The Statesman Blotter is reporting someone jumped from 360. It is being reported as a possible suicide. Very sad. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.
Archives for 2009
Downtown Austin Retail Space
One of the better trends in urban design is to include retail space below residential buildings. I see downtown Austin’s retail offerings as overly homogeneous: salon, boutique, restaurant, or bar. Feedback from DANA members, and urban-Austinites in general, is the desire to see more practical stores to serve the many thousands of people that live and work here.
After the jump are a few examples of the ground floor retail space currently available below some of downtown Austin’s luxury buildings. You’ll see that space below these buildings is not cheap and ranges from $30-36 per foot plus NNN. This could yield a monthly lease payment of $3,500-4,000 per month per 1,000 feet of retail space.
The Downtown Austin Alliance has a great list of retail vacancies you should check out, too.
The Dillo Is Dead
You might have already heard this rumor circling through various blogs and discussion boards. Clearly the Dillo is a downtown-centric service. As a frequent rider of the Dillo, I can attest to the fact that there were never many riders sharing the bus with me. I’ve often thought that by extending the 6th Street Dillo route into East Austin and beyond Whole Foods (for, instance Comal to Mopac) would encourage more ridership.
What CapMetro did right:
-The Dillo is inexpensive to ride.
-The Dillo route is easy to remember
-The Dillo 5-minute headway was very convenient
I find it irrational that they would consider killing the Dillo before the Metro Rail has even begun. If the Metro Rail is a success, then this will trickle down to the Dillo. The Dillo would have been a transfer bus to get from Red River to Lamar.
Concerts In The Park
Yesterday evening Amber, Jeff, and I decided to head over to the Long Center’s lawn to listen to a string ensemble. The Austin Symphony’s Concert In The Park series was covering several movie themes. The Hartman Family Foundation’s support of the Austin Symphony subsidizes the entire series. Arriving at 7pm with folding chairs and cooler in hand, we claimed a patch of real estate and settled in. With downtown Austin as the backdrop and a nice breeze crossing the lawn, this is a terrific way to spend a Sunday evening.
New Parking Meters In Downtown Austin
The City of Austin has posted a video of the new parking meters with instructions on how to use them. The kiosk style meters are solar powered and accept credit cards – nice! I’ve always believed the mechanical parking meters contributed to urban blight in a small way. I also make a point to never carry change so the credit card option will be very useful.
-Jude