Multimedia producer David Stansbury has jumped the Human Code ship to head up
the editorial end of City Search Austin, a new Web venture in town preparing to
launch a cyberspace kiosk, of sorts, on what’s doing in Austin. City Search
(http://www.citysearch.com) expects to make its local debut early next year.
The company has similar community-based Web sites in New York City,
Raleigh-Durham/Chapel Hill, Pasadena and San Francisco. Besides Human Code,
Stansbury has also paid his dues at Third Coast and Texas Monthly magazines…
There won’t be any welcome wagon waiting for Balcones Recycling Inc. when the
firm moves into the East Sixth Street neighborhood in December. Balcones CEO
Kerry Getter promises the plant will focus primarily on high-grade paper, but
that’s little comfort to area residents. They’re dismayed that Balcones and
another existing company, BFI Recyclery, prefer East Austin above anywhere
else. Some residents plan to ask Austin City Council on Thursday (Nov. 7) for a
moratorium on future permits, pending a new study of zoning laws… —
A.S.
Lena Guerrero, a lobbyist for auto dealers and electric companies, was
unusually forthright in a recent interview. When asked by Suzanne Gamboa and
Michele Kay of the local daily how to become a highly paid lobbyist, Guerrero,
who resigned in disgrace from the Texas Railroad Commission after it was
discovered she had lied about having a college degree, said, “Run for office
and learn the system. You learn the system and then people hire you to work the
system.” — R.B.
Shuttle Scuffle
Last Thursday, the Austin City Council awarded a very lucrative and exclusivecontract for airport shuttle service to Star Shuttle, but only after
contentious debate. The council chose the San Antonio company over Super
Shuttle, a franchise which would have been owned by Austin residents.
Some councilmembers disputed the bid process’ rating system that gave the lead
to Star Shuttle, which has formed a joint venture with Austin Cab Company. The
minority-owned cab company is headed by East Austin icon Bertha Means, who has
for decades fought for the neighborhood of her origin, helping to get rec
centers and park space opened there. With Means on the ticket, then, numerous
standouts from East Austin turned out to rally around Star Shuttle. After
various councilmembers took turns questioning the bid process, and seemed
inclined towards runner-up Super Shuttle, Eric Mitchell began his usual litany.
“Every week, I’m reminded more and more why the public has no confidence in
this council and how we do business and just how subjective this is,” he
groaned. “If we don’t like who won, we rebid.” From the quiet audience, that
longtime East Austin firebrand Dorothy Turner bobbed her head during Mitchell’s
sermon and praised, “Mmm, hmmm. Tell `em what’s really going on,
Eric.”
Mayor Bruce Todd, who chaired the meeting, tried to block the church-like
call-and-response atmosphere that Mitchell’s speeches often evoke from his
supporters. “That is simply not allowed,” Todd blurted.
Mitchell shot back, “It’s allowed from her when I’m talking. If you want to
cut me off, go ahead.” Todd backed down, and Mitchell went on, complain-ing
that black companies continue to get the shaft. “Now they won, and what’s the
excuse today? I can’t go out like that, I can’t be quiet.” — A.M.
Asian Paper Debuts
With the arrival of Samsung and Tokyo Electronics in Austin and the formationof the Texas Asian Chamber of Commerce earlier this year, it’s no surprise that
a new community newspaper would spring from this growth. The first issue of
The Asian American Quarterly made its first debut this month as the only
English-language newspaper serving the diverse Asian community on the Third
Coast. Published quarterly by the Asian American Alliance, the newspaper is
designed to foster communication between different Asian populations in Central
Texas, say the paper’s backers. “We want to be able to speak the truth about
who we are from our points of view,” says Amy Wong Mok, president of the
alliance.
The free publication, available at Asian restaurants and markets, is staffed
entirely by volunteers and editor Susan Wan Dolling, who penned most of the
articles and edited the newsletter-sized publication from her Northwest Hills
home. Only 2,000 copies of the first issue were printed, but the alliance hopes
to increase its circulation to 10,000 by next fall. The first issue’s family
theme coincides with the alliance’s Nov. 9 conference on “Raising Our Children
in a Multicultural Society” at the University of Texas School of Social Work.
According to the Texas Asian Chamber of Commerce, the Asian American
population in Central Texas is growing at a rapid pace. The 1990 Census
reported that Asians make up 3% of the Central Texas population, but the
Chamber places that at closer to 5%. “Samsung definitely made the Asian
presence more real, more obvious,” says David Sizmur, chamber secretary. Though
it is less than a year old, the chamber already has 60 member businesses, due
in part to the growing number of Asian-owned start-up companies in the area,
says Chamber president David Chan.
