HPNA Meeting: Alley Cats & Throw Down Squirrels

• Introductions
• Tom Green Substation - Judy Fowler
• Alley Cleanup - Co-Presidents
• Homes Tour - Bob Breeze
• Historic Zoning - Peter Maxson
• Adjournment

Hyde Park Neighbors met on July 1st to celebrate one of the best ever homes tours and get the inside scoop on the City's plans for changes in the area. These fun and informative meetings take place the first Monday of every month in the Hyde Park Methodist Church on Speedway at 7 p.m.

Introductions

Co Presidents Bob Breeze and Gary Penn presided over a crowd euphoric of the conclusion of this year's homes tour. People introduced themselves around the room giving their name and residence address.

Tom Green Substation - Judy Fowler

Co-Presidents Bob Breeze and Gary Penn introduced Austin Energy's Judy Fowler, who gave a thorough presentation outlining the City's plans for the upcoming construction of an electrical substation on the Southwest corner of 45th and Guadalupe and the eventual closing of the old substation on nearby Grooms and 38th street. The new facility will occupy a space along the road fronting 45th on the current State Hospital grounds. Its completion, scheduled for December of 2003, will coincide with the removal of a long series of main line utility poles now running along Speedway and through the alleys in the center of Hyde Park. The new power poles will run up Guadalupe, leaving the alleys more navigable for back-of-house service and the air above them more accommodating for tree growth. Ms. Fowler went on to report that a green space is currently the City's preferred option for space remaining after the Grooms Street facility is removed. Anyone wishing to contact Ms. Fowler for more details is invited to do so at judy.fowler@austinenergy.com Judy joked that the old plant had become so problematic that repair crews in the area were having to carry "throw down squirrels" in their trucks to account for increasing outages.

While utility crews in the area may soon be finding the alleys of our neighborhood more accessible, the City's Solid Waste Disposal Service has made it clear that it does not. One of Hyde Park's defining features is in danger of being removed, and neighbors who once were able to have their garbage picked up from behind their alleys may soon find themselves carting their trash containers out to their front yards on trash pickup day. While people in newer suburban neighborhoods are accustomed to this scenario, the impact on bike- and pedestrian-friendly Hyde Park, with its shaded and busy sidewalks and jammed tight street parking will be negative and substantial. Although city planners from around the country have lauded the alley system as an ideal feature of "new urbanism", the narrow alleys have never been popular with the City's "one size fits all" approach to garbage collection.

Alley Cleanup - Co-Presidents

Complaints have resurfaced from Solid Waste that the alleys are once again overgrown, and that crewmen are getting whacked by limbs while trying to service their routes. The Association is taking action to address both specific and general concerns.

Volunteers are being sought to reform the once-active Alley Cats, a neighborhood group that trimmed limbs and removed detritus in the alleys that homeowners, for whatever