Austin wants YOU... to provide input on the future of Austin

Hey Austin-based readers. You may think you are powerless to affect the future of the city, and I wouldn't say you are wrong, exactly. But the public forums and surveys do make a difference, and since very few people actually participate, those that do wield a fair amount of power.

And right now, this very week, those people can be us!

Check out the Imagine Austin trend survey. Read about it. Fill it out right away, or come back to our humble blog and discuss it. If five of us come to an agreement on our top issues, we might just be able to skew the results in a direction we like!

The deadline for the survey isn't printed, but I think it's the end of next week.

image: Austin Skyline; March 2010, by John Rogers

Skip this post if you are not interested in Austin transportation issues

It's pretty frustrating to watch the city try to grapple with traffic issues. On the one hand, the city seems somewhat committed to progressive solutions to the problem. But they turn right around and screw it up so badly that it just discredits the whole enterprise.

The latest example is the new plan for MoPac Expressway. I may not grok the whole thing as of yet, but it seems to include adding a fourth, tolled lane whose price can vary based on congestion.

This is a great idea on paper. I support congestion pricing (just like I support all polices for pricing in negative externalities). But take a look at this map:

The red box shows the location of the fourth toll lane. But southbound congestion isn't caused by the lack of lanes in this area. It's caused by the bottleneck at Ladybird Lake (red arrow), where the vast majority of afternoon southbound commuters are forced from three lanes down to two.

Adding a lane to the bridge (by widening the bridge, preferably) would have a powerfully positive effect on the flow of traffic. Adding a fourth lane to be filtered down to two lanes at the bridge seems like it will just cause more problems.

Finally, a loosely related update to my post about the commuter rail from awhile back. I posited that there would be a lot of demand for the trains to run on the weekend. Cap Metro decided to run the train one weekend, and it was a total disaster... because way more people showed up than the train schedule could support.

We do like our gold-embossed sushi rolls

According to Bundle's first "How America Spends" report, the top-spending Americans lived in Austin in 2009. Households in the Texas capital averaged $67,076 in overall household expenses (excluding mortgage and rent, which are not included in Bundle's breakdown). Austin's annual spending is 77% higher than the national average of $37,782. Households in Scottsdale, Ariz., ranked No. 2, spending $64,687 on average for 2009.

So where's New York City? The five boroughs came in No. 53, with $37,435 in spending for 2009, just below the U.S. average. But if Manhattan were its own city -- and some people do think it is -- the richest of the boroughs would land at No. 3 on Bundle's list, with annual per-household spending at $59,602.

Before you get all up in our faces about spending money we could be saving, and so forth, please keep in mind that we. are. the. best. That's important to remember.

But also, the data seems to indicate that you would spend just as much if you moved here. (Well, maybe not you dear non-Austin-based, frugal reader. But, you know, people.)

Bundle's data excludes spending on mortgage and rent, which explains why New York City doesn't top the list and why the top 25 includes relatively affluent towns with low housing costs. (Ditto for Los Angeles, with its sprawling geography and socio-economic diversity. That city is No. 42 with $39,422 spent in 2009, 4.3% higher than the national average.)

More importantly, the data reveals how spending persists, across circumstances. A lower cost of housing often means that people spend more on food, restaurants and travel. It's why residents of Fresno, Calif., spend more on shopping, gas and auto expenses than their northern neighbors in San Francisco. In other words, you can move to a cheaper city, but you won't necessarily spend less.

images via here and here.

[Updated] Supertrains come to Austin!*

I love my fair city, but if there is one thing that keeps Austin from being a truly world-class metropolis, it's the terrible transportation infrastructure. We're relentlessly developing a city in which car ownership is required to do just about anything. And if you do happen to have a car, you then have to deal with the fact that everyone else has to have a car, and that means they have to have wide roads and huge parking lots.

After reading that paragraph, you might expect me to be ecstatic that Austin is finally opening its "Red Line " commuter rail in just one week (only two years and one week late!). And while I am excited that we are taking our first steps into hard core public transporation infrastructure, there is one painful flaw in Cap Metro's rail effort: the idiotic schedule.

Rush hour only? No supertrains on weekends?

W. T. F.

Okay, they are calling it "commuter rail," not "super happy Jason fun time rail," and that's fair. But let's outline a few things I can't do using the Red Line.

• I can't take the family to the Zilker kite festival on the train, so that I bypass the traditional parking clusterfrak.
• I can't opt to take the train home from drinks downtown rather than climb in my car while dangerously buzzed.
• I can't work late at the office, without having to find alternative transport home.

I know, I know, it costs money to run the supertrain. And Austinites don't want to pay for the train in the first place, because they don't see what it gets them personally (we all own cars, you know?).

But if there's one way to make sure that we never learn how awesome intracity rail can be, it's to make sure that it never ever seems like a good idea to try it out.

With this schedule, most of us our going to have only one experience with the Red Line: waiting--in our cars--for the train to get through a crossing.

UPDATE: From twitter, @ryanrumsey responds:

@originaljason Sounds like LA's PT planning. Did you know LA has a subway? No? Either do many in LA. Limited service & destinations.

@originaljason Oh, and LA's subway...it's the 'Red Line'.

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* DISCLAIMER: Trains may not be very super.

The eyes of Texas ARE upon you; or, Doubleplusyee-haw!

So, that's my car, and if you look closely, my shadowy profile a'drivin' it. What am I doing? If you go here, plug in the correct information (see below), and pass the anti-spam word verification, you can see for yourself.


