Austin's future development plans - right here.

[orngkat]

Why is it that a racetrack project or toll roads can be built in just a couple of years but talk of anything else that might improve quality of life (ex. mass transit) takes decades and multiple studies? Private money? So frustrating...

[jb9152]

Originally Posted by orngkat

Why is it that a racetrack project or toll roads can be built in just a couple of years but talk of anything else that might improve quality of life (ex. mass transit) takes decades and multiple studies? Private money? So frustrating...

You hit it right on the head. Federal $ comes with enormous strings. The regulatory overhead and burden is huge.

Plus, when you're using public money, whether it be federal, state, or local, people tend to have strong opinions about it. A private developer makes a decision to build something, goes and gets the necessary land and permits, etc., and builds. A public agency (such as the kind that would provide mass transit) can't spend much money on anything without a lengthy approval process that involves public input and the support of elected officials (who in turn are representing their constituents, who often have strong feelings one way or the other).

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by orngkat

Why is it that a racetrack project or toll roads can be built in just a couple of years but talk of anything else that might improve quality of life (ex. mass transit) takes decades and multiple studies? Private money? So frustrating...

Too many stake holders given a voice. In the era of Robert Moses, vast swaths of a city could be mowed under overnight for a project. It's a two edged sword...Robert Moses mostly used it for ill. But if the right person is in charge amazing things can happen.

The truth is when Austin is finally ready for mass transit there won't be any more debate. It will be so apparent everyone will be on board. Austin is in a tweener phase, neither fish nor foul. The pains of being a big city are starting to be felt, but the public's pain threshold hasn't been reached yet. Give it 20 years (10 years if price of gas doubles) and everyone will be on board - it can happen fast at that point.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by hound 109

- The hipness of soco was a govt. project?

- The development of downtown over the past 10 years were govt. projects?

- Your point about Waller Creek is a good one. I have no problem with City council creating (building) cool stuff with their money. (parks, bike trails, turning a flood zone into a rec area, turning a power plant into something neat, etc, etc.) The got to spend it somewhere, & better for these than other grafty type pet projects.

Yes, the City of Austin has spent millions of tax payers dollars on beautification and improvement projects that widened sidewalks and made SOCO, North Congress Avenue and Sixth Street more pedestrian friendly and more accommodating; and created the entire Second Street district while removing old dilapidated warehouses. Those pioneering projects lead the way by building the infrastructure and improving the environment downtown, which encouraged developers to build condo's and apartments, new office buildings, many housing high tech workers, the W Hotel and Austin City Limits all around the new City Hall and elsewhere downtown.

The City has also decomissioned the Green Water Treatment Plant and the Austin power plant and so that property is available for development into a new public library, apartments and other development projects still being planned to anchor the West End of Second Street. The City built the Convention Center to anchor the East end of Second Street and they widened all of the sidewalks in between to convert it into a pedestrian friendly mall, which is still undergoing development. All of this at the taxpayers expense.

BTW, when you say that "high tech workers live north & spend all their money downtown"....I definitely don't agree.

Where do you think all of those people come from that fill the streets downtown on weekends and during festivals. They certainly don't all live downtown.

- But "mass transit" won't revitalize Downtown, it's already thriving (because of private enterprise, not govt.). The trails & waller creek re-do are good additions which won't screw up a good thing, so no problem.

I don't know why you think downtown needs to be revitalized, that has already been done, largely stimulated by government spending on public works projects to encourage the development that has taken place there. Public works paid for by property taxes.

But none of this has anything to do with my point of forcing real estate developers to pay for the infrastructure needs & paying for the problems caused by the folks that they bringing in. It's common sense.

Real estate developers already pay huge fees for additional infrastructure to support their developments, in addition to building most of it in the subdivisions, shopping centers and office parks that are constructed.

My comments in blue.