Results tagged “suburbs”

The Austin Contrarian did a nice post yesterday on the Design Commission's Density Bonus Recommendations. A "density bonus" isn't quite what it sounds like - developers don't get a bonus for building more density. Instead, developers pay the city (generally to provide money for parks, affordable housing or mass transit) in exchange for the right to build more density. Parks, affordable housing and mass transit are all good things, but density is also a good...

Straight out of the suburbs of Atlanta, the young men of Manchester Orchestra have quickly found a spot in the Georgia indie-rock circuit. Guitarist and lead vocalist Andy Hull homeschooled himself his senior year of high school to allow himself more time to focus on his work with Manchester Orchestra. The result of that focus is the band's first full-length. Peppered with references to Woody Allen, the album is full up with moody music that...

Cedar Park, Pflugerville and Round Rock placed among Forbes magazine's fifty fastest growing suburbs in the United States from 2000-2006. Among the many Texas cities on the list, Round Rock was 12th, Pflugerville was 7th and Cedar Park was 3rd. Forbes discussed some of the tradeoffs of unregulated suburban sprawl: low housing costs, but high transportation costs - providing the example that in Houston, transportation costs are the No. 1 household expense, according to...

Foreclosures in Travis and Williamson counties are at their lowest level since December 2002, but 78664 in Round Rock had the 182nd most foreclosures (by zip code) in the country, and the sixth most in Texas, according to a list published by Money Magazine. Most of the remaining Texas zips on the list are in suburbs outside Dallas, although 78660 in Pflugerville represents at number 450.

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic...

The Statesman picked up a Chicago Tribune story indicating that 18 out of 20 studies on the topic show significant links between the built environment and obesity. One, by Reid Ewing from the University of Maryland, showed that people living in suburban developments whose only link to other places is busy roads with few sidewalks were 6 pounds heavier on average than those living in "walkable" communities. Another, by Matthew Turner at the University of...

Earlier this month, Hays County voters rejected a $172 million bond proposal for road expansion. Voters probably aren't concerned about the cost - TXDOT had promised to reimburse the county for $133 million of the $172 million. Instead, Hays County voters appear to be rightfully concerned about induced traffic and a bunch of giant roads mucking up their countryside (both directly and through the strip malls, tract-home suburbs and office parks that are attracted to...

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 near newly constructed highways and water treatment plants, but Muskin has done some central work. Hard to tell what Saldaña has been doing - they appear to have built their website based on the Mueller project. That said, Saldaña is the most centrally located of any of the builders ('02 TID!).

Fast in the wake of the newly opened toll roads, Centurion American Development Group has announced plans to develop a 498-lot subdivision on 97 acres near Harris Branch Parkway and Blue Goose Road. Not to be outdone, Triton Financial Inc. has similar plans to develop a 640-lot subdivision near Parmer Lane and Farmhaven Road, on 130 acres that were previously the Gault family farm.

We hardly think Wal-Mart will help revitalize anything. Say goodbye to the little shops in North Austin. Save Terra Toys! Dunkin' Donuts better step on the bandwagon. They're going to lose their biggest market to some greasy burgers. Anticipate headlines that read: Murders, Pedophiles and Stalkers on the Rise in Japan. They're getting MySpace. Soccer moms not the US Military will soon invade Iraq. Its safer than the suburbs. The FCC has decided that...

Welcome to the Halloween edition of This Week in Theatre, and the first time since we’ve been in Austin that some company hasn’t produced a play about mystical and spooky stuff to commemorate this festive occasion. So, in lieu of seeing a “horror” play this weekend—an event where busty blondes disappear for no reason, only to return later after a highly unfortunate series of events has stripped them down to their underwear; or, you...

A Love to Hide (Un Amour A' Taire)Drama, Dir. Christian Faure, 2006 Screens: Tuesday, October 3rd at 7pm "An elegant, nuanced drama with horrific subject matter, A Love to Hide is set in Paris in 1942. Jean and Philippe, two young gay lovers in occupied France, risk their lives to hide a childhood Jewish friend, Sarah, whose family has been killed by the Gestapo. They struggle to survive as a makeshift family in a...

