Editor's note: In hopes of getting a little more information on how the candidates in the May 10 Austin City Council election may respond to issues facing Austin, we sent out a few questions. Up next is Ken Weiss, who is running for Place 3 against Jennifer Kim and Randi Shade.

1. The Austin Music Commission is considering reducing the decibel limit under the city noise ordinance. Do you think that the noise ordinance should be changed?

If I’m not mistaken; I believe it is already at 85 decibels now. People need to understand that if they purchase a condo near a live music venue they may have to contend with some noise. I do believe that some compromises can be made for weeknights after 9p.m. or 10p.m. and weekends after 12 midnight. Let’ all sit down, talk, and come to some sort of understanding or agreement.2. Has the McMansion ordinance been successful? What do you think of City Council's recent decision to reject OCEAN's request to further restrict home sizes on small lots in East Austin?

To some extent I believe it has, however, I have heard of several instances where people have built sometimes up to 5,000 square feet larger homes than their site plan called for. Also, many, many, people are asking for variances on their property east of IH-35. I also believe that we need a few more zoning enforcement officers to make sure people comply with their site plans.

3. Some neighborhood groups have attempted to opt-out of the vertical-mixed-use program for most or all eligible properties in their neighborhood. Would you vote to approve or reject those decisions?

No, I believe a neighborhood should have the say in what developments are built in their neighborhood. If they opt out of VMU, I will support that decision.

4. What should the city government do to promote or discourage suburban development? What about condo/apartment development downtown? What about condo/apartment development in other parts of the city?

I don’t think there is any way to discourage suburban development however; we can promote more town center concepts along with multi model transportation to move those folks living outside of Austin to Austin in order to cut down on vehicular traffic on our streets.

5. Homes near downtown are generally more expensive than homes in the suburbs. Should the city do anything to change that? What?

One thing my Accounting Professor said to me was “land is getting more expensive everyday because they aren’t making any more of it.” As downtown Austin expands, it takes away more and more houses near by so the ones left are more expensive. Is there anything we can do about it? Probably not. If you can imagine for a moment ….it’s Austin and the year is 1850. Congress Avenue is nothing more than a dirt road that stops at the Colorado River. Along the east and west sides of Congress are businesses and homes intermixed as there is no zoning or very little at most, in 1850. As Austin gets more and more people, more and more businesses start building more buildings on Congress and the home owners can’t afford to live next to businesses. So, they sell their homes and move off Congress, several streets away. Ten years later, the same thing happens. Businesses build in the neighborhoods surrounding Congress and the homes disappear and people have to move further out to stay affordable. This has happened tens if not hundreds of times over the past 150 years. If you can imagine a big target placed over Austin with the bulls-eye right over Congress Avenue, you can see how as one area or circle becomes unaffordable, the adjacent circle is now the affordable one until it become unaffordable. The only thing that has changed in the last 150 years is the amount that makes Austin unaffordable. In 1850, two dollars a year property taxes might have been a lot. In 1900, five dollars, in 1950, five hundred dollars and in 2008, it might be 10,000 dollars. Again, it’s all in the eye of the beholder as to what’s affordable to whom in Austin. The same applies to home mortgage payments.

6. Austinites love cars (80% of us drive to work by ourselves), but hate traffic. What would you do to get Austinites to commute differently and/or reduce traffic? How often do you get to work by some method other than driving? What is your alternative method?

I would like revamp CAPMETRO. I believe that one reason that ridership is low is because it takes two or three hours to get to your destination on the bus. No one wants to spend that much time on the bus. I’m proposing that CAPMETRO go to a hub and spoke system. The hub and spoke system is utilized by every major freight company in the world, including FedEx and U.P.S. The hubs would be the current transfer centers located around town. Express buses would be uses solely at direct one stop buses from point A to point B. For example, you would get on an express bus at North lamer and 183 transfer center and ride all the way to the new transfer center at Congress Avenue and Ben White Boulevard. Limited buses would be confined to major roads like Lamar, Burnet Road, Congress, Guadalupe, Springdale Road, Airport Boulevard, and the like. These buses would stop only every 15 or 20 blocks and at those stops are where people could transfer to local buses. The local bus would be the bus making all the stops in a particular area or neighborhood. This route would utilize smaller buses such as a 15, 20 or 25 foot bus or even 15 passenger vans as the case may be rather than a 40 foot bus. These buses would stay strictly in the local neighborhoods. Currently during the campaign, I have been carpooling with my wife to events and forums when practical. However, it’s not always practical due to our schedules. I would however, have to ride my bicycle to city hall as your next council member and would encourage all city employees to either ride a bicycle, walk, or take mass transit to work.

