providers in one section of downtown in the Waller Creek corridor. Our social service providers should continue to provide “contact” service in the urban core, but we must immediately and responsibly begin a major effort to create a campus style setting for treating and taking care of our most vulnerable residents in Austin. This campus should be out of the downtown area where the best environment and services can be provided.

Transportation

7. Access to downtown is difficult, and bound to become more difficult, due to congestion on our highways and arterial streets. What strategies would you support to make it easier for people to get downtown? How should those strategies be funded?

We absolutely have to move to a multi-modal transportation system in Austin, and as a member of the Capmetro board, I am supportive of rail. I am open to the possibility of expanding our commuter rail system to something that connects more of downtown to the airport, but financing sources must be identified and supported before we can expand our rail system. Should the City entertain taking on that type of debt, it should be accompanied by a vote of those who will ultimately pay for it. We should also improve and expand our current bus system and make cycling safer so that Austinites have realistic alternative methods of transportation. One further element is the CAMPO 2035 plan, and ensuring that an ingress and egress arterial from Mopac and IH 35 become a priority for our community. By providing these options we can reduce the number of people in cars, improving traffic congestion and reducing our carbon footprint.

8. Part of the Envision Central Texas "Vision"; is more transportation choices, including transit options such as commuter rail, light rail, and rapid bus. Will you support planning for and implementing transportation choices, both as connectors of towns and activity centers and as a tool to guide future land-use? Do you support the streetcar system proposed as part of the Downtown Plan?

I support a potential voter approved rail expansion as long as the voters agree to the costs and understand where the funding comes from. Relying on the rail system alone isn’t enough to solve our traffic congestion problems. We have to have a multi-modal approach to solving our traffic challenges. This includes improving and expanding our bus and road system and calling for a transportation bond election in 2010.

9. Bicycles are a cheap, effective way to meet many of our transportation, environmental and fitness goals. What are three things the City should do to encourage biking? Are you a cyclist? If so, how do you use your bike?

Our design guidelines and contracting goals should include bicycle friendly components whenever and wherever possible, and should be part of the criteria for any project that the City enters into. Bike-friendly options should also be included as a community benefit when contemplating private development. There are also multiple policy initiatives that will come before Council in the next few months including more bike facilities for security, bike boxes at our busier intersections, as well as strong recommendations for our new Green Events ordinance that will eventually require all major events to include bike facilities; all issues that I sponsored as a council member in my first term.

Though I don’t use my bike as my main method of transportation, I do enjoy biking with my son several times a month. It is important to all Austinites for Austin to be a safe city for cyclists, and it will continue to be a priority for me.

10. Most Austin residents pay about $5 a month for a transportation user fee on their utility bill to support transportation projects, but automobile projects get far more funding than bicycle projects. Would you support allowing bicyclists to opt for their user fee to go toward bike projects?

The $5 dollar transportation fee is currently used for street maintenance and repairs, which benefits both cyclists and drivers. I wouldn’t support allowing citizens to opt for this fee to go towards bike projects only, but I am open to an optional bike specific fee. Creating a Bike Board and/or Commission would also go a long way in making sure the needs of cyclists are met, and that we are making the best strides towards making Austin as bike friendly as possible.

11. The Great Streets program has shown promise on many streets downtown, but other streets have not seen any improvements years after implementation of the program. How should we speed up progress improving the walkability of Austin's streets?

I support a transportation-only bond initiative as soon as possible to make significant strides in our inadequate road and sidewalk maintenance program. I believe with this, the currently adopted transportation user fee, and the expedited 2006 bond projects, we could see a dramatic improvement in the very short term (3 to 4 years)

Parks

12. What are the elements of great urban parks? How should the City, or the City and private-sector partners, create and maintain quality parks and open space downtown and around transit centers?

Elements of great urban parks include connectivity, proximity to density, and upkeep of facilities. There could also be attractions in parks to increase traffic, such as restaurants, food vendors, or training gyms. I also support the goal of creating open space as closely as possible to all residents within all parts of our community. One way to increase open space with new developments is to require a certain percentage of the property to be used for open space as part of incentive agreements whenever possible.

13. In light of tight budgets, how can the City conserve, restore, and improve our parks and fulfill long-standing objectives like the Boardwalk Trail at Lady Bird Lake?

In our current economic climate, it is difficult to commit to any policy initiative that would have a fiscal impact on our PARD Budget and the General Fund. I believe we have a tremendous opportunity with our new Parks and Recreation Department director, and I look forward to working with Mrs. Hensley in the future in obtaining all of our goals related to PARD. The first area of fund development could be achieved through the aforementioned vending facilities within our parks system. We should not over commercialize our open space, but appropriate vending services could prove to be a valuable asset to improving our parks.

Crime

14. Do you think Art Acevedo has done a good job so far as Police Chief? What changes do you think should be made to the ways Austin deals with crime?

Yes, I am a strong supporter of Chief Acevedo. The Chief has come to Austin during very difficult times and when community distrust was at it’s highest. He has taken the helm and turned this department in a direction that I believe the community is fully supportive of. However, there are areas where we disagree on specific policy matters. I disagree with his stance on allowing police to obtain DNA samples on suspicion of Class B misdemeanors and higher crimes. I don’t believe that the police have a right to collect DNA samples from suspects that have yet to be convicted for a crime. I also believe this will come at a tremendous cost to the tax payers should we begin collecting and storing DNA. While I remain a supporter and friend of Acevedo and the men and women of the Austin Police Department, I believe the members of the Austin City Council are the ultimate policy decision makers, and any shift in policy should be decided in a public forum by the Council.

