We Have an Issue: Fumbling Toward Fall
Looking back at a summer of protest and anticipating a (superspreading?) UT football season
By Kimberley Jones, Fri., Sept. 11, 2020
School is back in session. The last 100-degree days of the year (hopefully) are behind us. As we slide from one season to the next, now seems like a good time to reflect on how a historic summer of protest has played out locally. In his cover story this week, reporter Brant Bingamon looks in particular at the evolution of the Mike Ramos Brigade. The group began its existence by hijacking a name and threatening to hijack a whole movement. But its persistence has since earned MRB the grudging respect and even alliance of less militant racial and social justice advocacy groups. It's an engrossing read, and the culmination of months of legwork by Brant and News Editor Mike Clark-Madison. Check it out here.
This week the governor extended his disaster declaration for the state of Texas, but college football – another bellwether of fall – soldiers on nonetheless. As of press time, the University of Texas is still going forward with game day attendance, albeit limited to 25% of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium's normal capacity. That means that come Saturday, up to 25,000 fans will be streaming into DKR and bringing any infections with them. UT has issued reassurances – masks are required to attend, tailgating is off the table – but no amount of careful planning can account for human error/idiocy, and the wheels will certainly be greased by the expanded alcohol sales Texas Athletics is enthusiastically touting. Did any of us actually expect UT to make the prudent decision to ban in-person attendance, or even cancel the football season altogether? Of course not. But it rankles. For six months now, we've adjusted our own behavior to try to mitigate spread of COVID-19. We've been cautioned not to have more than 10 people in our backyard, but UT's gonna invite 25,000 over to scream their heads off? The message from university brass couldn't be plainer: They think UT should be held to a different standard and that the personal sacrifices Austinites have made to keep our community safer are subordinate to the big business of college athletics. I know we're not a small college town anymore, but still – I've never felt more disconnected from my alma mater.
Online This Week
The (Drinking) Buddy System: Chronicle beer maven Eric Puga has the story on St. Elmo and Zilker Brewing Companies' new retro-leaning hard seltzer collaboration, Slush Buddies.
R.I.P. Montez Williams: The guitarist and co-vocalist in onetime Austin power-pop breakout Schatzi was killed in Oklahoma City's flooding last week.
Dreaming of Leaving on a Jet Plane: Like so many of us, Caroline Rose has the traveling bug. Find out where she's dreaming of going and where she's been hunkered down in Raoul Hernandez's ongoing musician Q&A series, Checking In.
Austin Food & Wine Alliance: Reboots Food Editor Jessi Cape reports on AFWA's evolution into Texas Food & Wine Alliance and its expanded mission to support statewide pandemic recovery.
Luv Lost: Richard Whittaker reports on I Luv Video's closure, joining an ever-growing list of iconic Austin small businesses unable to weather the pandemic; Cap City Comedy Club joined that list this week too.
Check out more stories at the Chronicle's daily feed at austinchronicle.com/daily.
