Adler, Kitchen, Tovo and others at AURA meeting today at fibercove!

Today is the AURA Annual Membership Meeting ( http://www.aura-atx.org/ ) and I really want to encourage everyone interested in better transit, walkability, and an urban landscape to join us.

This is our opportunity to make the case for a more urban, dense, and well developed Austin. But we can’t do that if we don’t have advocates and supporters in the room.

This is being held right in the neighborhood at fibercove (same shopping center as Snooze and Picnik food trailer) 1700 South Lamar suite 338 (walk or bike over - it’s a beautiful day!).

It starts at 1:30pm - hoping all urban minded folks can make it!

I would love to come over there and ask Kitchen a bunch of questions that she would refuse to answer. Unfortunately, they would be off topic and I’d probably get thrown out and maybe end up in jail. Anybody interested in risking asking Kitchen isn’t it true that her idea for changing the name of Robert E Lee Rd to White Guilt Way came from Sheryl Cole, a Democrat she supports who is trying to get elected to State District 46, East Austin? How about asking her if she is aware that her rationale for changing the name of the street was a pack of lies. Like she could be asked, is it true that Barton Springs was never segregated and Azie Morton did not break the color barrier by swimming there? Is is true that the 1928 City Plan did not force blacks to move to East Austin (where they were already the predominant race)? Please ask Ann, isn’t it true that the whole name changing thing was a staged virtue signaling piece of political propaganda for which the wishes of those most affected were sacrifcied? Isn’t it true that she dissuaded, thru unscupulous means, a REL property owner from filing to change the name to something most property owners along the road would have supported? Yup, I’m pretty sure I would get tossed cuz ya know, I just ain’t politically correct.

Is this off topic? I don’t think so. It’s about why I can’t make the meeting. Her and Tovo have the power. I don’t. And neither do y’all. They will do whatever they want. They will permit others to speak but the decisions have already been made before they permit public input. That’s SOP in Austin. I call it demockeracy.

Yes that would be off topic.

Oh please. You wouldn’t end up in jail. The state hospital, however, is another story…

Like she could be asked, is it true that Barton Springs was never segregated and Azie Morton did not break the color barrier by swimming there?

While you’re at it, you may as well ask if the Holocaust really happened, or if it was all just a secret plot to make people feel sorry for European Jews.

Is is true that the 1928 City Plan did not force blacks to move to East Austin (where they were already the predominant race)?

See above. Any particular reason you’re interested in revisionist history, aside from your usual grumpy-old-man asshole bit?

[I]sn’t it true that the whole name changing thing was a staged virtue signaling piece of political propaganda for which the wishes of those most affected were sacrifcied?

Yes, I know how agonizing it must be to deal with the horrors of a street-name change. Also, like quite a few people (e.g. much of the ZNA leadership), you appear to be under the misimpression that you “own” your street because you own a house along it. You don’t. It belongs to the city, and as such the city – through its elected leaders – is 100 percent within its legal (and moral) rights to rename a street after someone who wasn’t a white supremacist responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers.

Her and Tovo have the power. I don’t. And neither do y’all. They will do whatever they want. They will permit others to speak but the decisions have already been made before they permit public input.

You might want to sit down for this, but I actually agree with you on this point.