urban planning

The Blight of Billboard Structures

Jude Galligan | April 18, 2009 |

Gotta feel for this guy. Billboard structures are a blight that affects ALL of us. With large cylindrical steel or rotting wood supports, these ugly structures are designed to intercept our line of site without regard to its place in the neighborhood fabric. Unlike buildings (which serve a fundamental need for shelter and receive scrutiny throughout the design phase) billboards structures like this can literally pop-up overnight. The more invasive the structure, the more eyeballs it’s supposed to catch.

Operators like Lamar, Reagan, Clear Channel, et al, pretty well have a protected business that, ironically, was created out of the laws designed to curb signage. It’s my understanding that no new billboards may be erected in Austin. However, billboards may be moved around. Take one down in order to put one up. If it’s a commercially zoned property, then there are few restrictions.

It’s unfortunate that this particular billboard structure, so completely in your face and out of context, was installed next to Bridges On The Park – an outstanding condo development that is contextual to the area, utilized good materials, is not too large, is pedestrian friendly, and has welcoming retail on the ground floor. Still, be on watch for the Statesman’s John Kelso grumpy hate brigade: “bourgeois condo owners get what’s coming to’em”

Sao Paulo decided to take ALL billboards down!

Where is Scenic Austin on this issue?

If you want to familiarize yourself with Austin’s sign ordinace, you can find it here.

-Jude

A Vision For Rail

Jude Galligan | April 17, 2009 |

Obama’s high speed rail initiative is being covered across the web today. This is not surprising as informed Americans recognize that construction of more roads, along with the commensurate increase in cars for those roads, is the wrong path towards a sustainable and connected Union.

High speed rail is designed to be a substitute mode of travel within a defined economic corridor. Air travel will remain the primary mode of transportation; however, rail system will be vastly more convenient and accessible for most people. For instance, it will not require thousands of acres of scorched earth suburban development as airports do. Rather, a train station, a single building, could be placed inside the urban core of the connecting cities.

Of course, it’s easy for me to be excited about this vision since Austin is one of those connected cities. Notice the “fly over” states? What is their incentive to support this vision? Pheonix, Denver, and Las Vegas are three large cities that are NOT connected in this vision. That’s a significant oversight, IMO.

-Jude

Single Member Districts

Jude Galligan | April 13, 2009 |

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.

$0.10 Gas Tax Freakonomics

Jude Galligan | April 10, 2009 |

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

The Challenges of Waterloo Park

Jude Galligan | April 8, 2009 |

With vegetation, a natural creek bed, seclusion, and rolling hills, Waterloo Park has the “right stuff” to be the best park in Austin. Flanked on the east and west by Red River Street and ~~San Jacinto Blvd~~ Trinity, respectively, Waterloo Park’s configuration runs north-south length wise between 15th and 12th streets, as Waller Creek meanders through it.

A couple weekends ago, we wanted to check out the “Birth of Cool” exhibit at the Blanton museum, and we decided to walk from our building (Sabine) along Waller Creek through Waterloo Park.

As we walked through Waterloo Park, we were overtaken with its beauty but disappointed in its care. We found a littered creek, overgrown vegetation, and hazardous pathways. One unmarked sinkhole in the middle of the pathway would have seriously injured anyone who didn’t notice it – easily three feet deep.

Waterloo Park sits in an industrial zone

With all of its innate beauty, Waterloo Park is analogous to a gifted MVP baseball player, who somehow gets stuck playing for a losing team.

Waterloo Park sits underutilized inside an industrial zone of competing real estate interests: Travis County, State of Texas, University of Texas, and Brackenridge Hospital.

Tough location, eh?

Hospital parking garages to the east. State of Texas parking garages to the west. Social services and more parking garages to the north. The neighborhood and urban fabric breaks down north of 11th Street. Lack of coordination by the major real estate holders yields nothing of significant neighborhood value to draw a critical mass of pedestrians.

Waterloo Park is a great example of the results of poor urban planning and stakeholder coordination – the park is surrounded with parking garages (blight), is not integrated into the fabric of our neighborhood, and is often inhabited with drug addicts, drunks, and panhandlers. As such, it remains a destination that few people care to visit.