A Bird in the Hand
Fri., April 4, 1997
They say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Proponents of the Davenport Ranch MUD sewer contract seem to be claiming that a bird in the hand is worth 10 or 12 in the bush. Even if the city staff's most optimistic estimate of $100,000 to $200,000 per year in net income from the contract turns out to be accurate, the Council should stop to consider the millions of dollars per year the city may be forfeiting by going ahead with the deal as it is currently structured.
I question our capitalizing on a good short-term opportunity at the expense of the city's long term financial stability. The city's Finance Department's analysis shows that Austin would net between $40,000,000 and $60,000,000 more over the next 25 years if the MUD comes within the city limits on September 1, 1997, when they would first legally do so. This analysis assumes a water/wastewater bill increase of between 11cents and 35cents per month for the average customer.
We cannot be at all sure that our ability to bring the MUD within the city limits after September won't be taken away from us. The fact is that the Legislature has routinely been used as a trump card by those who gain city services and later get exempted from ever paying any city property taxes.
If the metropolitan area continues to grow faster than the city's tax base, we could leave the next generation of Austinites with a city in crisis.
Sincerely,
Beverly Griffith
Austin City Council, Place 4
UTSA Accepts Bodies
Dear Editor:Re: "Death Be Not Cheap" [Vol. 16. No. 30] -- The Anatomy Department of the University of Texas-San Antonio will also accept bodies. They will cremate and return your remains to your family if you so request. Folks should contact the school in advance to obtain more information on the rules and requirements for donations.
Funeral homes are regulated in Texas. Complaints should be forwarded to the appropriate licensing agency located right here in Austin. Check the blue pages.
Thanks to the staff at Forest Park-Westheimer for their assistance on my recent visit to Houston. Even though I wasn't a paying customer, they were willing to assist me in my search for my uncle's grave, which turned out to be in the Forest Park-Lawndale cemetery.
Sarah Shaw
Remember the
Bad Selena Review!
Dear Austin Chronicle:Russell Smith's capsule review of Selena ("Film Listings," Vol. 16, No 30) was misleading, unfair, and insulting to all people of Mexican extraction. If a reviewer does not understand a film, then he or she should either undertake further research, or simply state: "I didn't get this one." Instead, Smith lurched forward in ignorance. An early scene in the film contains a clear cinematic evocation of Carmen Lomas Garza's painting "Cama para sueños," and, like Garza's work, its surface nostalgia is imbued with a deeper meaning, one that begs for a better analysis than Smith provides.
Apparently, Smith is unfamiliar with either Mexican American folklore, Chicano art, Mexican history, or pre-Hispanic literature. The edited montage of Selena's (Jennifer Lopez) concerts, representing her meteoric rise to fame, casts Selena as Toltec princess and Spanish gitana. This element of the film is simply a stroke of genius, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize an homage to the Mexican cultural mosaic. If the film were Swedish, French or German, the reviewer would be falling all over himself to demonstrate that he grasped the cultural references.
Smith should have communicated the importance of the film's visual imagery, how it dances with the dialogue, and why, for example, Abraham Quintanilla (James Edward Olmos) is placed against the backdrop of The Alamo when he says: "She's ready. We're all ready." Instead, he writes off the film's good points as well as its bad to "generic... hagiography."
In truth, Smith's ill-informed review, which seems to have been directed at cynical Eurocentric art film snobs, stereotypes Austin Chronicle readers as much as it does Mexican Americans.
Hiss! Hiss! Boo! Boo! to Smith and to the Chronicle.
Dennis G. Medina
Knickerbocker Bike Bickering
We Received This Letter on April 1
Dear Mr. Barbaro,This letter is in reference to the Spamarama event, Saturday, April 5, 1997. I am simultaneously sending copies of this letter to the Austin American-Statesman and the recipients listed below.
As a professional in the food service industry for the past 25 years, I find this extravaganza offensive. Food, no matter what form, is core to our very existence. We subsist and we are nurtured by food. That we would do anything other than celebrate and honor food and mock those who produce it is distasteful to me.
We are a prosperous people and blessed with an abundant and amazingly wide variety of foods. This week Austin has two events that are dramatically opposed to one another. The Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival will celebrate our resources with style, dignity, and pride. Spamarama will usurp any dignity by a bacchanalian show of gluttony (Spam Burger Eating Contest), waste (The Spam Toss), and other inappropriate displays of intemperance. Just the idea of people cramming food into their faces and choking it down, dogs scarfing up mis-catches on the field, and sculptures carved from Spam (then what is done with it?) makes me sad for those who participate.
