Dear Editor,
What a tepid, somewhat ridiculous endorsement of the City of Austin's Proposition (aka "Local Prop. 1") in last week's
Chronicle [“
Proposition 1,” News, Oct. 17]. The editorial board admits "some of us argue that the former [the route chosen] is wrong and the latter [the city's planning process] has been bungled." Both (the wrongness of the chosen route and the bungled planning process) are indisputably true – yet an endorsement is the result. Rail advocates like myself, and many, many others are not waiting "for a perfect consensus" – we are working for just a better one that takes citizen voices and preferences into account. And we know the next rail plan "will inevitably be better and more politically viable" – because we are already advancing that plan (a route on Guadalupe-North Lamar). Thankfully, elections are decided by individual voters – and not the "many local progressive organizations" that are the "broad-based support" mentioned in the endorsement (which are, to a great extent, made up of the same individuals who run from one endorsement meeting to the next). The individual voters are well aware that "the wrong route" selected by a “bungled” process is before them, and will vote accordingly. Too bad the
Chronicle got this one so wrong, after pointing out its fatal flaws.