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HPNA General Meeting
August 4th Agenda
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T he Annual Hyde Park Homes Tour took place again this year on Father's Day Weekend, as it has for more than twenty-five years. More than two thousand tourgoers passed through the Austin State Hospital's 1857 Main Building and the seven Hyde Park homes generously made available by neighborhood homeowners.
The money raised by ticket sales, booklet and bus banner ads, book and poster sales is the Neighborhood Association's principal revenue source. The Tour also has the largest participation by neighbors and friends of Hyde Park of any annual event. Consequently we have more people to thank than space available to list them all: docents, house captains, tour bus conductors, members of the organizing committee, booklet text writers, editors, the staff of the Austin State Hospital and its Volunteer
| August, 2003 National Register District Neighborhood Vol. 29, No. 8 |
"T here ought to be a law!". This is a sentiment that occurs to just about everyone, sooner or later. When it comes to living together we must create laws, so that people are respectful and civil to fellow citizens. We have the right to enjoy our homes without feeling that our neighbor is our enemy.
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The last thing that anyone wants is an angry neighbor next
door. But too often this happens when one neighbor imposes
on another, unknowingly violating the law. We have laws to
forbid acts that endanger other people or violate their
rights. For 30 years this Neighborhood Association has
promoted the growth and redevelopment of Hyde Park. When
neighbors have needed help in resolving their rights and
responsibilities, the Association has come forward to help..
The Association, like a neighbor, is not the enforcer of the
laws, but a conscientious defender of them. If we allow our
neighbor to violate a law that endangers another person or
violates his/her rights, we have failed as a neighbor. The
Association and the City of Austin have designed laws that
preserve and protect our neighborhood.
Hyde Park is famous for its history of being a planned community and the Association over the last thirty years has preserved and protected that history. If an owner or developer does not understand the value of laws that govern a planned community such as Hyde Park, then they are more likely to violate them in their own interest. This is when the interest of the community is at stake, and it is your Association that is here to defend you and your rights. |
When the Association set out over ten years ago to establish an ordinance (Neighborhood Conservation Combining District) to preserve and protect the character and history of Hyde Park, it knew it was doing something that would increase the value of all property in Hyde Park. Now today with that value firmly in place, some people can only see their own monetary gain, without understanding the value of our ordinances. Sometimes representatives of the City fail to recognize the importance of ordinances in protecting and preserving a neighborhood.
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