"All the way with LBJ" said the campaign buttons our Sixties Democratic counterparts wore. More than 40 years after LBJ stepped down as president of the United States, Texas couldn't agree more. With the 100th anniversary of Johnson's birth, Central Texas pulled out all the stops: basking in the national congressional resolution marking the day; remembrances at his alma mater, the Texas State Teachers College (now Texas State University); a special exhibit at the LBJ Museum of San Marcos; commemorations at the ranch in Stonewall, just west of Johnson City, of course; a 70-minute oration in Dallas focusing on a single day of his presidency; UT's LBJ Library's 100th birthday bash with barbecue and peach ice cream, which drew well more than 1,000 attendees; the lights in the UT Tower lit up to say 100; and the presidential library's exhibit outlining LBJ's contributions to the space program. Particularly on our minds due to his beloved Lady Bird's recent passing, the man who put the Texas stamp on the U.S. presidency is near and dear deep in this heart of Texas.

Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
2313 Red River
512/721-0200
www.lbjlib.utexas.edu

LBJ Museum of San Marcos
131 N. Guadalupe
San Marcos
512/353-3300
www.lbjmuseum.com

LBJ Ranch
830/868-7128
www.nps.gov/lyjo/planyourvisit/visitlbjranch.htm

view this award on its own page ›

There's never been a shortage of commentary online and off from Austin's bombastic bike community, but not until this year's debut of the blog Austin Texas Bike … Stuff, or ATXBS.com, did local pedal pushers have a forum focusing on the wild side of biking in Bat City. The clean-lined blog is a treasure trove of timely listings for stuff like Critical Mass rides, nighttime group cruises, underground alley-cat races, and pub crawls. Blogger Jason Abels doesn't just talk the talk, either. He's a fixture at most local cruises and guerrilla rides, typically supplying jams via a custom, bike-mounted sound system or a bigass boom box in tow. Abels, a tattoo-laden techie, is also quick with wry, insightful words on bike politics, from building better infrastructure to avoiding accidents with asinine motorists. In short, ATXBS is the best blog on two wheels.

Austin Texas Bike Shit
www.atxbs.com

view this award on its own page ›

You may have spotted this politically savvy woman of long, curly salt-and-pepper locks behind the wheel of her hybrid-fueled Yellow Cab or perhaps on the TV news, advocating for the transit rights of blind and disabled residents, who make up a good chunk of her customer base. There's a reason for that. Hannah goes the extra mile to make sure her special-needs fares get the most humane, efficient service that they deserve.

Hannah Riddering
Yellow Cab Austin
10630 Joseph Clayton, Bldg. A
www.yellowcabaustin.com

view this award on its own page ›

A year ago, the Christmas Mountains were a just scrap of scrubland in far West Texas. But when the General Land Office tried to sell the property to private buyers, it was Environment Texas that first shook the branches, raised a firestorm of public protest, and made caring about public lands an act of Texas pride again.

Environment Texas
815 Brazos #600
512/479-0388
www.environmenttexas.org

view this award on its own page ›

The publisher of the Austin Environmental Directory, Paul Robbins is a consistent force for progressivism in the city. A fixture at City Council's citizen communications, nearly every week this self-described consumer advocate and environmental activist challenges council members intelligently and directly in the three minutes he's allotted. Give 'em hell, Paul.

Paul Robbins
Austin Environmental Directory
www.environmentaldirectory.info/Austin

view this award on its own page ›

Forget empty rhetoric in vacuum-sealed classroom: This UT grad course puts students to work defending not just Guantánamo Bay detainees but the U.S. Constitution itself. Taking high-profile cases and real defendants all the way to the Supreme Court, this clinic's challenges of the Detainee Treatment Act and the Military Commissions Act are reminders that constitutional freedoms must be defended. Smeared as unpatriotic, its staff and students are passionate reminders of Ben Franklin’s words: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

National Security & Human Rights Clinic at UT Law
727 E. Dean Keeton
512/232-3657
www.utexas.edu

view this award on its own page ›

Credit Whurley – also known as William Hurley, a visionary systems theorist, skateboarder, and self-proclaimed evil genius – with leading the efforts to form a community among Austin tech geeks. The chief architect of open-source strategy at BMC Software and the man behind BarCampAustin, Whurley is all about connecting people and encouraging involvement in collaborative projects so great things can happen.

