Life at 5K BHD
December 16th, 2008: Task Force on Street Closures meeting
Last night I attended a meeting of Austin's Task Force on Street Closures. This body was created because of a rising volume of complaints from Churches and residents about the number of street closures due to running events, parades, art events and so on. I went down there as a result of an appeal for more runners to come forward with their point of view: this was the last meeting of the panel before the results were to be presented to Austin City Council. I had a prepared statement based on the minutes of the previous 5 meetings, but on reading the handouts we were given found that previous discussions and resolutions of the panel had made what I had to say was almost irrelevant - embarrassingly so.
However, I found the proceedings extremely interesting and rather disconcerting. The interesting part was the very reasonable way in which the discussions proceeded, with no heated arguments. In fact, relations among the panel members, even those who represented very different interests, were surprisingly friendly. This was not at all the atmosphere in which national partisan politics proceeds, nor the atmosphere of the blogosphere. The most disconcerting part of what I heard was that there was no recognition of the "rights of the Commons": the underlying assumption of all discussion was that private property rights and the automobile reigned supreme. The whole purpose of discussion seemed to be "what can we do to mollify the property owners along the routes of events so that they will not get together and shut down ALL events in downtown Austin." It seemed to be assumed that, if conflicts came to a head, the enjoyment of Austin's streets by up to 30,000 runners at a time would count as nothing against the complaints of a few scores of property owners. Even the representatives of the runners seemed to have accepted this proposition at face value. The next most disconcerting part was that the rights of car owners to drive unimpeded on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays across central Austin on 4 East-West corridors (15th, 11th, 5/6th, Cesar Chavez and Oltorf Streets) as well as 2 North-South corridors was accepted without question.
Obviously, there are issues of courtesy involved: property owners should be informed well in advance of street closures that will affect them, and the number of property owners affected needs to be minimized. I can sympathize with home-owners who are "trapped" in their houses or on their blocks by an event. But, in fact, they are generally only "trapped" if they want to drive out of their driveway by car. It does not seem too much to ask that, in order to benefit a few thousand people, a score or so of people be asked to park their car on a neighboring street and walk to it if they want to go somewhere during the period of a couple of hours that their street might be closed for an event. What I saw was a case of the "Tragedy of the Commons" - if we the people want to use a public street in such a way that it inconveniences the people who live or have businesses there, then they win and we lose because no-one is prepared to stick their neck out and demand that the public have full use of the public thoroughfare. It is the same with the cross-town routes: if you are in a car you are assumed to have the right to go anywhere you want - if you are not in a car you have to defer to the car drivers under all circumstances.
A further source of concern to me was that no-one knows how many running events are held in central Austin each year. The police contingent present suggested that there were 100 events per year, another list in circulation gave 53, and a third list gave 23. One would have thought that by this late stage there would have been a serious effort to arrive at an exact measure of the impact. Similarly, it appeared that there was no way to measure the financial impact on the city, either in terms of expenditure and revenue to the city government, or in terms of money spent by event participants with local businesses. The police did not even know whether the rate charged event organizers for their services by the city actually covered the cost to the city of providing police services. If the police are correct in their estimates of the number of events per year in downtown Austin, it would suggest that the main users of downtown streets on weekends are athletic events, and therefore everything in downtown Austin should be geared toward facilitating their growth and success.
In fact, simple observation of Congress Avenue on weekends suggests that there are only two types of users: event participants (and people training for future events), and sightseers. This would suggest that Congress Avenue (and possibly 6th Street as well) should be closed to vehicular traffic (except perhaps, for the 'Dillo) on ALL weekends and Holidays. Austin's Congress Avenue is, in fact, one of the prime public spaces in North America. In terms of beauty it is almost a more urban version of Washington's Mall, or a narrower version of Paris' Champs Elysees. There are few to no retail businesses on Congress Avenue that depend on vehicular traffic, and there are no garage entrances (thank goodness!) on the Avenue, whereas there is plenty of parking just off the Avenue. Closing Congress Avenue to weekend traffic would allow it to function as the public Heart of Texas - the host to all large functions of civic life. It could be used for many more parades, runs and walks, as well as for art shows, concerts, outdoor dining, street performances and even circuses.
