Waller Creek Flood Tunnel & Trail Update Thread

[the Genral]

They want to replace the APD Headquarters, but they have no plans to do so. Big pipe dream with no major developement anytime soon. We just paid someone a shit ton of money to draw up a plan that may not even resemble the finished product. Pontoon bridge? Not likely, it crosses the river where a light rail bridge would need to be built. Swing gated? Please...this is Austin, not Futurama land. And it looks like the guy fishing just landed a 200 pound blue fin. Doubt fishing would be allowed on any bridge. I said it before, the original thought for Waller Creek was to keep it urban, allow developement along both sides and have the developers pay for the improvements along the frontage of their property. How does spending a shit ton of money on a tunnel justify spending a shit ton of money on parkland? I thought the tunnel was being built so that developement could happen on unusable land. All I'm seeing is grass, parks, and such, of which I don't see paying off the cost of building the tunnel. So my question is this...did they build the tunnel to allow for parks along the creek, or to allow business to build along it on now usable and valuable land which will add to the tax base? Forgive my ignorance, but I see little talk of developing Waller Creek into a mecca for businesses on land that is becoming increasing scarce downtown. The design is beautiful, but far fetched and a waste of money on what will soon be what it was originally planned to be... prime real estate, not a wide swath of park land.