Oracle moving to Austin

[CooterBrown 18015]

I get it completely. As the California Borg of Money flooded Colorado, there were people who warned what the influx would bring.

And Colorado is still fucking great.

For a city, you’re either growing or you’re dying. There’s no such thing as a healthy stagnation. Rural Texans will continue to be the largest segment of migrants to Texas cities. Everything will continue to get more expensive and crowded just like it has every single day of every growing metro’s existence.

No one should worry about the “real Texas” though. All the assbackwards parts of Texas will still be dying a slow death for everyone’s satisfaction.

[Clintonaldo 2576]

On 12/11/2020 at 8:01 PM, StassneyHorn said:

Everyone move to Tennessee. Chattanooga looking real good

No, I like it the way it is. 

[royiv 9332]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

And Colorado is still fucking great.

For a city, you’re either growing or you’re dying. There’s no such thing as a healthy stagnation. Rural Texans will continue to be the largest segment of migrants to Texas cities. Everything will continue to get more expensive and crowded just like it has every single day of every growing metro’s existence.

No one should worry about the “real Texas” though. All the assbackwards parts of Texas will still be dying a slow death for everyone’s satisfaction.

That only works when you know how to manage the growth. Austin has historically been woefully inept in managing and being prepared for growth. The city's infrastructure is a decade or more behind where it needs to be and, with more growth coming, won't catch-up without some serious investments. Austin will choke on the growth if the city doesn't get its act together.

[Somnio 751]

3 hours ago, royiv said:

That only works when you know how to manage the growth. Austin has historically been woefully inept in managing and being prepared for growth. The city's infrastructure is a decade or more behind where it needs to be and, with more growth coming, won't catch-up without some serious investments. Austin will choke on the growth if the city doesn't get its act together.

I take it you aren't aware of the roughly $20 billion worth of transportation projects that are or will in the next few years be under construction?

Edited December 13, 2020 by Somnio

[Somnio 751]

It's also easy to talk about how poorly the growth has been managed when you're talking about a city that has damn near doubled in size in the last 20 years.  And did the same the 20 years before that....

[royiv 9332]

 

45 minutes ago, Somnio said:

I take it you aren't aware of the roughly $20 billion worth of transportation projects that are or will in the next few years be under construction?

I guess not. Only aware of Project Connect which is well shy of $20 billion and will take 13 years to fully implement. I haven't seen any concrete plans to address and fix gridlock through the center of town. Even if construction started on all of these projects yesterday, it will take another decade to complete. Thes are projects that were needed a decade ago.

[royiv 9332]

46 minutes ago, Somnio said:

It's also easy to talk about how poorly the growth has been managed when you're talking about a city that has damn near doubled in size in the last 20 years.  And did the same the 20 years before that....

So you're saying this growth was completely unexpected? Dude, you're proving my point. Anyone with a brain knew Austin was going to grow and will continue to grow. I was born in Austin in 1977 and have watched the growth all my life. I'm not an urban planner, but can easily recognize that the City of Austin has never managed growth well.

[Biff Tannen 45695]

4 hours ago, royiv said:

So you're saying this growth was completely unexpected? Dude, you're proving my point. Anyone with a brain knew Austin was going to grow and will continue to grow. I was born in Austin in 1977 and have watched the growth all my life. I'm not an urban planner, but can easily recognize that the City of Austin has never managed growth well.

Not to derail, but doesn't it seem like whoever has been in charge of traffic for like the past 30 years doesn't actually drive in this city?

[blacklab 11941]

No, it seems like whoever is in charge of traffic does everything they possibly can to make traffic worse, in the hope it will make less people move here.

[drt 640]

8 hours ago, royiv said:

So you're saying this growth was completely unexpected? Dude, you're proving my point. Anyone with a brain knew Austin was going to grow and will continue to grow. I was born in Austin in 1977 and have watched the growth all my life. I'm not an urban planner, but can easily recognize that the City of Austin has never managed growth well.

Honestly curious what rapidly growing city you think Austin would be better off emulating?

[Continental Op 3934]

22 hours ago, royiv said:

That only works when you know how to manage the growth. Austin has historically been woefully inept in managing and being prepared for growth. The city's infrastructure is a decade or more behind where it needs to be and, with more growth coming, won't catch-up without some serious investments. Austin will choke on the growth if the city doesn't get its act together.

This will never change because everyone who moves to Austin thinks they should be the last person to move to Austin.

