Save Austin
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.
The ads for those developments have been a constant target. I’ve seen at least two other instances of vandalism targeted specifically at that development. I think there’s a bit of a backlash across the city, but that one seems to have a particularly tenacious opponent.
I agree completely about disassembling versus demolishing. While the city proposes/discusses putting requirements on sellers to upgrade homes for environmental issues, the waste of natural resources is rampant amongst commercial development, even on greenfield sites, its amazing how much stuff they waste.
Just like recycling, its easy to ask home owners to separate and recycle,I do my best at both recycling and re-using, repairing. Meanwhile, across the street, one restaurant landfills more every day than the whole of the street recycle weekly.
[…] thing’s sure, Austin is changing and there are loads of people that don’t like it. Buildings are getting bigger and taller, […]