Go back with me in time to the late 80′s, early 90′s. At that time I was an assistant manager in a bookstore in Hollywood. And as fun and wild as it is in Hollywood, it was even more fun and wild in Tijuana. Plus it was a dangerous city, which was an added attraction for me. Kind of like some people are attracted to unsuitable people.

To get to “T.J.” I took Amtrak from downtown Los Angeles to downtown San Diego. There, in the same station, I would buy a one-way ticket for the commuter rail for two dollars. Then get on the red line to San Ysidro, the last town in California. A very small town. I think it was the size of Austin’s downtown and surrounding business district. It had more dirt roads than paved.

I quickly liked San Diego’s commuter rail. I noticed that the people of San Diego loved their system. It was efficient. It was on time. It was cost effective. It ran all day and on weekends. At that time there were four lines that took people to all points of the compass. To the beach on the west. The hills on the east. To La Jolla on the north. And the Mexican border on the south. It worked well.

That was then. I hear that now San Diego has the “Sprinter,” which looks like a bullet train. I’m sure it is an improvement of what looked like a row of box carts I rode in.

Then commuter rail came to L.A. Some people, the naysayers, argued against it. The people of Los Angeles, they said, love their cars too much to use the rail system. They insisted that commuter rail would not work in Los Angeles. I did not agree. I had seen it work well in San Diego. In addition, I drove the city bus in Los Angeles by this time and saw how busy we were taking people, millions, to work and school. We were scheduled five minutes apart during peak time and our buses were full. I would have at least six passengers on my side of the yellow line. That was normal. People would park their cars at the many park ‘n’ rides along I-10 and hop on the freeway flyer to downtown L.A. A monthly pass cost $40. Parking in downtown cost $200 a month. You do the math.

Commuter rail worked in Los Angeles. It was a necessity. I moved to Texas before the system was up and running. But on my many visits back to see my mother I sometimes would take the line that went to Hollywood. This is the one that travels underground. It was interesting to feel like those big city folks of New York.

Back in Austin, I heard the naysayers argue that it would cost too much and serve only a few people. “HA!” I would say out loud while tilting my head slightly. If we do not need it now, we will certainly need it in the near future. Had we not built now, it would only cost more to build later and we would push that cost to our children. Imagine if we were selfish and not built commuter rail. Now fast-forward to the year 2060. I will not be alive then, but our great grandchildren will. What will traffic be like in Austin in 2060? And no commuter rail. I can hear our great grandchildren saying to us as they sit stuck in traffic for three hours, “What were you guys thinking? Why didn’t you built a good rail system for us like they have in other cities? What were you thinking?” Then I think of the generation that came before us. What if they had refused to fight in WWII? But they did fight. And because they were not selfish we can live the way we do. Our generation benefited greatly from their sacrifice.

Next week commuter rail will begin in Austin. It is not so much for us today. It is for our grandchildren. And their grandchildren. We should be proud of ourselves.

The best way to explain is to give an example of what a typical morning is like on the 300. I would pull my bus out of the Capital Metro gate about 4:20 in the morning. Life in Austin is remarkably quiet and still at this time. My assignment called for me to travel on Pleasant Valley to Cesar Chavez, then north on I-35 to North Lamar Transfer Center. Very quiescent was this drive but instead of drifting to daydreaming I would become reflective. It was the best time to write poetry. Unfortunately I was driving a bus instead of sitting at my desk.

But I was receptive to the subtleties of life while driving this route, the quiet current that runs deep below the rough choppy waters.

If you are familiar with the 300 route from one end to the other, then you know it covers two HEB markets, one clinic and two children’s day care centers. Because of these hubs, daily I had young mothers with one or two small children in tow. Nothing in my work environment delighted me more than when my preschooler passengers turned as they were getting off and looked directly at me and gave me a smile. It was a gift, wrapped in magic. Each touching a chord in my soul and making me better.

Capital Metro’s “Adopt-a-Stop” program allows businesses, churches, schools, families or individuals to adopt a bus stop and take care of it. Sounds like fun? It is. Sounds self rewarding? It is. Sounds important? It is.

I adopted the bus stop at the “Y” in Oak Hill. It is only three-quarter mile from my home. I pass by it going to work and again returning home. From the street it looked like it did not need much work to clean up. I took with me a broom, a rake, a scoop and a five gallon trash bag. The bag filled up quickly. I picked up about 100 cigarette butts. Eeeww!

By donating a small fee, Capital Metro will hang a 10″ x 10″ sign at your adopted stop recognizing you. I choose not to pay the $37.89 fee, but if I had a business I would buy a sign. It would let everybody know that my business, or organization, is helping to clean the community.

