Mary Lehmann, Activist & Stylish Bicyclist--Austin

Mary Lehmann in front of the retail area in the new redevelpment site of Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. "Does this (the new development) look like keep Austin weird", she asked.

I had to admit it didn't.

(I first saw Mary Lehmann bicycling on a cold day on her way to a forum on the environment. Instead of latex, she wore a tweed skirt suit as she biked, and she looked very stylish. I was filled with admiration, and I decided that I had to know more about her, so I asked to interview her. The following interview was conducted through email over several months.)

LMK: You cut a fashionable figure. I admire the tweeds! Is it difficult to bicycle in a skirt or dress?

Mary Lehmann: Not at all, and my bike is a boy's bike with a horizontal bar. When I wore a long dress of light material, I would grab up the loose part in my right hand holding the handle bar, and mostly steer with my left. But I seldom wear long dresses anymore.

LMK: How old are you?

Mary Lehmann: In March, I turned 83.

LMK: How often do you use your bicycle? Do you bicycle when it rains?

Mary Lehmann: Since I've cut down on the meetings I go to, I use the bike less. I used it plenty some years ago to get to LCRA to argue the case before the City Council for leasing the 700 acres of the old Mueller airport. More recently I biked to the Travis County headquarters a lot in the Obama campaign, but starting using the bus to get home. Thank goodness the buses carry bikes.

I rarely start out in the rain, but usually keep going if it's not a downpour that overtakes me.

LMK: When did you start commuting regularly on bicycle and why?

Mary Lehmann: I haven't owned a car since my children were small when I had to drive them a lot of places. When I didn't have to do that I quit.

I started using a bike and bus more, and when St. Louis, where I lived, put in the Metrolink, that was a help. Since I came to Austin over ten years ago, I first went around only on my bike, but as the years went by I began to combine it with bus travel.

Why do I use a bike? Not for exercise, though that's a good idea, and I'm in a better mood than when behind a steering wheel. Mainly, I've been a believer for years that relying on cars is a wrong direction. They have become a bad idea for our health and our surroundings, and I feel a little guilty when I have occasion to drive. (Like for moving a 'cello --but I have started taking it on the bus.).

And now cutting edge data say we won't be able to keep up our heavy dependence on the car --not enough available energy very soon, fossil or alternative.

Not one person who has complimented me for my bide-riding has changed to doing it instead of using a car. A lot more has to change about the way we live before that happens.

LMK: Are you an environmental activist? Would you describe yourself that way...or is there another term you prefer to use?

Mary Lehmann: To give a short answer to your question, I'm an ex-activist on the matter of promoting wise taxation, and a would-be activist if someone could find a way to get people thinking about our numbers as well as our consumption habits

At first I was appalled at how little people understood that land as a source of revenue is far better that if wages and buildings are taxed, because the wrong people, who supply labor and human effort, are paying for the city's costs, not the owners of land who with no effort rake in rent on a necessity nature provides. I watched in disbelief as the City Council readily gave up city ownership of Mueller airport acreage without professional appraisal and with lots of interest free perks for the developer, and then I saw the result for shoppers, not the promised walkable neighborhoods, but a huge parking lot ringed by chain stores. When the city lost ownership it lost a great source of revenue and control of the land use.

Beyond laying before the City Council the case for keeping ownership of Mueller, I was not an activist. The influence of developers on the city government was too deep and unperceived by the ordinary citizen.

When the environmental crisis we are now in became pretty public, I thought Obama must win, so I worked on his campaign in four states and seven cities, and perceived alas, that right now he and the public are hoping to bring our consumption to what it was before. That's "the American Dream".

When canvassing for Obama, I discovered that biking, as least on reasonably level ground, was a lot less effort than walking (which requires carrying one's own weight), but my bike was at home in Austin, alas.

This time I guess you could say I'm at last an activist, or a would-be one if I could figure out some strategy that focuses on environmental impact, the per person consumption times the number of persons. I quickly discovered you can't talk about the number of persons, which makes reducing the per capita consumption meaningless. A doubled population by 2030 would wipe out any consumption reduction. There are some smart, perceptive people in Austin who want Austin to change direction to a shrinking economy before Nature does it for us, and one is our re-elected Bill Spelman. So one can't entirely write Austin off as an oblivious, happy-go-lucky college town.