While we have one of the best police departments in the country, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Petty and theft crimes are on the rise due to the economic downturn and we must not allow this to increase over time. It will only serve as a detriment to our public safety when things like smash and grabs go on all over Austin. We will continue our efforts and do all we can to keep Austin safe and welcoming to all who choose to come here.

15. Many downtown businesses and visitors complain about panhandling. Should steps be taken to curb panhandling? Would you support adjusting current panhandling ordinances?

I opposed the expansion of our anti-solicitation ordinance due to the fact that expansion would not curb the issue at hand one bit. Criminalizing homelessness or behaviors associated with homelessness will not solve the problem; we have to address the root causes to see real improvements. I have strongly advocated for a long time that Austin must and should create a campus style atmosphere for all social service programs for the homeless. It is critical that we locate this program outside of the downtown area. Having the existing social network for our homeless population in the core of the entertainment district is a public safety issue for all, and I will continue to advocate for relocation of these vital and necessary services to an area that is more conducive to reducing recidivism and getting folks back on their feet and on the tax rolls.

Urban Development

16. Will Wynn estimated that 80% of the taxes generated by downtown are used to subsidize city services and maintenance in other parts of the city. Should more of the property taxes generated downtown be used to help downtown? How would you improve city services and maintenance services downtown?

As with every other major metropolitan city in the entire country, the downtown core is the driving engine for large scale commercial property taxes and sales taxes. We must continue our economic development efforts including recruiting another convention hotel to attract and retain more events that have historically not been able to come to Austin due to lack of hotel beds available. This coupled with our redevelopment of the Waller Creek corridor will go a long way towards improving our downtown area and providing vital resources that could be applied to improvements.

17. If you agree that sprawl is not a desirable development pattern and that a strong core is necessary for a strong city, what are some ways you would discourage sprawl, but encourage urban density and good urban design?

There is no single solution to this problem, but we could make great strides in strengthening the City’s core by increasing the availability of affordable housing. While we all know the negative consequences to sprawl, we simply can not take sprawl off the table until true affordability is achieved within the urban core. Those who can’t afford to live and raise a family in the urban core face no other option other than to purchase a home and raise a family in an area they can afford. That area usually ends up being on the edges of our city and in bedroom communities.

18. There have been problems implementing some neighborhood plans. What will you do to ensure consistent and fair implementation of the comprehensive plan? How would you engage the public in the development of a comprehensive plan?

I believe neighborhood plans are the foundation of any comprehensive plan. The NP’s are the detailed micro views of each part of our city. Our comprehensive plan is a satellite and macro view of how our city will evolve over the next several years. While there may be some minor modifications to NP’s that are in part spurned by the comprehensive plan, I truly believe most if not all changes that come down from the comprehensive plans to the neighborhoods will actually improve the overall growth and quality of life.

I will continue to look at every zoning change on a case-by-case basis. I wholeheartedly respect and support the work that our plan contact teams do, and I will continue to look to neighborhood plans to aid me in my decisions. The City needs to improve its methods for notifying the public so that citizens have adequate opportunities to participate in the public input process.

19. Most social services in Austin are concentrated downtown. How are the social service providers, their clients, downtown businesses, our community and visitors affected by the location of these services downtown? Would you change the existing conditions?

As discussed in question 15, I think that locating most of these services outside of the downtown area will benefit all of the groups mentioned. In addition to adequate staffing levels for police, we have to focus on full, comprehensive, wrap-around services for those seeking help. I will continue to advocate strongly for the campus style center located outside of the downtown area that will provide a wide array of service programs for the homeless. This is a tremendous undertaking that will require the entire community coming together to understand the issues we face and how we can address them. I support some level of continued services in the downtown area, but do not believe we can be most effective by simply providing a place to sleep at night.

20. Are you committed to the concept of nodal (also referred to as activity centers) growth, as an alternative to sprawl development, as found in the Envision Central Texas "Vision"; and the CAMPO 2035 Draft Growth Concept?

Again, the nodal concept and urban density are sure to be the wave of our future, but how we achieve this and the values used will surely dictate the offsetting impact to sprawl.

21. Do you think tearing down an existing 100-unit apartment complex and replacing it with a 200-unit complex increases or decreases overall housing costs? What other relevant effects does this type of redevelopment have?

A lot more information must be provided to truly be able to answer this question. While a project of greater density could provide for opportunities for community benefits, there is simply no way of knowing the outcome of this scenario without making many assumptions. I respectfully will not engage in making assumptions.

22. Do you think Austin is better now than it was 10 years ago? Do you think it will be better in 10 years than it is now?

The obvious answer to this question is yes and no, and will remain such in 10 years. I personally think Austin is much better than we were 10 years ago. However, if you ask many of my neighbors in East Austin, they will tell you we are far worse off due to gentrification, rising property values and taxes and overall growth. While I certainly would never be considered anti-growth policies, I believe achieving responsible growth will truly be our highest responsibility over the next 10 years. Not to determine if we will grow, but to determine HOW we will grow. I also firmly believe that overall, Austin will be better 10 years from now.