Sometimes it feels like Austin has already lost its core character permanently.
No doubt, our material environment is changing every day, as we add more people, buildings and cars to a place that will likely soon join the list of top 10 largest cities in the country. And while Austin has preserved a lot of green space, the new high-rises and mid-rises, some of them legitimate eyesores, blot out our visual horizons, especially if one is on foot.
Several groups in town are dedicated to judiciously preserving our built heritage, none more ardently than Preservation Austin. Accelerated during the first wave of protests against the wholesale demolition of worthy older structures in the 1970s, it has done a lot with few resources and a tiny, though effective, staff.