The Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association will be hosting a Transportation Forum THIS upcoming Monday, July 28, at Malverde – a lush, swanky private event space downtown located right above La Condesa.

The focus of the forum will be the proposed Urban Rail alignment from Project Connect, which DANA has publicly supported. The current rail alignment would cut right through downtown through Trinity Street. The current plan would also cause the less than 2-year old Waller Creek Boathouse (which is the location of one of my favorite little coffee shops, Alta’s) to be demolished to make way for the bridge over lady bird lake – which has caused a good amount of grumbling.

The program for the presentation will be as follows:

6:00pm – Doors Open

6:15-6:30pm – Presentation by Project Connect

6:30-6:35pm – Response

6:35-6:50pm – Presentation by AURA

6:50-6:55pm – Response

7:00-7:30pm – Q&A

So, as you can see, this will be more of a dialogue or debate rather than just a stiff ol’ presentation. AURA believes that the proposed urban rail route is actually worse than doing nothing. I’m expecting things to get a little heated, for sure – which means this should be pretty darn interesting. Is it bad that I’m excited?

The event is free, but priority entry will be given to DANA Members, and RSVP is required. Seating is limited. Malverde will be offering 1/2 priced drinks and DANA is footing the bill for some light appetizers.

DANA to Host Transportation Forum Monday, July 28 http://t.co/C0C3oN2LzS — Downtown Austin Blog (@downtown_austin) July 24, 2014

You can RSVP to the event directly from DAB: