Festival-Affected Part of Zilker Off-Limits Through Rest of October

As someone who goes to ACL fest every year and who has played soccer in several different leagues around town and loves playing pick-up at Zilker, I'm torn about this issue. I hope the city can work out a way that accomodates all parties.

Regarding PARD's policy on athletics at Zilker, my understanding is that they no longer allow organized sports (i.e. official soccer leagues). As such they have removed the goals from Zilker. They still allow pickup games and volleyball. I think this is probably the right policy. There are several fields that host soccer leagues on the weekend, including North East Metro Park in Pflugerville, South East Metro past the airport, and East Metro Park near Manor (all county parks), and the new Onion Creek Soccer Complex (a city park facility co-managed by Austin Men's Soccer Association) on William Canon. All of these fields are superior to even pre-ACL Zilker, which was very rocky, bumpy, weedy, sticker-y, etc.

wattage, the grass is supposed to look dead in August, and, once again, we don't get to use the park; we may not get to use the park for a very long time - perhaps until it's actually too cold to use it much, the way things are headed.

This isn't really relevant to me personally either way - I don't have the money, time, or babysitting to go to the festival; nor do I use the park anymore; but I used to play volleyball there twice a week, and I wonder where all the people who used to hang out there having picnics or playing soccer have gone (I doubt very many of them went to ACL), and whether they mind that the park they used to make great use of is now basically a private facility for weeks on end.

And yes, the Trail of Lights is stupid too, but at least it was open to everybody, and at essentially no charge.

that image is surprisingly accurate.

Oops: I meant to hit "3" weeks not "5" with regards to the Trail of Lights.

wattage, you're precious. The park was doing OK before ACL came; the only reason for the new grass was ACL itself. Yes, the new grass would be a nice side-effect public benefit of ACL, if, and here's the big if, it can ever be used by the public. They're already making sounds about never inviting back the sports leagues that used to use the park.

The key here is that the park was basically reserved for a private company for what's turning out to be many weeks instead of the originally promised 3 days. I'd be fine with the 3 days. I was fine with the 3 days. I'd even be fine if we talked about the weeks up front; but what I'm not fine with are the people with the time and/or money to spend at ACL telling the people who didn't have one or both that they should be grateful for the new grass they may never actually get to use until winter.

But if you're to sum it up, I mainly just want to make sure you folks are honest about it being 3 WEEKS, not 3 DAYS. Complaining about 3 days does sound petty. Complaining about many weeks after the festival (on top of the months before) doesn't seem as petty to me.

The park was doing ok... if you liked walking around on dead grass, dirt, and rocks. It always sucked by about late August, because there was no irrigation (just like most of our front lawns, right?).

If someone told me that Zilker could have nice grass vs what used to be there, but I'd have to forgo using the park for a year to let the grass be laid, take root, etc.. I'd have no problem with that. You apparently feel otherwise.

*IF* they don't let the sports back (which I haven't read/heard about), then your gripe becomes relevant. Otherwise, when the park opens *everyone* benefits. And, like all improvements in all facets of life, things take time (and, unfortunately, people get inconvenienced in the interim).

Ok,

THE FACTS:

Yes, the park was doing just fine before ACL and would do just fine without ACL. Fresh grass or not.

Yes, it's great that C3 has foot the bill for the new grass and sprinkler system so that it will be enjoyed year round with fresh grass.

THE MYTH:

The park is only closed for 3 days. Completely false. Even in the best case scenario(ie no mudpit) the park is closed for long periods of time before and after the festival while crews set up and break down all the stages and tents and other amenities of the festival.

Just wanted to set the record straight out there for those that believe that the park is only closed for 3 days for the festival. Just not so.

johnny.

Also, is it ok for me to complain about the Trail of Lights "tradition" which closes the park for ~5 weeks every year? To celebrate the boogie man who turns water into wine and Dell's corporate donations?

