MaryJae
Time to Put Our Money Where Our Progressive Mouths Are
RECEIVED Fri., Oct. 21, 2005
Dear Editor,
I own and occupy a single-family home in Old West Austin. Imagine my surprise when I read the Spring project “is isolated from the single-family core of OWANA" [“Will Towering Condos Spring to City Approval?,” News, Oct. 21]. That may have been true 30 years ago, but many of the properties in Old West Austin now contain duplexes and apartments. The city's zoning map indicates that most of the parcels are zoned multifamily. Aside from a couple dozen homes on Baylor, Blanco, Ninth, and 10th streets, multifamily is the land use of choice. In most cases the real estate is just too too valuable and the structures too small and old to support your average middle-class family homestead. Ironically, allowing for more density has spared much of Old West Austin from excessive redevelopment and new construction in the past 15 years.
I support the Spring project and similar high-density downtown projects, all the way up to the east side of Lamar Boulevard. It is time for us to put our money where our progressive mouths are. Austin's downtown is patchy and pathetic given our population. It should be a desirable place to be for everyone to go, night and day. The more vertical space we make available for people downtown, the cheaper it will be to live there. And more affordable housing downtown will make it easier for citizens and future councils to resist oversized residential projects like the ones currently crowding the landscape all over established neighborhoods like Old West Austin.
I own and occupy a single-family home in Old West Austin. Imagine my surprise when I read the Spring project “is isolated from the single-family core of OWANA" [“Will Towering Condos Spring to City Approval?,” News, Oct. 21]. That may have been true 30 years ago, but many of the properties in Old West Austin now contain duplexes and apartments. The city's zoning map indicates that most of the parcels are zoned multifamily. Aside from a couple dozen homes on Baylor, Blanco, Ninth, and 10th streets, multifamily is the land use of choice. In most cases the real estate is just too too valuable and the structures too small and old to support your average middle-class family homestead. Ironically, allowing for more density has spared much of Old West Austin from excessive redevelopment and new construction in the past 15 years.
I support the Spring project and similar high-density downtown projects, all the way up to the east side of Lamar Boulevard. It is time for us to put our money where our progressive mouths are. Austin's downtown is patchy and pathetic given our population. It should be a desirable place to be for everyone to go, night and day. The more vertical space we make available for people downtown, the cheaper it will be to live there. And more affordable housing downtown will make it easier for citizens and future councils to resist oversized residential projects like the ones currently crowding the landscape all over established neighborhoods like Old West Austin.
Pat Doyle
