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!

Someone besides me (and the people who made all those printed copies disappear) has read the recent audit report that took an in-depth look at operations of the police department. As I did, reporter Tony Plohetsky paid particular attention to the fascinating section that recommends abolition of the APD aviation unit. When I wrote about this before, I noted that the daily’s report was brief.

Today’s analysis goes quite a way toward remedying the oversight. The on-line version lacks some of the accompanying sidebar material that enriches the print feature: “Police Department defends helicopter program as audit suggests cost-cutting measures: Some say Air 1 too costly to stay airborne” is the on-line title; the print version headings are different and include this language: “Helicopter unit is under scrutiny” and “Department, auditor disagree over cost-effectiveness.”

There’s a big opportunity cost involved. How many staffed patrol cars would be available on the ground for the amount invested in this aviation unit? Without the night-time disruption caused by noise 500 feet above and the lurid beam of the searchlight sweeping yards and rooms, how much better would we all sleep? My disposition would certainly improve. The reporter does not mention or analyze the factor of rising fuel costs. I wish that somebody would.

It was the day that I saw one too many “Teamwork” posters that I was happy to discover Austin’s own Despair, Inc. Perhaps teamwork is falling out of favor as a workplace theme, because once-ubiquitous saturated photos of a crew on the water from a low overhead perspective, or even any parodies of that sort of poster, are less often to be found in those places where people earn their daily bread, if anecdotal evidence beyond my own experience is to be trusted. Even the Despair people have just one teamwork image that I can find, and the locale is not near the water. The current NYT Sunday magazine calls national attention to the Despair people, focusing on the “Worth” concept (”Empowering by Disempowerment,” byline Rob Walker, 4/27/08).

There are those who still believe in self-improvement as a personal conscious endeavor and, if the account in the local daily (byline Sarah Coppola; see links under photograph for itemized lists) is to be believed, one of our council incumbents is among them. An opponent made a public information request and now has used the results in an amusing four-page full-color mailer that displays images of selected invoices discovered among materials elicited following the PIR. I don’t know how I’m going to vote yet, but I’m not overjoyed to know that taxpayer dollars went to buy 20 copies of “Now, Discover Your Strengths.” And fish food?

Thanks to a new initiative by the Despair people, while feigning to look deeply engaged in the proceedings of meetings that are boring in the extreme, you can occupy yourself by mentally designing your own demotivational poster (which image should be accompanied by which heading and which “inspirational” language?).

There will be a candidate forum on Thursday, May 1, from 6:30 to 8 pm at the city council chambers (301 West Second). Those running for seats on the city council have been invited. Major issues are disparities in patrols and other APD staff coverage. Based on City response to a public information (what we once knew as “open records”) request, a presentation (by public-spirited citizens Linda Yeatts and Lori Renteria) is available analyzing assignment of police officers and concluding that APD staffing is not adequate and is not distributed proportionately and fairly in accordance with such factors as population density, volume of calls to the dispatchers, or per-capita incidence of violent crime. Another conclusion that some have drawn is that police coverage (along with proposed alterations in public transportation coverage) is biased toward downtown business and tourism interests. Early voting has begun, but there’s still plenty of time to mull things over before the May 10 election. The League of Women Voters non-partisan guide is now available, but this forum on public safety is especially important for decision-making since we have a new police chief in town. If you want to know exactly what areas are covered by which of the area commands, good luck! The most recent on-line information about district or area commands does not appear to have been updated. If you find current information on the APD site, please do let the rest of know.

One thing I learned last year is that May is a big month for cycling in and around Austin, this year won’t be any different.

Events start out on Friday with the Civic Bicycle Cruise/Political Pedal. Meet up at Meet at City Hall Plaza, 4.45pm. for the 5pm to 6pm ride, this isn’t just for just dedicated road bikers, anyone with two or even three wheels, fat tire, mountain bike, or a commuter bike should come along. It’s a chance to join your elected officials and community leaders in this convergence of politics and the joy of cycling!