788-5353
www.whurley.com

view this award on its own page ›

This year marks the 70th year of operation for Austin's Planned Parenthood (also known as Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region) – and as much as things have changed (Have you heard? Birth control is legal now!), boy, they're a lot of the same (Have you heard? Some women have been refused birth control by their local pharmacists!). As such, it's nice to know Planned Parenthood is still around – here's to another 70 years for the group known for providing comprehensive family planning and reproductive health services to the women of Austin.

Planned Parenthood
201 E. Ben White, 512/275-0171
1823 E. Seventh, 512/477-5846
9041 Research #250, 512/331-1288
ppgreatertx.org

view this award on its own page ›

Although there is a host of (mostly bad) official theories, nobody knows the identity of the man (men?) in the cargo pants and Longhorn gimme cap, who in June joined the long list of Texas outlaws by burning down the Governor's Mansion. What if you send a message and nobody knows what it is? We invite this year's favorite dipshit to turn himself in at the "Best of Austin" party, and we'll make certain he not only receives his reward but he gets a chauffeured drive to the hoosegow.

view this award on its own page ›

Under newly enacted House Bill 2391, Sheriff Greg Hamilton and the TCSO have speedily implemented the cite-and-release law for various misdemeanors, thereby saving citizens unnecessary jail time and the taxpayers mucho administrative and incarceration dollars. We applaud the county forces for understanding the importance of the law and applaud their willingness to take appropriate action.

Travis County Sheriff's Office
5555 Airport
512/854-9788
www.tcsheriff.org

view this award on its own page ›

Nurse midwives and their advocates are thanking their lucky stars for Dr. Christina Sebestyen, an ob-gyn doc at St. David's North Austin facility, who moved mountains to give midwives a very real presence at the medical center – now the only local hospital that employs the collaborative Midwives Model of Care. That's what we call an exceptional delivery of services.

St. David's North Austin Medical Center
12221 MoPac N.
512/901-1000
www.stdavids.com/sdnamc.aspx

view this award on its own page ›

Behind every great group of artists, you'll find someone who cracks the whip. At the quirky South Austin Museum of Popular Culture (much as she did at the Armadillo World Headquarters), it's Leea Mechling who prods the museum board, balances the books, oversees the mailings, coordinates the schedule, helps curate the exhibits, writes the program notes, does all the detail work including catering for the receptions, and still makes sure there's toilet paper in the bathroom. Not exactly a glam job, but she fits it all in around her day job, which has included raising a family with artist Henry Gonzales.

Leea Mechling
South Austin Museum of Popular Culture
1516-B S. Lamar
www.southpop.org

view this award on its own page ›

The Rhizome Collective's Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew have spent years figuring out how to provide basic needs – food, water, waste management, energy, and shelter – through affordable, environmentally sustainable systems that not only have a Mr. Wizard-esque wow factor but will actually help city dwellers someday survive a future in which energy and food are less easy to come by. In doing so, Kellogg and Pettigrew have helped turn Rhizome into a busy hub of scientific experimentation, community organization, and education. And as if that weren't enough, they've now written a book, Toolbox for Sustainable City Living. If you don't have time to attend Rhizome's Radical Urban Sustainability Training workshop – where you learn, among other things, how to run your car on veggie diesel, cook with solar power, recycle human waste, and even construct your own wetland system to filter your washing-machine water – this new "Do-It-Ourselves Guide" is the next best thing.

view this award on its own page ›

Flash to any command center from the silver screen, and what comes to mind? Basically the streamlined, flat-screen-flanked CTECC, as it's acronymically known. Housed in a certified green building, the CTECC coordinates city, county, and transportation responses to major events – as they ably demonstrated once hurricanes Gustav and Ike made landfall earlier this year. And who even knows what they have underground?

