Simple Truths About Austin (Center: 2014, neighborhood, to buy)

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by hooky hornstein

50 mph.

Folks up around Leander, Cedar Park and the Avery Ranch part of the Parmer corridor, love to drive 50. If the speed limit is 35, they go 50. And if the speed limit is 65, they go 50.

Yep...although I swear they are being trained to make 42mph the default speed limit...same on Parmer, same on the residential neighborhood twisty narrow streets

...and they won't DARE pass a bus or construction truck, no matter the speed!!!

[10scoachrick]

As long as you bring up shopping centers, was there EVER a time that Burnett Rd looked nice? Same for north North Lamar...what a hodgepodge of miss-matched buildings, parking lots, driveways...for MILES. I know the Violet Crown Center was early early; but apparently there were no codes or even any sense of proportion/style/ingress/egress when those later shopping areas were developed. Wow!!

[hooky hornstein]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

As long as you bring up shopping centers, was there EVER a time that Burnett Rd looked nice? Same for north North Lamar...what a hodgepodge of miss-matched buildings, parking lots, driveways...for MILES. I know the Violet Crown Center was early early; but apparently there were no codes or even any sense of proportion/style/ingress/egress when those later shopping areas were developed. Wow!!

No. I can't ever recall a time when Burnet Road or North Lamar looked... nice. In fact, I remember when some of the businesses had gravel parking lots. In fact, there used to be a junkyard on the west side of Burnet at Ohlen, and a whole string of junkyards along the west side of North Lamar just north of Rundberg.

Not pretty.

I think what happened is that once upon a time, in the first part of the 20th century, these were like little state highways in the middle of nowhere running between towns and you had your usual crappy, middle of nowhere businesses. Then in the latter part of the 20th century, the city just kind of rolled out on top of those business but those old businesses refused to go away.

Heck, we even still have billboards along those roads.

Crazy.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by hooky hornstein

No. I can't ever recall a time when Burnet Road or North Lamar looked... nice. In fact, I remember when some of the businesses had gravel parking lots. In fact, there used to be a junkyard on the west side of Burnet at Ohlen, and a whole string of junkyards along the west side of North Lamar just north of Rundberg.

Not pretty.

I think what happened is that once upon a time, in the first part of the 20th century, these were like little state highways in the middle of nowhere running between towns and you had your usual crappy, middle of nowhere businesses. Then in the latter part of the 20th century, the city just kind of rolled out on top of those business but those old businesses refused to go away.

Heck, we even still have billboards along those roads.

Crazy.

Yeah, parts of Burnet weren't annexed until the 60s, and parts of N Lamar not until the 70s, 80s, or later.

https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/de..._by_Decade.pdf

[scm53]

Originally Posted by hooky hornstein

No. I can't ever recall a time when Burnet Road or North Lamar looked... nice. In fact, I remember when some of the businesses had gravel parking lots. In fact, there used to be a junkyard on the west side of Burnet at Ohlen, and a whole string of junkyards along the west side of North Lamar just north of Rundberg.

S Lamar was/is the same way, from Barton Springs Rd to Ben White. Look at all the junky auto repair shops that surrounded the Broken Spoke -- all wiped away for hip mid-rise apts.

[Gunion Powder]

Originally Posted by cBach

Yep, corn is authentic. There's some on here that have more white bread tastes, and trying to enforce that flour tortillas are the way to go when history suggests otherwise.

I'm rather black and I prefer flour tortillas. I also love tripas and like my barbacoa equal parts meat and fat. "White bread tastes" is not the term you could use with me, sir.

[Gunion Powder]

Originally Posted by cBach

I don't judge you. White bread =/= WHITE. White bread refers to a preference for "plain" things. Vanilla may have been more PC to you.

So I'll change to "vanilla" tastes. And there's nothing wrong with having that.

Also, have a chill pill dude. This is a "light hearted thread". I don't have anything against people that like white flour. My humor is quite dry and many don't detect it. I could care less what kind of tortilla you like. Actually, order those flour tortillas so I get my corn tortillas in the restaurant and don't have to wait on them.

