[katykelly]

Austin is infamous for its nightmare traffic . O will only make it impossible . The Mayor is asking people not to go to work today .

[Liberty Valance]

But the president has never dropped into town during the cluster of humanity and traffic downtown that is the South by Southwest Festival. His seven-hour visit Friday for a SXSW Interactive discussion on civic involvement in the digital age — followed by Democratic National Committee fundraisers at two locations — has Austin officials talking in apocalyptic terms about what Obama’s motorcade-related stoppages will do to Austin streets.

Their advice to work-a-day Austinites: stay away from the city’s core Friday, at least between about noon and 8 p.m. The city itself will have many of its employees telecommute or take that day off, and the Austin school district will let out students for the day just after noon (and right before the president’s arrival) at 15 schools mostly in Central and South Austin.