My thoughts on Steve Adler's book

If you haven't had a chance yet, you should check out the podcast I recorded with former Mayor Steve Adler where we discussed his book in greater detail. You can order his book here.

I've been meaning to share some thoughts on Steve Alder's book, Hot Seat – Hot City: The Austin Mayor's Story.

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A (small) glimpse at the man behind the politician

In my time covering him, Steve Adler was always a pretty buttoned-up guy, at least in public. He was not a schmoozer or jokester. He didn't connect with people easily or share much about himself. He was also a notorious workaholic.

This book was not confessional by today's standards, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn a few things about him that I wouldn't have expected him to share. For instance, he tells of how on his first day in Austin for law school he accidentally devoured a monstrous amount of psychedelic mushrooms.

He was also very upfront about money and class. He was raised in a quintessential Baby Boomer middle class life in the Washington D.C. area. His mother was a homemaker and his father, despite lacking a college degree (Adler is unsure if he even graduated high school), got a job as a film editor for CBS and was making $17,000 ($102k in 2026) before his untimely death in 1978. Adler writes candidly about desiring the affluence and status that most his classmates at Princeton enjoyed and being conscious of his dad's ill-fitting suit and lack of credentials when the latter visited his Eating Club. He looks back at those feelings with shame.

After college he chose UT Law School largely because it was ridiculously cheap (his $100 scholarship covered 5/6 of tuition) and after hitting a "jackpot" in a case shortly after graduation, he promptly bought a "shiny, brand new Porsche 944." He later mentions that he was making a 7-figure salary by the time he ran for mayor.

I would have expected Adler to couch his wealth in euphemisms more palatable to progressive tastes, simply saying that he was "comfortable" or something. In my experience doctors and lawyers who are in fact very rich do not tend to identify as such, particularly if they're involved in liberal politics.

Homelessness

Nothing hurt Adler or his legacy more than homelessness, particularly among the business community and conservative-leaning voters who accounted for a large share of his electoral base in 2014. In Adler's telling, he paid a steep price for taking on a fight that would have been easier politically to ignore. He doesn't regret the vote to decriminalize camping in 2019; he believes that it forced the city to finally confront it what had largely been an invisible problem.