HEB Earth Day Reusable Shopping Bag Giveaway, April 22

H-E-B CELEBRATES EARTH DAY BY GIVING AWAY 300,000 REUSABLE SHOPPING BAGS

FOUR HOURS ONLY - 3 P.M. – 7 P.M.

H-E-B plans to celebrate Earth Day statewide in a big way by encouraging its customers to keep going green. On Wednesday, April 22, the retailer will give away 300,000 reusable shopping bags with plans to eliminate 1.5 million plastic bags from circulation. The program is taking place simultaneously at all H-E-B stores across Texas where the company will give away 300,000 reusable shopping bags statewide in a four-hour period.

For further details see the flyer.

THE CRESTVIEW NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION NEEDS YOU!

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTIONS ARE MAY 11TH, 2009

For more than 25 years, CNA has steadfastly served the Crestview neighborhood. In the last year alone, CNA has coordinated with the city on deciding Vertical Mixed Use zoning, met with the Zoning and Planning Commission on the site plan for Crestview Station, coordinated with the City and Tree Folks to plant 98 new trees along Morrow, cooperated with Sustainable Neighborhoods and the list goes on! CNA works hard to represent and protect your interests!

If you are interested in keeping Crestview a great place to call home, your support of the neighborhood association is critical, and it makes a big difference.

Here are several ways you can help:

1. Join or renew your CNA membership. Dues are $10/year. Residents who are members by May 4, 2009, can vote at the upcoming Executive Committee elections, which will be held during the regular monthly meeting on Monday, May 11, 7 p.m., in Wozniak Hall, St. Louis Catholic Church.

2. Volunteer for a leadership position with the CNA. All positions are open to nominations, but five positions will be vacated next month as current members choose not to be re-nominated.
o President Open
o Vice President Open
o Treasurer Tim Ramirez
o Secretary Don Tucker
o Newsletter Editor Open
o Position #1 Deanna McMillen
o Position #2 Open
o Position #3 Dave Considine
o Position #4 Open

3. Attend the May 11th meeting and vote for your candidates of choice. Bring a neighbor!

4. Complete the Neighborhood Survey (at the bottom of this page, above the calendar)!

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
o Contact the CNA Secretary
o Join the Email Group - Send an email to Crestview Neighbors

Mayoral and City Council Candidate Forum, April 13th

The North Central Austin Candidate Forum, sponsored by the Allandale, Brentwood, Crestview, Highland, North Shoal Creek, and Wooten neighborhood associations, is the day after Easter, Monday April 13, from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM, Wozniak Hall, St Louis Catholic Church, 7601 Burnet Rd.

The neighborhoods identified city planning as a unifying theme of the forum. Candidates will be asked detailed questions on how to plan for and fund the land use and transportation changes in North Central Austin required to support tens of thousands of new residents in the coming years.

The City in 2007 rezoned hundreds of acres of commercial property along Burnet, Anderson, Lamar and Airport to allow for apartments, with no hard requirement other than sidewalks for what planners call functional public open space - plazas, playscapes, outdoor dining, trails, parks and wildlife habitat - each of which serves a vital purpose in a dense urban environment.

More information, including candidate questionnaire responses, are at the forum page.

Here is a short, 3-minute YouTube video that serves as a trailer for the Room To Live initiative and the unifying theme of the forum.

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The Crestview Neighborhood Association will have an information table at the forum. Please stop by to tell us what you would like to see more or less of in our neighborhood. Bring a checkbook and pay your annual $10 membership dues (dues can be waived in extenuating circumstances)! Dues must be paid by May 4th to be able to participate in the annual association elections on May 11th! Our neighborhood is a collaborative effort. Let's join together to make it the best it can be!

CNA Officer Elections May 11th

This year, the positions of the president, vice-president, the newsletter editor and 2 places on the executive committee will be vacated at the May '09 elections. All neighbors are encouraged to attend this important general meeting on the 11th to participate in the election. Anyone wishing to run and/or vote in the elections must have their membership dues ($10) paid 1 week prior to the elections. Membership forms are available in the April Newsletter. People interested in volunteering for the following term (June '09-June '10) are encouraged to peruse the bylaws for descriptions of duties of the officers and place-holders.

Brentwood Rocks Benefit Concert, April 18th

Saturday, April 18th
5-7:30 pm.
Brentwood Park, outdoor stage

Join us for an evening concert in the park featuring Shining Path, Spoiled Royals, and the Brentones! Bring a blanket, and settle in to enjoy live music with delicious food offered by Galaxy Cafe, Wink Restaurant, and Freddie's Place. All proceeds benefit Brentwood Elementary. (Rain or shine- rain location the Brentwood Elementary Cafe).

for all the details, visit this site.

Violet Crown Thing in the Park, Saturday, May 2

Make plans to join your friends and neighbors at the Violet Crown Thing in the Park, to be held in Brentwood Park on Saturday, May 2, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

In the spirit of previous Violet Crown Festivals, this event is being organized by Violet Crown Community Works. Since 2003, VCCW has helped build and sustain community in Brentwood and Crestview by supporting neighborhood events and enhancement projects.

Admission to the Thing in the Park is free, and there will be fun activities for all ages, including art and craft vendors, live music and other entertainment from neighborhood groups, kids' activities, and good old-fashioned games like sack races and pitching washers! We'll also have living history displays and activities and sales of a neighborhood history film and booklet.

Bring your blanket and a picnic or enjoy great food and tasty treats from Hangtown Grill, Amy's Ice Creams, Hey Cupcake!, and others. Major sponsors include Grande Communications, The Pilates Center of Austin, Texas DPS Credit Union, Sweet Leaf Tea, Thunderbird Coffee, The Art Pad, Stepping Stone School, and Barnstormers Studio.

