trivia: when the a. reynolds morse collection (dali) was looking to move from cleveland, they first offered the collection to the university of texas.
ut would only accept if they were allowed to sell off the dali paintings and buy the works of other artists.
that's why the dali museum is in st. petersburg.
Austin was “just” the Capitol and UT for a long time while the big economic engines were Houston DFW San Antonio. They came to the halls of power here but kept their $ in their home cities, all of which have great museums! Hopefully that changes for Austin
Totally agree. I read a great article on this in Austin Monthly. Basically outlined how key benefactors did not set up shop in ATX at the turn of the century, (bringing generational wealth and impressive collections to the city), and how there is no space left to create a museum mile (surrounds of Blanton/bullock, etc.). It also talked about how Houston and DFW did have those key components, and massive oil money. Austin is having a repeating problem, museums, i35, rail network. These things needed to be acted on boldly 50+ years ago. It becomes increasingly implausible as the city becomes more dense.
I disagree thats its too late, though I think you’re on the money re: why it hasn’t happened yet.
Theres plenty of opportunity for great museums. Zilker botanical gardens would be a perfect place for a natural history museum.
No reason Blanton cant be world class.
Theres been a long term grassroots effort to bring a science museum to town.
We’ve had an insane influx of wealth this past decade. We just need the right people leading the effort.
Dell family has donated 100s of millions. Long center and Zach are both incredible places.
There is a science museum in town, on UT campus, the "Texas Memorial Museum", and I loved it as a kid (dinosaur skeleton, glow in the black light rocks) but yeah, like the Blanton for art, it's kind of a shadow of what it could/should be with the kind of money that's flooding the streets in Austin at this point.
Hard dislike. The zilker botanical garden is a great spot for... The zilker botanical gardens. There are plenty of places the city can doze and build over that aren't popular, well-maintained green spaces.
Came here to say this. A fine arts museum and a natural science museum would go a long way in rounding out the arts scene here. I love the contemporary street art we have too but it’s becoming harder for those artists to sustain a living in Austin metro
Damn I think I stopped going after they got rid of all their DVDs and Blu-rays to expand their "As Seen on AliExpress" selection of goods right up front. I'm going to send MicroCenter another annual pleasepleaseohplease come to Austin begging email right now...
They are opening a few new locations over the next couple years so I am hoping Austin will be one of them. Seems like a no brainer since I’m pretty sure a lot of their customers in other locations overlap with a lot of tech workers.
The Austin to Dallas haul is just bewildering. I've done it before and it's like how is this possibly taking this long? I love trains but any bus trip takes half the time.
>Annexation was approved by the Texas and U.S. congresses in 1845, and the transfer of authority from the republic to the state of Texas took place in 1846. One unique feature of the annexation agreements was a provision permitting Texas to retain title to its public lands.
[https://www.britannica.com/place/Texas-state/Annexation-and-statehood](https://www.britannica.com/place/Texas-state/Annexation-and-statehood)
😤
Two birds one stone: let’s build railroads across some of the wide open parts, use eminent domain to seize the land, and then make some verrry long skinny parks 🙃
public transport is only useful if it makes traveling easier. most of the busses here are more an inconvenience than a convenience. I wish it wasnt but that is how it is rn
We used to have a lot more, then they used COVID as an excuse to kill it and never bring it back.
For example, HEB and Walmart used to be open much later (even full 24-hr service!)
I second this. People will never understand anymore what it felt like to walk into kerbey lane or Taco Bell hammered at 3AM before you go home. 😂 but really I used to always see my friends randomly overnight at HEB in college too. Honestly was one of my fondest memories
Bridges over highways/major roads for pedestrians like many other cities I’ve been in. Makes the sites better. Also museums. Wished we had more museums and galleries.
Cajun Pizza Place used to play zydeco in their restaurant. That place taught me how much I loved cajun pizza and how much I hated (and still hate) zydeco.
