DIXIE FAY HEY @ ONE OF AL COPONES NIGHTCLUBS JPEG

Originally uploaded by laura.tex

According to my uncle Jeb, who scanned in this and other family photos, this photo was taken at a nightclub owned by Al Capone.

Aunt Dick left a number of her personal diaries, which my cousin transcribed. I will have to try to find any reference to Mr. Capone.

My great aunt Ruth was a trailblazer in her own right

This photo was taken sometime in the 1920s, I believe.  My grandmother, who was much younger than her older sisters Dixie, Ruth, and Benellen, must have learned some of her bohemian ways from being raised by these strong women.

Recently on the neighborhood listserve there was all kinds of consternation and flame going on when the owners of Off The Wall, an antique/used furniture store on South Congress, put out the word that they have noticed a significant uptick in panhandling and presumably homeless people in this commercial corridor.  Their main plea was that neighbors not encourage the panhandlers by giving them money.  Someone on the list then proceeded to refer to homeless people as “bums” and implied that they are responsible for the increase in car vandalism and the like.  Well… that didn’t sit well with anyone else on the list.  It did, however, provide some great stories about people’s own experience with homelessness and the homeless in general.

I then recalled that my own grandmother had often voiced her fear of someday becoming homeless herself.  She kind of romanticized it, probably having grown up in the era of the hobos, but I’m sure she really did worry about it.  She befriended several homeless women who lived on the Drag near the University when she lived near there, one of which had been a doctoral candidate and the other a dance instructor from which my mom took classes in the ’60s.

The fact is, many people are incredibly close to being homeless, especially if they have any kind of mental illness for which treatment is nearly non-existent in Texas (here’s a great snapshot of what that means in Harris County for their county jail).  And that real estate bubble hasn’t helped, as the 44-lb. cat in New Jersey recently found out.  Two kinds of fat cats here in the land of the free – and both are losers.

Art City Austin

I love to walk. And bike. I dislike cars, but I still drive. I live in Austin, which is in Texas, one of the most car-centric places on Earth. But I’ve made some choices that will enable me to use a car less frequently, including living in a smaller home so that I can live close to downtown, with access to public transportation, neighborhood shops, restaurants, and parks.

Obviously Austin has a ways to go before becoming more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. It’s interesting to hear what new residents of our town have to say about their choices – especially someone like Alexandre, the Compulsive Pedestrian. But I’m here to say that some things have gotten better since the ’80s and early ’90s.

There’s a history behind how downtown Austin’s streetcars came to their demise, part of which is covered in Robert Bryce’s piece and also related to the GM/Firestone effort to buy up and shut down streetcars across the country (documented partially in the film Taken for a Ride). This, combined with suburban development, made a once-vibrant Congress Avenue shrivel up and nearly die. In the late 70s, I remember going to a department store (Scarbrough’s) and a drug store (Woolworth’s) with my grandmother, who owned a shop on Congress. But by the mid- to late-80s those things were gone.

So here is my list of some pedestrian and cycling improvements in recent years:

1. A stronger community of cyclists and pedestrians: I recently attended a City Council candidate forum hosted by the Austin Cycling Association (which has a great list of Bike Month activities coming up in May), the League of Bicycling Voters, and the Yellow Bike Project; the conference room at the LCRA was filled to capacity. And, compared to Washington, DC, cycling advocates, Austin seems to have a much more diverse group, at least in age and income.

2. The Lance Armstrong effect: because of Lance’s success in racing and championing cancer survivorship, people in Austin as well as around Texas and across the country have more awareness of cyclists. I’m happy to hear that Lance Armstrong is now throwing at least some of his weight behind making commuting by bike more accessible in Austin.

3. More mixed-use development in downtown and other neighborhoods: of course, in many cases these mixed use projects such as the Domain are merely isolated islands not much better than outdoor malls that most people will reach with a car. But at least people have an option, which there was not much of in the recent past. There is the possibility of connecting these islands, although it may take a tectonic shift. Gas prices may help with that!

4. Capital Metro improvements: under the leadership of the recently retired Lee Walker, Cap Metro is about to expand into light rail. Overall bus service has improved, although it’s had a hard time keeping up with suburban sprawl and doesn’t reach some of the employment centers very well, such as Dell in Round Rock and some of the tech companies on Loop 360 and Research Blvd.

Of course there is a long list of things that need to be improved, first of which is education. What do you think, people of Austin? What can we do to improve the situation for pedestrians and cyclists? How often do you walk or bike instead of getting in your car? What would make you more willing to do so?

I <3 our local NPR affiliate, KUT 90.5 FM.  It is so much more than NPR, which is great in and of itself. The diversity of music on KUT spans the spectrum from jazz to blues to alt-country to indy rock to – if you listen to John Aielli in the morning – opera.  And, usually, they do it amazingly well.  The thing that makes listening to KUT such a wonderful experience is the richness and depth that the DJs provide.  They all have an amazing amount of information that they share with listeners, often bringing in the musicians themselves to play live or talk about their craft.

In fact, even though I really shouldn’t be giving any money away right now, I’m srsly tempted to donate to their current fund drive at the $120 level to get the KUT Live Vol. 4 CD, which features in-studio performances of some of my favorites, including Okkervil River and Spoon.  When I heard some of the cuts from this CD today, it made me realize that some of the KUT DJs are also amazing musicians – such as sub Jeff Johnson, formerly of the Orange Mothers and now with Li’l Cap’n Travis.

Speaking of Spoon, Brit Daniel was a DJ when I was a DJ at KTSB Student Radio, which is now known as KVRX 91.7, sharing that frequency with KOOP Radio.  Those of you who are new to the Austin area (or who just weren’t paying attention) may not know that the KVRX and KOOP camps were once mortal enemies.  As I remember it, in the late 80s/early 90s, there was only one FM frequency available, but two different groups that wanted it – KOOP, a community group led by Jim Ellinger, and KTSB, student-run radio on the University of Texas campus broadcasting on cable.  I remember the two sides truly hating each other and being completely unable to talk to each other in any rational way.  Fortunately, by the mid-90s a judge had resolved the dispute and told the two groups they would have to share the frequency.  Sounds goofy, but it worked.  And we now have even more great radio in Austin, from shows focused on local environmental issues to the always fun Elk Mating Ritual Show, hosted by Master Pancake Theater leader and UT doctoral student John Erler (hey another artist who is a DJ!).

Ausinites, consider yourself lucky to have great radio.  Truly. Oh, and be sure to donate to KUT, KVRX, or KOOP!

Farmer’s Market

Originally uploaded by klikr~

Today is Good People Day on the intertubes, as announced by Wine Library’s Gary Vaynerchuk. This movement happens to coincide with my desire to start profiling people who are doing great things here in Austin. I’d like to mostly focus on people doing work “under the radar” – the unsung heroes.

Yesterday, at a volunteer training for the Sustainable Food Center, which operates the Austin Farmer’s Market downtown and also now at the Triangle on Wednesday afternoons, I met lots of good people. One person I learned about, but didn’t actually meet, is Martha Cason, who teaches at Garza High School here in Austin. Here’s an article about her from Edible Austin. She’s doing important work to help the younger generation learn about where their food comes from, by involving kids in cultivating Garza Gardens. This is so crucial for so many reasons – an obesity epidemic, which is related to the quality and types of food that we eat; climate change, which isn’t helped by the fact that most of our food is shipped thousands of miles; and a growing isolation that results from a lack of fun, outdoor activities for kids.

Three cheers for the Sustainable Food Center and Garza Gardens’ Martha Cason!