Quote:
Originally Posted by Jdawgboy
A block that was basically dead is buzzing with activity.
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The thing is Austin never really had non stop storefronts and tree lined streets at least since 1980... and what we have now is 1,000 times more than we did then.
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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.