Austin’s mayor, Stephen Adler, who had the best undergraduate education obtainable by man, is alleged to have said this:
Adler says Austin is exporting poverty.
— News Radio KLBJ (@NewsRadioKLBJ) June 2, 2016
We are not sure what it means to “export” poverty, but we are certain of this: It is better for a city to export poverty than to import it, all the more so if the city’s government spends money as if rapid growth will continue forever.
We rather like Mayor Adler notwithstanding our frequent policy disagreements, so we’re going to hope that he was taken out of context. Regardless, we will vote for politicians who vow to export poverty rather than import it, and you are nuts if you do otherwise.
2 Comments
I wonder who the recipient of our poverty might be? The surrounding area? Mexico? Africa? Could this open up a whole new chapter for Austin? Could we next export immorality, mean spiritedness and poor taste?
I am all for exporting poor taste, etc. I suspect he may mean that “gentrification thing”….when, as places like Austin, or my own real BLUEBERRY town (in Maine) get pricey, poor folks move next door into other communities…they don’t disappear, they re-emerge in places equally ill adapted (or less so) to figure it out. Which is a shame, since it means starting all over again.