Hello everybody! Who’s ready to see what happened this week in your local city council?
Hours 0:00-1:13: SMART Terminal has no A or R anymore? And some strategic goals for next year’s budget.
Hours 1:13-2:22: McCoy’s, murals, and we talk about vacancy taxes a bit.
I’m getting more and more ticked off by the SMART Terminal developer. (And he wasn’t even really on the agenda this meeting.) I don’t know what’s going to happen there.
It was a very short meeting! Mark Gleason was leading the meeting, although Mayor Hughson was still present. (She had shoulder surgery the day before. Hope she’s mending well.)
Hours 0:00 – 50:31: Citizen Comment, a bit on SMART and the notification radius, a bit on the speed limit for 123, and a little bit more on civil forfeiture and why it’s so gross.
Hours 50:31 – 1:22: Stephanie Reyes is officially your new city manager! And new rules for governing council committees.
Bonus: 2/13/21 Mini-meeting and 2/21/21 Workshop: In which we note the new P&Z appointments and discuss bike lanes on Craddock and on Sessom.
That’s all for February! See you bright and early next month.
Welcome to last Tuesday. The big story of the night is that Meet and Confer is repealed!
Hours 0:00 – 1:50: The whole complicated story of the Mano Amiga petition, and how council ended up rescinding the Meet-and-confer agreement with SMPOA
Hours 1:50 – 3:22: Mostly a lot of zoning cases.
Hours 3:22 – 4:16: In which we have a CUP, and a tiny bit on the SMART Terminal and committee appointments. And some speculation about the Top Secret Executive Committee session.
This blog is not intended to be the cheerleader section for Alyssa Garza. But the fact is that we’ve got one progressive council member, and she’s generally right. I’m just stating the facts, ma’am.
Happy New Year! And happy one-year-of-blogging to me! Today we have the Jan 3rd city council meeting, and then I’ve got some good old self-reflections on the past year for you.
City Council business first
It was a short meeting, only two hours long. Partly because the agenda was short, but partly also because there’s much less discussion without Max Baker there. I think this is mixed. Max probably gummed up the works overmuch at times. But the danger is that too much discussion happens behind closed doors, and the public only sees the final vote. It gives the appearance that Council is rubber-stamping whatever comes along.
I do not exactly think that Council is rubber-stamping every item. Some items do get some discussion. And not every item needs to be discussed. However, without discussion, the context of a vote is opaque. On complicated topics where no one says much, it’s very hard to tell the difference between a good vote and a bad vote.
Hours 0:00-1:01: In which we see very little discussion in two rezoning cases.
Hours 1:01-2:10: Several small items, plus the Mano Amiga petition against the SMPD meet-and-confer agreement.
Onto the self-reflection
It’s been one year since I went public with this site! I am not frequently asked anything, but I thought it might be fun to make up some FAQs.
1. Who am I?
I promise you that when my identity (inevitably, eventually) gets discovered, it will be a giant letdown. I am incredibly boring, and the suspense is way more interesting than my actual dumb self.
2. Why am I doing this?
A long time ago, I heard Diane Wassenich talking about how she made an effort to attend every city council meeting and every P&Z meeting. She said something like, “Well, someone needs to be watching them.” I really admired that sentiment, that at least one person should consistently be watching. The thought stuck with me. I noticed that there was a vacuum when she retired.
However, I’m not a social person who wants to be a part of a lot of organizations. So if I just watched all the P&Z and council meetings, the knowledge would then just die with me. This blog is a substitute for all the conversations I’d have, if I liked having conversations.
3. How many readers do I have?
It’s pretty tiny. There seem to be about 30-40 of you that turn out regularly. One thing that I’m particularly pleased with is that most of you all seem to actually read the entire thing. My stats show me both the number of readers and the number of views. So, for example, on days when I post 4 links, the number of views tends to be close to 4x the number of readers. I’m humbled that this small-but-loyal group truly reads the whole, excruciating thing.
(I did get a small bump from people finding election posts via google. Most of you come over from Facebook, though.)
I’m playing a long game. I figure that having the ear of 30-40 progressive, engaged community members in San Marcos is actually a really big deal, because you all are likely to turn up to events and have the conversations and actually make change happen.
4. What was my most popular post?
Oh my gawd: the time Shane Scott waved around a baggie of 3 oz of pot, I got 235 views. He’s the gift that keeps on giving.
