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What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?

crash_davis

By crash_davis
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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 106874

Posted
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6 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

That north part of Congress is getting really ignored by developers and it feels like it should be great place for commercial and restaurants.

This.  While it's a good number of office buildings, there's also ground-floor space in many of those buildings that is ripe for restaurants, bars, etc., ESPECIALLY if you open up and pedestrianize Congress (thus giving them outdoor seating).  Yeah, it sucks in the summer....yet tourists seem to love our patios, even in August.  Let some stupid Germans sit out there and talk about how much they love the sun as they eat $25 artisanal tacos or some shit.  It's money and activity.

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Bozo_Casanova
Bozo_Casanova

Well for starters it’s the one and only good public buidling we’ve got and it’s so popular that pretty millennial women take their instagram shots and hang out in groups on nice afternoons on the outs

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Bozo_Casanova

Bozo_Casanova 26841

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, demos said:

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-leaders-reimagine-congress-ave-as-pedestrian-plaza-in-proposed-project/

c3dd39513b6dc9b70ab275e829f26235.jpg

This is fucking idiotic.

I don’t hate it, with one modifications- they would need to reopen 9th street where it goes under the Federal building east of Trinity.
Otherwise, Congress ave between 7th and 11th street isn’t really part of any vital through-traffic pattern and there aren’t any businesses on that stretch that depend on fronting to motor vehicle access. Quite the opposite. Storefront businesses would benefit.
The East-West throughput on 5-6-7th and 11th is what’s vital.

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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Bozo_Casanova

Bozo_Casanova 26841

Posted
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5 minutes ago, landman said:

Yeah.  Quit taking away lanes and roads.  We can't adequately maintain the parks we have.  But let's create more.

Sure we can. We just don’t, but our traffic issue is not the result of not enough lanes. Our traffic issue is the product of

1) too few people who live close to where they work, but more importantly

2) our street grid is more fragile and broken than most cities our size. The cheapest thing and highest impact things we could do involve the elimination of choke points. Like there’s a bunch of tactical stuff traffic engineers can do that would yield dramatic improvements by simply smoothing out the traffic, but they are total non-starters politically. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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demos

demos 3036

Posted
Posted
I don’t hate it, with one modifications- they would need to reopen 9th street where it goes under the Federal building east of Trinity.
Otherwise, Congress ave between 7th and 11th street isn’t really part of any vital through-traffic pattern and there aren’t any businesses on that stretch that depend on fronting to motor vehicle access. Quite the opposite. Storefront businesses would benefit.
The East-West throughput on 5-6-7th and 11th is what’s vital.

Opening 9th would certainly help but won’t happen. They could lots of things to alleviate it but they want.

There also aren’t really any storefront businesses down here: 7/11, Chipotle, Quattro, the bakery, the former quiznos. And with most of it being commercial office space, it’s not like there’s a lot of places for a storefront to go: old lavazza and old little city space come to mind, That part seems like a lot of wish casting.
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texasdago

texasdago 7767

Posted
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18 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

That’s where I’m at and I like the idea.  That north part of Congress is getting really ignored by developers and it feels like it should be great place for commercial and restaurants.  I think the main losers are going to be that some parking garages are currently configured to push out cars to Congress but that’s fixable.  

I kind of love the idea and it makes me think of Lincoln Avenue in Miami Beach or Calle Floridita in Buenos Aires which are thriving with people... a lot you could do with those areas including making it more friendly to live music.  I'm down.  

As for the parking spots, how many spots would you lose?  If Google Street view is correct, it looks like you lose...

- 15 spots between 7th and 8th

- 6 parking spots between 8th and 9th

- 13-15 parking spots between 9th and 10th (hard to tell with construction)

- 18ish between 10th and 11th 

Not a massive amount

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ztejas

ztejas 44223

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Like Brisket said the city has had worse ideas. The traffic is light there because Congress isn't a through street and dies at 11th at the Capitol. 

However - I'm not sure I see the point. There isn't anything "cool" over there anyway. Seems like the $ could be better spent elsewhere.

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texasdago

texasdago 7767

Posted
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Just now, ztejas said:

Like Brisket said the city has had worse ideas. The traffic is light there because Congress isn't a through street and dies at 11th at the Capitol. 

However - I'm not sure I see the point. There isn't anything "cool" over there anyway. Seems like the $ could be better spent elsewhere.

I wonder if it might attract something cool... I think that's the point.   I could see it turning into another entertainment district.  

Lincoln Road in Miami Beach pre-1960...

"If you visit Lincoln Road in Miami Beach today, it’s a street lined with shops, restaurants, and art. We didn’t get a chance to walk its entirety, but we did break to have lunch and admire the surroundings. Being there, you could tell that at one point in time, it was a centerpiece for the city. It’s closed to cars and trucks now, but that wasn’t the case when it was originally built. Today, it’s one of the most well-known pedestrian outdoor malls in the country and is even used as a model by other developers looking to replicate the success. "

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Deej

Deej 77805

Posted
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45 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I don’t hate it, with one modifications- they would need to reopen 9th street where it goes under the Federal building east of Trinity.
Otherwise, Congress ave between 7th and 11th street isn’t really part of any vital through-traffic pattern and there aren’t any businesses on that stretch that depend on fronting to motor vehicle access. Quite the opposite. Storefront businesses would benefit.
The East-West throughput on 5-6-7th and 11th is what’s vital.

They'd need to move the current downtown post office. 

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Deej

Deej 77805

Posted
Posted (edited)
24 minutes ago, demos said:

Looking at the renderings online, it looks like they’re taking out parking all down Congress because they’re putting up curbs along the bike lanes.

https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Transportation/Congress_Avenue_Full_Build_Vision.pdf

I work downtown. Cyclists barely even use those bike lanes. Sidewalks and car lanes seem to be what they love. 

