Texas Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Fri Aug 28, 2009 at 06:07 PM CDT

Sorry for not writing that much of late. Being away in Pennsylvania for a week and then back home with my folks the week after that, it's more or less been an informal break of writing for me. I'm looking forward to getting back to a regular schedule.

Random

• New BOR Poll posted on the Texas Democratic Gubernatorial Primary!
  
  
• Now this is just funny.
  
  
• One of the quotes I usually have on my social profiles, like Facebook is "All there is can be explained through infinite randomness and socialized patterns." I think this report sheds some light on that point- the more chaos of data we create, the more we can understand ourselves.
     
• From the last issue of ESPN magazine that sports Texas' Colt McCoy on the cover.
  

  “Do you have any gay teammates? Almost half of those surveyed (49.4%, to be exact) said yes, they believe they have at least one gay teammate. In the Pac-10, 70% of those surveyed said yes.”

• Capital Metro's MetroRail Red Line now being attacked from the CapMetro board. And from more usual sources but for different reasons.
  
  
• There is a new Austin Neighborhood Association that covers just about the entire city and the ETJ called the "Super Duper Neighborhood Objectors and Appealers Organization" created by the "Great and Powerful Oz" also known as former 1993 Special Election City Council candidate Bill Gammon.
  
  
• An update on the Grayco PUD before the Austin City Council. Predictably, Save Town Lake opposes it. The Austin Contrarian does points out a fault in Save Town Lake's argument that allowing a height variance from 60 feet to 90 feet would be precedent setting. 

  We can debate whether the Grayco project provides enough community benefit. We can debate whether the  Grayco design passes muster.  But Cooke's argument is a bit of misdirection.  When Council passed the ordinance on June 11, it debated whether to exempt PUDs from the height limits.  Save Town Lake pushed hard to hold PUDs to the height limits.  Council ultimately made PUDs subject to the ordinance, but explicitly provided that "[t]his does not limit a PUD's ability to modify the Waterfront Overlay exemption."  In other words, Council decided then to allow exemptions for PUDs on a "case-by-case basis."  Save Town Lake lost that one.

  The debate over the Grayco project should focus on whether it is good enough for an exception.  But stating that  the Grayco project would establish a "dangerous precedent" for case-by-case exceptions is misleading when Council has already resolved to allow case-by-case exceptions.

• Austinite Jonathan Law start up a new Urban blog called Urbanism South.
  
  

Elsewhere in Texas

• There are signs of creative elements organizing cool things out in Byran Texas. So all you College Station area folks be sure to go out to Rock the Republic Oct. 15-17.
   
• Rep. Gary Elkins thinks that this just just hilarious and wants to share. Apparently he approves of the suggestion that Obama is a Communist.
  
  
• Central Texas state reps split their support between John Sharp and Bill White. Yawn.
  
  
• Here are the City of Irving's new court mandated single member districts. 
  
  
• Would this be great to bring to Texas?
  
  
• Is KBH the new CKS?