Proceeds from the Thing in the Park will be dedicated to seating and other enhancements for the Wall of Welcome area. Additional proceeds will benefit Voices of the Violet Crown, an ongoing oral history project in the neighborhood.

Join us for a fun day in the park! The Violet Crown Thing in the Park needs volunteers before, during and after the event, which will be held from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. on May 2. The jobs aren't hard, and are fun and easy ways to meet your neighbors and do something good for your community! If you can give a couple of hours to the event, please contact Vanita Trippe (vtrippe@hotmail.com or 302-9792) or Diane Bennett (454-3259 or at Crestview Barber Shop).

We are still looking for local talent to provide entertainment during the 15-minute set changes on the music stage. If you are interested in performing, contact Sally Brannon, sally@earthkeeperesc.com or phone 970-3995.

Artists and artisans interested in a booth at the Thing should contact Mona Prater, beadornment@hotmail.com or phone 450-1167.

For more information and updates about the event, stay tuned to neighborhood newsletters, listservs, and violetcrownfestival.com.

Burnesons awarded for neighborhood oral history project

Crestview residents Susan and Rob Burneson have been awarded the Mary Faye Barnes Award for Excellence for Community History Projects by the Texas Oral History Association. The award is for "outstanding work in collecting and preserving oral histories of significance to the story of the Brentwood and Crestview neighborhoods of Austin," including the production of a film, "A Community Mosaic," in 2008.

With the recent grant from Violet Crown Community Works, Susan and Rob are continuing videotaped interviews in the neighborhood this spring. If you know of someone, especially a longtime resident, who is willing to be interviewed, please contact Susan and Rob at 459-9613 or nimbus@austin.rr.com.

"A Community Mosaic" has been shown at the Wall of Welcome Dedication, Violet Crown Fall Arts Festival, Brentwood and Crestview neighborhood association meetings, a number of churches in the neighborhood, and, most recently, at an outdoor film party in Crestview. Copies of the film have been donated to the Austin Public Library (where it can be checked out), the Austin History Center, and the Brentwood Elementary School Library.

You may also purchase your own copy of "A Community Mosaic" at Crestview Barber Shop or from Susan and Rob.

We are so proud of Susan and Rob's work. This award is well deserved. Thank you Susan and Rob!!!!!

Posted by Shayla Fleshman to the neighborhood listserv

Traffic Calming – What’s It All About?

By the Crestview Traffic-Calming Working Group

The name says it all. What does the word “calming” make you think about? It means “easing, relaxing, reducing tension.” It also means “not agitating, not aggravating, not upset.” Doesn’t calming sound nice? So let’s all work together to calm our traffic down.

The most recent traffic data gathered by the city shows that Crestview has a high per-trip traffic count, meaning the number of one-way trips into and through the neighborhood. Also, the average speed of all these cars is 5–8 miles over the posted speed limit. Sometimes the speed limit is 25 m.p.h. on narrow streets, and sometimes it’s 30 m.p.h. on wider streets like Woodrow and Grover. Five to eight miles over the speed limit might not be significant on a highway, but on our neighborhood streets it has become a major problem.

Currently, our most common traffic problems are not one- or two-car accidents, but pedestrian injury and property damage due to drivers running stop signs and not yielding to walkers and bicyclists. Some of these drivers are your neighbors, but a large number of them are “cut-through drivers.” This means they do not live in the neighborhood, but are simply driving through Crestview on their way to somewhere else. Cut-through traffic is not necessarily a bad thing; we are in the middle
of the city after all. But remember that we also have a problem with high speed.

In summary, traffic calming will address these two issues and result in an average 20% reduction in both volume and speed of traffic. To some people, 20% may not sound like much, but let’s remember what “calming” means. We will see an overall calming effect in traffic all over the neighborhood with fewer cars, and they will be traveling at slower speeds. As a result, our streets will be a safer and quieter.

Neighborhood residents will soon be presented with the opportunity to support the efforts of our Crestview Neighborhood Association and the City of Austin to calm our traffic. A working group is nearing completion on a proposed neighborhood plan and will be ironing out the details with the City of Austin traffic engineer over the next few weeks.

After the plan is completed, the City will mail a notification letter to neighborhood property owners with information on the plan along with a ballot, and residents will have an opportunity to attend an open house to obtain more information prior to voting. Prior to the balloting, the working group plans a program of education and outreach to our neighbors. In addition to newsletter and website articles, they will be going door-to-door and staffing information tables in the area.

If traffic calming is important to you, and you would like to help get the information out to our neighbors, please notify Kat Correa, secretary of the working group, with your preferred email and number. Her telephone number is 225-4732; her email address is kat@dukecorrea.com.

We appreciate any time and talent you have to offer.

Post by Kat Correa to the neighborhood listserv.

City Mows Arroyo-Seco Ditch During Wildflower Season - AGAIN

Despite assurances to the contrary, the annual wildflower genocide continues.

Baked Goods/Lemonade Fundraising Sale

Please help the Violet Crown Community Theater raise money for "Jack and the Beanstalk" by visiting our baked goods and lemonade sale this weekend. This is a great opportunity to support a community event while enjoying delicious refreshments and meeting neighbors.

What: Baked Goods/Lemonade Fundraising Sale
When: Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Where: In front of Crestview Pharmacy/Perfecto Cleaners

Also, mark your calendars for May 30th! There will be a free performance of "Jack and the Beanstalk" at the outdoor amphitheater of Brentwood Elementary (by the swimming pool) at 5 PM.

For more information, email Nancy at okra@austin.rr.com.