So is $400-$500k the "new" cheap in Austin and other places?

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by jobert

There is a crushed granite jogging trail throughout the neighborhood mentioned(like the one at Arbor Trails).

So you don't like any of the following?

Austin's Pizza
Green Mesquite,
Cartwright's BBQ,
Amy's Ice Cream,
Haiku,
Chi,
Mama Fu's

The offerings have gotten better since this place opened. The top three mentioned are the latest to open (all within the last year), and all three are local businesses. There is another local greek cafe they opened at the Grove within the last month, although the name escapes me at the moment. It's a nice trend they are establishing. The chains were the anchors, and now local businesses are infilling.

I like Amy's but that's about it. We tried walking from the food area to Rooms to go last year and there wasn't a way to do it on sidewalks or trails. We had to walk across a very long expanse of parking lot -unfortunately nowadays some drivers are so preoccupied with yakking on cells, texting, etc. that I don't like having to walk in traffic like that.

[achtungpv]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

I like Amy's but that's about it. We tried walking from the food area to Rooms to go last year and there wasn't a way to do it on sidewalks or trails. We had to walk across a very long expanse of parking lot -unfortunately nowadays some drivers are so preoccupied with yakking on cells, texting, etc. that I don't like having to walk in traffic like that.

Yeah, Southpark Meadows is the definition of bad traffic flow planning. The drives throughout the entire center are horribly designed. Intersections don't match up so many drivers turn down the wrong way, 5-way intersections at odd angles so it is difficult to see all the lanes, no significant pedestrians paths to get you from A to B. The developer should have really spent some money getting some planners involved. Once it is completely built out the traffic in there will probably lead to its demise since people won't want to deal with the hassle.

[jobert]

The traffic is not horrible - it's no worse than Sunset Valley, or any other shopping center.
Is there anything else that's wrong with Southpark? I'm curious to get an outsider's perspective. I use it so much, that I must be oblivious. All the negative comments are coming from people who don't live anywhere near Southpark - many of them living west of Mopac... why would they have nothing nice to say about this place?

Anyone in the immediate area care to comment?

[jobert]

No more comments? I passed on the link to this thread to Endeavor Real Estate and Inland Property Management with explanation. I think it's nice for people (even outside the community) to give feed back, so that Southpark can examine some of these suggestions more in depth.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by jobert

The traffic is not horrible - it's no worse than Sunset Valley, or any other shopping center.
Is there anything else that's wrong with Southpark? I'm curious to get an outsider's perspective. I use it so much, that I must be oblivious. All the negative comments are coming from people who don't live anywhere near Southpark - many of them living west of Mopac... why would they have nothing nice to say about this place?

Anyone in the immediate area care to comment?

You are just being silly with this, Jobert. I was simply commenting on the "walkability" of it because that's what the discussion was about. It's a fine outdoor strip mall, much the way Sunset Valley is. Sunset Valley, if you take the entire sprawly thing, isn't particularly walkable either, but we weren't talking about Sunset Valley and nobody put forth the idea that the little subdivision sitting behind Sunset Valley was in a walkable neighborhood. If someone did, I would have responded the same way. It doesn't matter what side of Mopac I live on, neither of them are particularly walkable.

[jobert]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

You are just being silly with this, Jobert.

I agree, and I'm getting way off-topic. Where's the moderator when you need them?

[centralaustinite]

I like Southparks Meadows just fine! (and I live east of Mopac and just one block west of I-35) It is just not designed for walking! As others have pointed out, it is barely designed for driving! Awkward internal roads and routes. Even if you drive to Southpark itself, very few people walk from one part to another part because it is designed so poorly. Folks drive from store to store within the center which tells me that although it is has good proximity to residential areas, it is not a walkable area. The comparison with Sunset Valley is spot on! A more walkable (but far from perfect) development would be the Triangle. Neither Sunset Valley not Southpark Meadows were designed for walkers to access the center or to move about within it.

[TexasHorseLady]

Exactly. The mention of Far West above references a much more walkable neighborhood. Heck, even Barton Hills, off South Lamar, is more walkable (I know, I used to do it regularly when there were fewer options readily available than there are now, and could get most everything I needed on a daily basis done on foot if I was so inclined, and it's improved since then).

Nothing wrong with SouthPark Meadows (except that I remember what it used to be that was SO much more awesome than a shopping center) or Sunset Valley or any of the other shopping centers like that. I shop in them often. (And, by the way, I don't live west of Mopac and haven't in about a quarter of a century.) They're just not designed for walkability, don't intend to be in the first place, and that was the topic of discussion.

I do hold that most people who are looking for walkability, in my experience, aren't generally looking for big box stores, but something more like what's found at Far West or SoCo or South Lamar or places like that, and if they are looking for chain stores and restaurants, they can get those in the suburbs just as easily (and they can be walked to just as easily from neighborhoods as nearby as the ones to SouthPark Meadows, come to that).