Tag: atx

films, LifeLeave a comment

Mall Man – A ode to Northcross Mall

Mark Cathcart

I’m indebted to Dan Keshet for tweeting the following: This ode to Northcross Mall on the eve of Walmart’s arrival is the greatest film ever created. https://t.co/TCDT9sfwwc — Dan Keshet (@DanKeshet) November 9, 2015 This short film with just a few-hundred views, was made in 2007. It’s a story come pseudo-documentary made about the declining Northcross Mall here in Austin, which was a few years later replaced by yet another suburban Walmart. This film, captures everything about Austin that bought me here. A massive piece of Americana, a throwback to the 50’s in many ways. It’s well written, well narrated, … Continue reading Mall Man – A ode to Northcross Mall

automation, transport, travelLeave a comment

Will self driving cars save Austin from itself?

Mark Cathcart

If you had 100 destinations you’d have removed some of the major bottlenecks, but we don’t. We have the Central Business District. It’s a major constraint and getting people in cars in and out of it no matter how automated the cars are will have the same fundamental problems and constraints. Anyone who says otherwise really doesn’t understand the problem. Continue reading Will self driving cars save Austin from itself?

Life, politics, transport2 Comments

Rail isn’t about Congestion

Mark Cathcart

Prop.1 on the Austin November ballot is an attempt to fund the largest single bond in Austin history, almost half the $1 billion going to the light rail proposal. Finally people seem to be getting the fact that the light rail, if funded, won’t help with the existing traffic. KUT had a good review of this yesterday, the comments also some useful links. You can listen to the segment here: Is a Light Rail Line Going to Solve Austin’s Traffic Problems? Jace Deloney, makes some good points, what no one is saying though, and what I believe is the real reason … Continue reading Rail isn’t about Congestion

Politics, politics, religion, waterLeave a comment

Pray for rain?

Mark Cathcart

Anybody else mildly offended that #ATXCouncil starts with a prayer invocation that blames the drought on sin and insufficient prayer? — Dan Keshet (@DanKeshet) May 15, 2014 I’m completely baffled, and offended by this. Anyone who has jumped aboard the knowledge train about water in Texas, and doesn’t see why this is a bad thing, just hasn’t thought it through. If you believe in God, I can’t see how you can pray for rain. The amount of rain needed to make a real difference would be gargantuan. A major news item in the last 24-hours has been the announcement by … Continue reading Pray for rain?

Life, Politics, politics, travel5 Comments

Transportation leadership failure

Mark Cathcart

On Tuesday I wrote about “Austin and Alcohol tourism” and speculated on the lack of an alternative transport policy as a leadership failure. I said: Rather than rally behind what most transport conscious users and urbanization advocates believes would be hard, but right choice to put a rail line of some sort, straight down Lamar from North West Austin, [Mayor] Leffingwell used his last state of the city to rally behind the current rail proposal. And today Leffingwell lived up to that speculation. The outgoing Mayor is reported by the Austin Statesman as saying in relation to making space on … Continue reading Transportation leadership failure

Life, politics, travel2 Comments

Mor on parking

Mark Cathcart

@DanKeshet @cathcam Warehoused cars get driven far less often. It’s not perfect but best we can hope for right now. — Mike Dahmus (@mdahmus) January 2, 2014 @cathcam Yup. I’m trying to understand if they’re “needed” because required by policy, required by investors, or desired by devs. — Dan Keshet (@DanKeshet) January 2, 2014 I got some interesting responses on twitter about my parking madness post. Yes, if was writing a critical analysis, I should have covered all those points, but then the blog entry wouldn’t have been as catchy and would have taken too long to read. Here are … Continue reading Mor on parking

Life, politics, Politics1 Comment

Parking Madness

Mark Cathcart

Nothing demonstrates the failure of the current City of Austins approach and transportation policy than these two pictures. We are constantly being told than density is key to Austins future, the central neighborhoods are ripped left right and center for opposing unrestricted growth, either through bogus PUD applications which for the most more about raising the lot property than actually doing something useful. This week, Michael King in his point Austin column makes some great points about affordability, but then takes the easy way out by blaming the central neighborhoods for opposing multi-family development. Finally, the City recently agreed to … Continue reading Parking Madness