Although the United Nation’s World Refugee Day is officially today, World Refugee Day was observed in our city with a Saturday afternoon celebration at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. The event was sponsored by the Austin Refugee Roundtable, a coalition of non-profits who provide services for local refugee resettlements.
The Republic of Texas Rally was held last weekend at the Travis County Expo Center. This annual three-day event attracted thousands of bikers to Central Texas. Again this year, a parade of motorcycles traveled the eleven miles from the Expo Center to downtown Austin on Friday evening.
Central Texas is soaked. For almost two weeks, a stationary low pressure system pumped huge amounts of moisture into the area. The Austin airport reported 15.80″ of rainfall last month, making for the wettest May on record. Downtown Austin had no major flooding, but many homes were affected both downstream and upstream from the city.
The West Austin Studio Tour spanned two weekends in May. While November’s EAST is limited to East Austin, WEST (of I-35) covers a huge swath of Austin: from up north around Rt. 183 to down south near William Cannon. I toured on the second weekend, traveling around north Austin on Saturday and in south Austin on Sunday. Neither day was crowded, possibly due to UT graduation.
Only four months have gone by since my last construction update, but there’s plenty of progress to report.
I was thrilled to attend two afternoon sessions of the recent Vietnam War Summit. This three-day event was hosted by the LBJ Presidential Library. Panel discussions were held each afternoon in their auditorium, with evening keynotes featuring former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and filmmaker Ken Burns interviewing current Secretary of State John Kerry.
Today was Bike to Work Day in Austin, as well as in many other cities. Fueling stations were set up around town, including one in front of city hall. Mayor Steve Adler spoke briefly about the reasons to bike to work: it’s healthy, cheap, fun, and earth-friendly. Based on recent trips to Amsterdam and Copenhagen, he is convinced that our city should be doing more to promote bikes as an alternative for commuting.
The Big Squeeze is usually an annual competition for teenage accordion players, but this year a tenth anniversary concert was held on the plaza in front of the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum. I think this was partly due to a change in coordinators at the sponsoring organization, Texas Folklife. The concert was not well-attended, probably because it conflicted with the Pecan Street Festival and the O. Henry Pun-Off.
The 39th Annual O. Henry Pun-Off was held in the backyard of the O. Henry Museum in Brush Creek Park. Unlike last year’s competition, the weather cooperated this year. Even so, I arrived early and was happy to get a prime spot in the main tent.