It is ironic that Austin's efforts to revitalize downtown have led to conflicts between the new businesses and residents and the special events which, in large part, have brought the life to downtown Austin that has made it attractive to residents and new businesses. This may be illustrated by the case of the company which owns five of the largest buildings in downtown Austin and sent a representative to three of the last five Task Force meetings to complain about lack of access to its buildings on weekends: it uses their proximity to the Hike and Bike Trail as a major attraction in its advertising to prospective tenants! However, none of these buildings, though they are architecturally attractive, have the kinds of ground-floor retail facilities that would add to the liveliness and attractiveness of downtown Austin. They are just large warehouses for office workers.
Dec. 27th, 2008: An adventure on our training walk
This morning we went for an informal nine mile training walk with Austin Fit. About 3 miles into the walk, as I was jogging northward down South 5th St, at about the point it turns into Dawson St., a southbound car passed me with the passenger door held open by a middle-aged blonde lady. Immediately after passing me the car turned left. I was still puzzling over the possible reasons for someone to hold a car door open, and had onlyt gone about twenty paces, when a voiced behind me yelled, "Sir! Help!", and there was the lady running down the stret after me.
She said that the driver of the car had been trying to sexually assault her: I was the first person she had seen since the incident began, and she had jumped out of the car. She was about 55 years old and carrying a large handbag in one hand and a metal box with a key dangling from its handle, which was wrapped which a brightly-colored handkerchief, in the other. Her burdens were obviously not light, and I offered to help her carry them, so she gave me the box, which had the weight and heft, as well as the appearance, of a cashbox.
We continued to walk north on S. 5th/Dawson, and the lady, whose name was Janet, told me that she needed to get to a medical appointment on Cesar Chavez Street a few blocks east of I-35 by 8:30 a.m. It was now about 7:45 a.m. and it was clear that she would be late unless I could drive her part of the way, since we had at least a mile to walk to our car. Fortunately, she was a pretty good walker, and also fortunately, Ingrid is a very fast walker, since she had the car keys. By the time we got to Barton Springs Drive, Ingrid and Anita, our Dutch walker friend, were close behind us. I gave Ingrid a brief explanation and took the car keys, and we set off along Barton Springs toward the DoT parking lot on Riverside east of Congress.
Janet told me that she lived near Westgate and Manchaca Roads, and that she and her sister were looking after their mother, who had lung cancer and was on oxygen about 20 hours a day, round the clock. Her sister had relieved her and driven her to the bus stop in front of Crockett High School, but they were two minutes late for the bus and her sister could not take the time to take her all the way to her appointment. When the bus didn't come, Janet assumed she had missed it and started to walk. She was offered a lift by a man about 30, and accepted as he said he was going past her destination. However, he had left the route and driven into the Bouldin neighborhood, and then started to make advances, which was when Janet had seen me.
We were at our car by about 8:10 a.m, and by 8:20 I had driven her to Comal between 1st and 2nd Streets, where she asked to be dropped, and walked off eastward along 2nd St. By 8:30 a.m. I had parked the car and resumed my walk - this time starting at the end and going "backwards" so that I would pass Ingrid and the other walkers and could explain what had happened. I passed Ingrid and Anita near 17th St., and Mary and ____ near 20th St., so was able to reach the designated turning point at 21st and get almost my whole 9m miles in.
Thursday, Jan. 1st, 2009: Hot Polar Bears and Hotter Appelflappen
You can't beat life in Austin! After a nice leisurely breakfast we went down to Barton Springs Pool to meet some friends for the Polar Bear Swim. The weather was warm but a bit raw, but the pool was crowded.
For those who don't know Austin, Barton Springs is one of the largest natural springs in the USA and a major outflow point for the Edwards aquifer. It is about one mile southwest of downtown Austin, in Zilker Park, which is a very large park. In the nineteenth century Barton Creek was dammed to make the pool, which is over an eighth of a mile long. The springs well up into it about two-thirds of the way up the pool from the dam: one can dive down into the springs, which are inhabited by large dark brown fish (bass, I think). Ingrid swam about 1/4 mile and I swam about 3/4 mile (three laps). The pool was quite crowded, and the water felt warmer than that at Deep Eddy, our usual swimming pool.
Our friends joined us at home for coffee and mulled cider, as well as Christmas cake and cookies, and by the time they left the neighborhood apfelflappen party had begun.
