Liberals Destroy First Thursday

Well, another pat on the back for the editorial staff at the Chronicle for endorsing the current City Council, which is in the process of shutting down First Thursdays on South Congress. Three extremely cool, and I mean extremely cool APD officers were down there this past week telling people that they needed a permit to set up on the sidewalk starting next month, and they were very cool to the people there, some of whom sorta-kinda got upset. Which I guess in a strictly anal-retentive city like Austin is a necessary evil, I mean, you can’t have people sitting on the sidewalk for Christ’s sake, four hours a month, selling arts and crafts! This, in a town like Austin, is a calamity of epic proportions because it seems like people are actually doing something fun, and the city isn’t in on it to get its 30 pieces of silver, so of course it cannot be allowed to continue. I don’t know who called and complained, either yuppie scum gentrification-trash who lived in the area (among the really cool people who lived there for years), unable to get their Hummer out of their oh-so-sophisticated driveway, or just some professional whiner who couldn’t stand to see people actually acting like they were having fun. Whomever it was, shame on you and your anal-retentive, control-freak personality. You’re going to need some soy candles and macramé one day, asshole, and you ain’t gonna be able to get any on the First Thursday of the month. You’d think liberals would be able to bend the rules for five or six hours a month on a seven-block stretch, but apparently not.