Though our civic apparatus and the greater convention center-industrial complex would have you believe the ever-expanding Austin Convention Center is a critical economic booster for the city, the jury's still out for plenty of Austinites on where the sprawling center, which currently occupies six city blocks, falls on the continuum between "necessary" and ...
neighborhoods
CodeNEXT Is Dead, Long Live CodeNEXT!
CodeNEXT, Austin's long-awaited rejiggering of the land development code, is dead. Mayor Steve Adler was the first politician to acknowledge the reality that "something has gone horribly wrong" and the project had been "poisoned" by "misinformation, hyperbole, fearmongering, and divisive rhetoric." The news cycle moved from breaking news to roundups and ...
You Are Here: Hyde Park
It's difficult to say anything new about Hyde Park. Perhaps Austin's most beloved central neighborhood, the area bound by Guadalupe, West 45th, Duval, and West 38th Streets has been extensively preserved, chronicled, celebrated, and fought for with an intensity arguably unlike that of any other part of the city. Like Windsor Park, the similarly posh-sounding neighborhood ...
Getting to Know East Austin’s Chestnut Plaza
It's kind of cliche at this point to mention how much a particular area of East Austin has changed. Still, if the breakneck pace of development on this side of town continues, it's in our best interest to make this growth as smart as possible. That's the intended goal of the Transit Oriented-Development (TOD) known as Chestnut Plaza emerging around the MLK Jr. ...
Ora Houston, City Council’s Least Predictable Voter, Would Like You to Stop Selling Austin’s Soul
That 10 of the 11 elected leaders in the Austin City Council are at least nominally associated with the Democratic Party does not mean there is any shortage of divisions on the dais. The Council's all-too-frequent marathon sessions, often stretching into the wee hours of the morning, reveal the many differences of opinion that exist on budgets, economic development, ...