urban planning

Downtown Austin Car Share – Smart Car Pilot Program

Jude Galligan | March 27, 2009 |

How do you increase parking? Shrink the cars, of course!

Daimler will partner with the City of Austin to operate a car-share pilot program, Mayor Will Wynn announced yesterday morning.

From the Statesman:

“The city will set aside urban-core parking spaces for 200 of Daimler’s “Smart” cars. Rather than paying for the spaces, Daimler will let city employees use the cars for a number of hours that’s equal to the monetary value of the spaces. (That amount hasn’t been determined yet; it will be negotiated over the next few weeks, city officials said.)…The program will start in October and run for six months. Daimler will pay for fuel, maintenance and insurance during that time, said the city’s transportation director, Robert Spillar.”

The car share program is a proven model in many cities, and the Smart Car program specifically is already smashing success in Germany. Austin mayoral city council candidate Chris Riley is responsible for Austin Car Share – a small but well utilized car share program in Downtown Austin.

Thanks to Austin Contrarian for picking up on this story.

Austin Medical School Courtesy of Carole Strayhorn?

Jude Galligan | March 23, 2009 |

Here is an intriguing idea courtesy of Carole Strayhorn!

1) Build a medical school, 2) enhance the medical/bio-tech industry in Austin, 3) create jobs, 4) create revenue for the city.

“This Council Spent $2.3 Billion for Biomass Energy in Nacogdoches. For less than half that cost, we could build this medical school, create $1.5 billion a year in revenue, and create 14,400 permanent jobs.”

If built in close proximity to Brackenridge, which I assume it would be, this could bring much needed life to the northeastern quadrant of downtown Austin.

Refreshingly, this makes good sense.

[link]

A Vision For Austin Rail

Jude Galligan | March 23, 2009 |

[youtube = http://youtube.com/watch?v=8YWXbGgUJ1o]

Imagine you work in Austin, but you live in San Antonio. Rather than enduring Interstate 35 each morning, in a more perfect world you would have a rail system that drops you off into a downtown terminal. Imagine if our city leaders could design a “Grand Central” of Austin. This short homemade video makes Austin appear to be an international city. It’s incredible to see the city come into view.

These days CapMetro can’t seem to tie its own shoes. I do hear Amtrak is getting stimulus money, though.

link [via skyscraperpage]

From the archive: What Does Downtown Austin Need?

Jude Galligan | March 17, 2009 |

Last month I wrote about six items downtown Austin could significantly benefit from. It’s a slow news morning, so I thought I would re-post the links together. Politicians love to talk, form task forces, and spend time doing everything except for making decisions as they are needed. So, this is an appeal to Downtown Austin stakeholders that know how to get things done: the residents, developers, retailers, and land owners.

This is what we need:

1) Super Target on Congress Ave. (link)
2) Hardware store on Congress Ave. (link)
3) More bodega grocers (link)
4) Move social services away from Sixth Street (link)
5) Improved landmark protection and design standards (link)
6) Urban Rail (link)

-Jude

Waller Creek Tunnel – council approves budget for engineering review

Jude Galligan | March 5, 2009 |

Waller Creek Tunnel project inches forward. According to the ABJ, “Austin City Council approved an agreement with Austin-based H.R. Gray to provide engineering services for the Waller Creek Tunnel project. The contract amount is up to $300,000. H.R. Gray will conduct an engineering review of the Waller Creek Tunnel project’s design and construction plans.”

Baby steps.