Keep Austin Involved

I read "It is Time for Those Who Lead to Give a S***" by Melanie Warren. I have to start by saying that I'm slightly confused after reading this piece. Ms. Warren starts into her second paragraph by informing her audience about City Council meetings; how they are open to and for the public and even what day and time they are held. Directly afterwards, Ms. Warren then begs the question, "Have the people who are supposed to represent us become so inaccessible that it has made the average citizen apathetic and willing to be lead blindly because they feel they have no real choice, or for that matter a voice?" But I thought the "people who are supposed to represent us" are completely accessible? As stated in the previous paragraph, they meet openly for the public "on Thursdays, starting at 10:00 a.m." Also, I'm not sure if I agree with the idea that citizens are becoming apathetic because they find their Mayor and City Council members "inaccessible;" our citizens may have a sense of apathy towards voting and our legal structure but I would probably attribute that more to the fact that many of the citizens that reside in Austin are busy with their own lives to really take time out of their day to go to a 10:00 a.m. meeting.


One thing that I do agree with Ms. Warren on is that our citizens should probably know who our current Mayor is; personally, I did know that Lee Leffingwell is our current mayor but I wouldn't get too wrapped up in the idea that other people don't know that. I believe that the people who will be voting in the election for our Mayor will be educated on all possible candidates and yes, more people should probably be involved in voting on something as important as deciding who our mayor will be but I am still struggling with the idea that I am qualified to say what other people should spend their time on. 


As Ms. Warren starts to bring her writing to a close, she states that it is her belief that more people would become involved if our Mayor and City Council would "get off their butts" and engage the community. Ms. Warren also believes that our City Council meetings should be more accessible and entertaining and also that "teams" of people on behalf of our Mayor and City Council members to go out into our communities and engage them about topics of interest. Firstly, I remember from Ms. Warren's first statement about the accessibility of City Council meetings that they are easily accessible and open to the public; as far as them being more entertaining, I agree with Ms. Warren in that it is an optimistic thought...but I doubt it will happen. Secondly, I am wondering, who will make up these "teams" of people who will be going out to the communities and engaging? I assume volunteers would do this job because there is no way that the Mayor's office or City Council will be paying anyone to do this, but I also assume that there must be a lack of volunteers because if a group of people went up to the Mayor's office and stated that they would like to go out and engage communities about what is going on and what decisions he is making, he would welcome that with open arms....it's essentially free good PR.


All in all, I think that Ms. Warren made excellent arguments, even if I don't agree with them all. I very much enjoyed reading this post and look forward to more.