I have spoken with both David Arnsberger, creator and conductor of Spamarama, and Norman Kieke, Director of the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Austin -- the recipient of a portion of the proceeds. The former was understandably defensive, while the latter more appreciative of my concerns. Mr. Arnsberger's attempt to minimize the "message" and justify this event as fun goes to the heart of the matter. While I can appreciate the creative aspects of developing menu ideas with Spam, I will not condone other aspects of this disregard for food.
To those who intend on attending this fiasco, ask yourself these questions: What are your motives for supporting this event? What message does this event send to our children, our community, our world? It seems contradictory that we support charitable organizations by wasting foods that could be used to help feed our world's hungry people.
In the past, Spamarama has been covered by ABC's Good Morning America -- is this the image of Austin we want to project? This is an Austin tradition I would like to see us grow out of and move on to a higher level of respect and appreciation of food.
Sincerely submitted,
Casey C. Taylor
Circus Tickets
Editor:One Saturday, as I was bicycling around Austin, I stopped to watch a person sculpting on one of two huge limestone monoliths that are to be part of an ornate new gateway for the Austin botanical gardens in Zilker Park. When he came down off his ladder I introduced myself, asking the usual questions about what he was up to. He graciously took the time to tell me what the project was all about, showing me photos and artist's renderings.
What I wasn't prepared for was the attack he launched on the politics of the Austin arts community. He began telling me of the neglect and abuse by the local body politic when it comes time to commission public art. His primary complaint seemed to be with the City's commissioning of architects for art commissions, instead of bidding the jobs to local artists and artisans. He told me that for the garden gateway project there was but $8,000 for the sculpting of the limestone and another $12,000 for the iron work, making the project a virtual donation of the artist's and artisan's time and effort. This he compared to the iron bus-stop benches built by the City's own departments at a cost of $10,000 per bench. He claims that the benches could be built for less than half the cost by a commercial or private firm if the City were to seek competitive bids.
I heard him out and what he told me only confirmed my own feelings about the wastefulness so evident in all of the local public work projects I've observed in Travis County, and most particularly the City of Austin, in the over 10 years that I have lived here. What is hard for me to understand is -- where is the public outrage? I can think of few other major cities in the USA where the citizens would continue to pay such exorbitant ticket prices for this sort of circus (or is it a zoo?) year after year. And what we get is a circus (or zoo) that has minimal, if any, entertainment value.
J. L. Schuller
Bikers Pay Taxes Too
Editor:Steve Knickerbocker's letter [Vol. 16, No. 30] regarding cyclists and their use of the road was so full of stupid assumptions that I felt compelled to reply. First, it takes more tax dollars to build a road than just automobile registration fees and gasoline taxes provide; everyone pays for our roads, whether they use them or not. Second, like the majority of the cyclists who use the roads, I also own a vehicle. I don't know where he gets the idea that somehow I am magically exempt from paying insurance, license fees, registration fees, or that I was excused from driver's ed because some day I might want to ride a bicycle to work.
Sincerely,
Michael Watts
Paving & Behaving
Editor:
Steve M. Knickerbocker believes that Austin's roads belong to motorists only, and that bicyclists, pedestrians, and wheelchairists should not be allowed to use them without paying the same taxes motorists pay. In fact, roads are our only public space outside parks. Motorists don't pay enough in tax to buy this land from the public, nor has the public agreed to sell exclusive rights to this land to the motorists. Motorists' taxes pay to pave over our public land with heavy-duty impervious cover, so that they can support the weight of the cars. Heavy-duty paving is necessary only for cars, not for bicycles, wheelchairs, or people on foot. The impervious cover plays hell with our drought-and-rain cycle and pollutes our streams with road runoff. All citizens share these problems and the cost of solving them.
In addition, motorists do not even pay the full cost of paving our public land with impervious cover. Property owners pay for paving roads and building highways, whether they drive or not. Capital Metro, which is paid from sales tax, does some road repairs.
As a non-driver, I pay to pave and construct heavy-duty roads for fast traffic. And these roads are barriers to me, not aids to movement. I don't ride the biggest, fastest streets, and I find it very hard to cross them.
