What Austin Needs!!!

[austin242]

I was thinking We need a new thread about what austin needs. Put down your ideas of what you think would make austin a great city.

[JoninATX]

for me a cool idea would be a nice riverwalk downtown though different from the one in San Antonio, better public transportation like extending the commuter rail from downtown to the airport also a indoor ski resort like Dubia's and a Planetarium this is just a few I thought would be nice

[JAM]

Austin needs to create a public awareness program to make automobiles more friendly to bicycles and pedestrians trying to cross the street and ALSO cyclists more friendly to pedestrians, especially on Town Lake trail.

[priller]

The Waller Creek project, along with the Sabine Promenade, will be a good first step for a RiverWalk kind of experience.

Public transportation with *urban* rail is BY FAR the most pressing need.

[Downtown_Austin]

1) A well executed shared bicycle system like BIXI that's of use to residents and visitors.
2) Encouragement of vertical building practices
3) A coordinated urban growth boundary that works complementary to #2, with the goal of inhibiting sprawl and preserving our hill country

[austin242]

1. I believe austin needs to build a light rail line south down lamar from crestview station and at the triangle it switches to guadalupe street going down thru u.t and all the way too third steet where it turns down w 3rd towards Seaholm Staion with the Regional Commuter rail and then going along the regional line down to the slaughter and Manchaca Staion.

2. Austin Needs a new major buisiness to come to austin whether it be green engergy, Filming or something else.

3. A bicycle line As far south as Slaughter and as far north as Braker. Could go along the lines of the lightrail plan and then down the commuter rail line to Kramer.

[SecretAgentMan]

Austin (and region) needs a comprehensive system of commuter rail, light rail and streetcar.

[Austinite]

Originally Posted by SecretAgentMan

Austin (and region) needs a comprehensive system of commuter rail, light rail and streetcar.

Serious question for you and the people who made similar posts before you:

Why?

I think I understand why someone would want urban rail in Austin, but I don't understand why someone would think Austin needs urban rail.

At least as I've understood the rail debates in Austin over the past 10 or 15 years, neither side thinks that rail would lower congestion and pollution. Instead, the pro-rail side thinks--reasonably enough--that rail is an important quality-of-life feature and a symbol of what the city aspires to be, while the anti-rail side thinks--again, quite reasonably--that those quality-of-life projects and civic-status-symbols don't justify the cost.

Isn't that right? Isn't rail something that's nice if you can afford it, but unnecessary in any event?

Fire away.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by Austinite

Serious question for you and the people who made similar posts before you:

Why?

I think I understand why someone would want urban rail in Austin, but I don't understand why someone would think Austin needs urban rail.

At least as I've understood the rail debates in Austin over the past 10 or 15 years, neither side thinks that rail would lower congestion and pollution. Instead, the pro-rail side thinks--reasonably enough--that rail is an important quality-of-life feature and a symbol of what the city aspires to be, while the anti-rail side thinks--again, quite reasonably--that those quality-of-life projects and civic-status-symbols don't justify the cost.

Isn't that right? Isn't rail something that's nice if you can afford it, but unnecessary in any event?

Fire away.

Good question. I really have no idea on the finances, (and would love and benefit having a train to get around in) but it would probably be a money sink for quite a while, why would Austin be any different than any other city in the U.S. There really aren't that many that have urban rail, and Austin would probably be one of the smaller cities to get it? It has to be a forward looking investment, that hopefully one day pays off in the future.

[austin242]

Gotta start some time on rail and usually the sooner you do the better, due to inflation.

What austin needs right now is better building codes that work with the suburbs to make density in right proportions.

[MichaelB]

Happy to see this thread.

Austin needs to continue being an incubator for ideas. Keep the ideas flowing.

What Austin needs is a thread where we hear creative ideas.... not arguments.

Austin needs:
- to protect and preserve the culture that made Austin a creative destination.
( from music industry on....)
- to work better to manage all the growth that has been attracted by the creative industry here. ( that would include more brave choices in vertical orchestration of land use and transportation, etc) "Green and Tall are good partners"
- a kick in the financial pants for cultural institutions. We need a way to encourage philanthropic money to flow in the way it use to in "older money" cities. I would love cities to find creative ways to reward contributions to the arts that make up for lost tax incentives.... not just "naming rights" to buildings.
-find a way to not loose our small music venues as we add much needed larger ones
-make downtown residents ( I know this is silly) sign upon purchase or lease acknowledging they have moved into the main district of the "Music Capitol of the World" and cherish this privilege.... and will encourage more noise! " Save or Music"!!!!!!
- to protect Austin from the interloping legislators who, in our current majority, preach about local rights, but hypocritically meddle in our business at will.
- Make John Kelso get on medication.

[nixcity]

@austinite-what do you mean that nobody has argued that rail would decreate congestion and pollution. THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS FOR RAIL. Failing to pass the 2000 initiative and now not even having it on the ballot this year could be the demise of the central city. Enjoy the traffic over the next 5-10 while we wait (and by then it will be too little too late) for urban rail to come online. The city is already getting choked out which will just encourage more big box sprawl crap. We cant just keep putting all the density in CBD and expect traffic and pollution to not get out of control.
It needs to be throughout the city in true TOD's.
so obviously #1 for me is urban rail
#2-increasing solar power use (not some distant wind mill that takes up too many natural resources just to get the energy here)...tax incentives to put solar on top of all the flat builings in austin could drastically decrease need for dirty energy
#3-a science/green future museum on the bottom floor of a VMU in a TOD,ha

[Austinite]

Originally Posted by nixcity

@austinite-what do you mean that nobody has argued that rail would decreate congestion and pollution. THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS FOR RAIL.

