BIKE: SW Parkway, Barton Springs, Clean Groundwater

[Dennis Abbott]

I used to work for these guys before they sent my job to India.  This
is not so much AMD as it is Hector(The Hatchet) Ruiz.  In fact I would
not at all be suprised to see this facility(if built) become enlarged
in the coming years as they slowly dismantle and shrink operations in
Sunnyvale CA.

The very worst part is that when the economy takes another cycle down
AMD will be once again be shaken out and some of this new campus, like
their current campus, will be empty and vacant.  I would be suprised
to see AMD with any Manufacturing capacity within Austin in 2 years.

Incredibly they did a pretty noble job of promoting alternate
commuters while I was there.  It got me riding and I ditched my car
while working there.  AMD would not be persuing this without Hector,
this is all for Hector.  This is what he thinks people will remember
him for, Ugly office spaces.  All of the jobs moving to this building
could be done with a dsl line in a home office combined with a nice
shiny computer running a new AMD processor.  The man lacks vision.

On 5/20/05, Patrick Goetz <pgoetz> wrote:
> 
> Colin Clark of the SOS Alliance asked me to alert folks on the bike list
> to an online petition to convince AMD to not locate their new facility
> over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge zone.  The petition is here:  MoveAMD.com
> 
> Even if you don't care about Barton Springs or clean groundwater, the
> proposed AMD move is fiscally idiotic and could be economically
> disasterous for Austin.  Think about it:  They're proposing a workplace
> for 5000 people where every employee will be forced to drive in order to
> get to work.  How efficient will this be when the price of gas goes up
> to $4 or $5/gallon?  Unless some kind of dramatic breakthrough occurs
> which will allow us to continue to have cheap energy (don't hold your
> breath), large workplaces such as AMD will only be economically viable
> in a central, downtown location which is well served by high speed, high
> volume mass transit.  Yes, we don't have the mass transit system yet
> (and never will if matters continue to be left up to the likes of Lee
> Walker and Lyndon Henry), but we're much more likely to have such a
> thing providing service to downtown or in the desired development
> corridor than we are in the environmentally sensitive, LOW DENSITY
> southwestern boonies.
> 
> I strongly urge everyone to sign this petition and to tell all your
> friends about it, too.  The AMD move is completely driven by the fact
> that AMD CEO Hector Ruiz lives in Southwest Austin and would like to
> make HIS commute as convenient as possible.  By the time most Austinites
> are living in $5/gallon hell and AMD has been flushed down the toilet
> due to mounting costs and foreign competition, Ruiz will have
> conveniently cashed in his stock options and moved to the Virgin Islands
> a multimillionare without a care in the world.  Let's stop being
> complete f****ing idiots for a change and try to exert influence to put
> an end to this madness.
> 
> Colin has some additional arguments below aimed specifically at cyclists.
> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: SW parkway
> Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 16:45:05 -0500
> From: colin clark <colin>
> To: Patrick Goetz <pgoetz>
> 
> Patrick,
> 
> Thanks for sending an email to your friends asking them to sign the
> petition. We really do want to crank up the numbers big time.
> 
> Here is some text for cyclists. Please tweak as you see fit.
> 
> Thanks,
> Colin
> 
> Do you ride your bicycle on Southwest Parkway? Would you like a major
> increase in traffic on the road?
> 
> Advanced Micro Devices is planning on moving 2,900 employees into 860,000
> square feet of proposed new offices at Southwest Parkway and William Cannon
> in Stratus/Freeport's "Lantana" development. For comparison, the new Frost
> Tower downtown is about 500,000 square feet. "Lantana" is in the Barton
> Springs Contributing Zone, just upstream of the Recharge Zone.
> 
> AMD's move would generate over 8,000 car trips per day onto Southwest
> Parkway and William Cannon. In 2004 average daily traffic on Southwest
> Parkway was 20,427 cars, according to the City of Austin.
> 
> You can help AMD reconsider its decision and find a better site, not on
> Southwest Parkway and not in the sensitive Barton Springs watershed. Sign
> the online petition at www.MoveAMD.com, where you can also get more
> information.
> 
> Many other companies have announced plans to move to the Barton Springs
> watershed only to change their minds in the face of public outcry. The
> Austin cycling community can be of great assistance to concerned neighbors
> in the area and conservation groups trying to move AMD.
> 
> Thanks for your help.
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 


-- 
Dennis Abbott
3501 Shoreline Drive
Apartment 612
Austin, TX 78728