Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Congratulations, Windsor Park

This from the comments:

Corona Cafe will be opening in mid-January just three doors down from Nomad at 1215-B Corona Dr. We'll be open early mornings (7am-7pm). Looking forward to it!

I'll reserve commentary for later, but I will say this: Congratulations, WP. You're growing up. (If you're the Corona Cafe owner/s and would like to do a little interview for posting here, get in touch at michaelerard except with a dot after michael and the at sign plus gmailcom with a dot after gmail).

Friday, December 12, 2008

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

WP Gets a Coffee Shop!

Well-peeled neighborhood eyes spy a sign next to the tattoo parlor, "Corona Coffee."

Can someone write in with details?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Posting Rules on WPNA List

As I mentioned earlier, I'm on an extended mental health break from the Windsor Park list, so I don't know what's been posted about the Nomad. But it sounds as if posts making unsubstantiated claims about illegal activity are making it on to the listserv. What's the justification for that?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Miguel's Post

This is Miguel's original post, with some redactions that he approved:
The following was supposed to be a post on the Yahoo Windsor Park groups page but it was deemed to not follow the guidelines so here it is.

OK, I've had enough. As the owner of Nomad Bar, I have seen everyone's complaints and gripes about it on here, and have been OK with it, as it is their opinion and I respect that. But when someone flat out lies and makes false accusations that can hurt my business, I have to step in. I am at Nomad everyday, am very proud of my business, care for it and for the neighborhood very much, and I can guarantee you that the police have been there only twice in relation to Nomad. They showed up because I called them. For problems I was trying to fix, problems that were there BEFORE I went into business. Everyone who has griped seems to have forgotten that there was a DAY LABOR office and an unofficial HOMELESS CAMP there before I opened. And you complain that The Best Neighborhood Bar as voted by the readers of the Austin Chronicle, is there, instead of that? Really?

The list of violations that Hector Jimenez lists under NOMAD BAR LLC is completely misleading and is a blatant attempt at hurting a place he himself has said he has not been in at night. These things did not happen there and I find it a bit disturbing that this person can post such obvious lies that people are believing on this board, and not get so much as a slap on the wrist, but when someone states the obvious about this disturbed man, the guidelines immediately pop up. And I know I will probably get the guidelines popping up after this e-mail, but maybe the guidelines should be changed to protect against blatant libel.

I have seen this guy's posts go from completely ignorant to downright insulting and I tell you, enough is enough.

Nomad Bar is going on record to say that Hector Jimenez is not welcome in Nomad bar. And should this man show up, you can guarantee, I will take care of it by asking him to leave and if he doesn't, I will be contacting the authorities to keep our neighborhood, my staff, and the Nomad, SAFE, as I always have.

I would also like to point out that Los Tequileros is zoned incorrectly and thus illegally, so it has no business being there. It is insulting and unfair to equate a business that legally was given the WPNA go-ahead and was zoned properly, with Los Tequileros.

- MJ

Monday, November 24, 2008

light's on

Yes, I've been guilty of absentee blogging, and because I never thought anyone would be that interested in my little mirror on Windsor Park, I never moderated the comments. No more. Maybe there should be a conversation about the posting rules on the WP list, but I can't have my real estate become a place where posts that were unacceptable somewhere else came to live. Unless I make them, I should add.

So I dumped the post that the WP list referred you to today.

But as I continue to be a fan of The Nomad, and as I'm baffled by this Hector's hectors, I'm going to post an edited version of Miguel's comment, pending his approval. If you'd like to comment on this post, feel free. Comments will be moderated, though. I don't have time to adjudicate truth, truthiness, or falsity, but be sarcastic if you got it, but keep it clean and neighborly.

I might also add that last spring I left the WP listserv, and my mental health improved 4,000%. You might try it. It's much, much cheaper than leaving town, but its uncluttering of the mind is priceless.

If Rumors of Grounds has been silent, it's because I don't have any coffee rumors to report.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Statesman Endorses Obama

Oh my. And I thought this paper was red, red like lipstick, red like angry faces, red like the called for blood of lambs. Good for them.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Brand is Back! (Is it Back?)

Tonight, Wednesday, the Statesman website goes front page with the GOP Convention. First time that I've seen with national political coverage on the front. There's a photo from the convention, and the headline: "Selby: GOP Convention marked by distractions." So it's not exactly triumphant.

