Texas - The Missing Chapter

There was one major incident that was hidden from the archives during Mine and Evan's trip to Texas. An incident that was kept between those involved for the sake of ease, to prevent the same questions being asked over and over from numerous parties. The plan was to sort it out between us, sweep it all under the carpet, then mention it to those who may want to know the details once it's all done and dusted. Unfortunately we live in the days of the internet and things cropped up earlier than planned. On the bright side, I can tell whoever reads this blog earlier than I planned to. 

Whilst in Austin, Texas, Evan got a little worse for wear. How was I aware of this? He would position himself at a table next to a dustbin to spit into as water would occasionally fill his mouth involuntarily. Evan needed to go back to the car. Meanwhile, I had the taste, I was ready for the night out. 

"Evan, are you ok?"

Austin Early In The Evening

"I need to go back."

"I'll walk you."

"No, no. You stay and have fun."

"Do you even know where the car is?"

"Yeah, it's just round the corner."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I might be drunk, but I know my way around."

"Promise me that you're ok to go back alone."

"Promise." 

And that was it, Evan disappeared back to the car to sleep it off via a trip to the pizza shop, whilst I drank with the locals, who didn't actually seem to be drinking I noticed. At kicking out time the streets were heaving with people posing, chatting, or hooking up. In amongst all of these was a single English lad asking whoever would listen where I could get another beer from. Most thought I was faking an accent and told me to go away in a rather impolite fashion. Finally giving up in the attempt to find more beer I headed back to the car. No Evan. I ring his mobile, no answer. I notice however, that the boots he was wearing are in the car. He definitely made it back, but for some reason left. I continued to ring his phone but nothing.

I wait for half an hour or so before heading out back into the centre in search. I must have walked down every back alley in Austin looking for a black and blue version of Evan. I was also aware that numerous times, I would be followed by two gentlemen as I walked down a shifty dark alley alone. I also believe that someone tried to pick me up thinking I was a rent boy as a large truck pulled up alongside me asking if I'm ok or something along those lines. As I carried on walking I heard a shout,

"Hey White Boy!" Now this particular weekend, there weren't many white people, let alone at stupid o'clock in the morning. I turn around.

"You better run, the police are following you."

"Me? Why?"

"You just Jaywalked."

Turns out that you can't cross a level crossing when the sign says no even when there isn't a car within a square mile. As I walked, the Police disappeared. I must have a sober walk.

Evan's Official Mugshot

Now at this time in the night/morning the streets are littered with homeless begging and sleeping in the streets. Unfortunately I have no sense of direction and would have to revert to the local bums for directions, always at a price. After feeling confident that I'd covered a section of town, I would get a personal guide back to the car park we were stationed to see if Evan had returned. He hadn't. Off out I go again to cover another section. Same result, no Evan, same result, paid escort back to the car, same result, no Evan. I continued to call his phone but still no answer. As my battery died I tried to find a payphone, to find out that America doesn't do pay phones. I asked a local policeman where the nearest pay phone was, just for another homeless man to volunteer his services to take me, the policeman told me to go with him. The phone didn't work. I must have paid a small fortune to the homeless people of Austin for directions that night.

Returning to the car with the worst chaffing, and blisters on my feet I sit next to the car and fall asleep for an hour or so. Still no Evan. Underneath the car park is a little convenience store, I walked in and asked if it was possible to borrow a phone charger and explained my story. The man, Elmer, and his friend whose name escapes me, were more than helpful. They offered me water, offered me food, let me use his phone to call the police stations, hospitals to see if he was there. Same result, no Evan. I waited whilst talking to Elmer who was originally from Pennsylvania but his father was in the forces so he moved around as a kid and loved Austin that much that he stayed. He asked about my history and when I told him I used to be a Cabinet Maker, he replied, "Ooooh you must be very good with your hands then?" The way he said this made me a little uncomfortable as it was obvious that he was gay. 

With my phone partially charged I thank him and leave to try and search for him again, limping in my new cowboy boots due to all the blisters. Realising that he can't go anywhere without his car I return to find him reading a note I left on the window wiper. 

"Where the hell have you been?" I shout,

"Where have I been? Where have I been? I've been locked up with Green Mile that's where I've been."

"What?"

"I spent the night in the cells with a big black man the police called Green Mile."

Green Mile Reference

"What did you do?"

"Nothing, they woke me up in the car, talked to me for half an hour or so, admired my knife, told me to put my shoes on which I did balancing on one foot, then cuffed me and put me in the back of their car."

"On what grounds?"

"Public intoxication, apparently they don't need to do a sobriety test in Texas, a girl was locked up for petting a police horse. Then again, I slept on my pizza and they thought the stain was sick."

