A Bill Rises From The Dead and The City Buys Two Schools

Esther and Ruth talk about the last days of the legislative session, Esther's visit to the arts district, and the City buying two schools. ​

Episode on Rumble

​

Link to Governor's website

Episode 50 Transcript
Esther: Hello, listeners. Welcome to Plano's Political Pit Bull podcast. I am Esther
Ruth: and I'm Ruth,
Esther: and we have a lot to go over today. But before we do, we are celebrating a milestone. Do you know what day it is today, Ruth?
Ruth: What?
Esther: It is our 50th episode.
Ruth: Yay!
Esther: 50 episodes in. I think that's a good milestone and hopefully there will be many more.
Ruth: On to 100.
Esther: First up, we are recording this on June 2nd, and it is the last day of the legislative session down in Austin. So after today, our money and our liberty will once again be safe.
Ruth: Yay!
Esther: Until the next session.
Ruth:No.
Esther: Until 2027.
Ruth: Okay. It's two years.
Esther So one bill that we have been watching, it rose from the dead. We had gone over this last week. We had said that it died on a point of order,
Ruth: we hoped it stayed dead.
Esther: Yes. Unfortunately, it did not stay dead. No, no, no, they resuscitated it and they made the changes. And SB 15 came back to the floor of the house, and the changes they made were instead of 1400 square feet, for residential lot maximum, it is now going to be 3000 square feet. Better, better. Better. Still though, the people in Austin should not be dictating residential zoning.
Ruth: Yeah, I still have a problem with them.
Esther: Also, they still kept the one parking space per home. Now, theoretically speaking, if you increase the lot size, the house is probably going to get bigger.  One would think that somebody will have a guest over. Where are your guests supposed to park?
Ruth: What if you have more than one car?
Esther Well, then I guess you're not going to be living there. Couples are not going to be living there. Ruth: Oh, Okay. This is for singles only.
Esther: Well, I don't know who's going to buy these things. They're usually not single people buying homes. Sometimes they do, but not ones that are more than one bedroom.
Ruth: I don't know who this is supposed to be for. \
Esther: It's supposed to be for your age group. Yeah. She's looking at me funny.
Ruth: I look like I can afford a home.
Esther: Well, that's the idea. You see, they think down there {in Austin}that if you increase the supply, you'll lower home prices. No. Because our people in Austin have forgotten the most important thing in real estate. That is location, location, location, location. \
Ruth: Also the more land you use, the less land there is. So prices actually go up.
Esther: Right, well, it past. This session has been very strange because Democrats were speaking against the bill. They were calling for local control and not having Austin dictate a one size fits all thing. I was very confused. It was opposite day because normally speaking, you see Republicans saying we have to have there has to be local control. Cities know what's best. The people closest to the towns, that live in the towns, closest to the issue should dictate and know the problem the best. You usually have Democrats calling for more control, more centralized control.
Ruth: In short, on average, Democrats tend to go for regulation and more control, and Republicans would be for less. Yeah, but this was completely the opposite of that. I'm very confused this session because we had a lot of bills like this where it was calling for big government, heavy handed control from Austin. You might as well just,  pack up the zoning board at this rate. I don't know how much they are going to be doing.
Ruth: Wow. It's almost like party lines don't matter.
Esther: Not in this case,  It's been strange. I don't know if it was the case of the Body Snatchers or what.
Ruth: I love how you didn't get the sarcasm.
Esther: I got the sarcasm, I got it. You know, she doesn't know what the body snatchers is.
Ruth: I know what it is.
Esther: All right. Sadly, it passed the House and the Senate. It's on its way to the governor if you want to stop this bill. If you want to keep your zoning board folks, contact the governor and ask him to veto this bill. Keep local zoning local. and there is a link to the governor's website on our website Plano's. Political Pit Bull.com. Another bill that is waiting for the governor's signature is SB 840. That bill was the one that would convert commercial to residential without rezoning. So, if you have an office building. the owner could change it into all condos or all apartments, and the town can't say boo. Please call and ask the governor to veto that one, too, while you're writing to him about SB 15. That's SB 840 and SB 15. Moving on, I took a field trip last week. I decided that I wanted to see our very, very famous arts district.
