Who is Ann Kitchen, an Architect of Austin’s Destructive “Open Camping” and Crime Policies?
Ann Kitchen is an architect of “open camping” for Austin. The DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) policies she supports are about pushing Austin politicians to take extreme stances that alienate Austinites such as radical open camping and de-funding the police. The majority of Austinites are moderate. A very slim number are DSA-affiliated - about 6,000 out of our population of 1.3 million - yet Kitchen and her councillor friends are driving the agenda. Her unregulated camping vote, which 78% of Austinites disagree with, was to try to build support to make housing a “permanent human right” by making homelessness “more visible”. The result, as we know, has been an unmitigated public health and safety disaster for our beautiful city. Upon completely deregulating “camping” in our public parks, trails, sidewalks, and other sacred areas of Austin, Kitchen oversaw a 20% drop in the homeless population living in our shelters - in other words, people left shelters when the streets became unregulated. This led to the disaster that we’re seeing today - both for Austinites and the homeless - and Kitchen is doubling down. She won’t admit failure. Now, she may even run for mayor. Thankfully, she’s up for re-election in District 5 next year (2022).
She Infamously Spent Thousands of Dollars in Campaign Donations on Restaurants
According to financial disclosure filings, she was using thousands of dollars in campaign contributions at restaurants, and they were her largest overall expenditure (worth considering if you’re asked to donate next year!)
Ann Kitchen Favors Narrow Ideological Activism Over Data-Driven Policy
Her camping idea, which 78% of Austinites disagree with, was to try to build support to make housing a “permanent human right” by making homelessness “more visible”. The result, as we know, has been an unmitigated public health and safety disaster for our beautiful city. Upon completely deregulating “camping” in our public parks, trails, sidewalks, and other sacred areas of Austin, Kitchen oversaw a 20% drop in the homeless population living in our shelters - in other words, people left shelters when the streets became unregulated.
Kitchen’s Camping Deregulation is An Environmental Disaster
The environmental impact of deregulated homeless encampments has been devastating. Those impacts include erosion, destruction of native vegetation, debris accumulation, water quality issues, habitat destruction, public health issues (including hypodermic needles and possibly E. coli fecal coliform bacterial contamination of the creek and its tributaries), and discouragement of public use of parks and green spaces.
Kitchen Tried to Ban Uber & Lyft, Leading a $65 Million Wasted Election.
Kitchen has seen our homeless population balloon along with crime and trash, and whenever challenged she says the same few things. One of them is that homelessness is just “more visible” since her deregulation, but both the data and many stories indicate otherwise. We know our lax approach to homelessness has created a magnet for people all over Texas and in fact the country.
The sister of Edward Macintosh, a homeless man who attacked a woman on 6th Street unprovoked, spoke out to CBS Austin. She said that her brother moved to Austin from a group home once the ordinance was lifted.
“In addition to reconsidering the city's homeless ordinance, she says her hope is that city will look at more resources for the mentally ill and those who struggle with addiction. "There's more people like Edward who have chosen to leave their homes because now they can," said Janet. "And with that, there are going to be more Ms. Karli's. There is going to be more victims."
Click to Watch
Kitchen Tried to Ban Uber & Lyft, Leading to a $65 Million Wasted Election
Kitchen is so driven by ideology that she implemented a law that led to Uber & Lyft having to leave Austin. If you weren’t here at the time, you may not know about it, but this led to a wasted $65 million election. She was even facing a re-call election over this which, according to the petition on Change.org, charged that she “just cost thousands of Austinites their jobs and increased the likelihood of DWIs. Austin has been one of the most dangerous cities for DWIs in America for years. Since the arrival of Uber and Lyft, DWIs in Austin have decreased by more than 20% (a stat supported by our Travis County Sheriff). Ann Kitchen is misleading voters about Uber and Lyft's operations in our city. This petition aims for two things: 1) recall Ann Kitchen and 2) bring Uber and Lyft back to Austin.”
If she gets re-elected in 2022, what is she going to do next?
