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You are here: Home / Blog / Our Fall Survey Results Are In, and Here’s What We’ve Learned
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Our Fall Survey Results Are In, and Here’s What We’ve Learned

James Rambin November 9, 2018 Comment

At the end of last month, we opened a little survey to learn more about our readers and their interests around Austin. The carrot to this survey’s stick was the possibility of winning one of five copies of our recently-released Austin coloring book, and we’ll be sending those out next week. For the time being, let’s take a look at the results and see what we’ve discovered. 

To start, we asked our readers to provide the zip codes for where they lived and worked. The top three locations for where people lived were 78702, 78701, and a tie between 78704 and 78751. The rest of the responses were an even spread of areas, with a few more people reporting they lived in Austin’s northern suburbs than south. 

In terms of where folks work, obviously downtown takes the cake — 78701 had the most responses by far, almost half. Next was 78704, then 78702 — lots of interesting office space south of the river and plenty emerging on the east side as well. 

Photo by James Rambin.

A little more than half of our respondents drive to work in their own cars, with the second-largest bloc working from home. The rest use a combination of biking, walking, and public transit for their commute, but together, only about 25 percent use alternative modes besides cars. One thing we noticed in a surprising number of responses is that people used to ride the bus to work, but the recent route overhaul by Capital Metro has made that inconvenient for them in some way, so they drive instead.

Another bummer we discovered was in the responses to our next question, about whether our readers have ever considered living downtown. A vast majority of people answering this question say that they have, and would actually love to live there — they just can’t afford anything downtown.

Our next question was a fun one — “What’s your favorite unsolved Austin mystery?” Here are a few responses:

“When will the gondola system be built?”

“Why has Austin not discovered good public transportation?”
 
“I don’t know if ‘favorite’ is the right word, but I would like to have the yogurt shop murderer found and fried.”
 
“Who put up the Chili’s sign on the abandoned sports bar on East Sixth?”
 
“What is going on at the insane six-way intersection bridge pretzel torture device on the east side, where Airport meets Cesar Chavez meets 183 with the Levander Loop surrounding the whole thing — who thought this was a good idea?”
 
“Why was Austin neglected in the interstate system? More specifically, why no federally-funded spurs – like a I-435 or something? Much smaller cities have this infrastructure.”
 
“Why is there a massive donut hole of unincorporated land for millionaires just west of Lake Austin?”
 
“Why doesn’t Austin have a proper downtown bus depot where Cap Metro, CARTS, Megabus and Greyhound all meet?”
 
“Why does the SXSW building not have a performance space in it? (Even as simple as a black box theatre or small listening room.)”
 
“Why after decades of growth and 4X population growth since the 1980s, city council and community leaders still carry on as if this is a small town? Where are the roads? Mass transit? Enlightened zoning policies? Following local politics for 20+ years now here, it’s been a nonstop viewing of Groundhog Day.”
 
“Why are Central Austin’s older neighborhoods’ residents so mean?”
 
Next, we asked about our readers’ favorite and least favorite buildings. The responses to this one were pretty consistent with our last survey — everyone loves the State Capitol, the Driskill Hotel, and the Frost Bank Tower. But one new building showed up in the answers more this time around than last time: The Independent. This condo tower, though divisive, seems to have captured the minds of more Austinites than we expected from a brand-new building. I mean, it’s not even open yet!
 

Image: DCI Engineers

 
In regards to everyone’s least favorite building, that one’s pretty consistent over both surveys — everyone just hates the William P. Hobby Jr. Building so much it’s actually kind of impressive how unified Austin is against it. I don’t think it’s that bad, guys. 
 
Our last question, “What do you think Austin needs more than anything,” saw the most consistent responses of all — folks want better public transportation and affordable housing. That’s it, full stop. We could all probably learn something from that.

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 78701, city life, design, towers, Transit

About James Rambin

James is an Austin native, but tries not to brag about it. He writes about new development, local history, and urban design. Email him anything at james@towers.net.

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109 E 10th Street
Austin, TX
Photo of 109 E 10th Street, Austin, TX 78701 (MLS # 6369878)
$3,200,000
24
  • Lot Size
    2,614 sqft

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