Edited by Deej
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LCHorn

LCHorn 2750

Posted
Posted
50 minutes ago, texasdago said:

I kind of love the idea and it makes me think of Lincoln Avenue in Miami Beach or Calle Floridita in Buenos Aires which are thriving with people

We were in Madrid this summer and I would be overjoyed if the city leaders started using it as a template for transit and street level development.  They have quite a few areas like this that they’ve converted to small green spaces or pedestrian only corridors.  

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ztejas

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Posted
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20 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

We were in Madrid this summer and I would be overjoyed if the city leaders started using it as a template for transit and street level development.  They have quite a few areas like this that they’ve converted to small green spaces or pedestrian only corridors.  

Anything that attracts loose Spanish women and championship fútbol.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 106874

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Opening 9th would certainly help but won’t happen. They could lots of things to alleviate it but they want.

There also aren’t really any storefront businesses down here: 7/11, Chipotle, Quattro, the bakery, the former quiznos. And with most of it being commercial office space, it’s not like there’s a lot of places for a storefront to go: old lavazza and old little city space come to mind, That part seems like a lot of wish casting.

816 Congress just did a refresh that has a front courtyard and 2 Congress facing restaurant spaces. There’s empty space on the east side of Congress too.
Anything that attracts loose Spanish women and championship fútbol.

You’ll get cholas and Austin FC and like it.
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Updawg

Updawg 2384

Posted
Posted

My sw austin neighborhood is constantly fucking with streets. A few years ago they put in all these curbs/medians etc. now they ripped all that out and re striping lanes for bikes and who knows what

It’s like they hired a bunch of simcity video gamers to plan this shit. Can only imagine how much money has been wasted

I assume the end goal is one lane for cars to share. I am kind of wondering if they factored in moving / delivery / fire trucks

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ztejas

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57 minutes ago, Updawg said:

It’s like they hired a bunch of simcity video gamers to plan this shit.

No I think those folks are largely more competent.

Until they get bored and call a meteor strike down on the city. 

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GoPokes83

GoPokes83 2248

Posted
Posted

I live out of town and just saw the Congress plan on the news. Might be kinda cool, but it’s kind of a major fuck you to the majority of the businesses. And 4 blocks of downtown parking gets absorber where? And it cost 130 million bucks why again?

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texasdago

texasdago 7767

Posted
Posted
36 minutes ago, GoPokes83 said:

I live out of town and just saw the Congress plan on the news. Might be kinda cool, but it’s kind of a major fuck you to the majority of the businesses. And 4 blocks of downtown parking gets absorber where? And it cost 130 million bucks why again?

It's just not much parking honestly.  About 15 spots per block.

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royiv

royiv 9773

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, GoPokes83 said:

I live out of town and just saw the Congress plan on the news. Might be kinda cool, but it’s kind of a major fuck you to the majority of the businesses. And 4 blocks of downtown parking gets absorber where? And it cost 130 million bucks why again?

For the umpteenth time, parking is not a problem in downtown Austin. Downtown has more parking than it needs.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 106874

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Posted
17 minutes ago, Newdoc said:

The Capitol is pretty wide in the foyer. Pour concrete ramps on the steps, widen the doorways and create a traffic tunnel. You’re welcome.

We could invite every homeless junkie in town to take up residence there, shoot up and defecate in the rotunda . . . . and it would be a HUGE improvement over the stuff that normally happens in that wretched building.  I support your plan.

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Armybrat

Armybrat 41388

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, GoPokes83 said:

I live out of town and just saw the Congress plan on the news. Might be kinda cool, but it’s kind of a major fuck you to the majority of the businesses. And 4 blocks of downtown parking gets absorber where? And it cost 130 million bucks why again?

The CC grifters need $5-$8 million each, that’s why.

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royiv

royiv 9773

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6 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

I swear the Capitol used to just be open after hours, and that we cut through there on foot after leaving 6th at 2, but that seems crazy. Was that real?

Real. It was open all night and there weren’t metal detectors or xray machines. 

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Deej

Deej 77805

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9 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

We could invite every homeless junkie in town to take up residence there, shoot up and defecate in the rotunda . . . . and it would be a HUGE improvement over the stuff that normally happens in that wretched building.  I support your plan.

 

They’re_The_Same_Picture.jpg

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23468

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FAFO

https://www.fox7austin.com/news/richard-curtis-tries-to-rob-marcos-pizza-austin-texas?taid=670ee2616db6280001e35349&utm_campaign=trueAnthem_manual&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Witnesses told investigators around 7 p.m. on Oct. 10, Curtis walked into Marco's Pizza near William Cannon and Westgate. He gave a note to an employee that said "don't say s*** empty the drawer." Curtis then showed the employee a gun in his waistband.

The employee grabbed Curtis and was able to get him in a chokehold while another employee called police. The manager was able to get a hold of the gun while Curtis was still fighting.

According to the affidavit, the manager tried to shoot Curtis, but the gun didn't fire, so he beat him with the handle before grabbing a knife from the kitchen. The manager then asked Curtis "prison or death." 

Curtis said prison, stopped fighting and waited for police.

One employee was taken to the hospital for a head wound.

Curtis is charged with aggravated robbery.

richard-curtis.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

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ztejas

ztejas 44223

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26 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

According to the affidavit, the manager tried to shoot Curtis, but the gun didn't fire, so he beat him with the handle before grabbing a knife from the kitchen. The manager then asked Curtis "prison or death." 

Seems a little excessive.

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