We’re growing faster than any other metropolitan area in the country, and we have been for the last five years...And the challenges are, with all the growth that we’re having, we’re going to stop being the city that we imagine that we are, that we remember being. We have to grow to be the city that we still recognize. So those challenges are not optional challenges for us to deal with, they’re the challenges for us to deal with. — Metropolis Magazine
As Austin rapidly becomes an "it" city, how will the city keep its character? Metropolis talks with Austin Mayor Steve Adler about the multiple challenges ahead.
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"We need to recognize that in a city that has 2 million people in the metropolitan area today, 3 million people predicted by 2030, 4 million people within 10 years of that, we’re going to have to be building more densely than we’re building now. But we can’t do that density in the middle of neighborhoods because that too is disruptive and will [make us] lose part of our spirit and our soul. "
As a resident of Austin, I can say that this sums up the current issues the city is having with development on the whole. The problems that come with growing into a larger city are definitely being recognized, but the solutions being proposed (particularly by the mayor) have been nothing short of lip service that has not made many happy. Along with that, essentially every neighborhood wants to stay exactly the way it is and make no accommodations for future growth.
I believe the solution to these problems would be incremental urbanism and an increase in density within ALL neighborhoods. There are a number of central/urban core neighborhoods in this city that have made it very difficult to have any increase in density. And as such, with a lack of available housing, the housing that is available becomes increasingly expensive.
Some of this is attempting to be addressed in our code rewrite, however again there are groups at play that do not want these things to change. So it poses this planning and political issue between working together to make comprehensive changes or keep the status quo and allow neighborhoods to continue to develop independently. I believe the city poses a great look into how all metro areas are growing and the increased urbanization of the general populace. I think every city will have to make the same decision soon enough: do we implement policies that allow for a system-wide address of our issues, or do we leave these things to the neighborhoods and the free market alone?
Andrew, it seems Seattle is really facing this issue as well. People who own single family homes in close-in neighborhoods are very vocally resistant to up-zoning to increase density in their neighborhoods. It's the next NIMBY battle.
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