Saturday Night Live
by Kayte VanScoy
photograph by Todd V. WolfsonNo one has been more active or more vocal about the future of Austin's downtown than Mayor Kirk Watson. But after 16 months of discussing the many overlapping events in downtown from the comfort of the mayor's office, it seemed time to bring that conversation to the streets. Watson, as usual, was a great sport about the idea and agreed to a club-hopping tour on a recent Saturday night. Unfortunately, there wasn't much live music action happening that evening -- Stubb's was closed, Liberty Lunch's Ice-T show was canceled. We stopped by the Electric Lounge too early to catch the bands, and during our stopover at Blondie's, the audiotape ran out. Like everyone else out that night, though, we had a great time drinking coffee, shooting pool, looking for parking. A typical leisurely Saturday night in Austin.
Our journey began over coffee and dessert at the High Life Cafe. It didn't take long for the mayor to be recognized.
Elise: You are such a hip mayor.Kirk Watson: Yeah, I tell people that all the time. What's your name?
Elise: My name's Elise.
KW: Elise, I'm Kirk. Very nice to meet you.
Austin Chronicle: Can I ask you something, Elise?The mayor and I are out, looking at Sixth Street...
KW: We're bar-hopping together.
AC: To say he's a hip mayor ... what makes you say that?
Elise: I say that mainly because he's out drinking coffee --
AC:... at the High Life Cafe --
Elise: Right, with a girl with a butterfly in her hair.
KW: [laughs] Right, I mean, what more could you want? There you go. You're good for my image.
Elise: Actually I sent a letter to the entire council [recently]. I was born and raised here and I went to Georgia for college and I came back and didn't like some changes that I had seen.
KW: Remind me of your letter.
Elise: It was about renovating the Coliseum.1 It's not a great piece of architecture but it's something that I'm so used to seeing. I think architecture has an influence on people, you know, and to totally tear it down and completely redo it --
AC: Did you grow up here?
Elise: Yeah.
AC: OK, so what did you go to at the Coliseum?
Elise: I went to Randy Travis and I went to debutante balls. I was in a fashion show and I sang in the choir at the Christmas Affair. I went to hear the Pops symphony concert, you know, in fold- out chairs and tables. I mean, I think, I don't know. An opera house might be a good idea. A friend of mine recently kind of talked me the other way.
KW: Well, you understand [that] if it passes on November 3, what we will do is build a new community events center that will be a replacement for the City Coliseum because it is in bad, bad disrepair.
Elise: I'm sorry. You know what, I'm thinking of Palmer Auditorium2 ... City Coliseum, sure, could use a facelift.
KW: Good, I'm glad to hear you say that. What we're going to do is do away with City Coliseum -- that old airplane hangar that sort of hunkers down there on Town Lake -- we're going to build a new community events center. Palmer also needs some work; we haven't been keeping it up. But leave Palmer. The folks that currently use Palmer will have the opportunity to go over to the new community events center, and when that occurs, then you have [Palmer], that private individuals have indicated that they'll raise $50 million to turn into a performing arts center for the entire community. The good news is that the financing mechanism is predominantly from people who rent cars. We'll also be able to pull up all that asphalt, tear down City Coliseum. And right in the middle of that right now is the park police station. Take all that out and create more greenspace so that we end up with a much nicer --
Elise: What's nice about that space too is that it's already all asphalted and it's by the park.
KW: We're going to pull up a lot of asphalt. What we're going to do as part of this is build structured parking so that you don't have to have the sea of asphalt. The voters have to pass it on November 3, but with the kind of support it's receiving, I think they will.
Elise: And then my other qualm while I'm here --
KW: All right. Talk to me.
Elise: Well, it's just, you know, it's such a faux pas to say, you know, 'I'm anti-development.' You know, these days. Like South MoPac for instance, or like the lot right next to Zilker Park, you know.
KW: Did you vote in the May 2 election3?
Elise: No. I was in Europe.
KW: Did you vote absentee? Well, you understand that on May 2 I was pushing so that we could spend up to $65 million so that we can buy lots of land down there so that it doesn't get developed. It stays pristine.
Watson chews the fat at the High Life Cafe on Seventh Street with Elise (left) and the Chronicle's Kayte VanScoy.
photograph by Todd V. WolfsonElise: Why everyone's moving here is [because] Austin's so pretty and it's not gonna be there if --
KW: Well, I couldn't agree with you any more. And we won [the May 2 election] and we're down there purchasing land right now.
Elise: Really?
KW: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've started closing on properties which will make all the difference in the world, I think. What we need to do is we need to be working to do things like we're doing with the May 2 bond proposition to protect what's become so vital to the economy of this place.
Elise: And the well-being of this place.
KW: But the good news is, the spirit is still there. Well, no question about that. This is a place that captivates people, not only because of the wellbeing, the quality of life, but also it's an economic place. People are making wonderful livings in this place and a big part of it is because [the quality of life and the economy] are so tied together. That's why I asked you if you'd voted, because I worry about a lot of the very same people that are concerned the way you are, that they're not involved.
Elise: Voting these days ... I mean, more people vote for the Best of Austin in the Chronicle than go out and vote for their own damn city.
KW: I agree.
[Elise leaves]
AC: I was sitting here [in the High Life Cafe] the other day and there were these two women sitting next to me talking about Palmer. And two interesting things. One was that they completely misunderstood it altogether, just like that woman did. Maybe it's just fundamentally complicated. I don't know.
KW: No, I've got a theory, but finish.
AC: The other thing was that, completely without my prompting, they were going on about pretty much the same thing [Elise] said which was a kind of discomfort level at your involvement in Palmer. They were saying 'Well, he's just trying to shove this down our throats.' I interrupted and I told them how [the Palmer bond initiative] worked. And then they had kind of the same reaction that this woman did --
KW: Nobody's against it once you explain it to them.