Every year one of the neighboring families cooks up tons of apple fritters (they told me they peeled and sliced 100 apples for this year's event) and invite the neighborhood. They are of Dutch extraction, hence the name appelflappen for the fritters, which are apprently a Dutch New Year tradition. The fritters come out of the deep fryers steaming hot, and are dribbled with cinnamon-laced confectioner's sugar before ewating. Heaven!
Of course all the neighborhood children are there, and this family has the perfect backyard for them, with some playground equipment but, more importantly, a climbable limestone cliff. Usually about 200 people drift through in the space of three or four hours - it is a wonderful opportunity to get to know all the neighbors - one of several such opportunities during the year.
Saturday, Jan. 3rd, 2009: 19 mile walk/run, and Barton Springs again!
Today started off cool but very humid, threatening rain. However, by 9.00 a.m. the sun had come out, the temperature was beginning to rise, and the humidity had decreased. Our training route followed the Marathon course down into south Austin, then back to Town Lake and along the hike and bike trail to Deep Eddy and the Tom Miller Dam. As I jogged along by the Rowing Dock on Town Lake Bob Murphy, a close neighbor, passed me with his kayak in the back of his truck. He had just finished a two hour paddle on the lake. We then ran up Exposition and Bull Creek to Hancock, and back down Shoal Creek and Guadelupe to the Congress Avenue Bridge and home base. I did it in 4:20, and Ingrid came in with Anita at 4:50. The remaining walkers arrived at 5:25, whereupon Ingrid and I went for brunch at Whole Foods, and then for a swim.
Whole Foods at 6th St is a real town meeting place on Saturdays. We usually see several people we know among the crowds shopping for breakfast food and eating either on one of the outside terraces or upstairs. We had a delightful meal of fruit salad and vegetarian Satay, along with our usual mocha coffee.
Deep Eddy was crowded, so we went to Barton Springs again: this was fairly crowded, but idyllic in the sunshine and 80 deg. F temperatue. One could see the bottom of the pool in great detail, and watch the fish swimming beneath you. I was very stiff from the run, but 2 laps (1/2 mile) in the pool worked it out of my joints and muscles.
Unfortunately, on Sunday a cold front came through and dropped the temperature to 40 deg.F. On Monday morning we had long periods of drizzle, very badly needed.
Last night I attended a meeting of Austin's Task Force on Street Closures. This body was created because of a rising volume of complaints from Churches and residents about the number of street closures due to running events, parades, art events and so on. I went down there as a result of an appeal for more runners to come forward with their point of view: this was the last meeting of the panel before the results were to be presented to Austin City Council. I had a prepared statement based on the minutes of the previous 5 meetings, but on reading the handouts we were given found that previous discussions and resolutions of the panel had made what I had to say was almost irrelevant - embarrassingly so.
However, I found the proceedings extremely interesting and rather disconcerting. The interesting part was the very reasonable way in which the discussions proceeded, with no heated arguments. In fact, relations among the panel members, even those who represented very different interests, were surprisingly friendly. This was not at all the atmosphere in which national partisan politics proceeds, nor the atmosphere of the blogosphere. The most disconcerting part of what I heard was that there was no recognition of the "rights of the Commons": the underlying assumption of all discussion was that private property rights and the automobile reigned supreme. The whole purpose of discussion seemed to be "what can we do to mollify the property owners along the routes of events so that they will not get together and shut down ALL events in downtown Austin." It seemed to be assumed that, if conflicts came to a head, the enjoyment of Austin's streets by up to 30,000 runners at a time would count as nothing against the complaints of a few scores of property owners. Even the representatives of the runners seemed to have accepted this proposition at face value. The next most disconcerting part was that the rights of car owners to drive unimpeded on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays across central Austin on 4 East-West corridors (15th, 11th, 5/6th, Cesar Chavez and Oltorf Streets) as well as 2 North-South corridors was accepted without question.
Obviously, there are issues of courtesy involved: property owners should be informed well in advance of street closures that will affect them, and the number of property owners affected needs to be minimized. I can sympathize with home-owners who are "trapped" in their houses or on their blocks by an event. But, in fact, they are generally only "trapped" if they want to drive out of their driveway by car. It does not seem too much to ask that, in order to benefit a few thousand people, a score or so of people be asked to park their car on a neighboring street and walk to it if they want to go somewhere during the period of a couple of hours that their street might be closed for an event. What I saw was a case of the "Tragedy of the Commons" - if we the people want to use a public street in such a way that it inconveniences the people who live or have businesses there, then they win and we lose because no-one is prepared to stick their neck out and demand that the public have full use of the public thoroughfare. It is the same with the cross-town routes: if you are in a car you are assumed to have the right to go anywhere you want - if you are not in a car you have to defer to the car drivers under all circumstances.
