Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify the City of Austin receives around 30,000 yearly calls to 311 regarding various code violations, including illegal dumping.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Doug Ballew has been pushing pedals for a long time.
“I’ve been a recreational and competitive cyclist,” Ballew said. “I raced for about 20 years.”
He knows how to pick his playground and the hilly roads framing the east side of Lake Walter E. Long in east Austin have an appeal.
“In the mornings, there’s hardly any cars at all,” he said. “So that’s one of the reasons I love riding out here.”
And the other reason, he said, is the setting. “The scenery out here is very pretty,” the Mueller resident said.
Though lately, Ballew has had to back-pedal on that assessment because he’s been trekking past all kinds of nasty trash dotting the landscape he loves so much.
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“I see tires,” he said. “Construction material, we got a little bit of everything.”