Pooch Profile: Meet Max

Name: Max

Owner: Stacey

Nickname: Handsome

Age: Stacey's best guess is 13!

Breed: Westie

Place of Origin: Westie Rescue in Round Rock, Texas (2004)

BDPFs (Best Dog Park Friends): Stacey says Max "loves everyone equally." (Zia adds that Max sometimes tires of female company and tends to wander off behind the men who walk at Dog Park.)

Mortal Enemies: Any male dog that still has his "manhood"

Loveliest Features: His confident, oblivious, bouncy strut. Stacey says, "He is his own private Idaho!"

Movie Star He Has Been Compared to: James Dean 

Signature Move: "Peeing on babies :)"  

Zia adds: Another signature move is the stealth departure move,  in which Max decides to follow his own path and sneaks off. Not so long ago, a bunch of us searched for Max in the dark because he had disappeared. He was tired of walking, so he simply trotted off to the nearest parking lot and waited patiently by a stranger's car. He had no doubt that Stacey would find him and take him home. 

--zia

Our (New) Neighbors to the West

Check this out! This is the artist's rendering of the residential complex currently under construction directly across the street from Dog Park. The point of view, in fact, is from Dog Park. Gosh, isn't it idyllic? It's always April! Notice all the beautiful, blossoming shrubbery in the foreground that is currently not planted on Dog Park. Look at the cars, modest sedans, lazily cruising down a cobble-stoned Bull Creek Boulevard. And the tiny, well-dressed people who are walking to and from the foyer of the building housing their expensive "multi-family units," along with their private pools and gymnasium. After all, where else would they be walking? To the nonexistent nearby grocery store? To the thriving local businesses? To the nearby University? The reality is, they are either walking to see their grannies at the retirement home around the corner, the plastic surgeon two blocks down, or to the Dog Park. And how will they cross the street safely, I wonder.

Because the fact is that once these 329 units are available (which, according to www.ardent-residential.com/multi-family/post_west_austin.html were supposed to be ready and available now, completed by "4Q 2009"), the lovely, tree-lined boulevard pictured above will become a traffic nightmare, especially around prime-time Dog Park visitation hours. (After all, to get to the conveniently located Mopac Expressway, Post-West Austin dwellers will need to make two left-hand turns, the first from their own parking garage driveway, without the benefit of a traffic light.) And, despite some speculation around Dog Park that the units might be corporate apartments, which would limit the number of potential new Park attendees, the site bills the "units" (apartments? condos? Are these words suddenly politically incorrect now?) as "multi-family." Which means what? Where I come from, the (sub)urban northeast, multifamily means a jumbling Victorian house whose floors were converted into shag-rug-and-panelling lined apartments and whose residents yell out the windows ("Yo, Tony! Where's Frankie?"), hang laundry on lines strung between the buildings, and throw firecrackers from their porches for most of the month of July. I doubt that is what the good developers of Post West Austin intend. 

When I went to the Web site listed above, I was unable to find answers some basic questions: Are the units condos or apartments? How much are they? How many people can live in each "multi-family unit"? Will pets be allowed? Will there any conditions on the pets—their size and number? The site is obviously aimed at giving credit to the developers, not providing much info to potential buyers or renters or their existing neighbors. There is no schpiel about the neighborhood, other than its convenient location near Mopac and the University. What I want is insight into the kinds of people who will live in the things. Who are they? What do they want from my neighborhood? I want to be able to predict their impact on my insular little world of Dog Park. Right now, the vibe I'm getting is not a good one, despite the artistry of the rendering at the top of this page. More to come, I am sure. 

--zia

Art source: www.ardent-residential.com/multi-family/post_west_austin.html

 

HB 4536 R.I.P.?

Good morning, all. Those of you who are not members of the Dog Park listserv, here is the latest on House Bill 4536, which was supposed to go to the House Land & Resource Management committee yesterday: 

On Tuesday night, many Dog Parkers received an e-mail from Laura L. Her lobbyist friend had made calls to the Dallas representative, Dan Branch, who originally sponsored the the bill—to sell the land that makes up half our Dog Park—at the State Cemetery Board's request. Branch decided to withdraw the bill from consideration, so the Committee would not have a chance Wednesday to vote on it and pass it forward. For those of you who have more modern computers than mine, you can hear the relevant final minute of the Land & Resource Management committee meeting at the following link: http://www.house.state.tx.us/media/welcome.php  (Jump down to the broadcasts created on 4/1. Click on 81st Legislature.  Then scroll to Land & Resource Management. This info is courtesy of Dog Parker Laure McLaughlin.) With this news, everyone at Dog Park enjoyed a brief sigh of relief. 

It was brief, however, because we still need to be watchful for a couple of reasons. One is that the bill can still be tacked on to a larger one without discussion. Laure warned that the bill may receive a hearing next week, so we need to keep an eye on it. (I signed up to receive alerts at My TLO, but I have not gotten any. Laure recommends checking out the agendas for future committee meetings, at www.capitol.state.tx.us/Committees/MeetingsByCmte.aspx?Leg=81=H&CmteCode=C360 )  Also, Laure and Laura  both recommend that we continue to keep the issue alive by writing to all the pols in the Travis County delegation, which include Senator Watson and Representatives Bolton, Naishtat, Howard, Dukes, and Rodriquez. Again, their contact information can be found through www.capitol.state.tx.us

Another reason to worry, I think, is that although the land does not have an interested buyer at the moment (which may have been one factor in the decision to withdraw the bill), Laura reports that Gary Bradley, a notorious Austin real estate scoundrel, may have "his eye on the property." A quick Google and Dog Park grapevine check suggests that Bradley, who was responsible for the Circle C development in South Austin and was at the heart of the development controversy that spawned Save Our Springs  [S.O.S.] in the late 80's, is, like many of us during these troubled economic times, on the down-and-out. Dog Parkers in the humble but proud Rosedale neighborhood say that Bradley has been living among them for years and driving beat-up trucks instead of the high-end foreign sports cars he once tooled around in. All this is news to me. I was a bubble-headed 20-something living with five strangers in an East Side wreck when S.O.S. was a big deal. All our fortunes have risen and sunk since then. Austin's economy is constantly on the roller-coaster of boom or bust. So when we come out of the current bust, Bradley and a whole host of fellow scoundrels are likely to be waiting with cash in hand to develop our town and our Park whether we like it or not. So, let's be careful out there!

(Many thanks to Laura LaValle, Laure McLaughlin, and Chris Taylor for their e-mails and updates and knowledge of how the Texas State Legislature works. Thanks to Dean for the scoop on Rosedale.)