The Starr Building on Sixth just west of Congress is up for sale. The building is owned by the State of Texas. It is zoned CBD and it outside of the Capitol View Corridor, so height is unrestricted for the lot. There is no set price, so submit your best offer to the General Land Office. When it was built in 1955, the five story, 76,375 square foot Starr Building was the first major example of modernist architecture in Austin (and the first building in Austin with an escalator). The lobby hosts a mural by Seymour Fogel. Attempts are being made to save the mural, but it is unclear if they will be successful.... [continue]

Last night, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board voted to use funds from the 183-A toll road in Cedar Park to guarantee payments for the conversion of U.S. 290 East between 183 and Manor from an untolled four-lane highway to a tolled twelve-lane highway (three tolled lanes each direction, plus three free frontage roads each direction). The payment guarantee was required because traffic projections were too low to convince investors to pay for the road without it.... [continue]

GovDeals.comCap Metro is modifying the green 'Dillo route to provide better access to the Long Center and Palmer Events Center. If you don't like the new 'Dillo routes and think you can do better, now's your chance! Six 1998 Chance Trolley AH-28's (former 'Dillos) are up for auction in all their modified-to-look-like-a-streetcar-cuz-Austin-wants-old-world-charm-without-investing-in-long-term-transportation-solutions glory.... [continue]

A. Nelessen Associates and the Austin Neighborhood Planning and Zoning Department will present a preliminary concept plan for the East Riverside Corridor on Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 6 to 8 pm at Baty Elementary School, 2101 Faro Drive. The presentation will include suggested new roadways, transportation changes including bike lanes and mass transit, open space, urban design enhancements and land use and development scenarios. ... [continue]

Austin may soon cut a policy that gives away a scarce resource to the lucky few: downtown street parking, which is free to those lucky enough to find a spot after 5:30 pm and on the weekends. In connection with the plan to install a new type of parking meter, free times may be cut, perhaps to after 8:30 pm and on Sundays. People park then too, but charging at night might incur the wrath of angry boozehounds and charging on Sundays might incur the wrath of God (or at least the wrath of downtown churches).... [continue]

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, the union that represents many Capital Metro bus operators and mechanics, went on strike this morning. Talks are expected to resume on Friday. Buses are operating on a reduced schedule. UT shuttle routes will not be affected.... [continue]

The Downtown Austin Alliance has announced three winners in its bike rack design contest. The chosen racks were submitted by Ann Armstrong, Ben Harman and Kezia and Tom Simister. They will be installed at 401, 600 and 816 Congress Avenue. The winning designers are in the process of meeting with the DAA and working with the fabricators. Installation of the final racks is expected to happen next spring.... [continue]

Jay Wyatt, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, said the Cap Metro bus drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers in the union will begin a strike Wednesday morning in response to continued failure to reach a settlement in contract negotiations. It is possible that an agreement will be reached before Wednesday. If not, CapMetro will run a reduced schedule and charge no fares.... [continue]

Last Thursday, city council heard presentations from the three contenders vying for the opportunity to design the new central library. The contenders are Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects and Taniguchi with Holzman Moss, Lake | Flato and Shepley Bulfinch, and PageSoutherlandPage and Patkau Architects. The presentations and pdfs of the proposals are on the city's website. Also on that page are comment forms soliciting public comment on each proposal. Public input will be only accepted through Friday, October 31, 2008. The presentations and pdfs provide a lot of information about the design process and the teams' relevant past work, but they don't contain much information about what any of the teams would actually build at the site. ... [continue]

There will be a meeting of the Austin Live Music Task Force this Wednesday night at 7:30 pm at City Hall (301 West 2nd Street) to hear public comments on the task force's draft recommendations. Those recommendations include establishing a music department to help promote live music in Austin; reducing costs associated with operating live music venues; assisting with health care, housing, parking and business services for musicians; measuring and managing music sound control, sound attenuation and responses to noise complaints; allowing "Outdoor Live Music" as a permitted accessory use in certain commercial base zoning districts; creating additional entertainment districts throughout the city; and expanding the existing entertainment districts (Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Streets between Congress and I-35 and the area between Congress and Guadalupe and Cesar Chavez and Fifth) to cover most of downtown.... [continue]