A further source of concern to me was that no-one knows how many running events are held in central Austin each year. The police contingent present suggested that there were 100 events per year, another list in circulation gave 53, and a third list gave 23. One would have thought that by this late stage there would have been a serious effort to arrive at an exact measure of the impact. Similarly, it appeared that there was no way to measure the financial impact on the city, either in terms of expenditure and revenue to the city government, or in terms of money spent by event participants with local businesses. The police did not even know whether the rate charged event organizers for their services by the city actually covered the cost to the city of providing police services. If the police are correct in their estimates of the number of events per year in downtown Austin, it would suggest that the main users of downtown streets on weekends are athletic events, and therefore everything in downtown Austin should be geared toward facilitating their growth and success.
In fact, simple observation of Congress Avenue on weekends suggests that there are only two types of users: event participants (and people training for future events), and sightseers. This would suggest that Congress Avenue (and possibly 6th Street as well) should be closed to vehicular traffic (except perhaps, for the 'Dillo) on ALL weekends and Holidays. Austin's Congress Avenue is, in fact, one of the prime public spaces in North America. In terms of beauty it is almost a more urban version of Washington's Mall, or a narrower version of Paris' Champs Elysees. There are few to no retail businesses on Congress Avenue that depend on vehicular traffic, and there are no garage entrances (thank goodness!) on the Avenue, whereas there is plenty of parking just off the Avenue. Closing Congress Avenue to weekend traffic would allow it to function as the public Heart of Texas - the host to all large functions of civic life. It could be used for many more parades, runs and walks, as well as for art shows, concerts, outdoor dining, street performances and even circuses.
It is ironic that Austin's efforts to revitalize downtown have led to conflicts between the new businesses and residents and the special events which, in large part, have brought the life to downtown Austin that has made it attractive to residents and new businesses. This may be illustrated by the case of the company which owns five of the largest buildings in downtown Austin and sent a representative to three of the last five Task Force meetings to complain about lack of access to its buildings on weekends: it uses their proximity to the Hike and Bike Trail as a major attraction in its advertising to prospective tenants! However, none of these buildings, though they are architecturally attractive, have the kinds of ground-floor retail facilities that would add to the liveliness and attractiveness of downtown Austin. They are just large warehouses for office workers.
Dec. 27th, 2008: An adventure on our training walk
This morning we went for an informal nine mile training walk with Austin Fit. About 3 miles into the walk, as I was jogging northward down South 5th St, at about the point it turns into Dawson St., a southbound car passed me with the passenger door held open by a middle-aged blonde lady. Immediately after passing me the car turned left. I was still puzzling over the possible reasons for someone to hold a car door open, and had onlyt gone about twenty paces, when a voiced behind me yelled, "Sir! Help!", and there was the lady running down the stret after me.
She said that the driver of the car had been trying to sexually assault her: I was the first person she had seen since the incident began, and she had jumped out of the car. She was about 55 years old and carrying a large handbag in one hand and a metal box with a key dangling from its handle, which was wrapped which a brightly-colored handkerchief, in the other. Her burdens were obviously not light, and I offered to help her carry them, so she gave me the box, which had the weight and heft, as well as the appearance, of a cashbox.
We continued to walk north on S. 5th/Dawson, and the lady, whose name was Janet, told me that she needed to get to a medical appointment on Cesar Chavez Street a few blocks east of I-35 by 8:30 a.m. It was now about 7:45 a.m. and it was clear that she would be late unless I could drive her part of the way, since we had at least a mile to walk to our car. Fortunately, she was a pretty good walker, and also fortunately, Ingrid is a very fast walker, since she had the car keys. By the time we got to Barton Springs Drive, Ingrid and Anita, our Dutch walker friend, were close behind us. I gave Ingrid a brief explanation and took the car keys, and we set off along Barton Springs toward the DoT parking lot on Riverside east of Congress.
