If you recall, the City of Austin’s attempt last year to rewrite its land development code, which dates back to the mid-1980s, fell apart with the demise of what was then known as CodeNEXT. It’s complicated and we won’t explain it all here, but what’s important is, we’re trying again! Last week, our beloved City Council…
Austin Has a Street Harassment Problem
Almost every woman in Austin has a list. Mine includes the guy who hangs out near my office and tells women who walk by, “I know you like to party with a dick in your mouth.” Then there’s the group of men on the Capital Metro Route 2 bus who talked about my anatomy and what they’d like to do with it for six stops. There’s the bros who caught up with me on a scooter, making jokes you might expect about “riding.” Men in cars making “blow job” signals towards me on Congress Avenue as I was texting my editor about this story. This is all from the past few weeks alone.
East of the Capitol, Symphony Square’s Getting Taller Very Carefully
We’ve said this before, but the region of downtown Austin sandwiched between the eastern edge of the Capitol grounds and I-35 is one of the city’s most interesting areas for potential growth. There are projects in the pipeline both in and around it, but for clarity’s sake let’s focus on the box formed by East 15th and East 11th…
For the Rainey Street District, Getting There Is Half the Fun
From an urban planning perspective, the Rainey Street District is one of Austin’s weirder locales. A small neighborhood of narrow streets and single-family homes, effectively annexed into downtown by the construction of an interstate highway and later upzoned to allow infill development at the skyscraper scale, the Rainey area now stands as the poster child for downtown Austin condo…
Here’s a Closer Look at Downtown’s Drake Bridge Commons Project
The bridge carrying First Street across Lady Bird Lake has held the official title of the “Drake Bridge” for 63 years of its 65-year existence — in other words, not exactly breaking news. Still, I’d bet my life that a vast majority of Austinites have no idea this is the case, perhaps even many of…
South Lamar’s Dead Taco Cabana Rides Again, With a Hotel and Condos on Deck
Everything old is new again at the southeast corner of South Lamar Boulevard and West Riverside Drive, as a long-delayed project perhaps best known for irritating its neighbors and not being built for years finally springs into action once more. That’s at least the impression recent city filings give us regarding the 0.93-acre property at…