We the People

Dear Editor,
    Those damn conservatives in “liberal” Austin, who do they think they are? They dare to petition the Austin City Council to allow Austinites to vote on CodeNEXT, McKalla Place, government efficiency audit, and the Convention Center! [“Austin at Large: Let’s Take a Vote on That,” News, July 26.]
    No worries though, Mayor Adler has the solution: Make it harder for Austinites who disagree with his policies to petition their government by increasing the minimum number of signatures required for petitions.
    Be careful though, changing the City Charter to make it harder to petition local government applies to everyone in Austin, not just conservatives.
    Such a charter change would disenfranchise communities of color, low-income families, and middle-income families harmed by “neoliberal” land development and rapid growth policies championed by a majority of the liberal Austin City Council.
    Mayor Adler should have faith in “we the people” who elected him to office. If the Convention Center expansion is clearly good public policy, “we the people” will overwhelmingly vote for it!
    The right to petition is a fundamental power that “we the people” retain as a check on overreach by government whether liberal, conservative, or moderate.