Snapshots: Fun Fun Fun Sunday

All of it crammed into the Red River district, where FFFfest is right at home. Auditorium shores has . . . more green grass and open space? A river for drunks to jump into? No clubs or bars that people can walk to afterwards. Let me rephrase : No clubs or bars that people will WANT to walk to afterwards.

Concerts at Auditorium Shores are regularly complained about by the people who live in the neighborhood. Not a problem downtown. Waterloo park has more character for FFFfest, its like a natural extension of Transmission's stomping grounds (Mohawk, de Ville, Emo's)

I'm sure they'll do whatever they feel is necessary to make it more lucrative. I'm not against change, I'm against making small things into big things just because it pays more. Its the same mentality that gives us a corporate office building where we used to have Liberty Lunch.

But even if they do move it, I'll probably still go. It just won't be the same at Auditorium Shores. Auditorium Shores is for SRV and Aquafest (hahaha), not Danzig and Kool Keith.

Here's how OWANA describes themselves from owana.org:

OWANA (Old West Austin Neighborhood Association) serves the area bounded by Mopac Expressway on the west, Enfield Road on the north, Lamar Boulevard on the east, and Town Lake on the south.

Google Maps puts the nearest corner of Waterloo Park at about 1 to 1.1 miles away from the nearest boundary of OWANA self proclaimed domain... which means it's even further if you figure where the stages actually were and where the first possible residential house could be in OWANA.

I'm interested in finding out how they plan to 'do something' other than bitch nonstop. If it's 'not in my backyard' to start with, what exactly is their grounds of complaint?

But, to reiterate my point as a long time downtown resident because OWANA is not downtown: downtown residents won't/didn't complain about FFF Fest and it's appreciated that (for once) things weren't blamed on the evil horrible condo owners.

Yes, obviously they're far away - but they think they need to do something about FFF because some freaky weather conditions made the sound bounce that far.

And for those who care about the festival, that's Bad News, because Laura Morrison lives there, and again, has already promised to Do Something.

You don't need to lecture me about inappropriately blaming condo owners - I was beating that drum for years.

Wasn't lecturing you, just reiterating because I have a feeling that the average person doesn't even know who/what OWANA is and where they claim to be located/representing. And thus, people will chime in with "Move back to California, you dirty condo owners!"

I wonder when the last time Laura Morrison had any fun.

Hi-larious. Hey, is Waterloo Park open today?

Hey, can you tell the difference between 1 and 30?

Dear geniuses, you continue to miss the point spectacularly. Caring only about the facility you yourself use is the definition of selfish - I don't use, and never did use, the Great Lawn, but do wonder whether the people who I always used to see using the Great Lawn as I was headed to play volleyball thought it a good compromise that they got kicked out for most of this year so you could have your private festival.

And the green grass at Zilker is 'open'. Emphasis on air quotes. Do you think it a coincidence that the Trail of Lights isn't being held on that side of Barton Springs this year?

Ryan, you are, in fact, missing the point, when you continue to use misleading framing like "gets to use it for a couple of days". It was, in fact, completely off-limits for a month or more AFTER the festival, and even now is only 'open' - it is not open the way it used to be; it's open with air-quotes. It sure looks like the soccer players will never be allowed back; and it looks like the Trail of Lights couldn't be allowed back either, for two very obvious examples.

The framing is still misleading. I quote, again:

" In return for paying for those renovations, a company gets to use it for a few days."

Makes it sound like the grass was open right after ACL. It still isn't. It's "open", i.e., you can go there if you're super careful not to walk in certain places, but the people who used to use the park every weekend when I played volleyball down there aren't welcome back. Note: this is not conjecture; media statements from the city said people would have to take it very easy on the grass and simply stay out of some sections altogether. It's not open, it's "open".

As for ToL, it's a bit, uh, fishy that they're still putting up some displays and still having a walking path but decided to run it all on the south side of Barton Springs despite having decades of experience with running it on the north side. Because setting up all those displays on the grass as has been done in the past would obviously put more stress on the Great Lawn than letting a few people sit there and thank their lucky stars C3 allowed them to use their park for a little while.

Although I salute you for the attempt to spin the October closure as part of "renovations". That's higher quality water-carrying than I've seen on this issue so far.

