Austinist: Extra Extra

Tarvin

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:20:34 -0600

Without the power plant, there wouldn't be any Town Lake.

mdahmus

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:21:04 -0600

crasstopher, new developments on top of old parking lots and abandoned businesses (and power plants, let's say) don't "push people out to the suburbs". What pushes them out to the suburbs is an imbalance between supply and demand, and high property tax rates. Guess what? Those people in those condos are going to be paying a lot more in taxes than they cost the city in services. More condos = a lower proportional tax bill for the single-family homeowners that remain. Is it going to get cheaper? No. Is it going to get more expensive? Yep. Would not building anything make it better? No. It would make it even worse.

crasstopher

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:23:40 -0600

It's disturbing how easily you two gloss over the racial component of this, and the way the majority of white, so-called urbanism proponents will come to the defense of east-side developments regardless of their community impact. Low-income Blacks and Hispanics are being pushed out to the suburbs, where high gas prices will disproportionately affect them, and the dime a dozen urbanist's solution is to build developments in their backyard which are a.) less affordable & b.) rarely marketed to the existing population. @ Tim I don't know how long you've been here, but the closure of the plant was a victory against the Environment Racism that put it the there in the first place. Of course, after the community finally achieved some justice, market forces (i.e. white demand), realize what a waste lakefront property is undeveloped, and swoop in for correction. And yes, it's still a race issue when the white, middle-class community neglects to acknowledge how they benefit from white privilege.

mdahmus

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:43:02 -0600

And now is DEFINITELY NOT the time to be thinking about urban density that close to downtown. For sure, not. Gas will soon be back down below a dollar, after all.

tim

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:14:27 -0600

Holly Street neighborhood should not have bitched about Power Plant if they wanted ridiculously cheap lakeside property. Shocking that lakeside property is increasing value. Shocking.