THE State of Texas Thread (merged)

Riddick · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 11:17 am Post subject: Texas tackles the real issues

Good God, are the Texas taxpayers really putting up with this crap?
Fox News
U, G, L, Y, you ain't got no aliby yo' ugly, hey, hey, yo' ugly.........M, A, M, A, how you think yo' got that way, yo' mama, hey, hey, yo' mama.....................P, A, P, A, you don't know him anyway yo' papa, hey, hey, yo' papa........
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December 23, 2012

Aaron · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 11:36 am Post subject:

No way it passes the Senate...
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Riddick · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 11:39 am Post subject:

I hope you're right, Aaron, but nothing would surprise me with the way things are heading.
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"Your failure to be informed does not make me a wacko." - John Loeffler

December 23, 2012

emersonbiggins

Ostensibly, this might serve a useful purpose in determining who has insurance, bench warrants, outstanding traffic tickets, etc. I believe that Texas has other plans in mind, though. With the coming of RFID plates, Texas can toll any road it wants to any time it wants to. It can toll the street you take to work, it can toll major arteries, without the hassle of tollbooth installation & operation, and it can toll public parking lots, et. al.. As much hell as this will raise, I think PO will get here long before the widespread implementation of such a system. So, we'll probably never know...

gg3 · Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:26 am Post subject:

Voters won't tolerate it. Period. It won't happen. And the anti-tax groups will team up with the privacy advocates on this one, which will be an unstoppable coalition.

And in the unlikely event it does, a simple fender-bender in the right spot (or a smack with a hammer) will render the obscene little device inoperative.

Daculling · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 1357

Don't mess with Texas... at least the old ladies.

Man beaten by by old ladies
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Winners never quit and quiters never win, but those that never win and never quit are idiots.

Hermes

We're forming a sustainable community as a response to (among other things) Peak Oil.

We have only recently moved to the stage where we are beginning to put the word out about this community in earnest.

We've known about PO for a little over a year and most of our time since that point has been spent learning relevant skills, searching for and purchasing this land, moving from our old apartment to a travel trailer on the land, and having the existing house here renovated for us to live in.

We've held off on working on the site plan until understanding more about the lay of the land, and because of that many basic questions a prospective member would likely want answered can't be answered at this time. Furthermore we're using Earthaven's (community in NC) documents that they've provided us as a starting point to forming our own membership framework. This is also still in development.

Despite this lack of plans/agreements/requirements I'm putting forth this posting, as very soon we'll have these items in place. At the moment I'd like to begin forming a list of people to notify as details do develop and we're able to present a more fleshed out joining process and site plan.

Things I can tell you are:

Vision: to live sustainably in a vibrant, connected, child-centered community in an energy descent era.
Location: 45 minutes Southeast of Austin, TX.
Target population: small (8-12 homesites : 20-40 people)
Land Financing: Bought with cash. No money owed to banks/financiers.
Land Size: 35 acres; 55% rolling meadows, 45% oak/pine woods, 2 small ponds
Former Use: cattle grazing
Decision making structure: consensus
Ownership structure: the land will be owned by an LLC, with all members owning equal shares of the LLC
Housing: tightly clustered small homesites with ultra-long term rent agreement to maximize common spaces and lands and minimize impact on the land and fracturing of the community. The individual members will build shelter on their own parcels.
Religion/Philosophy: no common religion/philosophy is planned for the community, though common eclectic spiritual activity is encouraged. All religions/spiritual directions/philosophical persuasions are encouraged to apply.

Things I can NOT tell you at the moment (because we're currently working them out)
Financial requirements: we need to calculate likely common infrastructure costs, upkeep, etc and determine target membership cap to calculate this. Our intention is to strike a balance between having shared infrastructure (thus saving the community as a whole money and time) and avoiding the joining costs becoming too high because of the shared financial burden of the common infrastructure.
Agreements, joining requirements, site layout, ongoing membership requirements are all NOT yet available, as stated above.

What I AM interested in is hearing from you if you're interested in receiving more information about this community as we're able to provide more information about it. Please PM me if you're interested in receiving this information as it becomes available.

I am not interested in debating whether or not Intentional Communities/Ecovillages are or are not a viable solution to the issues facing us in this thread. I am also not interested in fleshing out the details of our community in this thread at this time.

Aaron

Doly · Expert Joined: Dec 03, 2004 Posts: 4034

What's an LLC?

Ludi

Hermes! I'm so happy to see this go from dream to reality. I'm definitely interested in more info. I'll message you if you've lost my email. I also know someone else who is very interested in forming community. I will direct her to this thread.

Very Happy

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Heineken

What an admirable undertaking! Make sure the lawyer you hire is sympathetic to what you're doing and doesn't regard you as nutcases, or you won't get the best lawyering. Also, screen your potential members VERY carefully. Here in Virginia, the successful Twin Oaks Community (a commune) has a very good method for screening. You might want to check out their website: www.twinoaks.org.
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Aaron

Ludi

I don't think this thread is about the twinoaks community, Aaron....
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backstop · Last edited by backstop on Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:30 am; edited 1 time in total

Hermes -
this is to wish you the best of luck with the project and (while not fleshing out details) to urge that participants consider at this primary planning stage just what produce refined to what forms will offer reliable income to the community.
I urge this having seen too many such efforts fail after being abraded by the need for many to commute away to tedious 9-5 jobs to bring in money, while others are slaving over the tedium of weeding the crops.
Also, for a community of even five families, I suspect that a substantially larger land area would be helpful. Might there be some acreage locally that you could extend into as the need arises ?
regards,
Backstop
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TommyJefferson