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Old Posted Jun 14, 2017, 2:47 PM
MichaelB MichaelB is offline
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: North edge of Downtown
Posts: 3,208
Quote:
Originally Posted by Novacek View Post
Moved from Highland thread.



I work across mopac from the domain. ~ weekly I bike through there. Semi-regularly I go there for drinks or food. Not usually shopping (most stuff isn't my style, though if money was no object, the Restoration Hardware stuff would be sweet). I've got several friends who have tech jobs there.

Are there problems and shortcomings with the domain development, of course. And I hate that it took years for them to get any public transit. But, bearing in mind it's a pretty low bar, it's one of the best areas in Austin for an urban experience. It's actually very walkable. I don't usually experience the traffic issues others have, as if we're driving we'll park on the first spot we can get on the periphery and walk to everything.

On the subject of those "go carts" specifically, I haven't used them (again, I just walk). But it's good that they're available. Again, its a very low bar. Downtown doesn't even have the dillos anymore.

They (capmetro) are talking about adding circulators back downtown, and also potentially a domain circulator. Though that one looked pretty good in the Connections2025 map but looks worse in the Connections 2.0 map, so I'm not sure what happened.

Part of me wonders how many of the connectivity/traffic problems are the domain are caused or exacerbated by it simply not being done yet. It was even worse before the Northside section opened up and they had that whole section blocked off, now you can walk to/from whole foods easier.
The Burnet plan I linked to early showed (at least at one time) the potential for more roads in the area (I'm not sure how much of that is planned). Connecting Alterra down to Braker would probably help, and I'm pretty sure that one of the above development plans someone linked indicated that Kramer would be connected through (or a new road connecting to Kramer).
Got it... just didn't want to get pulled into what becomes.... well , you know how it goes on here....

I'm a big walker and not a Domain basher....I understand how to "make it work" there.
But the planning opportunity was missed. It was already evident with the first few phases... but now that the new area is open , it's more evident. It's making the original feel outdated because of proximity. The new carts help. They need to worked into the signage for use , etc. It was a bandaid. It's obvious.

My only point was that it would be good to see long term cooperative efforts in new urban centers by developers....
that's all...

So ... hope more developers learn from this lesson. All would have benefitted from a little more planning.
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