7. Austin has the potential to be a great biking city and a lot of people bike recreationally, but it is difficult for most people to bike to work. What should the city do to improve the opportunity to bike-commute? Do you own a bike? How often do you ride it to work?

See answer 6. I will encourage city workers to ride, walk, or take mass transit to work. I would consider giving a monetary bonus or time of bonuses for those participating in riding a bike, walking or taking mass transit to work. I believe one of the easiest ways to get people to bike either to or from work would be to allow them either to ride the bus one way and bike the other way. For example, say you don’t have a shower facility at work, maybe ride the bus to work, then ride your bike home, where it won’t matter when you arrive or how sweaty you are. Yes, I owned several bicycles and I owned a bicycle shop for over 13 years. I raced competitively for almost 20 years in BMX. I used to ride everyday to work when I owned my bicycle shop, but now I just ride occasionally.

8. Are you happy with the apparent resolution of the Las Manitas/Marriott controversy? If not, how do you think it should have been handled differently?

It seems as if this one ordinance was past just for this case. Although, Las Manitas is a small business and I would have helped in any way possible, but I sure wouldn’t have given them a $750,000 loan. I do not believe that is fair to other small businesses I Austin. Let’s help all small businesses not just the privileged few. From what I have heard, Las Manitas actually owned the property they were on. I would have thought if this was the case that the funds of the sale of the property would have been more than enough to purchase another site.

9. Do you think Austin is better now than it was 10 years ago? Do you think it will be better 10 years from now than it is now?

No, I believe it was worse today. We have more traffic, more crime, higher taxes, schools that are failing the grade, and more budget spending. I could go on and on but I believe you get my point. I have hope for the future of Austin. I believe that with some of the proposals I am bringing to city hall, we can help make Austin a great place for all too live, work, and play.

Click here to see the responses from other candidates. We haven't heard from Jennifer Gale, Sam Osemene or Ken Vasseau. If you talk to them or see them around, tell them to send us an email!

What is a canvas for some has become an eyesore for many as the "Lamar Train Bridge" has endured layers and layers of graffiti over the decades. From Gomer, Sez and Flee to the Austin High Class of 2004, Ron Paul supporters or people who wish to deify Eminem, the Union Pacific Train Trestle has long been Austin's most elusive, yet public and prized spot for Austin graffiti artists.

The bridge is owned by Union Pacific, and recently some fed up residents have raised concern about the increasing amount of spray-paint tattooing both the east and west sides of the bridge. The City of Austin agrees and has declared that the lack of maintenance to the bridge violates Austin City Code. However, they understand that cleanup isn't easy.

Travis County Health and Human Services Spokeswoman Carole Barasch explained, "Union Pacific owns that bridge and so that is pretty much the reason why we can't get up there and do that, and there's safety issues involved."

On March 12, the City of Austin warned Union Pacific and gave them exactly one month to clean up the mess--if they didn't comply timely, the nationwide rail service would owe the city $500 per day. As the paint dries over Lady Bird Lake today, that's roughly $6,000 in dues.

However, as of last week, the city said Union Pacific is now working on the problem and due to their compliance, has offered an extension on the cleanup.

Editor's note: In hopes of getting a little more information on how the candidates in the May 10 Austin City Council election may respond to issues facing Austin, we sent out a few questions. Up next is Cid Galindo, who is running for Place 4 against Jennifer Gale, Robin Cravey, Laura Morrison, Sam Osemene and Ken Vasseau.

1. The Austin Music Commission is considering reducing the decibel limit under the city noise ordinance. Do you think that the noise ordinance should be changed?