Ruth: I got some pictures from this. It was funny. I showed some students, they were laughing so hard. Esther: Yeah. So my husband and I, we went down to the Arts District, and we specifically went to the Plano Arts Center. Yes, we already have a Plano Arts center. It's a little house that was built by a family in Plano in Plano's early history on the Haggard Park property. Originally, the Haggard Park was not there when the house was built. It is next to the train station. So here's a question. Where does one park if they want to use the downtown Plano train station? Because if you parked next to the Haggard Park, you could only stay there for three hours anymore and you'd have to get a permit. I don't know. I would think that if you want people to take mass transit, you've got to give them somewhere to park their car if they live more than walking distance to the train station.
Ruth: They're probably figuring if you're using the train, you don't have a car.
Esther: But if you want to go into Dallas and you want to use the train or you want to go to the airport.
Ruth: most people who have a car will just use their car. \
Esther: Not necessarily. I came from a state where mass transit to a big city was it,  so people would drive to the train station, park their car for the day, take the train into the big city, and then come back and take their car from the train station to their house.
Ruth: I don't get that because I don't know, maybe it's just me because I don't like crowds of people, but I don't want to be crammed in with a bunch of people in a space.
Esther: Well, people who don't want to sit in traffic for three hours, they'll take the train, right. Or maybe sometimes the train is cheaper than tolls and the bridges. Where  I was, it was very expensive to take a car. Then you've got to park the car somewhere in the city area and pay for that. So it was easier and more convenient to take the train  or take a bus. But you needed some place for the people to get to it and park their car. You can park your car at the  station over by  the George Bush Tollway, and you can park there for free. Why this one only has  parking for three hours, I don't know. So you have a problem? Nobody is going to want to pay for a permit so they can park longer, then pay for the train pass. They're not going to do that. So that could be one reason why the trains are empty. At least in that station. Yeah. If you live within walking distance or you want to take an Uber, Okay, but not everybody wants to do that. But I digress. Anyway, I went to the little house and I was actually more interested in the little house than I was about the paintings that I saw. It's more of a gallery than a museum. I would not call it a museum.
Ruth: Yeah, I was really confused because when when she was. When they were sending me pictures, the word that was used was we went to a museum. Then they're telling me  how much each is worth and that you can purchase them. And, my brain is going, what? Because when I think of museum, I don't think of being able to purchase the exhibits. You know, that's more what you would think of as an art gallery.
Esther: Yes. So the art in the gallery on the first floor was all by the same, two artists. And saying it's not for me would be a diplomatic way of saying I really didn't like any of the work.
Ruth: It's all contemporary modern art. She doesn't like that.
Esther: Yes. I'm sorry, I want to see something that looks like an adult painted it and not a five year old. 
 Ruth: Oh, wow. Okay. Laying it on.
Esther: You tell me you saw the picture.
Ruth: I did, I did.
Esther: Did that look like your students could do better.
Ruth: Yeah.
Esther: I couldn't tell what these things were supposed to be.
Ruth: That kind of art is either supposed to convey an an emotion rather than a picture, and that's not for everyone. And also for me personally, it's more interesting to see the process of that kind of art than the end result, and I would honestly not pay for the end result if that's all I saw. I'd be interested in how they made it. If they literally just threw paint on a canvas and that's it, or if it wasn't actually an interesting process that went into it. It was more about the technique that was used, but this was just see my artwork on a wall and it's not very impressive. I mean, there was literally one that reminded me of, okay students we're going to practice drawing shapes today. It was literally just shapes on a canvas. A bunch of triangles, squares and circles.  It's not all that impressive.
Esther: Not at all.
Ruth: There was one really pretty one that kind of reminded me a of a flower, or kind of like a pond with flowers.
Esther: I couldn't tell what anything was.
Ruth: It kind of reminded me of  Impressionist.
Esther: The only thing I liked was the metal and glass work.
Ruth: Yeah, that was pretty.
Esther: They were very pretty. The rest, no thank you not for me.
Ruth: (The medal and glass ) are also definitely worth the price, because that kind of work is hard and time consuming. Definitely.
Esther: Well, the price is steep for those metal and glass.
Ruth: Worth it.
Esther: If you have a $22,000 you'd like to spend. You can get one of the glass ones,
Ruth: Worth it is the wrong word I meant understandable.
Esther: To to go see the work in the little art center is free. They do have a donation box which you can put in a donation, and the  guy who was there handed us a sheet and he said, “This is how much you can purchase each work for.”  And the range for the paintings is anywhere between 3000 and 1000. There was one for $660.
Ruth: Which one was the one where it was actually like it was a sunset and a tree. It was an actual painting that you could tell what what?
Esther: That was upstairs. That was a totally different artist. It was the only one that I particularly liked. That one was $495.
