keyser

I've seen that guy around several times, but never felt like actually talking to him. I can't make sense of his car/trailer from just glancing at it, either. Does anyone know what he's doing this for? Clearly it has something to do with Isreal, but I can't figure out what.

The draft of the new comprehensive plan has been released. There will be community meetings tonight and tomorrow at the Brazos Center for those interested in giving feedback. I won't be able to go, but I'd be interested to hear any reports if someone else is able to make it. The draft and the community meeting information can be found at: http://www.goodlifetexasstyle.com

Really, I think this is going to be a mess. Unless the schools are made distinct enough (e.g. with different programs/emphases), and students are given some choice (i.e. creating a balance via competition of a sort), they're not going to be able to maintain "parity" with each other, no matter how hard they try to even out the socioeconomic balance at first. It might not be immediate, but the schools will begin to form reputations, likely with one being "better" than the other in various categories, and people will move accordingly, thereby reinforcing the stereotype. This already happens in elementary schools, and between Bryan and College Station (I know more than one person who is moving from Bryan to CS as their kids finish elementary school, since CS's middle and high schools are seen as better places for college-bound students). One thing I really don't get - if athletics is so important to BISD, then why isn't Bryan High any better at them than it is? I don't follow this very closely, but I think they've been regularly beaten (during the time I've been here) in football by A&M Consolidated in College Station - a smaller school with a much stronger academic reputation.

This was one of the topics brought up at the meeting. By this agreement, Bryan can annex (and already has) much of the East side of 158/30. However, College Station has not annexed, and has no short-term plans to annex, its side - evidently there is some problem with them extending sewer access into that area (that side of the flood plain, I gather) or something. As a result, there are no city codes on that side of the street. Although at the meeting several Bryan folks felt like it would be worth upgrading that part of 158, it was seen as somewhat pointless as long as College Station didn't annex "their" side. Also brought up was that there would be a problem extending sewer lines East of (I think it was) where Copperfield drive hits Briarcrest (I don't think it's still called Briarcrest at that point, but you get the idea), having something to do with the slope of the land. Evidently Bryan would have to put in some sort of major sewer system infrastructure over there in order to start developing that area more extensively.

I went to the first of the community meetings. There were only about 20 people there, plus about 10 from the city/consultants. I believe they had expected many more, though this was the evening of the NCAA championship game. The meeting was pretty interesting, but was mainly an opportunity to express opinions, rather than for them to present information. There was a 15 minute presentation (really general)followed by a breakout into (three) groups of 8-10 people each, where the topics of discussion were basically "what do you think could be improved in Bryan" (along with "what do you like best about Bryan, currently). It was certainly easy to get your opinion heard. There was some discussion of transportation, but not in any detail - they indicated that the image in the presentation is just a working plan, and seemed reluctant to discuss specifics of road locations, though they did discuss general ideas (e.g. the outer loop). The one factor they said was a common complaint among every group and every focus group they have talked to was the issue of code enforcement/community appearance. A fair amount of our group discussion focused on this, also. Like I said, it was useful. They said that they also document all the comments that come in by email, so even if you can't attend one of the other 3 meetings, you might consider commenting that way.

This is pretty interesting, though I imagine it will change a lot before anything actually happens. If you go to the home page, then the "draft plan", then presentation number 4 (i.e. HERE), you'll see maps for proposed future land use and transportation. Most interesting to me are the proposed roads, including a very large outer loop around Bryan and College Station. There's still an annoying lack of higher-speed East-West roads, though it looks like Highway 21 might be upgraded to higher speed in the plan. I'll try to go to one of the meetings, to see what more they have to say.