Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The Future of Affordable Student Housing



In the face of tuition increases and lean economic times, many students turn to affordable housing such as cooperatives when looking for a place to live. A proposed change to the MF-4 zone, which includes West Campus, could slow down and even hinder some affordable student housing from being built in the future.

Proposed by the Central Austin Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee, or CANPAC, the proposal would make group residential properties in the MF-4 housing zone conditional, which means they would be required to obtain permits from the Planning Commission on a case-by-case basis.

"What they want to do is to make a decision that would basically make you have to get permits to build cooperatives or fraternity and sorority buildings," Cheyenne Dansby, Taos Cooperative Board Representative, said. "It's a really difficult thing to do because it takes years and lots of money, and co-ops don't have a lot of money anyway."

Current group housing properties, including existing cooperatives as well as Greek houses, would be exempt from the change, but if they wish to expand or remodel in the future they may be forced to obtain permits for their current property as well. It has been said that the existence of high-density student housing lowers property value in the area for single-family residences.

The decision, which is to be voted on by Austin City Council, has been pushed back several times for a multitude of reasons. The current vote is tentatively set for December, but co-op residents plan to request a delay until February in order to allow students to participate at a time when school is in session. Representatives from CANPAC declined to comment on the decision.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Duncan Park: Ramping Up Community Among BMXers in Austin



Duncan Park is known far and wide amongst the biking community as the mecca for BMX riders the world over. Small and unassuming, the park has brought together generations of BMX enthusiasts for decades since its inception.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012



I figured I might as well upload something to this blog as I hope I can eventually use it to show off some of my work. Anyway, a bit about this picture. I know it's not perfect, but it's currently one of my favorites. I'm actually really proud of it. Long story short, I found a wall covered in broken glass in the shape of flowers in some park in the middle of Austin. It was quite beautiful, but there wasn't anyone around. So I waited about two or three hours for someone to show up. Finally some lady showed up and began doing yoga exercises in front of the mirror wall. She was nice enough to let me take some pictures while she worked out. I'm usually against the use of Photoshop, but I think I could really make this picture so much better if I tweak it just a little bit.