KTXZ 1560-am radio has been broadcasting Tejano music since just after midnight on Saturday. I’ve heard no live d.j. yet. I have heard two commercials, one for a private outfit that confers undergraduate degrees and one for the fiestas patrias commemorating el diez y seis de septiembre at Fiesta Gardens, Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13.

The Encino Broadcasting site has not been enlightening. I had checked it and it was up as recently as 7 am this morning; at the moment it’s not even available. I’ve found what seems to be from a press release at the Austin Business Journal, in which eventual simultaneous broadcasting on 95.1-fm is promised.

KTXZ is located in West Lake Hills, and reception is good in most parts of town. It was Tejano in the past and at one time Fred Cantu was the station’s voice. In the 16 de septiembre announcements, the news is that Jimmy Gonzalez y Grupo Mazz, plus Los Texmaniacs with vocalist and accordionist supreme David Farias, will star on Friday. Saturday will feature a rotation of lesser-known groups, apparently mostly conjuntos. No firm schedule is up at the Web site, but I’ve heard that Los Texmaniacs will take the stage at 8:30 Friday night and that the gates open at noon on Saturday. The info hotline has been announced as 538-1351.

KTXZ, as much as I’ve heard so far, has been playing oldies, including lots of Texan favorite Intocable, very recently reviewed in the NYT. Chris “Tejano Man” Tristan, it would seem, is still a source for the latest news (Univision Radio Recuerdos 107.7, Sundays starting at 6 pm). And another is Isidoro Lopez on KOOP 91.7, Fiesta Musical, Fridays from 11 am to 1 pm.

Welcome back, KTXZ!

It’s been a short 12-weeks since I wrote my first Austin met blog entry, and I’ve come to realize that while I see change all the time, actually it happens very slowly.

In my first post on the alterations of Chavez and access to the S 1st Bridge, I wondered if they were going to finish on schedule, they didn’t and still have not. I didn’t hear of any serious collisions between joggers and cars though, so thats good news.

The VMUification of S 1st still hasn’t taken its first step. While the buildings mentioned in the articles are new developments, neither is being done under the Citys much vaunted VMU classification. Not much progress has been made on either.

In my post on 603 W Live Oak, the former home of Las Manos Magicas, I said they were taking the house away. They jacked it up, cut it in half, put on trailers, tarped it and then found out they needed a permit. Who’da figured? So the house is still there. Permits are an interesting thing.

On the City Permits database(*), it’s interesting to note that a small new bakeshop, Sugar Mama’s will be opening soon next to Secret Oktober, and have been busy applying for permits to cover all their work. You can chart their progress and sign-up to the mailing list on their website.

Those that regularly eat at Polvos might not have noticed the changes going on there. It was only when I saw the permit application for the sign for Sugar Mamas and searched, that it became clear Polvos didn’t apply for one for the monster they installed mid-2007. It appears from City records they also didn’t apply for permits for the work thats being going one around the back and side of the restaurant either, although this is mostly out of sight of the dinners.

Parking continues to be a problem for Polvos and residents, on a good day for the restaurant, W Johanna for 2-blocks, S 2nd for 2 blocks is completely full with customer cars, and damage to cars in the streets is a regular happening from customers who either can’t parallel park, can’t reverse or have had too much to drink(nah surely not…). Interestingly, the parking for Polvos was a significant enough problem to have been called out in the 2002 Bouldin Creeek Neighborhood Plan for action(See action item 62-64). Who’da guessed.

When I moved in, the big yellow building at 2009 was empty, and so it will be again soon. La Luz moved in, and now they are moving out. According to signs on their myspace web page and in the store, La Luz will be shutting its doors and merging with Prototype Vintage Design on South Congress beginning early August!

The more things change on South 1st, the more they stay the same.

(*) When searching the permits database the best results can be found by lugging the street name in the the project name entry field. It’s also worth limiting the search by date at the bottom.

In the recent Rolling Stone listings for Best of Rock 2008, Stubb’s got the nod as one of the five best rock clubs in the U.S. I was surprised to see that, of the five venues, Stubb’s was by far the largest. Perennial favorite Waterloo was named among the top independent record stores. One might ask how much good it does the outfits in question to be included in these listings, since I didn’t read the issue until just now and it’s from May 1, so it obviously wasn’t much of a priority and did not maintain a place atop the stack of printed reading material. Does RS have any influence these days other than for its incisive political reporting? I wonder.

I guess “asleep at the wheel” isn’t funny when discussing cycling and the roads. I seem to have been so busy lately a number of events have passed me by though.

Barton Springs Rd Bike Lanes
One major one is the start of the construction of the new bike lanes on Barton Springs Road, that will run up and under Loop-1 aka Mopac(by the way, why are they called loops when they clearly don’t?) and through Zilker Park.

Work started on June 30th and will progress east to west with rolling road closures, the project is supposed to complete in time for folks to cycle safely to the trail of lights. There will also be walkways set back from the road for pedestrians.

