Moody Center
CSC Benefits Downtown
RECEIVED Tue., Jan. 18, 2005
Dear Editor,
Ms. VanErp wrote a pretty eloquent and factual defense of CSC and their downtown location ["Postmarks," Jan. 14]. It's a shame that you allowed Mr. Hightower so much "time" in print to put her down. CSC does have its roots here since they bought a company here that has provided many jobs in Austin for many years. And it was the city government that decided that Liberty Lunch would go and jobs and a new City Hall would take that block. I'm not much for incentives for big companies, either, but as long as they are legal we will have to offer them to compete. (Let's outlaw them at the federal level. Get behind that, Mr. Hightower.)
We need balance downtown. CSC brings jobs downtown. Jobs that can support living in some of the downtown housing. The neighborhood will soon sport the Ballet Austin Dance Education Center. Which, like the Long Center, is not drowning in city incentives. The neighborhood has housing and places to eat and music venues. While I miss Liberty Lunch, too, if I lived down there I'd be asking for a grocery store closer than Whole Foods and other variety retail to make it a real neighborhood.
People might be those condo dwellers Mr. Hightower credits because of the jobs at CSC. Let's get behind some incentives to bring small businesses to downtown to serve the population, but don't put down the jobs people need. Everyone can't work in a locally owned music venue or write for a living.
Ms. VanErp wrote a pretty eloquent and factual defense of CSC and their downtown location ["Postmarks," Jan. 14]. It's a shame that you allowed Mr. Hightower so much "time" in print to put her down. CSC does have its roots here since they bought a company here that has provided many jobs in Austin for many years. And it was the city government that decided that Liberty Lunch would go and jobs and a new City Hall would take that block. I'm not much for incentives for big companies, either, but as long as they are legal we will have to offer them to compete. (Let's outlaw them at the federal level. Get behind that, Mr. Hightower.)
We need balance downtown. CSC brings jobs downtown. Jobs that can support living in some of the downtown housing. The neighborhood will soon sport the Ballet Austin Dance Education Center. Which, like the Long Center, is not drowning in city incentives. The neighborhood has housing and places to eat and music venues. While I miss Liberty Lunch, too, if I lived down there I'd be asking for a grocery store closer than Whole Foods and other variety retail to make it a real neighborhood.
People might be those condo dwellers Mr. Hightower credits because of the jobs at CSC. Let's get behind some incentives to bring small businesses to downtown to serve the population, but don't put down the jobs people need. Everyone can't work in a locally owned music venue or write for a living.
Linda Ball
[Jim Hightower responds: To blame the city government for Liberty Lunch's displacement conveniently ignores the fact that CSC execs and lobbyists were the ones pushing it. City Hall is not on the Liberty Lunch block – CSC is. As for "getting behind" a federal law to stop the corporate scam of playing one town against another to get public subsidies, I've been advocating that for a long time. Can we count on CSC to push it?]