Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    Speaking of false narratives (Nick Barbaro, Public Notice, Feb. 28, 2020) [“Damn the Analysis – Full Speed Ahead”].
    The staff recommendation for the rezoning case at 218 S. Lamar (a 110-foot office building on the Schlotzsky’s site) begins with its own peculiar denial of recent history: “The Butler Shores subdistrict and overall Waterfront Overlay were created in the late 1990s and do not reflect the rapid growth of our city over the past 20 years.” In fact, the Waterfront Overlay Ordinance was revised in 2008 to reinforce its 1985 mandate to encourage high-density multifamily projects, including mechanisms to provide bonuses for high-density residential while limiting nonresidential uses (Section 25-2-714 in the current code).
    The owner at 218 S. Lamar has asked for about 90,000 square feet of bonus floor area. If Jerry Rusthoven (assistant director of zoning) chooses to recognize that the bonus calculations of the Waterfront Overlay are “germane” to this rezoning case, the site could be limited to 131,750 sq. ft. of office and retail space, but the remaining 63,130 sq. ft. of the proposed building would have to be high-density multifamily housing, with affordable units determined by the NHCD. Or, the project could be entirely residential above the ground floor, with no limits on the floor-to-area ratio.
    Zilker advocates for multifamily housing are awaiting Mr. Rusthoven’s decision. Will he instruct zoning staff to read and apply the existing code to this project, even if it contradicts their false narrative? Or will he suppress discussion of the Waterfront Overlay’s incentives for multifamily housing, as he suppressed the city demographer’s discussion of multifamily construction data?

Dear Editor,
    Don’t build a wall. Let everybody in. Stop. Coronavirus is on the loose. Could undocumented immigrants be carriers?
    That’s what happens during a pandemic. Weakness are obvious. The immigrants and the homeless will be carriers and first victims. Sort of underscores Trump’s point in more than an existential or metaphysical sense. It’s common sense.
    It doesn’t matter if this coronavirus ends in a whimper, it’s very occurrence makes a good point for having measures in place in case of potentially overwhelming events.
    Control travel and immigration. Fortify health care.

Dear Editor,
    Now that everyone is comfortable with very young children participating in book readings in public libraries with transgender performers, why can’t our Austin City Hall “The People’s Gallery” exhibit slated to open March 6 offer such contemporary features as the one funded by the San Antonio’s Department of Arts and Culture depicting in a video a sculpture called Xanda Ibarra’s “Tapatio Cock” where the Latinx artist, dressed as her persona La Chica Boom, wears a strap-on penis formed by a pepper-sauce bottle as revealed on p.49 of the Feb. 28, 2020 Austin Chronicle in its “Qmmunity” column [“Video by Queer Latinx Artist Xandra Ibarra Pulled From San Antonio Art Exhibit”]? Let’s grow our diverse arts community while at the same time promoting socially enlightening displays that mimic ejaculation from a dispenser of pepper-sauce.
    Given the happy face on the cover of the December 27, 2019, edition of The Austin Chronicle featuring “Queen of the Night” Louisianna Purchase, I submit we include as a culturally appropriate “display” a Halloween performance in which the scream queen offers “a seven-minute electronic noise track where I burnt a Bible and snapped a nun’s neck and vomited blood on her face” [“Dragula Star Louisianna Purchase Finds Fantasy in the Nightmare,” Arts]. Someday, somewhere we indeed can only hope to be exposed to these types of soul lifting art exhibits that will result in achieving a more tolerant, progressive, and friendly (meaning no haters) society.

Dear Editor,
    I’m a 21-year-old college senior who has been participating in research on various native plants for my entire time in college. In my freshman year, collecting samples was a pleasant hike that everyone enjoyed and people would actually argue over who got to go. But over my time here it has begun to be one of the worst jobs we have, and it’s all due to how hot the days get. Summers in Texas have become unbearable in the past few years, and I have begun to dread what was once one of my favorite parts of my research. This rise in temperatures can be almost entirely traced back to the refusal to transition to renewable energy despite Texas’ stance as one of the biggest energy producers in the United States, but when it comes to our ability to produce, store, and utilize this great resource, we are severely lacking.
    With the use of wind energy Texas can take back our landscapes and reclaim our lifestyle that’s like no other. We need to strengthen our storage capacities and support more investment in Texas’ future, and Texas legislators have to be the ones who step up and bring this problem forward to the public and to the governor by passing legislation like the Better Energy Storage Technology Act.

Dear Editor,
    Let’s Make Austin a Coronavirus Epicenter!
    With a highly transmissible worldwide potential pandemic, in which travel is a primary enabling factor, let’s go forward with South by Southwest flying tens of thousands of global visitors to Austin to ensure the best possible chance of creating a toxic epicenter here. Certainly none of the attendees could possibly be carriers of this disease.
    SXSW information advises to wash our hands and take precautions. Are they serious? Instead of not bringing it here, we will bring it here and then engage in prevention?
    We will put innumerable global visitors into our restaurants, hotels, transit system, retail establishments and elsewhere so the show can go on. Not to forget the mass gatherings of crowds that make up the heart of SXSW, the concerts and shows. These attendees can always wash their hands afterward.
    Financial considerations for cancellation would be enormous. I have sympathy for the organizers. What are the financial considerations if coronavirus spreads through our community and forces closure of businesses, schools, and other organizations? We can look across the Atlantic to see. But instead we bring it here. Has anyone looked at the greater long-term good for the community? Austin City Council? Mr. Mayor?
    What are legal ramifications of proceeding with the knowledge of this possible result? The global planning is to keep the potential for infection at bay rather than bringing it to our doorsteps.
    What was the determining rationale for going forward? How were the competing interests balanced? What input was given from the city of Austin? Ultimately our city government will be accountable also. These questions will surely be asked both formally and informally in the weeks and months following SXSW.

Dear Editor,
    We Must Protect the International Affairs Budget.
    People tend to vastly overestimate how much we spend on foreign aid and underestimate the benefits. Numerous polls have shown most people believe the International Affairs Budget (IAB) is anywhere from 20-28%. In reality, it is roughly 1%. Aid is a fraction of that. As the Trump administration proposes deep cuts to the IAB, it is now critical people understand how little we actually spend on it, why we must protect it, and to urge their members of Congress to support funding for the International Affairs Budget.
    I am an Ambassador to the Borgen Project, a national nonprofit that seeks to alleviate global poverty through raising awareness, mobilization, education, and direct lobbying.
    It is in our economic and national security interests to help eradicate extreme global poverty. 95% of U.S. goods are export-based and nearly 50% of our goods go to developing economies. Helping the world’s poor helps create U.S. jobs and open new markets to U.S. goods. Military leaders have also urged protection of the IAB, as it helps promote more global stability.
    You can let your congressional leaders know you support the International Affairs Budget and other poverty-reduction legislation through the Borgen Project’s website at www.borgenproject.org. It takes under a minute.
    I am now calling on Senator Cornyn and Senator Cruz to protect the Foreign Affairs Budget. I urge your readers to do the same.

Dear Editor,
    It’s clear after two readings by the City Council of the new Land Development Code that there is little progress toward unity. Council Members Alter, Kitchen, Pool, and Tovo say that their constituents oppose the rewrite. Among their constituents are well-to-do NIMBYs opposed to new development. But weren’t council members elected to do the right thing?
    It would cut the LDC challenge down to size if each of our 10 districts would build an additional 13,500 living units in the next 10 years? That would meet the agreed-upon LDC goal of 135,000 units. And what could be more fair?