A s with Gary Penn, this will be my last communique From The Co-Presidents' Desk. If all goes as planned, at the annual Fire Station Festival on October 19 we will be installing two new Co-Presidents, Glen Coleman and Pam Whittington. I feel proud to leave the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association in their more than capable hands. I know that they will be able to serve HPNA as well as, or in some cases better than. Gary and I have while we have been in office.

    When I first accepted my nomination to be co-president I wanted make a lasting impact on the organization. With HPNA as one of the leading neighborhood associations in the city, I saw this as no small task. While I, along with Gary's work, input, wisdom, and guidance, was able to help keep the Association strong, I never felt as if I had achieved my goal. I had not wanted simply to do a good job of leading while in office, but I wanted to leave a lasting legacy or vision for the organization.

    I struggled with this for a long time. I spent a lot of time putting out fires, going to meetings, speaking with city officials, and making presentations before City Council, but I never quite got to the point where I could feel that I had created a legacy, much less formulated a vision.

    As my tenure as co-president is now coming to an end, I am finally able to say that a vision or direction is becoming clear. It was an odd, and sad, series of events that brought this about. After Walter Richter's recent passing, I became aware of his impact on our community. By community I mean Hyde Park, Austin, and the State of Texas.

    Because I didn't know Walter personally, I invited Grant Thomas and Alan Marburger to say a few words about him at the September HPNA general meeting. It was then that I realized what my vision was, and still is.

    From my understanding of it, Walter taught his wife, Dorothy Richter, a great deal about community activism. It was Dorothy, after all, who won our first battle with the city to save our very own Fire Station #9. Dorothy has gone on to do a lot of other good things for both Hyde Park and the City of Austin. If you remember my letter in the September 2003 issue of the Pecan Press, Dorothy inspired me to risk arrest and stand up to fight illegal building in our neighborhood. This is just a seed of what I want my legacy to be.

    Hyde Park has long been known for its community activism and notorious battles with the City of Austin, Hyde Park Baptist Church, and the Triangle Development, among other things. When I first lived in Hyde Park as a poor UT graduate student (1991 -- 1993) living in a garage apartment, I was proud of the Hyde Park community where I lived. Unfortunately my school work did not allow me an opportunity to get involved with HPNA at that time. Nonetheless, I was proud to live in an area where the residents cared about their community and their city.

    While the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association is still strong, I am concerned that has begun to lose its spirit of community activism and community involvement. As co-president, I have seen personally what a difference one individual can make in our community. The word community can be used many ways in this context. It can refer to the Hyde Park community, the City of Austin, or even the State of Texas. Activism can be easy, and the results