Ep 164 Transcript: Taken from the video version of the episode (Note: This has not been proofed)

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:29:22
Ted Siff
The Big Loop is a combination of the Shoal Creek Trail, the Walnut Creek Trail, and the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, as well as the Trail Conservancy's Butler Hike and Bike Trail along the South. That 30-plus mile loop would represent the bulk of the urban core of Austin and its funding of its creation, as exists now with the passage of the 2020 bond.

00:00:30:05 - 00:01:04:29
John Simmerman
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. I'm John Simmerman and that is Ted Siff, one of the founding members of the Austin Outside membership organization, which is a coalition of other organizations throughout the Austin area, striving to enhance the quality of life for Austinites by giving them access to trails and pathways and open space and parklands. This is a fabulous conversation that I've been dying to get recorded and so without further ado, here's Ted Siff.

00:01:04:29 - 00:01:09:21
John Simmerman
Ted Stiff. It's an absolute honor to have you on the Active Towns Podcast. Welcome.

00:01:10:13 - 00:01:13:01
Ted Siff
My pleasure to be here, Ted.

00:01:13:17 - 00:01:24:18
John Simmerman
So you and I know each other. We're both here in the Austin area. But my audience, they may not know who you are. So to take this opportunity to just briefly introduce yourself.

00:01:25:24 - 00:01:59:18
Ted Siff
Well, thanks, John. It's a first of all, pleasure to be with you. And I have, as an adult, primarily done two things. I've earned a living mainly through publishing, but a good chunk of my adult lives. I've been an advocate for open space and active transportation. In the late eighties, I helped found with a group of others here in Austin, a nonprofit called Citizens for Open Space, that led to ultimately the creation of the Texas Office of the Trust for Public Land.

00:02:00:02 - 00:02:40:06
Ted Siff
Which I headed for a decade in the nineties and during the nineties, two things happened. Largely that impetus of trust for public land activities, the creation of the Austin Parks Foundation, which I went on to be the executive director of for five years from 99 204 and then to and we're living I've been back doing publishing stuff, but as a volunteer park and active transportation to advocate have helped create two substantial nonprofits one the Shaw Creek Conservancy.

00:02:40:06 - 00:03:00:27
Ted Siff
And I know you've had it's executive director Ivy Kiser on your program and then the coalition of Open Space and Active transportation advocates called Austin Outside, which I'm on the board of. And it's my probably primary activity right now as a as an advocate.

00:03:01:18 - 00:03:22:15
John Simmerman
Yeah, let's pull up the timeline here, because you sent this over and I think this is a great way to put a visual to this is, yeah, that timeline. You've mentioned something, you know, in the eighties leading up to this and yes, that's awesome. I've also had a representative from the Trust for Public Land on the podcast as well, the audio only version.

00:03:22:15 - 00:03:44:18
John Simmerman
So I need to bring her back on and, and do the video version to really bring it to life. But yeah, this is I love this history because, you know, we, we didn't get here to the Austin area until the fall of 2014. And then I met you soon after that. But yeah, it's it's wonderful to have this context.

00:03:44:18 - 00:04:03:00
John Simmerman
So we'll talk a little bit about, you know, that history of of how this has kind of, you know, come to life and all of that. But take us back to the nineties. What were some of the main issues that the city was dealing with that really prompted some of this activity?

00:04:04:20 - 00:04:53:14
Ted Siff
I sure it sounds almost cliche at this point, but growth was a major issue of the eighties. It has happened to be the major issue of the nineties and the aughts and the 2020s to Austin has been a fast growing city almost since its founding 150 years ago. But in the eighties in particular, the risk to the water quality of the jewel of Austin Barton Springs, brought to head advocates against development in the southwest sector of the city, and that led to a citizen initiative ordinance proposition on a 1992 city ballot that limited growth in the southwest sector.

00:04:53:14 - 00:05:25:22
Ted Siff
That's called the Save Our Springs ordinance on that same ballot. And at least as importantly, from my point of view, there were two bond propositions one for $22 million to fund acquisition of land for endangered species protection. But the other a $20 million bond proposition to fund land to fund land acquisition in the Barton Springs watershed Part and Creek Watershed to protect Barton Springs.

