Another one bites the dust

I’m just back from my first ever long road trip in the US. I’d previously done New York to Florida, but it was over a number of days with stops in many places. This trip was a drive as far as you could, rest and drive again type.

While I was totally impressed and in awe of the size, variety and sheer beauty of the land in places, I was surprised, disappointed and concerned about other aspects of the journey and what I saw. I suspect like many people, I still carried the romantic notion that out there in the Texas flatlands were thousand upon thousand of cattle, roaming free, feeding on the planes grass, being rounded up by cowboys and herded based on the season. I was prepared to make some concessions, like most of the cowboys riding 4×4’s but nothing prepared me for what I saw.

What I saw in numerous locations along I-10W, there were thousand upon thousand of cows penned up in pens close to the road. Mostly standing around in what looked and smelt like their own waste, in temperatures that were exceeding 95f. There wasn’t just one place where the cattle and pens were present, but dozens along the ride between east of El Paso TX and Yuma, AZ. I guess like everything, even cattle in Texas has become a factory process in recent years. According to a Feb. 2009 USDA report, there are some 418,000 cattle in Texas, 338,000 in New Mexico, and 186,000 in Arizona. Who knew? Just sayin…

The Progressive Dairy web site has an interesting insight into the cattle “industry”.

In the interests of transparency, I’m NOT a vegetarian, I enjoy a nice steak and eat ‘burgers from time to time.

8 Sugar Creek Austin, Texas 78746 ??

Now, I guess you might argue that for a farm this would be a small quantity. But this isn’t a farm, it’s a house+land situated between Bee Caves Rd and Lake Austin. While I’m sure the owners may feel they are putting the water to good use, at a time when we are all being asked to cut back and save on water consumption, this is the equivalent of 3x the water consumption that Lance Armstrong used and caused him such embarressment(thanks to Steve for his comment correcting my understanding and math) This request is approximately half the annual amount that embarrassed Lance Armstrong, and for which he took immediate steps to rectify.

Let’s remember, there is a water shortage. Water isn’t man made, it’s part of the commons. It “belongs” to all of us. It’s unclear to me that this won’t affect the Edwards Aquifer, as we all know that water finds it’s own level. There is apparently a chance that the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District will approve this free extraction and use of OUR water.

Now, remember this isn’t about cost, it’s about supply. Seems to me that if this passes, now might be a good idea for us all to start plans to build our own wells to water our own lawns, after all we can all be selfish.

Alternatively, if you feel that the commons right to water is the responsibility of all of us, you might want to call BSEACD on (512) 282-8441 in the next 3-days and tell them, and indirectly tell James David and Gary Peese, the property owners, that you do not feel this is an appropriate action, period, and especially in the current drought conditions.

The blood exploded from her mouth, she lost four teeth and fractured her upper jaw; it was gruesome, I bailed rather than hit her and ended up with a scrape on my elbow and leg. It could have been much worse for her, she was wearing a helmet, and although it cracked, it did its’ job and protected her forehead and the frontal lobe of her brain.

Last Friday she wanted to see where the accident happened and so we agreed to meet up and I’d walk her through it. She bought a camera. What shocked me, driving from the west end of Blake Manor RD on 973, was just how bad shape this road was in. Yes, the drought is playing havoc with the road surface. It doesn’t help that much of the road on the south side falls off as the land slopes downhill. But simply put, this road is a hazard for car drivers. There are at least two sections where the road is likey to break away completely and there are dozens of sections with cracks almost as wide as a Dollar bill, and more than 5ft long.

Surprisingly, the actual crack where she crashed has been part filled, there seemed to be whole sections where tarmac has just been dumped on the road randomly and smoothed down. It’s really inconciveable that this road is in such poor shape, given that the frontage road of Mopac between Bee Caves and 360 seems to have been re-tarmaced recently, when it was one of the better roads anyway.

So, I advise ALL cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers to avoid Blake Manor Rd between 9730 and Lockwood Rd unless absolutely necessary. And unless you know otherwise, I declare this, the worst section of road in the greater Austin area, and possibly all of Texas!

None of these are formal, they are just good. So, today my thought was, no blocking. Walking three abreast on the trail just doesn’t work. It really doesn’t work when you are all wearing mp3 players and not talking to each other, let alone listening out to what’s going on around you.

Three going clockwise can’t pass three going anti-clockwise; three on one side, two on the other, pretty much blocks one passing in the middle. So I propose that where there are three people blocking one side, now the football season is with us, it becomes an automatic right to be able to execute a tackle from behind on one of the three if you need to pass.

No need for those slightly embarrassing calls, on y’alls right/on y’alls left, instead just shout no blocking and run or bike right through…Yes, of course I’m kidding, but for those walking or jogging slowly three a breast, please pay more attention!

