Annex San Jose Coming to South Congress

New condo project going up on the shores of Town Lake and they are affordable. 2000 sq. ft units are selling for $50K...oh wait, they all sold while I wrote this message.

LM, unfortunately in order for things to get better, they sometimes have to appear to get worse. And until the Cali folk find a more hip place to live, we'll all have to deal with the rising cost of real estate in Austin.

aea, there are a surprising amount of paleoliberals who actually believe this tripe - and they vote.

If you care at all about things like affordable housing, not just for yourself but for everybody, then you need to vigorously defend the few cases where we allow the housing market to build something other than fucked-up suburban sprawl. We already let Laura Morrison's crowd write rules which will decrease the number of housing units in the interiors of their neighborhoods, after all.

Seems to me the real issue here is the ugly and libelous diatribe that's being sustained - and enjoyed so VERY much - by the poor ill person who began it. Decent people pity such folks, but trying to reason with them is always fruitless. For heaven's sake, stop engaging with him.

"Never wrestle with a pig - you both get dirty, and the pig likes it."

I'm not saying don't worry. I'm saying don't worry about new upscale housing that isn't displacing existing housing, i.e. net new units.

Prices are probably going up (definitely in current dollars, maybe in real dollars, most probably increasing faster than your wages), but Liz Lambert's project might just be reducing the amount that housing prices increase (ever so slightly).

If you had your cardboard box set up in the alley behind San Jose, then I guess you can blame your plight on Liz Lambert.

Well the fact is that everyone's telling me not to worry, prices will stagnate once all the condos are built and I think you're all absolutely full of shit and I'd love to know how you can see the future because it ain't looking too bright for me.

You're right. Liz Lambert is not helping matters because she's not giving away her condos for $1, nor is she hurting matters by charging $300-900k. The pool is remaining essentially static for people who can only afford $500/month.

If Liz Lambert decided to turn a pile of dirt into affordable or super cheap condos (or apartments), you don't think:

a. people would bid the prices up of said condos because the location is fucking primetime

b. the people in charge of said apartments would up the price almost instantly because if they sell out at (for example) $500/month, they'd probably STILL sell out for $750 or $1000 or some higher price

?

Anyway, what this all boils down to is not Liz Lambert or people moving here from out of state to buy expensive-for-Austin-but-cheap-for-the-coasts condos... it boils down to you wanting the government to mandate stricter affordable housing regulations on prime real estate. As you noted, you can find affordable housing north of 183 or east of I-35, but you can't really find it (easily) in the main corridor between Mopac and I-35, etc. (And yes, M1KE will argue that you can find some relatively affordable places in the Hyde Park area and I won't disagree but the more expensive definitely is outnumbering the affordable significantly at this point depending on your definition of affordable)

No one is going to build affordable (or cheap) housing on prime real estate near downtown unless the government (city, county, state, or federal) makes 'em. It's not Liz Lambert being a bitch (in this case, I don't know about her and this documentary, etc) -- it's the fact that unless compelled to do it by the law, no one is going to charitably build cheap shit in a great location. Ranting and raving isn't going to change that.

Sure she's helping. If there is a net gain in housing units, it's helping- even if it's added on the high end.

If there isn't sufficient supply of high end housing, the people in that sub-market will lower their standards, and drive up prices for upper-mid-range housing. The people in the market for upper-mid-range housing will get priced out and lower their standard to lower-mid-range housing, etc. Eventually, it makes it down to your end of the market.

The Californian with loads of do-re-mi falling out of his pockets will buy or rent one of those pricey condos (which are not displacing existing housing units AFAIK) instead of competing with you for your cardboard box.

You are not paying attention. I know more people are coming here. I know we need more housing. I am saying that what we need is more affordable housing. More housing for middle class people and poor people. WHAT I AM SAYING, STUPID, IS THAT THIS LIZ LAMBERT BITCH IS NOT HELPING MATTERS BY BUILDING $300,000 1BED/1BATH CONDOS.