Aqua Teen Hungerforce is one of our favorite late-night TV shows. Cartoon Network's trippy and witty antics of fast food products living in the suburbs of New Jersey has been entertaining inebriated viewers since Adult Swim's debut. One of the signature artists in Adult Swim's motley crew of hip-hop contributers is DJ Spooky, who penned theme songs and more for these cult cartoon favorites. Hailing from Washington D.C. and armed with a degree in...

Yes, it sucks that there is so little lead-time on this event. The first Austin Music Mixer! It’s tonight. TONIGHT, damnit. But don’t act like you’re super busy on Tuesday nights anyway. What, CSI: Waco Suburbs got your evening on-lock? Tivo that bullshit and mingle with other musicians. Here’s their press release, in their own musicianesque words: -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Austin Music Foundation (AMF) today announces the launch of the Austin Music Mixer, a twice-monthly...

I was going to launch into an all-out, play-by-play description of everything that went down over the weekend. You know: the booze, parties, music, and whatever. How it was “all so crazy! And then [boom!] and then [Pow!!] and ohhhh snap: [BAM!!!!]” But there are two things that are really holding me back.

Because caffeine can cause anxiety, depression, bad-moods and increased levels of stress, (Imagine what we're like without our coffee!!) several coffee shops are going to start labeling their grinds accordingly. When you're watching football this season, be sure to check out the referees' new threads. We know that's what you watched football for anyway. We heard that the downtown Austin Post Office could transform in to a another residential high-rise. Our intelligent minds would...

There was a pretty interesting group out last night to bear witness to Arctic Monkeys and We Are Scientists at Stubb’s. Moms and their kids, shuttled in from the suburbs, were taking in the sounds alongside preppy potheads (we saw the dugout guys, you’re not slick. And un-tuck your shirt, you’re at a show). Apparently and unfortunately, blue hair-dye is still popular with some young ladies. Faux English soccer hooligans, well-tanned and not the least bit aggressive, dappled the crowd with red crosses while double-fisting plastic pints. Every person in attendance was anticipating a great show and they got one.

The follow up to her surprise smash, Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld's The Man of My Dreams (TMoMD), is a similar meditation on awkwardness that tracks its protagonist, Hannah Gavener, from the trauma of her parents' divorce at age 14 to her realistic, and not too overdue, epiphany at age 28. Sittenfeld shows that it's not just parents that don't understand, as Will Smith posited in 1988, but sisters, cousins, boys, and protagonists, too.

The Task Force appointed by City Council to suggest new zoning regulations for the suburbs near downtown will present its suggestions to the Planning Commission tonight at 6:30 P.M. in the Assembly Room (1st floor) of Town Lake Center (Austin Energy), 721 Barton Springs Road. They'll present them to City Council on Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 6:00 P.M. at the Austin City Hall, Council Chambers, 301 W. 2nd Street. The suggested zoning restrictions would allow for the larger of a 2,300-square-foot home or a home whose square footage is 40 percent of the lot size.

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-wiedling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes....

The Austin Wranglers, Austin's Arena Football League team, is looking into building a 14,000-seat arena. According to the Austin Business Journal, the team recently hired CSL Consulting Inc. of Dallas to do a study on whether the arena would make economic sense. Apparently the results showed that there is a demand for a venue of at least 10,000 seats to be built in the Austin suburbs. The Wranglers averaged just over 10,000 fans a game in the aging Frank Erwin Center, a venue they are forced to share with the Longhorns.

Two weeks ago, we sat down for a chat with Lillian Berlin, frontman of Living Things, a rock band whose emphatic liberal leanings all but scorn the conservative suburbs of St. Louis from where they came. Touring for the past two years with the likes of The Libertines, Velvet Revolver, and The Vines, the quartet - brothers Lillian, Eve and Bosh Berlin and guitarist Cory Becker - earned the respect of music critics, the...

Austinist has heard some fuss lately about "infill" in South Austin, so we decided to do a little research and find out what the hell it means why everyone seems so upset about it.