My local paper sez, "Republican National Convention."

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

My Local Paper, Day 3

Either my local paper just prefers to put national political news on the website (the photo today is of Laura Bush standing behind Cindy McCain; the headline simply says, "Republican National Convention"), or the whole GOP thing is such an embarrassment, the Austin American Statesman has decided that the story line won't sell newspapers or keep eyeballs, so it's best to avoid it altogether.

Friday, August 29, 2008

My Local Paper

And again today. My local paper's website has a big photo of Obama with the headline, "Election 2008: Obama's Historic Speech."

Your paper's website says, "Stony Point Hangs 58 on Alamo Heights." The first mention of Obama is on the right column, 11 links down. That's right, 11 LINKS DOWN. It merely says, "Obama accepts party's nomination."

I wonder what the Austin American Statesman will run on November 5.

It's making me all nostalgic for the Portland Press Herald already.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Rules of Coffee Rumors

The first rule of coffee rumors is, don't believe the coffee rumors.

The second rule of coffee rumors is, if you really want the rumors to become reality, you should make them come true yourself.

There seems to be a bit of a backlash brewing in the WP about The Nomad, in which people feel cheated for the coffee shop they never got, and resent The Nomad for being a bar. I know I was an advocate for a coffee shop, but I'll take a bar, and I'll definitely take The Nomad, because even if it's not a coffee shop, it's going to improve the overall environment in the WP so much that you will, eventually, get a coffee shop. As I wrote in my review (which you can see in an earlier post), that place is going to be an economic and aesthetic anchor for what happens on OUR side of 51st.

It's not easy, though. Back in the early days of my rumor-mongering, I got serious about the second rule of coffee rumors. I found out that despite the positive signs of a thriving neighborhood of owners (not renters) of a certain socioeconomic class, Windsor Park is still considered a risky place for restaurant investment. Until somebody solves that problem, no coffee shop. I don't know what choices Miguel had to make to open The Nomad, but I imagine they were about the business, and selling alcohol has higher profit margins than coffee. I also believed him when he said he wanted to do coffee eventually. If he doesn't, that's okay. Why?

Because I don't insist on pinning ALL of my hopes and dreams on one place and one guy. It's like pinning all your hopes and dreams on one airport re-development project. It doesn't make sense. You will be disappointed. There will be financial hiccups, back-room deals, personal fallings-out, none of which you can control. (UPDATED NOTE: I'm not saying that any of those were reasons behind The Nomad not having coffee early in the morning.) At a certain point, any planner's job is simply to keep the project from looking like a train wreck.

Here's the thing: the person who's smart and ballsy enough to open a coffee shop for real is going to point to The Nomad as an example of how a new food-related business (that's not selling paletas or fried chicken) can succeed in the neighborhood. That's why you want The Nomad there.

In the meantime, stop breaking the rules of coffee rumors.

Your Local Paper

Does the website for your local paper feature today a big photo of some unknown model who had her big break on some TV show, relegating any mention of the Democratic convention to a link in a side column?

My local paper doesn't: the website has a big photo of Obama and Biden.

Even by local standards, that's the more important news. For as much as Travis County is said to be a blue county in a sea of red, the Austin American Statesman sure does craft its coverage to that sea of red. I predict they'll endorse John McCain, come endorsement time. Or they'll bow out of making an endorsement at all, with some foolish argument that didn't keep them from endorsing primary candidates (and they endorsed McCain, then, too, remember).

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

photo

The view from the end of my street:

Broken Spoke NOT Sold

Today's AAS reports that Ardent Residential, a developer, has backed away from plans to build condos and retail around the Broken Spoke. Ardent says it's because they have too much work; the real estate facts (on the literal ground) say something else: there's an oversupply of apartments, which is pushing rents down.

Won't someone write a country song about the demise of the ol' honkytonk, where grandpa met grandma, where pa's roving eye got him in trouble, where little sister learned to fiddle, and where I met you?

But I'm less interested in the fate of the Spoke per se than in signs that the real estate slowdown will affect the Mueller development. I had long predicted that a downturn would leave us with acres of big box parking lot, a few houses, and no local businesses -- far from the inner city developed community Shangri-La that everyone expected, and which depended on an ocean of cheap money. Maybe all the money is already in the pipe for those houses. But it doesn't look good for local places to be able to move in, not in this climate. I could be wrong -- I haven't been back since June -- but it'll be interesting to see. Don't get me wrong: I want Mueller to be cool.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Omnivore's 100

A list of foods that every omnivore should (arguably) eat at least once. What I've eaten is in bold. (Note: I don't know whose list it is; anybody else's list could be very different.)

