downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog
Kudos to Alex (TXAlex) over at the skyscraperpage forums for this work. Photo was taken on Easter Sunday.
The detail is uncanny. The original version is pretty big, so click the image to get to flickr, then click on the image again to get the full size.
Hideout Theater Offers Improv Classes (link). You can register for a six week workshop beginning May 11th. Class is conveniently scheduled in the evenings.
We’ve seen several shows at the Hideout. It’s easy to walk to and you can drink beer during the show. Perfect, right? If you want to see what improv is all about, then checkout Double Barrel this Friday @ 8pm.
-Jude
State Senator Jeff Wentworth is sponsoring Senate Bill 1618 which would mandate single-member districts for municipalities with more than 500,000 people. Austin City Council has called a special session today to hear from staff and legal council.
Here is a pdf of the bill.
We don’t spend much time in front of the television, but we never pass up Reno 911. Nick Swardson plays Terry (nsfw). Nick was in town last night at the Paramount to film his next DVD/Comedy Central special, “Seriously, who farted?” In recent years several stand up comics including Jim Gaffigan, Demetri Martin, Ralphie May have chosen Austin’s Paramount Theater as the venue for filming their DVD or television specials.
Swardson would likely tell you he chose Austin because “he likes to party.” For comics, Austin has the right blend of being a cool city, with an easy-going college town atmosphere, and a great theater – Comedy Central seems to have fallen in love with the Paramount’s proscenium-arch, the mezzanine seating, the balconies and ornate design making it the perfect setting for televised specials.
A 2007 U.S. Census estimate places Austin’s population at 743,074 people. We’ll use 0.85 as the multiplier to approximate the number of vehicles per capita in the State of Texas. Assume the average car owner drives 12,000 miles a year and gets 24mpg. That person will purchase 500 gallons of gas each year. By employing a $0.10 gas tax per gallon, for the driver this equates to $50.00 per year, or only $4.17 per month. But, the City could collect over $31.6MM in a single year. (The City could realistically expect much more from drivers passing through.)
$31.6MM is more than half the cost of Portland’s, Tampa’s, or Seattle’s budget for their street car system (article, pdf). A real world case study in streetcar economics yielded enhanced property values, connectivity, 400 new businesses (90% locally owned), the majority of these businesses are owned by women and minorities.
Even I, an economic conservative, can identify with the social value generated by $4.17 per month towards paying for an Austin streetcar. Food for thought for our next City Council.
-Jude