MDAHMUS has never posted anything positive on the internet. If there is something to complain about, he is right there. Zilker will be fine, Mr. Zilker used to run cattle on that strip of land back in the day

I saw this posted elsewhere, the Zilker sludge looks scary.

http://www.sludgevictims.com/Class-A-sludge.html US EPA SAYS: Regrowth of Salmonella sp. in composted biosolids is a concern, although research shows that salmonellae reach a quick peak during regrowth, then die off. Composting is not a sterilization process and a properly composted product maintains an active population of beneficial microorganisms that compete against the pathogenic members. Under some conditions, explosive regrowth of pathogenic microorganisms is possible.

http://www.epa.gov/owmitnet/mtb/combioman.pdf Class A (Dillo Dirt) sewage sludge "biosolids" is a good source of drugs, pharmaceuticals, steroids, endocrine disrupters and toxic industrial chemicals. EPA's toxics release inventory and other documents reveal that each year billions of pounds of hazardous pollutants are released into public sewers, where the wastewater treatment process reconcentrates them in the sewage sludge "biosolids".

http://www.sludgevictims.com/toxic_in_sludge.html EPA and University of Wisconsin research has found that sewage sludge may also contain infectious human and animal prions which can cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, Mad Cow Disease, Chronic Wasting Disease, Scrapie, etc.

http://www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/prion.html . Sewage sludge fertilizer should not be used in dairy pastures, public parks, ballfields, playgrounds, and home flower and vegetable gardens. Peer reviewed scientific research has found that plants, including vegetables and fodder, can take up sludge pollutants. Pathways of risk include runoff to surface waters, bioaerosols from dried sludge dust, children eat dirt (and sludge), family pets can track the sludge into homes on their feet and fur and topdressed sludge on grazing lands is eaten by livestock and returned to the human food chain in their meat and milk.

Helane Shields, Alton, NH 03809 Sludge researcher since 1996 http://www.sludgevictims.com

It's a tough situation all around, but if C3 wants to keep making tons of $$ out of an amazingly central location they HAVE to keep pouring $$ into making the great lawn sustainable over the next few years.

4-6 weeks of not having the park open to the public during prime Austin weather (after having it unavailable for 8 months of this year) is HUGE. Is it worth the 4 million (projected) revenue brought into the city from this year's ACL? To some, yes. To a daily citizen that won't see that profit and no park to relax in this October, no.

If C3 doesn't take the necessary action make sure this doesn't happen every year then the public will start calling for the festival to be moved. It's in their best interest to appease Austinites.

Agreed.

Keep in mind that no one is to blame for the weather which caused this situation; ~5 years ago, people bitched that the park was destroyed because it was so hot that we got a giant dust bowl after the first day of 60k people kicking up what was left of the grass... this year, the grass looked great at the end of day #1 with 60k people trekking back and forth on it.

then it poured.

if the festival had been a week earlier or a week later, this conversation would almost certainly be a moot point.

all this fall and winter as well as next spring, Austinites are going to reap the benefits of C3 paid for (and is going to re-pay for in terms of cleanup). there will finally be grass on Zilker and it won't be the worst 'park' in a major American city.

What a shame.

All this for a sh*tty little lame ass "festival" that only the scuzziest people who reeked of piss and year-old garbage attended.

Sigh.

lol. how does it feel to be an out of touch internet dork?

fuck it, let's just go ahead and hand over the deed to Zilker Park to Charles Attel and get it over with already. If you think that would never happen I suggest you watch a little documentary called The Garden as evidence that it can. Between the money he made off of the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth and Ravonettes cancellations he's bound to have a solid down payment for it.

johnny.

This picture shows them spreading out 250 dump truck loads of the fecal sewer sludge over Zilker Park earlier this year:

http://austinparks.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/zilker-thats-a-lot-of-dillo-dirt/

Holy crap...admittedly a lame rejoinder but considering I wandered about knee deep in this on Saturday....

"just covered in mud". That is not mud! It is composted human feces. The rain made it bubble up. That stuff looks and smells like what happens when gringos drink the water in Mexico.

SHUT UP!!! MDAHMUS

So who would C3 pay the penalty to, themselves? Seeing what was damaged was actually paid for by them. Considering the condition of the park now, its in better shape today than if C3 would have never restored it.

The penalty is for the fact that their private event has made the park off-limits for the public for an extra few weeks.

Considering their event improved the park for future years for all public events, they probably have already paid their 'penalty'.

Sure, going forward in future years, maybe there needs to be a 'penalty' if there is a way to prevent mud from occurring in a park when nature strikes... but I think the general Austinite who goes to Zilker once or twice a month came out way ahead. Give up use of the park for ~6 months in 2009 for grass in 2010, 2011, etc? And not raise taxes a single penny?

