Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater
Once Again COA Officials Caving In to Threats
RECEIVED Thu., April 8, 2010
Dear Editor,
Re: “Bump in the Road for Bike Boulevard” [News, April 9]: The new city of Austin proposal for Nueces Street is a debacle. Once again, we are witnessing COA officials caving in to threats and intimidation from old-school business and development interests, once again, at the expense of ordinary people (cyclists or not) and the environment. And, the sad and ironic thing about it, as with virtually all of the previous instances, is that it is completely unnecessary.
This latest capitulation is unnecessary because the stated goals and the means to achieve them as proposed by the League of Bicycling Voters, or some reasonable compromise thereof, would have been beneficial for both business/redevelopment interests, as well as for cyclists.
Measures could have been taken to convert Nueces Street, instead of Rio Grande, into a real bicycle boulevard without eliminating automobile traffic and at the same time not only helping businesses survive but thrive.
Nueces Street could have provided a shining counterexample to the myth that bicycles and automobiles are incompatible and incapable of sharing the same space, and the false choices between business/development, quality of life, and sustainability.
As understood by most knowledgeable people in the Austin cycling community, Nueces Street would have been the better choice for a bicycle boulevard. It has a much smoother grade than Rio Grande, thus it is much more attractive to cyclists, especially new/inexperienced cyclists than a road like Rio Grande. In addition, it goes further south than Rio Grande and may eventually connect with Cesar Chavez. For cyclists, the attraction here would be the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, which runs alongside Cesar Chavez in that vicinity.
I hope that in the coming decades, officials representing the city of Austin and its people decide to abandon their propensity toward bowing to dictates from old-school business interests under the same old threats of action by the Lege, financially damaging lawsuits, or the threat of being labeled "unfriendly to business.”
Re: “Bump in the Road for Bike Boulevard” [News, April 9]: The new city of Austin proposal for Nueces Street is a debacle. Once again, we are witnessing COA officials caving in to threats and intimidation from old-school business and development interests, once again, at the expense of ordinary people (cyclists or not) and the environment. And, the sad and ironic thing about it, as with virtually all of the previous instances, is that it is completely unnecessary.
This latest capitulation is unnecessary because the stated goals and the means to achieve them as proposed by the League of Bicycling Voters, or some reasonable compromise thereof, would have been beneficial for both business/redevelopment interests, as well as for cyclists.
Measures could have been taken to convert Nueces Street, instead of Rio Grande, into a real bicycle boulevard without eliminating automobile traffic and at the same time not only helping businesses survive but thrive.
Nueces Street could have provided a shining counterexample to the myth that bicycles and automobiles are incompatible and incapable of sharing the same space, and the false choices between business/development, quality of life, and sustainability.
As understood by most knowledgeable people in the Austin cycling community, Nueces Street would have been the better choice for a bicycle boulevard. It has a much smoother grade than Rio Grande, thus it is much more attractive to cyclists, especially new/inexperienced cyclists than a road like Rio Grande. In addition, it goes further south than Rio Grande and may eventually connect with Cesar Chavez. For cyclists, the attraction here would be the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, which runs alongside Cesar Chavez in that vicinity.
I hope that in the coming decades, officials representing the city of Austin and its people decide to abandon their propensity toward bowing to dictates from old-school business interests under the same old threats of action by the Lege, financially damaging lawsuits, or the threat of being labeled "unfriendly to business.”
Stuart Werbner
[Editor's note: If approved as currently written, the city's plan would connect Rio Grande to the Lance Armstrong Bikeway via a new bridge over Shoal Creek.]