Well, if the ToL is going to be significantly smaller due to the budget, then why not do it in a smaller expanse of park.. thus making it look not quite as small? Reality is, I don't give a shit about the ToL and didn't even know it was scaled back until the 9 millionth tweet about it last week. I'd like it to be scaled back into zero, but I'm sure my grinch attitude isn't shared by all.

And, I've been saying all along that that I was fine with Zilker being closer for 12 calendar months if it meant that -- going forward -- it would have a nice lawn that wouldn't necessitate month long closures every time it rains, etc. That means I'm fine with the annual closing for N days to set up/break down for ACL Fest provided N is like it was up until this year (

Reality is "I don't give a shit about anybody else other than me" explains most of the people posting in this thread, including you. I'm pretty much the only one here standing up for people using the park in a way different than I do.

Mike, I'm glad you are the champion for the downtrodden oppressed soccer players of Austin. It warms my heart.

I still don't care if they closed the park for 12 months if it meant a brand new lawn that's awesome for all the non-organized league activities that can go on... with a $0 tax increase.

If that makes me a selfish prick, so be it. I think you're being selfish by putting the desires of the organized soccer mafia above the people who just want to have a picnic without a piece of dry hay shoved up their butthole.

You need a new dictionary, genius. I don't play soccer; I've never had a cook-out there; I've actually only used that grass years ago a couple of times.

But unlike the selfish asses who patronized ACL, I don't assume that I can speak for everybody else who used to use the park who got kicked out so you could have your private party. I did pay attention as I went to my own thing (volleyball, for many years) that there were other people using the park doing other things than what I did (imagine that! Not everybody goes to ACL? No way!)

Expressing concern about those who used to use the park is the opposite of selfish. The fact that you can't see this makes me weep for our future.

Tedd, what the city was saying quite recently was "tread lightly", paraphrased. I have a hard time believing pick-up soccer qualifies. Left hand not being aware of right hand, I suspect. Or, perhaps, giving up. Not that it matters; the lawn won't get used all that much without the leagues being there. And 'centrally located' means a lot to a lot of people who have jobs or other time constraints, by the way.

Grape Ape, your league may not have been 'forced', but the media did, in fact, report that soccer leagues had to find new venues when the park was closed for the grass work. I guess they were just part of my conspiracy, huh?

You guys just keep cartwheeling and cartwheeling to avoid a simple painful truth: it is quite possible that your private festival did, in fact, impact other people who never could go, would go, and/or wanted to go to your private festival. Some for a long time, some 'forever'. Simple human decency would suggest that you ought to at least acknowledge that instead of just saying "nuh-uh!" or "at least you got some nice grass (which you can't use!)"

No. Again with the misleading framing. The universe of possible activities on the Great Lawn has not stayed the same; it has shrunk. Drastically. Organized soccer = too much. Trail of Lights = too much. Let's see if the Kite festival is allowed back.

Unlike the selfish ACL defenders, I am not going to assume that the previous users of the park are happier overall because I got to go to a concert and they get to go somewhere else - it just seems pretty unlikely in aggregate.

Hey, here's a novel idea. We're not defending "ACL" or "C3". We're defending the idea that, in the long term, the City of Austin benefited from a year long park closure because we got an awesome renovation to our park for free.

If that means some events can't happen at Zilker while other events are now more enjoyable, I am willing to make that trade off. I am willing to forgo some things I didn't participate in (organized soccer, for one!) to enjoy some other things I will participate in (enjoying laying on the grass in the spring). Other people (say, you and some organized soccer league players) probably don't like that tradeoff because soccer is of greater importance than laying on the grass.

You continuously frame things as "defending ACL", when we're defending the city's decision to make a major improvement to a major park with a zero dollar tax increase. I don't speak for anyone else, but I'm not defending ACL and no matter how many times you repeat it, it doesn't become true.

"It sure looks like the soccer players will never be allowed back."

What is this claim based on? My understanding (and experience, since I've played soccer there since it was reopened) is that you are free to kick the soccer ball around at Zilker. The organized leagues play elsewhere.

Tedd, the soccer leagues used to play there - and I'm not willing to blithely assume they're happy to be forced to play elsewhere just because I liked me my private party there (not that we had a surplus of city soccer fields to begin with; the most likely outcome is that somebody got pushed out down the line, actually).