It was twenty years ago today

by: Robin Cravey

Mon Jun 25, 2012 at 10:20 AM CDT

I smoked my last joint on my birthday in 1992, watching the sun go down from the primitive campground at Pedernales Falls State Park.  I was planning to start law school in the fall, and I decided that as a lawyer, I would obey the law.  Our marijuana prohibition is one of our most benighted laws, but I intended to obey that, too.  And I have.

Support the Barton Springs Pool Master Plan

by: Robin Cravey

Wed Aug 24, 2011 at 08:21 PM CDT

We want to show our appreciation to the council.  Please call or email them supporting the resolution and the master plan.

Council initiated the Master Plan process in 2006 after members of FBSP presented a list of deferred maintenance and improvement projects for the pool.

From 2006 through 2007 there were dozens of stakeholder meetings and numerous public hearings formulating the plan.

In 2007 we identified about 20 short-term projects that needed immediate attention.  Council allocated $6.2 million (plus contingency) to fund those projects.

Central City Suicide

by: Robin Cravey

Wed May 11, 2011 at 04:33 PM CDT

This suicide pact, sometimes called the Absolutely No Change pact, has led neighborhood associations to resist every effort at modernization and renewal.  They oppose apartments, condominiums, larger houses, and smaller houses being built in their bailiwicks.  Their vigilance reaches down to a grim lot-by-lot war against duplexes and granny flats.

The result has been to drive up the price of housing in the central city, and to drive out the young families that give a neighborhood its life and its future.  Absurdly, many of the long-time residents who fight renewal could not afford the houses they live in if they had to buy them now.  These neighborhoods cannot sustain themselves.

Two wake-up calls have been delivered to these neighborhoods, one by the school district, and one by the city demographer.  The school district proposed closing central city schools because there aren't enough children nearby to support them.  The demographer, Ryan Robinson, confirmed that the number of young children in the central city has dropped dramatically.

At a monthly meeting of Mayor Lee Leffingwell's environmental forum some months ago, the city's new sustainability officer, Lucia Athens, asked those assembled for their top priorities.  Ultimate sustainability, I said to her then, is to bring families with children back into the central neighborhoods, so that the city can reproduce itself.  We need a menu of best practices, and a plan for remedial action.

The challenge for these neighborhoods is to reverse course and begin to work now to bring the young families back.  If the neighborhoods fail, then city leaders should act to save the neighborhoods in spite of themselves, for the good of the city.  Without action, we will be doomed to become a hollow commuter city.  

cross-posted at tiltedplanetpress.com.

Obama's wasted year & the way forward

by: Robin Cravey

Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 09:54 AM CST

Small change

The difference between Coach Stengel and President Obama is that Obama got to pick his own team.  Yet, after a campaign built on change, he continued in power the same old team:  Gates at Defense, Geithner at Treasury, Bernanke at Fed.  And they're making the same old plays:  big bank bailouts; weak regulations; tepid economic stimulus; troop surge in Afghanistan; persecution of gays in the military; protection for torturers.  The President shrugged off his own deadline for closing the un-American prison at Guantanamo.

After leading the nation in a chant of Yes we can, Mr. Obama has spent his first year in office showing that No, they can't.  Now David Axelrod is offering the excuse that change is hard.  When did they figure that one out?  

President Obama has managed to lose his Democratic base and independent voters at the same time, while gaining not a single friend in the opposition.  When the President should have shown leadership, he stayed on the sidelines.  Where are we going?

Congratulations to President Obama on Nobel Prize

by: Robin Cravey

Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 09:33 PM CDT

Many Americans remain in denial, even now, of the shameful record of the previous eight years.  It was a time when Americans, acting as willing dupes of reckless and immoral leaders, scapegoated entire populations for the crimes of a cabal of madmen.  It was a time when Americans rationalized torture, aggression, murder, and revenge.  

Americans woke up, last year, from the sinister trance that gripped them.  They turned away from the grim dichotomy of domination or destruction.  They listened to a voice that offered hope, and they chose a new path.  

This is the real change in the world.  America is once again motivated by its higher self.  This prize is not for the eloquence of one man who enabled us to wake up, or the daily efforts of that man working to live up to the change he has enabled.  

This Nobel Peace Prize is really for the American people.  And no one is more fit to represent us in accepting this prize than the President of the United States, Barack Obama.  

Cravey announces candidacy

by: Robin Cravey

Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 08:21 AM CDT

Robin Cravey today announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2010.  He was recruited to run in the Republican primary by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in a secret full moon meeting at Barton Springs Pool.

The announcement came just one day after Cravey withdrew as President Obama's nominee for Secretary of Two Wheelers amid revelations that he underreported his tip income as a cabdriver in 1975.