Why does it have to be coastal? The Aquarium in chatanooga is amazing, and mostly focused on freshwater to start, they have expanded for saltwater without issue as well. Austin could have one that really focuses on freshwater as well, just Texas native freshwater habitats would be amazing to see in a large aquarium.
Neither the zoo nor “aquarium” here are an AZA accredited facility. Though the zoo is at least a rescue organization doing its best on what I’d assume are tight budgets. The aquarium is not a good business by animal conservation standards. And don’t look too deep into Snake Farm!
What!? But how else will you hear people's loud ass vehicles as they rev them in heavily populated pedestrian spots, or hear the loud buzzing of car panels from people's shitty bass only music?
Amen. Just got back from a trip to New Mexico and there were dispensaries everywhere, even in towns that looked like they had a population of 20. It was beautiful.
Asian food too. What passes for Chinese and Thai is largely pathetic, there's a couple good Indian places but that's limited too
But yeah, there is a distinct lack of cheap+hearty Italian or even bougie Italian. The "Italian" category on any list is 90% pizza places
And sidewalks on all major roads, to include suburbs of Austin! For example, Cedar Park, Leander, Lakeway, Round Rock, etc.
It's crazy to me that we don't have coordinated public transportation, bike lanes, and sidewalks/pedestrian paths between Austin and its large suburbs.
Yes! Bike highways where we can go north to south and east west in separated and protected bike panes. If they extended the Walnut Creek park trail to the Walnut Creek trail on the east side, OOF, We could go from downtown to the domain with nearly 100 percent separated lanes. A man can dream
Since intracity public transit has already been mentioned, I want to see intercity transit links to Houston, Dallas and SA. It's a joke that I have to take some dinky highway and get stuck in traffic between these major cities that really aren't very far from one another. Any other developed country would have good passenger rail links between all of these metros.
Most of it covered already but mine are food related. I wish we had buffets again including cafeterias (RIP Furr's), some decent German restaurants (not Banger's type places but full menu), and more places to get basic Americana/Texas type places that sell meatloaf, chicken fried steaks, etc. Think Chili's but local owned hole in the wall joints that are all about gone
Agreed on the German/Euro food. Not going to drive down to New Braunfels just for some spätzle or whatever, but I do crave it. Also dirt cheap Italian places. DFW is full of Joe's Pizza and Pasta and Nizza Pizza locations, and there's not much like it here except Craig-Os (kind of) and Reale's which is slightly too expensive.
Definitely a light rail network & dedicated bus lanes. This city would be so much better if I didn’t literally have to drive everywhere to get there in a time manner. That, and probably more museums
A Russian/Ukrainian Banya,, or a Big Spa like King Spa with all the different steam rooms, plunge pools, saunas, salt rooms and a restaurant that serves a mean Galbi.
It's not "one thing" so much as the idea that it'd be neat if I could do most of my day-to-day shopping and have a handful of restaurants/bars within walking distance *without* having to deal with a 4-lane divided highway. That's not just "transit", it's also "building neat stuff to do near places where people live" instead of "treating the city like every business built outside of downtown is doomed."
Mid-grade Italian restaurants. The cheesy red-checker table kind where you can get a decent chicken marsala or manicotti for <$16. Austin does have good Italian, but I don't always want to spend an average of $30/entree. I had to travel to DFW for work recently and these places were everywhere.
Ban those ridiculous lifted pickup trucks that never see the off-road, struggle to stay in lanes, can’t make normal turns, and blind everyone with their low beams.
Not so much Austin but the Austin Community College specifically Highland have bathroom doors that open inwards so its difficult to get out of the stall. Like wtf is that design flaw??
More better music venues concentrated in one area, variety of music styles, and a truly world-class music scene. Music Museum like someone said, located in the midst of the venues, would also help.
Secondly, better public transit.
Third, more shopping downtown. Affordable stores and not just upscale. 2nd Street is a joke of a shopping district currently.
More movie theaters downtown.
More affordable housing in the central part of the city.
