I'm really sensitive to humidity, so here in Austin I feel vaguely carsick all the time. It's unpleasant, though Austin itself is pleasant.

Except for their neighborhood planning.

A few of us snuck away from the main Intercity Study Mission itinerary this morning to meet with City of Austin staff about how they do neighborhood planning and historic preservation. Keep in mind that while Seattle is relatively small in terms of land area, approximately 84 square miles, Austin is spread out over roughly 290 square miles. They have approximately 50 planning areas, but they aren't so much defined by an urban village growth management strategy aimed at focusing growth where it can best happen. Neighborhood planning here seems to be about defining area character and looking for ways to preserve and improve it, short of a conversation about how to grow sustainably. Austin has doubled in population approximately every 25 years since the turn of the last century. They annex land to the east, protect the aquifer and habitat areas to the west, and are now starting to push height and density in the downtown. They even have an incentive zoning program helping to make sure some new housing is affordable to workers, although we didn't really get to learn much about the impact of that program or much else about how and where people truly live in Austin.

Maybe that's a future trip -- if I can hack the humidity.

I'm on the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce's Inter-City Study Mission in Austin, Texas. A junket? Well, maybe, but if it was a junket, at the end of the day I don't think I would have felt carsick from too much time on the bus. We met with Austin's mayor, Austin Chamber-types, and then a few of us stole away from the main group to meet with Austin City staff and learn how Austin does quick permitting and slashes development fees for housing that's sustainable and affordable. Take-aways: Commitment to doing it is half the battle and Texas has fewer rules than Washington.

Austin really does a great job of making itself a live music hub. I'm typing this at 8:30 p.m. and most of the rest of the Seattle delegation has dispersed in various taxis to different bars and clubs around town. Austin's mayor extols the virtues of the live music scene every chance he gets. He noted boosters sometimes ask him, "When the hell are we gonna get a pro sports franchise?!" He said he hopes they never do, so that they can stay focused on making live music the thing that makes Austin an exciting, attractive, creative and "weird" place to live.

Austin's City Council meets every two weeks. They meet for 10 hours at a time. Today's agenda had 61 items on it, including an invocation at the top and musical performances later. While I like the musical performance idea, there's nothing about their City Council meeting pattern that I want to steal for Seattle.

Councilmember Drago and I were a little unsure about how many people would really take the time to show up at City Hall to talk about scooter policies in the City, but it turns out we shouldn't have worried at all. Approximately 100 Vespa, moped, motorcycle and other motorized two-wheel vehicle riders took over the Bertha Knight Landes room last evening for a great discussion — and almost all of them rode their vehicle to the meeting. You can catch the meeting by downloading it from the Seattle Channel website, but wait a day or so to give them a chance to get it up on the site. We had great panelists from the leading moped group (the Mosquito Fleet), the Vespa Club of Seattle, the Urban Mobility Group, Seattle Department of Transportation and the Seattle Police Department. Biggest issues:

1. Parking

2. Theft of mopeds

3. Parking

4. Safety education

5. Parking

If you don't ride — don't move other people's scooters in order to snag their parking space, don't steal their parking stickers, and certainly don't steal their mopeds. That's all just common courtesy.

Councilmember Drago and I are working up our list of suggestions from the meeting and will be working with SDOT on an action plan. I feel a little like a poser because I don't own a scooter. Councilmember Burgess is the only one of us who rides one. Maybe I'll have to change that.

No work event to attend on Sunday night meant that my partner and I could go out to a movie. For a while I've been noticing listings for the Central Cinema at 21st and Union, and I’ve been wanting to check it out. Verdict? Totally worth it! Your movie ticket is $5 and they have a great menu of food, beer, wine and other beverages. And by food I mean dinner, as well as popcorn. It's a great space and, all in all, a great dinner movie house.

I met the building owners as we walked out of the theater room and into a seating area for dessert. They bought the building with the express intent of having small, neighborhood-serving, locally-owned businesses. The exterior entryway has a great tile mosaic, a project managed by the Central Area Development Authority. In many neighborhoods around town, small arts venues and events have sparked revitalization and furthered community connections. Columbia City has BeatWalk, started a decade ago, to get people out into the business district at night. Georgetown had a fantastic Art Attack event last Saturday. Now the Central Area has Central Cinema.

"Lifeboat" was the film, by the way. Great each and every time.

