BIKE: Fw: bicycleaustin.info city council endorsements

[Michael Zakes]

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    Re: bicycleaustin.info city council endorsements

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Zakes" <watcyc>
To: "Austin Bikes" <forum>
Cc: "'Scott Korcz'" <korcz.s>; "'Jim Hutton'" <jhtexas>;
"'Michael Zakes'" <watcyc>; "'Preston Tyree'"
<wpreston3>; "'Bob Farr'" <bobfarr>; "'Stanton
Truxillo'" <stgetr>; "'Fred Meredith'"
<bikin-fred>; "'Guy Taylor'" <gwtaylor>; "'Susie
Truxillo'" <surhtr>; "'Molly and John Chalmers'"
<JKChalmers>; "'Laura King & Russell Hahn'"
<hahnking>; <GMARTINEZ46>; "'Mick'"
<mkoffend>
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: bicycleaustin.info city council endorsements


> IMHO, I think the process this time around for cyclist input on the
council
> race was close to non-existant, other than the Political Pedal (thanks
Scott
> et al) and the questionaire sent out by MBJ. I'd like to propose a joint
> BicycleAustin/ACA questionaire to go out to all candidates for next year's
> mayoral and remaining council races. I'd also like to see a candidate
forum
> where they could be questioned by cyclists. while the ACA can't endorse
> candidates, cross-posting answers to the questionaires and responses from
> the candidate forums would easily fit into the educational mission.
> [/soapbox]
> Michael F Zakes, prop.
> Waterloo Cycles
> 2815 Fruth
> Austin TX 78705
> 512.472.9253
>
> "I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of
> mass
> destruction to tell the world where they are."
>
> Ari Fleischer, on July 9, 2003.
>
>
> mail
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Patrick Goetz" <pgoetz>
> To: "Austin Bikes" <forum>
> Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 12:04 PM
> Subject: BIKE: bicycleaustin.info city council endorsements
>
>
> > The City Council Candidate endorsements listed on the bicycleaustin.info
> > web page are as follows:
> >
> >    Place 1: Steven Adams
> >    Place 3: Margot Clarke
> >    Place 4: Jennifer Gale
> >
> > Perhaps I should have been paying more attention to this; unfortunately
> > I wasn't.
> >
> > Steven Adams?  Did no one involved in this decision bother to attend a
> > single Place 1 candidates' forum?  This is not dissimilar from a Jewish
> > organization passing over David Ben-Gurion in order to endorse Heinrich
> > Himmler.  Not to mention an embarrassment to the entire bicycling
> > politics community.
> >
> > At Lee Leffingwell's victory party last night I enjoyed the distinct
> > embarrassment of having Lee ask me why *bicyclists* chose to endorse
> > Steven Adams for place 1.  Anyone who knows Lee knows that he will be a
> > dead-on advocate for bicycling and pedestrian issues, and anyone who's
> > been to even one candidates' forum knows that Steven Adams was a joke
> > candidate, running on the Republican "we need to cut taxes and waste in
> > order to make Austin affordable again" ticket with no clear ideas of how
> > this might be accomplished other than to reduce the (apparently) high
> > levels of civic expenditures on public art.  You can be sure that Steven
> > Adams would regard bike facilities as another form of government waste;
> > money that should be spent on expanding free roads for "real"
> > Austinites.  This is a candidate who thought that Envision Central Texas
> >   was a dumb idea and that the results were not representative of what
> > people actually think.
> >
> > I explained to Lee that any candidate who hadn't filled out the emailed
> > survey was automatically disqualified, but I could sense from our
> > discussion that he wasn't entirely convinced that this was a good enough
> > reason not to get an endorsement; in any case, we left it at that.  I
> > trust that -- being a good guy -- Lee will continue to advocate for
> > bicyclists despite this slap in the face.  FULL DISCLOSURE: Lee is also
> > a strong supporter of public transportation, has promised to take the
> > CAMPO board by the balls in order to push for more central Austin
> > representation, and (a clear sign of intelligence and an open mind) is a
> > supporter of monorail and similar "quality" grade-separated mass transit
> > solutions; i.e. I have other reasons for supporting Lee.
> >
> > There are three issues here:
> >
> > First, despite MBJ's carping, it seems clear that bicycleaustin.info is
> > being seen as the official voice of the bicycling politics community.
> > Since I disagree with all of these endorsements, stringently in the case
> > of Place 1, I have some issues with these endorsements being seen as
> > representing my views as a bicyclist.  Usually endorsements are selected
> > by having interested constituents vote, and I don't recall being asked
> > to vote on these.  So, 2 options:  Next time I would either like to see
> > a disclaimer suggesting that these endorsements are the views of MBJ and
> > don't represent a plurality, let alone majority, of bicycling activists,
> > or the process for making these endorsements needs to be handled with a
> > bit more input from other bicyclists, say for example the people in the
> > trenches who are going to be taking the heat for stabbing a
> > bicycle-friendly candidate in the back for no good reason other than he
> > didn't have time to fill out a survey.
> >
> > Second is the question of how important an emailed survey should
> > actually be.  A similar issue came up at the DANA candidates' forum, as
> > Betty Dunkerley was unable to attend because one of her parents had died
> > a couple of days earlier, and she was out of town.  The point was made
> > that DANA couldn't rightly endorse Betty, as she hadn't shown up at the
> > forum.  After much discussion, it was decided that Betty's record on
> > downtown issues speaks for itself, and she got the DANA endorsement
> > anyway.  Let's recall that Lee's wife committed suicide a couple of
> > weeks ago and there was some question as to whether or not he would even
> > continue to run.  I think this might be an acceptable excuse for not
> > returning the survey.  Moreover, however, is it really a good idea for a
> > smaller interest group (bicycle advocacy) to even have such a policy?
> > Candidates are bombarded by such requests and have limited time and
> > money.  Is it really reasonable for us to expect each candidate to take
> > the time to fill out such a survey, or even see it in the flood of mail
> > that pours into campaign offices prior to an election?  Wouldn't it be
> > better for each of us who care to show up at some larger candidates'
> > forums, ask questions, and then pool our information in order to make an
> > intelligent endorsement?  Sorry to argue for a rational policy on a list
> > where some members routinely suggest that bike lanes are a bad idea and
> > that Hays county law enforcement officials universally qualify for
> > beautification in preparation for sainthood, but, hey, I'm feeling that
> > crazy feeling today.
> >
> > Finally, there is the usual question of pragmatism vs. being pedantic
> > and looking like an idiot.  Endorsements of people like Steven Adams and
> > Jennifer Gale just make bicycling advocates look like idiots.  Jennifer
> > Gale can fill out all the surveys she likes.  At the DANA forum, she
> > showed up a half an hour after all the other candidates had already left
> > and then threw a tantrum afterwords because they wouldn't let her
> > interrupt the organization's endorsement process with a speech.  Again,
> > a single actual discussion with this person indicates, at least to me,
> > that she is a few turnips short of a full bushel in the mental health
> > department. Making such an endorsement turns the political clout of
> > bicyclists into some kind of lampoon of an actual voice in the process.
> >   Perhaps this alone is adequate proof that reliance on a single survey
> > is a very bad idea indeed.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Get on or off this list here:  http://BicycleAustin.info/list
> >
>