What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?

[DalTxHornFan 3104]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

My parents bought the house I grew up in there for like $200k in 1986. I hear tales of when Mesa was a dirt road back in the 50s 70s. 

FIFY.  Mesa was a dirt road from Spicewood Springs to near Tallwood until right around the time that Anderson High School was completed in 1973.

Edited October 31, 2023 by DalTxHornFan

[utee94 15830]

L-C-A.  All. The. Way.

[Biff Tannen 45691]

7 hours ago, utee94 said:

L-C-A.  All. The. Way.

Always bothered me that we had the USC fight song. 

[utee94 15830]

I didn't mind.  It's a good fight song and I was raised a Longhorn-- USC was never a rival.  

[Armybrat 40850]

10 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

My parents bought the house I grew up in there for like $200k in 1986. I hear tales of when Mesa was a dirt road back in the 50s. 

I used to take dates parking along little cedar chopper road above the north side of the abandoned quarry where the apartments are by Wood Hollow - several years before David Barrow started developing Northwest Hills.

Far West and Mesa didn’t exist then, it was just scrub land with goats.

[PvilleStang 2911]

Did you let the horses graze while you put your moves on the ladies, or did you keep them hooked up to the carriage? 

[HenryJames 66082]

The ladies found the possibility of Comanches titillating.

[South Austin 52518]

21 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

I used to take dates parking along little cedar chopper road above the north side of the abandoned quarry where the apartments are by Wood Hollow - several years before David Barrow started developing Northwest Hills.

David Barrow is still an active member of my church.  Great guy.  His wife, who passed away a few years ago, was a talented artist who was always so nice by my toddler daughter when we joined that church in 2009.

[DalTxHornFan 3104]

2 minutes ago, South Austin said:

David Barrow is still an active member of my church.  Great guy.  His wife, who passed away a few years ago, was a talented artist who was always so nice by my toddler daughter when we joined that church in 2009.

That's got to be David Barrow, Jr.  The original developer was David Barrow Sr., who passed away in 1972.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2018/06/27/life-flourishes-on-both-sides-of-northwest-hills-in-austin/9997730007/

[South Austin 52518]

12 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

That's got to be David Barrow, Jr.  The original developer was David Barrow Sr., who passed away in 1972.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2018/06/27/life-flourishes-on-both-sides-of-northwest-hills-in-austin/9997730007/

Ah yes.  Maybe Sr. was the developer, and Jr. is the architect.  Jr. actually designed our current church campus.

[ztejas 43467]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Always bothered me that we had the USC fight song. 

We had Notre Dame's (Austin High) and we all liked it. 

[Biff Tannen 45691]

2 hours ago, utee94 said:

I didn't mind.  It's a good fight song and I was raised a Longhorn-- USC was never a rival.  

I guess I didn't really care until 2005.

[Not that Bob 738]

4 hours ago, ztejas said:

We had Notre Dame's (Austin High) and we all liked it. 

Beer! Beer! For old Austin High!

Bring on the whisky! Bring on the Rye!

We never stumble! 

We never fall!

We sober up on

Wood alcohol!

 

[crash_davis 23113]

This is one hell of a story. Blessed that it happened in Austin. Highlights below but you want to read the story.

 

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime/austin-shooting-mickelson-drive-trezaratti/269-6cbfff9e-ec6e-4431-8d4e-59202c21ae2e

 

Man arrested, accused of killing stepdaughter's boyfriend in southeast Austin

According to an affidavit, Joshua Trezaratti allegedly shot Joshua Rivera after he said Rivera touched his wife inappropriately.

Trezaratti told his wife to lead Rivera to believe she would be in the house alone, even though that was untrue.

When Rivera arrived, he and Trezaratti's wife spent a few minutes on the front porch, where Rivera allegedly touched Trezaratti's wife inappropriately and made sexual advances toward her – which, the affidavit states, Trezaratti told police he was able to monitor through a camera mounted outside the house.

According to the affidavit, Rivera then asked Trezaratti's wife for a beer and she and Rivera went inside. At this point, Trezaratti told police that he was in the first floor office near the front door and had his shotgun with him. 

Once inside the home, the affidavit states that Rivera continued to make sexual advances toward Trezaratti's wife, which she rebuffed. Rivera allegedly expressed nervousness that he didn't feel welcome, so Trezaratti's wife encouraged him to go outside and smoke PCP to calm down.