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Leaving, and leaving

Going out of town for two weeks, I shut off my Windsor Park list subscription, and boy, did my life become peaceful, my thoughts untroubled, my heart limpid as a tidal pool. So I'm going to remain unsubscribed and let the shriekers shriek. That means that, unless someone forwards it to the list, the essay I'm going to post -- a piece that just appeared in the Texas Observer about our move to Maine -- will be read by only a dozen pairs of eyeballs, which is just as well.

The piece begins like this:
For the eight months that we’ve lived in Portland, Maine, casual conversations have leaned a lot on the preposition “from.” As in, “Where are you from?”

We’re from Texas, my wife and I reply.

“Where’d you move from?”

From Austin, we say—though on the mental maps of Mainers, it sometimes seems there are only two places, Maine and not-Maine. Texans, New Jerseyeans, Samoans: We’re practically the same, because we’re not from Maine.

“Oh, you’re from away,” people say, offering that newcomers may bear the stigma of that condition for at least two generations. “Wait for summer,” they say. “You’ll love the summers.” We did, and we do.

Along these same lines, “because” has become a frequently employed conjunction, as it introduces a lot of jokey answers to the question, “Why did you move to Maine?” Because I wanted more fleece in my life. Because I look great in long johns. Because I wanted to pay state income tax.

The real answer requires pulling more rope off the spool...

It ends like this:

Austin is home. Austin is still home. It’s always been an island of possibility in the middle of a forbiddingly foreclosed sea. That’s why people go there, and that’s probably why it’s so difficult to leave. But I’m discovering an underappreciated fact about islands, and about Austin: They’re great places to be from.
The full piece, in its glory, is here.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Nomad -- a review

A much belated post about the The Nomad, which we visited with friends on our brief but enjoyable trip to Austin about a month ago. I remember watching that site at the end of the strip mall for progress all last summer, not really believing it would ever happen, and if it did, that it would feel fake or out of place. Never having entered the space, I wondered if it was going to be too small.

You who live near The Nomad already knew that Miguel has pulled off something rare. It's not small, nor dark, nor fancy. It's an expansive space with interesting nooks and corners; lots of different things can happen there, and you won't necessarily see, sitting in one place, what they are. I like my bars to offer mystery. I also admired the diversity of seating (benches, stools, reclining chairs), which seemed deliberately designed, but Miguel swore it was happenstance.

I wish I had more time there, to try his food and more drinks. Main thing is, he has Fireman's #4 on tap, a beer I'm enthusiastic about, especially when it's hot. But a bar is not only about what you put in your body, it's what you put your body in. The Nomad feels continuous with the rest of the neighborhood's 50's ranch-style feel, what an artist friend once complimented as "trickle-down modernism." You go to other places on Cameron Road, and you feel as if you're somewhere else, at the mouth of a road to some hellhole that seems less like Austin and more like, say, Matamoros. But the Nomad is actually the neighborhood reaching out to Cameron Road, not retreating from it. Here's hoping that the Nomad might make for a stylistic anchor for that stretch of road, much as Joe's and the Hotel San Jose became the stylistic pivots around which everything else on South Congress evolved.

You're lucky, if you live in Windsor Park and can have a drink there. It's a sign of light and life and things done right and offered in the right spirit. (Los Tequileros? Not so much.) And, if what I heard that night is true, that there will be a drive-thru coffee place at the other end of the strip, then that corner is going to be very important for a lot of people.

Friday, May 30, 2008

I admit

I admit it: I prefer listening to KUT than to the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, not for the NPR/news/talk stuff, but because the music is way, way better. Classical music rules the airwaves here.

