This Sunday is the 12th annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival at Waterloo Park, from 11am to 5pm. When we started this event, we expected a small, foodie-oriented happening. Instead, it has grown to a huge public celebration, with thousands of people tasting hundreds of hot sauces. Everyone seems to have a great time. I mostly wander around with a bit of a grin, watching in some kind of amazement at all these people having such a good time. The event is very Austin.
I just got back from vacation. In Austin, in the midst of Austin, it is possible to lose the city for the city. Everywhere you look, there seems to be too much traffic and too much growth. So many old buildings and businesses are gone, so many chain stores are here. The homogenization is often overwhelming. Where once there was little skyline, now many tall buildings loom. Where once there were rolling hills, now suburbs sprawl.
Going away always allows me to come back with fresh eyes. To really look at this city and realize how much I love it and how, despite everything, wonderful it still is. The city is so green, the folks so friendly and, after driving in Massachusetts for a few days, even the traffic doesn’t seem that impossible.
Our job here is to complain, to champion, to challenge. A weekly is adversarial by nature. But this paper loves this city. Leaving also allows me to look at the Chronicle as a reader. Usually I’m so involved in the issue that reading it is revisiting the past week’s work. Picking up an issue I had little to do with is always a pleasure.
Sunday is a chance to really celebrate Austin. Shelley King, Del Castillo, and Dale Watson will be playing; there will be beer and food and hot sauce. Most importantly there will be a stunning cross section of people — which, after all, is the best thing about Austin. So come and join us in a celebration of all kinds of heat. 
This article appears in August 23 • 2002.