Naked City

Vignette co-founder Ross Garber takes Get Around Austin to the streets. (Photo By Jana Birchum)

If deep pockets, sharp logos, and snappy slogans win elections, then the Nov. 7 referendum on light rail will win by several car lengths. At least that's the conclusion to be drawn from the press conference held Tuesday morning, May 23, by the new organization called Get Around Austin, a coalition of high-tech executives who are endorsing the light rail proposal being put forward by Capital Metro. The group, which includes some of the wealthiest high-tech and dot-com entrepreneurs in Austin, unveiled its slogan for light rail: "The A-Train: Let's Take It," along with a sharp black-and-white A-shaped logo that looks like railroad tracks.

It was an impressive effort put on by people who clearly know how to make presentations. Their sample billboards, which will be appearing around Austin in the coming months, include such catchy lines as "Austin gets another 150 cars every day. And they're all in front of you." As well as "Free Parking on I-35."

Light rail is the "right first step in getting in front of the traffic challenge in Austin," said Ross Garber, the leader of Get Around Austin and co-founder of Vignette, an Internet software and services company. To bolster his point, Garber pointed out that the number of vehicles in the five-county area around Austin grew by 54% between 1990 and 1998. In addition, he said, Austin's labor force is growing 1.6 times faster than the city's population. That means more people need to get to their jobs, which in turn puts more pressure on area roads.

The high-tech industry "feels responsible for the stresses and downside we have put on the infrastructure," said Garber. "And it's our responsibility to be part of the solution." Garber's compatriots in the new group include Tom Meredith, managing director of Dell Ventures; John Thornton, a general partner at Austin Ventures; Peter Zandan, founder of Intelliquest and CEO of Zilliant Inc.; Steve Papermaster, CEO of Agillion, and Elaine Wetmore, general manager of Net Perceptions Inc.

Garber said he and the others got involved in the fight at the invitation of Cap Metro chairman Lee Walker, whom Garber believes deserves praise for his efforts to reform the bus company. But Garber also acknowledged the need to rehabilitate Cap Metro's image among voters if light rail is to succeed. Cap Metro "might be the great untold success story of Austin," said Garber, who followed his comment by ticking off several facts about the bus company, which he said has the second-highest per capita ridership of any city Austin's size in America.

But James Skaggs, the former CEO of Tracor Inc., is not impressed by Cap Metro or by light rail. "Dozens of cities have spent billions of dollars on light rail, only to find they have negligible impact on congestion and pollution. They don't live up to their promise. There's abundant experience for us to learn that," said Skaggs. Light rail will "have no impact on our No.1 issue, which is congestion."

Skaggs, who has been on the stump railing against Cap Metro's project, believes the solution includes more roads, improved bus transit, high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and traffic light synchronization, as well as simple changes like staggering the starting times for employees at large companies.

Skaggs' group, Reclaim Our Allocated Dollars (ROAD), plans to raise $300,000 to fight light rail, which he called "a useless mobility element." But he'll undoubtedly be outspent. Although Garber refused to say how much Get Around Austin plans to raise, the group clearly has access to big money. Their buys already include billboards and radio. A Web site, e-mail lists, and other media are pending. (The first financial reporting period for the groups is in July.) In addition, two other pro-rail groups have sprouted: Light Rail Now and the Citizens Alliance for Transportation Solutions. The treasurer for the Alliance is outgoing City Council Member Gus Garcia, who says that his group has enlisted political consultant David Butts, as well as Public Strategies Inc. founder Jack Martin, to help it plan strategy and fundraising.

With so much money and political talent focused on light rail, it is clear that the November referendum will be hotly contested. Opponents are pointing to the crushing 40-point defeat of light rail in San Antonio on May 6 as evidence that voters won't easily be swayed. Proponents are hoping that worsening traffic and arguments about air quality will help push the $1 billion package through. Whatever happens, the election will be the first test of high tech's political muscle in Austin. They are risking the possibility that there will be a backlash against their money and power, and that the public may hold them responsible for the paving of paradise.

That point was reinforced after the press conference, when Zandan gestured around the small conference room at the Omni Hotel. "Look around -- there's no one here from the chamber of commerce," he said. Nor were there any representatives from the "old" high-tech companies like IBM and Motorola, which have long been among Austin's biggest employers. Instead, the room was filled with "new tech" people eager to re-shape Austin into a place that Meredith called the "Emerald City." It remains to be seen if the wizards of tech will help or hinder that vision on its path to becoming a reality.