Don’t Forget D1
Dear Editor,
This is obviously a high-profile election season and with the House and Senate hogging the headlines it will be easy to let smaller local elections just kind of glide through without notice. I want to encourage Chronicle readers not to sleep on the District 1 race for City Council. Of the many candidates, I’ve had to conclude that Misael Ramos is the change we need here in East Austin.
[Natasha] Harper-Madison left a sour taste in the mouth of many in East Austin because it often appeared that she simply didn’t take the job very seriously. I fear that the vast majority of candidates in this race are already demonstrating this affect, whether through bare-bones online presence or boilerplate issues pages on their Squarespace domains.
Misael is a much more serious thinker on balancing the needs of community and growth in District 1, and his online presence does a good job of demonstrating this. His push for a community developer shows that he’s gonna do more than just complain about change, an approach which has failed this city for 50 years.
I’ve also personally seen him connect with people over issues they disagreed on, and find common ground. That’s the kind of leadership this district needs.
I hope you’ll consider voting for Misael.
Sincerely,
Mike Wainwright
Sunflower Survivors
Dear Editor,
Brant Bingamon’s excellent and timely report on the SAFE Alliance [“SAFE Alliance in Dire Need of Funding,” News, April 24] emphasized the critical need of funding to maintain SAFE’s essential role supporting survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. The report included a picture of Austin artist Laura Babcock’s acrylic-on-canvas Sunflower painting in the waiting room at Eloise House. SAFE Alliance commissioned the painting last year as a spinoff of the sunflower mural Babcock painted on the Eloise portable. “Sunflowers are survivors,” says Babcock. “They pop up on fertile soil. They provide beauty, shade and nutrition. What better symbol for the strength and resilience of the people that come through SAFE?” Babcock’s sunflowers touched so many residents, some acquired sunflower tattoos to honor the healing they received in Eloise House.
Pamela Ellen Ferguson
On the SAFE Side
Dear Editor,
Let me preface my comments by saying I in no way question the many valuable services SAFE performs in very difficult circumstances, nor do I question they are performing them in an efficient and sensitive manner. However your article raises some basic questions and perhaps some rather clear solutions [“SAFE Alliance in Dire Need of Funding,” News, April 24].
Reading this article the actual dollar deficit and the sources of those deficits are unclear. The fourth paragraphs indicates the SAFE director advised the city it lost $5.6 million in funding last year from state, local, federal, and philanthropic funding. The seventh paragraph lists a city reduction of $300,000 plus $3.4 million from state, federal, and philanthropic funding. This totals $3.7 million. So is the reduction $5.6 million or $3.7 million? Neither the amount ($1.9 million) nor the percentage of the deficit amount difference (33%) is trifling. It would seem the reporter or a Chronicle editor should have explored the variances in the amounts cited.
As to potential solutions, perhaps the police budget, sacrosanct under state law, could fund more of the forensic examination costs. (A collateral question: Are the exams, having been performed by SAFE, being timely processed by the police lab yet?) And if these exams are saving local hospitals (themselves all nonprofits) $6 million a year, perhaps they should be persuaded to pony up more than $161,000 in donations to SAFE.
Jerome Garvey
This article appears in May 1 • 2026.