I think that taxes on gasoline should be much higher than they are. Overuse of cars is ruining our city. Because some people have cars, there is very little, very inadequate public transportation. There are few sidewalks and bicycle paths. The air stinks, and the streets are dangerous. Our landfill is clogged with animals run over by motorists. Who pays for this?
There is nothing live-and-let-live about the car. People who drive don't mind making life impossible for those who can't or won't drive. This is odd, because everyone who lives long enough eventually joins the ranks of the frail, elderly, and unable to drive.
I do agree with Mr. Knickerbocker that bicyclists should obey the rules of the road, and that bicycle safety should be taught in school. But bicycling, walking, and wheelchairing should not be taxed or licensed. Such activities do not carry the social costs of driving. A car is a deadly weapon. A bicycle is not.
If Mr. Knickerbocker could have his way and get all the bicyclists off their bicycles and into cars, he would be more inconvenienced than he is now. If we were in cars, we could take his parking spaces, clog the roads much more than we do, heat up the air more and make it smell worse, and perhaps even crash our cars into his. Why don't we do things the other way around, and get the motorists onto bicycles and tricycles?
Yours truly,
Amy Babich
Hey Road Hog!
Road Hog,I am offended and insulted by Steve Knickerbocker's ridiculous rantings and ravings about whining bicyclists in his letter to the editor, dated March 28, 1997 [Vol. 16, No. 30]. The ignorance that he so formidably displays is indicative of a trend in this country to pave everything in his sight. His argument is so flawed, it's almost humorous. I can't even come up with the words to express my anger. Clue me in, but what lobbying group do you represent? For one, who doesn't pay their share of taxes to develop our infrastructure? I guess his ideal reality would include a mobile home with guard rails, which would entitle him to eat, shit, sleep, watch TV, and run over animals (i.e. neighbor's pets). Perhaps Steve should wake up to reality. Second, the gasoline tax should be raised substantially to mirror prices worldwide. If you are so concerned about how much gasoline tax you pay, perhaps you should also be made aware of how much our government subsidizes gasoline prices, which in effect encourages driving more, driving bigger cars, and keeps costs artificially low. (i.e. we pay 1/4 the price per gallon compared to Japan, Germany, Singapore, and France.) And please, don't ever think that our government has our interests in mind when it defends Saudi Arabia from the evil empire of Saddam Hussein. There is only one reason: to protect the oil interests of large corporations in the region. And wouldn't it be fantastic for a change if our government subsidized an efficient and effective mass transit system?
The difference between road hogs such as yourself and bicyclists is that bicyclists are willing to get off their asses to alleviate traffic, pollution, and get some form of exercise. Unfortunately, people like you probably drive through peaceful neighborhoods like maniacs. There should be a mandatory competency test for drivers who park in bicycle lanes, drink and drive, accelerate to red lights, talk on cellular phones, etc. Most drivers can't walk and chew gum at the same time, so how can you expect them to drive responsibly? I don't suppose you realize that cars have become weapons like guns? Anyone interested in purchasing a vehicle should be subjected to a rigorous mental and physical test. After all, it's not a God-given right to drive.
This self-centered mentality is the kind of rhetoric that has fucked up our society so much, that it's almost irreversible and can only continue to divide us and isolate us further. If you really believe what you wrote, I can only imagine how shallow and selfish you truly are. Do you also apply this kind of thinking to everything else in life?
Angus Tilney
Li Peng Before Looking
Editor:Are you incensed, as I am, that the Vice President is in China? Right now, Gore is cozying up to Li Peng, trying to put a good face on some ugly things. Both of them would like to pretend as if Chinese/Democratic fundraising scandal never happened. Li Peng, "the butcher of Beijing," would rather forget Tiananmen Square, and the Clinton administration is willing to oblige.
Gore is assuring the Chinese that the scandal won't stop the Sino-U.S.
courtship. The Clinton administration has repeatedly granted China our Most
Favored Nation (MFN) status. Now we can continue to lose
$33 billion a year
to them! We can still buy lots of cheap Chinese junk, and they can continue to
pirate our software, videos, and music.
Meanwhile, Chinese mothers are forced to abort their young children. Chinese Christians are hunted down, jailed, and otherwise persecuted. Those advocating democracy have their freedom and even lives taken from them.
Stephen Walker
