I’m back from D.C. to some rain in the ATX, but it’s supposed to be 80 later this afternoon. I took the Texas weather with me to DC and we enjoyed blue skies and 60-70 degree weather my entire trip–so maybe I just caught it at a good time, but I loved DC. The thing DC and NYC and all the cities have that we don’t is little neighborhood nooks. Sure, we’re trying to turn downtown into a neighborhood, but it’s still downtown. We have Clarksville or SoCo or Bouldin, but those are just neighborhoods–no shops or restaurants or coffee (and yes, I realize they have West Lynn, Congress, and S First respectively with aforementioned shops etc. but that’s just ONE street for a whole neighborhood).
My friend lives in Capital Hill in the basement of a row house and it’s all just so cute. Maybe because it’s foreign to sprawled-out Texas, but row houses seem really neat. I understand that sharing close quarters like that and having no yards is not all that great, but from driving or walking down a street, they’re pretty cool.
So while Austin has its thrills and charms and flare all its own, what we don’t have is that real sense of NEIGHBORHOOD. Take my Brykerwoods neighborhood as an example. We’re two blocks in from the shops at Jefferson, Kerbey Lane, the wonderful Snow Pea, a Randalls, a wine bar, and more. But we certainly aren’t regulars there. Whereas in DC, the friend I stayed with walks to “her” Starbucks every morning, has “her” brunch place a mere 8 blocks from her house, and has “her” dinner spot just as close. 8 blocks sounds like nothing, but here? Whew, better get in the car. What’s with our attitude?
I don’t mean to be knocking on Austin–I mean geez, you guys know how much I love this place–but we’re very much a car culture. My brother hasn’t had a car since September and broke down and bought one this weekend (a Prius, natch, we have a compost too) because it’s just too hard to get around without. Sure, public transportation is partially to blame (um, dear City of Austin, could you please publicize the opening of the lightrail a little more? it’s REALLY FREAKIN COOL that we have one now), but I’d argue that the underlying issue is two-fold: density and attitude.
Density is the main issue because it makes no sense for there to be little shops dotting Clarksville when the number of potential residents is limited. Because we don’t live in close-quartered row houses, we don’t have the kind of densities that allow little markets and corner stores to survive. While we’re trying to institute these, the number of closures of these little guys signifies that sometimes “if you build it, they will come” has too long of a life cycle.
What’s the point here? I don’t know, just a little commentary on differences. After all, you don’t get Zilker Park and Town Lake in a DC either … I’m hoping this will inspire me to walk more, to try to get into more of a routine with “my” places, and to bring just a smidge of that DC life home–after all, I brought them a smidge of Texas. 😉