30 Oct District 3 City Council Candidates: Similarities, Differences, Big Ideas

Although District 3 has the largest field of candidates (a whopping 12 people are running), the group’s knowledge of environmental policy does not necessarily run that deep. While the majority of candidates filled out environmental questionnaires, many of their answers are brief and lack a serious command of the subject matter. However, a few of the candidates from this East Austin district did bring attention to serious environmental justice issues and called on the environmental community to do a better job including the people of District 3 in their movement. These few also identified several problems that are unique to this part of town and expressed their thankfulness that the new 10-1 election system will finally allow these issues to come to light.

For example, ozone was raised by several of the candidates as the most important environmental issue facing their district. “Both my son and I suffer from asthma and live in an area of SE Austin near the airport with higher ground ozone levels than the rest of Austin, a situation likely to worsen,” McGhee wrote. “So this is both a personal as well as professional issue for me.”

This very personal desire to improve the lives of those living in District 3 is common throughout the slate of candidates, manifesting as a focus on environmental justice and government outreach. “The problem in District 3 is inclusion,” Hoerster wrote. “We need more education in many of these neighborhoods and more opportunities to use best practices to improve our environmental awareness and practices.” Ireland even proposed appointing an environmental justice liaison to partner with the city and the Sierra Club to help to clean up East Austin and to correct the ecological problems associated with years of neglect and unimpeded industrial and commercial growth in the region.

This has manifested into the latest environmental justice issue in District 3 – the location of Pure Castings, a 35,000 square foot industrial facility that is positioned right next to Zavala Elementary School. Almanza has made relocation of this plant a centerpiece of both her campaign and her personal life. As director of PODER, People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources, Almanza has gotten the neighborhood involved in trying to move the plant as well.

Education and Opportunity

Other candidates have expressed a desire to get District 3 residents more engaged in environmental justice issues as well. In his questionnaire responses, Valera named education as one of his top environmental priorities, pointing out its potential to get more people involved. He said that when it comes to water conservation, the most important aspect of achieving the city’s goals is teaching the public about the need to conserve, as well as the best ways to go about it. “Additionally, it is important to provide assistance to low-income households to help them meet their basic water needs, provide them with low water use fixtures, and allow them to reduce water usage,” Valera wrote.

Ireland also said that more Austin residents need to have the opportunity to participate in conservation, suggesting that the city establish a grant program for energy efficiency upgrades in rental properties. The grant would offset the cost of insulation, appliance upgrades, and LEDs lightbulbs and in exchange, the property owners would agree to a rent cap so that upgrades could not be used as a basis for rent hikes.

Once again, McGhee brought all these issues home, writing that as the city’s only African-American energy auditor, he looks at conservation not only from an energy savings and environmental standpoint, but from an equity perspective as well. He said that the city cannot just continue things like the low-income weatherization program for their own sake, if they are not being used by, or adequately serving, the city’s minority populations. “I will support increased funding for our energy auditing and weatherization programs – which I strongly support- but I will also insist on qualitative and quantitative improvements in how those programs are administered,” McGhee wrote.

SH 45SW – Alternatives

All of the candidates that offered up an opinion about SH 45SW said that they oppose its construction. This includes Hoerster, Rangel, McGhee, Cantu, Almanza and Ireland. Hoerster even offered up some alternatives to building the highway that is slated to connect MoPac with 1-35 in south Austin. First, he said that all of the traffic lights in Austin need to be synchronized, in an attempt to ease congestion throughout the city. Next, he advocated for making 360 and 183 non-stop freeways. Lastly, he suggested that Kyle and Buda get on board with Cap Metro and begin using bus rapid transit systems so that their residents can commute into Austin without a car. “We are building this road for the residents of Hays County and if they want to live there and commute into Austin then they should find a way to pay for it,” Hoerster said.

Water Conservation – Infrastructure vs. Individual Responsibility

Water is another issue that has been given a lot of attention by the candidates in District 3, however the many ways that they have proposed to deal with Austin’s water crisis vary significantly.

Rangel called water the most important eco issue facing the district and proposed a 4R approach in pursuing regional water self-sufficiency – water conservation and efficiency (Reduce), rainwater harvesting and gray water use (Reuse), wastewater reclamation (Recycle), and ecosystem restoration (Restore). Similarly, Ireland named water security as a main focus of his campaign, although he has proposed a different way of addressing it. Calling himself the “infrastructure candidate,” Ireland said that the city looses an estimated 4 billion gallons of drinkable water annually due to its aging water delivery system and leaky pipes and promised to make upgrading Austin’s water infrastructure a legislative priority for city council.

On the other side of the spectrum, Hoerster, who also called attention to the need for a safe and reliable drinking supply, spoke out against large infrastructure projects in his questionnaire responses. Instead, he proposed using gray water in-place (as opposed to building out purple pipe) and getting tougher on lawn watering restrictions.

Big Ideas: A collection of the candidates' most unique plans for Austin

From Turullolos-Bonilla – Austin needs to build underground subways and across-town tunnels in order to fix its transportation system and catch up on years of inaction.

From McGhee – Austin should gradually implement the Passive House standard. This is a high performance home building standard utilized in Germany that produces measurable energy efficiency savings from 60 percent to 90 percent over conventionally built structures.

From Ireland – The city should implement a grant program to weatherize rental units with additional insulation, solar rated windows, upgraded HVAC, solar powered attic fans, and replacement of old appliances if property owners agree not to raise rent in exchange for grant assistance.