You act like you never learned how to think.

LM,

Are you suggesting that all the people moving here would stay away if we didn't build new housing? Do you think that the only thing drawing newcomers is these flashy new condos?

People may be coming as fast as the new units are built, but if the units aren't built, the people will still come, but instead of moving into new supply, they'll bid up the price for your apartment.

If you can't wrap your head around the fact that the supply and demand aren't static, and that our expensive-for-Texas-but-cheap-compared-to-where-the-newcomers are-from housing prices aren't yet expensive enough to discourage newcomers, then you're beyond education.

And even if you can't wrap your mind around how that's possible that is what's happening.

I understand that you don't understand a goddamn thing going on with rental units right now and I understand that you might think that building all these condos is great for Austin, but can you at least try to understand that if people keep coming as fast as they're built and people keep paying outrageous prices for tiny units then that does nothing but inflate both home prices and rental prices?

Alright, Carnac, obviously you don't think that demand is going to reach supply. I do. Every projection I see in the media says that they can't build the condos fast enough to accomodate everyone. So where are you getting this idea that nobody else is going to move into Austin ever?

And, of course, when we insist on devaluing our currency to pay back the bills we incurred during a war of choice (because we decided to cut rich folks' taxes instead of raising them, like you normally do to fund a friggin' war), your rent is gonna go up. But so does everything else - the new condos have absolutely jack-shit to do with it.

LoudMouth, you're continuing to ignore this point: ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL, adding supply, even rich folk supply, will result in lower prices than what would happen if you didn't add the supply. Note the "what would happen IF YOU DIDN'T ADD THE SUPPLY".

Note that this doesn't mean prices will go down. If the supply added isn't enough to keep up with demand, price will still go up! Just not as much as it would have otherwise. And know what? The idiots in the ANC who pushed McMansion are causing supply in other places to go away - garage apartments and duplexes go poof. Guess what that does to prices of apartments everywhere?

You can claim putting up rich-folks condos on top of parking lots is making your price go up all you want, but you're just proving your economic illiteracy every time you do.

Unless you're one of those people that think that the working poor should be homeless, which I suspect you might be, in which case I can't recommend anything other than a lobotomy to correct that thinking.

Supply and demand? The problem, mdahmus, and I know you don't know this because you own your own home, is that demand is outstripping supply and the supply of crappy apartments and affordable neighborhoods is dwindling. Get out your house, take the 1 down Lamar and just try to find an available place on the north side of 183 since that's the last resort for cheap housing now, then we can talk after you see how hard that is.

PS: Note I used the word "zero" on purpose, but also note that 1000 new condos will still lead to lower price for housing than would otherwise be the case even if they in aggregate draw 999 new people to town who would otherwise not have come here.

In no universe remotely close to the real one does the construction of new housing draw people in anything like that proportion. Which is why most of the gentrification arguments are such complete bullshit.

"but in actuality building upscale residences only for the rich is doing NOTHING to help the housing situation in this town"

Bullshit. Basic supply and demand. Unless you think building the housing units is DRAWING more people to the town, and that zero of those people would have come here otherwise, and that zero other people would have come here instead.

M Twilson, no, I do not do enough to help homeless people, poor people, single mothers and ex-cons. I scrape by myself but if I did have the money, the land and the resources to build condos and homes for people they wouldn't be these extravagant overpriced monstrosities that everyone is building nowadays even in poor neighborhoods. I'd build sturdy little reasonably priced living quarters for people without garden tubs and chef's kitchens and granite everywhere.

mdahmus, you might be right according to logic, but in actuality building upscale residences only for the rich is doing NOTHING to help the housing situation in this town. Sure if they can't fill up then maybe I'll get a break in rent, but that shit ain't happening. More people move here all the time and that's what this bitch is banking on.