“The Asian community in Central Texas is reaching critical mass out of which
the future expansion will accelerate,” Chan predicts. Mok echoes that notion
when addressing the increase in Asian Americans in Austin in recent years. “We
are trying to prepare ourselves, to put down a good foundation,” she says. —
K.V.
PSAT’s Gender Gap
Last month, America’s high school juniors, hoping to snag a National Meritscholarship for college, filed through the only door into that prestigious
enclave — by taking the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT). But at
least one watchdog group has long slammed the PSAT for being an inherently
gender-biased exam — because it’s heavy on strategic guessing at answers,
which tends to better suit boys’ learning styles.
According to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), 56%
of test-takers are girls, but girls only garner about 40% of the scholarship
awards. The College Board, which develops and writes the PSAT, the Scholastic
Assessment Test (SAT) and other such exams, recently announced that they, too,
had come to the same startling conclusion and will modify the PSAT in 1997 to
address the inequity.
“I applaud the College Board’s attempt to balance the scales but I remain
highly skeptical that companies which have produced biased exams for decades
will suddenly correct the flaws in their products,” said Heather Jennings,
executive director of Austin’s branch of the Princeton Review, which helps
people prepare for (and outwit) all manner of standardized exams, including the
PSAT and its big brother, the SAT. “One reason these tests are so coachable is
they are biased.” Services like the Princeton Review do more than just allow
practice and drill on the exams — they also help test takers learn to
recognize traps and wrong answers that look good, a strategy that favors boys.
The “new” PSAT will add a writing skills section, where girls tend to do well.
Although the Austin Independent School District (AISD) produces four to six
times the number of National Merit Finalists expected for a district of its
size, the gender gap is about the same as at the national level. Over 60% of
scholarship recipients in AISD are boys. — R.A.
Green Builders Return
Green building is entering the mainstream. In the past 12 months, the NewYork Times and Parade magazine have done extensive articles on the
trend. The Times ran a lengthy profile of Pliny Fisk, the green guru
from Austin’s Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems. Parade did
a cover story on Steve Loken, a green building innovator from Missoula,
Montana.
When the annual Green Building Conference started in Austin five years ago,
that kind of attention from the national press was just a dream. But now the
green bricks-and-mortars trend appears to be business as usual for many
architects, builders and homeowners who applaud energy efficiency, waste
reduction, water catchments and other green-building concepts.
The latest ideas and best minds in green building are returning to Austin for
the fifth annual Green Building Conference. Already the biggest endeavor of its
kind in the country, the conference enjoys a healthy growth spurt with each new
year. Some 1,400 people are expected to attend this year’s conference and trade
show, which kicks off at 7pm tonight (Nov. 7) at the Austin Convention Center
with a judging of “green” birdhouses. The meeting moves into high gear on
Friday, Nov. 8, with a full slate of topics ranging from rainwater catchments
and straw-bale construction to steel construction and photovoltaics. Speakers
include Fisk and Loken, as well as Rodolpho Ramina, a city planner from Brazil
who is implementing green building concepts throughout the Brazilian city of
Curitiba.
Admission to the event, which ends on Sunday with a self-guided tour of area
homes and businesses, costs $65. One-day passes are $35. The City of Austin
Green Builder Program, the Lower Colorado River Authority, and a host of others
are sponsors. For more info call 499-7827. — R.B.
Dag Nabbit, Babbitt
It was only a matter of time before Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbittgot sued on his decision not to list the Barton Springs Salamander as an
endangered species. On Oct. 29, the Save Our Springs Alliance filed suit in
U.S. District Court under the Endangered Species Act, claiming that Babbitt
ignored the law in September when he agreed to a state-sponsored plan to
preserve the rare species. The suit says Babbitt’s decision not to protect the
amphibian “must be because the Secretary has reinterpreted the `endangered’
definition in the Act to require that, in politically sensitive locations, a
species must first be extinct to establish that it was once, in fact,
`endangered.’
“Fortunately,” the suit continues, “the U.S. Constitution does not allow a
cabinet officer to rewrite the laws of Congress. And Congress, anticipating the
potential for Executive Branch hostility to the Act, explicitly provided for
citizen enforcement lawsuits like this one.”
Bill Bunch, the lawyer for the S.O.S. Alliance, said he hopes to get a ruling
within two months. He said he plans to take the depositions of officials from
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to show the “political influence on the
decision” not to designate the salamander an endangered species. The complaint
can be read on the Web at http://www.sosalliance.org. — R.B.
This article appears in November 8 • 1996 and November 8 • 1996 (Cover).