Austin - Harbinger of a green USA, or more of the same? (Houston: apartment complexes, city hall)
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Austin - Harbinger of a green USA, or more of the same?
Austin is THE main future driver in changing our countries attitudes towards energy use, and a complete change in the way that we plan and build cities....here's why:
It is, and has been, the fastest growing large city in the sunbelt, % wise, and close to numerically even, than any city in the fast growing sunbelt region itself. It is expected to continue that growth for at least 5-10 years. The people that are attracted to Austin are majority college educated, and are "Experience orientated", per Richard Florida's studies of the "creative class"
BTW, please check out his website....it is VERY interesting, and has reams of info that you see on city-data about cities, and why some attract, and some die on the vine......
Austin attracts a very intelligent, prized demographic...young, college-educated, experience-orientated, and bitingly creative. More patents
come out of the city of Austin than any other in the USA, and this just numerically. Austin is one of, if not the best, start-up/entrepreneurial
cities in the USA. It is one of the tech capitols of the USA.
Now, my point.....because of the same, Austin is our best hope in changing COMPLETELY our paradigm of how cities are run, and what they mean to us on every level.
The oil age is killing us, and is on its way out. Gas is an average of 4 dollars a gallon in the USA, and projected to go to 5-6 in the next year
or two, maybe more. We cannot maintain our ways and means the old way anymore. We CANNOT sprawl. The high cost of gas is crippling our economy nationwide. The average price a gallon in california is now $4.50 and rising. We must invest in new technology, COMPLETELY change the way we live and move about our cities, and do this now. Austin is the best hope for this new planning and living paradigm for our major cities. It has a unique demographic.....it is flexible, not overly materialistic, not wedded to the corporate machine like the other major cities, along with the other Texas cities, like Houston and Dallas, and is uniquely sized for that change, being mid-sized per metro AND city.
This revolution cannot change overnight. It will take years. But Austin is the best place for this to incubate and spread....california WAS the harbinger of change, in a past time, but has jumped the shark per energy use, and cannot maintain itself if it projects its old paradigm much longer into the future. Austin, and Texas as well, can be that new driver. Yes, it would be ironic, per having all the major energy companies located in the same state, but that's a rich and justified irony. And what better place for this change to come from than "energy rich" Texas?
So, our problem is, we have no strong goals or directions yet in this regard. Look, and look good, at the following documents, chock full of
most every policy the City of Austin has on the boards, from their website(it is fun reading, trust me! And you might learn something!):
Now you are probably informed enough to run for city council yourself!
Bookmark the following website.......city council can hide NOTHING from you if you reference this regularly.....EVERYTHING is recorded on here that
they do, approve, and deny.......
Okay, that being said, WHY has Austin allowed to stray SO far from the special and singular city in all these plans? Do you recognize these pipe dreams as you drive around the city, and see nothing but standard issue sprawl and congestion? What happened to all these initiatives?
The Answer? Developers and their cronies have the entire city council and Mayor in their back pockets, and are and have been de facto running the city, defining the sprawl, and dumping the costs and burdens of the same to the residents and taxpayers of the same....
As long as that scenario maintains itself, Austin will never live up to its potential, and become more and more a Houston or Dallas light. It is largely one now, and is at a point where it will not be able to fulfill the aforementioned potential.
And when that is lost, it is too late..........
We need to turn back those policies NOW.....
We need to get all the usual crooks and nincompoops, who have sold Austin out to the out-of-area developers and national corporate interests,
out of office in the next election......
Time is of the essence....we have the potential to be the harbinger of city change for the nation. We are the only metro uniquely equipped to do the same. No other city has the growth, intelligence, creative class, and concern in the populace that can get it past the same old energy and city planning threshold. Our infrastructure cannot handle the sprawl paradigm anymore. Frankly sprawl is dead....it died about the time we started the second gulf war in 2003, to defend a way of life that is taking us down fast as a nation. Our addiction to oil is finished.....we need a new way, a new paradigm, a new dream.....and Austin can get us there as a nation. We have possibly the greatest change in Washington in memory, with Obama trumping corporate tendrils and interests. There is no better time for change, and Austin can lead us there.......
And, the following tells you about all that went wrong with those dreams....how city hall, the mayor, and the chamber of commerce sold
the city of Austin out to the highest bidder, under the cover of change
and "foreword thinking" - Let's hope it doesn't continue....
haven't read through all the links, but will. this probably explains why austin is called green, and yet after I moved here, I'm shock that recycling isn't required here. At the apartment complexes I've lived/visited, recycling doens't exist, or people just don't care.
I read most of that, except for the links. But just offhand, I think things could have changed, for a start, by NOT reelecting Perry. He's not concerned about anything but money and how he and his buddies can get more of it without actually making a difference in the lives of normal people.
Some communities are springing up around here that are using green building practices exclusively. It's a start. I would also love it if we could have big recycling bins and every type of recyclable would be picked up instead of myself having to take it to the center. I know, kind of lazy but with the price of gas and all.
The cost of gas is being passed on to us in many ways, and food is more expensive because of crops being subsidized for corn production for ethanol. Truckers are protesting, but what choice do they have? They either quit and go into another line of work, or suck it up and cut back elsewhere. I know it's not illegal for these speculators to do what they are doing, but it really needs to be. Laws are meant for being changed if they are bad laws. And, I know this probably won't be acceptable to some, but we really need to amp up drilling and oil production on our own turf. I, for one, am not willing to pay any price (dollar wise) to send our country down the toilet.
I didn't even read the OP - because of the OP, but I am concerned about "being green" as a topic, and not as a buzzword.
Quote:
And, I know this probably won't be acceptable to some, but we really need to amp up drilling and oil production on our own turf.
No, we need to stop being so oil dependant and invest in alternative energy sources. They are all right at our fingertips, and we are being surpassed by other countries in this regard. We look ridiculous.
Let the markets work. Oil is still too cheap. When oil's too expensive, you'll see the market produce some very clever solutions very quickly. None of it, however, can be mandated by government. Governments succeed only in making things worse.
I didn't read all the links..but I think all the "Green" is more talk than action.
Yeah there's a few new building restrictions/codes either on the books or in process for Austin, but if you look around.."being green" is not really practiced.
You do have a good point Jenbar. Did you see 60 minutes this weekend? There was a story about this and one of the men they were interviewing said this would be the perfect opportunity to explore alternatives. I'm not against alternatives either, but I wish they would work quicker. My husband told me that they are now making or have plans for making a hybrid 18 wheeler.
haven't read through all the links, but will. this probably explains why austin is called green, and yet after I moved here, I'm shock that recycling isn't required here. At the apartment complexes I've lived/visited, recycling doens't exist, or people just don't care.
Thanks for the links...will read them shortly.
This is so great! Someone wants to read these links! YESSSSSS!
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