Last night, local Austin band Grand Champeen played the Continental Club after midnight. The ‘Peen have been playing some of the best straightfoward rock in Austin, if not the US, combining elements of The Kinks and The Replacements, with the energy of punk rock thrown in for good measure. I’m no music critic, so I’ll just say that I thoroughly enjoyed the less-than-capacity crowd at the Continental, which I think is to be relished by us locals these days, when most of the time South Congress can seem to be completely overrun.  Of course, I hope the club and band are making enough money, but after living in DC where every show with any decent band was sold out, it’s great to be back in Austin where one can see great music without the hassle. Sometimes.

That little section of Congress, which is supposedly a National Historic District, is really a huge part of what I think of as Austin.  My grandparents ran a store on Congress when I was a kid, and I remember when Las Manitas was Avenue Cafe, Woolworth’s supplied all our pharmaceutical needs as well as tasty shakes and burgers, the elegant Scarbrough’s department store gave us a taste of big-city living a la Macy’s or Bergdorf’s, and the Picadilly Cafeteria was upscale dining.  How much of that essence, the feeling, of that past remain? I’m worried.  Maybe I’m overly sentimental, but we have historic districts for good reason in this country, and I hope there is some teeth in this one. 

Meandering up through West Campus, I marveled at all of the apartment buildings and condos going up – seems like more activity there than downtown?  I wonder who will be able to afford to live in those places. I guess if you’re in your 20s and have a job in Central Austin that would be a good location. Will students be able to live there? I’m not sure what the maximum amount people can now get in student loans, but I have a feeling that many people will be tempted to spend their loan money on those cush digs. And they’ll pay for it later.

It’s great to just bike around on neighborhood streets and then hop on the path near Shoal Creek, then under Mopac on Bike Route 40 (I think) over to Exposition and down to Lake Austin Boulevard. There, again, you encounter the other end of student apartments, which is owned by the University and is reserved for married students.  Speaking of, the University of Texas has been advised that the land they own over there, known as the Brackenridge tract, should be developed. Now it’s the city’s turn to try to figure out what the citizens think about that… and this Saturday there will be a public meeting on the issue.   Will it be upscale condos and chic boutiques? Or can we figure out something better for the people who already live here, instead of just the refugees from California, New York, and other high-end places? Getting something innovative for working people in West Austin may not be an easy feat, but I have to ask.

From Lake Austin, I cruised under the Mopac bridge on the Roberta Crenshaw pedestrian/bike bridge, and down Barton Springs Road, stopping for a smoothie at long-time favorite Bicycle Sport Shop.  Again, passing more condo developments.

I know many people question the wisdom of building so many condos, but $4 plus gas is going to encourage more and more people to find refuge in the central city.  And that could mean, I hope, more people on bikes and less air pollution for us all. Which makes affordable housing in the central area all the more important. Michael King of the Austin Chronicle discusses some current efforts by Foundation Communities and others to provide affordable housing and address the NIMBY attitude in most neighborhoods.

Whew! What you can see on a simple bike ride in this town!

Tonight, I made an incredibly healthy and tasty meal – using all ingredients from farmers within 150 miles of Austin.  Most of the meal – a yummy combination of red lentils, zucchini, okra, carrots, and green pepper, with Asian spices - came from sellers at the Austin Farmers Market, which is a producer-only market held on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The lentils were purchased at Whole Foods Market and are from Austin’s New World Sprouts.  The spices – garlic, ginger, soy sauce, salt, pepper, sesame oil – were not locally produced, but the appropriately named beer was from the East side’s Independence Pale Ale.  The beer was especially important since I made the food a wee bit too salty. 

The house next to us is being thoroughly renovated and the other half of the lot is being prepared for a new home.  When I mentioned that it was bulk trash day for the neighborhood to the builder, he proceeded to put out on the curb all of the doors and wood trim that had been removed from the house – including some great solid wood doors with nice old doorknobs. Although the city says that a percentage of the bulk items it picks up are recycled, why couldn’t this guy have taken the time and expense to make sure that happened, by taking the items to Habitat for Humanity’s Re-store or putting an ad up on Craigslist? I rescued a couple of the doors myself, and then the city didn’t take the construction materials as part of policy.  Yet now those potentially reusable items are being rained upon.

