Andrés Duany On Austin

12 April 2007 - 11:00am

With the annual Congress for New Urbanism coming to town in 2008, Duany offers his thoughts on the Texas Capital on a recent visit.

"I'm disappointed in what I see here. This city is acting like a beggar, with a beggar mentality...Austin is hot! You don't have to go out on every date! But there's something left over here about an inferiority complex. You should see how New York acts, how L.A. acts – you should see how Paris acts. Austin accepts too many things that others would not."

"Austin should have high self-esteem as a city, but from what I'm seeing, it hasn't yet become ingrained. It's like, 'We're country folk, really; we don't trust that we've arrived.' You need to say instead, 'We're a very desirable city. We no longer will put up with B-grade service from developers. We demand and deserve A-service. Superb service!"

"Austin should stop acting like a cheap date – and ask its suitors to dress properly and take her out to a good restaurant."

Source: The Austin Chronicle, April 13, 2007
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Most importantly, we should acknowledge that a consensus building event forms at one time around one cluster among many interacting issues and actions. Other efforts will and should emerge around clusters of other issues and actions.