 

 

Trezaratti told police he shot Rivera twice his his handgun as Rivera was attempting to open the bag. He said Rivera then "turned around and tried to run," at which point Trezaratti shot him two or three more times in the back. Rivera then laid or fell down and Trezaratti shot him "at least one or two more times," according to the affidavit.

The affidavit states that at various points in his interview with police, Trezaratti expressed anger and rage toward Rivera, stating that he wanted to torture him and that he shot Rivera multiple times because he wanted to make sure he was dead. Trezaratti also expressed a belief that the law allowed him to take the actions he did, saying that he was within his rights if he killed Rivera inside his home. 

[crash_davis 23113]

This is the husband. With a face like that, I'm shocked that he would do such a thing.

Now I want to see pics of the wife.

His mug shot. He don't seem remorseful at all. 

 

Edit: This motherfucker is crazy. His FB.

https://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Trezaratti/pfbid0yPDVYp6F5pDwFfu68Q7emB7L4SV8TNpZtLeW8VMDv6RHptmaxxv1CfaciAs7bSTLl/

Edited November 1, 2023 by crash_davis

[crash_davis 23113]

n/m

 

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by crash_davis

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

maybe he was tired of being a cuck

[utee94 15830]

the boy with the dragon tattoo

 

[YGIFS 19450]

"smoke PCP to calm down"?  WTF?  

Is that really a thing?  

I'm sure we're all very proud of this man exercising his right to self-defense with a firearm.  

[Bevo 13577]

Author: Britny Eubank

Published: 11:44 AM CDT October 31, 2023

Updated: 6:33 PM CDT October 31, 2023

 

 

AUSTIN, Texas — An employee of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) was killed in an incident while on-duty Tuesday morning.

The airport confirmed that the Department of Aviation requested emergency service personnel to respond to an incident involving an injured on-duty airport employee on Oct. 31. Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) said medics responded just before 9:30 a.m. to reports that a person had been struck by a vehicle, and the Austin Police Department (APD) also confirmed that officers responded to a call of a crash at the airport.

 

The employee was pronounced dead at the scene just after 10 a.m. after resuscitation efforts were made by medics.

"Our thoughts are with the deceased’s loved ones, friends, families and colleagues and we ask our community to keep them in their thoughts," the airport said in a statement.

AUS said the incident happened outside, on the secure side of the airport where planes park for passengers to board, near gates 33 and 34. Neither airport operations nor flights have been impacted.

APD said its investigation into this incident is ongoing and that the person's name or job title would not be released at this time.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) told KVUE that they could not comment on an open and ongoing investigation and that by law, OSHA has up to six months to complete it.

This is the second time this year that an airport or airline employee has died at AUS. Back in April, an American Airlines employee died at one of the airport's gates after a ground service vehicle hit a jet bridge.

There have also been three close call incidents involving aircraft at AUS so far this year.

Councilmember Alison Alter released the following statement following the employee's death:

"Deeply saddened by the news of a City of Austin Government employee who was killed in a fuel storage truck accident on the tarmac at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. My thoughts are with their family and coworkers. All city employees deserve a safe place to work."

[ztejas 43467]

7 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

"smoke PCP to calm down"?  WTF?  

[PvilleStang 2911]

On 10/31/2023 at 9:16 AM, ztejas said:

We had Notre Dame's (Austin High) and we all liked it. 

We had Kentucky's fight song, and frankly wouldn't have been able to tell you that in high school.   Wasn't until years later when someone posted a link to this that I discovered it was theirs.

Edited November 1, 2023 by PvilleStang

[gsoda3 3262]

it's unfortunate in its baggage but i was always a fan of south garland's rendition of dixie with its heavy and driving percussion. 

[crash_davis 23113]

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/02/austin-minimum-parking-requirements-housing-shortage/

Austin on Thursday became the largest city in the country to stop requiring new developments to have a set amount of parking — a move aimed at both fighting climate change and spurring more housing construction amid the city’s affordability crisis.

The Austin City Council voted 8-2 Thursday to wipe out minimum parking requirements for virtually every kind of property citywide. That includes single-family homes, apartment buildings, offices and shopping malls.

Housing advocates, developers and climate activists across the country have increasingly targeted such rules. They say parking requirements — often referred to as “parking minimums” — drive up housing costs while enabling dependency on cars, a major source of carbon emissions.

“I think that it's hard for reasonable people to really defend those mandates anymore,” said Tony Jordan, co-founder of Parking Reform Network.

Getting rid of the requirements has its detractors. Neighborhood groups opposed to such reforms tend to worry that parking will spill over onto neighboring streets and clog traffic.

