Council chambers were abuzz with housing issues last week, citizens spending hours on what they saw as Downtown’s future itself. Over the public order ordinances, criminalizing aspects of homelessness? Not quite – garnering the most shine was zoning approval for the Spring condominiums, upper-middle class professionals squaring off against their slightly richer brethren in a fight to the finish! The alphabet soup of downtown boosters supporting Spring – the Downtown Austin Alliance, Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association, etc. – went against a dozen-plus neighborhood groups, some nearby, some miles away, all under the umbrella opposition of the Austin Neighborhoods Council. City Council voted in favor of more permissive CURE (Central Urban Redevelopment) zoning for the tower – all save Danny Thomas, vexed by neighborhood concerns – and rolled all three readings into the night’s vote. The zoning change will allow Spring to spring 350-400 feet high, much taller than the 120 feet currently allowed. Similar but less controversial zoning approval of condos at Third and Nueces also passed unanimously.
Many in chambers left after Spring’s approval, popping corks on “not affordable, but more affordable” champagne bottles, no doubt. They missed approval of Lee Leffingwell’s ban on coal-tar based pavement products, which passed despite industry opposition, as well as the final public input on the city’s homeless ordinances. With more than 300 people signed in (but most not wishing to speak), a concern of those in opposition was how the ordinances (specifically solicitation) would affect Austin’s day labor community. Earlier that evening, before speaking against the amendments, House the Homeless President Richard Troxell was honored by council, it being National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week and all. Furthering the surreality, Troxell was preceded by a proclamation designating it Spaghetti Warehouse day. Honoring the longtime Warehouse District fixture, the mayor said his children loved dining at their centerpiece trolley car. Solution: Let the homeless into the San Franciscan-themed eatery; call it Kerouacland.
This article appears in November 25 • 2005.