00:05:26:07 - 00:06:11:11
Ted Siff
And I was involved in those two bond propositions, largely along with a host of others, to advocate for something that advocated by other citizens over decades before that is acquiring the land above Barton Springs to protect it from water quality degradation, but also just to protect the whole watershed, the ecosystem of that watershed that happily happened as a result of the passage of that $20 million bond proposition, where now we have a thousand acre park at the headwaters of upstream from Barton Springs.

00:06:11:23 - 00:06:35:24
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I have to to pull this photo up because this this brings us back to that sort of that era. This is from 1992, I believe, or may actually maybe 93 even. But yeah, So you've been in this fight for a while. I don't you know, it's a quest. It's a challenge. It's I don't know if a fight is the right terminology to use.

00:06:36:07 - 00:06:55:08
Ted Siff
But a public efforts don't go away. And to feel now or realize now that it's been decades, it's actually a pleasure not not at all otherwise. And a it's made a bit of a difference.

00:06:57:04 - 00:07:08:11
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, it's funny too, because a completely unplanned you know, last week I had Gary Merritt on from the Great Springs Project.

00:07:09:02 - 00:07:53:17
Ted Siff
Right. It's it's it's not a new idea. The Boston Common was created by those citizens several hundred years ago to have a common area for poor folks and one that hosted the cattle of that village, but also the people to gather and recreated as well as just a share ideas. In central Texas, we've got the natural resources that are here that citizens feel very strongly about and the Great Springs Project is what is the is the current representation of that public interest effort that is expressed by citizens throughout central Texas.

00:07:54:11 - 00:08:27:05
Ted Siff
I was lucky enough to lead citizen interests for open space, but also active transportation through the trust for public land in the great state of Texas for that decade of the nineties. And part of it I would just draw out of this that in 94, right after the passage of the newest Federal Transportation Act, which at that time was called the inter surface mode of transporting and Efficiency Act, I see there was money for transportation enhancements.

00:08:27:05 - 00:08:57:04
Ted Siff
What we saw is money for trails. And so part of our open space effort was to provide citizen access to that open space through bikeways and sidewalks and and trails. And so a another citizen nonprofit called the Austin Metropolitan Trails Council was formed largely to advocate to get some of that federal money from for the Austin region. And we were quite successful in doing that.

00:08:57:23 - 00:09:29:10
Ted Siff
But as a result, we had all to document that citizen interests and need mainly ground truth by people getting out there and walking largely along creeks. We created the vision for a 400 mile network of primarily creek based trails that all connected through the Colorado River, which runs through Austin, because all of those creeks flow into the Colorado River.

00:09:29:18 - 00:10:03:18
John Simmerman
Yeah, I'm going to pull up this timeline again because I think this is helpful to sort of, you know, capture some of what you just said as well and the fact that, yes, a lot of this land and park space that is is being conserved and preserved is also being activated through active mobility. And then we do see that sort of blending of of active recreation as well as active mobility.

00:10:03:18 - 00:10:35:20
John Simmerman
It's not just preserving and putting underclass, you know, the open space. There is a time and place for some of that as well. But in in most of these cases, we're seeing a real passion for for activating the space. And some of the things that I'm seeing here, one of the things I'm honing in on is in 1996, the Trail Dogs Coalition was formed to talk a little bit about the trail dogs and what it is that you were really hoping to do with that.

00:10:35:27 - 00:10:39:20
John Simmerman
And who the heck are the trail dogs?

00:10:39:20 - 00:11:02:03
Ted Siff
Sure. Thanks for honing in on that. You know, it's there's a logical evolution, at least from my perspective. We first in the late eighties, early nineties, a group of citizens came together to say we're citizens for open space. We don't have anything against the house. We live in or the other buildings around. But there are some special places that should not be built upon.

00:11:02:24 - 00:11:36:17
Ted Siff
And with the federal transportation ice t passage in 91 actually that also led to the concept of this US open space could be connected by bike lanes or sidewalks or or even a creek based trail. That City of Austin, Bond said about the proposition to 92 was passed in 94. A group of nonprofits, the Austin Parks Foundation, had been founded that year, but it was also an effort to protect the trail that existed.

00:11:36:17 - 00:12:13:28
Ted Siff
And for a couple of decades prior. Around that time, it was called Count Lake, now Ladybird Lake, the center of the city. So there was a clutch of people and organizations that wanted to focus on getting some of that federal trail and active transportation money out of that federal bill. So that formed a loose coalition, unincorporated group of nonprofits that first advocated for city grants to the feds for federal money.