“Although I think that our existing parking requirements do need reform and there are many scenarios where I would relax or eliminate parking requirements, this universal elimination of requirements is a step beyond what I consider to be prudent,” said City Council Member Alison Alter, who voted against the measure. “I'm concerned that there will be unintended consequences in scenarios that create real problems for navigating areas where residential uses abut commercial uses, particularly in areas that have older, narrow streets.”

Getting rid of the requirements doesn’t mean the city is abolishing parking altogether, Qadri said. Developers still can decide how much parking they need, he said. And the city will still require properties to comply with federal law and build accessible parking spaces for people living with disabilities.

“If we truly want to achieve our progressive goals of making Austin a less car-dependent city, we cannot be forcing developers to provide car storage in every single new project that goes up in our city limits,” Qadri said.

Nixing parking minimums is one component of a multi-pronged effort to relax rules that many say get in the way of adding housing in a city where home prices and rents remain stubbornly high. Austin officials are also weighing proposals to allow up to three housing units in most places where single-family homes are allowed and reducing the required amount of land those homes have to sit upon.

[PvilleStang 2911]

I'd like to say I'm amazed at the complete stupidity displayed by City Clowncil on this one, but it's par for the course.  It's like they want to find a way to burn it all down so they can build some bastardized version of a NYC utopia or something.  They completely put the cart in front of the horse here.  Build the public transportation infrastructure THEN loosen the parking requirements.  Building a dependency on mass transit before implementing it is only going to cause a cluster F. where these properties are built.

[Armybrat 40850]

The market should dictate whether that approach will be successful or not.

I’d bet any developer who goes that route isn’t going to be very successful.

[crash_davis 23113]

6 minutes ago, PvilleStang said:

I'd like to say I'm amazed at the complete stupidity displayed by City Clowncil on this one, but it's par for the course.  It's like they want to find a way to burn it all down so they can build some bastardized version of a NYC utopia or something.  They completely put the cart in front of the horse here.  Build the public transportation infrastructure THEN loosen the parking requirements.  Building a dependency on mass transit before implementing it is only going to cause a cluster F. where these properties are built.

I mostly only visit places which have readily available parking. If I have to pay for parking, then the place better have some compelling reason for me to have to pay for parking. If it has no easy parking, I'm prob not spending money there. Good for them if they can survive without having parking lots.

[Brisketexan 105154]

5 minutes ago, PvilleStang said:

I'd like to say I'm amazed at the complete stupidity displayed by City Clowncil on this one, but it's par for the course.  It's like they want to find a way to burn it all down so they can build some bastardized version of a NYC utopia or something.  They completely put the cart in front of the horse here.  Build the public transportation infrastructure THEN loosen the parking requirements.  Building a dependency on mass transit before implementing it is only going to cause a cluster F. where these properties are built.

Sigh.  This.

Austin spent decades re: transport infrastructure following the "if we don't build it, people won't come" mentality.  Which was foolish, and 100% wrong.

Now, Austin is acting re: transport infrastructure under the "if we don't build it/allow vehicles....mass transit will magically appear" delusion. Which is foolish, and 100% wrong.

Imagine building duplexes in my neighborhood with no parking.  My part of my neighborhood also has no easy bus access.  Hop across 360, it's even worse.  So, what will happen?  Duplexes....with 4 cars parked on the street in front of each of them.  Because YOU WILL STILL NEED A CAR.

Want to eliminate parking requirements?  First, try it with properties within a couple of blocks of a usable mass transit route (we really don't have that many of those; our bus system is terrible, but there are some locations where it would work).  Then, use that proof-of-concept to both expand and improve mass transit, and then change zoning for properties near NEW transit routes.

[dcar00 14218]

14 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/02/austin-minimum-parking-requirements-housing-shortage/

Austin on Thursday became the largest city in the country to stop requiring new developments to have a set amount of parking — a move aimed at both fighting climate change and spurring more housing construction amid the city’s affordability crisis.

The Austin City Council voted 8-2 Thursday to wipe out minimum parking requirements for virtually every kind of property citywide. That includes single-family homes, apartment buildings, offices and shopping malls.

Housing advocates, developers and climate activists across the country have increasingly targeted such rules. They say parking requirements — often referred to as “parking minimums” — drive up housing costs while enabling dependency on cars, a major source of carbon emissions.

“I think that it's hard for reasonable people to really defend those mandates anymore,” said Tony Jordan, co-founder of Parking Reform Network.