5. Are you planning on expanding the blog?
I really loathe self-promotion, so I haven’t mustered anything beyond posting links on Facebook and Twitter. If anyone has an idea that requires very little time, energy, and money from me, I’m open to it.
I’ve vaguely mused about covering Hays County Commission or the SMCISD school board, but I don’t really have any additional time to spare. This is kinda time-consuming as is.
Seriously, thank you to all of you who read this thing. You make it worth writing. Cheers to 2023.
Season’s greetings! It’s the last meeting of the year. (Wednesday council meetings are hard. I missed having the extra day to write this all up.)
Let’s do this!
Hours 0:00-2:04: Electric cabs downtown! And the dumb curfew, for the third meeting in a row, finally passes.
Hours 2:04-2:40: The Cotton Center is going to maybe donate 600 acres to the SMART Terminal. We take a beat to figure out what these things are. Plus some money to nonprofits.
Hours 2:50-3:40: In which we discuss campaign finance, and whether councilmembers want the Ethics Review Committee double-checking their disclosures.
And that’s a wrap! 2022 is on the books. See you back here in January!
Welcome back! It’s been an entire Sights & Sounds of San Marcos, plus Thanksgiving, since you were last here!
Exciting news:
Clickers are back! That’s right. Now all councilmembers have to vote at the same time, so they can’t cheat off each other and game their vote.
Let’s dive in:
Hours 0:00-1:40: In which we revisit the little plot of land behind Embassy Suites.
Hours 1:40-3:30: The curfew ordinance takes center stage. This is the big topic of the night.
Hours 3:30- 4:42: In which we reallocate some unspent Covid money.
This coming Wednesday – December 14th – is the last council meeting of the year. That’s right – you get two consecutive weeks of my drivel this month. And then 2022 will be on the books!
This week we talk about curfews and stray cats. It’s Max Baker’s last meeting, sadly. (My post-election thoughts can be found here.)
It’s a relatively short meeting. Jude Prather is absent, and Shane Scott goes home sick early on. So a lot of items get postponed until they’ve got a full house again.
Hours 0:00-2:45: In which I get fired up about curfews. They’re largely bullshit.
Hours 2:45-4:00: The cats and dogs ordinance is back up again.
See you next time, everybody. Stay warm.
What a short meeting! Just the cutest, tiniest thing you ever did see. Let’s go!
Hours 0:00 – 0:55: A quick explainer on Mystic Canyon, and EDSM and GSMP get disentangled.
Hours 0:55 – 1:05: In which we rename the Sculpture Garden, and we get excited about renaming all the other alleys in town.
Hours 1:05 – 1:26, plus the workshop: In which we take a field trip to the Edwards Aquifer, and learn all about purple pipe.
It was not even 90 minutes long!
So listen: early voting starts tomorrow. Here’s all the Hays County info on when and where to vote. Here’s my (mostly unhelpful) voting guide for city council elections.
It’s hard to imagine that anyone interested in this blog doesn’t already vote regularly. Still, make sure all your punk friends and family go do their civic duty, too.
It was a relatively short meeting this week. Enjoy!
Hour 1: In which we dive deep into La Cima. We also visit Blanco Gardens and El Centro.
Hour 2: Campaign finance limits, noise ordinances and binge drinking, and a discussion on the 3-month eviction notice.
Bonus Council Workshop: Might there be a new City Hall, someday? Have some old-timey photos of San Marcos from the mid-Two Thousand and Aughts.
I never did get around to fixing the errors I made in the post about the candidates last time. I still intend to do it, though.
This coming week, I’m going to write up my thoughts from the debate, and also I’ve got the recording from when candidates talked to the Hays County Democrats, so I’ll add in my impressions from that.
Along with your regularly-scheduled city council meeting rundown, I’ve also started the election-talk.
Early Thoughts on the Candidates. These are my biased opinions on each candidate, before hearing anyone’s speeches or platforms. Enjoy.
Hours 0:00-2:00: In which we finally lay this budget to rest.
Hours 2:00-3:00: Some new developments, some new statues. Did you know we have a sculpture garden?
Hours 3:00-4:10: Boyhood Alley hijinks, and I fret about Sessom Creek being developed.
And that’s a wrap! 10-4, good buddy.
The San Marxist 