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Originally Posted by Komeht
3. I don't care whether Austin is a big city or stays a mid-sized one (it will be what it will be). However, I care deeply about urbanity and I am rather dogmatic on this . Urbanity can exist in small cities (see Charleston, Santa Fe) or large cities (NY, SF, Paris) - it matters not to me what size Austin is. But a livable, workable, vibrant, lively downtown is something I think we all would benefit greatly from. The good news is Austin is hit a growth spurt at a time that co-incided with renewed interest and market reward/demand for more urban projects. The city has greatly benefited from the last 10 or 15 years of central development - but I still see Austin as having a ton of unfulfilled possibilities.
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My favorite part of your post, and undeniably true. You can be an enormous with enormous problems and failures (i.e. Phoenix, San Jose, Tucson) or tiny and the envy of the country (i.e. Ann Arbor, Park City, Savannah). A lot of people living in one place may produce tall buildings and urban canyons, but that does not necessarily mean urban canyons and tall buildings produce a livable urban area.
Consider my current situation. I've grown up in New York City. I work in Times Square. ...and I cannot wait to move away. I didn't only love Austin when I visited because of its tall buildings (although the explosive skyline growth was eye candy in person
). I loved it because I felt like I could breathe, there was open sky and greenery, restaurants and shops converted from old ranch homes, people sitting in lots by the food trucks enjoying the weather and each other's company, crowds filling 6th Street after dark like I've never before seen a single street packed with people on just a regular night.
It's not the city in the sense of New York, but it's an urban environment where people socialize and connect, and that's nothing to sneeze at. Of course, there are improvements to be made, and I hope ATX rides the wave of growth as far as it will. If it became New York though, I'd be terribly disappointed. Austin needs to stay Austin, to be kept weird. The CVCs will sculpt the skyline, no doubt, but I'd disagree that it'll be in a negative way. The gaps you're complaining about, they give the Austin skyline that thing that makes it the Austin skyline.