Brewster McCracken for Austin Mayor

OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

Improve the Livability of Austin Neighborhoods

When my son Ford was born in 2004, I learned what it meant to live in a neighborhood with no sidewalks and no park. As I experienced the challenge of pushing Ford’s stroller in the street against oncoming traffic, I became aware of the problem everywhere. I witnessed a man pushing his wheelchair in traffic along S. Lamar because there wasn’t a sidewalk. I saw young parents carrying their infant along a rut in the grass on W. 38th Street – again, no sidewalk.

“You think that it’s tough raising a young child with no park or sidewalk?” parents of older kids would ask. “Wait until your kid starts playing soccer.” Or baseball. Or swimming.

Parents tell me stories of long afternoons and weekends battling traffic to transport their children to remote locations for soccer games and swim meets. Austin is growing. But in the city that carries a self-image of being fit, it is becoming a growing challenge for Austin kids (and their parents) to find places to play.

Past bond elections have focused on large, high profile, expensive projects.  And we created some great places. But as I experienced in my own neighborhood when Ford was born, we overlooked the small stuff.

I think it’s time to turn our attention back to the small stuff… neighborhood sidewalks… small neighborhood parks… trails and bike paths… youth soccer and athletic fields and swimming pools…

I’ll begin by immediately focusing the city’s attention on quality of life issues like sidewalks, neighborhood parks, trails and bike paths and youth soccer and athletic fields and swimming pools.

And I will convene a citizen-led planning group to prioritize neighborhood quality of life investments for consideration in the next bond election. Instead of three big bond projects, we should do 300 little projects.

For neighborhoods that have neighborhood plans, we should implement the quality of life improvements in those plans. For neighborhoods that don’t yet, we will need to spend the next three years planning.  The goal would be to ensure that, no matter where you live in the city, when you walk out your door, you would see things better in your own neighborhood.

It’s the basics – but basics that reflect a vision of what a great American city should be.