🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3pdpau$sqv@giga.bga.com> tdyke@bga.com (Terry Dyke) writes:
>ANNOUNCING> 
> 
>Austin Telecommunications Commission Public Hearing
>J.J. Pickle Research Center - Commons Building
>10100 Burnet Road

>Monday, May 22, 1995 - 7:30 PM 
>This will be an open public hearing to discuss the cable 
>franchise renewal of Austin CableVision and related issues. 
>It will be televised live on cable channel 6. 

Trust me folks, no matter what happens at the Cable Hearings, NOTHING will be 
done to change Ausitn CableVision's hold on the City and the City Staff...

The "Staff" and the Council is in the pocket of the money (read 
Time/Warner)... Either by "contributions" or by "other" means.

Yeah! Trust me... The check is in the mail, etc....




----------------------------------------
John Sanford
Austin, Texas USA 
http://www.realtime.net/~jsanford

J.Sanford (jsanford@realtime.net) wrote:
: >Monday, May 22, 1995 - 7:30 PM 
: >This will be an open public hearing to discuss the cable 
: >franchise renewal of Austin CableVision and related issues. 
: >It will be televised live on cable channel 6. 

: Trust me folks, no matter what happens at the Cable Hearings, NOTHING will be 
: done to change Ausitn CableVision's hold on the City and the City Staff...

: The "Staff" and the Council is in the pocket of the money (read 
: Time/Warner)... Either by "contributions" or by "other" means.
: Yeah! Trust me... The check is in the mail, etc....

John, while I feel the same way many times about things like this. I have 
seen many grass-roots organizations fight and win. It would be hard to get
a movement to fight a cable company, but it could be done. Look at what
happened with MicroSquish and the Intuit Merger, Austin's SOS, the Manor
Airport, a Balaned Budget Amendment. Not all great examples, but all started
or killed by grass-roots letter writing and phone calls.

If Austin really wanted to get rid of Austin Cablevision, it could be done.
If you start a movement against, them I would call and write letters...hint
hint..

-dewey
-- 
Dewey Coffman  	dewey@ctci.com  dewey@cactus.org  dewey@bga.com CTC Texas Inc.
Notary Public, after 5pm service available.	 USDA Zone 8. Compost Happens.
All opinions expressed are unrelated to reality.	Austin Beer Club
"If you fail to plan, plan to fail" 		"One Dollar, One Vote" [\]

dewey@sooner.ctci.com (Dewey Coffman) writes:
>J.Sanford (jsanford@realtime.net) wrote:

>: Trust me folks, no matter what happens at the Cable Hearings, NOTHING will be 
>: done to change Ausitn CableVision's hold on the City and the City Staff...

>: The "Staff" and the Council is in the pocket of the money (read 
>: Time/Warner)... Either by "contributions" or by "other" means.
>: Yeah! Trust me... The check is in the mail, etc....

>John, while I feel the same way many times about things like this. I have 
>seen many grass-roots organizations fight and win. It would be hard to get
>a movement to fight a cable company, but it could be done. Look at what
>happened with MicroSquish and the Intuit Merger, Austin's SOS, the Manor
>Airport, a Balaned Budget Amendment. Not all great examples, but all started
>or killed by grass-roots letter writing and phone calls.

>If Austin really wanted to get rid of Austin Cablevision, it could be done.
>If you start a movement against, them I would call and write letters...hint
>hint..


Oh! I agree with grass-roots movements and their effects (or affects) on 
whatever they are formed to fight, but!  

In 1986 a couple of fellows here in Austin brought a Federal law suite on 
behalf of the City against Austin CableVision (ACV) to force them to live up 
to contractual obligations signed by the former cable company that ACV 
bought-out.  ACV was bound by these obligations. (I won't even try to list the 
violations that ACV has/had, but there are about 18+ legal size boxes of 
documentation in a little house in Rollingwood ;) ;) ). 

In 1987 the federal judge ordered ACV to rectify the situations and force ACV 
to live up to their obligations. As of today (1995) not one of these 
"violations" has been corrected with the exception of the I-Net Service. Why? 
The city staff will not force ACV back into court or even attempt to get ACV 
to supply the services that ACV has promised to provide. Services that ACV 
says that it will provide in it's next "long-term" contract... Yeah! Right...

When I formed (with a handful of others) the Austin Association of 
Independent Television Producers in 1991 we could only attract about 100 or so 
of the grass-roots folks. Our goal then was to only ask that we (producers of 
public access television programming) be able to give input (comments) to the 
goings on of the talks with the City and ACV. We got our points across, but 
it did no good. 

Grass-roots movements work only when a LOT of people care about what's going 
on... When it comes to ACV, people don't care what they are missing and think 
that it is "only television".  They are right... kinda. What we are missing is 
not "on" television, but what else is in that coax running into our 
living room - right next to our computer, our telephone and our lives.

Of course, as I write this the "hearing" in over. I am sure that Stu and the 
others will continue to fight for us! I just hope that "we" deserve the bumps 
on "their" heads from banging them against a brick wall...

Bitter? No! But do you know where a native Austinite can move to find Austin 
again?  (wink) (wink)



----------------------------------------
John Sanford
Austin, Texas USA 
http://www.realtime.net/~jsanford