Coming up on Thursday, the 2019 version of the Austin City Council will start deliberating on one of the biggest decisions of this year: where to go now that CodeNEXT is dead. City Manager Spencer Cronk asked for direction from City Council on five questions, including how much we should allow “missing middle” housing (think: small multi-unit buildings like triple deckers or ...
About Dan Keshet
Three versions of Austin’s next transit map
This blog cut its teeth analyzing Project Connect's light rail vision in 2014 but I've stayed relatively silent on the current iteration of Project Connect. Largely, this was because Project Connect did pretty extensive but not super sexy analysis in their preliminary reports and I didn't have much to object to in it or add to it. The one time I chimed in was to encourage ...
CodeNEXT Is Dead, Long Live CodeNEXT!
CodeNEXT, Austin's long-awaited rejiggering of the land development code, is dead. Mayor Steve Adler was the first politician to acknowledge the reality that "something has gone horribly wrong" and the project had been "poisoned" by "misinformation, hyperbole, fearmongering, and divisive rhetoric." The news cycle moved from breaking news to roundups and ...
Lockless and Flockless: The State of Austin’s Dockless Vehicle Pilot Program
If you hadn't heard, Austin has a newfangled pilot program for dockless bikes and scooters. This is awesome because scooters are awesome and bikes are awesome, and if you disagree, I'll leave you in my scooter dust, at no more than 15 miles per hour. via GIPHY So, now that we're a month into the city's new dockless regulations, let's check in on the progress: The ...
Dockless scooters: the revolution is ours if we want it
We are on the verge of an urban revolution. A new device has revolutionized how we travel, making cars obsolete. Cities are going to re-architect themselves around the invention. The year, of course, is 2001 and the invention is the Segway. That revolution didn't pan out. The Segway is now known mostly as a gag in a movie about mall security guards. But 17 years later, ...