Shawn Shillington

Recent Actions

• Posted Austin Among Most Dangerous Large Metro Areas for Pedestrians to Austinist
  Transportation for America has ranked Austin-Round Rock as the 19th most dangerous metro area for pedestrians among the 52 largest metro areas in the United States. They calculated that walking in Austin was slightly less dangerous than walking in Texas as a whole, but substantially more dangerous than walking in the rest of the nation as a whole. Texas spends approximately 1% of its federal transportation funds on pedestrian projects, compared to 1.5% nationwide.
• Posted Councilmembers Poo Poo Upstream Effluent Plan to Austinist
  Councilmember Chris Riley and Mayor Lee Leffingwell are crapping all over a plan by the Cities of Leander and Granite Shoals to discharge treated sewage, or effluent (pronounced "eff-you-uhnt"), into the Highland Lakes, including Lake Travis and Late Austin. Late Austin is currently the sole source of drinking water in Austin and the newly approved water treatment plant will draw from Lake Travis. Other councilmembers will decide on Thursday whether to join them in opposition. The Lower Colorado River Authority and Travis County have already indicated that they are opposed to the new plan. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rules currently prohibit new treated wastewater effluent discharges into any of the Highland Lakes. LCRA predicts considerable degradation of water quality in the Highland Lakes if new discharges are authorized. Most of the fecal matter is removed from treated wastewater (unless there is a malfunction or it rains), but other contaminants remain - notably pharmaceuticals.
• Commented on AIA Austin Homes Tour: October 10-11
  Thanks. Corrected....
• Commented on The Weekly What If?: What If Austin Used Mimes To Shame People Into Being Better Users Of Our Streets? Part Two In A Two Part Series.
  Do they have a frighteningly high rate of traffic related deaths? I had a hard time getting apples to apples stats, but it seemed to me that they had about the same rate of traffic related deaths that we have...
• Commented on Snapshots: Austin City Limits, Friday
  Amazing set....