In general, the more dense the environment, the more sound is tolerable. We need to have an ordinance that reflects this reality that not all areas of the city are the same, and encourages outdoor live music venues in our more urban areas, but not in our exclusively residential neighborhoods. Furthermore, sound measurements should be made from the point of the complaint, not the source of the sound because of the unpredictable ways that sound travels.2. Has the McMansion ordinance been successful? What do you think of City Council's recent decision to reject OCEAN's request to further restrict home sizes on small lots in East Austin?

Integrity and character are what make our neighborhoods worth preserving. That is fundamental, and that is why I am calling for “areas of stability” in my suggestions for improving the neighborhood planning process. The McMansion ordinance has stopped many of the most flagrant violations of neighborhood integrity.

If we care about affordable housing, however, we have to modify the ordinance. It’s practical result currently is anti-affordability and elitist, in that its prime beneficiaries are homeowners with existing large, well-built homes in the most desirable locations. This occurs because under McMansion, homes like those can no longer be built, so the existing ones appreciate in value much faster than they would otherwise. I believe the city council made the right call on OCEAN’s request.

3. Some neighborhood groups have attempted to opt-out of the vertical-mixed-use program for most or all eligible properties in their neighborhood. Would you vote to approve or reject those decisions?

The intention of VMU is to give neighborhoods a tool to direct growth along corridors while meeting other neighborhood objectives like affordable housing and more services within walking distance. I believe all neighborhoods should be, and are, willing to absorb a fair and reasonable amount of growth over time in exchange for community benefits. I will work hard to understand the specific concerns of each neighborhood and make my judgments on a case by case basis.

4. What should the city government do to promote or discourage suburban development? What about condo/apartment development downtown? What about condo/apartment development in other parts of the city?

Suburban development per se is not bad, but low-density single family sprawl is. Sprawl is the primary cause of our traffic congestion issues, and a major contributor to the degradation of our water quality. We must develop policies that will move us away from sprawl-based patterns of growth to more compact, mixed-use urban forms that reduce our dependence on our cars. We have a model example of this form of development in the Mueller airport redevelopment.

5. Homes near downtown are generally more expensive than homes in the suburbs. Should the city do anything to change that? What?

The price difference between homes near downtown versus the suburbs is a function of supply and demand. However, the result of dispersing younger and lower income families to the perimeter of the city is not a sustainable model for building a great city for the 21st century. The city must step forward to change this pattern of development by using it’s existing land holdings, powers of taxation, land entitlement, and low cost municipal bond financing to partner with major employers and mixed-use town center developers to create more projects like Mueller, that offers 25% of its housing stock at levels affordable to families between 60% to 80% of median income, in the heart of the city. I am committed to making this change happen, because in the long run, it creates neighborhoods that are loved, and are net property tax generators, not net tax consumers.

6. Austinites love cars (80% of us drive to work by ourselves), but hate traffic. What would you do to get Austinites to commute differently and/or reduce traffic? How often do you get to work by some method other than driving? What is your alternative method?

I don’t love my car, but I recognize that in Austin, I could not function as productively without it. We have to create a new comprehensive plan that encourages more transit choices, but more importantly, changes the patterns of development that create the demand for more road infrastructure. I think we would be a lot happier if we could spend less time in our cars and still be as productive. I have made work and housing decisions that allow me to ride my bike or take the bus to work most days, without losing productivity. I understand that not everyone can do that in today’s environment, but my goal is that everyone in Austin eventually have that choice.

As a Planning Commissioner for the past four years, I have led in the development of the Sustainable City Initiative. This effort lays the groundwork for growth patterns based on a series of seven major town centers along the eastern perimeter of the city, away from our most environmentally sensitive areas, and connected by a robust menu of transportation options. I invite you to learn more about my proposed plan at www.cidgalindo.com.

7. Austin has the potential to be a great biking city and a lot of people bike recreationally, but it is difficult for most people to bike to work. What should the city do to improve the opportunity to bike-commute? Do you own a bike? How often do you ride it to work?

I own a bike and ride it to work at least once a week. We should allocate more multi-modal transportation dollars to bike trails in the suburbs, bike lanes closer in, and single-use bike routes in densest areas that have the highest potential for bicycle commuting. I will support any reasonable measure by City Hall to make biking safer and easier.

8. Are you happy with the apparent resolution of the Las Manitas/Marriott controversy? If not, how do you think it should have been handled differently?