And so it was tonight, at the City Council meeting where the staff recommendations for implementation of the Downtown Street Closure Task Force recommendations were heard. It was public hearing and a large number of people from 4-sides showed up, with a few others including marginalized neighborhood associations.

The Churches were well represented, as were the Race and Event organizers, and the task force members. In addition there were a large number of runners and event participants, but they had been effectively neutered by the race organizers through their emergent AREA organization. The Austin Races and Events Alliance (AREA), had appealed for people to attend but not speak until they’d spoken, probably fearing a backlash similar to the earlier one at the early taskforce meeting.

In the end the meeting was conducted in a relatively orderly and positive fashion, with Mayor Wynn and a number of the speakers enjoying entertaining interaction. After some 2-hours 30-minutes, most of it hearing public testimony, what became clear is that the City staff had turned months of work from the taskforce into a lose-lose-lose situation and wasn’t clear why this was.

The staff recommendations introduced rules like ensuring that Caesar Chavez was ALWAYS open, which the task force had never considered, as far as I know. That, had the Art Austin, 1st Night Austin and many other event promoters and producers losing out. The recommendations did not institute the Special Events office that the Task Force had recommended, thus they were losers. The Churches didn’t get their access needs met and they lost out, and well, the race organizers didn’t get it their way either, so they lost out too.

After the meeting I was asked “did we win?” My answer was, no, but you got what you wanted. What did they want? Well almost no one it seemed wanted it to go ahead as prescribed, and that’s what they got.

What happened was Council Member Leffingwell proposed to adjourn the public hearing and pass the staff proposal on the caveat that the letter submitted by the Task Force would considered and the proposal amended to accommodate. After a small amount of discussion and clarification from council members and Mayor Wynn, thats what they got, approved on first reading with the Leffingwell compromise. 2nd reading with be on either the 23rd or 30th of April, based on City Staff’s ability to meet with Task Force members and incorporate the changes.

However, quite why and how we got to where we did is beyond me? Why would staff come forward with these recommendations that were so out of line with a process that had taken months of compromise? Given that it’s been three of four months for staff to come forward with that, how likely is it that they’ll come back in as little as two weeks with the update thats acceptable to the task force and everyone else?

I found it personally interesting that none of the Mayoral candidates publicly took a stance on this and push it through one way or the other. One can only wonder if they really hope they’ll get the election over and done with before the Street and Event Closure really does claim a loser, the mayoral candidate that backs the wrong horse.

And so it was, process over people. – Oh yeah, before anyone suggests I’m a conspiracy theorist, I’m not. I also know that things don’t happen by accident.

However, last Thursdays council meeting where the Wildflower Commons PUD was up for discussion, debate and possibly vote, rather than it being a death match with Leffingwell taking one position, and McCracken taking the opposite, it was more like John and Yokos love-in, except the protest was from the public, not the lovers.

I arrived at City Hall around 4pm, listened to some of the heated discussion on the East Austin Solar farm, then the Town Lake trail extension and boardwalk. After 2-hours I left, there were a large number of people milling around, more than 90-had signed up to speak on the PUD. I got back later, but no debate, no discussion, just a postponment, apperently with the prior agreement of the developers lobbyist.

Rather than either McCraken or Leffingwell “grasping the nettle” and one or both of them taking an environmental stand, they both ducked the issue. Worse they moved the issue until after the Mayoral election, ducking the issue completely and allowing both of them to claim the anti-developer, pro-environment, which are likely to be vote winners.

Laura Morrison was the only dissenting voice in the 6-1 approval to postpone. I’d guess that both Leffingwell and McCraken would claim the revised conditions that have been placed on the developer before they come back to council in August over the 100,000 sq. foot supermarket, retail, restaurants, and 550 condos in the Barton Springs Recharge Zone, however, since neither spoke during the process we don’t have a clue what they really think. Give peace a chance?

The Save Our Springs Alliance has numerous documents explaining the Wildflower Commons PUD.

Area considered by the Task Force

After about a 6-meeting gestation, bi-weekly meetings, went weekly. The task force was co-led by RunTex owner Paul Carrozza, and local political grandee and former Democratic U.S. representative, Jack Hightower, with assistant City Manager Rudy Garza accompanied by a city staff from Parks and Recreation and other effected depts. as well as Lt. Boydston, APD Special Events Unit and other safety related groups to advise. Also heavily involved in the process(from my observation) was Larry Shooler, Policy Director for City Council Member Lee Leffingwell.

However, staff were there primarily as advisors, the bulk of the work was done by the task force members. For those of us from the public that did show up, there was a limited opportunity for people to speak for 3-minutes before the start of the meetings. After that it was down to the old game of passing short notes to task force members on specific points during meetings, a frustrating experience at best. Mid-way through the process the task force seemed to be getting bogged down, lack of clear definition and the [obvious?] groupings for and against events, seemed to be stopping reasonable progress. I also missed about 5-meetings.

