President Barack Obama at SXSW Tomorrow!

This morning I went to physical therapy at the pool at St. David’s Hospital. As I was ready to go, I joined in on a chat with the rest of the people getting therapy in the pool. The talk was about tomorrow’s visit to Austin by President Barack Obama, traffic and the very likely mess of Austin traffic tomorrow. It’s not surprising that a bunch of people getting therapy in the pool would be talking about this, because the hospital pool is located hard by I-35, one of the worst bits of highway in Texas for congestion and traffic slowdowns.

Tomorrow President Barack Obama is being interviewed by Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune at the Long Center, and there is a lottery for SXSW Interactive, Gold and Platinum badgeholders who want to attend.

The start of the South by Southwest Festival with Obama as the keynote speaker is threatening to make Austin traffic so bad that the Mayor of Austin gave non-essential city workers a half-day, and is encouraging businesses to have people work from home on Friday!

So while the rest of the country might be focusing on the fact that Obama won’t be attending Nancy Reagan’s funeral, the people of Austin are totally worried about traffic!

In Austin we’re not worried about gridlock in Congress, we’re worried about gridlock on Lamar!