I am still not certain what exactly the final resolution was, but the city should not be in the business of giving “forgivable loans” to any commercial business, large or small. Incentives or economic development are an appropriate city function, but not without clear accountability, defined benchmarks over time, and a measurable return on investment.

9. Do you think Austin is better now than it was 10 years ago? Do you think it will be better 10 years from now than it is now?

Austin continues to be a unique city, but the reviews on whether it is better today than it was 10 years ago are mixed. I think the important question is whether it will be better 10 years from now than it is today — and I think the answer lies in our willingness to move past the old politics and find common ground behind a new comprehensive plan that moves us away from low-density “sprawl” to more compact, environmentally friendly forms form of development like the Mueller Airport redevelopment that allow us to be less dependent on our cars.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts.

Click here to see the responses from other candidates. We haven't heard from Jennifer Gale, Sam Osemene or Ken Vasseau. If you talk to them or see them around, tell them to send us an email!

Editor's note: In hopes of getting a little more information on how the candidates in the May 10 Austin City Council election may respond to issues facing Austin, we sent out a few questions. Up next is Robin Cravey, who is running for Place 4 against Jennifer Gale, Cid Galindo, Laura Morrison, Sam Osemene and Ken Vasseau.

1. The Austin Music Commission is considering reducing the decibel limit under the city noise ordinance. Do you think that the noise ordinance should be changed?

There are things that can be done to ensure that our current ordinance works for neighborhoods as well as musicians. In well-known entertainment districts, new housing should be built with adequate soundproofing, and prospective buyers should be told about the sound level. Also, housing near entertainment districts should be affordable to musicians and waitstaff. In established neighborhoods, new music venues should install adequate soundproofing. There must be communication between the businesses and the neighborhoods that are affected by these problems, perhaps mediation. But, if reasonable noise levels are being exceeded, the anti-noise ordinance should be enforced. We must also keep in mind that the decibel levels for noise from construction can often times be as loud or louder than the music being played in the entertainment district.2. Has the McMansion ordinance been successful? What do you think of City Council's recent decision to reject OCEAN's request to further restrict home sizes on small lots in East Austin?

The McMansion was supposed to reduce flooding, but the final ordinance did not have provisions for enhanced flood controls and improved water quality in older neighborhoods. The ordinance also makes it harder for homeowners to have garage apartments, which puts more obstacles to affordability in our neighborhoods. I did not follow the OCEAN request closely.

3. Some neighborhood groups have attempted to opt-out of the vertical-mixed-use program for most or all eligible properties in their neighborhood. Would you vote to approve or reject those decisions?

If regulations make sense, neighborhoods should not be able to opt-out. I support Vertical Mixed Use, but the current ordinance allows this to be a voluntary policy, which defeats the purpose. The ordinance is also too weak in fostering affordable housing. I would pursue amending the ordinance.

4. What should the city government do to promote or discourage suburban development? What about condo/apartment development downtown? What about condo/apartment development in other parts of the city?

In order to discourage sprawl over the aquifer, we must stop upzoning tracts there. We should also insist on a development pattern that is walkable and bikeable, even in outlying areas. The City should provide zoning incentives for redevelopment that promotes affordable housing in the core of the city, especially along the transit corridors. Condos downtown and along commercial corridors with an affordable housing component are a possible source of affordable home ownership.

5. Homes near downtown are generally more expensive than homes in the suburbs. Should the city do anything to change that? What?

It is vital to provide affordable housing downtown to allow people to live within walking distance of where they work. This is one of the main issues I address in my platform. The city can achieve this by providing incentives for redevelopment that creates more affordable housing. We should also take advantage of turning city owned property into affordable housing such as the Green Water Treatment Plant. We should also be prepared to invest in distressed properties during an economic downturn.

6. Austinites love cars (80% of us drive to work by ourselves), but hate traffic. What would you do to get Austinites to commute differently and/or reduce traffic? How often do you get to work by some method other than driving? What is your alternative method?

Everyday I use an alternative method of transportation other than driving a vehicle. I commute to work from South Lamar on my Yamaha Majesty Scooter. When I’m not scooting to work, I ride my bicycle, take the bus, or walk to work.

If the city is an organism, then it’s transportation system is both the circulatory system and the skeleton. Today we have an inefficient, costly, and unhealthy transit system. We can do better. I believe that our immediate priority should be to build a walkable, bikeable city.