I also admit that of the two local papers I check every day online, I check the Statesman before the Portland Press Herald. Why? Probably because the Press Herald is a little duller, a little more obvious. Also because the Statesman feeds me such a regular diet of death, traffic accidents, crime, and weather reports that I need the Press Herald's soothing balm.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Private Use of Public Land

This is a good step: making all private businesses, including fitness trainers, to pay to use the parks. Yet it's a sign of how much our sense of the commons have eroded to read comments like this:
"Where did the taxes go that I am already paying for parkland? They should go towards using parks however I'd like, whether it's for flying kites or walking dogs or doing push-ups," said Michelle Persica, a personal trainer with 20 years of experience who sometimes holds classes in Pease Park.
Well, Michelle Persica, if I can come join your class in Pease Park whenever I like, and for no charge, then I guess I'd be happy to let you count your taxes toward a private use fee. Oh...I can't? I have to sign up ahead of time...and pay? Then I guess you're exploiting the commons, aren't you? I guess you're using my contributions to the parklands for your own personal gain.

My friend Roger calls this the "free rider" syndrome, and the free riders "Snopes" (after the family in Faulkner's novels of rising working class Southern whites who "were more interested in avaricious commercial gain than honor or pride" (well put from here)). He describes the phenomenon more:
The Snopes hate the Hoover thing – hate the idea of paying for something when they have figured out how to get it free. And of course they hate the Roosevelt thing of tolerance and enlightenment and blacks moving in next door and marrying their kids. But what they hate most is the idea that the progressives they are conning don't understand what is happening. The progressive harping on the ignorance or bad consciousness or brainwashing of the Snopes class has to stop. Far from being ignorant or unaware of their self advantage, they have had a free ride that has given them the luxury of being able to indulge in reactionary hate while being bankrolled by progressive legislation and opened up to the world through Civil Rights. Everything they hate has supported everything they love: credit cards, big trucks, big motor boats leaking oil over various federally funded dammed lakes, etc., etc. It is no wonder they feel like God's remnant on earth. They have the satisfaction of knowing who is conning who in the great progressive deal, and what they really can't stand is that the liberals that are being suckered don't know who is suckering them.
No free riding, Michelle Persica Snopes.

Friday, May 16, 2008

How to get to the Nomad?

The Nomad got a good review the other day in the Statesman. Good for Miguel. It beats out Spiderhouse, even, which is a major feat. But Dina Guidubaldi, the Statesman writer, put the Nomad "around 51st, behind Target," which is, of course, wrong. I don't know whether to laugh at this moronic sense of place or to celebrate it, because if the Nomad is that good, we'll want to keep it to ourselves. (Notice that I haven't given the correct location here.)

Friday, May 2, 2008

Coffee Rumor

Richard Yu writes to the WP listserv that he's looking into a coffee shop. But Richard! Windsor Park has a new....bar.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

This Makes Me Sick

This note today from "Ed" in Windsor Park make me fucking sick to my stomach:
I have noticed an increase in people going around the neighborhood
removing aluminum cans from people's recycling bins. Today someone came
and took mine as well!

I understand these are difficult times we live in, and people are
trying to make ends meet, but I feel like they are stealing from me.

These cans I recycle are not only to do a small part for the
environment, but I think also help subsidise the costs associated with
the trash and recycling pickup. I would imagine the recycling company
makes a small profit from the items they recycle, helping offset the
pickup costs. Surely they take this into consideration when they bid
the contracts.

I know I could collect them and other metals and turn them into the
recycling people myself and make some money, but I don't own a pickup
or large area of land to store metals until I have enough to pay for
gas dropping it off. I don't think my immediate neighbors would approve
either.

Perhaps when the new bins come everything will not be as accessable to
these bandits.
Bandits! Bandits! Stealing what probably amounts to a dollar or two in aluminum. Granted, I don't know how many aluminum cans Ed leaves behind, but let's be generous and say it's not many. But my god, to treat a couple aluminum cans as some sort of loss, as some sort of affront to his property -- all I can say is, I hope Ed gives heartily at church, not because I think the church allocates his money any better, but because I'm sure he's taken to heart his pastor's big fat sermons about charity and the love for your fellow man.

When our old school Democrats, who love to wave the names of Molly Ivins and John Henry Faulk like flags when it suits their own cause, scream like shrill little misers because they've been taken with property value paranoia (say it shrilly: "we're being dumped upon!") , and when others gripe that others who have it worse than they do are picking through their trash to make a living, that's when you know you're living in a mean, pathetic little fucking world. I expect these sorts of attitudes from others. I don't expect it from people in my neighborhood.

Update: Last night after writing this I had a dream in which I had been elected to some WP neighborhood position. My first thought was, I'm going to have to take down that post. Second was, I can lead the neighborhood from Maine.

