Dreams and Schemes
by Jenny Staff
illustration by Doug PotterMayor Kirk Watson has another big idea. In his quest to bring a major software firm downtown, the mayor continues to parlay his common sense "it's-not-just-where-we-grow-but-how-we-grow" Smart Growth Mantra into an Austin version of Manifest Destiny, with infill and a mixed-use residential downtown for all. In his 17-month tenure, the mayor has brought us a staggering array of projects, from downtown housing, to the May bond package, to the Auditorium Shores redesign. And a remarkable number of these have been smashing successes.
So what's the political reporter of an alternative weekly to do, when she can't even fight city hall? With the level of general happiness around here, even the quiet murmur of opposition that was heard last week around town about the mayor's courting of an international software development firm to prime city-owned land downtown, seems important enough to mention. But are the naysayers voices of reason, immune, unlike the rest of us, to Watson's charms, or are they just that -- naysayers, skittish folks left reeling from Watson's boldness of vision for the city, and quickness of pace in achieving it?
Here's how the mayor's newest plan came into being: Two years ago, local software company CSC Financial Services Group, a subsidiary of Computer Sciences Corp., bought another local software outfit, Continuum, greatly expanding the scope of its potential operation. CSC began scouting around for a place to spread out, and was working on a site plan for a new location at the Terrace, a development in the watershed area (not to be confused with the site of the former Austin Opera House) that's largely regarded as a stinker, at least from an environmental perspective. The mayor, seeing a golden opportunity, invited CSC to consider a 99-year lease on the city's tract covering three city blocks between Town Lake and Third Street, across from City Council chambers and including the current location of Liberty Lunch. It's genius, yes? Lure the big company away from the watershed, and promote downtown infill. And not just any old infill. Watson says the addition of CSC and its 1,500 employees to the heart of the Central Business District would help foster the development of a "digital downtown district," and help lure other high-tech employers out of the suburbs and into downtown.
Critics, however, have leveled a set of three objections to the deal. One: By pursuing CSC, the city is stealing business out from under developers looking to expand downtown. Plans for a new downtown highrise are seemingly announced every day in Austin, and some say the city shouldn't be in competition with the private sector. Two: Speaking of competition, public watchdog types have complained that a competitive bidding process should have decided the fate of the downtown tract -- others who may have wanted to locate there, they say, weren't given the opportunity to compete for it. And finally, live music partisans fear that the deal, which would displace Liberty Lunch, the tenant for 25-plus years, could threaten the viability of live music downtown; as more residential development is added, the argument goes, the new residents won't want to put up with the noise associated with places like Liberty Lunch and the Electric Lounge, across the street from which a 250-unit apartment complex is scheduled to open next year.
Under Mayor Kirk Watson's current proposal, CSC would occupy the area designated by a dotted line, of which blocks C and D and the southwest quarter of block B are city property. Liberty Lunch (C) would have to relocate, and the Austin Museum of Art's new building, slated for the north side of block B, would instead be constructed on state-owned land in block A. E is the City Hall annex. Chicago-based developer AMLI Residential plans to build apartments on privately owned (F) and city-owned (G) properties.(The public watchdog/spurned developer combo made for strange alliances: City hall gossip this week had Councilmember Beverly Griffith meeting with Terrace lawyer Richard Suttle to discuss environmentally safe ways to counter the downtown deal and get CSC to forget downtown and locate at the Terrace.)
Watson, as he almost always does, has answers to all the objections: One: CSC wasn't looking at other downtown locations, and getting them to even consider the city's land "was a small miracle." Two: The city's obligation to taxpayers is to get the land in use, instead of letting it remain underutilized, bringing in no money and potentially acting as a drag on the area that actually discourages private investment. "People should be asking, why have we let this land lie fallow, instead of making taxpayers' money off it?" the mayor asked. (The property taxes alone from CSC would total over $700,000.) Three: The city is committed to doing whatever it can to help Liberty Lunch relocate, if relocation becomes necessary. The mayor and Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman met with Lunch owners last week, and they've put crack Assistant City Manager Toby Futrell on the case of finding another location, perhaps on another city-owned property downtown.
The Lunch's J'net Ward is being philosophical about the situation, which she says is typical of the club's history. "Over the 20 years I've been here," says Ward, "there have been articles like this once a year. One of these days, one of them will be true." As for now, she said, CSC has simply been offered property in the area, and nothing more specific has been decided.
Should this latest scenario materialize, says Roland Swenson, director of SXSW, this is no time to panic: "The city has demonstrated time and time again that Liberty Lunch is an important cultural thing for Austin. Politically, they know they can't just kick them out on the street. It's not the building, but what they're doing there, that's important."
He's Got VisionWatson said the logic of the CSC deal is "so obvious it hurts: "It bypasses developers and deals directly with the tenant, it snags for downtown a major employer with all its attendant benefits, and it bolsters Austin's high-tech economy, which in turn gets us more mentions in the likes of Fortune magazine, etc. But Watson's few critics say he's asking us to trust him on a lot, and a deal that looks suspiciously like the gift of a prime city lease to a big corporation without a competitive bidding process is going a little too far.
This is a good mayor with a good vision for the city. But sometimes he does get carried away. His hasty plan to bring the Ice Bats to the shores of Town Lake, for example, had to be aborted mid-stream, but still, the end result was a better plan for Auditorium Shores. While he's a fast mover on ideas he likes, the mayor is a man whose instincts are usually trustworthy: "Some of his ideas are half-baked, but he's a good chef," said a source close to the council.
There's no question that the mayor has been, in the words of one council-watcher, "emboldened" by his successes. And the Nov. 3 passage of an ambitious bond package, including the mayor's Palmer Auditorium/new civic center scheme, has him riding even higher. "We haven't had a mayor as strong as this since the Roy Butler days," said one downtown developer-type. "If you're on the wrong side of the mayor, watch out."
But one of the main reasons you've got to watch out for this mayor is the enormous consensus he's built -- a unified council and a solid majority of Austinites who come out to raise their own taxes by approving huge bond packages. Anyone who challenges him needs to provide an alternative -- quickly and very publicly. The mayor's coalition is only growing, and his mark is being left more thoroughly on this city every day. So speak now or forever hold your peace.
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This Week in Council: Council will consider exceptions to the S.O.S. Ordinance for a proposed shopping center, The Forum, planned in southwest Austin; there's a possibility council could agree to more impervious cover in exchange for more land left untouched by the developer.