Plan on staying downtown after the ride for the Bicyclists’ Happy Hour - from 6:00pm – 7:30pm at The Rio Grande Restaurant, 301 San Jacinto Blvd. (on the Lance Armstrong Bikeway no less). Snacks, drinks and meeting of minds! I’m told there will be valet bike parking available, something I for one have never seen before and live Austin music by Jim Keaveny and Shand Walton. The Happy hour is put together by the Austin Cycling Association, the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant and the Rio Grande cycling team along with sponsors Bicycle Sport Shop, the Austin Yellow Bike Project, the Texas Bicycle Coalition, the League of Bicycling Voters and REI.

For some of us, Friday is a warm-up for Saturdays Austin to Shiner GASP ride. The 2008 edition celebrates the Spoetzl Brewery’s 99th anniversary and for those volunteering or riding the 90-miles from Austin to Shiner, there will be a party with BQ dinner with brisket, sausage, vegetarian options, Live Texas Country Music as well as Miles From Nowhere, Eric Middleton, as well other bands. One of the big attractions is the FREE Shiner Beer. Makes cycling sound fun doesn’t it ;-)

I’ve no idea what effect Shiner beer is going to have on me after cycling 90-miles, but either way I guess I’ll end up “legless”. Fortunately @cruisergirl has agreed to give me and my trusty aluminum steed a ride back to Austin. If you are riding, do yourself a favor and do packet picket either Thursday or Friday at Jack and Adams on Barton Springs, then Saturday morning you’ll be ready to ride. If you want to ride and raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, registration is still open, you can even register on the morning of the ride. You’ll need to figure out how to get back though.

For other Bike Month activities, the Austin Cycling Association has an excellent online calendar. If you spot someone walking around like John Wayne, that will be me, not that I becoming localized, but 6-hours on a bike saddle… as John Wayne famously said “It’s such an adrenaline rush. It’s America’s most extreme sport.”

At the risk of just seeming like another Cheerleader, or a bore, I thought I’d follow-up on Lauratex Metblog Austin post about the Unforeseen movie.

I’d seen a trailer for the film at a previous visit to the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar, I hadn’t actually got around to going to see it, you know, busy life and all that!

Lauratex said “it should be required viewing in Austin”. I say, if you moved to Austin after 1995, or were not old enough to remember the Circle C/Barton Springs fight, maybe like me you thought George Bush only started to mess up when he got to the White House, this is the best use of 90-minutes of your time this week!

I know I don’t really know much about Austin, I know “keep Austin weird” isn’t just a bumper sticker but really I had no idea.

While I can see that there are many people who wouldn’t agree with the main message and direction the film takes, as someone that swims a Barton Springs two or three times a week, I found this film really profound and found myself weeping twice during the film. I won’t pretend to do a balanced review of the film, I don’t think I could.

The main thrust of the film is about the development of the Circle-C ranch, apparently a sub-division(another good reasons why I couldn’t turn in a balanced view of the film, I don’t understand much of the terminology used) and the impact it could have on Barton Springs. While the film could have demonised developers, it didn’t for me. It did fairly show that the balance is out of kilter when it comes to developing new, green field sites.

The film is a thought provoking cross over between documentary, story telling and historical record. I suspect that editorial changes made some of the things the people interviewed seem even more prophetic, the small boy who liked living in the new house but was concerned they’d finish the rest of the houses, as he’d have no space to play; the couple who were complaining about their inability to water their new lawn, but “people come first”; the old farmer who seemed wise well beyond his education, if not beyond his years.

The best speaker for me wasn’t Robert Redford, erudite though he was, journalist and author William Greider summed it up best for me, “Growth itself is not the enemy, it is the nature of that growth—the quality within.”

the Unforseen is still showing at the Alamo Drafthouse South, although screenings are getting fewer and fewer as the weeks go by. The current screening list is here. Yes, and that means you ttrentham.