Lance Armstrong bikeway
Also, its worth noting the first part of the Lance Armstrong bikeway between Lamar Blvd and Veterans Blvd is now open. Theres still a gap at the bridge before Mopac and Shoal Creek isnt connected up yet, but this is all goodness and the various folks involved should be congratulated. More details on each of these can be found on the city’s website bicycle section. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle/

Michael Argall
Finally I’d like to take a moment to remember Travis County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Argall. Michael was killed Sunday while out cycling. I never met Micahel, but he sounds like a great guy. The policelink website has an in-depth retrospective and I know he was a coach here in town for Rogue running, and lots of people will be deeply saddened both by his passing and the nature of it, not least his family.

Paula Craig was a promising age group triathlete in my club, training for the triathlon world championships in 2001, that I’d also qualified for. Just like Michael, Paula was a Police officer with a promising future. Paula was also struck from behind by a car driver who was “blinded by the sun”. Unlike Michael, Paula survived and although paralyzed from the waist down, went on to become a national role model for wheel chair athletes.

Next time the sun is directly in your eyes while driving, or worse still, you are overcome by sudden tiredness please take care, its not just you out there. Slow down, take the appropriate action, carefully watching out for ALL other road users.

I’d like to extend the sympathy’s of myself and the other Austin metroblog writers to the family of Michael Argall. He is mourned and will be missed by people who never met him, a great tribute for a great guy.

One of the two official watering days for this household began at midnight. We usually take advantage of just one of the two and then hand-water on other days as needed, using the garden hose fitted with a sprayer that can be turned off as it’s carried from one location to another.

The sprinklers were to be set up this morning by the first in the household to awake. I was that person, as it happened, jolted upright when the police helicopter buzzed our rooftop at about 1:30 this morning.

Here’s some of what I saw and heard while on irrigation duty through the night. Three taxicabs passed by and two of them were yellow. Three lone bicyclists went by; two of them had flashing lights and one did not. All three rode helmetless. There was a fourth person on a bike: he was coasting downhilll accompanied by a guy on a skateboard. At 2:30, a working musician returned home from a gig and took his guitars into the house. At 3:00, a neighbor who’s awake every time we are and perhaps even more often than that, came out on his front porch and smoked a cigarette, sitting on the steps next to his faithful canine companion. At 3:50, the newspapers were delivered all along the block. Those with irrigation systems had them running all night long, official watering day or not. By the light of the beautiful golden crescent moon, toads were to be seen everywhere enjoying the sprays of water. Owls could be heard calling from the trees not under the glare of the streetlights.

Next on the personal agenda is a performance of Pirates of Penzance, thanks to our local Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Tomorrow’s the last performance day of this run, but I’m planning to attend today, leaving tomorrow as a fall-back in case anything unforeseen prevents attendance today. I can use some laughter, music, and general good humor; and Pirates is a sure source of all three. Watering completed, I retire to refresh myself for the day to come.

At this weeks BCNA meeting the Austin Clean Water Program (ACWP) team briefed us on the work about to start between South Congress and South 1st.

ACWP has a great program to clean up the creeks and refurb/move lots of the ugly pipes in and around the creeks. This includes 80-miles of sanitary sewer system, nearly $400 million of funding. The big time work on this project starts Saturday with the closure of W Monroe between S Congress and S 1st, and will carry on until the roads are finally resurfaced in December 2008.

The good news is that it will see an end to the ugly above ground pipes, including one known to leak into the creek. The bad news is that it will put even more pressure of the already strained neighborhood roads, especially at w/e and First Thursdays.

It isn’t just the loss of roadside parking caused by the construction. There will also be heavy construction vehicles parked in the ‘hood as well as at various points, large parts of major roads blocked.

Net, net, if you visit South Congress between Johanna and Elizabeth Streets, please be patient, park carefully and be mindful of residents, especially on W. Monroe and W. Mary St which will be subject to closure.

Details on the plan, status, maps etc. can be found here, the project is called Govalle 1 Newton Street.

I’m conflicted over this report in the Statesman about the City’s project to levy a business fee from personal trainers and businesses using the parks and trails for coaching, training etc. Thanks to @mizmizuno for the heads-up and for Sarah Coppola at the Statesman for the original story.

As a typical Type-A over-achiever, I can see the benefits of understanding who’s doing it, getting the data, licensing them, making sure they have insurance etc. But on the other hand it seems like such a “dumb” idea for a city who wants to be a leader in fitness.

I’m conflicted not for the fee, but for the bureaucracy and practicality that comes with this type of project. It’s really not the Austin way it would seem, and comes from the same sort of obsessive, compulsive minds that want to track and regulate every aspect of our lives from traffic and speed cameras, to registration and ID cards, to snooping into what goes on in your own property.

So assuming the fee isn’t the issue, although clearly it is for the trainers and businesses, how would you administer this? So the Yoga teacher who runs classes on the Pier at the new pond in the park west of the Palmer Events center has to pay the fee. The classes are three times a week, 5-9 people, completely quiet, non-intrusive.

