East Austin Developments

[Tech House]

Scrolling through the many renderings of "mixed use" projects that are proposed or under construction, I feel like it would be better to just eradicate all zoning in the area rather than to force everything into the same 4-5 story mold. No variety in height, this is a mistake and a wasted opportunity. I'd love if there were some kind of tradeoff where you can build higher if you preserve an old bungalow, warehouse, or trailer eatery zone. Mix it up, get crazy. East Austin's at risk of becoming a sterile facade of creative pretense. Only yuppies can afford to live in the new places, so the ethnic communities are being decimated by unimaginative gentrification, with developers reducing East Austin's culture to little more than hollow marketing slogans. "Creative living space" is a typical phrase, meaning nothing and signifying the developer's vague awareness that it might be good PR to use the word "creative" in brochures. [/rant]