AC: Yeah, it's a good idea. But I think there's still a level of discomfort about the "need for speed."
KW: Part of the reason people say "speed, speed" is because the way you kill things, even good things, is by attacking on "it's moving too fast." That doesn't have to be correct, that doesn't have to be legitimate. You just say it. And what happens is the media immediately will pick that up because that's the controversial thing. So what happens is that what gets covered is not the elements of the deal. It is "What's the fight? How's the mayor handling the fight?"
AC: Let me ask you this question: Why does [the civic center] have to be $26 million? They were going to build an Ice Bats4arena and do all kinds of stuff for $11 million or something like that.
KW: That's part of the reason I was so willing to move [away from the Ice Bats] to another idea. We were running into great difficulty figuring out how you build [an Ice Bats arena] and meet the needs of the current users [of Palmer] at a budget level that the Bats felt comfortable with. [The Ice Bats] have been tremendous in trying to work with us. On the $26 million [for the civic center], we are going to put in some bells and whistles.
AC: Like what? Because I know the city's been wanting to build civic facilities for quite some time, so are we going to see a new council chamber, maybe?
KW: No, this has nothing to do with anything like that. No, this will be a community events center, but it's going to be 95,000 square feet and it's contiguous kind of space.
AC: Does $26 million build the parking facility?
KW: No. The total package is around $40 million.
AC: So we're donating Palmer, which is like $50 million minimum --
KW: Okay, I disagree with the way you say that.
AC: Well, you know I'm not the only one who says it that way. [City Councilmember] Gus Garcia says it that way.
KW: Yeah, but Gus is for this. ... We're not donating. For example, [University of Texas] President Larry Faulkner just wrote a letter talking about the inability to have all the [performing arts] dates at the University of Texas. We need a special events center. We have a couple of options. One is to do nothing. And the second option would be build a brand new [performing arts center]. Well, all the projections are that [building a new one] would be $100 million, and where do you get the money to do that? So the third option is you look to existing facilities.
AC: I assume that the whole Sami5 contingent isall for this idea.
KW: The only concern that they've expressed publicly, which is the only concern that I'm aware of, is they worry about where the parking garage will be put in relationship to the community events center. Their concern is that when people come to buy things they want to be able to walk it right out to the car. I told them to get involved in the design process because that's exactly the kind of input that needs to be involved.
AC: Was this the thing where you were talking about having parking under and over [the building]? Is that a possibility?
KW: Yeah, we talked about it, but it's too expensive. It's about $20,000 a space to build underground, [but] $8,000 [a space] to build a structured parking facility.
AC: People who are reading this article are not going to believe it's that expensive. So, explain why it's that expensive.
KW: Because you have to dig and you've got water table problems and things like that. The sheer cost of the excavation adds. And if you have structured parking, your bottom floors have to be retail. Well, obviously that adds to the cost also. And the good news about that is that it adds to your ability to pay back the debt on the thing.
AC: I have an idea. They should all be skate parks, after hours and on the weekends.
KW: Skate parks ... well, that's not a bad idea.
AC: Well, it's a great idea, actually, in my opinion.
KW: After hours I'm hoping that you're going to be building such a downtown that they're going to be making money and you don't want kids skating there.
AC: You know, you get a ticket if you skate[board] down Congress or Guadalupe; there's an ordinance against it. Why?
KW: We don't want them killed.
AC: Okay, but is it any more or less dangerous than bicycling?
KW: Well, I don't know. I don't know the clear answer to that. I would argue it's more dangerous.
AC: They're not going as fast.
KW: They're not going as fast, but that's part of the reason I think it's more dangerous.
AC: Also, why should skateboarding be illegal if rollerblading's not illegal?
KW: Are you saying skateboarding is illegal and rollerblading is not?
AC: Right. And bicycling's not.
KW: You understand I was one of the losing votes on the helmet law.6
AC: Yeah, that's right. I remember that. Well, you're the tort lawyer.
KW: I guess I'll go back to one of my concerns about that is they pull out in front of your car and you injure them through no fault of your own.
AC: Obviously the same exact argument could be made for bicycles.
KW: Well, and I do.
AC: So bicycles shouldn't be downtown?
KW: Well, I'm not saying that they shouldn't be downtown, but that's one of the reasons that I voted for the helmet law. ... One thing that hopefully will happen is that the Great Streets7 money is not just limited to making it mobile for cars, particularly in the downtown area. It helps with mobility for pedestrians, bikes.
AC: How does it help?
KW: For example, if somebody is redoing a road [and] you have sidewalks that need repair at the same time, or widening, or medians that will make it safer, that's the time to do it.
AC: Does that [Great Streets] money help turn streets two-way?
KW: No, if you're laying it out for the first time, my personal thought is that you would end up with two-way streets. [But] I'm not convinced that in Austin now it will work. We've looked at this thing -- in Austin fashion -- now twice and came to no conclusion.
AC: Didn't [the city council] vote for Brazos, Colorado, and Tenth [to go two-way]?
KW: Well, we've now put it all back on hold. I think we just need to park it or drive it. And I think it's probably park it. I think one of the things that's occurred is, we're in a situation now where the Downtown Austin Alliance8 can't make the call on what ought to happen on this.
AC: Yeah, they spent a lot of money studying it already.
KW: They sure did. And part of the reason is you've got some difficulties where you've got buildings that were built based upon one-way streets. And they would have to completely retro-fit their garage entrances to allow for two-way entrances at huge cost. So my thought is, let's figure out how to make great streets and just leave them one-way.
[Getting up to leave High Life]
illustration by Jason Stout
