Blog Stage 8

I personally agree with Amanda 's blog post about the inefficiency of the HB 2 bill that is being passed in congress. I think she did a great job at addressing the points the original author tried to emphasize and listed her own reasons why she disagrees with the HB 2. Her point about the increase of education in order to stop people who are not ready to be parents form getting pregnant is a great point made.

Blog Stage 7

The good old Austin we know and love, a place for breakfast tacos and breweries, is changing every day right before our eyes. In the past 10 years the Austin scene has seen a great amount of change, by pushing the poor people out of the east side and bringing the rich in. The gentrification system is leading the state to become more weak in my eyes, in order to have social and economical stability ,I feel that there should not be concentrated populations of rich as well as the poor. The United States will end up having slums and  estates like those seen in many countries in the world, like Saudi Arabia, Mexico, etc. Social flexibility cannot be obtained without the population feeling somewhat “equal” to their neighbor, and this is exactly what gentrification is doing to the US. The Austin, Tx we know and love is being gentrified right before our eyes. The east side is becoming less affordable every year “At the end of 2006, rents at 22 apartment buildings considered affordable along the East Riverside corridor ranged between $496 and $871.The Austinist has stated that this year, rents at those complexes range between $568 and $1,550” which is leading the more wealthy population to migrate to those areas, leaving the less fortunate to move to outer places like Del Valle (Chan, 2). The low income families that are relocating to Del Valle suffer have to suffer with food insecurity and worry about wether or not their children are getting the best education they can based on their location. Overall, there are many different opinions on if gentrification has positive results or negative results, obviously the rich believe it is a great tool for clearing geographic areas but a few of us Austinites would definitely agree it is not the only answer. 

Blog stage 6

The blog topic talking about metro rails in austin expressed the positive opinion on having trains running through the entire city of austin as well as neighboring communities. While others may oppose, I actually believe that the metro rails have been extremely effective and are a step in the right direction towards decreasing pollution and conserving more natural resources. The metro rail system in Austin exceeded the predicted cost of $2.5 million by $11.5 million, costing a total of $13 million in the past year. Obviously the price of labor as well as fuel has been increasing in the past ten years which is when this estimate was given. Even though this seems like a large sum of money, it's quite insignificant if the government is providing it. Due to QE, the fed has been printing uncanny amounts of money like its nothing. I think the metro rails will be extremely effective for the environment and overall stress levels of the austin residents. The economy in Austin is booming right now and has positive predictions for the future years. The author makes a good effort to point out all the positive outcomes the metro rail will have on the austinites as well as the history of austin's introduction to metro rails in the 2011 project.