Compare that to the big coached run groups who meet at RunTex and then set off around the trail. Are they being coached, are they not? Are they using the park, are they not? Do the pay the fee do they not ?

The easy answer is to have Parks inspectors, or park Police patrol around on Segways or bicycles, with digital cameras, with wifi uplinks, taking pictures of anyone who looks like they might be a group, might be being trained. Issue compliance notices for those who can’t show their license, and on a 2nd or 3rd offense, taking DNA samples and issuing prosecution orders or fines.

Sound ridiculous ? Check out this BBC report on London Parks Police and the fears about their powers and scope. See also this piece on Newham Parks Police, as well as many others.

Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me, and it’s not about the money.

The parks should be open to all comers, only if they want to reserve or restrict the rights of normal users should businesses and trainers pay a fee. If the Yoga group doesn’t want me on the pier, or the RunTex run group object to me following along behind them, or with them, then they pay. I know from experience that neither is true!

Anything generally open to the public should be free.

So if you bother to move to the outskirts of Austin, you must be doing so to get a big house on a big lot on a quiet street, close to “good” schools, for much cheaper than Central Austin. If you do so, you have no right to complain that you can’t walk to the store.

Well, people in Oak Hill and Southwest Austin apparently want their cake and to eat it too. As much as I am an avid proponent of denser development and public transit, I find it disingenuous of the community leaders in that area to now start blaming the Save Our Springs ordinance for the fact that their neighborhoods aren’t (and may never be) more pedestrian friendly and dense.

Tomorrow night, the city’s planning staff will present the tentative Future Land Use Map (FLUM) and plan documents to stakeholders for one last discussion before the planning commission and city council vote on it. David Richardson, who lead the effort at the neighborhood level, complains to Community Impact that the SOS ordinance blocks any and every kind of good development because

landowners cannot develop or put impervious cover, which is anything from rooftops to parking lots, over more than 25 percent of an individual landowner’s property, in the area called the contributing zone.

Mr. Richardson complains that you can’t put in denser muliple-use development that would make walking and biking more appealing because of the “roadblocks” like this.

The SOS ordinance *should* be a roadblock. Its intent is to discourage development, which causes water pollution in the sensitive contributing zone and the more sensitive recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer. If you want to live in a densely developed area, move to Central Austin!

Only listeners to KVET seemed to be following this issue up until a day or so ago. Up until about that time, it was not under discussion on neighborhood listservs around town, which leads me to conclude that more people should be reading the local daily and the Chron from cover to cover, not to mention listening to KVET. There’s a resolution forming the “Energy Efficient Retrofit Task Force” with an unwieldy number of members. The task force is due to report to the city council on or before June 1 (see agenda item 64 from December 13). Its next meeting is set for tomorrow. Today’s newspaper feature has given the gift of greater visibility to the Keep Austin Affordable site (”Austin Realtors question plan to require efficiency upgrades for older homes: City says complaints are premature, alarmist,” byline Katie Humphrey).

Why should those of us who seldom or never consume over 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity pay for the ever-growing consumption caused by those evidently compelled to build in a cornfield, tear down a perfectly good structure and construct a monster in its place, or “remodel” by expanding an existing house by four or five times? Only this morning, we learned that additional tree limbs will be sacrificed in our vicinity to add a transformer “required” because voltage is now “insufficient.” Somebody’s recently installed multi-kitchens and other upgrades and proliferations of electricity-operated conveniences in a bloated edifice demand this service upgrade; not only that, another outfit of the same sort will soon be completed and is likely to “require” the same sort of service upgrade, with accompanying destruction.

So much for affordable housing. So much for preserving Austin’s shade canopy.

As doublegood reported recently, not only is Capital Metro planning drastic changes to the Dillo service downtown, they are proposing schedule changes across the system. Although the public hearing on the issue was held last night, the only aspect of the changes that the local daily focused on was the proposed removal of the “Capitol transit center” which is really just a bus stop that happens to serve a large number of lines. Cap Metro is proposing moving this stop to 10^th Street (removing the stop from a couple of lines) because the Governor and State Preservation Board asked them to “for security reasons.”

Although I think the Guv is being silly, I don’t know if this one change should be the focus of news coverage. There is a huge list of changes. Strolling down South Congress this weekend, I spoke with one of the shop owners and she really didn’t understand why they were cutting off the Orange Dillo’s service down South Congress. Many tourists, locals, and students use it to get to SoCo, not only on the weekends and during SXSW, but regularly throughout the year. I am personally concerned as I’ll be moving to the area soon and am hoping to use the Dillo or the bus instead of clogging the road with one more car.

Again, there are a number of changes across the system that are being proposed. If you ever ride the bus or think you may start riding the bus because of rising gas prices, climate change, stress levels from driving, or a desire to keep or witness Austin at its weirdest (I was hoping to link to a post by a friend of mine of the guy stripping on her bus ride, but oh well), then you might take a few minutes to check out these proposed changes and e-mail your comments to planning@capmetro.org. Although I don’t know how good Cap Metro is at responding to public comment and actually incorporating it into their planning, they need to know that people are paying attention!