Federal historic recognition is pending for two properties located roughly a mile apart in East Austin after the approval of nominations by the Texas Historical Commission’s State Board of Review earlier this month. The respective sites, both notable landmarks in the history of the region’s Mexican American community, are Parque Zaragoza at 2608 Gonzales Street in the…
city life
The Waterloo Greenway’s Next Phase Begins Later This Year on Waller Creek
Now that Austin’s had a few months to get familiar with the reopened Waterloo Park, you might wonder what’s next for the Waterloo Greenway conservancy, since the nonprofit’s plans for transforming the rest of Waller Creek into a 35-acre linear park running 1.5 miles from 15th Street to Lady Bird Lake on the eastern edge of downtown…
In 2022, It’s Time for Austin To End Parking Minimums Citywide
Every day in Austin, an invisible exchange takes place beneath your feet — the ceding of valuable land to vast amounts of free parking, which you pay for all the time even if you never use it. Parking takes up space, space costs money, and that cost along with the cost of constructing the parking in the first…
Where Does Austin’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Network Really Suck?
If you’re looking to get around Austin without a car for business or pleasure, you’ll notice a relative lack of sidewalks pretty fast once you venture outside of downtown — it’s a longstanding issue, with the city estimating in 2019 that our pedestrian network was roughly only half connected, though we’ve added quite a lot since the approval of a new sidewalk…
Here’s How Austin’s Mexican American Cultural Center Plans To Double in Size
The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) at 600 River Street is the gem of downtown Austin’s Rainey Street neighborhood, a stunning work of Mesoamerican-inspired modernism designed by the late Mexican architect Teodoro González de León working alongside Hispanic-owned local studio CasaBella Architects. It’s reflective of the neighborhood’s rapidly-fading history as a working-class Mexican American enclave, and as such will always represent much more than a…
Demolition Applications Could Signal Two New Towers in Downtown Austin
A list of demolition applications under review for consideration at the upcoming January 24 meeting of the city’s Historic Landmark Commission tells the story of two possible new tower developments headed for downtown Austin, if you look closely — actually, the clues are incredibly obvious. Let’s take a peek for ourselves: 307 – 311 East…