Top 10 True Western Towns of 2009
By: 01/01/2009
5. AUSTIN, TX
Scene: Austin, 2003. Neighbor against neighbor, pitted in a fight over urban renewal and historic preservation. One side wants to change with the times. The other does not want to risk the loss of Austin’s cultural identity.
For a town that has doubled in population every 20 years since it was founded in 1836, Austin—pop. 743,074—almost destroyed its 30-year-old legacy of protecting historic properties in the midst of this public controversy.
Two citizen task forces were brought on to discern the cause of the city’s skyrocketing housing prices. The members gave the preservation community great news: it was not the cause, and even more, such efforts could help maintain affordable housing for Austinites.
The city formed a Historic Preservation Task Force in 2003. Although Austin is home to 14 national register districts, allowing the city access to federal funds, it lacked local protection for these neighborhoods. The task force allowed all historic districts to become local historic districts, so issues that start at home—like attaining alteration permits—could be better handled.
One of these districts, designated “Old West Austin,” was awarded as one of 10 great neighborhoods in America by the American Planning Association in 2007. The district is a former black freedmen’s community settled by Charles Clark in 1871 and also a former land grant assigned to D.S. Parrish in 1841. Large shade trees and front porches invite conversations with neighbors, and the formation of the Old West Austin Neighborhood Association enabled residents to negotiate with developers about planned changes.
Today, Austin makes decisions for each historic district based on its individual needs and own complex local history, instead of the broad-brush decisions that had impacted all districts equally in the past.
And when you have kids roaming the districts as “heritage hunters,” seeking the answer for where Bigfoot Wallace and Thomas “Peg Leg” Ward are buried, you are seeing preservation success firsthand. Austin is truly a place where residents can honor the Old West, and still not get stuck in the past.
Comments (2)
The city should make the downtown historic district more western all year long, that is what the tourists want to come and enjoy, just like Jackson Hole area. Wood sidewalks, old storefronts renewed, take down the horrible siding on all those old building and make it historic and western as much as possible. Pull all the businesses together and make a true western downtown. You don't have to all sell western items, just make the buildings western. You have a GREAT start with the Train Depot and surrounding areas!! Keep up the PLAN!! or MAKE A PLAN!! Cheyenne could be a truly great small city and as the State Capital SHOULD have a GREAT DOWNTOWN!!
Sir:
My Son is coming home from Iraq in, about one year. BUT in early July he is coming on leave to look your area over for a possible place to live, get married and raise a family. We will be in WYOMING in the 1st few days of July. Have you got any info that might help him
He has been Special Forces and, I suppose Police work is what he wants.
I am in California but I am not a
"Californian". 707-259-0949 or
wes.mac@comcast.net or P O Box 294.
Yountville, California 94599. WES MAC
Mc Girr
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