My vision of the future of Austin is one where there is more traffic on the sidewalks and less traffic on the streets while building an effective public transit system, including local, commuter, and regional rail. On the streets, the traffic will comprise more bicycles and motorbikes and fewer cars and trucks. All of this will be tied together by rail and bus transit. In short, we will shape a transportation system based on shoeleather, bicycles, motorbikes, and public transit. We must change our development patterns so that people can live, work, shop, and play all within a short walk. Where that is not possible, there must be convenient transit within a short walk. We must make walking safe and enjoyable by providing wide clear sidewalks (get the utility poles out!) and shade trees and a comfortable buffer against car traffic.

In this vision, we are no longer trapped in a car on a smog-blanketed road. Instead, we will spend our time walking, or biking, or scooting, or reading on the metro. We will spend less time commuting so that we have more time for family, or work, or shopping, or play. And we can stop paving over vast new acres for highway interchanges. And our air will be pure enough for a baby to breathe.

7. Austin has the potential to be a great biking city and a lot of people bike recreationally, but it is difficult for most people to bike to work. What should the city do to improve the opportunity to bike-commute? Do you own a bike? How often do you ride it to work?

I started bicycling in Austin in 1970, and bicycled to work every day until I got my scooter. When our kids were born, my wife and I rode bikes with a babyseat on the back. I rode a locally made bike with a reynolds 531 aluminum frame for 25 years, and finally donated it to the yellow bike project and bought a Specialized Crossroads. Now I occasionally ride to work, but mostly ride recreationally.

I want to be the voice for cyclists at city hall. We have a lot of work to do to make Austin a bicycle town. I coordinated the 1998 council transportation session that approved the bicycle plan part 2. After ten years, that plan is now about a third complete, and the money is almost gone.

We can do better. We can make Austin a genuine bicycle town by completing our network of bike lanes, building connecting bridges, and expanding bicycle parking facilities and requirements. In addition, we should speed up the maintenance of our streets to make them safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. We should work with determination to fund and finish our bicycle plan, and sooner than the next twenty years. The Street Smarts task force has identified 100 priorities. We should work to get all those funded and underway on an ambitious timetable. It's about lanes, and streets, and trails, but it's also about parking, and showers, and education, and a lot more.

We need a bicycle pedestrian commission with an adequete amount of staff to oversee the program, and to review city projects and private development plans, and to advise the council.

8. Are you happy with the apparent resolution of the Las Manitas/Marriott controversy? If not, how do you think it should have been handled differently?

No. I would not have approved of abandoning the alley to the developer, which would have changed the entire dynamic. Also, I think it was unfortunate that an unrealistic assistance package was negotiated with the sisters, leading to a public outcry, leading to them rejecting all assistance. Some modest assistance would have been appropriate. In addition, I believe the city council was not fully informed of the facts, and I would conduct a fact-finding in cooperation with the new City Manager.

9. Do you think Austin is better now than it was 10 years ago? Do you think it will be better 10 years from now than it is now?

Austin is better in some ways, and worse in others. Downtown was almost vacant ten years ago, and now it is thriving. However, Austin is less affordable for homeowners, renters and small business people. If we promote policies with a focus on housing affordability and business retention, we can do better.

Additional thoughts:

I came to Austin in 1969 to go to UT, and experienced the epiphany of clear spring water. In the seventies I learned to love Austin driving a taxicab through its streets and alleys. When thousands of Austinites wrote a vision for the city called the Austin Tomorrow Plan, I was among them. My wife and I raised two daughters through Austin public schools. I published an environmental magazine, worked in journalism and the printing and publishing business, and published stories and poems by Austin writers. I volunteered and voted consistently in election campaigns over the years, including city council campaigns. In my forties I took a law degree from UT law school, and when I graduated, I worked at city hall as a council aide, where I learned about the budget process, and about tracking agendas, building majorities, and making tough decisions. In 1998 I left city hall to establish my solo law practice. I served on the Austin Planning Commission.