City of Austin Office of Emergency Management
5010 Old Manor Rd. #330
512/974-0450
www.cityofaustin.org/oem

view this award on its own page ›

Every Sunday, 6am, for the past three years, Lynne Samuelson and members of her catering crew have been feeding the homeless at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless with good food that is not only nutritional but truly made with love. The menu often features protein-packed gumbo, stews, casseroles, and chili, served hot and in portions generous enough to fill hungry stomachs. Remember, catering often involves late Saturday nights: These sleep-deprived volunteers really give from the heart. This is their own personal form of church.

The Love of Food Catering
401-B Orchid
512/476-2880

view this award on its own page ›

"I like to do things that have relevance," this 91-year-old South Austin gal told us 10 years ago. A true believer in all things progressive, Shudde (pronounced "shoo-dee") is still running on her own brand of alternative energy: She recently marked her 31st year serving in her appointed position on the city's Electric Utility Commission.

Shudde Fath
City of Austin Electric Utility Commission
721 Barton Springs Rd.
www.cityofaustin.org

view this award on its own page ›

With the 40-acre behemoth looming, Austin's always been a tough town for professional sports. And soccer? Well, football means one thing to the rest of the civilized world, but it means gridiron in Texas, and previous attempts in building amateur soccer here had ranged from optimistic to embarrassing. So Phil Rawlins had at least two strikes against him when he announced last year that he was bringing in not just one but two teams: an amateur development team (which started play this past summer) and a full pro team (kicking off next spring). So far, the Aztex president has made all the right moves: He assembled a deep and talented team on the field and in the front office, brought together various sides of Austin's fractious youth soccer community, hired a couple of world-class coaches in Wolfgang Suhnholz and Adrian Heath, won the toughest division in the 67-team Premier Development League, and drew a healthy crowd for home games. His position as part-owner of the Stoke City Potters in the English Premier League paid off big time, as the 145-year-old franchise was promoted this year to the English Premier League for the first time.

Phil Rawlins
Austin Aztex
2720 Bee Caves Rd. #220
www.austinaztex.com

view this award on its own page ›

As the executive director of the Austin Parks Foundation, Charlie McCabe knows balance is key. From overseeing improvements to Austin's ever-expanding trail system, the acquisition of land for park space, Republic Square enhancements, and Downtown park master-planning to the fundamental challenge of creating a symbiotic relationship between green space and urban space, it's heavy responsibility. Lucky for us to have just the right advocate to meet the task. Our trees, feet, bikes, dogs, tourists, and children are in responsible, honorable hands.

477-1566

view this award on its own page ›

So, the world is ending, and our only hope is to send DNA samples of Earth's best and brightest to space in the hopes of being cloned. Maybe not, but that didn't stop NC Soft honcho Richard Garriott from busting through the stratosphere in a Russian commercial space flight last week armed with genetic material from the likes of Stephens Colbert and Hawking, Harry Knowles, and Patrice Pike, among others. What we wouldn't give to be one of those cheek swabs.

NC Interactive
6801 Capital of TX Hwy. N., Bldg. 1 #102
512/498-4000
www.operationimmortality.com

view this award on its own page ›

How has Charitable Auto Recycling been able to donate more than $4 million within the last six years to local charities? By turning trash into treasure. The Niederwald auction shop has figured out how to get the highest possible dollar value for donated vehicles, then turn that around into generous cash flow for local public-service groups. Auto donors can choose from a list of groups, such as Alzheimer's Association, the Wright House, El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission, Hospice Austin, and Any Baby Can, among others. And it's simple. Just call them up. No fees. No hassle. Just your car towed away for the benefit of others.

Charitable Auto Recycling
12253 Camino Real
Niederwald
512/398-5995
www.carstrucksandboats.com

view this award on its own page ›