It was then with some surprise when I attended the last two meetings. The task force had come up with a good set of recommendations. Seemed to have pulled together some key threads. Presentation of these on the 18th was pretty straight forward with a number of the Task Force members, Shooler and Garza present along with the full council.

The key points and focus areas were:

• Issues/Challenges
  • Events in “downtown” up from 110 in 2005 to 145 in 2007
  • Number of downtown residents estimated to almost triple between 2000-2010
• Event Frequency, Number, Variety, Scheduling, Capping etc.
• Application Approval Process and Timeline etc.
• Set Race Routes, Street and Building Access etc.
• Financial Cost/Impact and Event Fee Structure
• Political Events and Parades were not in-play for the Task Force

And a large number of issues and concerns related to these. From which the Task Force made the following recommendations, presented by Carrozza to the City Council.

• Create Office of Special Events (OSE) to report to the City Manager’s Office
• Create Special Events Advisory Commission
• Create a “no event” zone around 5th/6th Streets to provide open access
• There should be a no-entrapment rule, all events should provide alternate access
• Walks should be held in a “moving bubble” rather than blocking streets
• There should be a cap on events at current levels
• Timeline for Event submission and review changed from 60 to 210 days prior to the event
• Events getting 20% or higher objections are referred to Special Events Advisory Commision
• Organizers must have approved application before marketing events
• Traffic plan inc. alternate access must be finalized earlier

Of these, when you look at it, the Cap was perhaps most feared by the event community. The problem is that each event community has their own, blinkered view on the disruption caused by their events. Limited by their events own geographic boundaries. What they don’t see is the big picture. The problem is that under the current scheme, nor does anyone person or department in the City, since different types of events are currently permitted and approved through different depts. So while you could take 145 events, and say thats almost 3-every weekend. It isn’t, sometimes it is more, sometimes less, and there are the inevitable clashes which don’t become apparent until Road Closures are processed, sometimes long after the events are approved.

For such a relatively small downtown area, often using public roads, 145 events as a cap seems more than enough. One of the key recommendations of the task force was to tier races and to find and encourage other great parts of the City. This both spreads the benefit and the burden. The continued, unbridled growth of events in the downtown district was perhaps the greatest concern of the non-events stakeholders, including residents, businesses, Churches etc. all of whom suffer regular disruption, which is currently left to the best will of the event organizer to minimize.

The “no event” zone was referred to as both the “Equator” and the “Red Sea”. Using the former designation, it was envisaged that the “Red Sea: would part on Congress for no more than six “grandfathered” events. Other events could start north or south of 5th/6th St but not cross or close them. So You could have a 5k race that went south from 4th, down Chavez, and loop back around, but it couldn’t cross or close 5th/6th, likewise a Walk could start on or north of 7th but not cross or close 5th/6th.

Final recommendations were around the City’s ability to understand, plan, budget and grant waivers for events. Currently there is no clear process, or understanding of the cost or benefit for events, and no tracking or post event evaluation is done to see if event organizers meet their commitments, and if waivers for closures and fees etc. are justified. There is also some work to be done on various ordinances if these recommendations are to become the norm.

The council meeting wrapped up with questions from council members. There were few. Members Leffingwell and Martinez both raised the point of citizen input. This was accepted, and the job is now on staff to turn the recommendations into proposed policy.

As part of that process, and in review with council, it’s clear that a broad coalition of event organizers and participants, and NOT just those from the sports community, need to review and provide feedback, as well as the neighborhoods, including mine Bouldin Creek, and the businesses and other effected parties. It’s our city and its also the events, from art, to music, and sport, are what make downtown Austin the small village it is, in a Capital city.

[1] “Downtown is defined by MLK to the north; Oltorf to the south; I35 to the east; and Lamar to the west.
[2] Minutes, Mission Statement, and full member list(although not including their alliances) can be found on the city website, here.

90-gallon recycling bins, only every two weeks folks!

Then I stared vacantly into my blue meanie bin. As I live alone, the chances of me filling this by next Tuesday are remote. I was just thinking about it when the regular garbage truck came by to pick up my small size garbage bin. It’s a quick and relatively efficient process, an automated arm grabs the bin, lifts it, shake it into the truck. Since we’ve only had one single stream pick-up since I got my bin, and I wasn’t here, I can only assume it’s a similar process.

That being the case, it struck me that theres no real reason why you should put out a half empty Single stream recycling blue meanie bin. If yours will survive for a full month before putting it out, why not do that?

After all, it should have no perishables in it to attract vermin, flys etc. Nothing to create a bad odour or a health hazard. At the same time it will speed the collection up, reduce noise, and reduce the amount of gas the city uses to collect the contents. That must be a good thing. If only 1/6 of the homes with these bins could put them out monthly when full instead of biweekly, the difference would surely be noticeable and a useful saving in time and money.

