Carrie Gammell
Recent Posts
CITY VS. SPRAWL: A Study in Impervious Cover
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During the final Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) reading, Council Members Ora Houston (D-1), Ann Kitchen (D-5), and Leslie Pool (D-7), led by Kathie Tovo (D-9), cited impervious cover and the supposed resultant flooding as demonstrative reasons why we should not add housing in Austin’s urban core. The same argument has been used by neighborhood NIMBYs to decry new […]
Learning from Bogotá: No More Excuses
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We ended this month’s meeting of the Pedestrian Advisory Council with a few thoughts on education and safety*. Of the 82 2015 Austin traffic deaths, 26 have been pedestrians. While we advocate and wait for infrastructure improvements in the form of reduced speed limits, marked crosswalks, sidewalks and bulb-outs, Jim Dale of the city’s Transportation Department […]
Density Does Not Cause Traffic
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It seems that local media outlets constantly bemoan the statistic that 110 people move to Austin on an average day. Tall buildings, skyscrapers, 10-to-50-story buildings full of people are presumably to blame. Meanwhile, the city is still not as dense as it was in 1950, 1960, 1970, or 1980. In fact, 2015 Austin is only 68% as dense as 1950 Austin. […]
How Many Steps Does It Take to Get to the Center of a City: Part One
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On a cold January day in Paris, a professor asked his architecture class, “Back home, where was your nearest bakery?” Like most of my suburban-bred peers, I had a difficult time remembering mine. I eventually recalled a donut and kolache shop that, though less than a mile away, was a good three-minute drive through the […]