Vast sections of Austin are "fugly" let's not kid ourselves (Houston: lofts, homes)

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by riaelise

And the suburb vs central war commences...�� Waiting For the post with the words strip mall in it...

That depends. If there's an art gallery, Central Market or a yoga, studio leasing space in the strip mall, that makes it okay.

[A-Tex]

Because it makes complete sense to compare a gentrifying formerly light industrial area with a remote suburban master planned community.

[verybadgnome]

Few of the 150 a day coming to Austin have N. Lamar in mind as a reason for moving. Kinda like when I came here in the late 90s where E. Riverside was my first experience, but I did not let it deter me because I had impressions of UT, hill country and Barton Springs in mind too. Riverside only offered awful Chinese food and some place called Gatti's (bleh) claiming they had the best pizza in town.

Lamar Blvd will see better days and others, like Airport Blvd - which is pretty much in the same shape - will too. With all of the changes going on in town I'm okay with some places that are a little more static, even if the charms they offer are few and far between.......And of course N. Lamar south of 183 is not a dangerous place, so there is that.

[COCUE]

Guess I may be odd because I really do not know anyone who moved to a new city because of aesthetics

The regular people that I know, my family included move to new cities for a variety of reasons including jobs, schools, family, cost of living, standard of living, love, health. I have lived in 4 continents and way too many cities (including a quite a few world class ones) to count since childhood and have never met even one person who moved to a place because of how some unknown place looked but stranger things have happened.

For us, deciding to move to Austin had "nada" to do with it's architecture or lack there of but I guess to each his own

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

That part of Lamar has run down alot from what it was 30 years ago. It may not be the prettiest part of Austin, but compared to un pretty sections in other cities, that little stretch of North Lamar is not all that bad. Austin has no ghettos, or slums, not like what you would find in St Louis or Detroit.

[AFD1017]

It's a new generation and you're not from this time zone. Take a drive down South Lamar and look at the City In A Box that envelopes the Broken Spoke. I call it lost heritage. As a native of Austin who is renovating his house for the 3rd time in preparation for my exit, you need to learn how to adapt, recognize the architects are nothing more than finger painters with access to computer aided design with minions dealing with the Building Codes, and suck it up buttercup. That's this generation. Don't understand how development works then no luck in becoming mainstream.

I am 56 years old I will be gone in 2 years and it's not the coast. See me in a moderate size college town in West Texas with its own utility and a Specs Liquor Store. A man needs his priorities and his wife likes it for the acreage for her horse and our other animals.

Austin is now corporate. I don't really know what you want. All I know is the predominance of ex-patriots not from my original time zone are opening so many restaurants and food trucks that I'm thinking the aluminium futures market will collapse when all the food trucks and cooking pans are ground up and smelted into aluminum foil. We're service centric and app centric in Austin that very few folks fail to understand a socket set, own a hammer, but have an app to spend $200 so Fox Service can change a light fixture.

I've watched a lot of experts on this website predict the future. Your not going to do it. If you could, you wouldn't spend it here tell us your issues. Me, it's home but my wife, friend and the most gorgeous woman in the world who told me to do 2 more years making sure buildings are safe and quit working the crowds, liquor and stupidity of ACL and SXSW because they are corporate.

Sorry to be so negative but the fact is, were a Megaopolis. I have a mayor who is like Monty Hall from the television show Lets Make a Deal. Spend some time at the Austin History Center an search "Lee Cooke," "Bruce Todd," and "Kirk Watson." This was all decided this well before you arrived.

[AMJ27]

Originally Posted by MoNative34

People act like older neighborhoods existed since the beginning of time and only new areas are "paved over" and "formerly pristine".... Downtown and central Austin were paved over and formerly pristine, so let's not kid ourselves.

If we had this conversation 50 years ago, the same thing would be said about Crestview and Allandale.

I couldn't agree more!

[Denver303TJC]

I think for me, I wish I would have visited Austin ten years ago, so I could've seen the North Loop, gone up and down Burnet, and spent time chillin' on S Lamar before the recent changes happened. I think I would have liked seeing those parts of town before the lofts starting going up and the hipsters started coming in. While I like Austin now, I dislike it when cities knock down the buildings with character and throw up lofts instead. However, on that note, I like seeing the old and the new next to each other, since it gives a reminder of how times are always changing.

[gabetx]

Originally Posted by cBach

I was driving down Lamar today (south of 183) and around Airport Blvd. While there is little vacancy (i.e. most buildings are being used in some way, shape, or fashion, which is different than a decade ago), I couldn't but think to myself how ugly everything was. Sure, the metro stations look sleek, sure there's a bike path but it's so overgrown that in portions half is covered in weeds. Sure, there are some modern looking apartments. Sure, there is a new P Terry's. But most of the area is hideously ugly. Even along Koenig it is fugly. Lots of old very small houses converted into shops.

Are we like the emperor with no clothes on? Can we not see Austin for what it is? How can 150 people a day be moving in for this?

Sure our downtown looks great, but right outside it looks like crap. I was so glad to come back to Steiner Ranch and the Hill Country. We may be paving it over but it still looks nicer than that crap and at least our buildings are built in the Hill Country style. I can't stand the 1970's era strip mall crap in the area I drove around. Give me the zoning ordinance that sets places like CVS back from the road and forces them to plant copious amounts of trees, force all businesses to use limestone, etc... It really does make a difference.

Some people will say all that doesn't matter, but if your city looks like crap how can you be proud? I want either nature or architecturally pleasing buildings.

These "ugly" areas of Austin look much better than some "nice" areas in many cities. These areas are definitely a hell of a lot better than the "ugly" areas just about anywhere else in the country. There are no "real" ugly or ghetto areas of Austin.

You should get out more.

[TexasPorVida]

Originally Posted by cBach

I was driving down Lamar today (south of 183) and around Airport Blvd. While there is little vacancy (i.e. most buildings are being used in some way, shape, or fashion, which is different than a decade ago), I couldn't but think to myself how ugly everything was. Sure, the metro stations look sleek, sure there's a bike path but it's so overgrown that in portions half is covered in weeds. Sure, there are some modern looking apartments. Sure, there is a new P Terry's. But most of the area is hideously ugly. Even along Koenig it is fugly. Lots of old very small houses converted into shops.

Are we like the emperor with no clothes on? Can we not see Austin for what it is? How can 150 people a day be moving in for this?

Sure our downtown looks great, but right outside it looks like crap. I was so glad to come back to Steiner Ranch and the Hill Country. We may be paving it over but it still looks nicer than that crap and at least our buildings are built in the Hill Country style. I can't stand the 1970's era strip mall crap in the area I drove around. Give me the zoning ordinance that sets places like CVS back from the road and forces them to plant copious amounts of trees, force all businesses to use limestone, etc... It really does make a difference.

Some people will say all that doesn't matter, but if your city looks like crap how can you be proud? I want either nature or architecturally pleasing buildings.

It is posts like this that have me shaking my head and reassure me that these forums are some of the funniest (in a sad way) on the internet.


Please, name a city the size of Austin or larger, that does not have ugly areas. Just one.