It never fails.
On July 22, we asked readers to name an unnamed slip of land on Lady Bird Lake.
The peninsula, near the demolished Holly Street Power Plant, has been there a long time. Yet it appeared nameless in American-Statesman reports on improvements to the Butler Hike and Bike Trail in East Austin.
You did not let us down.
The dubbing choices poured in from every domain of social media.
In the original "Austin Answered" column, I suggested two categories of candidates: Latino community activists from the neighboring district, along with environmentalists who have served as stewards of the city's lakes, creeks, parks and trails. Several readers supported those candidates.
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Two criteria: The nominees should not be living, nor already honored in a similarly geographic way.
Many of you ignored those suggestions, which is perfectly fine. Vive le différence!
Before moving on to your endorsem*nts, however, I would be remiss if I did not remind folks that the city's process for naming any public place is intricate and usually requires an enormous amount of patience and paperwork to complete.
Still, it's fun to suppose.
To start, some good contrarian advice
"We ought to stop naming places after people," writes Skip Davis. "It always seems to be complicated down the road. Let’s call it The Town Lake Peninsula."
After the raging conflicts over the names of schools, military bases and even species of animals, this is, in general, good advice.
Davis' suggestion comes with the added benefit of reviving the name "Town Lake," which stood for decades after an American-Statesman reporter helped out the nameless lake, impounded in 1960.
It became Lady Bird Lake in 2007.
Davis: "I still call it Town Lake."
In another outburst of wisdom, Stephen Pruitt wrote that we should postpone any naming project for the spit of land a bit.
"Why don’t we clean up the lake so that it can be accessible for swimming," Pruitt suggests, "and hold naming that peninsula as a prize for whoever donates the most to the cleanup fund?"
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I'd advocate for any effort to clean up the lake and have personally participated in this wholesome ritual. One deflating note: Almost all the litter and other foul substances that end up in the lake wash down from the lawns, streets and sidewalks of the city, not a result of direct pollution. It must be a sustained citywide effort.
"I have a suggestion for that strip of land in the lake," writes Criselda Corelia Kelley. "Call it 'La Isla' or 'La Isla Bonita.'I am not one to select any one person’s name when there are many that have contributed to the betterment of the city and its culture."
Nicely put. And there's a subtle Madonna reference.
Jennifer Bristol, author of "Parking Lot Birding" and "Cemetery Birding," got straight to the point: "Blue Heron Point."
Definitely not a human. Plus this magnificent bird can be spotted wading in virtually all the city's creeks, lakes and wetlands, indeed in many backyard goldfish ponds, to the distress of humans.
A roll call of potential namesakes
- Chad Kissinger: "I asked my wife and she said Fred Cantu" (still living, thank goodness).
- Lane Rockford Orsak: "Cisco Point" (after late place-maker Rudy "Cisco" Cisneros).
- Bob Gier: "John Kelso" (after the late American-Statesman humor columnist).
- Teresa Harrison: "Molly Ivins Isle. Molly challenged power for us all!"
- Alicia Sankar: "Gilbert Tuhabonye, Kirk Watson" (the distance runner and the Austin mayor are both living).
- Richard Whitaker: (The inevitable candidate) "Peninsula McPeninsulaface."
- Michael Agresta: "Fidencio Duran (living) did the murals on the power plant walls by the basketball court. Could be a good pick. But I nominate my late dog Ivan, who swam there daily in warm weather for many years."
Ivan is my current frontrunner.
Leslie Cochran and 'Crazy Carl' have not been forgotten
Two of Austin's most beloved eccentrics from the recent past received votes.
C Lo: "How about Leslie Cochran peninsula" (after the creatively dressed mayoral candidate)?
Lauren: "Cape Leslie" (since Cochran often wore a cape of sorts, sounds right).
"My suggestion would be for naming it after 'Crazy Carl' Hickerson for hiscontribution to ending the boat races on Town Lake in east Austin," Craig Towns writes. "Theraces were held each year at Fiesta Gardens and were a major disruptionfor the neighborhood and the people living there. After the City Councilrefused to halt the event, Carl swam out on the lake at night anddisabled the starting lights forcing the cancellation of that year'sraces. The races were never held again. This was just one moment in the life of an Austin legend who epitomizedthe Keep Austin Weird vibe, and he should be recognized and remembered."
Historically, Latino neighborhood activists, including Edward Rendon Sr., namesake for the park around Fiesta Gardens, deserve the political credit for ending the noxious boat races.
Hickerson's colorful part of the larger story, however, appears to be verified in a documentary about him, as described in a March 30, 2014 column by another of our nominees, John Kelso.
"He got arrested, but not for vandalism," movie-maker Mike Woolf of Beef and Pie Productions said. "It wasn't legal to swim in Town Lake, since it was polluted. So some people said it was his environmental statement."
Send your questions — or answers — about Central Texas past and present to "Austin Answered" at mbarnes@statesman.