This morning someone else posted to the listserv about the can thing, and as it was not in my dream, it made me feel some hope for the WP, and for humankind in general:
When I see people taking the aluminum cans, I pray.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

When Traffic Becomes News

Britches, meet too big:

"...The city doesn't appear to have the infrastructure or processes in place to handle the number of simultaneous events that are happening downtown," she said.

This isn't news because the traffic was bad; it's news because people's expectations didn't match reality. The new expectation has to be this: if you chose to live in a city whose cultural life is rich enough that large simultaneous events are scheduled in the same area, don't expect to drive up to your destination and park outside the door; if you try it, you'll get stuck, so you're going to be walking, or taking a shuttle, or biking. Basically: expect to arrive sweating. I may be contradicting myself, but I don't think it's the city's job to match reality to expectations. I think it's to provide leadership about -- and certainly to change -- the expectations as well.

Here's a new thought about public transportation: maybe it's not capital-intensive, building streetcars or subways. Rather, maybe it's temporary transport, like flash mobs, shuttling people from one parking area to the event area on the weekends. Riders have to pay for it, of course.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Move

Inevitable. Curious. Unseeing. I don't know what to label how yesterday's NYT Magazine's slew of articles on reducing environmental impact and carbon footprint didn't include one obvious choice that individuals and households can make: moving.

This could be moving to a new part of a city (to reduce commute times), to a new city or region, or even simply to a new style of house (one with a backyard, say, where one can grow some of one's food). Maybe the capital intensivity of this moves it off the table as an option, but I'm not convinced; people buy hybrid vehicles and install solar panels. Maybe it's because it was the New York Times. What if the answer is that big cities make big footprints? I don't know if this is true or not; if it were, the city's newspaper couldn't very well advocate people abandoning it. I think the answer may lie deep in the American psyche: Americans move for jobs or when they retire, not for general economic considerations -- that would be called "migration," and those who "migrate" are called "immigrants."

I'd also want to know where one should move. We have a pretty good situation in Austin: lots of sunlight and our own roof meant we could install solar panels if we wanted to, though not without a lot of other capital improvements. And we have the biggest backyard on the block with proven soil for veggies; a rainwater collection system would give us water for the garden. And chickens! We don't hardly heat the house at all in the winter. On the other hand, we can't walk many places, and riding a bike, though doable, isn't comfortable. Portland is walkable year-round, and the hardcore biking season has just begun, plus things are close: the office supply store and post office are just down the hill, and both Whole Foods and Hannafords are easily reachable by bike trail.

Friday, April 18, 2008

In Maine, They Tell Anti-Gay Activists To Shut Up

Check out this column, the likes of which I don't think has ever been printed in a daily Texas newspaper:

You might not know him by name, but you've probably heard his story.

Hiroo Onoda was a second lieutenant in the Japanese Army. Rather than face reality and surrender when Allied forces overtook his garrison on Lubang Island in the Philippines in early 1945, he headed for the hills.

And there Onoda stayed for 29 years. Convinced that World War II was still being fought, he dismissed overwhelming evidence to the contrary as clever enemy propaganda.

Which brings us to, of all people, Michael Heath.

The executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine announced last week that he's spearheading yet another referendum drive in his never-ending war on homosexuality. But this time, even Heath sounds a little like, well, Hiroo Onoda.

The rest of the column (which accuracy demands I note did not generate all positive comments) is here.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

The Grass is Greener Game

This article, about group behavior in a stumbling stock market, seems relevant even to the question about why one might decide to leave an awesomely wicked cool city:

...One model that researchers have used to study contrarian behavior is called the minority game. The game is based on a now-classic problem posed in 1994 by the economist W. Brian Arthur set in a bar called El Farol. Everyone likes El Farol but also knows that the place is not much fun when it’s crowded. What, then, is the best strategy to maximize the fun. Avoid weekends? Try Thursdays and Sundays? Won’t everyone else be doing the same?

Experiments testing various versions of this game have shown that many players flip strategies in the middle of playing, apparently simply because they have set some private threshold for changing, like trying one strategy three times, “and if it doesn’t work, switch to the other one,” said Willemien Kets, a postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute.

Dr. Kets contends that this switching strategy can be successful precisely because others decide to stick to a congested road. “You see this ‘grass is always greener’ kind of behavior emerging,” Dr. Kets said in an interview, “which suggests that a variety of contrarian strategies will evolve naturally in the course of any such game because there are people who are more conservative in their strategies.”