After more than 20 years of occupation, fits, starts, more fits and finally the right start, the Northwest African American Museum at the Urban League Village opened Sunday. There was a big crowd for the groundbreaking in 2006, and I figured it would be an even bigger crowd for the grand opening. I was not disappointed. There were several hundred people present for the speechifying and ribbon cutting — U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, Governor Chris Gregoire, other electeds, and a few people who used the occasion to protest the museum and call attention to recent gang-related killings.

The building itself looks great. The museum occupies 19,000 square feet on the ground floor, complete with a cafe. Upstairs are 36 affordable studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. It's an awesome spectacle of adaptive reuse (I'm big on that now that I'm into land use). Colman School closed in the mid-1980s, was occupied by activists for eight years, and was home to only rats and pigeons for many more years. That it now houses a museum celebrating and memorializing the contributions and experiences of African Americans in the Northwest is testament to the vision and hard work of a lot of people.

Using the visibility of the event to hold up signs and draw attention to persistent violence and disparities that hit the African American community makes sense if you’re an activist. I was disappointed, though, to see signs that derided the existence of the museum and asked whether it would serve youth. Protestors said there was nothing there serving youth. Yes, youth need mentoring, tutoring, counseling and intervention. I think youth also need museums, especially museums that speak directly to history, accomplishment, and pride in ways other museums and history books have often skipped. The museum is free all this week. Check it out!

I love the Housing Levy. I love that Seattle voters are wise and invest in low-income housing through the levy. I love that the levy produces what it promises. We just received the report on the levy's accomplishments in 2007 and for its first five years (through 2007). It's a seven-year levy. We'll likely be asking voters to invest again in 2009. It's so worth it.

A couple of program details:

- At least 59 percent of the money raised every year through the levy must be dedicated to housing for people who earn 30 percent or less of the area median income ($16,350 for a single person).

- Up to 10 percent of the money generated can be spent on people who earn up to 60 percent of the area median income.

- The remaining funds (up to 31 percent) can be spent on people who earn up to 50 percent of the area median income.

Funds generated are awarded by different categories: Rental Preservation & Production, Neighborhood Housing Opportunity Program, Operating & Maintenance, Homebuyer Assistance, and Rental Assistance/Homeless Prevention. The lion's share of the money helps non-profit housing agencies build new units or buy up existing ones. That program has produced 1,387 housing units over the first five years of the levy, on track to meet or exceed the seven-year target of 1,522 units. The Rental Assistance/Homeless Prevention program is effective at keeping people in housing — a much less costly investment than trying to get someone into housing after they've lost it. That program has exceeded its target of serving 500 households a year and has now helped 3,592 households via one-time help with rent.

For every dollar your taxes contributed to lower-income housing through the levy, the projects that received the funding leveraged more than $3.21 from other sources like the Washington State Housing Trust Fund. I love the Housing Levy.

It's a hard day when I have to eat a lunch prepared with ingredients from Pike Place Market and hatched by Tom Douglas. I'm here to serve the people and if that's what I have to do, then I do it.

The lunch was great, but the cause was even better. Yesterday was the annual benefit lunch for the Pike Place Market Foundation. If you visit the Market, you know about the fish and flowers, but many people don't know about the food bank, medical clinic, senior center and low-income housing. There's a whole community of people who depend upon the Market for survival through these social services.

Yet another reason to look favorably on a maintenance and upgrades levy for Pike Place Market this year. The Market is managed by a Public Development Authority that is working with the City on a proposal I think we should send to voters this summer or fall. New pipes, heating, flooring, roofing, bathrooms, elevators, and seismic reinforcement are all part of the discussion right now. No major architectural changes, just necessary upgrades. I lean toward a levy proposal out to voters in August of this year, but we'll see what proposal ultimately comes to Council later this spring. I'm wary of sending too many requests for too much money, but I think Pike Place Market makes a strong case for investment and the return to taxpayers.

Many volunteers on City panels and commissions over the past 10 or more years know Doug Lorentzen. Doug gave countless hours to neighborhood projects, neighborhood planning, Neighborhood Matching Fund project application review, City Neighborhood Council, transportation debates, and to his contemporary favorite, the annual Friends of Seattle Public Library Book Sale. Doug passed away Tuesday. I was very lucky to have worked with Doug, and I can't really come up with an adequate way to describe what a kind, thoughtful and committed person Doug was. He gave his time, his head and his heart with a smile and thoughtful, insightful comment that took into account the history of a question and possible best solutions. I will miss him, especially as we approach book sale time when I won't receive his hand-written invitation to join him in volunteering at the sale.