What is most disgusting about her situation relates to what themo said. She made a fucking movie about the people she kicked off of South Congress to tell the world what a great person she is before helping to make South Congress her personal bank vault. She doesn't care about Austin or Austinites, she cares about her bank account and making the world as boring and ugly as she is. I won't buy coffee from Jo's. So what can I do about it? I won't stay at the San Jose. Not just because everything she's selling is a scene but because she's an awful person.

LoudMouth and many others,

"when people can't even rent an apartment because of absolute shit like this."

The "because" in a sentence like this should actually have something to do with the thing you think it's causing before you have the gall to write it.

Putting up condos on parking lots, or turning old offices into condos, or hell, even turning one house into four or eight condos DOES NOT MAKE YOUR APARTMENT RENT GO UP in any universe close to the real world. It, in fact, makes your apartment rent go up a little less than it otherwise would have, all else being equal.

Cut this stupid shit out. Facts are delicate little creatures that must be protected, not abused and turned into jaunty little hats.

LM, just wondering, what exactly do YOU do to help poor, homeless people. I personally don't do shit besides vote. But I also don't rag on people who make money. Even us "working people" still have it much better than people in most countries, in other words are rich pigs to them, but do we do shit? I doubt it.

Maybe you actually do something. I don't know you. But if you want people to stop wanting to make money, then you also want them to stop investing and creating business and hiring wage earners and the like.

That said, we do need more restrictions on developers creating a certain amount of actually affordable "affordable housing."

Looks like it'll be a nice development.

That reason and also that you never know who spit in your water or what kind of germs they transmitted when they did that.

undrum1 - make some sense and then we can talk.

cram - I agree and it's pretty pathetic that all the working class poor I know outside of Austin are still going to vote Republican although that only hurts them. Pretty much everyone I know in Austin that's working class poor is of course going to vote Democratic except for a couple of guys I know who vote Republican with the hopes that will destroy the nation as this bad news gets worse.

themo - I haven't seen that but I don't expect her to house the homeless. I expect her, if she knows that it takes $300,000 to buy even a tiny condo anywhere in this town, to raise the pay of her employees instead of making them live off of tips. That's not my responsibility to supplement her employees income because she only pays them $2.00 an hour maybe. That's largely why I don't support coffee shops and restuarants and I urge others to cook their own food as well.

While Lambert has the right to do as she pleases, the thing that rings to me as disingenuous is the documentary she shot, "Last Days of the San Jose" or whatever it was called, in which she acts very sad for the plight of poor people who she is having to kick out of the rundown hotel. She may be a huge philantrhposit and we just don't know it, but to seem so sad over people losing their houses while scheming to make SoCo into SoHo is a little difficult to stomach.

LoudMouth - have you graduated from high school yet? I hear that TAKS test is a bitch - screw the man for dat too!!

You might not have heard - the internets are largely ignoring/boycotting ride little trolls like yourself, those for whom the novelty of cowardly and anonymous flame-baiting hasn't worn off since the day they scored their first free AOL account. Go find yourself a new medium to spew your confused diatribes; this one has been taken by the grown-ups.

LM,

Sadly, the people you talk of (hard working poor people) continue to vote for the very people who cause these situations. While you are outraged at their living conditions, they are outraged at stem cells, fetus' rights, breathing tubes in living vegetables, Osama Bin Boogieman, lack of prayer in school, and/or whether or not gay people can get married.

It's commendable that you give a fuck, but most people in the same situation apparently do not give a fuck. And if they do give a fuck (and I am completely mistaken), what's the explanation for how assclowns like George W Bush, Rick Perry, and all their friends continue to get re-elected by the people of Texas?

I also called txterryo entitled but that was because she called me a troll as she's done before when she doesn't agree with me and thinks that only one perspective should be stated - the one she likes.

This woman runs a shack on South Congress where she gives you gas station quality coffee for a $2.00 markup and then forces you to not only pay her, but her employees as well by leaving a tip for them, all so you can enjoy her view of the street. Stop buying the hype. Go to 7-11 where they have to pay their employees minimum wage and you don't have to tip. They may be just as evil as her but at least you won't be charged twice for a cup of coffee.