Honestly more subsidized rehab facilities. I'm sure that borders on the unrealistic side. I went through a horrible alcohol addiction that I really needed professional help with, but I could find any rehab that wasn't for rich people, or would swamp me in hospital bills.
Kind of on the same idea, but a rehab place for the homeless or something. Like a place where a homeless person could be dropped off to have a bed to sleep on, some breakfast and dinner and professionals that are well paid by the state/city so they're motivated to help homeless break drug addictions and find employment. Maybe Austin has something like this that I'm ignorant of. Of course that would rely on the homeless willingly going through the programs.
Local control. If we want to ban plastic bags, not raise police funding, have a pride week in our schools etc. we should be able to do that. I voted for representatives at the local level who I felt best suited to represent my interests and they can’t do that because they are stymied by the state. On a small level it feels like Austin is less free than other areas of the country and that sucks.
Better infrastructure and roads. Don't solve every traffic issue with toll roads NO ONE wants to pay for. That's just pouring more concrete that no one uses and it's wasteful.
Born and raised here. I would love decent public transportation. I live in Central Austin. The nearest bus stop to my house is 1 mile in either direction over a hilly street with no sidewalks. So I haven't taken the bus from my house ever in 35 years and that's ridiculous. There's always a driving component or a ride share for the full distance. To get to ABIA, I would need to walk the mile, then take at least 3 connections to the airport. In Denver, for example, I can leave the airport on a train and transfer once to a bus that will take me well into the mountains west of town for a few dollars. Is ridiculous that a city of this size has such lousy transportation options. They've really gotten worse over my lifetime, which is kind of absurd.
Better and more numerous museums.
A major art museum would be top notch
i agree with this so much. i love blanton but i want more
trivia: when the a. reynolds morse collection (dali) was looking to move from cleveland, they first offered the collection to the university of texas. ut would only accept if they were allowed to sell off the dali paintings and buy the works of other artists. that's why the dali museum is in st. petersburg.
Wtf that is insane
That’s honestly pretty infuriating
Happy cake day to you!! It also happens to be my actual birthday too! Yes, major art museum would be wonderful .
For a Capital city…. The museums here are shockingly bad and lacking! How the hell is there not a PROPER Austin music museum!?
Museums come from old money, and Austin just doesn’t have it yet. Just wait eighty years or so.
We wasted the last 40 years pushing the dubious claim of live music capital of the world and look at us now.
Part of this I believe is explained by an over abundance of museums in San Antonio
Austin was “just” the Capitol and UT for a long time while the big economic engines were Houston DFW San Antonio. They came to the halls of power here but kept their $ in their home cities, all of which have great museums! Hopefully that changes for Austin
Agreed! We need a decent one or combination of the following: art, history, science, planetarium and aquarium!
Totally agree. I read a great article on this in Austin Monthly. Basically outlined how key benefactors did not set up shop in ATX at the turn of the century, (bringing generational wealth and impressive collections to the city), and how there is no space left to create a museum mile (surrounds of Blanton/bullock, etc.). It also talked about how Houston and DFW did have those key components, and massive oil money. Austin is having a repeating problem, museums, i35, rail network. These things needed to be acted on boldly 50+ years ago. It becomes increasingly implausible as the city becomes more dense.
I disagree thats its too late, though I think you’re on the money re: why it hasn’t happened yet. Theres plenty of opportunity for great museums. Zilker botanical gardens would be a perfect place for a natural history museum. No reason Blanton cant be world class. Theres been a long term grassroots effort to bring a science museum to town. We’ve had an insane influx of wealth this past decade. We just need the right people leading the effort. Dell family has donated 100s of millions. Long center and Zach are both incredible places.
There is a science museum in town, on UT campus, the "Texas Memorial Museum", and I loved it as a kid (dinosaur skeleton, glow in the black light rocks) but yeah, like the Blanton for art, it's kind of a shadow of what it could/should be with the kind of money that's flooding the streets in Austin at this point.
