At least that's according to Travel + Leisure magazine, which just released its annual rankings of America's Favorite Cities, as based on a survey taken by over 60,000 people. Austinites are ranked as the fourth Most Attractive, and first in "Overall" characteristics. The results, presented from both the visitor and resident's perspective, also give a pretty accurate general indication of how we feel about the state of things here, from what we're most jazzed about......

On Thursday night, City Council preliminarily approved the first phase of a plan to create a ‘second downtown’ in the area around the Domain. The North Burnet/Gateway Master Plan aims to transform 2,330 acres north of US 183 into a pedestrian and public transportation friendly mixed-use neighborhood. The plan envisions a redesigned Burnet Road as a ‘multi-use transit boulevard carrying Austin, bicycle and future transit service throughout the area.’ It will encourage the addition of......

Whether you're going nuts over your afternoon commute, pleased as punch about Cap Metro's Long-Range Transit Plan, tonight's your chance to let 'em know—after you've downed a few rounds of liquid courage, if need be. The monthly edition of Keep Austin Blue's Social Hour is happening over at Mother Egan's Irish Pub, and tonight's agenda is all about transportation. Participating public transit aficionados include Matt Curtis (Director Community Involvement, Capital Metro), Todd Hemingson (VP......

Back in June, after Mayor Wynn gave his global warming presentation at the Alamo Downtown, the funnymen at Master Pancake Theater performed a special one-off skewering of Roland Emmerich's cheeseball disaster flick The Day After Tomorrow. Sad you missed it? Well cheer up, sunshine, because the show went over so well that the one-off has now become an eleven-off! Starting tomorrow, the Master Pancake guys (aided by guest comedian Scott Chester) will roast The Day......

East Avenue Investment Group is hosting a "neighborhood appreciation party" from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the site of the new East Avenue development (formerly Concordia University). They will show renderings of the new development, which is now expected to include 1,450 condos and apartments, 600,000 square feet of office space, 325,000 square feet of retail and a 250-room hotel. For a sneak preview, look to the right of this text ->......

The Texas House of Representatives voted 118-16 for a bill amendment that would suspend the $0.20 per gallon gas tax for three months. This would cost the state $500 million to $700 million, which would come funds earmarked for transportation and public education. The amendment has not yet passed in the Senate. As far as taxes go, the gas tax sucks less than most. People generally have some level of control over how much......

Traffic this morning is as bad as it gets. Due to a fire at the Army testing lab, a bunch of escaped infected monkeys are roaming the expressway. Despite the sweltering heat, don't unroll your windows, 'cause those monkeys seem confused and irritable. In other news, Nick Paumgarten has an essay on commuting in this week's New Yorker. Some interesting stats: approximately one out of six American workers commutes more than forty-five minutes, each......

Austin's Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) initiative, which will attempt to better integrate public transportation with mixed-use communities, is being implemented all around town. As this will affect a large majority of those living in or around the urban core, the City of Austin is reaching out to the public by hosting another series of discussion and forum sessions. Tomorrow afternoon, city officials and national planning consultants will present their vision of TOD, as well as......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

It is odd how a man believes he can think better in a special place. Many Austinites dreamed that Mueller would be their special place. Most of those dreams are crashing against the brick wall of reality. Mueller was supposed to be a green-urbanist dream: an affordable neighborhood near downtown where residents could walk to retail and commercial space and public transportation, where you could paint your house any stupid color you want and......

Just in time for SXSW, Google today announced that it has partnered up with Capital Metro to provide Austin public transportation information on their way-nifty Google Transit Trip Planner. Using their straightforward interface, you simply enter in where you'd like to go, where you're coming from, and (if you're fancy) what time you'd like to depart or arrive. Google Transit takes care of everything else, accessing CapMetro's fancy databases to figure out exactly what route......

Catellus Development Group has disclosed the identities of the six home-builders that will be included in the Mueller redevelopment project: David Weekley Homes, Meritage Homes, Standard Pacific Homes, The Muskin Co., Saldaña Homes and Streetman Homes. Of these, Streetman, Saldana, and Muskin are from Austin. David Weekly is based in Houston, Meritage is based in Arizona, and Standard Pacific is based in California. They primarily build single family houses on the periphery of Austin......