[midtown 3346]

Well you wont have to deal with Larry and his toys because he's apparently moved to Hawaii.  I guess the Austin sailing scene wasn't enough for him

[royiv 9332]

17 hours ago, drt said:

Honestly curious what rapidly growing city you think Austin would be better off emulating?

I lived in Phoenix for 17 years and they've done a pretty damn good job with infrastructure there.

 

[Pasken 1309]

22 hours ago, blacklab said:

No, it seems like whoever is in charge of traffic does everything they possibly can to make traffic worse, in the hope it will make less people move here.

You really can't make traffic better unless you reduce the number of single occupant cars. There are certainly a lot of efficiency improvements you can make but that just helps things from getting worse, faster. As long as people keep moving here and the large majority of them are single occupant drivers then traffic will keep getting drastically worse. 

[Sbbruin 21865]

On 12/12/2020 at 9:24 AM, Harrison Stafford said:

Time to secede, mofo’s.

https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3165651

[blacklab 11941]

32 minutes ago, Pasken said:

You really can't make traffic better unless you reduce the number of single occupant cars. There are certainly a lot of efficiency improvements you can make but that just helps things from getting worse, faster. As long as people keep moving here and the large majority of them are single occupant drivers then traffic will keep getting drastically worse. 

I don't know. Maybe they could do things like synchronize traffic lights, and have lights that stay green in one direction for the main street and only change when there is actual traffic coming from the other direction, or not eliminate lanes of traffic by making them bus/bike only. All these things would be cheap and easy but for some reason the city refuses to do them.  We do billion dollar mobility bonds yet have 1 person who is responsible for setting the lights in the entire city. The SOS and other no-growthers have bragged for years about making traffic worse in the hopes no one will move here.

[Guest Lobo]

I drove it again today and couldn't remember, but one little stretch of Congress Avenue had a lane leftover after the two lane closures for bike lanes.  And for one block, there's a turn-lane now.  But it's going to be a complete cluster-fuck from the Capitol all the way down to Riverside Drive.  Just two lanes now in each direction, a car turning left will now effectively backup morning north-bound/afternoon south-bound traffic for 2-3 light cycles at a time.  

They should have taken one lane (probably southbound) and made it a two-lane bikeway.  I think you can probably have two mountain bikes or scooters pass each other safely with a 10' wide lane).  Repainted the whole thing then to have two soutbound, two northbound, and one dedicated turn lane the length of Congress from 12th to Riverside (bridge aside).  Bikes can easily turn at E/W streets to get over to the other side if need be.  But that way you'd at least not have the inevitable clustercuss when somebody decides to turn left 6 months from now when downtown is back to being all abuzz with activity.  

Or you know, if the goal is to get fewer people to drive their cars downtown, rip out one side of the diagonal parking spaces on one side of the street and turn that into the 2-way bike lane.  The length of that road has maybe...what?........80 parking spaces on either side?  We just fucked over the commute of everybody that works/lives/plays downtown for 80 cars and 80 cyclists?  Great job.  Congress Avenue wasn't the most effective use of space and there are great ways to reduce congestion on it.  But you literally took the two worst ideas on how to go about that.  Leave antiquated parking in place and completely fuck up the opportunity to alleviate turn congestion while still being able to accomodate bikes safely.  

When we're back to peak work/peak festivals/peak UT/peak etc.  Can you imagine pulling out of one of those parking spaces while people are trying to get around the guy taking a left and you're both competing to squeeze into that one operable lane?  We should make Adler come stand in those lanes each day and attempt to direct traffic while we shit on his head.

[Updawg 2280]

I don't know. Maybe they could do things like synchronize traffic lights, and have lights that stay green in one direction for the main street and only change when there is actual traffic coming from the other direction, or not eliminate lanes of traffic by making them bus/bike only. All these things would be cheap and easy but for some reason the city refuses to do them.  We do billion dollar mobility bonds yet have 1 person who is responsible for setting the lights in the entire city. The SOS and other no-growthers have bragged for years about making traffic worse in the hopes no one will move here.

It is amazing how shitty some lights are timed. I thought we had a big bond a while ago to fix it. Pisses me off in sw Austin but I’m sure that wasn’t part of the plan but should be. Can’t be that hard

[LABEVO 928]

Who knew Oracle first time implementing off prem would be to Texas

[midtown 3346]

Who knew Oracle first time implementing off prem would be to Texas

2\3 of oracles employees are in India.

