City vision for downtown: better parks, urban rail, cheaper housing
 

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...l-1786364.html

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...n_delayed.html

What happened with the downtown plan done by ROMA? Is this in conjunction with that, or something different?

I'd like to see all that come to pass, BUT:

What makes them think "cheaper housing" will happen if the taxpayers have to pay for all that other stuff? Why do they think the populace can afford to pay for it since folks are hurting worse in this economy with no relief in sight?

Austin's idea of "affordable Housing" ($250k) is a joke anyway. The little people are being driven out.

Cheap housing equals no frills 1960s era public housing tenements. Nice looking towers are not cheap.

Same plan. ROMA Austin just changed their name to McCann Adams Studio.

Affordable housing downtown really seems to be impossible without huge subsidies. I really don't understand why there is never mention of affordable housing in the areas immediately adjacent to downtown. If you look out 20 years, this is where the "non-affordable" housing (equivalent to downtown today) is going to be located. These area's really are not very far, just a 5 minute bus ride or bicycle ride away. In the future, people will think its close in, even though maybe today its not considered that. If the city would jump on it now, affordable housing might actually be a possibility.

Anyone have any insight to this?

I agree that the idea of what's considered downtown will change dramatically in 20 years. In the early 1980s US183 and Ben White Blvd. were considered to be the North and South ends of Austin. Beyond those roads were the boonies. Neighborhoods between US183 and Ben White are typically considered to be "centrally located" today.

Our neighborhood was in the boonies back when it was built in the 60s. We're south of Ben White, a block south of Stassney. When our neighborhood was built, Stassney was a two lane street with nothing on it. Our neighborhood was the only new subdivision south of Ben White. William Cannon didn't exist, and South First Street still had low water crossings at Williamson Creek and no storm drains. My mom remembers them riding their bikes as kids down South First riding way down the hill where it crosses the creek. The vacant field behind our neighborhood was owned by a man who kept cows and horses on it. It's funny, though, because while the area was still mostly rural, just a few years later, in 1969, Crockett High School was built, Odom ES in 1970 and the Manchaca Branch library in 1974. So as far back as then we had all those things within a quarter mile. A grocery store was still farther. The nearest one was at Ben White and Manchaca Road. Now our neighborhood is considered to be fairly central since we're between Congress and Manchaca (which aligns with Lamar south of Ben White). ACC also built their South Austin campus on Stassney across the street from Crockett and near the library.

When I was at St.Edward's High School in the early '60s, a classmate lived on Stanley Avenue (off Manchaca, south of Garrison Park). There were very few houses in that area & no schools, mostly ranchland. We went dove hunting along Manchaca a few blocks south of his house.