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Originally Posted by Komeht
First of all - wrt to mix of housing types - I don't see how this is debatable at all. Within 1 sq. mile there are:
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I didn’t phrase that well – my point was that sure there’s a mix of housing, it’s just all unaffordable to 90% of Austin families. This is important because 1) that’s not what we (the citizens of Austin) were promised, 2) we (the citizens of Austin) are subsidizing it, and 3) the unaffordability of Mueller is being used against it and urbanism more generally. My family would love to live at Mueller. We can’t afford it. But don’t ask me to subsidize those that can.
Don’t get me wrong, the 25% affordable is great, but the prices just make me laugh. The city a couple years ago estimated the median income family of four needed a price point around $175k. Of the ‘affordable’ homes you list, all but one type are above that. If $175k is what the median family needs, how is a low income family going to afford houses that cost more than that? $213k for affordable housing? That’s a joke. That’s not for low income families, that’s for kids just out of college whose mommy and daddy are spotting them the down payment. (That’s not a problem unique to Mueller, unfortunately .) And some of the affordable housing is already being resold on the market. Unless they build more than 25%, they’ll be under 25% by the time build out is complete.
Having said all that, my main issue is The Gap. Because that’s where most families are. It’s the bump in the bell curve, and they are not being served by Mueller but are being asked to subsidize it. And the promise that they would be served was part of how Mueller was sold to the public. And Catellus and the reporters/stenographers that repeat their spin disingenuously try to imply otherwise by saying things like “Mueller has houses from $158k to over $1 million” glossing over the fact that if your typical Austin family would show up there wanting something in the $158-$225k range (i.e. what they could afford) they be pointed toward $300 and $400k places they couldn’t afford. Occasionally they offer a token house or two in the high 200s for publicity. The fact that they try to gloss over this shows that they know it would hurt their image. Similarly, after the options are announced for each phase and they are criticized for not offering anything to fill the gap, they always say “oh, next phase we’ll address that” but they never do. It’s become a bit of a joke at this point.
I don’t disagree with you about the larger solution: more infill, more Muellers, etc.