[drewlaws 126]

On 12/14/2020 at 7:14 PM, Lobo said:

I drove it again today and couldn't remember, but one little stretch of Congress Avenue had a lane leftover after the two lane closures for bike lanes.  And for one block, there's a turn-lane now.  But it's going to be a complete cluster-fuck from the Capitol all the way down to Riverside Drive.  Just two lanes now in each direction, a car turning left will now effectively backup morning north-bound/afternoon south-bound traffic for 2-3 light cycles at a time.  

They should have taken one lane (probably southbound) and made it a two-lane bikeway.  I think you can probably have two mountain bikes or scooters pass each other safely with a 10' wide lane).  Repainted the whole thing then to have two soutbound, two northbound, and one dedicated turn lane the length of Congress from 12th to Riverside (bridge aside).  Bikes can easily turn at E/W streets to get over to the other side if need be.  But that way you'd at least not have the inevitable clustercuss when somebody decides to turn left 6 months from now when downtown is back to being all abuzz with activity.  

Or you know, if the goal is to get fewer people to drive their cars downtown, rip out one side of the diagonal parking spaces on one side of the street and turn that into the 2-way bike lane.  The length of that road has maybe...what?........80 parking spaces on either side?  We just fucked over the commute of everybody that works/lives/plays downtown for 80 cars and 80 cyclists?  Great job.  Congress Avenue wasn't the most effective use of space and there are great ways to reduce congestion on it.  But you literally took the two worst ideas on how to go about that.  Leave antiquated parking in place and completely fuck up the opportunity to alleviate turn congestion while still being able to accomodate bikes safely.  

When we're back to peak work/peak festivals/peak UT/peak etc.  Can you imagine pulling out of one of those parking spaces while people are trying to get around the guy taking a left and you're both competing to squeeze into that one operable lane?  We should make Adler come stand in those lanes each day and attempt to direct traffic while we shit on his head.

As soon as they put up those cones because "COVID," I knew they would never come down. It's the very definition of "don't let a good crisis go to waste."

You are dead on about how f*cked this will be under normal traffic conditions. Cars turning left, cars turning right held up by pedestrian traffic, rideshares that will stop on Congress, etc will all destroy traffic flow and are things that happen constantly. 

I truly do not understand how anyone can defend, much less support, the CoA government. Mind boggling they continue to be overwhelmingly elected.

[Guest Lobo]

Because they care.  They have compassion.  DOn't you understand that you cold-hearted bastard?  

[BrazilHorn 6624]

50 minutes ago, drewlaws said:

As soon as they put up those cones because "COVID," I knew they would never come down. It's the very definition of "don't let a good crisis go to waste."

You are dead on about how f*cked this will be under normal traffic conditions. Cars turning left, cars turning right held up by pedestrian traffic, rideshares that will stop on Congress, etc will all destroy traffic flow and are things that happen constantly. 

I truly do not understand how anyone can defend, much less support, the CoA government. Mind boggling they continue to be overwhelmingly elected.

Add in the idiots on Bird scooters to the fucking mix as well. Also the crazy drugged up homeless pedestrians that cross whenever the fuck they want because they give zero fucks about people trying to get to work.

At this point just shut Congress down to cars and make it a nature preserve.

Edited December 16, 2020 by BrazilHorn

[Guest Lobo]

There's gonna be about a 5-year overlap where we're moving Earth for both the new underground Cap Metro Gold, Purple, Blue, Red, and Green lines from IH-35 to Congress, between MLK and Riverside........and also for the IH-35 final expansion project itself in much of that same area

Guess who is coordinating those efforts since so much earth moving will be taking place in such a finite space?  And guess what person's budget is to oversee that coordination of both time and space?  Particularly given how much linear feet are literally overlapping?  Go on...guess..........

Edited December 17, 2020 by Lobo

[KaiserSoze 998]

Fitlump is on it

[washparkhorn 9939]

On 12/13/2020 at 5:30 PM, blacklab said:

No, it seems like whoever is in charge of traffic does everything they possibly can to make traffic worse, in the hope it will make less people move here. people use public transportation and abandon their personal vehicles.

It's a feature of New Urbanism - slowing cities to create more walkability, a better sense of community, and tilt the community toward the 21st Century and beyond. Austin has its place in the world community now as a world city. There will be more and more "nudging" like this to effectuate the changes needed for the future. It's happening in Denver, with mixed results. As a late adopter, Austin can learn from the mistakes of others.

. . . oh wait, Austin just elected a regressive.  Perhaps Austin is tilting toward the 11th Century rather than joining the 21st. 

(a short paper on "nudging" - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=2499658)

Edited December 17, 2020 by washparkhorn