Feedback: January 16, 2026

Planting Seeds

Dear Editor,

Homelessness is a very big problem in the city of Austin. Many of us who live here see it every day. It’s a difficult problem to solve, as there are thousands of homeless people around Austin, and it is not as simple as just giving them a place to live. That’s why every community-led effort to aid in homelessness matters, especially involving young people, since we are the next generation.

A good friend of mine, Carsten, is an example of a young person doing so. He is only 15, but has been leading a monthly donation drive that he started last summer out of our church, called the Community Outreach by IFGF Teens.

Carsten goes into this with a long-term mindset of planting seeds for the next generation (really our generation), who could be bringing aid to the homeless just like him. Carsten volunteers with organizations such as Mobile Loaves & Fishes, and the donated food goes to locations where they serve each month. The program has been running for about eight months and focuses on collecting food donations, instead of money, with the total value of food donated reaching an estimated $1,000. Although he’s mostly doing this alone, in just the last six months, his donation drive has managed to surpass its goals well beyond expectations. This has motivated the church to help him with his work to support the homeless.

In a city with a homelessness problem like Austin, community-led efforts such as Carsten’s donation drive remind us that you don’t need to use large systems and organizations or the government to help others. Instead anyone can make a difference as an individual by helping and supporting efforts similar to Carsten’s, or even starting their own. Together we can make Austin a better place.

William Ruppert

I Like Big Buts

Dear Editor,

Your latest Project Connect article [“Five Years After Its Approval, Project Connect Plans Proceed,” News, Jan. 9] showed its “Big But” on the second page: “But in April of 2022, 17 months after Project Connect’s approval, the Austin Transit Partnership announced that a spike in construction costs had pushed the plan’s price from $5.8 billion to more than $10 billion.”

So I asked my faithful Google AI: “What’s the yearly inflation rate if a cost goes from $5,800,000,000 to more than $10,000,000,000 in 17 months?” The AI decided not to hallucinate: “The question seems to be incomplete, as it specifies the final cost as “more than $10,000,000,000.” Assuming the cost reached exactly $10,000,000,000 to find the minimum possible rate, the minimum yearly inflation rate is 46.89%.

Now it is possible that the original projection was just a slight miscommunication on the part of the 2020 Project Connect folks, like the one between Lucy and Charlie Brown about the football or Donald Trump and the American public about foreign wars. But the Project Connect question will be easy to answer. Just invite the 2020 Project Connect proposition folks down with their original written projections, texts, emails, etc. for a friendly visit under oath with the Travis County Grand Jury to explain the $4.2 billion discrepancy. Somehow I don’t expect it to happen.

So we’re stuck. No Grand Jury means no fraud charges and the $5.8 billion can only be used for transportation purposes. There are 1.38 million Travis County residents. So how about lifetime 15,000 miles/year passes on Southwest Airlines for every resident? Or a fleet of 20,000 Waymos rented at $10,000/year for 58 years and free rides for everybody with the new “I Was Here in 2026” card? I say, “Use the money wisely.”

David B Miller

Beating the Drum for Frosty

Dear Editor,

I think [Barry Smith aka] Frosty warrants an in-depth consideration for admittance into the Austin Music Hall of Fame. I don’t think I have to list his credits. I believe he was one of the greatest drummers ever to play in Austin or anywhere for that matter.

Dusty Wood Sr.