Watching the LoBu river go by

The lobu blog went live last night with a few clicks of the mouse-- thanks to the guiding hand of son-in-law Nathan. Thanks Nate!

Now I get to tell you about an Austin neighborhood called LoBu. LoBu stands for Lower Burnet and refers to the in-town portion of a thoroughfare called Burnet Road. . Burnet Road used to be the outskirts of town, home to Threadgill's gas station where Kenneth Threadgill mentored a young Janis Joplin on the art of yodeling to the crowd. Burnet Road used to be the place to take your date to a drive-in movie under a starry Texas night. Now, the LoBu district is close to the action of downtown Austin and a mere 5-10 minutes drive or bus ride to the University of Texas.

Watch the urban river called Burnet Road evolve and you see a microcosm for Mainstreet America and how it's changing. Burnet Road carries two lanes of traffic in each direction and it is a surface road in the city, no longer a highway away from the city.

LoBu has always been a practical place to live and still has affordable housing (i.e. apartments, rental houses, and smaller single family homes). It has working class roots and has lately been a 20-something area and a 30-something area because Austin is such a young city. There are immigrant populations close to LoBu, mainly Hispanics. There are yuppie neighborhoods also, Rosedale and Allandale, and a more solid middle class section called Crestview.

LoBu is beginning a decade of serious change. The river's current of change will pick-up mightily as the suburbs become less practical.

LoBu represents the revitalization of America's inner cities as flight to the suburbs becomes less reasonable in terms of commute time wasted and gas money spent. The development of LoBu has been somewhat chaotic. A bizarre variety of duplexes, a veritable mishmash of architectural styles, is being sandwiched between the older shacks and tiny houses. The over-sized lots in the Woodrow area of LoBu are being developed seemingly in the middle of the night. You see nouveau coffee shops popping up in the neighborhood-- including two hips cafes called Epoch and Thunderbird. They fuel the citizens with caffeine and conversation while Starbucks has sat on the sidelines.

LoBu is an urban river and the traffic flows pretty continuosly past a changing array of stores and shops. Though Starbucks does not make much of a showing in LoBu there is talk of a Wal-Mart opening up on the corner of Burnet Rd. and Anderson Lane, a major traffic crossroads of LoBu. There has been some protest about putting a 24/7 shopping schedule of the proposed Wal-Mart at the Northcross Mall. Northcross, a pretty lackluster mall, has been distinguished only by its ice-skating rink. The ice-skating rink , a symbol of exercise and pure fun, was a place you had to love. The ice skating rink even returned after being closed down for a while. Let's hope the ice skating rink survives the transition.

If Wal-Mart beats Starbucks to the LoBu neighborhood.... that would not be a surprise. The original Burnet Road was practical-minded, never a place to spend $4.00 and just have a cup of coffee to show for it. For that kind of money you at least wanted an outdoor movie and some quality time with your date -or several long necks and some dancing at one of the honky tonks. But LoBu is changing. The drive-in movies are long gone. Some of the old bars remain and you can still hear live music and even do the two-step at the Dallas nightclub. But LoBu is changing. We'll have to see where it's headed.