Janet told me that she lived near Westgate and Manchaca Roads, and that she and her sister were looking after their mother, who had lung cancer and was on oxygen about 20 hours a day, round the clock. Her sister had relieved her and driven her to the bus stop in front of Crockett High School, but they were two minutes late for the bus and her sister could not take the time to take her all the way to her appointment. When the bus didn't come, Janet assumed she had missed it and started to walk. She was offered a lift by a man about 30, and accepted as he said he was going past her destination. However, he had left the route and driven into the Bouldin neighborhood, and then started to make advances, which was when Janet had seen me.
We were at our car by about 8:10 a.m, and by 8:20 I had driven her to Comal between 1st and 2nd Streets, where she asked to be dropped, and walked off eastward along 2nd St. By 8:30 a.m. I had parked the car and resumed my walk - this time starting at the end and going "backwards" so that I would pass Ingrid and the other walkers and could explain what had happened. I passed Ingrid and Anita near 17th St., and Mary and ____ near 20th St., so was able to reach the designated turning point at 21st and get almost my whole 9m miles in.
Thursday, Jan. 1st, 2009: Hot Polar Bears and Hotter Appelflappen
You can't beat life in Austin! After a nice leisurely breakfast we went down to Barton Springs Pool to meet some friends for the Polar Bear Swim. The weather was warm but a bit raw, but the pool was crowded.
For those who don't know Austin, Barton Springs is one of the largest natural springs in the USA and a major outflow point for the Edwards aquifer. It is about one mile southwest of downtown Austin, in Zilker Park, which is a very large park. In the nineteenth century Barton Creek was dammed to make the pool, which is over an eighth of a mile long. The springs well up into it about two-thirds of the way up the pool from the dam: one can dive down into the springs, which are inhabited by large dark brown fish (bass, I think). Ingrid swam about 1/4 mile and I swam about 3/4 mile (three laps). The pool was quite crowded, and the water felt warmer than that at Deep Eddy, our usual swimming pool.
Our friends joined us at home for coffee and mulled cider, as well as Christmas cake and cookies, and by the time they left the neighborhood apfelflappen party had begun.
Every year one of the neighboring families cooks up tons of apple fritters (they told me they peeled and sliced 100 apples for this year's event) and invite the neighborhood. They are of Dutch extraction, hence the name appelflappen for the fritters, which are apprently a Dutch New Year tradition. The fritters come out of the deep fryers steaming hot, and are dribbled with cinnamon-laced confectioner's sugar before ewating. Heaven!
Of course all the neighborhood children are there, and this family has the perfect backyard for them, with some playground equipment but, more importantly, a climbable limestone cliff. Usually about 200 people drift through in the space of three or four hours - it is a wonderful opportunity to get to know all the neighbors - one of several such opportunities during the year.
Saturday, Jan. 3rd, 2009: 19 mile walk/run, and Barton Springs again!
Today started off cool but very humid, threatening rain. However, by 9.00 a.m. the sun had come out, the temperature was beginning to rise, and the humidity had decreased. Our training route followed the Marathon course down into south Austin, then back to Town Lake and along the hike and bike trail to Deep Eddy and the Tom Miller Dam. As I jogged along by the Rowing Dock on Town Lake Bob Murphy, a close neighbor, passed me with his kayak in the back of his truck. He had just finished a two hour paddle on the lake. We then ran up Exposition and Bull Creek to Hancock, and back down Shoal Creek and Guadelupe to the Congress Avenue Bridge and home base. I did it in 4:20, and Ingrid came in with Anita at 4:50. The remaining walkers arrived at 5:25, whereupon Ingrid and I went for brunch at Whole Foods, and then for a swim.
Whole Foods at 6th St is a real town meeting place on Saturdays. We usually see several people we know among the crowds shopping for breakfast food and eating either on one of the outside terraces or upstairs. We had a delightful meal of fruit salad and vegetarian Satay, along with our usual mocha coffee.
Deep Eddy was crowded, so we went to Barton Springs again: this was fairly crowded, but idyllic in the sunshine and 80 deg. F temperatue. One could see the bottom of the pool in great detail, and watch the fish swimming beneath you. I was very stiff from the run, but 2 laps (1/2 mile) in the pool worked it out of my joints and muscles.
Unfortunately, on Sunday a cold front came through and dropped the temperature to 40 deg.F. On Monday morning we had long periods of drizzle, very badly needed.
Labels: Austin, Austin Fit, Running, weather
posted by John Berry at 10:09 AM
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