Once people start thinking in this way, they subconsciously recruit evidence that supports their view, and not only from other investors. Simply bumping into an acquaintance who shares a contrary opinion — at the gym or in line at the grocery store — can seem like an affirmation.


Thursday, March 27, 2008

Texas is HOT!!!

The Census Bureau says that Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio were among the top ten fastest growing metro areas in the country. But I don't think the Texas state demographer's explanation is very complete, because it's very Texas-centric. He was quoted:
"People are running away from unaffordable housing, from the economic slowdown," said Karl Eschbach, a state demographer in Texas. "I would expect Texas to stay at the top of a slowing game."
I bet that people are actually coming because Texas promises the escape from two inevitabilities: death and taxes. I'd like to know how many migrants are baby boom retirees who are being pulled to the Sunbelt, rather than pushed by poor economies. The other big attraction of Texas, of course, is that there's no state income tax, so all your investment income won't be taxed. All the other states containing the top ten metro areas have state income taxes, but no other states had more than one metro area. Jake Bernstein at the Texas Observer has clued in to the demographic changes on the way in Texas, mainly increases in young Hispanics who need to be educated and provided health care, and how services are woefully underfunded.

How amenable do you think a political bloc of tax-escaping retirees is likely to be to a state income tax?

Friday, March 21, 2008

First Day of Spring

Yes, it's spring here in Maine, the first day of it, anyway. I can hear the wind howling through the walls, and Google says its 27 degrees. Huge piles of dirty snow are tucked about -- inland places have many feet on the ground still.

I'm about to get on my bike and ride downtown. Why ride? Well, because it's spring.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Mercury Hall Under Development Gun

People Who Got Married at Mercury Hall Narrowly Miss Serious Bummer.

What's interesting is that the church was hauled to Austin and restored by Richard Linklater's producer, Anne Walker-McBay, and her husband, Clark Walker. I don't know if they still own it or run it. Yet it would make another fine chapter of Austin's autophagy to have people involved in making one of the iconic Austin films sell their property to developers. Another PowerPoint slide in a demonstration about how to transform the human scale of a place to the scale of capital.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Round Rock Donuts

at the corner of Briarcliff & Westminster, says the neighborhood listserv. Open 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Coffee Rumor

There's still a rumor floating around that down the strip from The Nomad someone's putting in a drive-through coffee shop, no seating. Can someone give details on this?

Oh, So That's What This Is

A placeblog:
They're about the lived experience of a place. That experience may be news, or it may simply be about that part of our lives that isn't news but creates the texture of our daily lives: our commute, where we eat, conversations with our neighbors, the irritations and delights of living in a particular place among particular people.
I've written more here (and at our move blog) than at my home blog, and that this writing has been more satisfying, because it's been about a certain lived experience of a particular place. A lot of blogs are like this: an assertion of the inside of the lived experience of the ordinary. (Two lovely blogs I read share this quality: Little and Big, and Iron Steph Cooks.) And you thought I was vituperative and contumacious by nature.

The description of placeblogs also puts two things into opposition, the everyday and the newsworthy, which I used to feel very acutely, back when I dated a journalist who was too contumacious by nature to grasp the back-and-forth (or the antistrophe) I experienced between the public and private spheres. That experience would have made for a great blog. "After she interviewed John McCain, she called and I was making cookies." That would be stuff for another blog. One thing I like about my marriage is the resolute line between the public and the private: I don't think I'll ever write about the inside of this, even on a blog.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

WP gets...a bar

If you've come looking for my review of The Nomad, the WP's newest hang-out joint, I've got to get there first, but when I do, it will be reviewed. Word filtered to the north that last night's opening was packed but loud, and it's...a bar. If I ever get around to opening a coffee shop, I'll swing open the doors on a Sunday morning, because folks will be looking for...coffee. Until then, and/or when we come back to the WP, you'll be able to find me at the Nomad, drinking...a beer. (Even when I have a coffee shop, that's where you'll find me.)

In my current neighborhood, the coffee shop just moved from a cozy shack-like addition (you've heard of a shotgun; this was a BB) across the street to a larger space next to the fine grocery, Fat Baxter's. Haven't been to the new space yet but I'm excited to see it.