00:12:14:08 - 00:12:29:12
Ted Siff
But also in 94, it looked like there might be a new city bond election opportunity that actually happened in 96 and ended up there was the first Bond City bond money for trails.

00:12:30:00 - 00:13:06:03
John Simmerman
Yeah, and I think that's represented right here in closing the loop on that is is we've got active transportation bonds and then also the the open space bonds also in 1996 there and then a few years later in 2013, the Shell Creek Conservancy was founded. And as you mentioned, I had Ivy Kiser on as a guest talking about the the the Shoal Creek Conservancy and what a great, you know, example of, you know, this concept of a, you know, Creekside Trail system.

00:13:06:03 - 00:13:38:12
John Simmerman
And we talked a little bit about the this concept of the need in in the Austin area for foundations and conservancies. But why don't you give your sort of take on this because in 1993 when the Austin Parks Foundation was was founded, you're a board member, you are also the executive director for a time. Why the heck does Texas and why the heck does Austin need a Parks foundation?

00:13:38:18 - 00:13:55:14
John Simmerman
We have an international audience. They might be going, Why do you need these NGOs, nonprofits, public private partnerships to try to fund what ultimately should be funded by the government. So give a little context as to why this is necessary.

00:13:56:19 - 00:14:27:25
Ted Siff
I pure and public interest advocacy generally represented through in the United States. IRS Code 501c3 That establishes the ability to donate money to organizations and have a tax deduction through that donation. That's the independent sector, if you will. There's the private sector that develops land for private profit, at least in the United States. And there's the public sector, the governmental sector.

00:14:28:10 - 00:15:14:19
Ted Siff
But the manifestation of citizen interest, public interest is largely represented if it's organized through nonprofits, some of which are getting into the weeds a little bit, can be tax deductible, some of which is it's stronger advocacy and involved in electing people. That's not tax deductible. Those are different kinds of nonprofits. But just focus on the Awesome Part Foundation and the Shaw Creek Conservancy, two examples of citizen nonprofits that have basically said We respect the public sector effort to get parks in Austin or to protect the Shaw Creek Trail and Shaw Creek itself.

00:15:15:06 - 00:15:51:00
Ted Siff
But we citizens think, first of all, that the public sector should do more and we're going to articulate that need through forming a nonprofit to raise money and and be a public voice, collective voice for this public asset, but also, if necessary, raise private money to enhance this particular part of the public sector's activities by special donations. So that independent sector exists in many areas.

00:15:51:00 - 00:16:20:29
Ted Siff
I'm pretty much focused on open space and active transportation in my adult lives, largely from the Austin area. But it's just being an active citizen and there's nobody, at least in the United States, to ask anybody's permission. We have that right to articulate our view of the public interest and collective fleet that ultimately, if successful, generate some positive results.

00:16:21:10 - 00:16:51:17
John Simmerman
Yeah, I was shocked when I got here. Austin, on a per capita basis is pretty good in terms of the amount of public land and parks that is available, but it's in the bottom 3 to 5%. The last time I checked in terms of per capita funding for four, in other words, the city's budget to actually be able to maintain and operate and build new infrastructure is one of the worst in the nation.

00:16:51:17 - 00:17:15:09
John Simmerman
It's I was astounded, especially because this has been an area of tremendous growth and there's so much wealth and industry in this area. And yet we need to have the public, you know, the Austin Parks Foundation, we need to have the Shoal Creek Conservancy. We need to have the The Trail Foundation, which is now called the Trail Conservancy.

00:17:15:17 - 00:17:38:15
John Simmerman
It's like part of the reason why we need these things is because we need to to bridge the gap. You know, lack of funding is this a Texas thing? Is is this a challenge that, you know, even the Dallas Metroplex area is is, you know, challenged with? I was astounded by learning that there was this huge funding gap.

00:17:39:24 - 00:18:06:28
Ted Siff
Yeah, it may be to some degree a cultural Texas thing. I would say the first reason for these any of these nonprofits that you mentioned to exist is to articulate exactly what you just said, the need for more public funding. And there's competition in terms of the allocation of public funds, whether it be for roads or hospitals or social welfare.

00:18:07:15 - 00:18:46:18
Ted Siff
There are things that may or may be higher priority in terms of the public needs for allocation of funds than parks and recreation. But as we've developed the advocacy on the independent sector side in Austin, noting that open space opportunities and active transportation opportunities are part of our health resilience, that we actually have. If you measure, take any number of measurements in Austin a healthier community than any other Texas urban area.

