Daily Archives: 04/15/2012

(Community Matters) Our friends Chip & Dan Heath’s latest book, Switch, is highly  recommended by Steven. I’m just starting it. It’s about how we can effect transformative change – direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and shape the Path.

(Community Matters) Huge kudos to my dear friend Tom Jacobs on finishing his new book, What’s Behind The Numbers?

The authors of What’s Behind the Numbers? argue that the secret to long-term success with stock today isnt finding the next Google or eBay, but avoiding the next AIG or Enron. To that end, they offer simple, clear techniques for detecting when and how legitimate companies make their numbers look better than they are

It’s being released by McGraw-Hill on August 17.

Much fun at dinner last night with Tom, his partner Vilis Indie (who has a book coming out soon too), Garrick Stephens and a new friend, Ian Lesser. Glad Suzanne, Marc, Lynn & Tom joined us for a night cap.

(Community Matters) Marfa won the Edward R. Murrow Regional Award. Congratulations to our heroic staff, supporters and listeners

(Community Matters) Interesting article in today’s Washington Post

When you combine key psychological traits with divergent streams of information from the left and the right, you get a world where there is no truth that we all agree upon. We wield different facts, and hold them close, because we truly experience things differently.

(Community Matters) Time to reopen the bidding for the Green Water Treatment site.  It is unfair and likely unfavorable to the City of Austin and its citizens to go forward with a deal that barely represents the one won in a competitive bid process. This morning’s AAS editorial cites a lot of new facts which their article on Wed April 4 failed to note.

As noted earlier, market conditions are ripe and prices are rising. With so many changes to the deal and with performance requirements now lapsed, Austin’s City Council owes it to bidders and its citizens to re-bid the site and obtain the highest returns for this City of Austin asset (financial and housing).

btw, I note the editorial’s citation of requirement for Trammel Crow to build an underground parking garage on the site – a new condition since bidding. Hard to believe Trammel Crow would have accepted this condition without some consideration. Could this have been agreed to in exchange for extending the original rights beyond the required performance dates? If so, or for whatever consideration the responsibility was accepted, is it an inauthentic rationale for additional City of Austin concessions?