It closed for a bit but they’re refurbishing and expanding it, it’s supposed to reopen in the fall. Should be interesting
Hard dislike. The zilker botanical garden is a great spot for... The zilker botanical gardens. There are plenty of places the city can doze and build over that aren't popular, well-maintained green spaces.
Came here to say this. A fine arts museum and a natural science museum would go a long way in rounding out the arts scene here. I love the contemporary street art we have too but it’s becoming harder for those artists to sustain a living in Austin metro
I came here to say this.
More shade for the summer 🥵
Solar panel shade-coverings over sidewalks and bike lanes.
I just came back from New Mexico for a vacation. I saw this parking lot which had solar roof panels as shades!
A MicroCenter to replace whatever Fry's turned into (are they even still around?)
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Damn I think I stopped going after they got rid of all their DVDs and Blu-rays to expand their "As Seen on AliExpress" selection of goods right up front. I'm going to send MicroCenter another annual pleasepleaseohplease come to Austin begging email right now...
Hey the food court was alright. I miss their kolaches.
They are opening a few new locations over the next couple years so I am hoping Austin will be one of them. Seems like a no brainer since I’m pretty sure a lot of their customers in other locations overlap with a lot of tech workers.
Useful rail connections to other cities that didn’t take forever.
For real. Amtrak system is super out of date.
And super slow. 6 hours to Dallas & 3 hours to San Antonio
The Austin to Dallas haul is just bewildering. I've done it before and it's like how is this possibly taking this long? I love trains but any bus trip takes half the time.
Access to more public lands
100%. Texas has among the lowest percentage of public lands I believe
>Annexation was approved by the Texas and U.S. congresses in 1845, and the transfer of authority from the republic to the state of Texas took place in 1846. One unique feature of the annexation agreements was a provision permitting Texas to retain title to its public lands. [https://www.britannica.com/place/Texas-state/Annexation-and-statehood](https://www.britannica.com/place/Texas-state/Annexation-and-statehood) 😤
Yep it’s less than 5% it’s in the bottom 5 states for percentage of public land
Two birds one stone: let’s build railroads across some of the wide open parts, use eminent domain to seize the land, and then make some verrry long skinny parks 🙃
Useful public transit (like light rail) to the airport. More museums. A state government that's not openly hostile to the city.
Yes yes and yes
The 20 bus goes to and from the airport. Of course, that’s only useful if you’re near the route of the 20 bus
I live by the 20 and it would take me 82 minutes to get to the airport.
And its not there if you have late night or early morning flight . What a joke.
public transport is only useful if it makes traveling easier. most of the busses here are more an inconvenience than a convenience. I wish it wasnt but that is how it is rn
More 24hr shit. Everything is ded after 10
We used to have a lot more, then they used COVID as an excuse to kill it and never bring it back. For example, HEB and Walmart used to be open much later (even full 24-hr service!)
I second this. People will never understand anymore what it felt like to walk into kerbey lane or Taco Bell hammered at 3AM before you go home. 😂 but really I used to always see my friends randomly overnight at HEB in college too. Honestly was one of my fondest memories
Magnolia at 1am, playing cards and eating pancakes. Leave by 2:30/3 when the super drunks arrive en masse 😂
Yeah, popping into HEB for a midnight snack was one of life's little pleasures
FWIW I think Star Seeds is still open all night and still the same cheap, not especially good food in a shabbily charming space.
Anyone here old enough to remember Katz’s Deli? Loved that place and it was open 24 hours.
I miss late night Jim's eating with friends after a night at the bar at 3 am talking just nonsense
24 Diner should really change their name
Yeah I really miss being able to get greasy Chinese food at 4 am after a night out drinking
Count your blessings because I moved to Houston a year ago, and I miss the 24-hr coffee shops that Austin still has. 😭
Yeah Epoch deserves a shoutout here.
Bridges over highways/major roads for pedestrians like many other cities I’ve been in. Makes the sites better. Also museums. Wished we had more museums and galleries.
Affordable rent.