00:18:47:01 - 00:19:11:04
Ted Siff
And I would argue that that difference in Austin's overall health at least to some degree, is because of that the open space and active transportation assets we've put in place over the last several decades. But it is a need and I don't I'm not sure why we're not better than others, but but we need to do better. Absolutely.

00:19:11:24 - 00:19:35:14
John Simmerman
Well, it's just it's a curious fact and it's one of the reasons why I think that it's so imperative that citizens such as yourself are engaged in saying, look, we have this need. There is this gap. We need to be able to do a better job of funding these things. And you all are not afraid of saying, let's communicate.

00:19:35:14 - 00:19:55:28
John Simmerman
This needs let's be clear on this. Let's give a paint a picture and tell a story as to the advantages of doing this. And then putting it out to the voters and being able to say, you know, hey, we do need to dip into our own pockets. We do need to quote unquote, you know, tax ourselves to be able to do this.

00:19:56:02 - 00:20:23:21
John Simmerman
This is a list of all the different parks and open space and active transportation bond elections that have taken place, you know, from 1992, all the way through the 2020 bond that that took place. I mean, we're talking about nearly this is 1.716, you know, billion dollars. This is amazing, right?

00:20:23:21 - 00:21:11:01
Ted Siff
We've been successful on the capital project side. That is the buying of land, the building and improving of park assets, the allocation of dollars for active transportation. As you know, the capstone of that list is $460 million that was approved by almost over 70% of Austin voters in November of 2020 for sidewalks, bike lanes and trails Austin had had has done a pretty good job over the last 10 to 20 years in terms of particularly the last decade in developing aspirationally what the bike network and sidewalk network should be.

00:21:11:16 - 00:21:31:00
Ted Siff
This funds at least the highest and high priorities of that network and should be spent over the next the rest of this decade. If that happens, Austin will be competitive with some of the other leading cities in terms of active transportation facilities.

00:21:31:13 - 00:21:32:21
John Simmerman
Globally, by the way.

00:21:33:17 - 00:22:11:17
Ted Siff
We are. Yeah, well, good. You said it, not me. I did. I hope that's true with the coalition and without just Austin outside coalition that now has over 60 members and these are nonprofits as well as for profit organizations like I'm proud to say, the American Health Association chapter in Austin, as well as several architecture and landscape architecture firms, are member organizations of Austin outside that had championed getting that $460 million bond proposition on the ballot.

00:22:11:28 - 00:22:52:13
Ted Siff
With leadership from the City council, particularly council member Paige Ellis, who's an absolute leader in this area. That bond proposition would not have happened without her leadership, but to have them have her back, 60 organizations were also saying, yes, this is needed. And so once the capital was authorized by voters, the next step, the next year, in the spring of 21, the same coalition advocated for an operating budget amendment to fund 50.

00:22:52:13 - 00:23:22:19
Ted Siff
That's five zero additional full time staff to start building these sidewalks and running the projects to do bike lanes and trails. Without that additional staff capacity and operating budget element, the $450 million wouldn't have gotten under the ground. But I'm happy to report that it's happening right now. Look out other cities. Austin is going to be competing with you by the end of this decade.

00:23:22:27 - 00:23:52:24
John Simmerman
Yeah, well, it's in its taken, as you mentioned, a good decade in the last decade of really starting to hone in to fund specifically the build out of the bike network which includes many of the off street networks of trails and pathways, in addition to the fact that in the last decade, what is a bike lane, What is acceptable and what is best in class has also changed.

00:23:53:05 - 00:24:17:12
John Simmerman
Back in the old days in the nineties or whatever, you know, a bike lane was just considered, you know, a four inch amount of paint on a shoulder and, you know, voila. There you go. Well, we found out that pretty much only confident, mainly white males took advantage of that. That's not an all ages and abilities network. We've learned a lot since then.

00:24:18:00 - 00:24:53:02
John Simmerman
You mentioned Council member Paige Ellis. She was part of a coalition, a group that went to the Netherlands in 2019 to really breathe it in and feel it and understand it. And as she reminded me, coincidentally, while she was there in in the Netherlands, Austin outside, and the coalitions were starting to come together to to really put together that framework or that, you know, basically what what was needed to be able to push that bond forward.

