Quote:
Originally Posted by IluvATX
I don’t see what the big deal is regarding sidewalks in residential neighborhoods. I used to live in Travis Heights (South Austin) and the walkability was great. You could get downtown in a matter of minutes without sidewalks. Plus a lot of the heritage oaks grow too close to the street to allow for sidewalks. I would prefer greenery over a 4’ wide concrete slab any day.  |
Yep. We have 150 to 300 year old Live Oaks in our neighborhood that are too big to get your arms around. I'd much rather have them than a sidewalk. What's funny is the first house I grew up in was on one of the main north/south corridors in south Austin that actually runs into downtown. That street has sidewalks, but even with them the traffic whizzing by makes it kind of an unpleasant environment. The 2nd house I grew up in did not have sidewalks, but the street, while busy, isn't so busy that you can't walk in the street. I've become so used to it that even in neighborhoods with sidewalks I still opt to walk in the street, just as I did on Halloween. And again, the neighborhood has a lot of old trees close to the street. Not only are they near the street, but because the bedrock is relatively shallow here, the trees tend to lift the ground level. I've seen a lotta busted up sidewalks here where the Oak trees destroyed them. They aren't a problem when you live in a pancake flat place with bedrock that is farther down, but you can hit rock here in less than 2 feet in places.
Anyway, Austin and its residents don't care what people up north think.
Also, let's not pretend there aren't other cities without sidewalks, streetlights or curbs and storm drains. You can throw a dart at a map of the US and find neighborhoods like that all over the place, even in "urban cities" that are doted on as darlings. What's more, that area is relatively the same distance from downtown Pittsburgh as the neighborhoods in Austin cited as examples in this thread, and the ones in Austin have much better connectivity to downtown than this one in Pittsburgh does.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4081...7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4078...7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4076...7i13312!8i6656
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongbad635
You wanna see part of the problem? This is a big part of it. The yellow areas ban all development except single family, detached houses.
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This map is 20 years old. If our skyline is any example of Austin's growth, you can be sure there is more multi-family around today than in this map, which seems to be mislabeling at least some of the multifamily projects here anyway as I know there are more than that just in my neighborhood, and they aren't represented in the map. It's not like Austin doesn't have its fair share of boring, soulless but efficient at cramming people into small quarters apartment complexes. I assure you, we're quite good at it.
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