Lubbock Left

Dwight Fullingim, Democratic candidate for Congress (TX-19), is opening his Lubbock Campaign Headquarters one week from today.

1302 Avenue Q
Friday, August 22
4:00 - 7:00 pm

Bring your friends to come celebrate and show support for our great candidate Dwight Fullingim!

www.dwight08.com

Looks like the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce will lead the charge on a packaged alcohol sales petition.

I have to admit that I’m a little surprised. I never thought the Chamber would step up to the plate (belly up to the bar?) like that.

I’ve only got one metaphor left, so I’ll close by saying that I hope the CoC realizes that this is very likely a multi-petition process, one that will need to be approached with the beer goggles off.

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Thanks to the miracle of Google Streetview, you can see the hastily demolished gazebo in its undemolished state through the application above.

Through inquiries, I have learned that the Gazebo was not structurally sound, and that safety was the reason it was demolished. (Apparently when the 1-800-Junkmax guys backed the dozer into the wood beams, they splintered instantly.) Chalk another piece of Lubbock’s public property gone to poor maintenance, I guess.

I hope the City will consider something similar to replace the gazebo — some nice benches and a water fountain, maybe.

Thanks to LubbockOnline.com forums regular El Alacran, I found some news that I would have otherwise missed:

The downtown gazebo near the Mahon Library will be torn down today, city officials said last week.

The gazebo, on an island off the right-of-way between avenues K and L at Ninth Street, has been there for more than 20 years. But city officials say it’s rarely used. In the past few years, it’s been a makeshift shelter for the homeless, whose belongings were removed by the city about two months ago. And its wooden frame is deteriorating to a point the city considers it a liability, said Mark Yearwood, an assistant city manager.

“No one is really over there using it,” Yearwood said.

I used to eat lunch there and read a book now and then. I know a few other downtown workers who did the same.

I suspect that the demolition of this gazebo has more to do with trying to remove the homeless from downtown than with safety or aesthetics.

In the A-J article, I also learned that the gazebo was built along with the Civic Center and Library to commemorate the 1970 tornado. We should not tear down our history so quickly.

Worst of all, the demolition of the gazebo seems hurried and under-publicized — announced in the paper the morning it is scheduled to be demolished. As El Alacran wonders, was the City (or the A-J) trying to avoid any complaints about the gazebo being torn down?

Hmm.

Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr will be calling in to the Todd Klein Show on Monday, July 28 from 9:30-10:00am.

The Todd Klein Show airs every weekday from 9:30-11:00am on KRFE 580 AM. The call in number is 806-745-5800.

Congratulations, Todd, for landing a presidential candidate as a radio guest!

I find myself still thinking about the possibility of packaged alcohol sales in Lubbock. I have learned that making Lubbock wet MUST require a petition; the City Council cannot put the issue before the voters as they can with a bond package. This is a state law that should be changed, but I don’t believe our state legislature will change it.

Now, the prevailing wisdom seems to be that the petition cannot get done unless a paid group comes in and organizes the petition drive. This was successful recently in Fort Worth. Groups like this aren’t cheap, and likely some coalition of big businesses in Lubbock would have to fund such a move.

I still believe that it’s possible to obtain the nearly 20,000 valid signatures necessary to put packaged alcohol sales on the ballot with an all-volunteer effort. The trick will be putting competent organizers in charge of the process and making it a multi-petition process. I believe 2009 is the year to make Lubbock Wet — that’s when all the best organizers in town will be done with the (much more important) campaigns of the 2008 election cycle.

On a totally unrelated note, I’ve been re-reading some books in my spare moments at my month-old (yay!) bookstore, Awesome Books. This week, I’m re-reading the excellent Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. I was struck by a quote from the third book, The Castle of Llyr:

“Whether it be Prince or Pig-Keeper,” said Gwydion, “such is the way of a man. The destinies of men are woven one with the other, and you can turn aside from them no more than you can turn aside from your own.”

The above quote is a nice way to express one of my core beliefs, shared by most of us on the Left: we are in this together. We are individuals, yes, and that’s important. However, there is a greater fabric of society that links us together, and that’s why we have to look out for each other. These days, many on the Right do not look far past the individual, often refusing to look at problems from a systemic perspective. They just don’t get it.

Lloyd Alexander got it, and he gave this insight to millions of children through his wonderful books.

The A-J reports that City Councilman Todd Klein wants to lay the legal groundwork for packaged alcohol sales in Lubbock.

It’s about time. To me, this makes complete sense. The city should be prepared for voters to approve packaged alcohol sales in the city limits, and we citizens should be organizing to bring that choice before the voters as soon as possible.

I also wonder (out loud) if it’s possible for the City Council to place the question of packaged alcohol sales before the voters without a petition. If they can put bond packages on the ballot, why not a packaged alcohol sales referendum?

Friday’s “4th Off Broadway” Democratic Party area is captured in this wonderful YouTube video.

Thanks, Rex!

Yesterday was a blast! I joined my fellow Lubbock Democrats in celebrating Independence Day the best way we know how — by talking about our candidates and registering people to vote.

The Republican Party had what I thought was an unintentionally funny float in the parade. Chris Winn was driving a big truck, pulling a faux oil barrel labeled “drill here / drill now,” and shouting “Energy Independence” to the crowd. I wonder if he understands that more drilling won’t lower the price of oil, or that the big truck he was driving is the real problem.

A Flickr set of photos from the 4th on Broadway festivities is available.

Recently, the LPD cracked down on the homeless population of downtown Lubbock and confiscated some possessions left in the little gazebo area to the east of Mahon Library. The possessions were mostly sleeping bags and bedrolls. Perhaps this action reflects the tone set by our new mayor.

NTS, a local telecommunications company, is collecting sleeping bags for donation to the downtown homeless population. They can be dropped off with NTS on the 14th floor of Metro Tower (1220 Broadway), or to Brother Barry at the Mission Parish of St Benedict (1109 Main St), who interacts with many of the downtown homeless on a daily basis. He can help your donation of a sleeping bag find an immediate use.

Lubbock’s homeless population is on the rise, and how we as a city treat this group will be an important question for years to come.