My old neighborhood has really gone downhill since I left. Now many of them* are vehemently opposing infill at the Old Whole Foods on the grounds that it’ll create too much automobile traffic.
What a load of garbage. The SAME folks who signed the Move AMD petition with me are apparently ALSO against developing high-density office and retail ON TOP OF A PARKING LOT IN THE URBAN CORE. This is exactly why I can’t hold my nose and vote for Margot Clarke. Hint: SOMETIMES THE NEIGHBORHOODS ARE WRONG.
And too much automobile traffic? Here’s a clue: At some point, you have to accept that TRAFFIC IN THE URBAN CENTER ISN’T GOING TO FLOW SMOOTHLY, PERIOD. If you want to live in OWANA and expect free-flowing traffic on neighboring arterials, you’re insane. The whole POINT of living there is that you don’t HAVE to drive (or not as often). Embrace it and get out of your car like I did when I lived there.
You can’t get any more wrong than this unless you opposed student housing on Guadalupe at 27th. Oops.
Pros for this PUD: A lot of these office workers would otherwise work in the suburbs, which creates more traffic overall, since you mostly can’t carpool, bike, walk, or take the bus to jobs out here (and believe me, I try). It doesn’t use up any more pervious cover. It doesn’t wreck the aquifer. Some of these office workers will no doubt ‘commute’ from nearby high-density residential development already completed or planned; and the presence of more offices downtown will encourage even more residential development.
In short: this project would fuel a virtuous cycle of urban development instead of the vicious circle of suburban sprawl. I don’t see how any responsible Austinite can be against it.
(* – updated to reflect supportive offline and online comments at the OWANA group, and my own lack of surety on whether opposing the PUD is an official position of the neighborhood association or not – although I still suspect it is)