Getting rid of the requirements has its detractors. Neighborhood groups opposed to such reforms tend to worry that parking will spill over onto neighboring streets and clog traffic.

“Although I think that our existing parking requirements do need reform and there are many scenarios where I would relax or eliminate parking requirements, this universal elimination of requirements is a step beyond what I consider to be prudent,” said City Council Member Alison Alter, who voted against the measure. “I'm concerned that there will be unintended consequences in scenarios that create real problems for navigating areas where residential uses abut commercial uses, particularly in areas that have older, narrow streets.”

Getting rid of the requirements doesn’t mean the city is abolishing parking altogether, Qadri said. Developers still can decide how much parking they need, he said. And the city will still require properties to comply with federal law and build accessible parking spaces for people living with disabilities.

“If we truly want to achieve our progressive goals of making Austin a less car-dependent city, we cannot be forcing developers to provide car storage in every single new project that goes up in our city limits,” Qadri said.

Nixing parking minimums is one component of a multi-pronged effort to relax rules that many say get in the way of adding housing in a city where home prices and rents remain stubbornly high. Austin officials are also weighing proposals to allow up to three housing units in most places where single-family homes are allowed and reducing the required amount of land those homes have to sit upon.

love that Alter is really concerned about areas that have older narrower streets.  like exactly where she lives.

These people are a unadulterated clown show of epic proportions.  what a total shitshow of dumbass.

[Deej 76818]

16 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/02/austin-minimum-parking-requirements-housing-shortage/

Austin on Thursday became the largest city in the country to stop requiring new developments to have a set amount of parking — a move aimed at both fighting climate change and spurring more housing construction amid the city’s affordability crisis.

The Austin City Council voted 8-2 Thursday to wipe out minimum parking requirements for virtually every kind of property citywide. That includes single-family homes, apartment buildings, offices and shopping malls.

Housing advocates, developers and climate activists across the country have increasingly targeted such rules. They say parking requirements — often referred to as “parking minimums” — drive up housing costs while enabling dependency on cars, a major source of carbon emissions.

“I think that it's hard for reasonable people to really defend those mandates anymore,” said Tony Jordan, co-founder of Parking Reform Network.

Getting rid of the requirements has its detractors. Neighborhood groups opposed to such reforms tend to worry that parking will spill over onto neighboring streets and clog traffic.

“Although I think that our existing parking requirements do need reform and there are many scenarios where I would relax or eliminate parking requirements, this universal elimination of requirements is a step beyond what I consider to be prudent,” said City Council Member Alison Alter, who voted against the measure. “I'm concerned that there will be unintended consequences in scenarios that create real problems for navigating areas where residential uses abut commercial uses, particularly in areas that have older, narrow streets.”

Getting rid of the requirements doesn’t mean the city is abolishing parking altogether, Qadri said. Developers still can decide how much parking they need, he said. And the city will still require properties to comply with federal law and build accessible parking spaces for people living with disabilities.

“If we truly want to achieve our progressive goals of making Austin a less car-dependent city, we cannot be forcing developers to provide car storage in every single new project that goes up in our city limits,” Qadri said.

Nixing parking minimums is one component of a multi-pronged effort to relax rules that many say get in the way of adding housing in a city where home prices and rents remain stubbornly high. Austin officials are also weighing proposals to allow up to three housing units in most places where single-family homes are allowed and reducing the required amount of land those homes have to sit upon.

This is the same city council that gets car allowances and reserved parking at city hall, correct?

[Biff Tannen 45691]

With all the huge condos on Rainey the past few years, I figured parking was already not required.  

[dcar00 14218]

1 minute ago, Deej said:

This is the same city council that gets car allowances and reserved parking at city hall, correct?

everyone will just use Uber to go everywhere because it is so cheap for poor peopled to do that.  fucking dumbasses think this stupid shit will "save the planet".

[Brisketexan 105154]

8 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

With all the huge condos on Rainey the past few years, I figured parking was already not required.  

Rainey is actually someplace that the concept is worth a shot.  Right on a pretty solid transport network.  Close to dense areas with lots of action that can be accessed by personal transport (bike, scooter, etc.).

98% of Austin is nothing like Rainey.

And no, you couldn't pay me to live in one of those condos.  I also understand that for those that do have parking, a space costs a fortune.

[Armybrat 40850]

A friend’s daughter & hubby just rented a 2 bedroom apartment in the Seven Building - $6,500/month.

😵

[Texas Jeff 1945]

Our city council, in case anyone isn't yet aware of this, simply follows trends started by trendier cities elsewhere.

