Can the essence of a city survive progress?

  Here in Austin we have like to keep a certain feel to the city.  With a motto of "Keep Austin Weird" you can only guess that it is a somewhat un-traditional place full of strange shops, relaxed people and a strong sense of community.  One of our weird little venues is an RV park in the middle of an affluent part of town.  This isn't your normal RV park.  It is quirky, stylish and surprisingly affordable in an area of town that forgot affordable ages ago.  It also has an incredible downtown, lakeside  location.  This of course means it is a big juicy steak sitting on the counter for developers.

Yep you guessed it, this small quirky oasis will sport a gleaming set of condos sometime after 2008. I like the condos. They are stylish and the developer is making an attempt to keep the feel of the place, even allowing public access to the lake.

The concern many people have is that as space dwindles in many of our up and coming cities, off beat locales, such as the Shady Grove RV park, will fall to the high demand. So far Austin has been doing a fairly good job of retaining the "weirdness" but is there a point when too much is lost and the essence of the city takes it's last gasping breath then slowly fades away? What will happen to these cities after their uniqueness is lost?

Some feel that progress is unstoppable, a necessary evil, if you will. I love progress but I also love the quirks that make the city feel special. Is there a way to have our cake and eat it to?  Obviously I don't have the answers to my own questions. If I did I would make thousands of dollars helping the cities survive and quirky little locales would worship me as their goddess. Well OK maybe not
that far. One way we can help preserve the essence of our beloved cities is to be diligent. Monitor the new projects and really delve into the issues behind them. And we must recognize that yes, sometimes that new high rise or condo really will be good for the city. And those of you who are all progress all the time, remember, that funny little essence maybe what gives you the bond to your city, makes it feel like home instead of a mess of concrete and traffic. Yin and yang, the eternal balance brought into city planning.

To read more on this project:

http://www.bartonplaceaustin.com/

 

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/realestate/12/02/2barton.html

Comments

[Austin Real Estate People]

Interesting post. I have grappled with alot of the same questions. On one hand Austin is growing and new development is created to deal with this growth. But, in large part people are moving here because Austin has a certain funkiness and charm. I deal with people moving here because they visited here and realized Austin had something unique and different to offer. If we tear down everything that is unique in our city to build condos in the end what are we left with.

I like that the city is pushing for small shops to be in the base of some of the condos. Although I would like to see more of this. For instance in the triangle I was hoping for a little more retail in the building. Currently it seems that their is mostly retail in just the north section. One other idea. Am I just proposing this now would be to allow local owned business to build in the flood plain. Their could be some rules such as only covering 20% of the impervious ground area and only having one story. Their are of course some problems with this but the benefits of keeping small locally owned businesses might outweigh the costs.