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River Place trail starting to charge $10 a person


Tree Magnet

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Some local FYI on an Austin area trail.  River Place is a hiking only trail up in NW Austin so if you only ride trails, you might not have heard about it.  However, it has some good elevation changes and trail runners around town use it to train and it's actually a pretty fun hike.  Starting in March, they are going to put private contractors at the entrances and charge non-residents of the neighborhood to use it.  I hope they end up paying more to the contractors than they collect but there is plenty of money in that neighborhood so I doubt they care.

https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/new-10-fee-coming-to-popular-austin-nature-trail

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1 hour ago, Tree Magnet said:

  I hope they end up paying more to the contractors than they collect but there is plenty of money in that neighborhood so I doubt they care.

You lookin at that the wrong way.  I BET THEY HOPE THAT THEY LOSE MONEY ON THE CONTRACTORS THEY PAY TO COLLECT MONEY.  I.e. what they have done is implement a cost-structure for the HOA to help insure that they have/keep the trails to themselves.  Thus, the less money they collect, means the fewer 'strangers' they have to share the trails with.

-CJB

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42 minutes ago, RidingAgain said:

And now a new precedent is being introduced to the Austin trail scene.

Tell me... 

What happens if you simply refuse to pay and just walk onto the trail... Are they going to beat you up, or call the cops on you?

 

They can do what they want. Steiner excludes the general public too unless with a resident. It's dumb (to non residents) but it their prerogative. Not sure why y'all folks are getting so bent.

and yes, they will pummel the living shit out of you. With nothing to do but pick up the young uns at 3, they have plenty of energy to do it before soccer practice.

Edited by Bamwa
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I'd wager that their HOA meeting went something not unlike this....  "hey all these non-residents are encroaching onto our trail systems.  Can we pay a security guard type person to keep these people out?  Yes, of course we can, but why don't we just use these security (private contractors) people to collect a ridiculously high "entry use fee"?  This way we don't look as douchey and maybe we collect a few bucks?....all in favor say aye."

But to answer your question directly @RidingAgain, I think it would go something like:  

 

Private Contractor:  Sir, this is private property if you would like to hike here there is a $10 fee.

You:  Hey you can go screw yourself, I'm not paying anything.  [keeps on hiking]

Private Contractor:  You realize this is private property and you can be charged for trespassing?

You:  I don't care what you say, its America and I can do what I want  [fwd's the contractor 7 cut-n-pasted links to people who've done something similar]

Private Contractor:  [picks up the phone and dials 911 to report a trespasser on the HOA private property]

 

Cheers,  -CJB

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14 minutes ago, WhoAmI said:

Reddit's Austin subreddit has a discussion on this article.

And I'm down in the rabbit hole....

This little jewel was in there, with reference to getting out of Steiner Ranch/Riverplace like it's the state penitentiary or something! LOL!

Quote

That's good to hear and I'm actually kinda jealous you got out lol.

 

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2 hours ago, Bamwa said:

They can do what they want. Steiner excludes the general public too unless with a resident. It's dumb (to non residents) but it their prerogative. Not sure why y'all folks are getting so bent.

and yes, they will pummel the living shit out of you. With nothing to do but pick up the young uns at 3, they have plenty of energy to do it before soccer practice.

 

Private property, and those who own it. 

Thanks goodness there are alternatives.

Now we just have to learn to not worry and be happy with them.

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2 hours ago, CBaron said:

Private Contractor:  Sir, this is private property if you would like to hike here there is a $10 fee.

You:  Hey you can go screw yourself, I'm not paying anything.  [keeps on hiking]

Private Contractor:  You realize this is private property and you can be charged for trespassing?

You:  I don't care what you say, its America and I can do what I want  [fwd's the contractor 7 cut-n-pasted links to people who've done something similar]

Private Contractor:  [picks up the phone and dials 911 to report a trespasser on the HOA private property]

 

Cheers,  -CJB

 

America used to be British private property.

Well, part of it at least.

 

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3 hours ago, RidingAgain said:

And now a new precedent is being introduced to the Austin trail scene.

Tell me... 

What happens if you simply refuse to pay and just walk onto the trail... Are they going to beat you up, or call the cops on you?

 

 

2 hours ago, CBaron said:

I'd wager that their HOA meeting went something not unlike this....  "hey all these non-residents are encroaching onto our trail systems.  Can we pay a security guard type person to keep these people out?  Yes, of course we can, but why don't we just use these security (private contractors) people to collect a ridiculously high "entry use fee"?  This way we don't look as douchey and maybe we collect a few bucks?....all in favor say aye."

But to answer your question directly @RidingAgain, I think it would go something like:  

 

Private Contractor:  Sir, this is private property if you would like to hike here there is a $10 fee.

You:  Hey you can go screw yourself, I'm not paying anything.  [keeps on hiking]

Private Contractor:  You realize this is private property and you can be charged for trespassing?

You:  I don't care what you say, its America and I can do what I want  [fwd's the contractor 7 cut-n-pasted links to people who've done something similar]

Private Contractor:  [picks up the phone and dials 911 to report a trespasser on the HOA private property]

 

Cheers,  -CJB

Im gonna keep my reply very short and sweet and not tell the story on how ive dealt with this. don't do this kind of shit! the entitled attitude that people apparently have and disrespect for other people's private property is very surprising. 

some times the best answer is to just follow the rules or stay away. and sometimes staying away is the rule! "no trespassing" 

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Teamsloan said:

I think I've never gone there because I just assumed I had to be a member of the club to have access. Didn't ever think to actually try and check the place out...oh well.

and, I'm not going to pay to be a member of any club that would have people like me as a member ... (where's the Groucho emoji?)

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17 minutes ago, Teamsloan said:

I think I've never gone there because I just assumed I had to be a member of the club to have access. Didn't ever think to actually try and check the place out...oh well.

You have until March! 

I've never hiked the trail but my wife has used the courts (I think because she was playing a local), and I've parked in the lot when I'm doing Big View repeats.

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This is another good entry in my bullet point "Why Trails are Good" list.

-Trails are such a valued amenity that some douchy HOAs actually charge admission to use them.

And to Mack Turtle; this would not work in Sunset Valley. That lady wants it all to herself no matter what the revenue. And Ha!, like Sunset Valley needs it anyway

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I saw the reddit post earlier this morning and after reading those comments and the ones here I can see arguments for both sides.  On one side, you have a trail that people like to use and now they can't (or have to pay a fee) which of course makes people mad.  On the other hand, I can't say I would be super happy to keep paying to clean a trail because the users were littering.  I would think the homeowners just got tired of it and this was the quickest solution.  

To relate it to our world of mountain biking, I can tell from the posts over the last 6 months how the people that are the most dedicated to trail building or trail maintenance are getting tired of fixing ruts when trails are ridden wet.  I can't say that I blame them, but they are extremely dedicated folks that have a passion about trail building and will continue to march on (with the community's help), but those ordinary folks that just see $$ getting wasted are unlikely to be so forgiving.  

If it truly is private property (this was debated in that reddit post) then I would think it's their prerogative to do what they please with it.  If one day the land owner of Cat Mountain decided to close it off I would be unhappy, but understand that isn't my property and I was simply a guest there.  

I sure wouldn't want to be the board of the community that decided to enact the fee once a local news station picks up the story.  

- Scott

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