People tell me that they see as many Lehmberg ads as Montford ads on television. Those I don’t see much of. Montford has been making a lot of use of non-TV low-cost and demographic-specific material. I wrote earlier about the extremely personalized campaign cards for delivery to specific front doors. On the Tejano and Proud show Sunday evening, there was a Montford commercial about once every half hour, so far as I could tell. Each one that I heard was narrated by Gonzalo Barrientos and each contained a different list of endorsers, mostly from among the original group of modern-day Travis County politicos, both elected and neighborhood activists (think of the Moya era). Today there was an e-mail blast via SoulCiti that contained a different list of Montford endorsers, this one more multi-generational, from Delco to people who served in the Ann Richards administration to current office-holders Spears and Hamilton (the Danny Thomas campaign also sent out a SoulCiti mailing today). Word from the precincts is that turnout is low today thus far, but nearly everyone I know with intentions to vote has already done so during the early-voting period. The polls close today at 7 and the results should be available very soon thereafter, for district attorney, precinct commissioner, and railroad commissioner.

I’ve never seen anything quite like this piece. It was not intended to be mailed; there is no place to put the information required for delivery to a mailbox; every bit of space is used to convey the campaign message. I saw this color card hand-delivered. It’s personalized and refers to the individual household where it was left in several ways. It bears a message that begins in this way: “Dear [So-and-so] Family.” The candidate says, “My pledge to the [So-and-so] family is to bring a new energy to this office.” The dates for early voting, are furnished and so is the nearest early-voting location, and there’s a reminder about election day itself that includes the individual precinct number and that precinct’s polling place on election day. For the benefit of the person delivering this color piece printed on coated paper and bearing a union bug, the household’s address is printed in small type at the very bottom. I’m truly impressed. Were there not enough volunteers to deliver these pieces, they would be wasted, since they are so individualized and could not be used in another way without putting stickers over or blotting out about five places on each card. I’ve seen no campaign effort this personalized since every single local candidate campaigning used to come to the door and knock on it, no matter what the office, including mayor, sheriff, county judge, and down from there. This literature is from Mindy Montford, whose campaign Web page begins with an annoying automatic feature. The video at the Rosemary Lehmberg site waits for the viewer to play it. This is an important campaign. The candidates seem to have different ideas about how best to use the limited and expensive resource that is a trial. The League of Women Voters guide contains information about these run-offs, including the one for Railroad Commissioner. Those of us who live in precinct one must vote for county commissioner as well. Only those who voted in the primary may vote in the run-off election. I like to vote early. The most frequent location is the Travis County courthouse, but this time it was the Ruiz branch library, handy following the lunch hour (and with plenty of parking, for those who care).

Candidates for city council running in the local election set for May 10 (remember; the primary run-off election is on April 8, with early voting ending April 4) have stepped up and answered an additional set of thoughtful questions. This time, the questionnaire is from the BAT-PAC people. Whatever anyone thinks of the BAT endorsements, these questions and the replies that they elicited are the sort to assist the undecided in making up their minds. They’re just as useful as the earlier responses to the ANC battery of questions and the yet-to-be released responses to the League of Women Voters issue queries. This is the preamble to a question about an issue that I believe to be extremely important, especially in view of the rush to unload City-owned land downtown and transfer it into private hands on favorable terms: “We are told by the City Administration that the City can no longer afford to purchase land for community facilities downtown, yet land the city already owns downtown is being proposed for sale for private development. Moreover, we are told that we must relocate essential city services away from the populations they serve without adequate transportation services.” “BAT” stands for “Better Austin Today.” The complete elections calendar and additional information about registration and voting may be found at the site of the Travis County clerk.

Thank the Austin Neighborhoods Council for asking them. Elections to fill three places on the city council are not all that far away. The topics include management of growth, neighborhood planning, community values, enforcement of building permits and codes, geographic representation on the council, open governance and public information, the school district, the environment, and transportation. Answers are placed side by side for purposes of comparison. ANC will sponsor a candidate forum on this coming Wednesday, March 26, at 6 pm, 721 Barton Springs (the electric utility building). There are certainly differences in candidate responses and some of the replies are not brief, so these questionnaires will be of great assistance for those thus far undecided.