Ingalls: Seniors Should Be Able to Stay in their Homes

Josiah Ingalls

Campaign Platform Announcement and Bio

As a City Council candidate who has spoken extensively with residents throughout District 7, Josiah Ingalls is focusing on several issues that are important to District 7 voters and to Austin residents in general. They include:

  • Housing affordability. It’s crucial to preserve the ability of longtime residents to stay in their homes through residential tax relief options, assessment reform and other means. Our seniors need to know that they’ll be able to spend the rest of their lives in the homes and neighborhoods they love, regardless of the pressures of urban development.

  • Traffic – Temporary fixes must be replaced with real solutions. Working with the State to address the segments of I-35 that narrow to three lanes is one possible approach.

  • Public Transportation – Our citizens want more frequent and accessible options for connections, especially to the light rail lines.

  • More public spaces, improvements to existing public spaces, and special emphasis on activities for young people. We lack infrastructure and opportunities were young people can engage in safe, healthy, energetic activity.

  • Neighborhood preservation – Neighborhood associations and other local groups are ready to work together to achieve favorable zoning, preserve the look and feel of their neighborhoods, and ensure safe areas for people to walk, jog, bicycle, and play.

Josiah appreciates that Austin is a vibrant city with true neighborhood communities surrounding thriving business corridors and filled with amazing cultural and creative hubs. That combination is unique and deserves special attention to protect it and move ahead. I’m looking forward to doing that for the citizens of Austin City Council District 7.

Biography

Josiah James Ingalls was born April 11, 1980 in Bangor, Maine, third in a family of five children. He attended Bangor area schools and moved with his family to Texas at age 12, living at various times in Waxahachie, Seguin and Beeville before settling in Austin in 2004. He worked in the hospitality, food service and television industries before acquiring his own company, Austin Area Landscaping, a full service residential maintenance enterprise.

Josiah participated in the early planning meetings for single-member City Council districts, helping to produce a comprehensive plan that Council members assented to have placed on the ballot and that subsequently won approval from the people of Austin. He also organized and led a campaign for more local pedestrian hybrid beacons (PHBs, or “hawk lights”) after two teenagers were killed by a speeding driver while crossing the street near a South Austin high school.

Josiah is a familiar face to many in Austin’s political circles. He ran for Austin Mayor in 2009 on a platform that included affordable housing, city-wide recycling opportunities and better solutions for public transportation and traffic issues. In 2011, he campaigned for Place 1 on the Austin City Council, advocating more insightful planning for the city’s growth, more transparency in how the Council conducts its business, and greater investment in public mental health services.

A man of many interests, Josiah also is an established technical author. In February 2014 he published The Micro Measurement System, A Proposal for Ending Uncertainty in Scientific Metrics. The book proposes a measurement system called MMS, based on various aspects of the hydrogen atom, as a more reliable replacement for the metric system at subatomic dimensions.

Josiah resides in the Wooten Park neighborhood with his wife, Janet, and daughters Heather, 3, and Kelly, 1½. He is a member of the Wooten Park Neighborhood Association, Austin Moose Lodge, and Texans for Accountable Government, and Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.