Not everyone is entitled. That response was to rarr who was assuming that because I am disgused by the excesses of the very wealthy few who can bend us over and rape us all at their will that I was "jealous" or evied that greedy pig.

I 've been through this game with you before. I do feel entitled to a better life. Most working class people do because wages are stagnent (thanks to people like this bitch), housing costs are astronomical (thanks to people like this bitch) and the only people benefiting from higher food prices and oil prices and housing prices are people like guess who that control the wealth.

That bitch has gotten a free ride for too long and I am not putting up with this business of only a handful of wealthy people should set the price where only they can buy the land to control the majority of housing in this town. If you can't see this coming to that then you're blind too. In that case OPEN YOUR EYES.

It's interesting that eveyone on here is 'entitled', wearing 'D&G Blinders' or 'Louis Vitton bags over[our]heads' except LM.

However, that is exactly the kind of duck and cover response I am talking about. At least these people have the nerve to argue with me a little unlike some people that think they can hide from the world's problems and injustice if they twiddle their thumbs furiously and buy enough shit at the mall.

The only troll I see here is you, calling me a troll when, in fact, I am merely expressing an opinion that your entitled ass don't like.

Good lord people, don't you know better than to feed the trolls?

Golly gee willikers, rarr, then I guess I must have hit a nerve with you too - LOLZ! hey, Mr. I'M HAPPY GOD DAMNIT, have you looked in a mirror lately?

You're the two birdbrains that brought hate to the discussion so I don't know why you're slapping me with that label. What I do know is that those who are willfully ignorant of what's happening in their own communities and chose to deny poverty and unjust conditions will suffer for their denial be it now, or later, or somewhere down the road, those people will not be let off easy especially when all the hard working poor people of the world finally get sick of all you people walking around with your eyes closed to what's happening all around you.

That's not unhappiness. That's not hating based on income. That's hating based on ignorance, frivolity, and greed. I don't envy Liz Lambert and I wouldn't be as blind as her for all the money she and her brother got from their rich daddy. Not because I don't agree with this passing it down, keeping the wealth in the family, in the style of Marie Antoinette saying, "Let them buy a condo," when people can't even rent an apartment because of absolute shit like this. Not because I'd have to be as ugly on the outside as I am on the inside if I were her. I wouldn't be her because she can't listen to anyone but her economic advisers, has huge power in this community and can't use it for anything but evil, and because she's got to be sharp as a sack of bowling balls to think that people are going to keep buying shitty overpriced condos downtown just because they;re near overpriced concessions.

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I don't have anything against Ms Lambert, as everything she's been involved in has been tastefully done. The Thunderbird comes to mind. What I don't get is the timing and scale of this project, you only have to walk half a block up congress to see an identical development, half inhabited and flagrantly overpriced.

Starting at 300K is pretty good, but I'm guessing that's a studio situation with less than 600 sqft. Lake Flato or not, that's leaving a large chunk of the type of person truly willing to live in a dense urban area (single, young, naive), out in the cold, or heat, if you will.

Investors will eat it up, but of course, that's not what Mr. Wynn had in mind.

i can see i hit a nerve...good :)

Whoa...not only does LM hate people who make money, but also, those who are happy.....

LM will you be my friend??? I need more people like YOU around me!

rarr,

You are an idiot and have no idea what you are talking about. Keep those D&G blinders on and the plastic Louis Vitton bag over your head. Keep being greedy and you'll kill yourself too, stupid.

LM,

your jealousy and envy comes out in every comment you post. whether it is about condos or sxsw. you should really find more things that make you happy.

She will probably completely lose her ass on this and that will make the whole think hilarious.

$300,000 - $900,000 for a fucking condo?! That's what's wrong. ****

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she has done a fantastic job with the san jose and jo's. establishments like those only serve to improve the entire neighborhood around them. seems to me like she has worked very hard and is very involved in the austin community. what's wrong with making a bunch of cash?

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