00:24:53:13 - 00:25:14:19
John Simmerman
And it was no small feat. I mean, this 2020, the November election, it was both Proposition A, which was the project Connect the transit bond, as well as this act of transportation bond, Proposition B And I was absolutely delighted to see both of them pass with very, very impressive margins.

00:25:16:05 - 00:25:50:26
Ted Siff
Yes, they actually complemented each other, although of advocates on either propositions were somewhat concerned that they might be competing against each other, just the opposite turned out to be the case. The active transportation proposition actually led to did several points better in terms of the vote, which leads to the argument that at least active transportation folks were making, which is that if we bring any more voters to the ballot booth, so consult for both, not just one.

00:25:51:02 - 00:26:22:00
John Simmerman
Yeah and here's here's the on the Austin outside website here's the the post of that you know kind of walks out you know, what Proposition B was all about. And again, 67% of the vote very, very impressive in in to my point that I was making earlier. It's like this this is something that needs to really be highlighted is that we, the voters, have decided to invest in this.

00:26:22:00 - 00:26:51:20
John Simmerman
It's like the money is, quote unquote, not there. So we're going to tax ourselves to be able to fund this. And why? Because it is important. It's vitally important that we have access to open space, is vitally important, that we have access to safe and inviting active mobility options. And so it's I think it's just really, really speaks, you know, quite positively and loudly to the fact that people are getting it.

00:26:51:20 - 00:26:56:08
John Simmerman
The voters are actually understanding how imperative and how important this is.

00:26:57:19 - 00:27:37:15
Ted Siff
Yeah. And I just just to put a even stronger emphasis on it, some people might say, well, that's going to hurt growth, just the opposite. That is, as the city as the city of Lausanne and region, central Texas region has gained more population, the support for open space and trails and bike lanes and sidewalks has increased. They actually complement each other and are complementary to each other because you've got to whole budget, tall buildings or even just big apartment complexes or masterplan communities particularly.

00:27:37:15 - 00:27:54:20
Ted Siff
You see it in suburban masterplan communities. There is one that's planned today that isn't got sidewalks and bike lanes and is it's near a watercourse, it's got a trail trail two on it. So those are public amenities that they'll sell homes.

00:27:54:25 - 00:28:37:08
John Simmerman
Yeah. Well, and to your point, one of the great examples that we have here in Austin is, of course, the the Miller neighborhood. Mueller, if you prefer that pronunciation, the old airport location, which you know, features because they were able to build a community, a neighborhood from the ground up of what used to be runways, they were able to do it in a, you know, a much more urban new urbanism sort of context, but then also include a network of trails and pathways and protected bikeways as well as narrow traffic calmed, low speeds, neighborhood streets.

00:28:38:06 - 00:28:47:03
John Simmerman
You you've watched that. You know, come together. You know, how amazing has that been to be able to see that come together in the last couple of decades.

00:28:47:21 - 00:29:18:19
Ted Siff
For site to a particular city City council members? Beverly Griffith at the time was the advocate of making sure the city held the competition for the private sector developer to partner with the city to do that to very high standards. And that's played out to create one of the many great neighborhoods in Austin. And I'm not one who rolls up the fences at night.

00:29:18:19 - 00:29:30:27
Ted Siff
That is anybody who's watching this from outside of Austin and wants to come. You're welcome. And there's a lot of great choices in terms of having a wonderful life here.

00:29:31:11 - 00:29:55:11
John Simmerman
Well, and that's what I love about it, is I think that this is helping to make the case for some of our older neighborhoods, older than than Miller per se, of saying, you know, wait, this is kind of cool. I like this protected, you know, bikeway concept. And we should really, you know, strive to have some of this active mobility.

00:29:55:20 - 00:30:16:06
John Simmerman
We want our kids and our grandkids to be able to get to school and to be able to get to the parks and to be able to visit with friends. And, you know, in many cases, the grandparents want to be with the grandkids and want to feel like it's a safe environment for them to walk and bike and be able to use trail networks and protected bikeways.

00:30:16:14 - 00:30:40:15
John Simmerman
So I think that that's I think it's wonderful that we have we can point to an example of, you know, hey, you could have this too. We just need to do some adjustments and we need to to activate some some of these rights of way that might be sitting dormant. I'm thinking of some of the old rail trail corridors that are rail corridors that exist, especially down the Bergström Sturt Spur area.

