The Daily Hustle: 4/1/10

Bats, underwater creatures, CAMPO meetings – it can only mean it's TDH time.

… Lots to unpack in the Chronicle's seismic cover story this week on the collapse of UT football. Too much, in fact, to even get into it here.

… It’s a bummer that yesterday’s Statesman article on Lee Leffingwell’s proposed “Night of the Bat” party takes a dozen or so paragraphs to get to the heart of the matter. Despite a 'gotcha' lead stating “Leffingwell wants to shut down the Congress Avenue bridge for a bat-themed event despite voting against a similar event last year,” the actual, substantive differences between the events – spelled out by the mayor’s chief of staff Mark Nathan (who, like, never gives the Hustle on-the-record quotes – what gives?) aren’t conveyed until half the ink’s been spilled: “They are very different events …" he says of the distinction between NITB and Bat Fest, a weekend long, cover-charging collection of bands and booths City Council booted from the bat bridge last year. “There's a difference between shutting (the bridge) down three hours on a Sunday evening for a free event versus the whole weekend for an event that charges admission."

… Here’s a mysterious video that landed in the Hustle's inbox April 1: “Giant Fish in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas.” Per the author’s description, “Witnesses, including Mayor Lee Leffingwell, describe encountering a huge creature in Austin's Lady Bird Lake.”

Creepy, although the Hustle waited in vain for a Dinoshark-esque payoff.

What the hell else is happening?

–No City Council meeting today, but a quorum is expected to be present at the city’s Texas Relays Welcome Reception at the second floor atrium of City Hall, 301 W. Second. The Policies and Resolutions committee of CAMPO meets in the Travis County Commissioners Courtroom, Ned Granger Building, 314 W. 11th, 9am. On the agenda: the CAMPO 2035 plan.

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