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, which represents CapMetro bus drivers and maintenance workers, has rejected a "final" offer from StarTran, Inc. According to the Statesman, that offer included a one-time $1,000 payment instead of a percentage raise for the 2007-08 contract year and a starting salary for some new drivers $6/hour under the current rate. Union president Jay Wyatt is expected to announce on Friday whether the union will strike. If they do, CapMetro will run a reduced schedule and charge no fares.... [continue]

The current election ballot in Austin includes a proposition for an amendment to the city charter to "prohibit the City from providing financial incentives ... for projects that include one or more retail uses." The proposition is the result of a signature drive by Stop Domain Subsidies.... [continue]

In the Fall, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of gardening. Luckily, this weekend the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is hosting its semiannual plant sale. The sale includes a huge variety of Texas native plants, many of which could help you reduce your irrigatory needs.... [continue]

The Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (DANA) is holding its 5th Annual Downtown Living Tour Sunday, October 19th, from noon to 5 pm, showcasing homes and the benefits of living in downtown Austin. This year's tour includes Gables West Avenue, 360 Condominiums, AMLI on 2nd, AMLI Downtown, Austonian, Plaza Lofts, The Monarch and Brazos Place. Tourgoers will get complimentary food and beverages after the tour at the Belmont. VIP ticket holders are invited to enjoy music, food and drinks poolside at the 360 Condominiums on Saturday night.... [continue]

Residents who went to the first public meeting to discuss the proposed streetcar system were concerned that the city's plan to run the streetcar in the same lane as car traffic on Manor would slow the streetcar down and make it less popular. The city says that at 60 feet wide, Manor can't support a streetcar and regular car lanes. Some residents suggested that the streetcar run down MLK instead of Manor. That plan would be an improvement over the current one - MLK has more capacity and it would also allow riders to transfer to and from the MLK stop on the commuter rail line. The Downtown Plan team will be having three more meetings next week to discuss streetcar. Details after the jump. ... [continue]

There was an interesting editorial in yesterday's Washington Post. Basically, the price of oil has fallen dramatically in the last few weeks and gas prices are coming down as a result. This is good new for the stock market and Hummer drivers, but it threatens to wipe out recent decreases in domestic consumption of gasoline (U.S. motorists to drove 12.2 billion fewer miles in June compared with a year earlier). The bottom line of the editorial is that higher gas prices result in lower consumption, so any national energy policy seriously aimed at reducing consumption should include an increased gas tax that would maintain the incentives to conserve gasoline.... [continue]

Las Manitas closed forever on August 31 according to Cynthia Perez (one of the owners). The restaurant will probably be replaced with a complex of three new Marriott hotels.... [continue]

International bicycling phenomenon Lance Armstrong was named the top water user in Austin, according to a list published by the Statesman. He paid $1,630 for 222,900 gallons of water. Astounding ingenuity and persistence enabled local attorney Carolyn Beckett to take the number two spot by using 174,400 gallons of water, even though her 1/3 acre lot doesn't have a swimming pool or a sprinkler system. Austinites overall use about 180 million gallons of water a day during the summer.... [continue]

Cooper, Robertson & Partners will be hosting an informational session regarding the Brackenridge Tract tomorrow at the LCRA Hancock Building at 3700 Lake Austin Blvd. Cooper, Robertson is not expected to release final plans at the meeting, but will "share preliminary findings of the consultant team, and share summaries of values, visions, and concerns voiced at the June 25th meeting, as well as final survey results." If you would like to take the survey before the meeting, click here.... [continue]

The land underneath Mobile Manor, the trailer park off Barton Springs Road between Chuy's and Baby A's, is under contract to a developer with plans to build a five-story, 250 unit apartment complex behind a 4,900 square foot restaurant.... [continue]