Moody Center
END AUTOMOBILE ADDICTION
RECEIVED Mon., Aug. 4, 2003
Lauri Apple's article regarding Casa de Luz's car parking crisis ["Naked City: Casa de Luz, Sin Coches," Aug. 1] suggests that CdL and all of Austin have an opportunity for positive change, if only we could see it.
I've great respect for the CdL crowd. They have disposable income, but they use it to pursue spiritual growth and to manifest health in both themselves and their community. They help people to break hurtful addictions. They try to keep a respect for their surroundings. Now they face a direct challenge to something they love, the legal viability of their business' site brought on directly by their own addiction to their automobiles. Everyone in Austin tacitly understands how our addiction to cars hurts the whole city, but few have the strength or the will to assert themselves against it.
The usual solution of adding more parking spaces would destroy what is nice about the location. Can you picture a parking garage looming above CdL and Zach Scott? Should we pave over the baseball fields? CdL came to Toomey Lane for its beauty. Now they face the reality that their own presence threatens the beauty they sought.
But if any cohesive group in Austin has the ability, both materially and spiritually, to break their addiction to the automobile, it is that crowd from Casa de Luz. The prize is not some vague picture of a better city, but the immediate goal of saving their facility. They have the skill and the will to break free, but do they have the wisdom to see the real mechanics of the problem? Let's hope so. They could serve as the vanguard for much-needed transformation of consciousness that the city, nation, and world are struggling toward.
I've great respect for the CdL crowd. They have disposable income, but they use it to pursue spiritual growth and to manifest health in both themselves and their community. They help people to break hurtful addictions. They try to keep a respect for their surroundings. Now they face a direct challenge to something they love, the legal viability of their business' site brought on directly by their own addiction to their automobiles. Everyone in Austin tacitly understands how our addiction to cars hurts the whole city, but few have the strength or the will to assert themselves against it.
The usual solution of adding more parking spaces would destroy what is nice about the location. Can you picture a parking garage looming above CdL and Zach Scott? Should we pave over the baseball fields? CdL came to Toomey Lane for its beauty. Now they face the reality that their own presence threatens the beauty they sought.
But if any cohesive group in Austin has the ability, both materially and spiritually, to break their addiction to the automobile, it is that crowd from Casa de Luz. The prize is not some vague picture of a better city, but the immediate goal of saving their facility. They have the skill and the will to break free, but do they have the wisdom to see the real mechanics of the problem? Let's hope so. They could serve as the vanguard for much-needed transformation of consciousness that the city, nation, and world are struggling toward.
Optimistically yours,
Mike Librik
Mike Librik