Our neighborhood has Littlefield's Tacos, a family-friendly place with little parking that also happens to be very close to a Mopac exit.  It's on Winsted, which is used a Mopac bypass during traffic times.  Lots of kid's birthday parties on weekends.  The pitch for the place was that it would be a walkable neighborhood place to get some tacos.  The reality is that there are now often giant SUVs parked up and down Winsted with taco-crazy kids flying out of doors directly into the street.

It is an accident waiting to happen.  And I hope it never does, but I see close calls all the time.  Winstead is too narrow to support rows of SUVs on both sides of the street, with more SUVs driving down the middle, while kids run in the street in search of tacos.  Cars turn northbound onto the road having come right off of Mopac at highway speed, and suddenly they are in the middle of a bunch of parked cars with kids mixed in.

So yes I agree we need some parking reforms but I'm not in favor of the free-for-all approach.  I would rather Austin focus on building towers in the north/south transit corridors and try to provide as much as possible along the lines.  Most people would still have a car parked at their tower for around town or out of town trips, but at least they would be able to get through a lot of their day on transit.

[hornian 5219]

7 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

Our city council, in case anyone isn't yet aware of this, simply follows trends started by trendier cities elsewhere.

Our neighborhood has Littlefield's Tacos, a family-friendly place with little parking that also happens to be very close to a Mopac exit.  It's on Winsted, which is used a Mopac bypass during traffic times.  Lots of kid's birthday parties on weekends.  The pitch for the place was that it would be a walkable neighborhood place to get some tacos.  The reality is that there are now often giant SUVs parked up and down Winsted with taco-crazy kids flying out of doors directly into the street.

It is an accident waiting to happen.  And I hope it never does, but I see close calls all the time.  Winstead is too narrow to support rows of SUVs on both sides of the street, with more SUVs driving down the middle, while kids run in the street in search of tacos.  Cars turn northbound onto the road having come right off of Mopac at highway speed, and suddenly they are in the middle of a bunch of parked cars with kids mixed in.

So yes I agree we need some parking reforms but I'm not in favor of the free-for-all approach.  I would rather Austin focus on building towers in the north/south transit corridors and try to provide as much as possible along the lines.  Most people would still have a car parked at their tower for around town or out of town trips, but at least they would be able to get through a lot of their day on transit.

Solid humblebrag there Mr. Tarrytown Q. Moneybags. 

[blacklab 11940]

20 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

Our city council, in case anyone isn't yet aware of this, simply follows trends started by trendier cities elsewhere.

Our neighborhood has Littlefield's Tacos, a family-friendly place with little parking that also happens to be very close to a Mopac exit.  It's on Winsted, which is used a Mopac bypass during traffic times.  Lots of kid's birthday parties on weekends.  The pitch for the place was that it would be a walkable neighborhood place to get some tacos.  The reality is that there are now often giant SUVs parked up and down Winsted with taco-crazy kids flying out of doors directly into the street.

It is an accident waiting to happen.  And I hope it never does, but I see close calls all the time.  Winstead is too narrow to support rows of SUVs on both sides of the street, with more SUVs driving down the middle, while kids run in the street in search of tacos.  Cars turn northbound onto the road having come right off of Mopac at highway speed, and suddenly they are in the middle of a bunch of parked cars with kids mixed in.

So yes I agree we need some parking reforms but I'm not in favor of the free-for-all approach.  I would rather Austin focus on building towers in the north/south transit corridors and try to provide as much as possible along the lines.  Most people would still have a car parked at their tower for around town or out of town trips, but at least they would be able to get through a lot of their day on transit.

Used to live right down the block from there. Was shocked when I saw that open, would have killed for that to walk to after crazy lady ruined the shopping center at windsor and exposition

[PvilleStang 2911]

I might have to add this to the trivial things that piss me off, vehicle dependence.  Just because you build a property with parking, doesn't FORCE the future tenant to get a car to fill said spot.  But building a domicile without parking has now limited your future buyer / renter.  We want to build this futuristic reimagination of Austin that forces a dependence on a public infrastructure that does not exist.  

 

Next thing you know, this ditzy cat lady from Georgia (Jenna) is going to be building tent cities to get us off our dependency for housing.  How dare you entitled folks take up precious land with your brick and wood houses when you could be a good little sheeple and move into our tent city and participate in our drum circle while praying to the new statue of Adler.

[mchookem 16336]

this just sounds like a terrible idea 😒

[Modessit 5603]

How about maximum parking? Nothing like seeing a 3 bedroom house with 14 cars and trucks parked outside - 4 in the driveway, 2 in the front yard, and 8 bumper-to-bumper on both sides of the street directly in front and across the front of the driveway.

