All politics are local

As I write, I'm in Austin's City Hall at the request of our Neighborhood Association to discusss Zoning and Platting (ZAP) issue #5 on the agenda.
Consent agenda, approvals, disapprovals, public discussion, motions, approval of minutes, and a number of arcane discussion points lie ahead before I get a few minutes to speak in front of the commission in our effort to piss in the wind a bit. There's not much reason for the commission not to approve the staff recommendation for the new zoning, but our neighborhood board thinks we need to have a show of resistance. I was here two weeks ago to show our resistance, but on procedural grounds, our item was postponed. Zoning battles are wars of patience and attrition, with our side having an uphill battle getting people down to council; the developer has some real money on the line with it, not us. Adding to the frustration from our side, only the chair of the commission has been here more than a year; the rest are all newcomers that do not know our neighborhood. We're going to have to 'train' them on our issues. Watching the meeting, the chair is teaching the commission as well in how to make motions: Roberts' Rules of Order 101.

While the neighborhood's goals and issues are pretty staid, the Austin Lesbian and Gay Political Caucus is going through an identity crisis. Could it be that ALGPC has done all it can in Austin? Our endorsement meeting was a joint meeting with the Austin Stonewall Democrats, letting all the candidates have 4+ minutes apiece to fish for two endorsements at once. It is and was a gruelling meeting to sit through, and generally only happens once every other year on a large scale when there are primaries. The current chairs of ALGPC have been in place a number of years, and there haven't been new faces in the caucus either, and therein lies the problem. The chairpersons are worn out, the candidates have better direct access to individual voters than ever before, and maybe here in Austin at least, the ALGPC seems to have served its mission. For a number of years we served as a non-partisan caucus, but at some point after years of not getting any response from any candidates other than the Democrats, it's pretty clear that interest in having the endorsement simply doesn't exist on the other side of the aisle. There aren't any specifically local issues of interest to ALGPC's community, as our region is pretty touchey-feeley diverse, and the big issues are at the state and national level. Hell, at our endorsement meeting, most of the questions from the caucus to the candidates touched on property taxes, rather than issues of rights or visibility. It probably means there won't be a group to make an endorsement in our non-partisan city and county elections going forward, and that's a loss. It's crossed my mind to step up and keep it running, maybe as a 'virtual' caucus with candidate videos and online caucusing, but my heart wouldn't be in it.

Now my duties at ZAP for the evening are done - my 120 seconds at the podium and on public access cable were a success along with the rest of the neighbors. The developer is asking for zoning for 'auto rental' to cover limousine service, but we made the connection that unlike 9-5 rental places, limos and drivers come back at 3am on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The commission heard that, along with the fact that they've illegally paved the entire lot, and decided to do a 'site visit' before accepting the more intense zoning. It's not a victory yet, but I think we can get a few more neighbors on board for the next round.