Dan Keshet
Recent Posts
The One Little Rule That Decides Where Austin’s Towers Build Parking
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Not every tower in downtown Austin looks exactly the same, but there is one defining characteristic that describes almost all of them: parking. Most towers rest on top of what they call in the industry a parking plinth, the tower base where folks store their cars.
Convention Center Bombshell
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Previously, I have been skeptical of a convention center expansion. As a member of the Visitor Impact Task Force, I came around to a positive recommendation after the Task Force recommended ways to make expansion a positive for the city: Incorporating expansion as part of a larger tower to share costs and add activity when the convention center isn’t being used. Keeping...
Welcome to Bizarro Austin
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There’s a neighborhood in central Austin that everybody knows but only its true students really understand. This magical place is Austin’s secret midrise neighborhood: West Campus, where development never stops.
YIMBY and Placemaking Are the Perfect Pair
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Placemaking urbanism is concerned with creating places people value. YIMBY urbanism is concerned with making sure all people who want access to places are able to. Let’s walk through the difference in these two languages about cities.
How the Convention Center Expansion Proposal Has Improved and What’s Still Needed
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Last November, I was appointed as a member of the Visitor Impact Task Force created by the City Council to look into the positive and negative impacts of tourism in Austin, as well as put together recommendations regarding the potential expansion of the Convention Center. I came in an expansion skeptic but I voted for expansion. Y’all deserve an explanation.
Seven Suggestions for CodeNEXT’s Uptown Regulations
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The city of Austin is rewriting its zoning code. Some friends of mine and I sat down at a party organized by AURA and read through the form-based downtown codes, known as T6. I love how the code description puts a real emphasis on walkability, so I’m going to share some suggestions to make this dream a reality.
3 Lessons for Buses, From Uber, Illustrated by Presidential Candidates
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Every form of transportation has some unique considerations. Car drivers worry a great deal about parking near their destination–a consideration bus riders don’t need to think about. But, as transit consultant Jarrett Walker has written about, some considerations are universal. As Uber and Lyft have added carpool services, some people have noted that they can learn from traditional […]
8 Reasons to End West Campus Minimum Parking Rules
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In West Campus, as in all of Austin outside downtown, there are rules that require new homes and shops to build new parking spaces. Minimum parking rules don’t make a lot of sense for the city in general but make even less sense in West Campus. Here’s 8 reasons those rules should be repealed: 1. Most west campus residents walk, bike, […]
Four Things Austin City Council Could Do Today to Fight the Housing Shortage
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Central Austin needs more housing. Prices have been rising, more and more people want to live where they have short commutes but are only able to afford homes near the periphery. We have a long-term plan to alter our land development code that may help with this but our need is now. What options are available […]
Austin Created a Dense Student Neighborhood — What Happened Next Will Warm Your Environmentalist Heart
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In 2004, Austin adopted a new set of rules and design guidelines allowing developers to build larger apartment buildings in West Campus with fewer parking spaces required, as long as they provided a few additional benefits like better sidewalks and street trees and set some of the apartments aside for low-income students. Unlike the larger apartment complexes Austin allowed on […]
5 Reasons Uber Has Leverage in Austin (or, How Austin Made Taxis Awful)
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Austin is in election season. City Council passed a new set of rules for Uber and Lyft, and the companies have funded an initative to repeal and replace those rules with rules more similar to the ones previously in place. On May 7, the issue will be decided by voters. This election has been heated, with charges that Uber […]
Living in a Big Ole City: Taylor Swift Urbanism
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If you listen to a lot of bluegrass and country, you’d think cities were the worst thing that every happened to humanity. J.D. Crowe and the New South ask why they ever left their plow behind to look for a job in the town: Hank Williams, Jr. thinks that you’ll only get mugged if you go […]