'Austin, Texas – Growing Pains' on NPR's "State of Re:Union" (Howe: city hall, neighborhoods)

[ImOnFiya]

Listening to the show was informative. A broad overview of many of the faultline issues affecting a fast-growing city like Austin. However, it seemed a little bit of a 'whitewash' (no pun intended) of the economic and social issues that are occurring.

[I think the producers and host should have mentioned the (very thinly veiled) class and racial arguments many RG4N protesters made against the Northcross Wal-Mart; economic sustainability with affordable housing; gentrification; the work of Susana Almanza and PODER; and the increasingly 'troubling' reaction to Texas Relays.]

Give it a listen.

Austin, Texas – Growing Pains

What do You think ?

[electricninja]

Ironically you achieve affordable housing much faster when you stop trying to force engineer affordable housing.

[orngkat]

Hmmm. I will give it a listen but just have to say I am one of those who opposed the Northcross Walmart and joined RG4N. It had nothing to do with who might end up shopping there but more why the heck do we need a Walmart? I have been in the store and am still scratching my head about why they were so adamant about putting one in that location. The few times I have been in the store to look around, it has been painfully empty.

[ImOnFiya]

Then you know what RG4N was not talking about the 'death' of small business in the area (as many of those people still are customers of the NE Austin Wal-Mart). The political fitchforks didn't come to Austin City Hall (literally) for nothing. Those old white people were about to start a revolution - and it wasn't over paper towels!

[capcat]

Originally Posted by ImOnFiya

Then you know what RG4N was not talking about the 'death' of small business in the area (as many of those people still are customers of the NE Austin Wal-Mart). The political fitchforks didn't come to Austin City Hall (literally) for nothing. Those old white people were about to start a revolution - and it wasn't over paper towels!

I thought it was a group of young, purely anti-Walmart residents who would have been fine with a Target or Costco, just not a Walmart. The result of their work left the community with a store that is too small.

That immediate area once had several places like Walmart. Gulf-Mart and Kroger, to name two. I'm thinking the older residents ("old white people", as you call them) would remember and welcome the return of shopping to the area.

I must say, the staff at the Northcross Walmart is the most helpful I've seen at any store in Austin, including small, locally-owned and operated places. Small as it is, it's worth a stop.

[JohninAustin]

The original Wal-Mart design was awesome. It was urban, had a parking garage, and a much better designed bigger store. Why people had to decide THEY knew what's best for the community is puzzling. People like "orngkat" seem to think they somehow "owned" the land themselves and tell everybody what is good for them.

[atxcio]

That Northcross Walmart is strange. When I went there for the first time, I thought to myself... could Walmart actually be punishing the neighborhood on purpose?

There are some things that are very obvious results of the agreement with the neighborhood. A few of the trees in the parking lot are much bigger (really just taller) than what Walmart would typically put in. And the facade of the building is ever so slightly different than a regular walmart. But it's obviously just a very superficial touch to essentially the typical tilt-wall style box they always use.

When you get inside, although the square footage is smaller... it "feels" like a huge big box store, even a warehouse store like a Sam's. The walls are gray and make it seem dark and cavernous. Yet you won't find everything you would typically find at a Walmart. They have the full crappy walmart grocery, which the neighborhood doesn't need -- there are 2 HEBs nearby with better stuff and similar prices. And they don't have a garden department, which the neighborhood might actually use.

Bottom line, I don't think it came out well. It doesn't feel smaller, it doesn't feel any more upscale, the parking lot and buliding is a pig with lipstick. I guess traffic around it isn't as bad as it could be. And it's not like what was there before was much better.

[orbius]

The point was the original Walmart design was a 'destination' store that was designed to draw people into the store from a wide radius despite the area not having the infrastructure to support it. This would have meant disruptions to the neighborhood and ridiculous amounts of traffic.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by JohninAustin

The original Wal-Mart design was awesome. It was urban, had a parking garage, and a much better designed bigger store. Why people had to decide THEY knew what's best for the community is puzzling. People like "orngkat" seem to think they somehow "owned" the land themselves and tell everybody what is good for them.

Ummm, maybe because they live in the community?

I find it puzzling (and somewhat horrifying, frankly) that the very idea that people who live in a community might think, and say, that they might have a better idea of what's best for that community that corporate interests who are not only not in the community but not even headquartered in the same state is puzzling to anyone.

By the way, there's plenty of shopping still available in the area. A lot of it local. Big Box stores are not the only shopping possibilities in the world.

[capcat]

But, the people who didn't want a Walmart share neighborhoods with the people who did. In fact, quite a few people in the area wanted it.