As someone who’s lived in a couple of other cool North American cities, I’ve got certain ideas about how A City Ought to Work. Austin, as cool as it is in many ways, definitely has its shortcomings in areas that are important to me — namely, public transportation and recycling programs.
While I may not be the eco-warrior who rides her bike to work and throws out only a single grocery shopping bag’s worth of waste per week (and apologizes to David Suzuki for her failure), I *do* care about the environment and like to do what I can to help keep my waste and carbon emissions to a minimum. Having always lived in cities that already had mandatory city-wide recycling programs (complete with city-issue blue or green bins) in place, I was definitely surprised to find that Austin didn’t already have such a program. Since recycling is one of the easiest things we can do to keep our city beautiful, I’ve been wondering why Austin — an otherwise pretty progressive town — is lagging behind.
My hero, David Suzuki
Furthermore, the public transit in town is pretty dismal — unless you’re going to UT, which I’m (usually) not. I’ve been surprised by any number of issues, from the lack of service (frequently waiting 30 minutes to an hour for a bus to come), to a simple inability to find out when the next bus is actually scheduled to pass (don’t even get me started on how ludicrous it is that their automated system only operates on voice commands). When school’s out, schedules can sometimes change drastically, leaving riders stranded between lines at such sketchy locations as the Lamar Transit Center — where you’re about as likely to be shivved in a bum-fight as catch your connecting bus – and on the weekends the cushy Express buses don’t run at all, despite the fact that they’re the single best way to get downtown in only 30 minutes.
Oh, and did I mention these fancy Express buses only service North Austin? Which is really great when you live in South Austin, the part of town that could really use a quicker way to get somewhere — anywhere!
But before this post gets into pointless bitchery (too late!), here’s something to think about: the City of Austin actually wants you to voice your concerns.
“Yeah, right!” you’re thinking.
No, really. They do. And they’ve got a website called Speak Up Austin, where you can post all of your ideas about how to actually make our city better.
“Okay, sure. They’ll let you send them complaints. So what?” you’re saying.
Better than that, they’re tracking citizen suggestions, letting everyone vote on all the ideas submitted (even the kooky and the crazy!), and dividing them up into categories so that you can easily focus in on the topics that most interest you.
We’ve already contributed several ideas on the subject of transportation, so check them out and vote them up if you agree! Or contribute some of your own, and show the city what your vision of Austin’s future really looks like.
