Austin has a pickleball shortage. I know that sounds hard to believe, but stay with me — Austin also has too much parking. The rise of pickleball as the fastest-growing sport in America causing increased crowds at local pickleball courts happens to coincide with growing public awareness that overzealous parking requirements have screwed up the urban design of cities all over the country, with…
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It’s Time To Stop Asking Questions and Build a Giant Troll in Pease Park
This week, we need you to be thinking about trolls. You need to be talking about trolls. When you see a stranger, your first impulse should be to ask them about their stance on “the troll issue.” You should start describing yourself as “trollpilled.” The source of this recent obsession is the Pease Park Conservancy,…
A Block-Sized Demolition’s Headed for Sixth & Blanco West of Downtown Austin
A five-story mixed-use project bringing retail, hotel, office, and residential space to more than two acres along West Sixth Street near downtown Austin is headed for the demolition phase. Sixth & Blanco, a new name for the plan first announced last summer as Clarksvillage, imagines a large-scale destination for the neighborhoods west of downtown courtesy of…
Here’s a First Look at the Fifth & Walsh Offices, Rising West of Downtown Austin
You may have heard that Austin’s post-pandemic office market is kind of a work in progress. Although our recovery is going better than a lot of folks around the country, there’s still a lot of vacant office space downtown, and the future of new commercial developments coming online is unclear. So the news that Endeavor…
Let’s Check In With the West Avenue Residential Tower Plan
It’s been four years since our mildly controversial assertion that a new downtown residential tower could soon rise at 506 and 508 West Avenue, adjacent tracts currently occupied by restaurants Irene’s and Taquero Mucho — and although nothing’s broken ground yet at this 0.57-acre land assembly, it’s become increasingly clear that a tower plan is moving forward at this site. Notification letters…
90 Feet of Housing in Old West Austin Sounds Like a Good Start
At its meeting earlier this week, the City of Austin’s Planning Commission voted to postpone a rezoning item on its agenda for further discussion next month, allowing the applicant further time to discuss the case with the neighborhood in question — Old West Austin, a part of town not known for its intensity of growth compared to almost…