28 Downtown Blocks to Close During F1 (Austin, El Paso: sales, 2015, apartment)

[riaelise]

Pfft, what a PITA for those of us who have to work downtown. Still don't see how F1 fits in with Austin, but meh....

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

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There comes a point where crowding defeats the entire purpose of drawing people to an area for such things.
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Good point, which sums it up well. On that, I agree.

I haven't attended ACL for several years because it's just so much work getting to and from (though I can walk to a bus stop from where I now live, so we'll be trying that this year), and navigating within the herd of people, heat and dust.

This year wife and I are going Saturday evening only to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse. I can handle a few hours of it, but not several long days.

I think cities are the same. If I lived downtown, I might enjoy the occasional event and not worry about the road closures and inconveniences. Comes with the territory. But I could imagine there being a tipping point. Probably different for each individual. But we all have our tipping points.

People in the 78704 zipcode are experiencing this now, with the commercial parking encroachment blocks into the neighborhoods on a regular basis now. When I lived in Travis Heights early 1990s a few blocks from "old" SoCo, there might be a rare, occasional set of parked cars from the Continental club, extending a block or two into the hood on a Saturday night. No biggie. Now, to many of those inhabitants, SoCo is a complete nuisance, not an amenity of nearby shops. It's well past the tipping point for many.

Same with the Zilker area during big events like ACL. Drive through there and look at the things people have to do with orange cones and cardboard signs, even sitting out in lawn chairs to protect themselves from having their own driveway blocked or taken. Normal people in normal neighborhoods don't have to live this way.

Will downtown experience the same "too much of a good thing?" We'll see. For now, I still like going down there during non-event non-road-closure times.

Steve

[kiacook]

Still don't see how F1 fits in with Austin....

I agree. I missed most of the discussion around the decision to build a track here, because honestly, I didn't think it would ever happen. F1 seems too mismatched for Austin to me. I just don't get how it has anything to do with the Austin laid-back, weird, hippy vibe that I love about this place. It seems pricey and snobbish and more Dallas than anything else.

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Pfft, what a PITA for those of us who have to work downtown. Still don't see how F1 fits in with Austin, but meh....

Originally Posted by kiacook

F1 seems too mismatched for Austin to me. I just don't get how it has anything to do with the Austin laid-back, weird, hippy vibe that I love about this place. It seems pricey and snobbish and more Dallas than anything else.

Yes! Glad to see I'm not the only one who thought this same thing....

[riaelise]

In the words of my native Austinite uncle-in-law: "What the hell is F1?"

One of the things I loved about this city (at least back when I moved here in 2004) was its laid back style and not-so-highbrow attitude. You could make $24,000 or $240,000 in this town, and there wasn't that air of snobbishness. So refreshing coming from New York. Now, it seems like Austin is searching for an identity. Trying to be highbrow while keeping the "hippy/laidback" veneer. All of a sudden, you can't afford to get a good home in a good area for anything less than $200K. Which in itself is a fascade because the median household income in Austin is less than 70K. I'm digressing here, but F1 isn't really an Austin thing. Natives probably gobbled up the tickets for the curiousity/it factor. I've yet to meet anyone (native at least) who was jonesing for F1. I'm surprised that Austin isn't paying the owners of the trailers surrounding the circuit beaucoup money to leave so that they can put up quicky cosmopolitan hotels to cater to the jetsetters. heh

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Komeht

Right, because having cool stuff to do right at your doorstep is SOOO inconvenient.

I have no shortage of cool stuff I can do. But it is not so cool when you need to get in or out of your doorstep for work, appointments, business, but you can't because all of the roads are blocked off. Most of the things people need to do in Austin in order to earn a living, buy groceries, see a doctor, all require that they drive someplace. How do you do that when half of the streets downtown are blocked off?

Sometimes there are more important things to do in life then "cool stuff".

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by kiacook

I agree. I missed most of the discussion around the decision to build a track here, because honestly, I didn't think it would ever happen. F1 seems too mismatched for Austin to me. I just don't get how it has anything to do with the Austin laid-back, weird, hippy vibe that I love about this place. It seems pricey and snobbish and more Dallas than anything else.

And yet Dallas has NASCAR... which most would say is a good fit.

Yeah, pretty amazing that they could actually build it and get all these big series to race here. A place with no racing or automotive history, really. We used to have speedboat races on Town Lake, but that's about it. So it seems like a mismatch in that sense, but then nothing really surprises me anymore about Austin.

BTW, here is Rick Perry talking up the track at the Italian GP... is there really any question they'll get the state money?

Sep 9, 2012 11:05am | Facebook

[BevoLJ]

F1 and Austin are a very silly fit, IMO. They are a better fit than say any major league sports like NFL, MLB, NBA or such. But still when I heard about F1 I was the same, "WFT is F1?" And then "How the heck does that fit with Austin?" lol

The only way it does kinda fit with Austin is that it is a big party scene. It has a major draw in the race, but the parties that take place around the events are the real scene. In that sense it does kinda fit with Austin.

A bike rally in Austin also seems like a kind of unnatural fit, but it works and has been a huge success. And is now very much a part of Austin.

Regarding downtown being crowded, that just seems silly to complain about. It is a downtown. Not the suburbs. If someone doesn't like being around other people or crowds perhaps a downtown environment isn't for them?

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by BevoLJ

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Regarding downtown being crowded, that just seems silly to complain about. It is a downtown. Not the suburbs. If someone doesn't like being around other people or crowds perhaps a downtown environment isn't for them? I mean do people really rather have Austin's downtown more like Houston or Dallas in which the streets are empty?

I don't think anyone expects it to not be crowded. It's just a question of when is enough enough. It is the stated goal of city leaders to create a residential core downtown, where people can live work and play.

Are you saying that street downtown closures, parties, etc. should just be allowed without limit, or do you think there should be some limits?

Steve

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

I don't think anyone expects it to not be crowded. It's just a question of when is enough enough. It is the stated goal of city leaders to create a residential core downtown, where people can live work and play.

Are you saying that street downtown closures, parties, etc. should just be allowed without limit, or do you think there should be some limits?

Steve

I've never heard so much belly achin' over a city having this many great opportunities for its residents in all my life. There are cities that don't have such closures and events - traffic runs smooth as silk in the CBDs. I like to call those cities, Tucson and Tulsa and El Paso and Milwaukee and Fresno.

Yeah, we have to endure the occasional street closure in the CBD. Big deal. We get SXSW. We get Texas Book Festival. We get ACL. We get the Austin Film Festival and Screen Writers Conference. All these events, in addition to being fantastic opportunities for the denizens of Austin, expose our beautiful city with advertising money can't buy and attract interest and business that benefit us all. Now we get to host F1 - an event on the international scale and be in the same group of cities as Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Montreal, Singapore, Istanbul.

Now - would you rather we a city more like Tucson, Tulsa, El Paso, Milwaukee and Fresno? Or more like Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Montreal and Singapore. I know which group I'd rather be in.

Regardless - this is Texas and we should stop moanin' about this thing that is happening, put on our big boy britches have a heckuva good party like I know that we can and have a warm welcome to our guests to show the world how great Austinites are.