Amy Babich  Candidate for Austin City Council, Place 5

Human Power Party

P.O. Box 49084, Austin, TX 78765 * (512) 453-0438 *

Contents
 Home
 Position Statements
 Details on Transportation Agenda
 Interview with Bicycling in Austin Newsletter
 Recent letters to the Austin Chronicle
 Profile by the Austin Chronicle
 Biography
Links to other sites
 Early Voting Locations
Austin American-Statesman article about Amy, 2-8-99 (The Statesman charges $5.95 to read this article on their website, and won't allow us to reprint it here.)
Amy appeared on the cover of the October 17, 1997 Austin Chronicle, which carried a feature story about Austin cycling. (The Chronicle lets you read that article for free.)
 Reviews of Amy's 1998 novel, "The Age of the Bicycle":
   Review in the Austin Chronicle
   Review in MSRRT (Minnesota Library Association Social Responsibilities Round Table)
Bicycling in Austin website
Letters to the Editor
published in the Austin Chronicle
Paris, Rome, & Austin [4-14-00]
 
Dear Editor,
 
Austin's Smart Growth initiative, as applied to downtown, aims to make downtown more densely populated and full of pedestrians, like a European city. The famous European capitals were built before cars were invented. They worked well without cars. When cars appeared, some European cities allowed them downtown, and some didn't. Some European cities (e.g. Venice, Italy, and Zagreg, Croatia) have always had car-free centers. Others (e.g. Paris and Rome) have allowed cars everywhere.
 
The cities of Paris and Rome recently decided to ban cars from their centers. The main reason for this action is the terrible smog produced by many cars packed densely together. France and Italy, traditional worshippers of racecars, are now experimenting with nationwide car-free days. They're starting to see that cars are ruining their cities.
 
Here in Austin, people are planning to make downtown denser, but with cars everywhere. We will spend lots of money and fill our downtown with parking garages, in order to move more cars in and out. If the plan is successful, downtown Austin will come to resemble the smoggy, car-clogged centers of Paris and Rome. Then we can spend more money to move the cars out of downtown.
 
Isn't this a bit silly? Why not plan a car-free downtown now, instead of 20 years from now? If we must have parking garages, build them outside downtown and run a tram line or a Dillo to take motorists from their cars to downtown. Don't fill downtown with parking garages.
 
Downtown can be clean, pleasant, car-free, and pleasant to walk in. Or downtown can be hot, smoggy, and full of cars. We have choices. Let's choose wisely.
 
Yours truly,
 
Amy Babich
Website hosted by Michael Bluejay, who supports Amy's campaign but is otherwise uninvolved with it.