Council Race Questions: Chris Riley
Early voting for Austin City Council elections starts May 2. Between now and then, KUT is airing interviews with the candidates. Chris Riley is the incumbent candidate for city councils place one. Photo by KUT News.Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Early voting for Austin City Council elections starts May 2. Between now and then, KUT is airing interviews with the candidates. Chris Riley is the incumbent candidate for city council’s place one.
In his first term on Council, Riley served on the boards of Capital Metro and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. He lead efforts to re-zone a section of Airport Boulevard for higher density growth and supported construction of a so-called “bicycle boulevard” between UT campus and downtown Austin.
In the interview Riley discusses how he thinks improvements to downtown infrastructure investment could benefit all of Austin.
“One thing that we have on our side is the ability to offer something special in the central city,” Riley said. “Something that has more character, a quality of life that is what people expect from the city of Austin. And I think if we can succeed at that, we can reduce the pressure to continue sprawling outwards.”
On a proposal to create urban rail for Austin Riley said the system need not pay for itself. “A basic function of government is to facilitate transport.” He hopes such a system will include a dedicated right of way for rail.
Concerning single-member districts he has this to say:
“I’ve always supported moving toward some mixed system of at large districts and geographic districts,” but he is unconvinced that Austin should move to a “strong mayor” system of government.
To hear all the interview click on the audio icon.
Podcast: Download (5.5MB)
