Austin is slowly dying from heart disease (home, unemployed)

[Uberguber]

The city of Austin is slowly dying of heart disease, and yet we are turning this patient away from the most effective life saving medicine at our disposal.

I-35 is effectively a clogged artery that requires an emergency bypass surgery (swapping it with SH130), but we've decided it's is too much of a hassle, and it would only help about 14%, so instead we've decided to let the patient die. This disease has also spread to Mopac, 360, 290, and 183 andvarious other arteries, and it's a matter of time before Austin's various tissues start to necrotize, and ultimately the patient succumbs.

[TXEX06]

Your username is very fitting.

[CptnRn]

It is all a matter of making responsible decisions. Highway construction cannot keep up with the growth Austin has seen for generation after generation. We can't solve the problem by building more roads. It is absurd and irresponsible to take a job downtown or across town when you live way out in the suburbs.

People living in the Austin metroplex area need to start making responsible home buying decisions and choose to live or move to live closer to where they work. Austin job creators need to stop concentrating their jobs in the central city where doing so requires most of thier employees to commute.

Decentralize job centers into a larger variety of urban and suburban areas, giving employees more choices where they can work and live nearby is the only reasonable and cost effective solution.

Employers will realize benefits in both lower property costs, lower property taxes and more productive employees when they don't have to spend 2-3 hours per day commuting to/from work.

[ppp38]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

It is all a matter of making responsible decisions. Highway construction cannot keep up with the growth Austin has seen for generation after generation. We can't solve the problem by building more roads. It is absurd and irresponsible to take a job downtown or across town when you live way out in the suburbs.

People living in the Austin metroplex area need to start making responsible home buying decisions and choose to live or move to live closer to where they work. Austin job creators need to stop concentrating their jobs in the central city where doing so requires most of thier employees to commute.

Decentralize job centers into a larger variety of urban and suburban areas, giving employees more choices where they can work and live nearby is the only reasonable and cost effective solution.

Employers will realize benefits in both lower property costs, lower property taxes and more productive employees when they don't have to spend 2-3 hours per day commuting to/from work.

I agree with most of your post except for the bold.

If you want to work for the State of Texas, Travis County or City of Austin, you will work downtown- and likely not afford to live in Central Austin. I don't see how its irresponsible to take that job, government workers can't choose their location- its far more irresponsible to unemployed and unable to provide for your family.

[PrimusPilus]

To add to PPP's comments, what if you and your spouse secure jobs in opposite ends of town and what if you can't afford a place midway? Also, what if you lose your job and the only job you can obtain is at the other end of town.

[gpurcell]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

It is all a matter of making responsible decisions. Highway construction cannot keep up with the growth Austin has seen for generation after generation. We can't solve the problem by building more roads.

We can assuredly make the problem much worse than it has to be if we don't invest in infrastructure. Indeed, a lack of that investment is a large part of Austin's current problems.

[ScoPro]

Open a few of the most clogged arteries with angioplasty & stents (more lanes).

Then bypass the worst arteries with grafts - efficient light rail that goes where it's needed (not where it's trendy).

Add a pacemaker (a second business & commercial "downtown") to the east & southeast where there is more room to grow and take pressure off central Austin.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

It is absurd and irresponsible to take a job downtown or across town when you live way out in the suburbs.

It is absurd and irresponsible for the state to have 24,000 employees, the county 1,350, and the city to have over 3,000 - all downtown, all entitled to a free parking space, and all in buildings that contribute not a jot or tittle to the tax base - leaving the burden of providing the roadway infrastructure to support that profligacy to the taxpayers of Austin.

I've seen elsewhere that Austin has one of the highest percentages of the workforce downtown in the nation. Wonder why?

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by scm53

It is absurd and irresponsible for the state to have 24,000 employees, the county 1,350, and the city to have over 3,000 - all downtown, all entitled to a free parking space, and all in buildings that contribute not a jot or tittle to the tax base - leaving the burden of providing the roadway infrastructure to support that profligacy to the taxpayers of Austin.

I've seen elsewhere that Austin has one of the highest percentages of the workforce downtown in the nation. Wonder why?

Even then, it's only in the 20-something percentile. But, yes, the state could have centers around town rather than right there - I've worked for a small state agency that was out by 183/Mopac many years ago and it worked just fine. Even dividing that 24,000 employees up into five different centers (central, north, south, east, west) would make a big difference.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by scm53

It is absurd and irresponsible for the state to have 24,000 employees, the county 1,350, and the city to have over 3,000 - all downtown, all entitled to a free parking space, and all in buildings that contribute not a jot or tittle to the tax base - leaving the burden of providing the roadway infrastructure to support that profligacy to the taxpayers of Austin.

I've seen elsewhere that Austin has one of the highest percentages of the workforce downtown in the nation. Wonder why?

State buildings have ALWAYS been downtown. Why should they be forced out because of the unbridled greed of private companies and rich people who don't want to live anywhere else? Why don't THOSE businesses locate outside of downtown? Obviously, Dell Computers did back in the 90s.