"Who's Green Mile?"

"Oooh, a big black guy who was going crazy. They had to lock him up properly, we were just in a waiting room really. The police just kept shouting, Green Mile, shut the hell up."

"What's the result?"

"I have a court case on Wednesday." (today is easter sunday by the way)

As we get in the car and leave we wonder how much our ticket is going to be as we had been there over 24 hours. Luckily a group of girls waiting for a friend had an automatic pass that they used to let us through for free. Silver clouds and all that. When I took my boots off, it looked like I had an additional toe due to the size of the blister on the inside of my little toe. I asked Evan if his rear was ok after a night with Green Mile. Apparently, despite not being used, he thinks that because Green Mile sat next to him, the others thought that he was his property so left him alone. That and a Mexican kid was bleeding all over the floor next to him. 

After staying at his Aunt and Uncles for a couple of days in Dallas, we returned to Austin for Evan's court case. Turns out they could have transferred it to a Connecticut court, just to rub salt in the wound. The result, a fine, an online alcohol abuse course, and so many hours community service. All for sleeping in a car with the door propped because it was too hot and a nosey security guard that rang the police.

Road Trip To Texas - Day 9, 10 & 11

Waking up after the  night out round New Orleans was not the nicest in the world. I don't know how Evan did it but I slept most of the day in the car feeling sorry for myself. He on the other hand topped up his trucker arm to the point that there was a perfect line where the sunburn hit. "I'm colour blind and even I can tell that it's red." I couldn't have put it any better myself.

Main Street

Pulling into Austin we parked the car up and had a walk down the main street. Things were all over the place as the Texas Track Relays were in town so police numbers were much higher than usual. Deciding to sleep in the car again before hitting the town we had to decide how we are going to shower? The answer was to buy two big bottles of water and try our best to wash in the car park using the door as a makeshift shower curtain. I've not had a shower that cold in a very long time as the water had come straight out of the shops fridge. There were plenty of yelps coming from our little shower as we tried our best to clean up. The funniest part was when a couple of lads walked past, "I've done the exact same thing." Made me feel a little less like a homeless bum. 

Our first stop was the Mooseknuckle pub where we got chatting with the barman, who in turn gave us free tastes of all the beers on sale. I asked why the road is blocked off and all the police. Apparently it's normal but not to the extent that it was on this weekend. "They block the road to stop people getting hit by cars when they're drunk but there is probably four times the number of police than usual." When I asked him why he responded with. "Theres a track meet in town. Track meets attract blacks, blacks attract police. A lot of pubs, restaurants and shop close for the weekend as they want nothing to do with them." As he tells us this he does so with a very matter of fact tone to his voice. 

Wikipedia

In response to cold-weather conditions at the Kansas Relays, the Texas Relays started as a men's-only competition in 1925 by coach Clyde Littlefield and athletic director Theo Bellmont.The Relays were held at Memorial Stadium until Mike A. Myers Stadium was opened in 1999. The meet was not held in from 1932-1934 as a result of The Great Depression. Women's events were added in 1963. To encourage attendance in the early years of the event, various publicity stunts were staged. The most successful was a 1927 stunt in which three Tarahumaras were invited to the Relays. These men were famed as runners who never stopped running. A race was staged between the men from San Antonio to Memorial Stadium. After 14 hours and 53 minutes, the 89 mile race ended in a tie. In 1977, electronic timing was introduced at the Relays, and Olympic gold medalist and Texas Longhorns football player John Wesley Jones recorded a time of 9.85 seconds in the 100 meter dash. This would have set a world record, but it was determined that the timer malfunctioned, and the time was unofficial. The Texas Relays are currently the second largest track meet in the United States, behind only the Penn Relays. Today, approximately 50,000 spectators and 5,000 athletes attend the events.

It was noticeable as the evening went on how many black people there were. It seemed that all the whites went home at around 10-11pm leaving Evan and I as the only white people around. When it came to closing the streets were heaving with people stood around. Groups of men with their tops off stood on the side of the street posing as they yelled out to the women. Police on horseback tried to move everyone on but it took a lot longer than they hoped. 

