Prodigious Songcraft Blooms in Sarah Jarosz - The Austin Chronicle

NEWSPrecinct 4 It’s good to be the incumbentLongtime incumbents may suffer the slingsand arrows of angry constituents, but theyoften prove to be formidable fixtures duringan election year. Just ask Raul Alvarez, whoby now – some six weeks before the March 2primary – had hoped to have acquired morepolitical traction in his effort to unseatPrecinct 4 Travis County CommissionerMargaret Gómez, who has served on thecommissioners court since 1995.Gómez has already picked up endorsementsfrom a number of influential and wellfinancedpublic safety unions. Alvarez, a formertwo-term City Council member and currenttrustee on the Austin Community Collegeboard, had been rumored to be a likely winnerin the Central Labor Council’s candidateThe weekend’s cold snap was a testingtime for Austin’s water supply. Between theevening of Jan. 8 and the morning of Jan. 11,Austin Water Utility received more than600 customer calls for broken or frozenpipes, 243 requiring emergency cut-off. Butthe bigger structural issue was the 45 watermain breaks in three days, accounting foralmost 10% of what the utility expects in ayear. “What we’ve seen, whenever you havethese temperature swings, is this increase inmain breaks,” said George Calhoun, assistantdirector of pipeline operations.screening process last weekend. But the CLC– the umbrella group of the Austin AFL-CIO –took a pass on endorsing in the Precinct 4race, based in part on recent polling resultsthat raised doubts about Alvarez’s ability totopple Gómez in the Democratic primary.The nonendorsement, however, clears theway for the two dozen or so member affiliatesto make their own endorsements, solabor-friendly Alvarez is likely to pick up supportfrom individual unions – possibly includingthe one that represents Capital Metroemployees, who were often at odds withGómez during her tenure on the transit agencyboard, where she most recently served aschair. While the Central Labor Councilendorsed Gómez in previous elections, theDemocratic Endorsements: SADIn the first round of Democratic club endorsements, the South Austin Democrats on Tuesdayannounced its slate in the judicial and county commissioner races. A candidates forum, which includedan unusually wide field of judicial hopefuls, preceded the vote tally. Incumbent Margaret Gómezpicked up the club’s support in the Precinct 4 commissioners race. The group’s judicial picks includeCliff Brown, 147th District Court; Amy Clark Meachum, 201st District Court; Karen Sage, 299thDistrict Court; David Crain, 331st District Court; and John Lipscombe, County Court at Law No. 3.Frozen AssetsAWU and thebusted pipesAustin Water Utilityworkers responded tohundreds of burstpipes, like this onein the 4400 block ofDuval Street in Hyde Park.RICHARD WHITTAKERThe issue is materials. The utility isresponsible for 3,631 miles of mains, splitbetween transmission lines (at 16 inches orgreater) and smaller distribution pipes. Theoldest parts of the system are cast iron,with newer stretches mixing ductile iron pipeand PVC. All these materials have theirstrengths and weaknesses, but while onlyabout 900 miles – or about 25% – of thesystem is cast iron, it accounted for 41 ofthe 45 breaks (about 91%). “It’s a more rigidpipe,” explained Calhoun, “and it’s more susceptibleto point pressure and dramaticswings in temperature.”Every year, AWU loses roughly 11% of thewater it carries. While some of this can beaccounted for by unmetered public projectslike road construction and firefighting, the biggestsingle cause is cracked pipes. Out of the46 billion gallons supplied to customers in2007, 3.6 billion (almost 8%) was lost due toleaks. The utility has a detection program anda “prioritized list of replacements,” saidCalhoun. The utility tracks total usage andlocal repairs rather than just age. Somestretches of cast iron have served theDowntown area for nearly a century and, if correctlyinstalled by the original engineers, maylast another 50 years – longer than some newPVC might last. Nonetheless, due to the higherfailure rate, the replacement program isconcentrating on those stretches. Whileurgent, it’s also costly, and though Calhounwould like the project completed ideally within10 years, he said, “Everything that we do ispaid for by the funds we get from the water wesell and the wastewater we collect and treat.”In the long run, customers can help extendpipe lifespan with simple conservation techniques.Calhoun said, “It may be the differenceof when you’re brushing your teeth oryou’re shaving, you don’t just let the waterrun in the sink.” – Richard WhittakerCommissionerMargaretGómezWynn, who hosted a fundraiserfor Alvarez, and formerMayor Pro Tem BettyDunkerley mixed in amongseveral prominent environmentalactivists. Precinct 