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.
Austin 360
Me, I’ve got a few hundred roommates. An indie-rock goddess. An odd couple of British schoolboys who fancy each other. A Pulitzer Prize winner and his grandfather, who’s haunted by the woman he loved, herself no stranger to phantoms.
I met ’em all in the same place here in town: BookPeople, where Austin has found characters like these for five decades. The state s largest indie bookstore marked its 50th year on Nov. 11.
It’s more than a place for Austinites to buy page-turners like the ones on my shelf at home. (If you’re curious: “Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl” by Carrie Brownstein, “Heartstopper” by Alice Oseman and “Moonglow” by Michael Chabon.) It’s a place to meet friends for a Night Shift latte from the cafe. It’s Christmas shopping headquarters. It’s your best bet in town to find a literary superstar reading a few passages as you crowd between the stacks of health books upstairs.
Council approves contract for first major 2016 mobility bond construction project
By FOX 7 Austin Digital Team
Published
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin City Council has approved a construction contract for mobility and safety improvements to South Lamar Boulevard between Riverside Drive and Barton Springs Road.
The City of Austin’s Corridor Program Office can now proceed with executing a contract with DeNucci Constructors, LLC. for an amount not to exceed around $6.8 million, says the city.
The contract approval marks the first major project to progress to construction as part of the Corridor Construction Program primarily funded by the 2016 Mobility Bond.
“I couldn’t be more pleased that council approved this contract,” said District 5 Councilmember Ann Kitchen in a release. “Soon, this stretch of South Lamar Boulevard near downtown and Lady Bird Lake will be easier and safer for everyone to travel. I have been an advocate for the 2016 Mobility Bond projects from the begi