The magazine Natural Home has put South Congress second on its list of America's Best Eco-Neighborhoods. The list appears to be arranged alphabetically by city name, so being second doesn't really matter, but at least it's in the top ten. The area's walkability, integration of residential and commercial space, and access to public transportation helped put it on the list. Great local stores like Farm to Market and Ecowise probably also helped. SoCo is......

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned.......

Traffic. Air Pollution. Spending Money on Cars. These are a few of our least favorite things. At least according to Austin CarShare. The small non-profit organization that we told you was coming has proposed a new program that would allow residents to share four cars to help cut down on all there of the troubles mentioned above. The City Council is expected to pass a measure today to help Austin CarShare, which does not own......

Mayors Wynn and Cowman (of Leander a.k.a. Baghdad) tasked (Texan for "asked") a broad group of community and business leaders and organizations in February to examine the need for an independent voice for public transportation in the region. For the last seven months, the group has been working on the alliance's development, and voila, the Alliance for Public Transportation is formed. It shall promote public transportation that improves our quality of life, economic development,......

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place. SFist Tourist......

DMJM Harris, the consultant hired by the Texas Department of Transportation to look at ways to squeeze more lanes onto MoPac between Lake Austin and Parmer, says that they will likely announce their solution in December. That "solution" appears to be to squeeze another lane in between the existing lane and the train tracks. That lane would not be for normal traffic - only buses and people willing to pay tolls. A lane for......

Even as the stores sport back to school sales (which depress us, even now), summer lingers on your friends the -ists. This week's collection of links provides some of the best, worst, and oddest bits of summer fun. So, bring your laptop up onto the roof, make yourself an umbrella drink or ten, and enjoy this week's choice posts from across the Gothamist network. Torontoist (where it's 75 degrees F as of this writing)......

Treehugger.com is a fast-growing web magazine dedicated to "everything that has a modern aesthetic yet is environmentally responsible," according to the site. Currently on the site they are running a survey, asking readers what they think about the enviro-friendliness of towns around the country. The survey started with Portland, and this week, it's our turn, Austin. Treehugger wants you to send them feedback on a variety of green-related issues: What is the general level......

Once again, it looks like those of us who rely on public transportation on a daily basis could be faced with a strike of some sort, unless Cap City Metro and the unionized drivers and mechanics can come to terms. We are not very hopeful. Last night the Cap City Metro Board held an emergency meeting to discuss the problem. Union workers from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091 were told after the meeting......

Austin is trying to grow up. To become more cosmopolitan. To be a city with a 24-hour downtown area where people can walk to work and the grocery store and restaurants. But at what cost? And who, exactly, will live there? We’ve lived in urban areas from San Francisco to Chicago to New York, and we love the ability to use public transportation or our own two feet to get from pharmacy to bar......

As we were waiting for our daily lift across the bridge to our own personal hell work this morning, we noticed flyers taped to the bench at the bus stop shelter deriding both the Capital Metro Chairman and his general manager for being unfair to organized labor. As you may know, Capital Metro bus drivers and mechanics have been at the precipice of strike now for a few weeks. At issue are wages for......

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......

Throughout the early part of the twentieth century, streetcars were a fixture in most American cities. Their slow, deliberate, and emission-free navigation served as the early progenitor of today's mass transit systems. And were it left to the environmentally conscious, they might still function as the backbone of intracity transportation. Sadly, apart from a few shining exceptions, streetcar lines today serve more as nostalgic tokens of our recent past. For this you can thank......

Beginning this Sunday, May 1, Capital Metro will begin a pilot program introducing unlimited bus service for only $1. The city is doing away with its former transfer program, which allowed a passenger to transfer buses for free within an hour and a half of his first trip. Capital Metro says the, “the conversion to day passes supports [our] goal of making it easier for the community to use public transportation.” The new passes......

Austinist Reader Lauren writes: Hey there, I live in DC but am moving to Austin this summer… Currently I don't have a car or know much about Austin (except that I will be living near the UT campus). Will I need a car to get around or is there a decent transportation system? There is no fancy Metro here in Austin like DC, but there is a pretty good bus system. This is especially useful......