Ruth: That was the cheapest one.
Esther: Yeah.
Ruth: And that was the only one you could tell what it was.
Esther: Yes.  Yeah I like things that I know what they are.
Ruth: Yeah I know you're very literal.
Esther: I am, I'm a literal person I'm sorry I can't.
Ruth: She doesn't like interpretive.
Esther: Yeah.
Ruth:  Doesn't even like even like impressionist paintings from, I can't remember the dates.
Esther: Interesting. Each room of the house downstairs they called them galleries. So we had the Muns gallery. Yes. John Mun’s parents apparently have a room in the little house named after them. I don't know what they had to do for that.
Ruth: Money? 
Esther: I don't know.  The city paid to renovate the house. Like I said, I was more interested in the history of the house. They had a picture of the couple who owned the house,
Ruth: Well, you're more interested in history than you are in art?
Esther: True. It's a historical landmark, the house. The second floor has two classrooms. I guess these were once bedrooms, and I guess they held art classes there for kids.
Ruth: Or adults
 Esther: Or adults. That could be fun. And outside the house they have sculptures. Mostly made of metal, but there was one made of wood and it had different carved animals on it. I That one was really pretty.
Ruth: Yeah, that was cool.
Esther: Interestingly, we have this little house, right, and everybody is saying that we need more space for visual artists. Well, in this area of the arts district, we have this cute little house that you can have people show off their works. You don't need to have one person take up the whole house. You could have one person for each room downstairs. There's rooms upstairs where you could show off the work. Also, we have two theaters. We have the Courtyard Theatre and right next to it is the Cox Playhouse, which are literally connected to one another. They're there too. So you have that.
Ruth: I just noticed all these paintings are acrylic. None of them are oil paintings. That's interesting. Esther: Okay. Why is that interesting?
Ruth: Oh, oils were more expensive.
Esther: Oh, okay.
Ruth: It tends to be more expensive paints.
Esther: Nice.
Ruth: I just thought that was interesting.
Esther: Well, for these prices, she should have done oil because I would not buy them. Sorry. Not for me. It was very nice day, but I think we're good with this little house. We have the Plano Event Center. We've got two theaters already.
Ruth: And again, we already came up with the idea of reusing the school that they want to tear down and just have tearing down a building and putting up a bunch of apartments that are just going to  flood up our infrastructure.  Turn that into an arts thing. Recycle, reuse.
Esther: Yeah. Well, speaking of the schools, at the May 27th City Council meeting, the city bought two Plano ISD schools. They bought Davis Elementary and Forman Elementary. Okay. They bought  Davis for $3,050,000. And Forman, which is a larger elementary school, they bought that for $5,375,000. They are going to ask the community what they should do with Davis. They claim they're going to reach out to the community.
Ruth: So these are the schools that are being shut down?
Esther: Yes. Forman will be torn down and a fire station will be built in its place. Okay.
Ruth: So that one they're not even asking about.
Esther: No, no they're not. They have to redo Fire Station three. So I guess instead of tearing down that building, that fire station and then just rebuilding it, they're just going to move it and rebuild. I don't know if they're going to move the fire station, but they're going to build a new fire station. Ruth: Would that be more expensive or less expensive? I don't know.
Esther: Building a new fire station?
Ruth: Versus, uh, renovating it, wholly renovating the old one.
Esther:  I don't know. I guess it depends on what's wrong with it. That might be the one where the bays are not big enough for the trucks.
Ruth: Then yeah, it might be cheaper to just move.
Esther: I mean, you'd have to change the whole structure of that building for those bays. So, yeah, that school is going to be gone. Now, I've talked about this before, I think it's a bad idea for them to tear down those schools, because while our child population is dwindling, it's not going to be that way forever.
Ruth: That's what you think.
Esther: They want families to move in. Well, if you want families to move in, they're going to need schools to go to. So eventually the population is going to do what happened in my old school district. It's going to go up again. Very similar situation happened in my old school district. Child population went down. They closed two schools, tore down one sold the land. Developer came along and built gigantic houses. That school was gone. They kept the other school and they rented it out. They actually oh my G-d, they actually made money. They rented it out for a time, and guess what happened? People started coming in with babies. You know, the old people left, were tired, went to Florida, went to a smaller house wherever.
Ruth: Passed away.
Esther: Passed away, and new families started moving in. And surprise they needed school. They needed schools again. Now they were overcrowded. Well, they didn't have the one they tore down. Ruth: The first part of your story sounds like history repeating. Like literally beat for beat with them keeping one building and then tearing down the other. The school district (PISD) did not keep the building, it sold it.
