Had breakfast with my Saturday morning group and decided to venture to East Austin for a brief look at the Mueller neighborhood, a planned community at the former site of the Austin airport. Looks to me like walkability works as a goal for planned community. Austin decided to replace the former airport with dense middle class housing. The neighborhood features mixed use, housing and retail, in a pleasing combination. The key, by my estimate, may be the decision to make things walkable. The result is a walkable area with many sidewalks well-protected from traffic. In between the curved walkways are open grassy areas, some used for play areas for children's soccer etc. and all built to human dimensions.
The presidential primaries has produced much rhetoric about the hollowing out of the middle class. Mueller looks like a strong effort to firm up the middle class. East Austin traditionally served as a home to the minority communities, African-American and Mexican-American. Mueller makes reference to this past with street names like Garcia and Camacho. Other street names refer to Austin luminaries like actor Zachary Scott and singer Kenneth Threadgill.
A conscious effort was made to keep at least some of the homes at affordable prices. The planned community lacks some of the funky authenticity of the Old South, the small bungalows of East Austin have been replaced here with solid, modern construction and a near-zero lot line building plan. The houses do have garden areas. People seem relaxed, perhaps appreciative of the freedom from onrushing traffic and with access to supermarket shopping and other retail without the need for a humongous drive.
So, let's celebrate. Somebody figured out that God gave us two legs for walking and lungs for breathing without the stench of automobile fumes filling the air. Mueller works! Austin gets an A+. A couple of guys, middle-aged fellows were out canvassing the neighborhood for Bernie Sanders. They likely felt more comfortable pushing for Bernie in a mixed-race area with a progressive ideology firmly behind its development. I gladly took their fliers and exchanged a few pleasantries. Not sure if I'll vote for Bernie, I feel some loyalty to the Clinton record of achievement, but I loved that they could walk the streets of Mueller, a relaxed place to bring up politics and raise your kids.
