It’s official: Rainey St getting a grocer, pizzeria
Exalted sighs of relief erupted among residents in the Rainey Street District, which includes yours truly, with the recent announcement that we are getting proper food establishments… the kind open before 4pm.
Royal Blue Grocery will add a fifth location to its collection of neighborhood grocery stores with a 2,550 square foot location fronting on Rainey Street at the base of the SkyHouse apartment tower. Salvation Pizza will open its second Austin location, bringing authentic New Haven style pizza there too.
Don’t get me wrong, the food trucks are great but sometimes you just want a simple morning coffee.
Brazos benches yanked out
If you haven’t noticed yet, there are a few less benches along Brazos Street around 6th Street. The city took decisive action after businesses and residents in the area banded together to demand a solution to the vagrants camping along there and harassing passers-by. In all, 23 benches were taken out, cleaned and put in storage to live somewhere else another day.
(Disclosure: I voted in favor of supporting a letter to remove the benches as a board member of DANA)
According to a pretty darn good report from KXAN, “The city’s sit/lie ordinance, where loiterers are asked to move, does not apply to benches. It only applies to planters and sidewalks. One business owner said he was calling police for help about six times a day.”
Dell Medical School prep-construction starts this fall
The University of Texas is losing no time getting to work on its ambitious medical district master plan.
Earlier this week, UT officials spent their evening at City Hall, first getting the Urban Transportation Commission’s blessing to move Red River, then a couple hours later sailing through the Planning Commission.
UT officials told the Planning Commission that they plan to get the road reconstruction and utility relocation started this fall, and that sometime between 2014 and 2015 Red River would be closed to through traffic while work is underway.
Transportation Director Rob Spillar promised at the meeting that the campus would focus on bike and pedestrian ease-of-use, not car-centric plans. (Note to Bill Powers: Careful with those benches!)