Actually, I was coming back from teaching in Hays County, and ran into a big traffic jam on I-35. So I stopped for a bowl of chicken lemongrass vermicelli. After, I ran into the same jam, so, frustrated, jammed my way up the access road. It's all on the video.

citation#: AUR0005592
plate #: 933LCD
city code: AUSTIN

I was in the wrong, sure. But this camera business still makes me feel uncomfortable.

Election day Austin

12:30

It takes about an hour to get through the line to vote. The person who checks the registration card recognizes me from work, but I don't recognize him. He seems happy to see me, and then a little disappointed when I ask for the Democratic ballot. Later I notice that his name tag identifies him as a "Republican Alt. Judge."

Everyone here is voting in the Democratic primary. Most are returning to caucus. Even the election workers call it a caucus, although the sign on the door identifies them as Precinct Conventions, which is what I understand them to actually be.

The election workers say that we'll most likely have to have the Democratic caucus outdoors, since there is clearly not enough room in the little church for hundreds of democratic voters. Fortunately, it's really nice outside. I hope wintery Ohio has planned a little better.

6:30

Waiting on the wife before heading the the caucus. Reading about The coming caucus chaos in Texas, and from Ohio, WTF?

but perhaps the most unfortunate situation is that apparently (Ohioans out there, let me know if I've got this wrong) the paper ballots have a stub along the bottom that says "Vote Will Not Be Counted If Removed" -- except that it actually does have to be removed, and the poll workers' manual instructs election workers to tell voters to tear it off, provoking alarm among those voters whose elementary school teachers taught them to follow simple written instructions.

To be continued....

So, when does Baghdad get its first roller derby squad?

I had no idea until I came across a blurb on the Austin Chronicle's website today.

I wonder if President Bush knows that the name of Austin's qa'im makam--sorry, mayor--is Will Wynn. Hell, maybe that's the reason!

I can see it now: erecting another Stevie Ray Vaughn statue just like the one on Town Lake--again, sorry, I mean "Lady Bird Lake"--only bigger, and in Fardus Square.

p.s. Does anyone else find it hopelessly tragic that a combat brigade, who serves at the mercy and whims of foolish politicians and furthermore is primarily skilled at, you guessed it, combat, is trying to establish proper working local governments?

Another reason Austin may be the greatest place on earth

This. Anyone care to join me Saturday?

Home-grown terrorism strikes Austin, TX

First, a little framing: One of the most annoying things about hawkish pundits and bloggers (and Presidents of the United States) in our country is their attempt to elevate terrorists (who are mostly powerless idiots) to Hitler-esque levels of threat. You know what I'm talking about: "The battle against Islamic terrorism is the calling of our generation." That sort of garbage.

The problem is simply that it's so intellectually dishonest that it actually undercuts the real threat of terrorism. If the threat were put in context and treated appropriately, we'd actually do a much better job of fighting terrorism... but probably a worse job of electing crazy warmongers.

not a pipe bomb by Jim Dyer.

Why is it intellectually dishonest? Well, for one thing, every single incident of violenc by muslims that hits the news is held up as evidence of a deep sickness in that religion. Other random acts of violence, such as the Virginia Tech shooting? Just tragedies, without any larger message. We all know that if that crazy gunman had turned out to be a muslim, we would still be enduring another round of fevered bloviating about how Islam is not a religion of peace.

Furthermore, and to get to the actual news of the current post, Christian terrorism is never used as evidence of issues with that religion. Incidents like this:

A 27-year-old man has been arrested on three charges related to a pipe-bomb that was found near an Austin, Texas abortion clinic last week. The Austin Police Department has announced that Paul Ross Evans has been charged with use of weapons of mass destruction, manufacture of explosive material, and violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, the Associated Press reports.

The bomb, which was found last Wednesday, consisted of explosive powder and two pounds of nails packed into an insulated container. Video surveillance cameras showed Evans buying a package of 9-volt batteries, electrical tape, and a copper tube, matching the items used in building the bomb. Also, investigators matched Evans' credit card with the purchase of the insulated container at an Austin Wal-Mart, The Daily Texan reports.

Evans is currently in federal custody without bond. He was previously convicted of breaking into cars and robbing a convenience store and fast-food restaurant with a pellet gun. Evans was paroled in 2005 after serving the first three years of a 15-year sentence.

I don't think this is evidence of a deep problem with Christianity as a religion. It may be that religion of any kind has a slight problem in that it can be too easily hijacked by violent extremists, but clearly I don't think that a few sociopathic freaks should be used to smear an entire population, as the warbloggers routinely do with Islam.

Anyway, now we've got another piple bomb incident here in Austin, that's even more curious. It seems to have been left in an alley, not near any understandable target:

A woman found an explosive device near her home on Guidepost Trail in South Austin (map) about 10 a.m. Monday.

But don't worry...

Austin police are stressing that the device found Monday and the one found last week are completely unrelated.

Yeah, I feel much better.

To close the post on a lighter note, this is from that photo's flickr page:

A band named "this bike is a pipe bomb" makes similar stickers, but some Keystone Kops saw one on a bike and had the bomb squad come destroy it. (I'd love to make "my other bike is a pipe bomb" stickers.)

By these signs you will know it

Hmmm. A chunk of downtown Austin is currenty closed as 'authorities' investigate how dozens of dead birds ended up near the capitol. Tests for natural gas and chlorine have come up negative.

More info as it develops. If you don't hear from me, assume that Austin is in an information quarantine.