Article in "The advocate"

http://www.2theadvocate.com/features/9782937.html

Trying to be like Lady Bird

By ED CULLEN
Advocate staff writer
Published: Sep 19, 2007

As a man named Ed McBrayer, who's credited with igniting Atlantans' interest
in hike/bike trails, talked to about 100 people here a couple of weeks ago,
it was hard not to think if we'd made the smallest effort to do the same
thing 30 years ago we wouldn't need someone from Atlanta to fly over for a
pep talk.

Some joggers, dog walkers and bicycle riders can't wait for Austin's Town
Lake's name to change, officially, to Lady Bird Lake. Born Claudia Alta
Taylor in the East Texas town of Karnack, the future first lady, wife of
Lyndon Baines Johnson, was born in 1912. Alice Tittle, the family's maid,
gave the baby the nickname "Lady Bird."

Lady Bird Johnson's love of nature came from her mother who established the
Save the Quail Society to protect the birds, including ones hunted on her
husband's cotton plantation.

Lady Bird died in July at the age of 94.

Today, Austin has 50 miles of pedestrian and bicycle trails, including a
Veloway which excludes runners and walkers. Other trails exclude people who
exercise on wheels. Most trails attempt to accommodate everyone.

But in the early 1970s, the trails around Town Lake were mud as the level of
the lake rose and fell.

Though she said she jumped on a moving train, Lady Bird Johnson is credited
with using her name, money and party list (as in cookouts) to promote the
Town Lake hike/bike trail among other outdoor projects.

That was not quite 40 years ago.

Baton Rouge has made more strides (at least we're talking about hike/bike
trails) in the last four years than in the previous 30 years that I've been
riding a bicycle on our narrow, dangerous streets.

Mayor Kip Holden is making a much-publicized bicycle ride Sept. 29 on the
paved portion of the levee from downtown to the LSU School of Veterinary
Medicine, but the then-unfinished trail opened in the last days of Mayor
Bobby Simpson's time in office. In car-mad Baton Rouge, a bicycle path atop
the levee couldn't save Bobby Simpson's re-election bid.

If Baton Rouge is to link parks with hike/bike trails, we have to start. We
must take into consideration the feelings and fears of homeowners but we
can't be deterred by the most frequent concern: "Someone will use a bike
path to steal my television set."

I waited patiently the other night for that bugaboo to be raised. It was -
by the speaker - who said he hears the same concern wherever he talks.

If the mayor and his wheeled entourage are to survive their bike jaunt,
someone had better barricade any streets the mayor rides on the way to the
levee or back downtown.

To Motor City on the Mississippi, the mayor and company will look like just
any other bicycle riders.

Holden says he plans to ride with caution: "It's not going to be, 'I regret
I have but one life to give for bicycle riding,'" he said.