Why? Because I thought there was a consensus of opinion among those who are (unlike me) knowledgeable about this issue that most of the people who would use an urban rail system in Austin would be pedestrians, cyclists, bus riders, or recreational passengers. Similarly, I thought there was consensus that the kinds of rail systems that would actually reduce cars and pollution to a non-negligible extent would be commuter rail lines that move workers from the suburbs to downtown (like the Orange Line from northern VA to DC or the LIRR): a pale, sad, predictably-disastrous simulacrum of which we have here now. Accordingly, I thought there was agreement that the purpose of urban rail in Austin was to make carpetbagging yankees (and their offspring) feel less embarrassed about living in Texas. I admit that I, an ancient and reactionary Texan and Austinite, might have slightly misstated the last proposition, but it is at least consistent with what I have long understood to be the general feeling among people involved in both sides of the Austin rail wars. No?

[garlandwscott]

I think it would be great if Austin has a large aquarium like Nashville or Memphis.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by garlandwscott

I think it would be great if Austin has a large aquarium like Nashville or Memphis.

Nice..... AND, get the planetarium built!

[the Genral]

1) Observation Tower like the Space Needle, revolving restaurant
2) One block near Convention Ctr dedicated as a Towne Ctr with a huge fountain and sculptures
3) Large Aquarium
4) Replace train bridge over LBL
5) lighted fishing piers along LBL
6) New stadium DT for the Austin Toros.
7) Large exploitive Welcome to Austin signs on I35
8) Light it UP! down by the river along the trails and across the bridges DT.
Make it safe and inviting for our guests to take a stroll along the lake after a long day and night of eating and entertainment. Encourage world class artists to construct interesting sculptures and statues along the jogging paths and light them up too.
9) Build the riverwalk
10) Build the Planeterium
11) Expand the Mexican Heritage Ctr, and add a Mexican market with food and goods and festivals.
12) Build an Austin themed music Hall of Fame / museum / venue to help justify the Music Cap. of the world bragging we do and for God's sake lighten up the decible restrictions DT and create more inexpensive lodging for low income touring bands, what are they called...hostels?

Just a thought, wouldn't the W look cooler if they transitioned the hotel and condo floors by seperating them with an open space, like 20 foot columns supporting the upper condos where you could see through the building? Too late, they should have asked me sooner.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by garlandwscott

I think it would be great if Austin has a large aquarium like Nashville or Memphis.

There aren't many aquariums devoted to freshwater biotopes. I think an all-natural overview of every major and semi-major freshwater biotope would be unique and a major draw for aquarists and cichlidophiles. You could get someone like Takashi Amano involved...

[M1EK]

Originally Posted by Austinite

Why? Because I thought there was a consensus of opinion among those who are (unlike me) knowledgeable about this issue that most of the people who would use an urban rail system in Austin would be pedestrians, cyclists, bus riders, or recreational passengers. Similarly, I thought there was consensus that the kinds of rail systems that would actually reduce cars and pollution to a non-negligible extent would be commuter rail lines that move workers from the suburbs to downtown (like the Orange Line from northern VA to DC or the LIRR): a pale, sad, predictably-disastrous simulacrum of which we have here now. Accordingly, I thought there was agreement that the purpose of urban rail in Austin was to make carpetbagging yankees (and their offspring) feel less embarrassed about living in Texas. I admit that I, an ancient and reactionary Texan and Austinite, might have slightly misstated the last proposition, but it is at least consistent with what I have long understood to be the general feeling among people involved in both sides of the Austin rail wars. No?

Thanks, Rush.

The point is that light rail can bring a ton more people into downtown than the road lane it would replace - in a way that buses never can and never will (we'll never have Manhattan-like parking prices, which is what it would take to get Joe Driver to ride the bus).

This may not relieve congestion as previously-discouraged-or-time-displaced-drivers will quickly fill the gaps (highways in any healthy urban area always settle on 'congested' no matter what), but it will increase capacity into/out of downtown.

[arbeiter]

I think that Austin needs to be more aggressive in offering density bonuses, but not just in the downtown core. It needs to work harder to create what we've already seen on Guadalupe at 31st and the Triangle, and on South Lamar before Barton Springs, etc. We need to see that ALL OVER the city, just like in Seattle and Portland - buildings of that caliber are built 100+ blocks from downtown in Seattle, for example.

Given how monumental of a failure "MetroRail" was, I think the best focus for now is a fairly extended streetcar system first, then maybe light rail later. We shouldn't be comparing ourselves to the McKinney Street Trolley or something like that - Austin does have a lot of central area residents who would take a train if it were going down Guadalupe or Lavaca or 15th street or Cesar Chavez etc. I think we would get decent ridership numbers and it would make up for what positivity was eroded by the MetroRail debacle.

Constructing the Waller Creek riverwalk might be nice.

The Muny golf course should absolutely be redeveloped into a park (we have enough pre-war golf courses eating up valuable space in the central core) and I fully support UT redeveloping the Lake Austin waterfront. Even if it is built in that ugly neo-neo-Spanish-revival style that has cartoonified the main campus, it would still be appropriately urban. UT is the main reason Austin isn't as spread out as Oklahoma City or Lubbock.

Also, Austin's museums suck. Something has to be done about that!

[Austinite]

Originally Posted by M1EK

Thanks, Rush.

The point is that light rail can bring a ton more people into downtown than the road lane it would replace - in a way that buses never can and never will (we'll never have Manhattan-like parking prices, which is what it would take to get Joe Driver to ride the bus).

This may not relieve congestion as previously-discouraged-or-time-displaced-drivers will quickly fill the gaps (highways in any healthy urban area always settle on 'congested' no matter what), but it will increase capacity into/out of downtown.

So you completely agree with me. Cool.