Growing Pains

South Austin is starting to really shape up as an interesting part of Austin with the new-ish Opal Divine’s at Penn Field, the potentially swanky new shops at 3100 S. Congress, the mysterious new place next to Five Oceans and more. However, some local homeowners seem to want to stem the tide of coolness. After reading this Austin-American Statesman article on the subject, we can’t quite put our finger on what some South Austin homeowners thought they were getting when they bought homes so close to downtown.

Austin is changing, and not always in ways that everyone considers good. Urban growth often means more pollution, traffic and higher property taxes. These are important issues that everyone in every city face. One thing to love about Austin is that there are numerous active groups that work to mitigate the potentially harmful effects of our little nascent utopia. There’s The Save Our Springs Alliance, The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), and The City of Austin Sustainable Communities Initiative just to name a few.

All of these are issues we can really get behind. However, when things like the Gomi cat head debacle occur, we can’t help but think “Jeez, South Austin! Lighten up!”. And when we read articles like the one in the Statesman about South Austinites trying to limit the growth of their ‘hood rather than working with local businesses to facilitate growth and lessen the negative effects on local neighborhoods, we’re thoroughly turned off. One restaurant per block? Come on.

That said, we’re not that impressed by businesses that spurn the locals and the law in the name of progress profit, either. Some might say South Congress Cafe is guilty of this charge. It seems that the restaurant is being accused of unauthorized construction of a deck in the back that continued despite several stop-work orders from the city. Neighbors are steamed because the cafe not only violated zoning laws but also built on a space that might have been used for parking. Don’t get us wrong, we’re going to enjoy the deck while it’s there, but we sure hope South Congress Cafe steps up and makes good with the locals somehow.

There’s bound to be a constant struggle between businesses and their residential neighbors as South Austin grows. Here’s to hoping both sides can learn to work together and that the city takes the hint and steps up efforts toward better public transportation.