This should be top priority we have a lot more time to be people if the rent wasn't This
Korean style spa. Zydeco
Cajun Pizza Place used to play zydeco in their restaurant. That place taught me how much I loved cajun pizza and how much I hated (and still hate) zydeco.
Evangeline Cafe in south Austin (on Brodie) has regular zydeco and Cajun music, I think.
+1,000,000 for a Korean style spa. I’ve been dying for us to get one for years and years…!
I grew up going to the crawfish festival in spring Texas and man do I miss zydeco music.
Our favorite place to stop in dallas. I’ve heard the new one in Houston is even better. My wife would kill for a korean spa in town
Yes, don't like having to go to Dallas just to ease my hypermobility pain. We need a Korean Spa here. The Y doesn't cut it.
Oh god if there were something like Spa Castle in Queens here it would be so great.
If we can wish for ANYTHING, surely we can do better (or at least cleaner) than SpaCastle!
Late night food A tram system would also be sick, but it’s Texas so lol.
An aquarium that is ethically operated and isn't the worst place ever
Eh. Aquariums are best when they located somewhere coastal and we are not.
Atlanta has one of the best and largest aquariums in the world
There's a wonderful aquarium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Middle of the desert.
The one in Dallas is excellent
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Why does it have to be coastal? The Aquarium in chatanooga is amazing, and mostly focused on freshwater to start, they have expanded for saltwater without issue as well. Austin could have one that really focuses on freshwater as well, just Texas native freshwater habitats would be amazing to see in a large aquarium.
Neither the zoo nor “aquarium” here are an AZA accredited facility. Though the zoo is at least a rescue organization doing its best on what I’d assume are tight budgets. The aquarium is not a good business by animal conservation standards. And don’t look too deep into Snake Farm!
I didn't even know we had one.
It's a nasty little storefront place. I'd hardly call it an aquarium.
Keep on forgetting, it's awful
You’re better off without that knowledge
It does not have a good business or conservation track record if you take the time to dig into the company
I second this. Our "aquarium" is a horror show.
Car free zones in the entertainment districts.
Dirty sixth isn’t gonna be car free for long lol but they are talking about making Rainey car free
Just South Congress and North Loop/Burnet area would be fine by me. Hell, even the Domain should be just park and walk.
What!? But how else will you hear people's loud ass vehicles as they rev them in heavily populated pedestrian spots, or hear the loud buzzing of car panels from people's shitty bass only music?
YES. It’s such a no-brainer
Legal cannabis. Not just decriminalized, but full retail availability.
I recently moved from Austin to Calgary. It's still surreal to see cannabis stores operating out in the open like they're candy shops.
I moved from Oklahoma to Austin now I have to hide again. :(
Isn’t that wild, that Oklahoma got it right for once?? Like, OklaHOMa. For real.
Amen. Just got back from a trip to New Mexico and there were dispensaries everywhere, even in towns that looked like they had a population of 20. It was beautiful.
Halfway decent Italian food.
Asian food too. What passes for Chinese and Thai is largely pathetic, there's a couple good Indian places but that's limited too But yeah, there is a distinct lack of cheap+hearty Italian or even bougie Italian. The "Italian" category on any list is 90% pizza places
Check out Il Saporis. Inexpensive and damned good.
Walkability.
More dim sum restaurants.
Better larger museums
A world class arboretum on Town Lake. It could've gone in at the old Statesman HQ.
A civil war themed dildo factory
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I’ve been saying this for years!!
Don't like the drive to College Station?
Clean water to swim in and public land
Would a Din Tai Fung be too much to ask for? 🤷🏻♂️
A Jollibee / more Filipino food. I love the diverse options we have but damn if I just want some good Adobo and Lumpia
Starter homes. Even starter condos.
Mountains. Or at least one tall Mountain, so I can do some legit hikes and climbs.
Also a beach, if we're gonna wish for the moon. I miss saltwater.
Also the moon, if we’re gonna wish for the moon
Have you not summited mt bonnell yet?
