it's not just scongress1234, Austin traffic really IS bad! :) (Georgetown: how much, house)

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by Mike78613

recommending to have HOV would be wonderful!!

But I am sure they rather slap a toll-booth here instead...

oh yes....but why implement a low cost option that works when TxDOT can actually make money to fund its bureacrocracy instead???

[TexasHorseLady]

I'm not on pins and needles waiting for the new Land Rover dealership or Neimans to open up. I'm all about economic health...Austin in the late '80s was a scary place....but I think that our growth has been uncontrolled and unplanned.

I've been here for closing on 40 years. I don't think the traffic is all that bad - and after coming to city-data, I've been looking for all this bad traffic that I keep hearing about, and I'm still not finding it. (Got caught in a traffic slowdown in Oak Hill today around noon, made me all of ten minutes late - took me just over an hour to drive from Jarrell to Sawyer Ranch, instead of the hour I was anticipating. For those who don't know, Jarrell is 15 miles north of Georgetown, which is 40 miles - per the traffic signs - from Austin.)

However, I agree with the statement above. "Vibrant growth" does NOT, to me, equal "more shopping opportunities". To me, that's the very antithesis of vibrancy - if anything, it makes a city LESS vibrant the more shopping opportunities of the same old same old kind come to town.

[jwb123]

How did we get talking about "shopping opportunities"?? Who said anything about shopping, or that growth = shopping????

[jwb123]

I CAN say that Austin traffic is bad- it's bad to me. It's like the weather. It was 100* yesterday. I ran, worked in the yard and ate outside. It wasn't hot to me. I'm sure someone else thought it was hot. If someone posts here: 'Austin is TOO hot'....what gives ME the right to say 'NO it isn't! It was 110* in Phoenix (was it??) today, now THAT's hot!!!'. It's my perception and theirs, neither is right and neither is wrong.

When I say "you" - I mean it in the general sense, not specifically YOU. Grammatically, I suppose I should have said "one". My apologies.

[TexasHorseLady]

Jenbar, read the quote above my comment, regarding "latest Land Rover dealership or Neiman's". There IS an attitude that a city has to have those kinds of shopping opportunities or it isn't "vibrant", that is expressed on this board (and elsewhere), and I'm assuming that that's what was referred to in the comment I quoted.

Of course, we all know about assuming . . .

[jwb123]

So, to be clear, when I use the term "vibrant" I am NOT talking about shopping. Or spending. Or consumerism in any way.

I mean active, busy, productive, happy, diverse people, economy, members of society - the opposite of a stagnant, broken community.

[mimimomx3]

Well, I thought long and hard about what positives the wild growth we've had in Austin has given us, and I came up with...more shopping. DH and I live in a neighborhood that's been around for 50 years, work in companies that have been around nearly that long....I guess I'm drawing a blank at what good stuff has come to Austin with growth. Bad stuff I can come up with (increased property value/taxes, traffic, congestion, local businesses being priced out due to big boxes, overcrowding...) Not trying to be negative, really trying to pe positive.

[TexasHorseLady]

But you can have active, busy, productive, happy, diverse people, members of society, in a small town, as well, and in a medium-sized one. Those characteristics are not restricted to large cities, by any means.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by Jenbar

So, to be clear, when I use the term "vibrant" I am NOT talking about shopping. Or spending. Or consumerism in any way.

I mean active, busy, productive, happy, diverse people, economy, members of society - the opposite of a stagnant, broken community.

When you talk about being productive and the economy, you are by definition talking about consumerism by definition.
Austin was hardly stagnant and broken before the 90s. Hardly.

[jwb123]

I never said it was????? Wow.

You added more to your post

When you talk about being productive and the economy, you are by definition talking about consumerism by definition.

Not specifically no. Not with YOUR meaning, of needing Neiman's and Land Rover dealerships... but to have a productive community, unless we are going to live in 100% personal sustainability - then yes, the businesses, including local, need to be in stable conditions. You can have a healthy economy, without over-dosing on consumerism.

But, productive people - to me, has nothing to do with consumerism. You can have an active cultural and arts area of a community - and that's being productive. Getting things done in local government, that's being productive. A community organization providing services to it's community - that's being productive.

consumerism - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
consumerism


Main Entry: con·sum·er·ism
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsü-mə-ˌri-zəm, -mər-ˌi-\
Function: noun
Date: 1944
1: the promotion of the consumer's interests
2: the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable; also : a preoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of consumer goods
— con·sum·er·ist \-rist, -ist\ noun or adjective
— con·sum·er·is·tic \kən-ˌsü-mə-ˈris-tik, -mər-ˈis-\ adjective

productive - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
productive


Main Entry: pro·duc·tive
Pronunciation: \prə-ˈdək-tiv, prō-\
Function: adjective
Date: 1612
1: having the quality or power of producing especially in abundance <productive fishing waters>
2: effective in bringing about <investigating committees have been productive of much good — R. K. Carr>
3 a: yielding results, benefits, or profits b: yielding or devoted to the satisfaction of wants or the creation of utilities
4: continuing to be used in the formation of new words or constructions <un- is a productive prefix>
5: raising mucus or sputum (as from the bronchi) <a productive cough>