4includes parts of Downtown,South Austin – including keyboxes in the 78704 ZIP code– and southeast Austin.On the Democratic club circuit,Gómez picked up theSouth Austin Democrats’endorsement Tuesday night ina close contest following acandidates forum at the Gardner BettsJuvenile Center. SAD was the first Dem groupto kick off the rounds of club endorsementsbefore early voting begins Feb. 16. Gómez, alifelong resident of South Austin, deliveredher remarks in the confident, measured toneof an incumbent who’s spent most of heradult life on the campaign trail. She focusedon her accomplishments while Alvarez honedin on work that still needs to be done. Ifcounty commissioners are going to be makingdecisions about landfills, he told thecrowd, they should also be crafting zerowasteroad maps for the future. – Amy SmithCONJURING THE RADICAL DR. KINGQuick quiz: Malcolm X or MartinLuther King Jr.?1) Who said: “Somebody told a lie oneday. … They made everything black uglyand evil. Look in your dictionary, and seethe synonyms of the word ‘black’ – it’salways something degrading and low andsinister. Look at the word ‘white’ – it’salways something pure, high, and clean”?2) Who said: “We have been repeatedlyfaced with the cruel irony of watching Negroand white boys on TV screens as they kill anddie together for a nation that has been unableto seat them together in the same schools. Sowe watch them in brutal solidarity burning thehuts of a poor village, but we realize that theywould never live on the same block in Detroit”?3) Who said: “I have a dream that my fourlittle children will one day live in a nation wherethey will not be judged by the color of their skinbut by the content of their character”?If you said 1) Malcolm, 2) Malcolm, 3)MLK, you would be … wrong! In fact, MLKsaid all three.“The portrayal of MLK we see most oftenstops at 1963 with ‘I Have a Dream,’” saysJonathan Mahone, one-half of the husband-and-wifehip-hop duo Riders Againstthe Storm (aka, RAS). He and his wife,Ghislaine Jean-Mahone, recently relocatedfrom Providence, R.I., to pursue their lovein the world’s live music capital.“‘I Have a Dream’ is an important speech,”says Mahone, “but Dr. King began talkingbeyond race in America and how Americanpolitics was affecting other countries, howimperialism was infecting the globe.”So while the traditional Austin AreaHeritage Council parade and festivitiesPHOTOS BY JOHN ANDERSONRaulAlvarezgroup’s nonendorsement this time aroundcan still be viewed as a positive for theincumbent, said political consultant DavidButts, who is supporting Gómez but is notcurrently employed by her campaign. The CLC“recognized that Raul has to swim a lot harderif he wants to get there,” Butts said ofAlvarez’s slow campaign start. Still, Buttsallowed that Alvarez is an experienced campaignerwho has demonstrated his greateststrengths at the grassroots level. Additionally,his support list carries strong whiffs of hisold City Hall stomping grounds, with high-profilebackers such as former Mayor Willpreceding Martin Luther King Jr. Day will befilling Austin with the uplifting message ofthe man’s legacy, the Orun Center ofCultural Arts – a small, unassuming newarts locus that the Mahones have becomeinvolved in – will not-so-quietly honor thecivil rights leader with excerpts from someof his more controversial speeches, theones not usually taught alongside his bestknown,more optimistic orations.Whereas most MLK Day celebrationsallow a cursory, even academic observanceof King’s radicalization, the young people atOrun embrace and run with it. “Leaders aresupposed to give you that strength to breakthe barriers. That’s the MLK I look to,”Mahone says. “When Dr. King went toChicago and saw the poverty, he couldn’tbelieve it. The people forced him to change,to radicalize. That’s a true leader. Willing toanalyze and change. He was ready to standup and rep for them. Civil rights leadersgave him a lot of flak – thought he wasrocking the boat. Once Dr. King started talkingabout the politics of America abroad,that’s when he became a threat.”Divine & Conjure: A Musical Tributeto MLK Jr. will feature performances fromRAS, hip-hop artists BlacklistedIndividuals, and acid-jazz-funk bandMakalani Movement. The Orun Centeropened in November and is home to thenonprofit Project Abundant Life, foundedby capoeira master Dorian Layssard. Thisevent also kicks off its bimonthly urbanmusic series.– Kate X MesserDivine & Conjure, Friday, Jan. 15, 8:30pm, OrunCenter of Cultural Arts, 1401-B Cedar, 294-7872. $5,all-ages. www.projectabundantlife.org.Watch Dr. King’s speeches with the quotes above online with this article at austinchronicle.com/webextra.18 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JANUARY 15, 2010 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m