00:30:40:25 - 00:31:02:03
John Simmerman
So yeah, so all of this to say that there's a huge need for grassroots advocacy still. So give your pitch on Austin outside and and again how you are as an organization trying to advocate and get people engaged both at the individual level and also the organizational level.

00:31:04:02 - 00:32:05:14
Ted Siff
I sure hope public interest advocacy doesn't stop and it's the rep that it's representation through the Coalition called Austin Outside is in the greater Austin area. I would call it the Austin region. Growth is happening as fast as pretty much any place in the country. Population growth is happening. To have a collective voice to say what parts of our land that is not just within the city limits but within the metropolitan region should remain unbuilt and protected for public access is a continuing message that Austin outside will be the collective voice of hopefully in a louder and louder, respectfully but loud way and and as a result will be beneficial to everybody.

00:32:05:24 - 00:32:21:10
Ted Siff
That is, the economy will respond positively to protecting special places and in developing an active transportation network to connect those special places along with individual citizens just using and liking them.

00:32:21:26 - 00:32:49:00
John Simmerman
Yeah, and yes, for those tuning in, if you are here in the Austin area, it is a membership organization. So please, you know, click on that link. Again, the links will be in the show notes in the video description below. Engage get, you know, get involved if you can and if if time is is is you know is this issue and you're not able to do you know give time you can give money.

00:32:49:20 - 00:33:27:20
Ted Siff
For a job and let me just put a fine point on that. We're a Austin side. It's a membership, a coalition of organizations. So the members are actually organizations, but supporters can donate. And that donate button if you represent an organization of any sort that appreciates active transparency, active transportation, and open space, it's easy to join as a member organization, but also, you can become an Austin outsider, as we've just started to call our individual supporters who donate.

00:33:28:04 - 00:33:31:05
Ted Siff
And you can get there through the donate button.

00:33:31:05 - 00:34:00:04
John Simmerman
Thanks. And I am a proud donor, so I'm one of the Austin Outsiders. As as an individual here in the area, I don't do much in it locally in terms of advocacy work and activism, but I love to profile the the positive really advances that we are have been seeing. And it's it's my honor and pleasure to be able to to donate to the to the to the organization.

00:34:00:04 - 00:34:37:13
John Simmerman
But what I really love doing is profiling the success. And I want to pull up this. This is the interactive trails and the proposed Troy Urban Trail Network. This is a really, really cool feature that's out on the the Austin website here in the Urban Trails program. And this is an ArcGIS map. You've got to you've got to be just grinning ear to ear, you know, every single year these days with the build out of of this urban trail network.

00:34:38:07 - 00:35:07:28
Ted Siff
Well, with the modern technology, it describes the aspiration that was not originated in the early nineties, but it was articulated in the early nineties, literally by one trust on public land in turn, riding the 30 miles of trails that existed at the time on his bike and then drawing them out by hand. He was a geography student at U.T., so he had that that skill.

00:35:08:20 - 00:35:43:12
Ted Siff
But now we've got GIs and we've got not just that 400 mile aspirational network of trails in these yellow and happily some blue lines means they have been created and are usable. But we've got a larger, you know, the whole SMA whole metropolitan area will eventually be encompassed by this kind of planning and how we'll start to get the money to fund them.

00:35:43:19 - 00:36:11:09
John Simmerman
Do you know, I'm kind of zeroing in on this for a reason, if I can get it to focus in on what I wanted to focus in on. When Amy and I were were talking, Ivy again is the executive director of the Shoal Creek Conservancy. And off to the left here, you can sort of see the relatively solid side of the trail network on which, you know, really creates that that Western edge of the the loop.

00:36:11:16 - 00:36:13:13
John Simmerman
What's what's that loop called again?

00:36:15:06 - 00:36:16:18
Ted Siff
Thanks, John. The big loop.

00:36:16:18 - 00:36:17:10
John Simmerman
The big loop.

00:36:18:01 - 00:37:00:24
Ted Siff
Combination of the Shaw Creek Trail, the Waller Creek Trail and the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, as well as the Trail Conservancy's Boulder Trail along the South Side. That 30 plus mile loop would represent the bulk of the urban core of Austin, and its funding of its creation is exists now with the passage of 2020 BOND. And so we'll see more of this in blue as the next couple of four years get its projects completed.

