Hating on the Highrises (Austin, Spring: school, organic, tax)

[llkltk]

Originally Posted by BentBow

I miss 1976 and how Austin was back then 33 years ago.
What a hippy town this was then, all the way through the mid 80's, then the flood from Silicon Valley and the ruin of our little city of 220,000 people. Sell their cracker box in Cali for a mint, and have enough to buy 3 homes here and up the rents and cost of houses. In 1983, we were paying $275 rent for a 2000 sq.ft. 4 bedroom house in Barton Hills. In less than 7 years that same house was renting for $900. The 90's hit and Austin became a big Sanctuary City for illegal aliens, ruining it farther. Once nice neighborhoods, are now Barrios. There use to be a law/building code here, that you could not build a tall highrise down town. 15 stories was it, to maintain the view of the Capital building and the UT tower. Corp. greesing palms got that reversed with a majority past California residence city council.

But the 80s in Austin were horrible from what I've been told. The economy was in the toilet. Also, remember the dotcom bust after 2001? Austin has improved for the better. Be grateful!

Are you kidding me, a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, barrios, this isn't LA? I don't know where some of this reasoning comes from.

[jobert]

You think Austin was bad in the 80's? You would have s**t your drawers if you were in NYC during that period.

If Austin was 1/4 the size it is now, with cheap rent and nothing to do but go to houses parties, skinny-dip and get high..
I wouldn't have a problem with it.

[atxcio]

This thread could benefit from more pics, esp for those who may not be in town, or locals who don't go downtown everyday... the skyline changes so fast.

Change is Life. To remain static is to embrace a culture of death. That's why Ladybird lined her trail with young trees, instead of decorative walls. She was thinking about what it would look like in 30 years, or 100 years, not what it looked like the next day. She knew the city would grow, like the trees, and I think she'd be proud of her lake and trail today...

Now (actually, a couple of days ago) photo by Priller on SSP:


photo by LonestarMike (by LonestarMike on SSP):


Lou Neff Point (by LonestarMike on SSP)


Then
Typical view til about 2002 at Auditorium Shores (photo from TexasEscapes)


When the trail was new (70's), photos from The Trail Foundation:

Lou Neff Point


West of Auditorium Shores

[TexasHorseLady]

Would be more illustrative if the quality of the photos was anywhere closer to the same. I'm about to head out the door, and I'll have to provide links, not photos, due to the TOS against posting copyrighted materials (plus, of course, copyright law itself) without explicit permission, but I'll see if I can find a series that is more apples to apples when I get back.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by llkltk

But the 80s in Austin were horrible from what I've been told. The economy was in the toilet. Also, remember the dotcom bust after 2001? Austin has improved for the better. Be grateful!

Are you kidding me, a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, barrios, this isn't LA? I don't know where some of this reasoning comes from.

The 80s in Austin were'nt 'horrible'. Were people out of work, yes. Were real estate prices low, yes. Did people still get married, have babies, go to school, parks, movies, parties? Yes. I will say that the traffic was a lot better and everyone knew everyone else.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by atxcio

This thread could benefit from more pics, esp for those who may not be in town, or locals who don't go downtown everyday... the skyline changes so fast.

Change is Life. To remain static is to embrace a culture of death. That's why Ladybird lined her trail with young trees, instead of decorative walls. She was thinking about what it would look like in 30 years, or 100 years, not what it looked like the next day. She knew the city would grow, like the trees, and I think she'd be proud of her lake and trail today...

Now (actually, a couple of days ago) photo by Priller on SSP:


photo by LonestarMike (by LonestarMike on SSP):


Lou Neff Point (by LonestarMike on SSP)


Then
Typical view til about 2002 at Auditorium Shores (photo from TexasEscapes)


When the trail was new (70's), photos from The Trail Foundation:

Lou Neff Point


West of Auditorium Shores

LOVE the headband! Bjorn Borg like!!! Thanks for the pics!!!

[TexasHorseLady]

Okay, that was quicker than I thought (thank you, Statesman!).

Austin Skyline, 1970. (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/01/Austin35@Riverside1970b.html - broken link)

Austin Skyline, 2006 (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/01/rbz_Austin_Skyline.html - broken link) (anyone want to tell me where the Capital is in this one?)

Those are both from approximately the same angle coming into town on IH35 from the south.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

The 80s in Austin were'nt 'horrible'. Were people out of work, yes. Were real estate prices low, yes. Did people still get married, have babies, go to school, parks, movies, parties? Yes. I will say that the traffic was a lot better and everyone knew everyone else.

Exactly. (In fact, our daughter was born in 1984.) Things were actually pretty good in Austin in the 1980's, thinking back on it (and at the time, I felt they were, as well).

A certain segment had some problems. But for the most part, life was normal.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

The 80s in Austin were'nt 'horrible'. Were people out of work, yes. Were real estate prices low, yes. Did people still get married, have babies, go to school, parks, movies, parties? Yes. I will say that the traffic was a lot better and everyone knew everyone else.

I don't recall the 80's or anytime since being bad. I graduated from UT in 81, got a job right away, got a job as an architect, as did most of my fellow graduates, always had work, never got laid off. Bought my first house in 85, interest rates were horribly high, over 16%. Real estate prices didn't seem that low to me but I was able to afford to buy a house. Payments cost only a little more then renting.

I even bought my first sailboat in the 80's and could afford slip rental on lake travis.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

LOVE the headband! Bjorn Borg like!!! Thanks for the pics!!!

Yes, we did like our shorts short and our socks high.