Downtown Austin Blog

downtown Austin's real estate and neighborhood blog

DANA elects new leadership

| |

Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association DANA

If you live in Downtown Austin, or have an interest in its growth, then you should consider joining DANA.   The Downtown Austin Neighborhood Assocition recently transitioned its leadership team.  Outgoing President Marshall Jones remains on the board, while Jamie LaGarde takes his new role as President.  Marshall has been President of DANA for the past two years.  This is a tireless and, often, thankless job.  Of course, these positions are volunteer without pay.  Marshall always had the ability to approach political challenges with grace and class.  I can comforatbly speak for all DANA members when I thank him for his commitment to making DANA the knowledgeable, influential, and social organization it is today.  With over 1,000 members and growing, Marshall and the presidents that preceded him can be proud of what they’ve created.

Leaving the board is Jim Furrow and Michael McGill, though each will remain active DANA members, and you can expect they will continue to be vocal stakeholders in the Downtown community.

Welcome the new DANA Board:

Jamie LaGarde – President (Austin City Lofts)
Roger Cauvin – Vice President (Plaza Lofts)
Randy Hammelman – Treasurer
Lindsay Wiebrand – Secretary (Gables West)
Larry Schooler (404 Rio Grande)
Bill McCann (360)
Greg Anderson (360)
Josh Allen
Will Steakley (360)
Jude Galligan *your’s truly* (Sabine on 5th)
Marshall Jones (Five Fifty 5)
David Weaver (Plaza Lofts)
Shayama Golden (Railyard)

Spring [almost] tops out

| |

Spring tops out at 42 stories
Spring almost topped out at 42 stories

According to an email I received this morning from the developer, Spring condominiums will complete it’s vertical construction soon and is on pace to be ready for move in by this summer.  Word on the street is Spring has more than 60% of the units under contract.

From the announcement…

“Expect to see a tree on the top of Spring Condominium soon.  The tree is a tradition, symbolizing a building has reached the top floor of its construction.  Spring’s glass envelope will also soon be complete.  Once the painters have completed the exterior color coating, most of the tower’s exterior elements will be complete.

Interior work continues with installations of finishes reaching level 25.  Over 400 workers are on-site working simultaneously on all aspects of the construction of Spring.  From work on the structure to installations of glass windows and walls, flooring, tile, cabinetry, electrical and mechanical to the finalization of the pool deck and lobby design, Spring’s team is combining efforts to complete the building by Summer 2009.“

Roundup – Austin politico's websites

| |

Sheryl Cole - Place 6 incumbant
Sheryl Cole - Place 6 incumbent
Chris Riley - Place 1 candidate
Chris Riley - Place 1 candidate

These days its pretty much unacceptable to not have a website if you are running a campaign. You should be able to do a Google search for “candidate’s name + city council” and your campaign page should be #1 or #2 on the search results page.  Some of you candidates have work to do!

Mayor:

Brewster McCracken – http://www.brewstermccracken.com
Lee Leffingwell – http://www.austinleadership.com
Carol Strayhorn – http://www.caroleforaustin.com

City Council:

Chris Riley (place 1) – http://www.chrisforaustin.com
Mike Martinez (place 2) – http://www.martinezforaustin.com
Perla Cavazos (place 1) – http://www.voteperla.com
Rick Cofer (place 1) – http://www.rickcofer.com
Bill Spelman (place 5) – http://www.billspelman.org
Sheryl Cole (place 6) – http://keepsherylcole.com

Candidate’s in green are those which I am currently supporting.  I think the best coverage of city hall comes from the BurntOrangeReport.com and Wells Dunbar’s (Austin Chronicle) City Hall Hustle.  If you find bias, it should be easy to filter.

Okay, everyone with local political aspirations, you should right now purchase FirstnameForAustin.com!

Blight

| |

Downtown Austin - Parking Garage Nirvana
Downtown Austin - Parking Garage Nirvana

Blight: Something that impairs growth, withers hopes and ambitions, or impedes progress and prosperity.

In Downtown Austin nothing kills hopes, dreams, ambitions, old ladies and little children like under-developed land.  According to DANA board member Roger Cauvin, in economic terms, blight can be considered an “externality,” which “are the indirect costs imposed on society by an economic activity. Pollution is an example of an externality.  If economic agents (e.g. developers) aren’t made to pay for the externalities, we are effectively subsidizing harmful behavior.”

In Downtown Austin, blight manifests itself in the primary forms of:
1) parking lots (or razed lots)
2) parking garages
3) chain link fence
4) perpetual disrepair

The Northeast quadrant of Downtown Austin takes the cake for parking garages.  The area is desolate and completely void of human interaction. Unimproved parking lots are scattered throughout Downtown.  It could easily be argued that Downtown Austin blight reaches it’s zenith on 6th Street.  (slideshow)  Broken doors, windows, tattered chain link fence, destroyed ATMs, it’s all there.

As I see it, the problem of blight is rooted with the owner of the property that is creating or hosting the blight.  The economic behavior of hoarding undeveloped property in the CBD is contrary to the density goals of Downtown Austin stake holders.  It is also contrary to the city’s and county’s goals of collecting ad valorem taxes.  Perhaps more importantly, razing your lot and wrapping it in chain link fence is contrary to the sense of community.

Over the past couple of months you’ve seen related topics discussed at Austin Contrarian.  According to Chris Bradford, “We badly need a mechanism for discouraging property owners from warehousing vacant lots downtown.  The solution is not to shut out all redevelopment to eliminate the risk of this kind of behavior.  What we need is a vacant-lot surcharge or something like it.  A surcharge calibrated to compensate the other downtown property owners, businesses and visitors for the very real cost of blighting a block.  This might encourage property owners/developers to leave existing buildings in place or  to fill in currently vacant lots, even if the structures are inexpensive and small.”

Well said.

-Jude

Tattered chain link fence along Waller Creek
Tattered chain link fence along Waller Creek

Chris Riley for Austin City Council Place 1

| |

Chris Riley - Downtown Austin resident and candidate for Austin City Council
Chris Riley - Downtown Austin resident and candidate for Austin City Council

Friday night at Threadgill’s World Headquarters, Downtown Austin resident Chris Riley launched his campaign for Austin City Council Place 1.  Riley spoke about his platform of repairing the economy and environment together, improving transportation, and preserving Austin’s character:

“We need to create green jobs. We need to reduce our dependence on cars, and promote alternate forms of transportation. And we need to make sure that Austin lives up to the things we expect it to be: a place that provides secure homes to people across the economic spectrum; a place with a great arts and music scene; and place with a rich history that prides itself on tending to the needs of our whole ecosystem and all of its inhabitants.”

ChrisForAustin.com