My wife called this morning to inform me that my dog is trying to dig up the grave of my son’s dead fish.  I treasure moments like those. What I don’t treasure is hearing the loss of Good Life Magazine, which formally shut down yesterday with an email from the editor, Ken Martin, noting that after 11 years they had finally run completely out of money.

Ken was a friend of bicyclists and stuck by LOBV with a great editorial against the 2006 attempt at a helmet law. I wrote a few articles for him, notably a look at Herman the German and an article on body modification. And in a tad bit of irony, I did car reviews for him. (I remember writing something on my Dodge Charger review like, “…and in my glove compartment I had a loaded .45, a bottle of Jack Daniels and a roadmap of Hell…”)

But on to the stimulus news. All around the country people are like kids with a new Sears Catalog (in the olden days)–so I’m sure the wish lists for the economic recovery stimulus package due out of Washington probably totals something like $679 trillion. Nevertheless, our list is most important, and you may recall us talking about the COA list with a generic bike project package.

Annick Beaudet, the city’s Bike/Ped program manager, sent me a more specific list yesterday:

Bicycle Infrastructure Improvements 2.6 million:
Specific Examples of ready to go projects which implement the City Bicycle Plan:
Route 29 Barrier Removal (at Hartford and Windsor intersection improvements)
Bannister Lane Bicycle Lanes
Lakeshore Drive Bicycle lanes
Montopolis Drive Shared Use Path (connection from Lance Armstrong Bikeway into Conley-Guerrero Park)
Barton Springs Road Barrier Removal (at Mopac Corridor Shared Use path intersection, west of Stratford)
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Barrier Removal serving the TOD (Bicycle improvements at Airport and Manor and Airport and MLK)

Bicycle, Shared Use Paths, Connected Trails, and Sidewalk Projects 2.5 million:
Specific Examples of ready to go projects which implement the City Bicycle Plan, City Trails Initiative, and Sidewalk Plan: Locations are being coordinated to coincide with other work (larger projects) and which implement the above plans and initiatives.

Still not a lot of detail on the second item, but everyone at COA is running around all stimulated, and it’s good to get these projects on the table, which better be a big table. Annick also noted that other projects not quite as ready for construction, like the MoPac/Barton Creek bridge, might be listed on any future stimulus rounds. The complete list of transportation projects is up for a vote today at City Council.