Jude Galligan - Downtown Austin Realtor

Sheryl Cole - Place 6 incumbent

Chris Riley - Place 1 candidate

These days its pretty much unacceptable to not have a website if you are running a campaign. You should be able to do a Google search for “candidate’s name + city council” and your campaign page should be #1 or #2 on the search results page. Some of you candidates have work to do!

Mayor:

Brewster McCracken - http://www.brewstermccracken.com
Lee Leffingwell - http://www.austinleadership.com
Carol Strayhorn - http://www.caroleforaustin.com

City Council:

Chris Riley (place 1) - http://www.chrisforaustin.com
Mike Martinez (place 2) - http://www.martinezforaustin.com
Perla Cavazos (place 1) - http://www.voteperla.com
Rick Cofer (place 1) - http://www.rickcofer.com
Bill Spellman (place 5) - http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/faculty/william-spelman/
Sheryl Cole (place 6) - http://keepsherylcole.com

Candidate’s in green are those which I am currently supporting. I think the best coverage of city hall comes from the BurntOrangeReport.com and Wells Dunbar’s (Austin Chronicle) City Hall Hustle. If you find bias, it should be easy to filter.

Okay, everyone with local political aspirations, you should right now purchase FirstnameForAustin.com!

Originally posted at Downtown Austin Blog

by jude galligan

21c museum residences

Austin’s 21c museum residences and hotel may be on hold for now, but this morning NPR gave a glowing review of the original concept in Louisville, Kentucky. The NPR story incorrectly states that the Austin 21c is under construction; however, Marriott’s decision to not build 1,000 hotel rooms should reflect favorably on 21c’s pro-formas. 21c was originally planned for development at the Whitely paper building on 3rd and San Jacinto, however, plans changed to locate the building(s) at Red River and Cesar Chavez along Waller Creek.

link to article
link to NPR audio

How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand

Last year I purged my book shelves by giving away hundreds of books I’ve collected over the years. I kept a dozen, or so, that were too significant to give up. Since it’s been a slow news week for Downtown Austin, I thought I would use this time to recommend a couple of books that you can read over the holidays. Below are two of my favorite books about land use that I hope you will pick up.

• “How Buildings Learn” by Stewart Brand
  This book is interesting to me, not only because it has lots of pictures of old architecture, rather because Stewart Brand attempts to follow how the greatest buildings change use over the course time.

• “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs
  Long considered the urban planner’s bible, this book should be required reading for our elected officials (City Council and staff, County Commissioners, CAMPO board)

Extra credit
I encourage you to check out another book by Stewart Brand “The Clock of The Long Now“. This book is about many things including how civilizations evolve, how the digital age changes the way we archive and access our collective knowledge, and more. Throughout the book is a story about the design of a 10,000 clock that will be installed in the side of a mountain. Great read.