Friday, March 7, 2008

time = money

A new language experiment: Try to clean out the time = money locutions from your speech, among them wasting time, spending time, investing time.

Report back here in 12 months.

Friday, February 29, 2008

CENSORSHIP ALERT! CENSORSHIP ALERT!

An overworked, underpaid city employee writes to the Windsor Park list to tell John LeValley to shut the fuck up:

I am offended every time I see one of your missives, and would really prefer not to see another one.
Cue a rant from Steve Speir about how this rank, crass attempt to censor the Windsor Park neighborhood listserv offends the Big D Democratic and little d democratic spirit of the holy progressive ground of the city of Austin on which John Henry Faulk once trod.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Tree Kudo

Damn, that coffee guy has something good to say about Austin on his blog? Yes, I do. Today's Statesman has a story about Austin Energy's treetrimming practices, but I have to say that when they came last spring to cut our trees, I was really impressed with how responsive they were and how the trees looked when it was all done. It didn't look like they'd done anything at all! Now, I worked at home and I met the guys twice before they cut, so maybe that had something to do with it. Otherwise I have zero complaints.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

If you work for SXSW

This site got traffic from SXSW the other day...if you work for SXSW and want to speak anonymously about what's going on on the inside, get in touch.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Maine to Texas

The original Maine to Texas connection: John Kelso.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

SXSW is a Parasite

Michael Corcoran interviewed SXSW co-founder, Ronald Swenson, about SXSW's battle against "pirate parties," "fringe entities," and "entities improperly using the SXSW name or trying to compete with sanctioned venues."

Swenson's defense, which makes it seem as if SXSW is fighting for its survival, includes this:
SXSW exists only because more entities choose to pursue a symbiotic relationship with us rather than a parasitic one. However, every year more marketing groups representing huge multinational corporations and their local proxies choose to feed off of us.
Mr. Swenson, thank you for the handy biological metaphors, because SXSW has ALWAYS been parasitic upon the city of Austin itself -- all in the guise of symbiosis. Your attendees swamp the city. Traffic swells; the restaurants are jammed. You receive city largesse. The SXSW promotion machine sucks the air out of coverage of anything else locally for weeks. And yet, as SXSW made clear last year, the festival isn't for the locals, who might get a hold of wristbands but complain that they can't get into venues for all the badgeholders. No, it's an industry conference (you said), it's not for anyone who might want to catch some of the overflow vibe or, heaven forbid, some music.

Not everyone picks cotton for the music industry in Austin, you know.

In your defense of SXSW's brand purity to Corcoran, you muddle two sources of competition: one, from outside money, big corporations using the festival to market their own stuff; two from local venues and businesses with an indie spirit, such as all the businesses on South Congress, like Yard Dog and Home Slice, that have bands play. A couple of years ago I watched Billy Bragg in a crush of people in Yard Dog's courtyard -- an amazing show -- and Magic Surprise at Home Slice -- even in the rain, a great show. Are these the events that you want to crack down on?

I don't care about your fight with big music promoters booking other bands, but if you go after other locals, that's plain offensive. Because those events are creative response to SXSW's own exclusivity -- why shouldn't local bands, brands, and businesses benefit from the celebration without SXSW taxing it?

SXSW has already taken its piece of the city; it doesn't need to skim off any more.

The delicious twist worth noting: because Austin Chronicle co-founder Louis Black also co-founded SXSW, you won't read any smart, critical coverage of the festival or its relationship to the city in those pages. So where do you have to turn? To the Statesman, which traditionally sides with the big money on most other things.

Update: typo fixed in last paragraph.

Update update: The comment thread at the Statesman piece contained this gem supporting the parasite argument:
A big problem is SXSW’s reputation for strong-arming competitors and sponsors rather than engaging them in discussions that might bear something mutually beneficial for everyone. They have an almost universally bad rep among local musicians regardless of whether their particular bands play the fest. How can they repair that image? How about re-investing in the local music community upon which it depends? Earmark a percentage of their profits to SIMS (every year,) lend their name to some charity events, and hold something during the summertime when clubs are hurting, and advertise these efforts so everyone remembers them when festival time comes around. A little responsible corporate citizenship goes a long way for whole lot of our local businesses. Such behavior might help SXSW garner the local support it obviously needs to help it survive.
Paraphrased: how about some symbiosis, Swenson?

