This may sound silly, but does Austin "feel" like a big city? (Houston: appointed, crime)

[brattpowered]

Originally Posted by jread

I don't know what the person who said that downtown is "underutilized" is referring to, as I think Austin's downtown is extremely busy and thriving.

Read my response explaining this (#22).

[utazo]

Originally Posted by gimme it

We are currently in NYC and my husband would prefer us relocating to a smaller city with 150,000 or less people. I was telling him that every place can feel small no matter how big it is. Even in NYC, we are in Greenwich Village and it feels like a small town. His concerns are the hassles of urban living such as traffic congestion, crowds, high prices,etc. I'm trying to convince him to check out Austin.

as for congestion, austin is just as big as any other big city i ever lived in. as for culture (theatre, ballet, opera.....), it is still a small town. folks are still very nice, but you can feel the effect of population growth. driving around here 10-15 years ago other drivers were nice and courteous. not so much anymore.
you could consider new braunfels (about halfway between san antonio and austin) or, if you plan on retiring, a small town in the hill country area.

good luck!

[atxcio]

Indianapolis looks nice enough, but I think the Austin skyline already looks better (forget about 2010)... also, according to emporis the tallest building in Indy is 49 floors, not 60. And although it's taller than anything Austin has right now, it's the only 40+ story building in the city, and no talls have been built since 1990.

Austin has a 44 story topped out, a 43 topping out this year, and a 56 topping out next year. In addition, 4 30+ story towers are under construction for completion by 2010.

"Proposed" gets even more crazy. 1 60+ story tower, 2 40+ story towers and 6 30+ story towers are in the works. I'm sure these won't all get built, but if even some of them do... we're going to run out of downtown blocks soon.

[love roses]

And you talk about suburban sprawl

[scongress1234]

Originally Posted by car957

Not going to happen. The neighborhoods won't allow it and as much as the Downtown Commission wants it, State Law requires compliance with the Capital Viewing Corridor. Comparing Austin to Indianapolis is about as valid as comparing Texas to Norway.

Pontificate all you want. City Council's goal in the late 90s and early 2000s was to increase the population by 25K downtown. The neighborhoods accepted this so long as the development was downtown. Some spill over will occur. But to think we will have high rises South of Riverside and West of I-35 is silly. Anyone remember the "Gotham" project? It was a 30 story high rise just South of the River. The neighborhood association killed it because of the Capital View Corridor provisions.

I agree with the TexasHorseLady in that we are changing and I wish we remained as a smaller city 20-30 years ago. Unfortunately, change is happening but at least we have some influence as to how our city will look for the next 30 years.

Old South Austin Guy

I think you misunderstand me....I hope to God they don't build up/out per high rise corridors.....I've been there/done that with Chicago and Indy, and it ruins the ambience everytime. Just like Stalinist Russia, masses of slabs of marble and concrete render sterile environments, re my comment about them being generic high-rise equivalents of big-box stores. Personally, I think there is a bunch of confusion as to where Austin's "look" is headed the next 5-10 years. They have built a city of mega-apartment complexes NW since '90. I don't think they can screw up THAT bad with south congress/lamar/riverside, and lets hope the capitol view corridor holds. That can be overridden with city councils permission, so keep a tight watch on the council minutes/meetings.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by scongress1234

I think you misunderstand me....I hope to God they don't build up/out per high rise corridors.....I've been there/done that with Chicago and Indy, and it ruins the ambience everytime. Just like Stalinist Russia, masses of slabs of marble and concrete render sterile environments, re my comment about them being generic high-rise equivalents of big-box stores. Personally, I think there is a bunch of confusion as to where Austin's "look" is headed the next 5-10 years. They have built a city of mega-apartment complexes NW since '90. I don't think they can screw up THAT bad with south congress/lamar/riverside, and lets hope the capitol view corridor holds. That can be overridden with city councils permission, so keep a tight watch on the council minutes/meetings.

The thing is to get rail and public transportation you have to have density which means high rises. Mega apartment complexes are good as they are very dense.

[twange]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Indianapolis looks nice enough, but I think the Austin skyline already looks better (forget about 2010)...

I agree with this. I think Austin's projected skyline looks very beautiful, and modern. But I do wish that they would build the occasional building in a traditional style. I like modern architecture but I think it can start to look a bit repetitive(i.e. glassy, geometric, phallic etc... I hope that the new library takes this into consideration.

I do agree though that too much high-rise will bland-ify the city if it isn't well considered. Actually there are many condos planned that aren't "towers". Hopefully condo and apartment buildings lower than 10 floors will be the meat and potatoes of the downtown urban neighborhoods. If you're familiar with Manhattan, the Downtown part of the city between 14th St. and the Financial District has many lower rise buildings(by NYC standards ). IMHO, this part of the city has the most interesting neighborhoods(Greenwich Village, East Village, NoHo, Nolita, Lower East Side, Chinatown etc...) You can have both.

Keep the major development downtown and vertical, not in the Hill Country or other older, historic neighborhoods.

Oh, and yea - PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by austifornian

Here's what you do Goldilocks,

Take him to Houston (pop. 5M) for two days (ooohhh! this city is too big!)
Take him to Bryan/College Station (pop. 150K) for two days (ooohhh! this city is too small!)
Take him to Austin (pop. 1.5M) for 5 days, (ooohh! this city is...)

You might as well go up Highway 6 to Waco instead of turning around just to get to Austin. That might make him reconsider small towns.

[Amryl]

School Teacher living in New York City.....Need info on Ellenwood Ga. Thinking about relocating there. What are the crime stats like? ......Average home prices, school system and proximity to downtown Alanta. Thanks,
NYC Teacher

[artsyguy]

Austin doesn't really feel big except for the terrible traffic.