20 Aug The Austin Environmental Democrats endorse Delia Garza for District 2 City Council

Now that the filing deadline in Austin has passed and a whopping 78 candidates have tossed their name into the ring, it is time to start the long process of getting to know all of these people vying for City Council’s 10 seats (plus the mayoral seat). The Austin Environmental Democrats have already begun this process with a series of endorsement meetings, designed to give members an opportunity to lean more about each of the candidates before deciding whether or not to give them their official stamp of approval. On Wednesday, August 20, the Austin Environmental Democrats held an endorsement meeting for the District 2 City Council race and endorsed Delia Garza. She was the only candidate from District 2 who attended the meeting, but AED members were allowed to vote for candidates who were absent as well. Garza received 96.7 percent of the vote. The following is a recording of the District 2 meeting, which includes a 3 minute statement from Garza, followed by a question and answer session: 

And if you can't listen to all of Garza's remarks, I've summed up some of the key points she made for you below: 

• Garza said that she grew up in a working class family. Both of her parents were migrant farm workers as children 
• Currently, Garza is an attorney for the state, but she started her career in public service as an Austin firefighter. She was a firefighter for 6 years and was on the force when they fought for and obtained collective bargaining rights for the fire department. 
• When she was about to turn 31 she decided to go to law school and left the Austin Fire Department.
• Garza said that she has owned her home in the Sweet Briar neighborhood for 11 years
• She also firmly expressed her belief in 10-1
• Issues that Garza identified as being important to her are quality of life issues – "There is no reason families should be living in flood plains and there is no reason why children should be living in food deserts," she said.
• “Austin’s prosperity should be shared by all families," Garza said.
• Garza identified flooding as the number one environmental issue in her district. – “There are families living in horrendous conditions that shouldn't have been living there to begin with and that is all direct effect of irresponsible growth and constructed that created the flood plain to get bigger and bigger and bigger," she said.
• Citywide, Garza identified responsible and sustainable growth as an important environmental issue.
• Other environmental issues that Garza said are important are responsible economic development, water conservation, and zero waste. 
• Transportation and traffic congestion is another big issue for Garza. She said that she wants to promote a multi-modal transportation system and a more efficient bus system.
• Garza said that she does not support the new transportation bond proposal – “I so wanted to promote rail…but after looking at the Project Connect vision, it has really ignored South Austin," she said. And these are parts of Austin that need to depend on public transportation, Garza continued. “I just can’t in good conscience support something that I don’t think is going to bring any relief to District 2 and is going to cost those working families more money, and they’re not going to see any benefit from that," she said.
• Garza repeatedly stressed that she wants to be an advocate for working families.
• Garza concluded by explaining that environmental issues are social justice issues, both of which are important to her.