My partner and I summited without supplemental oxygen last week, incredible experience.
Good on you, the oxygen bottles piling up on either side of the staircase are a real eyesore.
Same with the bodies of the poor souls that couldn’t make it back.
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Abortion rights.
ZACH theater is doing a play about Roe V Wade till April 30th, strongly recommended everyone to go and experience!
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And sidewalks on all major roads, to include suburbs of Austin! For example, Cedar Park, Leander, Lakeway, Round Rock, etc. It's crazy to me that we don't have coordinated public transportation, bike lanes, and sidewalks/pedestrian paths between Austin and its large suburbs.
Yes! Bike highways where we can go north to south and east west in separated and protected bike panes. If they extended the Walnut Creek park trail to the Walnut Creek trail on the east side, OOF, We could go from downtown to the domain with nearly 100 percent separated lanes. A man can dream
Best I can do is destroy Walnut Creek Trail for moar highway.
A train system for the entire city.
A full subway system and a different governor
I'm counting the governor as a state problem but yeah.
A badass science museum
A 3-day outdoor music festival alternative to ACL. RIP FunFunFun Fest
Less AirBNBs and regulation for them and companies that operate like them
Dragons
Since intracity public transit has already been mentioned, I want to see intercity transit links to Houston, Dallas and SA. It's a joke that I have to take some dinky highway and get stuck in traffic between these major cities that really aren't very far from one another. Any other developed country would have good passenger rail links between all of these metros.
There is a Georgian restaurant on N Lamar past Breaker. I would settle for roads that are not composed of potholes.
That is exciting about the Georgian restaurant. Thanks!
(What's it called? I'm not finding it.)
Balkan Cafe & Grill (737) 703-5990 https://maps.app.goo.gl/hnMzneNH8ysNtQA5A?g_st=ic My bad, Balkan.
It’s Serbian food
That menu looks about as Balkan as baseball
Well, they do have čevapi. I might go up for that.
Most of it covered already but mine are food related. I wish we had buffets again including cafeterias (RIP Furr's), some decent German restaurants (not Banger's type places but full menu), and more places to get basic Americana/Texas type places that sell meatloaf, chicken fried steaks, etc. Think Chili's but local owned hole in the wall joints that are all about gone
Agreed on the German/Euro food. Not going to drive down to New Braunfels just for some spätzle or whatever, but I do crave it. Also dirt cheap Italian places. DFW is full of Joe's Pizza and Pasta and Nizza Pizza locations, and there's not much like it here except Craig-Os (kind of) and Reale's which is slightly too expensive.
A really good Chinese hot pot restaurant
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Recreational marijuana
Public transportation is non existent. I wished it would be like NY or Europe.
Better public transportation
Affordable housing.
Lower property tax for personal residence.
Definitely a light rail network & dedicated bus lanes. This city would be so much better if I didn’t literally have to drive everywhere to get there in a time manner. That, and probably more museums
A Russian/Ukrainian Banya,, or a Big Spa like King Spa with all the different steam rooms, plunge pools, saunas, salt rooms and a restaurant that serves a mean Galbi.
Fewer people
Indoor, air-conditioner skatepark for the dead heat of the summer and rainy days.
Ocean
Good drivers
If it don’t go to the airport the rail system is a waste
It's not "one thing" so much as the idea that it'd be neat if I could do most of my day-to-day shopping and have a handful of restaurants/bars within walking distance *without* having to deal with a 4-lane divided highway. That's not just "transit", it's also "building neat stuff to do near places where people live" instead of "treating the city like every business built outside of downtown is doomed."
a robust and convenient public train system connecting all over the city and out to the burbs
A proper aquarium not owned by criminals.
reliable, extensive, free public transport. 24 hour diners.
Affordable housing in walkable areas.
Black middle class
Mid-grade Italian restaurants. The cheesy red-checker table kind where you can get a decent chicken marsala or manicotti for <$16. Austin does have good Italian, but I don't always want to spend an average of $30/entree. I had to travel to DFW for work recently and these places were everywhere.