Early In The Night On The Streets

Without Hongi around to supervise us things went a little pear shaped as Evan and I got separated. When I finally found my way back to the car, he wasn't there so I headed back out to look for him. I must have gone down every back alley in Austin looking for a beaten up Evan but there was no sign of him. Walking the streets and getting lost resulted in me having to pay the homeless to walk me back to the car park to see if he'd arrived back. Still no Evan so off I went in search again and again and again, each time having to pay a bum to guide me back; all the while my boots were cutting into my feet like razors. Finally deciding to stay by the car I had a little nap sat leaning against the wall. When I woke up an hour later, there was still no Evan and my phone had died. Things did not look good, so I went to the little shop beneath the car park and asked if I could borrow the guys phone charger. After explaining the situation he was more than helpful, giving me his charger and allowing me to use his phone to ring the police station and hospital - no sign of Evan. He told me his name was Elmer and the woman was called Alma. They asked if I had money for food and allowed me to use the staff bathroom to clean up. It turns out that Elmer is from Pennsylvania and his father was in the military so he travelled all around the country before settling in Austin. 

With my phone charged and still no sign of Evan I decided to simply wait by the car and eventually he turns up with a smile on his face after spending the night elsewhere. When I took my boots off it looked as if I had grown another toe the blister was that big. We ended up with a bit of luck as our car park ticket would have cost a fortune, but as we went to pay a group of girls had an automatic pass and just let us out free of charge. Every cloud I guess. 

Landlords Are Not Slumlords

Media Section Of The Council Meeting

For one of our Journalism assignments we had to go to a municipal meeting and write a story on it. Now due to the hurricane and then the snow storm, every meeting I had planned to go to ended up being cancelled. With a few days left before the deadline was upon me, I went to one on Wednesday 14th. Luckily for me, this ended up being arguably the biggest meeting of the year with protesters littering the streets armed with signs, stickers, american flags, and megaphones. It appeared that the local people were a little unhappy with the Mayor of New Britain. To say it was crazy is an understatement. Police blocked the street and guarded the entrance. After telling them we were student Journalists we were allowed in. Inside the building was heaving with people whom I struggled to navigate my way through. The girl I was with happened to be about 5ft tall and her ability to duck and weave amongst the crowd was unbelievable, I struggled to keep up. Because we were busy interviewing outside, we missed the beginning and weren't allowed upstairs due to overcrowding. After talking to the police we were escorted upstairs and was snuck into the meeting room and sat with all the media.  I have attached my article below with some pictures taken with my phone.

Landlords Are Not Slumlords

Townspeople of New Britain flooded to the town council meeting on Wednesday 14^th November to protest against a new license to Landlords in the area, and a fee for multiple police responses throughout the year.

Protests began early in the evening from enraged locals as they collected outside city hall armed with banners, flyers, signs, and a megaphone to express their displeasure at the recently passed ordinances.

The owner of family business Atamo’s was unhappy at the increase in taxes, “I don’t rent out any space, but if this is the way things are heading, surly it won’t be long until they put the taxes up on business properties.”

Local business owners will find that these new laws will freeze economic development in the city and business will suffer.

The Chamber room within the town hall was full to the brim, with people stood around the periphery and even more held in the corridor downstairs to prevent overcrowding.

What the people were protesting are the laws that will require landlords to pay an annual fee of $150 per unit and a $250 penalty for each day the fee is not paid. They are also agitated as ‘hot spots 911’ will force a fee for each response by police that exceeds a pre-determined number.

One landlady stood up and said, “Why are you putting all the landlords in the same boat? I don’t live in a bad section of town, so I don’t understand why I’m being treated the same. I feel targeted and insulted.”

Landlords will notice a loss of equity in their property and the rental property will be devalued. A New Britain landlord who lives in Berlin said the following, “I don’t rent out my house in New Britain for profit; I don’t make a penny. I keep the rent low to get people in for the long term and wait for the equity to build up so when I sell, I’ll have a nice little nest egg. The forced increase in rent may make it hard for me to find a reliable, long term tenant.”

Many tenants were complaining that they couldn’t afford the increase in rent as their

expendable income is low enough as it is. Chants of, ‘The Shelter cannot take anymore’ were heard outside of the city hall as billboards saying ‘Where will I go if I have to move?’ were held aloft.

Landlord Sam Zurker confronted Mayor O’Brian claiming that, “The slumlord of New Britain is the city of New Britain. The Mayor is targeting one of two essential aspects of life. The two are housing and food. He’s making it so that we cannot afford food because the price of rent is going through the roof.”

The threat of fines for police callouts worries the local people as they feel that crime is a problem at the moment, and such a move would only increase it further. Numerous signs saying, ‘The streets are not safe now. What will they be like if you can’t call 911?’ were spotted amongst the protesters as calls for the Mayor to resign were shouted from the masses.

Re-election for Mayor is not until November 2013, but voters are already looking to go elsewhere as they look forward to having the power to vote Tim O’Brian out of office.

                                                

Video Footage - http://a.yfrog.com/img526/6881/1zmxctadgzdeancbsgidle.mp4