According to Alissa Schram, Metro’s community involvement representative, we have 80 bus stops that are adopted or are on hold. She showed me pictures on her computer of bus stops. One showed elementary school children planning flowers at the bus stop their school adopted. We highlighted that school in this earlier entry on our blog.

Another picture was of the bus stop at Congress and Riverside.

Diamond in the rough seeks TLC!

This bus stop right now looks like it could use resuscitation. “I wish someone would adopt this bus stop,” Alissa said. “To make it beautiful. To love it. And it is a high profile bus stop. It would be good (public relations) for them.”

Doing something positive for your community on a voluntary basis is innate, I believe. It is what the poet Longfellow meant with these words from “Song of Hiawatha”: “You shall hear how Hiawatha/ Prayed and fasted in the forest,/ Not for greater skill in hunting,/ Not for greater craft in fishing,/ Not for triumps in battle,/ And renown among the warriors,/ But for profit of the people,/ For advantage of the nation.”

How unselfish, I thought, when I first read this. And yet, all of us are like this. Unselfish. Daily I see people going out of their way for the benefit of others with the knowledge that there is no financial gain in it. Good deeds are recorded in Heaven.

If you are interested in adopting a bus stop, please email Alissa.  She will help you get started.

Congratulations, Arthur. I said this to him privately and now publicly.

In April, Arthur will compete for the International Title in Cleveland, Ohio. I talked with him Monday and I can report he is cautiously optimistic at this time. “Like I told you, Leo, you’ve got to think positive. You have to say to yourself, ‘I can win this.’”

If you have Arthur as your driver (he drives the 300 route), say congratulations to him and wish him well on the International Competition.

I am competing this year in the 35-foot bus competition. This past weekend I practiced maneuvering a bus through a 10-piece obstacle course, each challenge made to be tougher, more treacherous and mind boggling to get through than the one before.

So it seemed. Luckily Ernest Acosta and Tito Hernandez were there to help drivers navigate the orange rubber cones. “We are the best coaches in the country,” said Ernest, as he measured distances between cones with a tape measure.

“What do you offer as proof?” I asked.

He turns to look at me. “Look at all the trophies we’ve won. That is true. Capital Metro has won State twice, the International Roadeo Competition three times and second and third place trophies numerous times.

It is also true Ernest and Tito are the best coaches. They look at each driver working through the minefield of cones and if a driver touches one cone, which will happen, they offer advice on how best to avoid making the same mistake.

“It is a point game,” Tito tells me. “If you find yourself (on the day of competition) stuck having to hit a cone, hit that one (he points) because that one will cost you 10 points. That way you don’t hit that one (points to the next cone), which will cost you 30 points.”

The object of the game is to finish with as many points as possible. I do not remember my best score, but I did finish in third place once.

Competition has become fiercer lately I’ve noticed. That does not discourage me. I will be there Sunday morning ready to win.

But that’s not what I want to brag about. I want to brag about the fact that StarTran, Capital Metro’s main service provider, has 130 drivers in its operator ranks that have reached the million mile mark of driving the bus safely. If that has not made your jaw drop, then listen to this. Capital Metro also has five drivers who have reached and passed the two million mile mark. (We had six two million milers but one operator retired.) That is a lot of miles. It is like driving from Austin on earth to downtown Austin on Mars.

Something else I would like to say is that Capital Metro currently has more drivers who are inching their way to both the million mile mark and the two milion mile mark. There is a lot of safety behind our driving. I am proud to be part of this group.

Something else I like about doing the 101 was going down the “Drag” and “SoCo.” It is the drawings and murals on buildings I get to see. It reminds me of going down Hollywood Boulevard, which has lively artwork also.

I was a teengae romantic hippy in the ’60′s. I loved that short and intense era, especially the rock music that came out during that time. Consequently, the art work that stands out are the two drawings of Bob Dylan that look at people as they walk down the Drag.
One drawing is from the cover of “Blonde on Blonde,” and the other from the video “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”

There is a shop on the SoCo strip called “Lucy in Disguise With Diamonds.” A play on words of the Beatles song, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” (There was also a song by Freddy and the Dreamers titled “Judy in Disguise With Glasses.) The mural on the building of this shop is an attention getter. It will remind the viewer of the cover of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Like that cover, the mural is filled with people who are iconic figures. Even the Fab Four are in there wearing their Sgt. Pepper uniforms.

There is a bookstore, or was, it’s been almost two decades since I stopped hanging in Hollywood, that sold old, new and rare books, kinda like our Half Price Books, that was located near the corner of Fairfax and Hollywood Boulevard. On the wall outside this bookstore was a mural of the Beatles. It was from the cover of “Beatles For Sale.” The artwork was great in that there was an emotional feeling of sadness one would get from the mural because the Beatles look sad. I think it was the first album cover were the Beatles are not smiling at the camera. They look tired and used.