I’ve always been a volunteer, serving as president of the Zilker Elementary PTA, the Zilker Neighborhood Association, the Austin Bar Solo and Small Firm Section, and most recently serving as founding president of Friends of Barton Springs Pool. Most important, I lived the life of public participation; I treated people fairly; and I always put the good of the city first. This campaign is about a vision for the Austin of 20 years from now. What kind of city do we want to make for our children to live in? We will provide affordable homes and good jobs that will allow our children to stay here and raise their own families, and so our schools will not be threatened by under-enrollment. We want more traffic on the sidewalks, less traffic on the streets, with a transportation system based on shoeleather, bicycles, and motorbikes, and we will weave the city together with effective public transit. We will build a grand metropolitan parks and trails system that will restore and preserve our creeks, and link us to surrounding landscapes. We will develop an economy where big business pays its fair share, small business gets its fair share. This is our city and we can build it according to our vision.

Click here to see the responses from other candidates. We haven't heard from Jennifer Gale, Sam Osemene or Ken Vasseau. If you talk to them or see them around, tell them to send us an email!

Editor's note: In hopes of getting a little more information on how the candidates in the May 10 Austin City Council election may respond to issues facing Austin, we sent out a few questions. Up next is Jennifer Kim, the incumbent running for Place 3 against Randi Shade and Kenneth Weiss.

1. The Austin Music Commission is considering reducing the decibel limit under the city noise ordinance. Do you think that the noise ordinance should be changed?

Before committing to a reduction in the noise ordinance, I'd like to have an on-site demonstration of the differences between the noise levels. I do, however, think this brings up a larger issue on the placement of live-music venues and residential construction standards. Austin is the live-music capital of the world, and we want it to stay that way. To do this, we need to make a conscious decision to place these venues downtown and on existing commercial corridors, away from existing residences.

At the same time, new residential construction wishing to be built adjacent to existing live-music venues need to meet higher construction standards for sound proofing. People often don't know how noisy it is living next to a music venue until after they purchase their unit and have their first night sleep.

With proper planning and a public discussion of this issue, I think we can develop the appropriate standards to have both residential uses and live-music coexist peacefully. 2. Has the McMansion ordinance been successful? What do you think of City Council's recent decision to reject OCEAN's request to further restrict home sizes on small lots in East Austin?

The McMansion ordinance has been successful in giving single-family residential neighborhoods necessary compatibility standards for new construction. Where it has failed is that city hasn't done its homework for establishing sub-districts in neighborhood planning areas. Not every area within a neighborhood planning area is the same. If we are to customize the ordinance to meet the specifications of individual neighborhoods, we need to do it with real data on home sizes within uniformly establish sub-districts.

3. Some neighborhood groups have attempted to opt-out of the vertical-mixed-use program for most or all eligible properties in their neighborhood. Would you vote to approve or reject those decisions?

While I favor the concepts of VMU, such as mixed-use living and focusing density along the corridors, I understand the concerns of the neighborhood associations. I must support the neighborhood applications. We need to devote more resources to working with residents on individual VMU cases to give them the tools to make the decisions that are right for them. I hope we can continue a dialogue on vertical mixed-use and how we can make it compatible with the neighborhoods.

4. What should the city government do to promote or discourage suburban development? What about condo/apartment development downtown? What about condo/apartment development in other parts of the city?

The best way for the city to discourage the typical sprawl, suburban-type development is to work within the members of CAMPO to establish a regional land-use management policy to foster mixed-use activity centers. At the same time, we need to be focusing on acquiring fiscal resources for a regional mass transit plan to connect these centers to reduce vehicle miles traveled and traffic congestion.

5. Homes near downtown are generally more expensive than homes in the suburbs. Should the city do anything to change that? What?

We need to start thinking of housing as infrastructure, which is why I am working with staff and community leaders on a comprehensive market study to analyze our current housing levels and the gaps in housing need. I believe every neighborhood, whether in downtown or in Oak Hill, needs to have a mix of housing sizes and prices to provide for versatility for families to continue to grow in their communities.

Our city is losing its proportionate share of families. I started the Families and Children taskforce to look at housing size and affordability and make recommendations on policies the city can consider to make sure our homes are large enough to accommodate an averaged-sized family and they can still afford basic necessities like child care.

6. Austinites love cars (80% of us drive to work by ourselves), but hate traffic. What would you do to get Austinites to commute differently and/or reduce traffic? How often do you get to work by some method other than driving? What is your alternative method?

