Quote:
Originally Posted by Syndic
It makes me sad to see downtown Austin dying a slow death one sterile behemoth of an office building at a time.
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Well said. I've been feeling this a lot in the past few months, especially since returning from a second consecutive summer in the northwest. As Austin's skyline becomes more interesting, its "groundline" is becoming more off-putting, There is a warmth and welcoming feel to older cities where streets are lined with non-stop storefronts that are unbroken by driveways and other dead spaces. The retail spaces offered by these monoliths are cold and generic. What is being razed and phased out of Austin is taking all sense of place and culture with it, only to be replaced by mass-produced concrete and steel boxes that have no relationship to the stores that come to inhabit them. It's a big disconnect, and I'm increasingly feeling like it's time to disconnect from Austin and go hug trees in the NW with my fellow aging hippies.
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