Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/25/texas-county-commissioner-cand.html
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Welp. He’s got my vote.
Seriously…best campaign ad ever.
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i approve this ad, haha – whoever came up with this idea should get a bonus.
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If only ALL political ads were like this… What a wonderful world it would be.
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(nitpick) Gerald, lightrail is a stretch. It’s a damn train.
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In one of the most batshit insane election periods in the last century, its great to see:
- A positive ad extolling the candidate rather than rolling in mud with the opponent
- A creative approach to political advertising.
If the guy wins, he should give the advertising agency some major referrals to other politicians.
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It’s a good ad, but that doesn’t mean he should win. Trains are good! Taxes fund useful and necessary things!
Why should the people of his county have to put up with the rambling obstructionism of a candidate who isn’t going to make things better?
But…re-election…yeah, he’ll probably win.
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His trolley math is wildly faulty. The “300 riders” number is only for one trip. He’s forgetting that when people get off the trolley, other people can get on. It’s not a one-use conveyance. Over the course of a single month, that could provide ridership to tens of thousands of additional people.
He doesn’t get my vote. It’s no wonder Austin’s mass transit sucks.
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::facepalm:: You can’t do the third one if you do the first one.
Also, cuts to public transit disproportionately hurt the working poor and the elderly in addition to pushing millennials out of town the second they have their newly minted degrees in hand.
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I have a dim view of people who denigrate mass transit.
If anything it just means the guy had good taste in ad companies. They deserve the break.
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You have to also take into account, opposition to mass transit has a racial/social class component to it as well. Making it more difficult for the poor and working class to get in and out of a city acts as a form of defacto segregation. Keeping such groups within a city and away from the “lilly white” suburbs.
On close consideration this guy is a major douche.
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I like his wife too. She’s a good actor. I still wouldn’t vote for this nice man with bad ideas.
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Austin light rail is a cluster fuck. For those unfamiliar with it:
- It’s administered by the CapitalMetro system. If you live in central Texas, this already tells you they have no idea what they’re doing.
- They had to put it up for a vote three different times in three different years before they hit the magic 51%. In a city where historically everything that goes up for a vote is approved, that’s inauspicious. They did this by scaling back until they basically only promised one cheap north-south line, despite the sprawl of the city.
- The final route is a compromise, going from where there are no people to where there are no jobs.
- the no people part is because no one wanted a train depot near them. There are still stops, but there’s no parking, so you have to walk to the train stops or get someone to drop you off. You might think you can bike, but dealing with a bike on these train is a nightmare you don’t want to live more than once.
- the "no jobs part is mostly because no one wanted to sacrifice lanes of traffic, especially not downtown or near UT campus. Everything ever built in Austin came in over-budget and behind schedule by a factor of 2, so a lane closure for construction in front of your small store is often a kiss of death for that business.
- The fare is too high, which is sad considering taxpayers foot about 50% of the bill.
- We got a deal on the tram-trains themselves, because somehow they couldn’t meet the legal requirements under EU regulations and the manufacturer couldn’t sell them there.
- It was relatively cheap to build because it uses existing rail. Leased freight rail. This means it basically can’t run at night on weeknights. So if you were planning on taking the train and spending the night drinking on Sixth Street, be ready to call a cab.
- Also, as leased train lines, the train cannot go more than 79 mph per FRA regulations. With the frequent stops, you’ll probably be no faster or slower than driving.
- 300 commuters per trip is still a joke, especially when most people go in to work at the same time, and the majority of them are coming in from out of town – Buda, Round Rock, Cedar Park, points beyond on the toll road… All the suburbs where there is no rail And as I said, there’s nowhere for them to park even if they wanted a weird halfway-car/halfway-train trip. Austin has become one of the largest commuter sinks in the country.
- There are long stretches of shared, bi-directional line, so there’s only so many trips you can make without trains colliding.
- This rail line few can use, with inflexibly limit capabilities, that doesn’t relieve the core traffic problems. It was supposed to be a starter line, a political compromise to prove out the idea and secure more money in the future. The test came November 2014, when the expansion project (also a heavy compromise) died at the ballot box. It seems to have impressed no one.
Building new roads as Daugherty wants is not a solution. he can be pardoned for this, since it’s mostly telling his constituents on the outskirts, “I’m willing to screw those guys in Austin to help improve your commute.” It’s a terrible idea, but at least it favors people he’s trying to get to vote for him. Most politicians around here just expound plans that absolutely no one wants.
A decent rail might be a solution, but there is no political will to build such a thing.
I’ve often advocated for pulling up roads, building a wall around the city, and urging people in the suburbs to just put their law firm or ad agency out there where they all already live. But after Trump I don’t think walls are politically tenable.
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I must admit, I might disagree with every policy he proposes, but the ad really does make me want to like the guy.
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Pay attention to his logic on the topic of a light-rail system. That is how the fuckwits think.
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as a past resident of Austin (moved out in 2013) the lightrail was and still is a joke. I have to agree with him that putting more money there is not the solution just based on how it was implemented already. If its more of that, no thank-you. One of the things I never understood about Austin is why 35 goes thru the heart of downtown with no way around. Why for example, can they not make 183 the thru traffic and 35 the local traffic? Thats how it is in Richmond, VA where 95 goes thru the city and 295 is a hwy around. If his “more roads” idea was that (building expressways around downtown for all the truck and south traffic) than I would vote for him
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“Building more roads” is usually a dogwhistle for property developers, which is often an excuse for kickbacks. AKA bribes AKA graft.
AKA The best sign for automated municipal government.
Because people are clearly stupid.
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For exactly the reason I stated above. Nobody wants to make it easy for poor/minorities people to get to and from the suburbs. Then they will get the urge to live there.
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Thank you @squi and @WhyBother for the perspective!
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Maybe it was like in other major cities and was used to break up “problem” neighborhoods (ie, black neighborhoods)?
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