[texasdago 7575]

Love me some Littlefields but I feel for the houses on that street 

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

got em.

 

https://www.fox7austin.com/news/road-rage-incident-justin-justice-teressa-ferguson-austin-texas

Man arrested for shooting, killing woman in North Austin road rage incident: APD

Austin police have arrested a man they say shot and killed 46-year-old Teressa Ferguson after a minor crash on Sept. 30. Ferguson, who went by Tressa, had been heading home from work.

[Newdoc 3448]

14 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Austin on Thursday became the largest city in the country to stop requiring new developments to have a set amount of parking — a move aimed at both fighting climate change and spurring more housing construction amid the city’s affordability crisis.

I wonder what Joni Mitchell would have to say about this?

[B00M 6416]

9 hours ago, PvilleStang said:

I might have to add this to the trivial things that piss me off, vehicle dependence.  Just because you build a property with parking, doesn't FORCE the future tenant to get a car to fill said spot.  But building a domicile without parking has now limited your future buyer / renter.  We want to build this futuristic reimagination of Austin that forces a dependence on a public infrastructure that does not exist.  

 

Next thing you know, this ditzy cat lady from Georgia (Jenna) is going to be building tent cities to get us off our dependency for housing.  How dare you entitled folks take up precious land with your brick and wood houses when you could be a good little sheeple and move into our tent city and participate in our drum circle while praying to the new statue of Adler.

Naw man, we see that “real” mass transit in other major cities is struggling with ridership and they’re largely disgusting as fuck given our national homelessness and drug epidemic and we ask where we can sign up!

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

I’ve lived here 40 years and never knew that street was named Winsted.  I always just called it the neighborhood service road.  

[Samson's Wig 3192]

No one should be surprised by the latest city council moves regarding parking and development, but it's still rage-inducing. 

[hornian 5219]

Since parking minimums have been eliminated, can we get a city code to require each parking space to be a minimum width?

[Texas Jeff 1945]

54 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I’ve lived here 40 years and never knew that street was named Winsted.  I always just called it the neighborhood service road.  

For an unknown reason, the street magically changes names to Atlanta around the 600 block.

[Steel Shank 9427]

On 10/30/2023 at 11:43 PM, utee94 said:

L-C-A.  All. The. Way.

 

On 10/31/2023 at 7:01 AM, Biff Tannen said:

Always bothered me that we had the USC fight song. 

Austin High >> Anderson High

[Texas Jeff 1945]

More parking / transit wackiness:

The city rebuilt Westenfield Pool a few years ago.  Everyone parks for the pool along Winstead, aka the Mopac service road.  The city put up a sign asking for suggestions. I called them and said hey there is no sidewalk to walk from the Winsted parking to get to the new pool.  Could we get a sidewalk?

The nice person at the city told me that I was never, ever supposed to park on that road to get to the pool.  That the pool was built as a neighborhood pool and I was supposed to walk or bike to the pool.  And, that the state owned the parking on that strip of road and would tow me if I tried to park there for the pool.

I said "but, it's obvious that people park there for the pool" and she said "don't do it, walk or bike.  We are not putting in a sidewalk to the pool because it would encourage people to park on the street next to the pool."

Farther down the same street, on the Atlanta part, there is a kick ass hike and bike trail by the Mopac bridge.  You may be familiar with it.  Goes all the way around the lake.  The city put in parking meters along the trail and started charging for parking in the lot under Mopac.  So people started popping the curb and parking in the dirt to get free parking, and the dirt is now eroding into Johnson Creek.  The dirt, and the land underneath it, is holding up southbound Mopac.  What could go wrong?

When Cap Metro created the Pickup Exposition service, they asked for suggestions about the service.  It was scheduled to serve everything west of Mopac and south of 35th street, but nothing beyond that.  I suggested they extend the service just to cover Austin High and the hike and bike trail, so that runners and walkers could use it and that students at Austin High could use it to get to and from school at odd hours.  The response I got was "No, they should take a bus to a stop within Tarrytown, then call Pickup from the bus stop."  Yeah, no one does that, people just drive.  You have to walk to Deep Eddy to get Pickup service.

We all know our neighborhoods pretty well and we all have suggestions to make things better.  The city often asks for feedback about something they have already decided to do, probably because they are required to ask for feedback.  In my experience, they want affirmation for decisions already made, not suggestions about what to change.