Austinites do have an addiction to cars, but for many, that's the only way to get to work or go shopping or just serve their basic, daily needs. We must provide adequate alternative methods for transportation, such as light rail, commuter rail, and rapid bus. Inter-modal transportation needs to be worked into our planning efforts to allow flexibility to adjust to how people move and how they connect to the various transit systems. Sidewalks, bikeways, bus routes, arterials, and rail lines all need to be included in the same planning process.

Our land-use decisions need to focus on providing a mix of uses, so that a family could serve all of its daily needs within a quarter-mile radius. This will reduce vehicle miles traveled and traffic congestion across the city.

I am a person who finds it refreshing to walk to the store or a nearby restaurant instead of taking my car to drive. I also look forward to using the commuter rail when it opens later this year when I need to travel north.

7. Austin has the potential to be a great biking city and a lot of people bike recreationally, but it is difficult for most people to bike to work. What should the city do to improve the opportunity to bike-commute? Do you own a bike? How often do you ride it to work?

I am fully supportive of the efforts to transform Austin into a world-class bicycle city. The Street Smarts Taskforce set a goal to have 8% of our commuters ride bicycles by 2015. To do this, we need to make bicycling safer by investing in significant improvements to our existing bicycle network and provide education to help bicyclists and drivers coexist on the same roadways.

I do own a bike, and I bike once in a while, mostly recreationally.

8. Are you happy with the apparent resolution of the Las Manitas/Marriott controversy? If not, how do you think it should have been handled differently?

There are times when I am able to get concessions and am willing to support a measure. I did not support the initial loan terms for Las Manitas as I thought they were too generous. Since the loan seemed to have support from all the other council members, I worked to increase the amount of the loan that would be repayable in exchange for my support. In hindsight, the council should never have pursued this path.

9. Do you think Austin is better now than it was 10 years ago? Do you think it will be better 10 years from now than it is now?

I think in some ways it is better - we have more good paying jobs, we have more local, independent businesses, and we have more parks and cultural and arts facilities. And in some ways it has gotten worse - the traffic, air pollution, the growing wage gap and we are losing middle class families with children to outlying areas.

I am an optimist, and I do not believe in being complacent. I think Austin will be better 10 years from now, but only if we have good national and state leadership, local leaders who are planning ahead and building consensus and creating a positive vision for keeping Austin affordable, livable and economically vibrant. That is why I have dedicated my life to public service for the past decade, and that is why I would like to continue to serve the wonderful people of Austin for another city council term.

Click here to see the responses from other candidates. We haven't heard from Jennifer Gale, Sam Osemene or Ken Vasseau. If you talk to them or see them around, tell them to send us an email!

Earlier this year, Austin's Mohawk bar earned the "Best Bar in America" title from Esquire readers. Now, on the cusp of the summer tour circuits, Rolling Stone has declared Stubb's BBQ "Best Rock Club" in America.

RS cited the venue's capacity (a good size, the largest spot downtown that isn't a theater or indoor music hall) at 2,200, their admirable genre inclusion when it comes to booking (Wu-Tang, Feist, Billy Idol and Willie Nelson have all performed there), the PA system and the added bonus of delicious food as factors in the decision making process.

What do you think, Austin?

The runners up were Asheville, NC's Orange Peel, NYC's Bowery Ballroom, Detroit's Magic Stick and Norfolk's Norva. Not bad company!

Direct Events and Backyard owner Tim O'Connor has announced the live oak amphitheater's final season, calling it quits after sixteen seasons in the hill country.

Situated at 71 W and RR620, the Backyard has hosted over 1 million guests and hundreds of live acts over the years, including Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, the Shins, Modest Mouse, Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakum, Chris Issak and many more.

O'Connor planned the venue with the peaceful hill country atmosphere as a centerpiece to the experience, and cites the Hill Country Galleria's expansion as the reason behind his decision. "The Shops at The Galleria development that now surrounds the Backyard has taken away from some of the venue's magic over the last few years," he said in a press release.

Though this will be the final season at that location, O'Connor and Direct Events have already proposed a new plan to the City of Bee Cave, and hopes to build a new location in that area which will not be compromised by ... shopping centers and parking lots.