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 mail@austinchronicle.com. Thanks for your patience.

Chronicle Editorial Staff,
    This letter comes at the request of Mike Clark-Madison in his denial of our request for a correction to your article dated for September 25th on Project Connect that mentions Voices of Austin as well as Peck Young, Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, and Ora Houston.
    In your article you allude that Voices of Austin is funded by “the Koch network.” Voices of Austin is 100% locally funded by Austinites. The members of Voices of Austin are aware of who Koch Industries is, what it stands for, and their activity in transit campaigns, and Voices of Austin would never take a dime from them. Voices of Austin is comprised of Austinites fighting for Austin.
    Additionally, please note that Voices of Austin is a nonpartisan organization. Our interest is not to represent one political agenda, it is to amplify the voices of Austinites, most of whom feel ignored by City Hall. You may reference the results of our most recent and scientifically conducted poll of Austinites on the issues here.
    When speaking with Peck Young regarding your misrepresentation of Voices of Austin he feels that “Frankly, this seems like nothing more than a cheap and dishonest attack by a desperate campaign that wants to tax people during a pandemic.” It feels particularly desperate when one notices that your advertising funding has come from some of the very engineering firms that are set to profit from building Project Connect.
    To reiterate, Voices of Austin has never had any dealings with Koch Industries. Please add a correction to your article immediately.
    Should you require any additional information or seek an informative and truthful interview regarding our organization please reach out to our press secretary directly.

   Editor-in-Chief Kim Jones responds: The passage in question reads: “There could yet be more actors entering the fray. In particular, transit supporters anticipate the involvement of the Koch network, which has spent heavily to oppose transit initiatives in cities across the country.” The article does not state Voices of America is funded by the Koch network, therefore there is nothing to correct. Further, I strongly dispute the suggestion that advertisers have influenced the Chronicle’s editorial coverage. Our advertising and editorial departments function independently, and the news staff knows who's bought an ad the same time our readers do – when they open up the paper on Thursday morning.

Dear Editor,
    As an Austin resident and homeowner living on the Eastside for more than two decades, I wanted to chime in on the affordable housing initiative discussion.
    In my experience, what drives long-time residents out of the city is no secret: The valuation of single family homes have skyrocketed with property taxes swamping us (barely) steady income earners. 
    Everyone that I know with jobs in Austin are clinging to the hope that the  City Council initiative for Accessory Dwelling Units was passed. We then witnessed our hopes dwindle as council supported developers with lobbyists and budgets. 
    I do not imagine that commercial developers have even an inkling of the fervent commitment to Austin’s community that residents and families have ...Please City Council, let us have ADU’s!

Dear Josh [Rosenblatt],
    My name is Eddie and I work for the Austin Fire Department. I am currently the president of the “League of United Latin American Citizens” (LULAC) a national Latino organization that supports the advancement of Latin American Citizens. I’ve been in the fire service for almost 30 years (23yrs w/Austin Fire). Since the first day I set foot in the Austin Fire Department I noticed the stark lack or diversity.That very obvious lack of diversity is still here.
    Recently I have been having conversations about the lack of diversity in the fire department with Fire Chief Baker. I asked him if he thought we had a diversity problem within the fire department. His answer shocked me … he responded by saying “I do not think we have a diversity problem in our fire department.” I was perplexed for that moment in time. But what he said next was not surprising at all. He then followed up his initial answer with……”I think we have a diversity DISASTER!”
    In working with the fire chief on how we address the diversity disaster we’ve been in for years I ran across an article you wrote 11 years ago [“The Color of Fire,” News, May 13, 2011] about the AFD diversity council/group that our union Local 975 had started. Well, it eventually dwindled away and in a short time was never seen again. I proposed to the chief that we should renew the diversity group. Anyway, my point is that we took all the data you had 11 years ago and compared it to todays minority data…..and no surprise, it is almost the exact minority data you gathered 11 years ago. Yes, there has been absolutely no improvement in 11 years.
    I’d love to talk to you about this and maybe you can write another article concerning the grave minority issues we currently have in our fire department.

Dear Editor,
    [David] Whitworth’s attempt to malign Kathie Tovo, Leslie Pool, and Alison Alter because they support single-family zoning is shameful [“Time to Look in the Mirror on Housing,” Opinion, Sept. 11]. Likening them to racist right-wing conservative gun-brandishing suburbanites is offensive and “Trumpian”.
    Whitworth implies that he’s a “card carrying Democrat” because he supports elimination of single-family zoning in broad areas of the city. According to data from the Texas Ethics Commission, he apparently donated six times to the Texas REALTORS Political Action Committee between 2014 and 2016.
    Transparency USA website shows that Texas REALTORS Political Action Committee has apparently donated $50,000 each to Texans for Dan Patrick and Texans for Greg Abbott! Whitworth’s attempt to portray himself as a liberal progressive is disingenuous and self-serving.
    As a realtor and director and president of the David Whitworth Development Company, Whitworth has direct financial interest in the proposed massive upzoning of single-family neighborhoods in Central Austin.