Whitewater Rafting Though Downtown – Now There's a Parking Solution

Working with the county to build the Waller Creek tunnel, the city's touted the economic benefit the resulting miniature Riverwalk will bring. But in lieu of an idyllic creekside stroll, has anyone considered using the water for bare-knuckle, breakneck whitewater rafting? Seems like a no-brainer, right?

We might have written the Waller Creek Whitewater Trail Web site off as a joke if there wasn't so much information and earnestness therein. Deliverance comparisons be damned, the site creators write, "The Waller Creek Whitewater Trail would become another of Austin’s showcase attractions. … It is technically achievable and economically practical. It would make use of the forty feet of drop along the channel to produce Class II Whitewater. It leverages the Waller Creek Tunnel Projects’ plan to pump water from Town Lake up to Waterloo Park - to flow back downstream."

Not to mention, it would make Sheryl Cole's goal of east-west interconnectedness a reality. A brutally fast and wet reality.

While you're there, check out the kinda-awesome Photoshop renderings of this would-be urban whitewater trail. Also, there's a heartfelt (if slightly painful) music video for your enjoyment.

At first I was ready to snark this off, but the more I think about it, the better it sounds. (In a kinda Napoleon Dynamite way, that is: "Downtown's cool, but you know what would make it better? Whitewater rafting!")