On March 24, Austin City Council will, once again, consider approving actions to permanently move the Downtown Austin Community Court to the former City Municipal Building at 124 West Eighth Street. Key downtown stakeholders, residents, property owners, and business operators oppose the proposed actions, which were postponed by city council on Dec. 2, Jan. 27…
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Commentary, analysis, and quick thoughts on almost everything in town.
The History of Downtown Austin’s Waterloo Park in 10 Festivals
Developed alongside the nearby Symphony Square as part of 1970s urban renewal efforts along Red River Street and Waller Creek, the 11-acre downtown green space at Waterloo Park hosted countless concerts, festivals, and other events from 1975 until its closure in 2011 for the construction of the Waller Creek Flood Control Tunnel, a project expected at the time to…
One Weird Trick for Fixing Downtown Austin’s Density Bonus Program
It’s become pretty clear over the last few weeks that the debate currently brewing over possible updates to Austin’s so-called Downtown Density Bonus Program has the potential to break out into a CodeNEXT-style debacle, a sort of proxy war between the bitterly opposed local perspectives you might describe in heavily ironic Tony Robbins terms as a “Growth Mindset” versus a “Fixed Mindset” — accepting and…
Preservation Austin’s 2021 Homes Tour Celebrates a Historic East Side District
The Rogers-Washington-Holy Cross District is the newest of Austin’s eight local historic districts, its designation approved by City Council back in September 2020 — so you could say it’s high time for this neighborhood to do a victory lap. That’s the perspective of the nonprofit Preservation Austin, which has chosen this collection of historic midcentury homes for its…
What’s Missing from the Conversation about Reinstating Austin’s Camping Ban
The City of Austin currently owns 1,765 properties totaling nearly 14,000 acres. 1,148 of those properties have no improvements. A 2020 Point In Time count from ECHO reveals the number of people sleeping unsheltered that night was at least 1,574. Why hasn’t the City of Austin endeavored to create a joint venture with an operator to utilize a fraction of…
Imagining Homeless Housing at Austin’s Vacant City-Owned Home Depot
Since 2008, the City of Austin has owned the approximately 13.7-acre empty former Home Depot store on East St. Johns Avenue near the interchange of Interstate 35 and Highway 183 in the St. John neighborhood. At the time, the city hoped to use the site for a courthouse or police station, but this never materialized — and more than a decade later that…