TOD Meeting, Traffic Calming, and CAPMETRO Rail Update

TOD Meeting

When: Tue, Nov 13, 5:30pm - 9:30pm
Where: 4700 Grover Austin Texas 78757
Description: Come to the First Unitarian Universialist Church for the next TOD meeting.

Traffic Calming

Pay attention to you snail mail. The city of Austin has chosen Crestview neighborhood as one of the neighborhoods to add traffic calming options. All residents of the neighborhood should get a mailing from the city.

CAPMETRO Rail Update

Did you hear horrible noises coming from the rail track several Sundays back? CAPMETRO is replacing some of the rail line through our area. From what I understand CAPMETRO has finished the noisy part.

Crestview will be getting a rail station with a glass canopy. They are already building it. Walk by for a look. I asked for an artist rendering of the station design. However Lamont (CAPMETRO rep) has not yet responded.

CAPMETRO will start testing their new rail vehicles. Initial testing of vehicles will be along the rail through Crestview (MoPac/Howard Lane down to 47th Street and Airport Blvd) from now until end of year. Testing will continue in 2008 along the entire line. All CAPMETRO testing will be between 7:00 pm and 5:00 am. Vehicle speeds will reach 20 to 45 mph.

Crestview Nerighborhood Meeting

Please look for your newsletter. They were delivered this weekend. Hope you had a pleasant Veteran's weekend.

This evening (Monday 12th November), Crestview will have their monthly general meeting. Tejano Ranch will be there to talk about how they have been handling neighborhood issues. About 1 year ago they met with the Highland neighborhood association to discuss issues. Please bring any concerns or praises to the meeting this evening.

Knights Take One On The Chin

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Submitted byTom Davis

McCallum finished out their regular season when they traveled to Burger Field to do battle with the Crockett Cougars. When the night was finished the Knights couldn’t pull another come from behind victory out of their hat, going down to the Cougars 42 to 28.

McCallum came out on the field looking like they thought they had this game in the bag, but someone forgot to tell the Cougars that they were supposed to be underdogs. The Cougars jumped out to a 21 to 0 lead in the first quarter. McCallum was able to post 7 points on to their side of the scoreboard when Kevin Lusson connected with Xavier Jefferson on a 65-yard touchdown pass.

The Knights looked like they had finally woke up and pulled the score to within 7 on a pass from Lusson to Van Franks, making the score 21 to 14, Cougars. Crockett decided that a 7 point cushion wasn’t enough so they stuffed that cushion with 14 more points making the score 35 to 14, Crockett at the half.

The Knights appeared to have figured out how to stop the Cougars running attack in the third quarter holding the Cougars scoreless. The Knights scored on a 41-yard pass completion to Van Franks who snared the ball after 2 other players had deflected it; this brought the score to within 14 again and started what looked like another come from behind victory for McCallum.

In the final quarter McCallum continued to try and fight back closing the score gap to 7 on a touchdown pass to Jordan Cole. Then again the Cougars stepped up and said not tonight McCallum when they scored the last points of the night bringing the score to the final total 42 to 28, Crockett.

McCallum posted another impressive passing game with Kevin Lusson throwing for 354 yards on 19 completions. The Knights receiving corps was lead by Van Franks with 109 yards in receptions. The Knights running game could never get on track chalking up only 68 yards on 15 carries. McCallum could not figure out how to stop the Cougars running game with the Cougars posting 304 yards of rushing for the night.

With the help from LBJ who defeated Travis, McCallum has took 3rd place in the district, which gives them a playoff berth against Waller High School from District 18 4A. The game will be next Friday night at 7:30pm at A&M Consolidated Field in College Station, Texas.

Crestview and Brentwood Working Together

Crestview and Brentwood neighborhoods have joined forces asking the City of Austin to consider reclassifying Justin Lane from an minor arterial to a neighborhood collector. See our joint request.

Many residents along Justin Lane have complained about traffic, truck traffic, down shifting to slow down, motor cycle racing, near misses with pedestrians trying to cross Justin Lane, and motorists running stop signs.

Crestview and Brentwood are committed to helping ensure that our neighborhood streets are pedestrian friendly as much as possible.

Crestview and Allandale Working Together

Crestview and Allandale have been working together on 2 fronts now.

1) Crestview is supporting Allandale's lawsuit to fight big box at northcross with donations to their lawsuit fund.

2) Crestview is supporting Allandale's attempt to stop a developer from changing the agreed to VMU development options located at Burnet Road and North Loop (Antique Mall area) with a signed letter of support.

Last week, Allandale representatives called a meeting of surrounding neighborhoods. I attended this meeting for Crestview. There were Allandale, Brentwood, North Shoal Creek, and Crestview neighborhood representatives present. Allandale brought up their concerns with the VMU development on Burnet Road and North Loop and asked for a support letter from the neighborhoods. Crestview responded with this letter of support.

The concerns expressed at the meeting were:

1) Austin's implementation of VMU is not going as expected. Neighborhoods have too little power to influence, since VMU is an overlay and not a zoning change.

2) Affordable housing requirements are being dismissed by developers. *

3) How do we get controls to influence VMU development such that VMU development stays on track and meets the livable city goals.


* When I went to the Brentwood NA meeting on 7 Nov 2007, I heard the developer of the VMU project on Lamar Blvd. and North Loop area say that developers at most will do 10% at 80% (10% units at 80% of median income). He said that the better affordable housing numbers can only be met if the city provides subsidies.

Oh My! What A Game!

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Submitted byTom Davis

The McCallum Knights hosted the Travis Rebels in the annual, “Battle of The Bell Game,” before the home crowd at House Park last Friday night, and when the dust had settled McCallum retained their hold on the bell posting a quadruple overtime win 43 to 35.

For the second week in row the Knights took the game into overtime to keep their playoff hopes alive. This week’s game started out slow with both teams offenses failing to put any points on the scoreboard in the first quarter. Then in the second quarter the Rebels began to come to life running the score up with three unanswered touchdowns, which gave Travis a 21 to 0 lead at the half.

The Rebels came back after the halftime break and continued to light up the scoreboard adding another 7 points bringing the point spread to 28 to 0 in their favor. It was then that McCallum seemed to say enough is enough and started to fight back. The Knights scored twice on passes to Xavier Jefferson and Van Franks, to whittle down the point difference to 14 heading into the fourth quarter, 28 to 14. McCallum’s defense held the Travis runners scoreless for the remainder of the third and the all of the fourth quarter, which gave the McCallum offense a chance to make this game more exciting. The Knight offense did just what was asked of them when Jefferson scored on two more touchdown throws by Kevin Lusson. McCallum’s tying score was set up with McCallum recovering an onside kick, which lead to the second score. With the score knotted up at the end of regulation play 28 to 28 the Knights found themselves looking at overtime for the second week in a row.

Travis had the ball first in OT and were able to post the go ahead touchdown making the score 35 to 28. The Knights answered the calling with a touchdown of their own, ending the first OT period tied at 35. In OT 2 the Knights started out on offense but fumbled and Travis recovered. The Rebels were held for 3 downs and attempted a game winning field goal but it was wide and the game headed into OT 3. In third period of overtime both teams’ offenses threw interceptions, which threw the game into OT 4. Finally in the fourth period the Knights scored the go ahead points on a 3-yard run by Lusson, and a successful 2-point conversion to Vincent Ellis. Travis was unable to answer the score and the game ended with a Knight victory 43 to 35.

Next week the Knights travel to Burger Field and do battle with the Crockett Cougars at 7pm on Thursday night.