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2021 • COVID, URI . . . AND SO MUCH MORE, OCTOBER–DECEMBER
OCTOBER
October 2 • Neighbors in the Southern Oaks neighborhood of Austin celebrated the completion of a 140-foot mosaic mural—the latest in a long line of extraordinary community art projects in Austin, including our own mosaic Wall of Welcome (below), completed in Crestview in 2008.
October 16 • Neighbors shared online the news that Ernie Kuehner, owner of Ernie’s Welding in Brentwood for half a century, had retired. Born Clarence Ernest Kuehner Jr., in the mid-1960s he worked as a mechanic at M. E. Gene Johnson Garage and lived at 1816 W. St. Johns Avenue in Crestview before establishing Ernie’s Welding at 6511 Burnet Lane. The business is known for its good service and its custom designed ornamental rails, gates, fences, and stairs, as well as general welding. In 1993, welders at Ernie’s built elaborately detailed furniture for Mirandolina, a production at ZACH Theatre in Austin, based on designs by local scenic and costume designer Michael B. Raiford. The furniture was “so remarkable,” Austin American-Statesman columnist Michael Barnes wrote at the time, it would be sold at a local gallery after the show closed.
October 24 • Ribbon-cutting ceremony for Brentwood Park’s new playscape at the Violet Crown Oktoberfest. The first phase of the project was completed in Spring 2020. Guests at the ribbon cutting included District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool and Austin Parks Foundation CEO Colin Walls. Beginning in 2016, the playscape project was coordinated by a Friends of Brentwood Park subcommittee led by Nancy Mohn Barnard. The playscape is the latest in a long line of park enhancements made possible by the Brentwood Recreation Club, formed in the early 1950s when the park was first being developed, and the Friends of Brentwood Park, founded in 2009 by Hedrich Michaelsen and Emily Wilson. Individual neighbors, including Mae Waggoner and others, also have tended to the park over the years. The Oktoberfest at the park was coordinated by Violet Crown Community Works, a Brentwood/Crestview nonprofit that also coordinates the annual Violet Crown Festival and other events and helps fund neighborhood enhancement projects.
NOVEMBER
November 8 • The Alamo Drafthouse announced that the City of Austin had temporarily changed the name of West Anderson Lane to “Wes Anderson Lane,” in honor of the filmmaker, native Texan, and UT graduate. A street sign with the new name was installed near the Alamo Drafthouse Village location for the month of November.
November 10 • In response to racist and antisemitic statements posted in Brentwood Park, following similar incidents in other parts of Austin, representatives of local groups and churches released this statement of solidarity:
Cowardly acts like the hateful vandalism of our public park under the cloak of night, have no place in our society, much less our neighborhood.
Like acts of terror, acts of hate are meant to drive fear and division into our lives. The Crestview and Brentwood combined neighborhood is a known place of love and embracement of all people and therefore always a potential target for those who have hate in their hearts.
Luckily, two fathers taking their kids to the park found and removed the vandalism before any serious number of people could be personally impacted by it.
We are united against hate in all forms and are grateful that these crimes were only petty vandalism and not something worse. We pray that law enforcement will be able to swiftly get to the bottom of this.
One way to prevent these ugly acts is to physically spend more time in our beautiful park and we encourage you to do just that.
In the meantime, our neighborhoods will continue to stand together for love and against hate.
—Mike Lavigne, President, Crestview Neighborhood Association
—Kristine Poland, President, Brentwood Neighborhood Association
—Hans Magnusson, President, Allandale Neighborhood Association
—Nancy Mohn Barnard, President, Violet Crown Community Works
—Rev. Billy Tweedie, Vicar, Episcopal Church of the Resurrection
—Rev. Jay Cooper, Violet Crown City Church
—Friends of Brentwood Park
—Brentwood Anti-Racism Group
November 11 • In remembrance of Veterans Day, the Facebook group Dazed and Confused Austin Edition/Pieces of the Past featured a link to “A Salute to Violet Crown Veterans,” a two-part series on the Voices of the Violet Crown website. (Crestview neighbor Jim Bauer, with his wife, Mickey, left, is one of the veterans featured in the series.)
DECEMBER
December 2 • Crestview neighbor Martha King, 63, died after a short illness. She and her longtime partner Beverly lovingly cared for their family and for one of the most creatively landscaped and peaceful, welcoming homes in the neighborhood. Martha was well known for her many professional accomplishments and volunteer contributions throughout Austin.
December 6 • Brentwood neighbor Kyle Gillman, 57, died. A week before, I had decided to give a neighbor some Christmas dishes Kyle had given me in 2019 through our Buy Nothing group (which then included Brentwood and Crestview). After BN Crestview administrator Nicole diMucci Potts kindly shared the news about Kyle, members of the group posted memories of him online. When I passed the dishes on, I was able to include something about Kyle and his contributions to our neighborhood, along with what I had written:
I am so sorry to hear that Kyle has passed away. I have so many good memories of interactions with him when we were in the larger BN group. A few years ago he gave me some beautiful Christmas dishes. When I went to pick them up, he carried them to my car for me. What a kind, helpful neighbor. This year, I decided to pass the dishes on to another neighbor. I treasure them but don’t use them often enough. ‘The gift must always move,’ the author Lewis Hyde once wrote, and so it is. Thanks for letting us know.
December 12 • Fire Station 16, at 7000 Reese Lane in Crestview, invited neighborhood kids to sign tiles, part of the mosaic artwork that will be installed at the newly renovated station. It was originally built in 1957. (Here’s a 2012 article about green enhancements at the station.)
December 22-25 • Thanks to the dedication of Brentwood and Crestview neighbors, the Arroyo Seco luminarias, an annual tradition that began in 1994, continued again this year.