Dear Mayor

Paige Robbins' drawing of Las Manitas "before and after" and her correspondence with city officials.
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June 8, 2006

Paige Robbins

1911 W. 37th St.

Austin, TX 78731

Dear Paige,

The Mayor has asked me to respond on his behalf.

First, thank you for your letter and drawing about keeping unique small businesses Downtown. I agree that places such as Las Manitas make our city special and, yes, weird, and are important to the originality and history of Downtown.

I support developing the two parking lots on that block, not the entire block. We will ask the developer to consider putting the new building next to and behind the small buildings that Las Manitas and the other small businesses are in. The reporter misquoted me in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper article, and I apologize that it sounded like we wanted all of those buildings removed.

Austin is a fantastic place to live, so growth is inevitable. Managing this growth in a smart way is an extremely important value of the city of Austin. The city of Austin does not own this property, but we will do our best to balance the rights of the property owner with the desires of the community. We work very hard to keep Austin's unique qualities while preparing for our future. Citizen input such as yours is a key part of this process. So, thank you for your input! I hope you will be able to participate in the Downtown-planning effort that will begin this fall.

Sincerely,

Michael Knox

Downtown Principal Planner

City of Austin

CC: Mayor Will Wynn