Final Web Portfolio

View From the Box

Land Dispute: The Future of a Piece of Austin Realty

Here is the link to our video. Please keep in mind that the interested parties were unavailable for comment.

     Between U.S. 290 and State H.W. 130 lies some hot property. Over 161 acres, this piece of land is at the center of a major Austin conflict. Republic Services, a waste disposal company and owner of Allied Waste, is currently using the land with permission from Travis County. Their contract expires in 2015. But Republic Services wants to extend its contract and build a recycling plant on the property- a plan that disrupts the City of Austin's proposal to make the area a new town center. One of the developers of this Imagine Austin plan is Pete Dwyer; he already owns extensive property in the area and has been developing a neighborhood (Wildhorse Ranch) adjacent to the land in question. Dwyer believes that having a recycling center in the area will bring down current property values and discourage potential homeowners.

Video Story Idea

   A)By November 2015, the city of Austin wants to annex the land in the southwest corner of Highway 290 East and State Highway 130 as part of their Imagine Austin initiative to create a "major activity center" with businesses and residential areas. But the problem is that someone's already beaten them to that land and has ideas of their own- BFI Allied Waste Ser­vices (owned by Republic Services)wants to build a recycling plant and a transfer station for garbage trucks there.
    B)The structure of our story will be like a news package. We want to start off by introducing the problem to our audience (Austin residents using a voiceover. A slow pan of the plot of land in question will be combined with shots of an existing recycling plant, juxtaposed with a quiet view of the neighborhood that will be affected.We'll then let each side of the conflict get a chance to defend its ideas in interview format, and ask some of the residents close by what their opinion is. We'd also like to tie in the issue with the environmentally friendly aspect of Austin and posit whether the city will eventually allow the recycle plant as part of it's Keep Austin Green program. B-roll shots of people using their own grocery bags and bike lanes will be used towards the end of the video as the voiceover questions the eventual environmental impact.
    C)Our text component will explain the details and background history of the ownership of the land. We can also give statistics about how much potential waste could be diverted from landfills, etc., and perhaps even statistics on population growth in Austin to explain the need for more development and housing. We can also explain the process of deciding who has ultimate ownership of the land and include links to the appropriate websites.
    D) Some potential interviewees are :
       1.Pete Dwyer,a developer of Wildhorse Ranch which is one of the city's planned neighborhoods. He has a vested interest in the city annexing the land.
      2.Lee Kuhn, regional general manager for Republic Services. It's his job to positively represent the recycle plant and there'd be little reason for him not to share the company's desires with the community.     
      3.Robin Schneider, executive director of Texas Campaign for the Environment. Schneider is an outside source who is still waiting to see if whether having recycle plant or creating a city center would be more beneficial to Texans.

Belo Video Project

Hey y'all, go check out our video.

SoCo Food Trailers

https://webspace.utexas.edu/jam8789/index.html

Here is our soundslide project.

Jacob Martella's Profile Picture

http://jjmtestsite.blogspot.com/2013/02/professional-profile-picture.html

Here is my "professional" profile picture.

My Cable Car Image

Assignment 2

Jacob Martella's Blog

The Beginning

Hey, I'm Jacob. I'm a freshman journalism major. I'm from Arlington and I love arena football and all sports. I have a wide knowledge of CSS, HTML and PHP.

One of my partners is Shelby. She is a fellow freshman journalism major from McKinney, TX. She likes to take photos and is a photographer for The Daily Texan. She also likes dogs. Her favorite news site is the New York Times.

My other partner is Haley from Frisco, TX. She is also a freshman journalism major. She's a dancer, loves animals. Her favorite news site is CNN.

Since my passion is following and writing about the Arena Football League, here is a photo of the 2012 ArenaBowl XXV champion Arizona Rattlers.

Here's a promotional video for the league for last season. Can't wait for the 2013 season to kickoff in March!