On today’s city council agenda, item #4 is a vote to fund phase two of the Downtown Austin Plan. The city and downtown Austin stakeholders have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in time and money to design a downtown befitting a world class city.
Laura Morrison, Lee Leffingwell, and Mike Martinez are expected to align themselves against downtown. After all, if you study the Statesman you’ll realize that it’s en vogue to hate on downtown. Though, these council members will vote against downtown under the guise of fiscal responsibility.
Dont’ be fooled!
Politically they are posturing themselves to support a comprehensive plan for the city. Something that could take years, will certainly require more expensive consultants, and just as easily could be thrown out as they seem to want to do with the Downtown Austin Plan. The City’s shelves are thick with research studies and improvement plans which have never been implemented.
I hope I’m wrong. We should know by lunchtime how each council member voted.
“what we should be doing is start building and stop talking”
wow. that’s straight out of Carole Strayhorn’s playbook!
The really sad thing is they sort of have a good point, but it’ll get lost because of who they are (Morrison in particular): we do way too many studies that just tell us what’s inherently obvious; that city staff already know or a few knowledgeable boards/commissions already told them for free.
The city basically seems intent on keeping ROMA fully employed (some kind of local stimulus package); and I don’t think that’s always the right answer.
(The WRONG point is that we’re ‘spending too much money on downtown’; what we should be doing is start building and stop talking).
KVUE’s coverage.
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stories/031109kvue_downtown_plan-cb.26c3eb0c.html
Here is KXAN’s coverage.
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/region_3/Council_questions_downtown_planning