Oh yeah, and if you do put both bins out, the machines still need enough space between the green and blue bins to pick them up separately.

[Update: So, I've been getting emails from neighbors about this, one has already offered to fill my bin with her recycling, since she lives in an apartment complex that doesn't recycle and won't. Secondly, another just didn't get the point, so here's some simple maths. Say 30-seconds per half empty bin, say maybe 20,000 half empty bins across the city, that means a wasted 166-hours, and running the pickups large gas fueled engine for the same length of time... ] ]]> http://austin.metblogs.com/2008/12/09/abusing-the-blue-giant/feed/ 3 http://austin.metblogs.com/2008/11/28/2nd-austin-santa-speedo-run/ http://austin.metblogs.com/2008/11/28/2nd-austin-santa-speedo-run/#comments Sat, 29 Nov 2008 03:41:41 +0000 triman http://austin.metblogs.com/?p=2851 Well things are getting going for this years Santa Speedo run. I met with Head Santa Ed last week for lunch to plan out the 2nd Annual Austin Santa Speedo run. As Head Elf I should have written this post days ago. Between Ed and I we’ve created evites, Facebook events and more. While I blog here on Austin metroblog, Allen Chen over on the Austinist covered it first, and to be honest they did a great job last year too!

The purpose is to raise awareness and promote the work of Out Youth Austin! To take part, you must register for the 5k via the Trail of Lights 5k, and then show up on the night, at least by 6.15pm near the bonfire and we will strip down to red speedo, or swim costume and then start the run together. See last years video on youtube or the pictures on Flickr.

So, if you have not received an evite, or on facebook, now’s your chance to join in and have the most fun you can in a red speedo or bikini. We’ve got members from the Texas State tri team coming along, a number of people have signed up for the evite. Last year the temperatures were in the high 70’s for the run, @alkaloids and Derek Yorek of Team Hump started up front and finished up there, the rest of us mingled around near the back and ran through the crowds.

Now, I understand the whole speedo thing here in America. If you feel that going and buying a speedo is something that is just ‘beyond the pale‘ and not to be seen doing in public, do I have a deal for you. The swimoutlet.com has red speedos and bikini seperates on sale for just $9.95 plus postage. Don’t delay, get yours in time for the run!

This year the plan is to have three or four groups if people show interest. there will be the fast, the joggers, the back of the pack crew(which will inclide me this year as I’m doing a 100-mile bike ride the same day), and the supporters.

If you really can’t see running through some 1,000 people in a speedo or bikini then why not come along and support? Instead of paying the race entry fee, donate the same amount to OutYouth Austin.

Otherwise, see you there. Don’t forget to confirm your attendance via either the evite or the facebook event.

The first up is the Austin Get Motivated event. Not so much for me, while I could use some motivation at this point, I somehow think that my cynical personality would come out and I’d miss the message while criticizing the messenger. Peter and Tamara Lowe are the latest in a long line of almost evangelical, motivational speakers and they’ll be in town on December 2nd at the Austin Convention Center with General Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani, as well as a host of other speakers. I talked to a ‘city official” at yesterdays Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot, and was told they were expecting 12,000 people to turn up. The convention/seminar starts at 8.00am, seems like downtown is likely to be jammed from 7am.

If you want to go, it will cost $299. However, for that you can apparently take your whole office.

Next up is a date for the diary. On Tuesday January 13th the City of Austin is hosting the Active Texas Summit at the Palmer Events Center on Barton Springs Road. It doesn’t appear to be aimed at the general public, but at $95 for early registraion, I actually think the ability to hear first hand on what is being proposed, strategies to get involved in sports related events in Austin and Texas, if you are looking for something to get you back on track after the Christmas holidays, this could be it.

The leisure sector, fitness, events etc. are an important service industry in North America. If times continue to get hard and people hunker down, keeping this vital part of the economy going will be key. It’s all too easy to complain about the events that go on downtown, and I take part in both, the events and complaining, they do provide an essential link to the economy through food sellers, facilities providers, fencing, porta-lets, printing, police, the list go’s on and on. Continuing and growing the tradition is an opportunity even in hard times. People need distractions, they need focus and for many sports not only fulfill those needs, but they also are a significant aid in fitness and health.

The day starts early, at 6:30 with an optional exercise program, and ends late with Health and Fitness Awards and a Blues show at Antones, with (healthy)meals and (virtuous)breaks, and transportation to Antones included. In the middle there will be a host of speakers and sessions, the agenda has Mayor Will Wynn, Governor Perry, Luci Baines Johnson, Paul Carroza, Marc Ott, and Susan Dell who is a member of the President’s Council for Physical Fitness and Sports.

So, feeling a bit overloaded after yesterdays bird? Maybe one of these is for you!