Ruth: So I thought you said they rented it. They were renting it out.
Esther: That's what happened in in my school district's case, the school district rented it out. I said, don't sell the property. Keep the schools. You're going to need them again. They didn’t listen to me. In this case, the school district sold it to the city. They sold it. Those buildings are gone now. The only thing that the city can do, I mean, it's going to tear down one and it's going to build a fire station. They're bad idea. But I know we need a new fire station. The other one. Davis. I wouldn't tear that down, because I guarantee you, the school district is going to have to come back and buy that school again.
Ruth: One day.
Esther: Plano could actually make some money. In the meantime, they can rent out the space to artists who want studios. It'll take 20 years. Ten years (for the population to go back up.) 
Ruth: We've just killed two birds with one stone in that instance.
Esther: What's the two birds?
Ruth: You have an empty building. That may need to be used in the future, and then artists want space for their shows and studios.  Two birds, one stone.
Esther: Yeah. This is true. I have been saying do not sell those schools. Do not sell the schools. They are stubborn because there is going to be no other place to put new schools when 15 years from now we have families moving in and nowhere for them to go to school.But guess what? There's not going to be any land left in Plano. Everything will be gone, so there will be no place for them to build a school. So I don't know what they're going to do then. This is not forward thinking.
Ruth: Government never really usually does.  Usually it's always short term. Never a long term, and then in the long term, the future government has to try and fix the problems that were caused by the old government. It's a never ending cycle of governments fixing each other's problems.
Esther: Now former Councilman Shelby Williams, he pointed out something, he is still giving his updates on the council meetings, which is very nice of him. \
Ruth:
Esther: Okay. So he pointed out something. The taxpayers are paying for these schools twice. I know. Don't look confused, wait for it, I will explain. So, the taxpayers, with their property taxes,  paid for the schools to be built when they were originally built. And then of course, they paid for the upkeep and the maintenance of the schools through their Plano ISD taxes. Which is in their property taxes. Ruth: Okay.
Esther: Now they're paying for city council to buy the schools and take that money out of their city taxes to buy the schools.
Ruth: Okay, now you lost me
Esther: Two jars same wallet. We have city taxes, and we have school taxes. My property tax bill gets divided between the city, the school district, the county and Collin College.  So some money went to this PISD. Some money went to the city. I paid my PISD taxes and they went to the upkeep of those schools.
Ruth: That's one jar.
Esther:. My city taxes that I paid, the other jar, is now buying and using my taxes to buy the schools with my city tax money to the school district.
Ruth: Oh, okay, I get it. They're taking from two jars.
Esther: Yeah, the two jars are going back and forth. Meanwhile, still my money. So we're basically paying twice.
Ruth: Yeah. But you're. But in this instance, you've already paid that money. Nothing's changed on your end. They're just taking from two different pools that they split it into.
Esther: Yeah. But it does seem odd doesn't it. It's not like I'm going to be getting a reimbursement with the money that the school (district) gets for the schools that they sold. I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to get cut.  And the last thing that happened is the council liaison assignments. So we have a very long list of boards and. committees and organizations, and with every new council, the mayor, he doles out the assignments. It's a long, long list and I'm not going to read it all. I will tell you some highlights. So the water district, hr picked Phil Dryer and Ron Kelly to do that. For dart, they picked Anthony Kelly and Nathan Barbara for that.  Parks and Rec and Planning Board thhe liaisons are going to be Holmer and Horne. So those two are going to get to pick who sits on that board. Okay. the one that we, um, the most interested in is P&Z. Who did the mayor pick to basically pick the people to sit on P&Z? He picked Horn and Downs. Now Horn was on there before and Downs husband David Downs sat on P&Z. So, needless to say, if you want to follow the comp plan, if you want to keep the density low you're not getting on P&Z. Not with these two in there. Nope. Sorry.
 Well our very important dog is still Gemma. Gemma is a friendly dog who is about three years of age. She is a very sweet and playful dog. Gemma will make a great companion for you. She was never claimed by her owner and wants a new home. Gemma is an affectionate dog. She is at the Plano Animal Shelter. So if you want to find out more about Gemma, please visit our website www.planospoliticalpitbull.com and click on the link Pit bulls for adoption. Please remember to like, share and subscribe. Help us with those algorithms please. That is all for today. Hope you enjoyed the episode. This is Esther
Ruth: And this is Ruth
Esther: For Plano's political Pitbull signing off.