"Governor Palin has an impressive pair of  

Not Running

by: Robin Cravey

Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 03:36 PM CST

As friends and supporters (and candidates!) check in with me to find out my plans, I do regret losing the momentum and loyalty that I built up during my campaign last year.  And I miss the excitement and shared enthusiasm of the struggle.  Such things fade quickly, and are not easily called back into being.

But, when I sit down to write in my journal at leisure, or take a long walk, or read a book, I feel very good about my decision not to run this time.  It's not just that I'm glad to have free time, something that I certainly did not have in the crush of campaigning.  More important, I'm glad to be rebuilding clarity and stability of mind.  I'm restoring that stock of ideas and ideals that I drew on during the campaign.

If I do run again-and I plan to-clarity and stability will be every bit as important as the momentum and enthusiasm that are fading.  Moreover, I have time now to think about the lessons I learned at a gut level during the campaign.

A Generational Renovation for Barton Springs Pool

by: Robin Cravey

Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 03:19 PM CST

Next Wednesday Councilmembers Sheryl Cole and Lee Leffingwell and friends of the pool will signal this advent with a press conference. Details will be forthcoming.

While the battle for the SOS ordinance was about indirect threats to Barton Springs happening over the aquifer, the master plan is about the deterioration of the pool and its facilities inside the fence that encloses this beautiful landmark.  Indeed, over the past two decades, it has seemed that the pool itself was forgotten.  This is not unusual.  Grand battles are heroic and exciting.  Maintenance and stewardship are not.

Besides all the other things it is, Barton Springs Pool is a city park facility.  And Austin is chronically derelict in caring for its park facilities.  Like Shoal Creek Trail and Deep Eddy Pool, Barton Springs Pool slowly decayed under the city's benign neglect for too long.  But now, like those other two facilities, Barton Springs Pool is receiving some overdue attention.

The Barton Springs Pool Master Plan is a conceptual document that sets out some great improvements for the pool, grounds, and buildings.  It envisions renovation of the bathhouse (including addition of a visitor center), landscaping and expansion of the pool grounds, and addition of an accessible trail and restrooms on the south side.  It also examines possibilities for redesign of the dams, bypass tunnel, and other pool structures to make the pool more natural and self-cleaning.
The plan resulted from a grassroots effort to care for the pool that began in 2006.  The city council authorized drafting the plan after scores of swimmer volunteers, under the banner of the Friends of Barton Springs Pool, worked with city staff to ramp up pool cleaning and identify needed improvements.  It was drawn up by consultants after a long and exhaustive process that included dozens of meetings, workshops, public hearings, and board and commission reviews.

During the planning process, volunteers, staff, and the consultants identified a dozen and a half short term projects that could and should go forward immediately.  The council appropriated over $6 million for those projects, and they are underway.  They include repairs to the bypass tunnel, removal of the overhead wires from the pool area, new pool lighting, arbor care for the trees, repairs to the bath house, and research into designs to benefit the health of the springs, survival of the salamanders, and enjoyment of the swimmers.

City council adoption of the Barton Springs Pool Master Plan is the next big step in this generational renovation of the pool and its facilities.  It is on the council agenda for approval January 15.  Lovers of the pool should contact council members to let them know you support the plan. I'll have more news on this soon.

Robin Cravey
vice-president
Friends of Barton Springs Pool

To show your support for Barton Springs Pool and the Master Plan:
• Send an email to members of the city council.
• Join us at City Hall on January 15 for the council meeting.
• If you can come to City Hall, drop me a message and we'll coordinate.

Robin Cravey's Retire the Debt Party

by: Robin Cravey

Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 03:21 PM CDT

Since the election, I have been encouraged to continue advocating for Austin's hometown agenda but I need your help!  Although I ran a grassroots campaign, I incurred some debt that I need to retire.  Please join me at Mary Ann and Craig's house for my "Retire the Debt Party".

I look forward to seeing you and getting an opportunity to discuss the future of our city once again.

See you on August 5th!

Fraternally,

Robin Cravey

Blockwalking, Betty and the Budget

by: Robin Cravey

Mon May 05, 2008 at 11:44 AM CDT

As I've said many times, I learned the budget process from Betty when she was city finance director and I was a city council aide. We got to be pretty good friends then, and that has endured.

Naturally, Betty has been a leader on budget issues on the council, and many folks will be sorry to see her go for that reason (among others!). But I can assure you, I intend to devote a lot of attention to the budget if I'm elected.

I've been pleased to see the council hold a series of work sessions on the budget. I've been calling for reinstituting the council worksessions as a way to make the council's work more open to the public. With the hectic pace of the campaign, I haven't been able to attend any of the worksessions, but I'm eager to get into the budget process and start working with the other members of the council to set spending priorities for the coming year.

(crossposted to www.robincravey.com)