Daily Archives: 04/07/2013

(Community Matters) Artpace – a laboratory for the creation and advancement of contemporary art. Their San Antonio Gala had a Marfa spirit – Gamping: a glamorous camping motif. Fun dress, dinner space circled by restored Airstreams – many by Austinite Taylor Perkins.

Our friend Jeanne Klein is the founding chair of this way cool organization founded by the late philanthropist Linda Pace. Neighbor and friend Laurence Miller an original advisor and arts entrepreneur. I joined Suzanne Deal Booth and friends for the evening.  Big Austin contingent in addition to Jeanne & Suzanne, including Kevin Keim, Deborah Green & Clayton Aynesworth, Veronica Roberts, Carlos and Andrea Martinez and Davis Neindorff. Mayor Julian Castro came as my guest. Erica and Steven were scheduled to attend . . . alas competing obligations. Ran into several dear SAT friends to, including DNC fundraising chair, Henry Munoz, and Elise & Craig Boyan. Thought might, but bummed, didn’t see Susan Ghertner or Ron Prince – next visit.

(Community Matters)  Ivy league pedigrees aside, Austin beware.

What Richard Florida called “the mass relocation of highly skilled, highly educated and highly paid Americans to a relatively small number of metropolitan regions, and a corresponding exodus of the traditional lower and middle classes from these same places” is one of the striking social facts of the modern meritocratic era.

Ross Douthat: The Secrets of Princeton

Austin and tribalism aside . . . as to Douthat’s major premise . . . I admit to unsuccessfully urging my siblings to send their children to elite secondary and higher ed schools in recognition of the increasing difficulty of living a life with access and privilege if you aren’t born into it. It’s unfair, some might say even despicable, but it is what it is for now, and while it is, who doesn’t want to ensure their children are at least competitively equipped to do well in life? As a kid whose parents sacrificed, laying the ground work for upward social/economic mobility, feels like a forward responsibility for the families’ next generation – as is our obligation to open up access and opportunity. It’s not just altruistic  greater opportunity & access would serve us all best.