Bella Ramos is a birder. While she acknowledges that there may be more experienced and knowledgeable birders, she says she is “obsessed with birds.” Ramos and her bird-loving friends had even been turning off their lights to protect migrating birds years before the city of Austin passed a resolution to do so. Now the ordinary, non-birding […]
Downtown Austin Alliance
A nonprofit, membership-based organization focused, according to its website, on “preserving and enhancing the value and vitality of downtown Austin.”
Posted inAustin
Safer Sixth Street push includes call to rezone portions of entertainment district
City staffers expect to deliver recommendations early next month for a pilot program intended to make the Sixth Street entertainment district safer by gradually changing the mix of business and cultural activities there. A recent news report revealed some details of the pilot, saying it would target the 200 and 500 blocks of East Sixth […]
Posted inAustin
Downtown business report finds problems for daytime demand, music venues
A new report on Austin’s downtown economy finds that there is a persistent weakness in weekday business, and that entertainment businesses concentrated around East Sixth and Red River streets have been slow to recover from effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Downtown Austin Alliance produced the report, which supports earlier findings this year that the ongoing […]
Posted inDevelopment
Shoal Creek/Third Street redesign aims to create greener, safer spaces downtown
The Urban Transportation Commission’s hefty meeting agenda on Sept. 7 included a proposal to significantly redesign the heavily trafficked area of downtown surrounding the intersection of Third Street and Shoal Creek Trail. The Cypress and Shoal Creek Public Space Strategy, a joint effort between the Downtown Austin Alliance, Shoal Creek Conservancy and the city of […]
Posted inAustin
Big-picture look at homelessness downtown shows challenges ahead
A cross-section of representatives briefed the Downtown Commission on Wednesday about an ambitious suite of strategies underway to house unsheltered individuals in Austin. Their message was clear: The city and its partners are doing an enormous amount of work toward providing housing and other services to people experiencing homelessness. The response from some commissioners was equally […]
Posted inAustin
Downtown vacancies eyed for arts activations, tenants with new pilot program
Vacant storefronts in downtown Austin could become temporary homes for arts and creative organizations beginning this summer thanks to a pilot program under development by the Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation. The foundation is currently working on a lease agreement with the AMLI Residential real estate company to temporarily take over up to three vacant spaces […]
Posted inAustin
Downtown leaders map out pandemic recovery amid construction boom
Downtown Austin leaders painted a mixed but promising picture of the city’s core on Wednesday, with large-scale construction projects accelerating and helping the area shake off the slowdown of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Downtown Austin Alliance presented its annual State of Downtown report as well as its post-pandemic Roadmap to Recovery at a virtual press […]
Posted inPlanning
Panel weighs future potential of city’s health care innovation district
The battle over reconstructing Interstate 35, and the stalled Land Development Code update, are factors that continue to influence the shape and scope of the developing health care innovation district in the eastern section of downtown Austin. Those larger civic questions were among the points of discussion during a recent Urban Land Institute Austin panel […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Music, Downtown commissions explore options for preserving downtown venues
With music venues and creative spaces becoming more endangered as real estate prices continue to climb, members of the Downtown Commission and Music Commission are looking to enlist other groups in an effort to include those spaces in new developments. August Harris, chair of the Downtown Commission, spoke to the Music Commission at this month’s […]
Posted inAustin
Adler praises planned talks on homelessness, pushes for clear timeline
In a presentation at Wednesday’s annual meeting of the Austin Chamber, Mayor Steve Adler praised a soon-to-be-announced partnership between the group and other local organizations around plans to address the city’s homeless population. Adler’s comments during the event hinted at the forthcoming community conversations that will be organized by the chamber, the Downtown Austin Alliance […]
Posted inTransportation
DAA study seeks community feedback for proposed downtown transit routes
The Downtown Austin Alliance is looking for resident and visitor feedback on two proposed transit routes it hopes will make traveling between different parts of downtown faster and more convenient. The proposed downtown circulator routes, which would serve downtown, South Congress and some of East Austin, are open to public feedback on the DAA’s online survey […]
Posted inRoads
ULI, Downtown Alliance tout cap-and-stitch design for I-35
A panel at the Urban Land Institute of Austin’s monthly breakfast on Wednesday discussed the cap-and-stitch model for Interstate 35. Groups like ULI and the Downtown Austin Alliance are behind an I-35 redesign that would cap the highway with parks and open space and provide amenities like bike lanes and wider sidewalks to stitch the […]