The long and winding road to the City of Austin’s development of a roughly 19-acre land assembly in the historic St. John neighborhood with mixed-income housing and park space only has a few twists and turns left. You’ll agree that’s good news considering the timeline at play here — the adjacent tracts at 7211 and 7309 North Interstate 35, once respectively occupied by a Home…
neighborhoods
Celebrate 48 Years of Conans Pizza in Austin With a Deep-Dish Archive Dive
On July 19, 1976, University of Florida graduates Jerry Strader and Scott Leist opened the first Conans Pizza at 29th and Guadalupe Streets near the University of Texas, instantly winning over pizza-starved students and everyone else with its Chicago-inspired deep-dish pan pies and strangely compelling whole wheat crust. Despite the closure of that original location in 2018, Conans is…
Austin’s Finally Putting Some Teeth in the Downtown Density Bonus Program
At its meeting earlier today, Austin’s City Council passed a resolution initiating a number of potential modifications to the city’s Downtown Density Bonus Program — that’s a set of optional guidelines first established in 2014 allowing developers to build taller and bigger buildings downtown in exchange for meeting various community benefit requirements, like pedestrian-friendly street designs, superior energy efficiency, and affordable housing. The resolution instructs Austin’s…
Chris Riley Prepares the Next Move For Giant Chess at Wooldridge Square
Although he’s often called the originator of Austin’s urbanist movement, Chris Riley is really just a guy who believes in the potential of cities as places for people. As a former City Council member, co-founder of the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association, and a friend of everyone involved with this site since the beginning, Chris revealing that his cancer…
Affordable Housing Plan Moving Forward at East Austin School District Site
Efforts by the Austin Independent School District to repurpose one of its large land holdings for affordable housing development are moving forward, with a rezoning case for a nearly 20-acre AISD property in the Govalle neighborhood of East Austin known as the Anita Ferrales Coy Facility at 4900 Gonzales Street securing the approval of Austin’s Planning Commission earlier this week. The rezoning, now scheduled…
Austin’s Ready To Rumble on ‘Crashy Cameron’ and ‘Deathtrap Dessau’ Roads
If you drive regularly on Cameron Road between East 51st Street and Rundberg, or Dessau Road, which is what that same road’s called once you hit the north side of Rundberg all the way up to Parmer Lane, you’re probably aware in the abstract that it’s a pretty difficult transportation corridor — busy, congested, maybe even risky….