With the strain of urban sprawl already tainting the greater Austin area - where it seems like every major roadway is starting to feel like Burnet Road - and faceless housing subdivisions resemble Anywhere, USA, the compact city philosophy urges us to look inward. Downtown Austin still has many open spaces left from the purge of the last boom, lots that could be sensibly filled with the sort of businesses and structures that have already revived much of the center city: retail spaces, restaurants and clubs, and apartments. We've already got enough skyscrapers to satisfy our edifice complex; let's now forgo the tenuous supermall concepts and rebuild our downtown into a sensible cultural and business center that invites pedestrian usage.Likewise, the region around and east of US183 offers an environmentally sound area for industrial and large-scale retail development, with, hopefully, an economic spillover into disadvantaged East Austin. With the new airport at Bergstrom and the possibility of MoKan looming, designating the corridor an enterprise district is the sort of sensible policy we hope our city leaders might consider. Directing development eastward might help ensure that the next boom benefits all of Austin, and helps bring this sometimes fractured community together.