Sounds like a steal; In the meantime, people can play soccer and volleyball at one of the other parks. It won't kill anyone.

No, they paid the 'penalty' for the grass. I'm talking about the fact that instead of having the park closed and reserved for 3 days, it's turning into more like 4 weeks this year (in addition to the grass installation itself). The hipsters who went to the festival insist on belittling complaints with "it's just 3 days", but of course it's not. It's 2-4 weeks this year (if optimistic projections come to pass) that the park can't be used by the public.

I usually agree with a lot of what you have to say, particularly in terms of mixed use development, urban planning, etc.

But, this time around I am just wondering what planet you live on.

First off, you keep claiming there were 'hipsters' at ACL Fest. Have you attended a single ACL Fest? Did you attend this years ACL Fest? Did you look at the ACL Fest line up? What 'hipster' demographic pays $130-$180 to see Dave Matthews, Levon Helm, Martin Medeski & Wood, the Toadies, Pearl Jam, a supergroup made up of John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl, etc? ACL Fest caters to the lowest common denominator in terms of musical taste and always has-- just enough edge to get some folks in the door, plenty of hippie/roots rock for the Austin middle aged masses, plenty of rock and roll for teens.

If you want to call out SXSW or FunFunFunFest for catering to 'hipsters', then you might be accurate. But this year -- of all the ACL Fests -- was about the *least* hip festival yet. It was aimed at 30 something year olds and older folks.

Second, C3 paid $2.5million to install grass that will benefit every single one of us. You may not like that the park was closed (hell, I didn't!). You may not like the grass (for some weird reason, I suppose). But, that same grass could have cost all of *us* $2.5million in taxes (or money siphoned from some other funds). Either way, the park would have been closed for X months to install the grass and irrigation system. If your beef is that the park was closed, then you must not like all the progress you always espouse in terms of urban development and planning.. because that also inconveniences people. For example, it sucked when 1st Street was essentially a clusterfuck for months on end because of construction earlier this year. Oh no! It made the city better in the long run!

I know you'll probably do it, so why don't you write a letter to the Austin Parks Foundation and set up a meeting to discuss it with them. Ask them for details on how much C3 will pay to clean up the grass and restore it. Asking for a 'penalty' here isn't going to advance the conversation in any useful manner because the people here (apparently) see the long term value in what C3's festival has brought to the park. There are plenty of other parks for me to visit in the next few weeks just like there were plenty to visit over the summer when the grass was growing in.

Of course, if you just want to argue for the sake of arguing -- I'll help buy you a ticket to ACL Fest next year and you can come with me and argue all 3 days.

You sound like what you hate most of all Mike, a NIMBY.

Bingo! And I would bet that 80% of the grass is fine... just covered in mud. Hose it down, squeegee the mud off, and give it a week or two to dry out. It'll be fine and look better than it did a year ago.

It's really a bummer that this happened. ACL fest this year was a blast on Fri/Saturday, although Sunday was pretty ugly (still fun, but ugly). I hope they can get it cleaned up and back to it's pre-festival condition. I had a chance to play soccer there a couple of times after the city opened it up and before the festival and it was really immaculate. Much better than it had ever been, even before the existence of ACL.

This calls for a penalty phase in the contract. What good is new grass when the park was off-limits for most of the year? Better to have the old crappy buffalo-and-weeds that the public could actually use.

I agree only with the fact that it is QUITE lame that the park is shut down for so long. It's starting to feel less like a public park and more like the venue for ACL.

Only in the short term. The idea is the new grass will last longer and the park won't have to be shut down for months on end to repair the grass each year.

We'll see. Even if it has to be shut down for a few weeks after each ACL, C3 should be paying a LOT more money than just the 'repair damage'. Most of the hipsters who went there are indignant that us great unwashed hordes are mad at it 'only being closed 3 days'; the important thing is to point out that it's really closed for weekS, even in a good year, as in definitely more than one week.

plus, it cost me an extra 15 minutes in my Friday morning swim (had to go the long way to the back side of Barton Springs Pool). I DEMAND SOME REPARATIONS TOO!!!!1