'Austin, Texas – Growing Pains' on NPR's "State of Re:Union"

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Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

It's not that I'm a Realtor - it's that I've lived in Austin for 40 years, watched it grow, watched the neighborhoods, lived near that neighborhood and have multiple friends who have lived in it for most of their lives (all of their lives, in a couple of cases), and as said, that neighborhood is nothing like the kind of neighborhood that needs or could sustain (without serious traffic problems for the residents and, of course, anyone going there) the original proposal. Which certainly didn't stop the proposal from being made.

Also, that neighborhood is, in a sense, like SoCo, in that it's one of the original, unique Austin neighborhoods with local businesses all over the place (and more opening all the time) that gives Austin the flavor that makes it not just "Walmart/Home Depot/Lowe's/Best Buy/Big Box City". If the Walmart had wanted to open over on Mopac or I35 with frontage roads, etc., already in place to support the traffic, I doubt there would have been anywhere near the furor - after all, Lowe's and Home Depot did exactly that and I don't recall hearing a great deal of fuss about it. Probably would be better for business, too, and only a few blocks more for the residents who really, truly need a Walmart closer than 15 minutes away to go.

Re: Watching Austin grow. I've done the same, and since 1968 have lived either directly in the Burnet Road/Anderson Lane area or no more than 3 miles of it all but three of those years. We moved there while those neighborhoods still had model homes. Homes in Crestview were 10 - 15 years old. I know the area well and respect it.

You asked why the madness for a Walmart in the area. I wouldn't call it a madness for Walmart, but shopping dwindled in that area over the years. We once had A&P in the North Village shopping center, Handy Andy where Stein Mart is located, Kroger where Ross is, an HEB at Anderson Lane and 183, a Gulf Mart/Miller's at Burnet and Anderson, Winn's in North Village, Gibson's where Tuesday Morning is, etc.. Now, there are really no general merchandise stores unless you want to shop at a drugstore. There are basically three grocery stores and one where you can get a few things: HEB on Far West, which is a madhouse, HEB at Burnet Road and Koenig (packed as well), Randall's on Balcones (pricey), and Sun Harvest (can get some things there, but it's limited). None except Sun Harvest are stores in that neighborhood. I suppose you could also count the Randall's at Mesa and Spicewood Springs, but it's not in the neighborhood either.

I'm a strong advocate of shopping at local merchants and probably do that 80% of the time, except for groceries. If this year is like years past, that is where I will do all of my Christmas shopping. I do not want Anywhere, USA, I just grew tired of driving out 183 or some other suburban location to shop. It wasn't that way in years gone by. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, but it seemed like we became overlooked as a market.

btw, Anderson Lane from Burnet Road to near Rockwood has been a pain for all the years I've lived here, due to a concrete median that made it impossible to pull directly into many businesses if you were headed east and needed to make a left turn, into say, the post office parking lot (now Office Depot) or to head back east as you were exiting. It has always been poorly designed and never redone as it needed to be to allow for traffic and commerce. The same is true of an important section of the road in back of Northcross.