Watson Wire: Practical Idealism

Last night, I was honored and grateful to begin what will be my fourth term as Austin mayor. I’m truly proud to have been selected by the voters to, again, serve this community that we all love so much. I will say also that being re-elected this November was especially gratifying, as I believe it was a genuine reflection of voters’ renewed confidence in the ability of City Hall to actually get good things done.

And that – getting good things done– is even more important than ever. The difficult truth is that we live in a time when extreme divisions seem to have transformed our federal and state governments into forums primarily for delivering insults rather than results.

When so many in Congress and the State Legislature are so transparently intent on building power just to impose their political point of view, instead of using it to actually get anything done, it’s no surprise at all that voters want their local government — and especially their city government — to really solve problems, to really make day-to-day life in our community better.

As mayor, I’m asking myself every day: Are the things we’re doing going to make a real difference for real people in the real world?

Local government respects and demands a practical idealism — a values-based approach to addressing challenges that connects us with our neighbors, manifests the optimism we share, and pours our creative energy into the stuff that needs to get done.

If we come together — really setting aside personal and ideological agendas — it will make a big difference today…and a transformative one tomorrow. If we rally around a shared vision, we'll make Austin the place we want it to be, and we'll lay the foundation for the place we want it to become.

We need to fix the day-to-day problems we all face. And we also need to put the city on a track that makes people want to live here, and that ensures they can. Our children, our grandchildren, deserve to love Austin as much as we do.

That's a hard thing to do, but it's very doable. I've seen it! It's in our control, which makes this enormously valuable and important work, especially now. We can show Texas, our nation, and our world what's possible when people are willing to work — not fight, but really work together — for their community and its future.

We have substantially righted the ship at City Hall over the past two years. And we did it not by grandstanding or by finger-pointing, but by doing the hard and unglamorous work of governing with specific outcomes in mind. Using a little common sense. That’s the model I want us to carry forward.

If we’ll continue to embrace that, we can and we will make Austin more affordable, more safe, more compassionate, more innovative, more inclusive, more unique, and just plain better for more people.

We can and we will, together, make a truly lasting, positive difference in the life of this great city and the lives of all of its people.