So my question is when did wheat become more vanilla than maize?

Originally Posted by opalminor

Not every place in the world HAS to have 100% racial or cultural 'diversity'. Unless peons want to live in a world where that is forced.?) So what if a town is majority white.? Why is that a bad thing and why do whites always feel guilty about that..? Some cities are majority white, many are majority black, some are majority Hispanic, and so on. So what. News flash- different cities are different and have different mixes/ratios of cultures. Contrary to popular belief, white is a 'culture' too. No need to bash whites or feel guilty if they happen to be the majority. There's plenty of other cities you can go to if you want a non-white majority city. And if someone wants cultural diversity, there's plenty of it in Austin anyway....

Maybe, but there's much more of it in other parts of Texas. I'm sure that was that poster's point.

[hooky hornstein]

I just remembered another fun Austin fact.

In the summer of 1973 when I was about to go into the 6th grade, Austin was apparently hit with a court ordered mandate to do a much better job of desegregating schools immediately. So their quick fix was to bus all the 6th graders in Austin to designated Sixth Grade Centers some miles from their homes.

I got sent to Walter Prescott Webb Junior High on St Johns near I-35.

Every morning about 30 buses would roll up to Webb and disembark hundreds of kids from all over the city.

Since the plan was put into effect late in the summer, there wasn't a lot of structure or authority. Just a lot of chaos. We were off the leash and running amok.

Imagine Escape from New York but with bright eyed, impish, little 11 year-olds.

It was one of the best years of my childhood.

[hooky hornstein]

Originally Posted by mega man

I'm rather black and...

Hey Mega Man. Can you help me understand the apparent disdain for Austin’s relative lack of ethnicity diversity that I see on these forums?

I am not African-American so if an African-American says Austin is a lousy place for African-Americans to live, who am I to argue?

But I am a little surprised because the Austin I know has always been a pretty laid back and accepting place, with an "I'm okay, you're okay" kind of attitude.

I could cite many examples from the 1960s to the present of quite ethnically diverse neighborhoods and seemingly totally accepted mix-race couples.

Growing up like that, I just assumed it was like that everywhere, so I was really surprised as an adult when I came across other cities and towns where white folks and black folks apparently don’t even nod howdy to one another.

And it seems like, instead of just raw general population numbers, a lot of one’s society in life would probably depend more on what a person likes, and what a person does. Not to stereotype any particular activities as being more predominantly this than that, but throughout the course of any week, my family and I are involved in activities that seem to be enjoyed by groups that include a much greater percentage of African-Americans than just the overall 9% Austin has.

What am I missing?

[hooky hornstein]

38.39 inches

That's how much rain we have gotten in six months this year.

Longtime residents love to act unimpressed, weather people predict it will all stop and the LCRA people will always say we need more, but that's a lot of rain.

On annual average is only about 33.38. The most Austin ever got in one year (since people started keeping track in 1856) is 64.68 inches in 1919. In more recent times, rainy years came in 1981 (45.73), 1991 and 1992 (52.21 and 46.05 respectively), 2004 (52.27) and 2007 (46.95).

But if pace means anything at all, it should be noted that we are on pace to shatter most if not all of those amounts.

In the first six months of each of those years, Austin got 29.91 in 1919, 29.96 in 1981, 25.51 in 1991, 30.66 in 1992, 27.74 in 2004, and 27.68 in 2007. Our 38.39 is well more than all of those.

On average for those six high volume rainfall years I just mentioned, it rained 80% as much in the second half of the year as it rained in the first half of the year. If the average holds true this year, it will put the rainfall at 69.22 inches. A new record, surpassing all annual rainfalls for the past 160 years.

Then again, if Austin only gets half as much in the second half of the year as it did in the first half (like what happened in 1992), that will still put the 2015 annual rainfall at 57.66, the highest since 1919 and second-highest on record.

Of course, it might not rain again. I hope I haven't jinxed it by mentioning this, but we could be in our wettest year ever. We certainly just experienced in our wettest January to June on record.