by BuckRindy
Once there was a mustachioed young
Prince who lived in a glittering city set
beside a sparkling river amidst the
verdant hills. This young Prince was a
Geek, and his people were Geeks. They
lived in : ud hovels in the low parts of
the crowded center of town. Some of
the Geeks were carpenters, and some
were clerks; some were starving
lawyers, and some were students at the
Creek Academy. But they were all sore-
ly oppressed, for they were under the
heavy yoke of the Newts, the wealthy
masters of the city, who dwelled in
crystal houses on spacious green lawns
in the high hills to the northwest--
where each family drove two chariots,
and the sun always shone.
Long did the Geeks suffer. But they
were a prolific people, and there came a
day when the Prince noticed that the
low hovels outnumbered the crystal
mansions on the hills. "Arise, my
people, "cried the Prince. And the
Geeks arose and surrounded the
Palace, and they threw out the Head
Newt, and they elected the Prince
King.
But once the Prince held power, a
curious thing occurred. As he and his
courtiers entered the Palace, they
discovered a strange and powerful
creature--an Arch Newt known as the
kings." The Prince put on his new
robes. "S/re, you must perform great
works to be known as truly great, "the
Tonkus intoned. The Prince nodded,
"Yes, great works! What do you
suggest?"
The Grand Tonkus had many
Strangely, few of his old friends would
come to stand behind him on the throne.
But the Prince hardly noticed, for the
great lords of the Newts, in all their
splendid pomp, thronged about
and praised him as King.
To the assembled people of the city
the Prince revealed his plan
But once the Prince held power, a curious Everything would be magnificent, a
thing occured. As he and his courtiers the city would grow rich. Al]thatWa.s
necessary for success was that each
entered the Palace, they discovered a citizenpayaslighttax-one-tenth°f
the air they breathed each day.
strange and powerful creature...
The Newts applauded They had
plenty of air upin the high hills. Somed
the Geeks; too, smiled. For there were
jobs in the building of fountains, l
most of the Geeks were appalled. They
knew that only a few would be hired,
And air was precious down in the
crowded center of town.
Slowly the Geeks looked up at the
throne. They saw a man in rich robeS,
surrounded by noble Newts. And as
they looked from face to face, they
could see no difference between their
ruler and his new friends. The Prince d
the Geeks had become a Newt
King...and close beside him, whisper,
ingin his ear, was the smiling face of the
Grand Tonkus.
Grand Tonkus, whose duty was to
manage the Palace.
"Be gone, Newt!" shouted the
courtiers. "Nay, let him stay," said the
Prince. "For he has much knowledge,
and we shallusehim to learn the secrets
of this place."
And so it was. The Palace was a vast
labyrinth full of many treasures, and
the Grand Tonkus knew the way to
them all. As the days passed, the Prince
came to rely on him for guidance
through the maze of rooms.
"Here, S/re," said the Tonkus, "Put
off your rags and don the cloth of
suggestions.
"A great road, S/re! A highway of
gald from the city center to the crystal
houses on the northwest hi . Thus the
Newts may travel swiftly to the Palace
to admire the wisdom of your rule."
"And fountains, my Lord! Great
fountains of water everywhere. For
there is money in the building of such
things, and the great of this city will
think you wise, for you know how to
bring prosperity."
The Prince was excited and did as the
Tonkus bid him do. He called a great
public meeting to proclaim his plans.
cont. from page 1
Ham first sensed victory during a
debate before a young men's business
club. "They liked me," McHam
reported later in a dazed tone. "They
gave me a big round of applause. They
actually seemed to have more faith in
me than the guy from city hall."
Downtown honehos routinely des-
cribed McHam and Riddell as
whacked-out nutballs, but the aver-
age voter didn't seem to care. The
smashing defeat of Propositions 11
and 12 left many politicians with the
uncomfortable thought that in today's
Austin the so-called crazies may have
more credibility than bankers in
pin-stripe suits.
Defeat in the Cave Man Precincts
Water-and-sewer bonds lost the
city by about 60 percent, and they lost
everywhere but the Chicano,and
Black precincts, •where less than six
percent of the eligible voters went to
the polls. Before the election much
had been made of the Cave Man
Theory, which foresaw hordes of
conservatives crawling out of their
huts to club the whole bond issue to
death in an anti-council frenzy.
Unfortunately for this theory, nine of
the twelve bond propositions passed,
indicating that most of the voters
examined the ballot in a spirit of
rational self-interest. Only in a
handful of socially conservative
middle-income precincts in darkest
Northwest Austin was there evidence
of a massive rejection of eveythiag.
Everywhere else, including most
conservative neighborhoods, propos-
itions for health, parks, etc., did
substantially better than 11 and 12.
The City Council was decisively
beaten in the war for its own
constituency. Only a day before the
election, Mayor Friedman privately
predicted a 50-50 split in the student
boxes. But U.T. followed its student
leadership and overwhelmed the
water-sewer proposals by margins of
70 and 80 percent. In the middle of
west Austin, in the middle class
moderate-liberal enclave of Pct. 328,
parks bonds sailed through with 61
other factors: limited growth sentir :
ments on the part of a large number oi
o Austinites; and public fear of huge
increases in municipal debt.
- 0 Q •
The genesis of the anti-bond
campaign was a late night meeting
held in mid-November in an old
Victorian house west of the UT
percent approval, while the utility
bonds failed by almost the same
margin. In key moderate swing
precincts in the south and northeast--
precincts which liberal Council mem-
bers won in the spring elections--ll
and 12 sank without a trace, even as
parks, health and street proposals
campus. The participants were iV
their 20's and early 30's, progressive
or radical in politics, veterans 0i
numerous Democratic campaignS'
Present were Jeanne Disney, SteVe
Gutow, Lukin Gilliland and David
Butts from the Student Actio
Committee, Erwin McGee of the UT
Young Democrats, Jeff Jones and
Michael Eakin, Richard Hamner,
McHam, Joe Riddell, and ten or
fifteen others. The first decision was
whether or not the water-sewer issue
was sufficiently important to justify
opposing a liberal City Council.
Riddell and McHam went through the
citys proposals one by one. SinCe
everyone present had been debating
the question privately for days, the
group quickly decided to oppose
Propositions 11 and 12--the water"
sewer bonds.
It is important to realize that theSe
people were motivated by a genuine
theory of city government. Their
decision resulted from several years
of sophisticated analysis. They did not
suddenly hear voices in the
commanding them to vote "no..
Rather. they concluded that Prol ..r
tions 11 and 12--because of their
sheer magnitude--would stimulate
ruinous and costly urban sprawl'
took easy victories. Throughout the campaign the City
Overall it appears that there was Hall staff would suffer greatly.
some anti-council vote, but that the an emotional inability to see even
massive rejection of Propositions Ii smidgen of reason in the anti-boaS
and 12 should be attributed to two , o0 $, on