Update update update: This comment was good, too:

the KARL ROVE look-alike gets: *VOLUNTEERS to work his festival *priority access to every venue in town *huge corporate sponsors PAYING to be involved *a monopoly on all downtown hotels at a DISCOUNTED rate for headlining acts only. *bands PAY THEM to play the festival in exchange for a wristband that doesn’t guarantee anything *free press and media coverage which increases corporate sponsorship money as the festival grows in popularity year after year.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Windsor Park Spa Rumor!

You now won't have to leave the neighborhood for spa services, as Signature Touch day spa is opening next to Randall's. I always knew that Windsor Park needed a spa, especially after a long day of mowing the grass or nailing up plywood after those guys broke in my house.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Nomad

This is going to change Windsor Park as we know it. For the better. The much, much better.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Brunch

One significant thing happened yesterday: we had a brunch date. It was the first social engagement we've had since Christmas Day, and before that? I can't remember. It's been so long. We met David and Lisabeth at an awesome Thanksgiving feast my brother and some of his friends put together in Keene, and since they were visiting Portland they got in touch, and we had a great visit. (Food highlight: pea sprouts in the omelette, and very salty butter on the English muffins. Good coffee, too. Local 188. Remember that one.) There's so much to learn, because we don't know them hardly at all, except that she's from Corpus Christi and they met and married in Austin, Texas, before moving to New England in the late 1990s, but they felt like more intimate acquaintances. Plus we, or I, was hungry for social interaction. Misty and I are mostly hunkered down together, which has been a lot of fun & good for The Relationship, but brunch reminded me not to go too long or believe I can go too far without social time. What constrains me is a sense that, why meet anyone we'll have to leave? And building a social circle -- even a social dot -- can seem like a distraction from the work we both know we need this time to do. It's an old tension. But as it's familiar, it's workable. And as we're not overwhelmed with social opportunities, the tension remains productive and in balance.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Portland Rave

This guy raves about Portland:

Besides the good feeling I got from the conference, the charm of Portland Maine was the icing on the cake. Coming from Indianapolis, I am used to the standard set of strip malls, mega discount superstores, and chain restaurants. In fact, a visitor who was dropped in the middle of Indianapolis would be hard pressed to figure out where they were because, frankly, it looks like every other metropolitan city. Same billboards, same neon signs, same putrid grease smells, same everything. Not Portland. Granted, they had a few Starbucks but the real charm of this city comes from the small business owners who take great pride in their history and connection to the people. Walking downtown, I didn't see Office Max, instead I saw "Wigon's Office Supply" - a quaint supply outlet in the heart of downtown Portland. I did not see homeless people, I saw everyday people enjoying the sun and relaxing in the public areas with their well-groomed dogs.


Thursday, January 10, 2008

Bike Box

Portland, Oregon is doing an interesting thing to promote bicycle commuting: making intersections safer by painting "bike boxes" on the road where cyclists can wait for traffic lights to change.

Calling it a "bike box" makes it seem really involved. Folks, it's paint on the street. Which is to say, 1) it's cheap 2) you don't have to physically change the road and 3) enforcement against auto drivers is going to be tough. Still, I don't see why Austin couldn't do something like this on its existing roads.

That said: apparently cyclists in Portland can be pushy, mean, and rude, just like drivers anywhere. But I'll never stop believing that cyclists are just more enlightened than auto drivers.

I believe that any one who wants a driver's license should have to spend 1 month riding a bicycle, so they can learn to give the proper right of way when they're driving their screaming tons of metal deathbox off to pick bluebonnets for baby. This is apropos of nothing; I just wanted to write "screaming tons of metal deathbox."

Friday, January 4, 2008

Food & Place

I'm in Chicago for business meetings and a conference, and food came up twice in conversations. The first one was about Chicago supermarkets, Austin supermarkets, Portland restaurants; the second was about the new word "locavore," or "eating around one's place," which is the Oxford University Press's new word of the year. On that theme of food versus place as a cultural focus of the moment, "locavore" blends the two -- though notice that it's the food that's chosen, not the place. And I fell asleep trying to think of the inverse word, where it's the place that's chosen for its food. I didn't get far -- I was tired -- but will continue thinking.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Another Windsor Park Blog

You might enjoy this Windsor Park blog: http://the-grackle.blogspot.com/

I am nearly certain that I used to walk the dog by these folks' yard and admire their plants.