Where there is a will, there’s a way. The City Council just recently approved a TIF-extension to the Waller Creek Project that shaves off tens of millions of dollars for downtown parks. This is not free money–it’s general fund revenue that would have otherwise been available to serve our basic needs. There are a lot of great qualities of the project, and I don’t mean to pick on it. Instead, I raise this as an example of how quickly we are to invest millions into what is essentially a beautification project while we have urgent needs within our community. Establishing a PID could have been a better way to pursue the project, which would have provided a way for the landowners benefiting from the improvements to pay for them while still preserving our general fund revenue. I am supportive of Prop A, and there are opportunities for us to leverage those funds to maximize the housing and services that are provided. I support using our City-owned lands to build public-owned housing, and I would like to partner with our area jurisdictions to find similar opportunities throughout the city.