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I thought I'd just give one architect's perspective on the issues under
discussion...
Code enforcement:
Austin city building inspectors consider existing conditions to be
'grandfathered,' which they remain until the building owner seeks a
building permit to upgrade the property. At that point, if they are
remodeling the area in question, it must be brought up to current code.
Otherwise, the building inspectors allow it to remain as is. Unless
something is an immediate threat to health or public safety, if it's an
existing condition, it will be allowed to remain. For example, current
code requires that stairs with more than three risers have a safety
railing 36" high on at least one side. However, if an existing house has
such a stair without a railing, calling the building inspector is
pointless, because it is an existing condition. You could argue that
it's a safety issue, but it's not considered an immediate hazard by the
building inspector. Another example: we have 1947 electrical in our
house. The wiring is in pretty good shape, but if we wanted to install
central air, we would have to upgrade all our wiring to current code,
which would cost us about $6000 (that's not including the air
conditioning system). So, we choose to live with window units and leave
the electrical as is, at least until we win the lottery.
Desirable neighborhood:
Our neighborhood is already very desirable. It attracts people who want
to live in a 'funky' area. This may not meet everybody's standard for
'desirable,' but consider that Hyde Park has traded in a lot of
individual property rights in exchange for it's version of 'desirable.'
There is a Hyde Park code that significantly limits what individual
homeowners can do with their property, and it's about to get much more
restrictive with the institution of a binding historic design standard.
It's very difficult to cherry-pick certain things with code laws. The
prohibition we pass today will become tomorrow's property ownership
nightmare. Just ask our friends in the flood plain who have tried to
improve their properties. And hey, we DO have a park -- Bruning Green.
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's not the same as Shipe or Balcones, but we DO
have a park! Two, in fact, if you claim the pocket park on 55-1/2.
Traffic Calming:
Here's something everybody who's reading this can actually do:
https://coa311web.ci.austin.tx.us/web_intake/Controller
Select 'traffic calming' from the pulldown menu. Don't put in any
keywords, just hit enter. That should return a service type match for
'traffic calming.' Click on 'request this service' and enter your data.
I do it weekly.
When the traffic calming program was funded, they selected areas in
which to do work based on how many requests they got from residents.
They had 1,100 requests between 1994 and 2000, when the program's
funding was cut. That works out to less than four requests a week. I
know we hear about it even just on this newslist more often than that.
Alternatively, the Old West Austin NA recently held a neighborhood
fundraiser to raise money to install their own traffic calming devices.
I don't know how this worked, but I will email the N.A. and find out.
Perhaps we could do something similar.
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