Pro-business economist Angelos Angelou hired to do economic analysis

Yesterday, the City of Austin put out a release announcing updates to the bicycle boulevard planning process. Noticably missing are now are the words Nueces Street. I drew some criticism by publishing a remark from un-named city staff about Nueces being dead, but it appears these words may have been truer than not.

In another concession to Nueces Street property owners who appear to not want to give concessions of their own, the city has hired former Chamber of Commerce economist Angelos Angelou to do an economic survey of the effects of a bicycle boulevard. Angelou has previously been a major booster of massive tax payer subsidies to bring businesses to Austin. These corporate tax breaks have cost our city much but Angelou has supported them as for the greater public good. Will we once again hear it is unwise to spend thousands for bicycle resources from the same people who gladly pushed to give away millions to for-profit entities in our name? Let’s see how he views these benign traffic calming measures. Angelou’s study is expected to be finished by April 20.

After these reports are in, staff will make reccomendations on how to proceed with this tentative calendar:

April 13 – Urban Transportation Commission, Briefing of Staff Recommendation
April 21 – Downtown Commission, Briefing and Possible Action on Staff Recommendation and Economic Study
April 26 – Design Commission, Briefing and Possible Action on Staff Recommendation and Economic Study
April 27 – Planning Commission, Briefing and Possible Action on Staff Recommendation and Economic Study
May 11 – Urban Transportation Commission, Briefing and Possible Action on Staff Recommendation and Economic Study
May 13 – City Council Briefing

Depending on the recommendations and the response from stakeholders this may or may not come up for a council vote. The dropping of Nueces Street from the name and the hiring of Angelou should give everyone in the cycling community some concern about where this process is going. We are not far from having the word bicycle dropped as well.