00:37:01:00 - 00:37:23:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And Ivy and I had talked about the fact that, yes, some of it is natural surface trails, some of it is a paved trail, some of it is off street network and some of it's on street network, especially in the case of like the Shaw Creek Boulevard protected Bikeway. But the goal is for it to be an inviting, a safe and inviting environment for all ages and abilities.

00:37:24:12 - 00:37:53:29
Ted Siff
Yeah and the big big loop is a is a major project and there are several others like you mentioned, you had the Great Springs project on and there's the Violet Crown Trail. We've got a handful of big elements of what would be a metropolitan wide, primarily creek based interconnect to active transportation system for the citizens of Austin in the Central Texas region.

00:37:54:12 - 00:38:00:28
Ted Siff
And it's a pretty exciting project to have worked on and to continue to be a worker on.

00:38:01:13 - 00:38:18:18
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Now you mentioned the Violet Crown Trail is. Now, as I understand, part of that is also going to be part of the Great Springs Network, isn't that correct? Isn't it sort of the, the, this section of it.

00:38:18:18 - 00:38:46:19
Ted Siff
Yes. Violet Crown Trail starts at Barton Springs and goes upstream along Barton Creek, but then around it, ultimately down to Hayes County in San Marcos. That's that 30 mile trail called the violent crown because the western part of the city at sunset often looks like a violent crown.

00:38:46:19 - 00:38:49:00
John Simmerman
So I wondered about that name.

00:38:50:05 - 00:39:10:03
Ted Siff
Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure. Oh, Henry actually wrote about it when he was in Oscar night more than 100 years ago. That's where that name comes from. In any case, the Monarch Crown Trail will be a component of the Great Springs series of trails connecting the great springs of Central Texas.

00:39:10:13 - 00:39:40:28
John Simmerman
Fantastic. Yeah. And in parts of the violent crowned, of course, are on a unpaved, you know, natural surface trails and parts of it are are also paved pathways and urban sort of in the vernacular of Austin the city of Austin, the the urban trail concept. So good stuff. Ted, is there anything that we haven't yet covered that you want to make sure that we talk about here today?

00:39:41:12 - 00:40:09:07
Ted Siff
Hi, dear. Well, thanks for asking. It feels like we covered a whole bunch. I would just encourage anybody that's watching to don't wait for somebody to give you permission. If you're if you have an aspiration in this area or any other or it's not an organized effort yet. Go ahead and take a take a first step. Public interest advocacy is really enjoyable.

00:40:09:11 - 00:40:14:08
Ted Siff
Once you get into it. So I would I would just offer that.

00:40:15:06 - 00:40:48:06
John Simmerman
And I love that, too. I mean, this is really advice you know, guidance that anybody can use regardless of where they're at. Your situation may be a little bit different, You know, wherever you might be around the world. But more than likely, there are needs within your or your within your community that you can, you know, pull together into it visually as a group and and, you know, do what you can to make your, you know, community a safer, more inviting place.

00:40:48:06 - 00:41:05:19
John Simmerman
And, you know, create a culture of activity, create an active town, create an active outside like the Austin outside coalition of Organizations has done. Ted Steph, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the active Townes podcast. Thank you so very much.

00:41:06:26 - 00:41:09:00
Ted Siff
Thank you. It's been my pleasure.

00:41:09:29 - 00:41:30:20
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much for tuning and I hope you enjoyed this episode with Ted Siff with the Austin Outside organization. And if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, I'd be honored to have you subscribe to the channel. Just hit the subscription button down below and ring the notifications below next to it so that you can customize your notification preferences.

00:41:31:03 - 00:41:53:05
John Simmerman
And next week I have two livestream events. On Wednesday, the 21st, I have Ryan Van Duzer joining me once again for the annual holiday celebration, and he will be sharing some information about his new book that he has just published, which is coming out, I believe, the day before on the 20th and then on Friday the 23rd. I am honored to have you here.

00:41:53:05 - 00:42:21:09
John Simmerman
John Butters from Emeryville, California, joining me for the season ending blowout livestreaming event. So please join me for both of those live streaming episodes. And hey, until next time, this is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers. Hey, also want to send a very special thank you to all my amazing active towns ambassadors out there who are directly supporting my efforts through Patreon.

00:42:21:19 - 00:42:41:07
John Simmerman
Buy me a coffee the YouTube super thanks. As well as purchases from the active town store and making donations to the nonprofit, I simply could not do this without you. So again, thank you so very much.