Sorry guys. The picture link never works for me. But if you want to see the picture, this should take you there:
https://instagram.com/p/7OH66ZHnwt/

The digging has officially started!

I remember driving past Capitol Chevy at 5th and Lamar in 1993. The Saturn dealership was a few blocks east before they moved up to Research.

Aha--Charles Nash's obit says Capitol Chevy moved in 1998. I bet the rest of the exodus was around that timeframe.

Excellent reply, and I agree with everything you said. I'll have to go back to the drawing board to try to ascertain what it is that has me feeling so disgruntled about many of the changes here. Maybe it's just that I'm now an outsider. I can't afford to participate in downtown Austin any longer. I'm getting too old, and I'm too poor, and I'm too funky and eclectic for the 2nd Street district, the Marriott, and everything else that is showing up. Rainey Street would totally be my scene if everything there didn't cost 3x as much as it should. I just can't keep up. I'm old and in the way, I need to make my move to Boise or Bend or Missoula, and from there I'll regularly visit and admire Austin. Perhaps then I'll appreciate it more, because I'll be living in a place that lacks many of the urban amenities I've grown accustomed to in this booming global metropolis.

I still love parts of east Austin, especially right around the neighborhood where I used to live, where I foolishly sold my house in 2004 so that I could go live on a fantasy farm near Lockhart.

Dude, you leave town, and I am going to be the only cranky geezer left on the Austin forum. I think I have several years on you, but there is a perspective that comes with age that is often lacking here. I'll miss your input. I agree that the new downtown lacks something. It is expensive and congested. It seems geared to tourists and visitors. The podium towers are off putting in most instances, but I have to say that I think it is the overall blandness of the new buildings, the hard plain surfaces of most everything at street level and the glassy sameness of most of the towers that is most disappointing. Maybe it will age well, and hopefully when the boom times subside there will have been a fair amount of in-fill construction to create a more human scale. I hope that the areas surrounding downtown develop in ways that give them a true lived-in urban look and feel. I don't know why I care really since my current old gay guy lifestyle finds me living in an inner suburban area with way too many dogs and way too little cash to consider moving to one of these trendy center city areas. The funny thing is that so many younger Austin SSP members also live outside of the newly developing center of town. The reality must be that few can afford to live in the center of all the new action, or else they choose not to live there for other reasons.

It looks like we're in brutal sober honesty mode regarding Austin, so I'll give my $0.02 while we're at it.

I didn't feel like a real participant in downtown Austin until I started working down there four months ago. It's nice. I love it. I love walking among the the people, the tall buildings, and the hustle and bustle every day. But I prefer walking among the older buildings. That's partly why I park at 16th Street (and walk to 6th) rather than taking the train and walking from 4th. I do think the new type of development is leading to a more bland downtown. The problem isn't the style of the architecture, it's the floor area of the buildings. If you look at older parts of downtown (places we generally consider the best parts of the city, like Congress) you'll notice that there's a huge diversity of places. Walking one block you may pass 5-10 different little establishments. Maybe some of those establishments don't interest you at all, but others probably do. And, for other people, what they're interested in will be different. There's something for everyone in this kind of development. There's something different happening in each little one. But, nowadays, with the exception of Aloft and the Texas Public Policy Foundation building, we're not seeing this kind of development. We're seeing huge lots being cleared for developments or whole city blocks! Big fat fucking Jabba the Hut kinds of buildings that squat on our most prized real estate and hardly offer anything back to the city. When you walk by them, if you're not interested in the establishment, tough luck. It's the only establishment you're going to be walking by! Or there may be two, if you're lucky. (Our building has a salon and Gloria's in it.) But it's better when the diversity takes the form of multiple buildings, rather than multiple establishments in one building. 2nd Street does a relatively good job of having lots of different establishments, but many of them are too bougie for regular people partly because they're in the ground floor retail of a very few number of buildings. I've only ever been to a couple restaurants, Toy Joy, and the Violet Crown over there.

Anyway, my point is that Austin is getting infill, which is great, but it's not the ideal form of infill. When big lots go up for sale, they should be broken up into multiple smaller lots and sold off like that. And skinny towers need to be built on these lots, like below, so that we have more diversity of establishments in our city. This will ensure that our city remains a diverse, interesting, culturally rich, and alive place.

http://i.imgur.com/Yx0hTML.jpg

Now that I got the photo to work, this is what the site looked like before the Labor Day weekend (not much work has been done since then).

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/747/2...2c7997515c.jpg

Couldn't agree more. Too many people are worried about dollar signs rather than planting seeds for the future. Relying on that "bougie" scene DT is really not sustainable IMO....Austin needs to start taking notes from Portland again.

Even if I leave I'll still visit this site. Or so I imagine. My interest in Austin would wane slowly. But surely there are more geezers here? I'm 59, which doesn't even count as geezer anywhere other than Austin and Provo.


Very interesting comments and observations. You said what I feel, but haven't been able to articulate. It seems so obvious now that I see it through your eyes. Yes, that's it.

Okay I see where the frustration is coming from and it's something I also feel that needs to be addressed. It basically comes down to city policies and regulations regarding downtown construction and how it develops. If you are upset about how these lots are being built and in how these developments end up taking huge amounts of space then you have push the city government to alter the current policies.

The developers are going to build what they can get away with and unless the city has a proactive approach to DT building utilizing smaller lots, pushing for even more street interaction than what is already there. Pushing for more ground floor opportunity so there are many storefronts on a block rather than a couple and rewarding height rather than shunting it. We can't completely blame the developers themselves, it's also the city’s policies.

Agree, the city really needs to step up here. Couple of examples of poor use of public space is the Independent, Cirrus Logic R&D facility, back of the Marriott, back of the W hotel... Take a look down 3rd street between Colorado and Guadalupe. It's dead to pedestrians with features that should have been put in an alley way.

You are right about 3rd, that is one street which seems more of an afterthought with all the focus being along 2nd. The city really missed a great opportunity to go beyond 2nd and create a vibrant block grid. Colorado has improved, Lavaca and Guadalupe from 2nd through 4th have not and 3rd itself seems so odd and out of place compared to the surrounding streets.

3rd has some challenges, particularly the Hobby building and the State Parking Garage. Until those are gone I can't imagine the street being anywhere near as vibrant as 2nd, and since I think both of those are State property, good luck getting any redevelopment on those sites any time soon.

From last night:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5799/2...7e808bce_b.jpg

The HDR is strong with this one. Looks like a marketing photo for dirt :) Nice shot.

A pano from Whole Foods.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/774/21...4744e43c_b.jpg

So glad to see that massive parking lot going away.

Only to become a massive parking garage! Yaay!

J/K, I know it's more than just that.

Haha, but I see your point...

The parking garage has vault doors in the case of flooding. Interesting stuff.

Explain? Where'd you get this info and how does this work?