This seems relevant today::...
This seems relevant today:: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-numbers/austin-texas-covid-icu-beds/269-58fda4ab-b16e-4db5-bcb5-fd71c7ace5c6
Europe has once again put the US on their non travel list. Good chance they might not even come here anyway.
The good is that Austin appears to have rolled off the peak. The current effective reproduction number is well off it’s peak and far less than 1.0 is needs to be for COVID cases to be increasing. https://covidestim.org/us/TX/48453
Oof... even if the race goes forward, I don't know if the downtown scene will be like folks remember from past races: https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/pecan-street-festival-canceled-due-to-rising-covid-19-cases-city-permit-denial/
Uh, oh. Doesn't sound good. Well, Austin abandoned F1 some years ago by no longer having the great street events to begin with. Instead they made it a party town for some college football team. All the festivities were moved to the track, which I thought was a downgrade to its opening years with blocked streets downtown and F1 parties galore. Add to this the inevitable masks during the flight and it was an easy decision to cancel my trip. Hopefully the mask requirement will go away from flying in a plane some day. That'll be when I'll gladly return to COTA. Maybe next year, who knows. PS: This is not meant as a political comment. Just stating my rationale for why to skip this year's race. I won't make any further comments regarding the pandemic.
things have changed MUCH since you could hang 6th street all night. https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2021/07/downtown-shootings-bring-plans-to-address-violent-crimes/
Hopefully they won't have any closures during F1 weekend but beware of construction on highway 71 near the track. They started a multi-year project to put in overpasses for all the traffic lights between the 130 toll road and Bastrop a few months ago. Even more dump trucks than normal. I don't think the downtown party scene will ever match the first year or two since the novelty and promotion for the event has worn off, but for locals that has been a good thing. Part of that has been the track owners building the concert venues and using them to promote the event through the weekend, keeping more drink revenue for themselves. I think this will still be a huge weekend at the track since it's a sellout. Looking forward to seeing how MotoGP goes at the end of the month.
2 ICU beds available as of today:: https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/lack-of-nurse-staffing-dwindles-icu-bed-capacity-for-austins-hospital-region
As noted you should be highly aware of your surroundings now. Eddie V's and Antones are on FIFTH Street, but I get south of the River, to my haunts, Continental Club,, C Boys. Try the ABGB, Stampede...the Broken Spoke needs your love after losing it's founder this year. Lost Pines is a really good choice Rob, as you already have your lady! But the finer restaurants on South Congress are still quite nice...Perla, Guerro's, over on South First it's El Mercado. Mitch are you gleaning this off of MSN, the bed count? I would call Saint David's direct if it really matters, they always have had room for me, if the AFD throws me bleeding thru the ER door!! They have both a North and South campus, and there's some other hospitals also
Ah....read thru it..not a BED shortage at all, but a staffing shortage.. Nice how the line is always: Burn out and fatigue, but I personally know many nurses who have resigned rather than join our National Experiment. One of them a very good ER RN.
Also, many of the RN shortages are being filled by RNs on very lucrative Short Term Gov't Contracts. The permanent staff sees the money to be made and departs seeking a similar arrangement themselves, causing another RN shortage once these contracts expire. A frustrating cycle.
I second Eddie V's. I also like Trulucks for a consistently good meal, but for something more casual, I agree on south of the river. Salt Lick is timeless but can get crazy on the weekend so I like to take folks there on the Thursday night they arrive. Another favorite is Jack Allen's Kitchen, one southwest in Oak Hill and another west side in West Lake Hills. A new place on Southwest Parkway is Carve. Some fun places that are not fine dining but definitely interesting: Gourdough's Public House (started as a donut food truck) and Barlata (Spanish Tapas) on S. Lamar. Another casual favorite is Hyde Park Bar & Grill (good full bar, at least a couple locations) For breakfast before the track, I like Kerbey Lane Cafe (several locations) La Madeleine (chain from Dallas) or less healthy, Voodoo Donuts (chain from Portland)
Oh I race in and out of Dan's (Manchaca and Hwy 71) for breakfast tacos, and if you turn one exit early, south off Hwy 71, at the Del Valle Schools sign, just past the airplane is a Texaco Station, and the little Cafe inside that is really good!! Sometimes I am the first customer though (if working Volunteer) so Dan's is more reliable. I forgot to mention Saxon Pub on South Lamr..as a music venue, although the passing of Denny Freeman was the "end of an era"..... I'll just put my cell phone number on here, (maybe in Texas Section) and any one interested can call the BigTex Party Hotline!! Don't forget to order your FCA Gala tickets..that's mandatory, for Ferrari owners
LOL Sadly Mazepin takes MSC out in turn 1. Race is being red flagged and Mazepin is the only car at the restart. Oh wait, where have I seen this?
You know what? The Austin FC (football club, i.e. soccer) goes on quite often here in Austin, stadium packed (holds over 20,000), no rules (about masks or anything), but somehow there is a concern about Formula 1 during one weekend a year, just does not add up, I am presuming F1 at COTA will happen.
The soccer club is not governed by a global entity regarding COVID-19 protocols. F1 is governed by a global entity regarding COVID-19 protocols.
Look, it's one thing to race WITHOUT fans, it's another to race WITH fans. I hope there's a race at COTA with fans.
When did F1, itself, set the policy to race without fans? I thought that as being set by the in-country politicians? My point is, Austin FC has had numerous full stadium events in the past several months, none were played without fans, so, why would F1 in Austin suddenly do something so completely different? For instance: https://www.reuters.com/article/motor-f1-turkey-int/turkish-f1-gp-to-be-held-without-fans-due-to-covid-19-idUSKBN26Q1UA However, the Istanbul Governor’s office announced on Monday that the race weekend would be held without fans amid a rising trend in coronavirus cases and deaths in Turkey, based on a recommendation by the Istanbul Provincial Pandemic Council. “It was decided that the race be held without fans,” the governor’s office said in a statement. looks good still: https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/formula-1/news/f1-still-has-green-light-to-race-in-austin_463408.html
It's a complex situation, for every single event on the calendar Can the teams get to the event and then to the next event without one of the 3 countries involved in that travel schedule imposing a quarantine? Will the local authorities impose some requirement that makes the event too costly to include fans? Can the event be profitable without fans? Will F1 make concessions to help this? I'm happy to say that the case rates are going the right direction in central Texas, but we're not out of the woods yet on ICU beds. We still have a good amount of time to get past that, so I'm pretty optimistic I'll be sitting in T15 to watch the race. I might be wearing a mask, but that's better than watching it on TV.