This morning, I read on News 8 Austin’s site that some 200-year-old oak trees were “accidentally” cut down in Oak Hill over the weekend.  This is so tragic.  Apparently a subcontractor mistakenly cut down these trees to help in the preparation for a new apartment complex.  How could anyone possibly look at those trees and not think,  “Hey, maybe I should double-check to see if this is right” before cutting down some massive and probably incredibly beautiful trees???  Sheds some more light on what Oak Hill is getting itself into by advocating for more dense development out there (as discussed in my post from May 13th).

Yes, we all get caught up in the demands for fast and easy in our lives, but we all need to slow down and take the time to pay attention to what is going on … and stop the waste of haste.

I wonder what the person who tagged this photo of people running and biking on the hike and bike trail was thinking? I don’t think it was merely copyediting the ad, which is for one of the new condo developments on Barton Springs Road near Zilker. I think it was one of those people who has also tagged bathrooms at places like Lovejoys – “Yuppies Out of East Austin” and the like.

What are we saving Austin for, or from? Well, I think it’s obviously a way of life that we’re trying to save. We’re also trying to save the beautiful natural environment. Wow, those are two really big things, to begin with.

One thing that really enfuriates me is the wonton demolition of existing structures – like the old Waterloo Brewing Company (more recently Fox and Hound), which was documented here back in March.

Maybe one way to preserve a bit more of Austin, or at least slow down some development and ensure that perfectly good materials don’t go to waste, would be a city requirement that certain buildings be disassembled, as opposed to simply demolished. Perhaps this possibility has been discussed? If there is any movement in that direction, please let me know – I’ll show up at City Council to support it, for sure.

As you hopefully know, the water at Barton Springs and the adjacent springs comes from the highly porous Edwards Aquifer.  Anything that gets dumped over the ground - motor oil, fertilizer for grass, diazonon to kill ants – eventually makes its way into the aquifer and then to the Springs and some people’s drinking water.

You may have read my post earlier this week about Oak Hill’s neighborhood plan.  Well, what happens in Oak Hill and Southwest Austin affects the treasure that is the aquifer and Barton Springs.  And now, dear citizens, you have an opportunity to comment on the plans for that area, without leaving the comfort of your desk.  Nope, no all-night council meeting required (yet).  Just go to the city’s survey about the Oak Hill plan and fill it out. You know the friends of developers will.

Then, to reward yourself for your participation, go on down to Barton Springs this Saturday for Free Swim Day (according to an email newsletter from the Save Our Springs Alliance, whose web site seems to be hosed at the moment)!

Well, people in Oak Hill and Southwest Austin apparently want their cake and to eat it too. As much as I am an avid proponent of denser development and public transit, I find it disingenuous of the community leaders in that area to now start blaming the Save Our Springs ordinance for the fact that their neighborhoods aren’t (and may never be) more pedestrian friendly and dense.

Tomorrow night, the city’s planning staff will present the tentative Future Land Use Map (FLUM) and plan documents to stakeholders for one last discussion before the planning commission and city council vote on it. David Richardson, who lead the effort at the neighborhood level, complains to Community Impact that the SOS ordinance blocks any and every kind of good development because

landowners cannot develop or put impervious cover, which is anything from rooftops to parking lots, over more than 25 percent of an individual landowner’s property, in the area called the contributing zone.

Mr. Richardson complains that you can’t put in denser muliple-use development that would make walking and biking more appealing because of the “roadblocks” like this.

The SOS ordinance *should* be a roadblock. Its intent is to discourage development, which causes water pollution in the sensitive contributing zone and the more sensitive recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer. If you want to live in a densely developed area, move to Central Austin!