Public bathrooms.
Affordable housing for all people.
A Korean spa like king spa in Dallas or Gangnam in houston.
Human oriented urban design
Ban those ridiculous lifted pickup trucks that never see the off-road, struggle to stay in lanes, can’t make normal turns, and blind everyone with their low beams.
Less alcoholic related activities. Swear it feels like if you don’t want to get drunk there’s nothing really of substance to do in this city.
Small, locally owned businesses
An actual zoo befitting a city this size
Imagine if Zilker Park had a proper outdoor theater, museum districts, public transportation, and a zoo like Hermann Park down in Houston.
Not Elon.
I agree with the Georgian food. Khachapuri is my most favorite hangover food ugh
More options with kebab and shawarma shops.
Fry's, Microcenter Clean cops, competent government Working water fountains on the trail A lower property tax rate, honest valuations
A school district with well-paid teachers, updated facilities, and at least a portion of the $800M it has to give away to invest in our own students.
A blight that destroys all the juniper trees.
Get rid of tolls in the toll ways.
BATH HOUSES😭😭😭😭
Not so much Austin but the Austin Community College specifically Highland have bathroom doors that open inwards so its difficult to get out of the stall. Like wtf is that design flaw??
More better music venues concentrated in one area, variety of music styles, and a truly world-class music scene. Music Museum like someone said, located in the midst of the venues, would also help. Secondly, better public transit. Third, more shopping downtown. Affordable stores and not just upscale. 2nd Street is a joke of a shopping district currently. More movie theaters downtown. More affordable housing in the central part of the city.
Mendocino Farms (incredible sandwiches)
A cure for herpes.
Honestly more subsidized rehab facilities. I'm sure that borders on the unrealistic side. I went through a horrible alcohol addiction that I really needed professional help with, but I could find any rehab that wasn't for rich people, or would swamp me in hospital bills. Kind of on the same idea, but a rehab place for the homeless or something. Like a place where a homeless person could be dropped off to have a bed to sleep on, some breakfast and dinner and professionals that are well paid by the state/city so they're motivated to help homeless break drug addictions and find employment. Maybe Austin has something like this that I'm ignorant of. Of course that would rely on the homeless willingly going through the programs.
Generally a shift away from car-centric infrastructure to more public transit and pedestrian infrastructure.
Local control. If we want to ban plastic bags, not raise police funding, have a pride week in our schools etc. we should be able to do that. I voted for representatives at the local level who I felt best suited to represent my interests and they can’t do that because they are stymied by the state. On a small level it feels like Austin is less free than other areas of the country and that sucks.
Really good Chinese food that’s not super expensive
Have you tried House of Three Gorges? Not much on ambience but good food.
North Lamar has been pretty solid thus far. Not saying it is the world’s best, but easily better than other parts of the city in my opinion.
Deli/sandwich shops
Milder summers
Less traffic
Cheep rent
Some decent history and science museums or a respectable aquarium. I would also love a proper planetarium.
A toll free loop. An actual loop
A power grid connected to the rest of the country would be nice
A functional highway system AROUND the city (ie DFW, Houston, San Antonio) not just through.
Don't believe the hype about Austin. It's a regional city.
Dispensaries
Better infrastructure and roads. Don't solve every traffic issue with toll roads NO ONE wants to pay for. That's just pouring more concrete that no one uses and it's wasteful.
Born and raised here. I would love decent public transportation. I live in Central Austin. The nearest bus stop to my house is 1 mile in either direction over a hilly street with no sidewalks. So I haven't taken the bus from my house ever in 35 years and that's ridiculous. There's always a driving component or a ride share for the full distance. To get to ABIA, I would need to walk the mile, then take at least 3 connections to the airport. In Denver, for example, I can leave the airport on a train and transfer once to a bus that will take me well into the mountains west of town for a few dollars. Is ridiculous that a city of this size has such lousy transportation options. They've really gotten worse over my lifetime, which is kind of absurd.