Rainey Street residents say lack of sidewalks is safety issue

[KevinFromTexas]

Statesman Watch: Rainey Street residents say lack of sidewalks is safety issue

By Ricardo Gándara
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 12:07 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010
Published: 11:02 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010

When Deb Elder became the general manager of the Milago condominiums in the historic Rainey Street District in 2008, she was excited about a new challenge. All of the Milago's 240 units were sold, and the condos were part of the transformation of the neighborhood into a high-density nest of condos, restaurants and bars.

But the growth has brought problems. Elder said she fears for the downtown workers and nighttime bar patrons who park and have to walk in the middle of Rainey Street, which has no sidewalks and poor lighting. Elder said residents, tipsy bar patrons and drivers already are clogging Rainey, and the area needs sidewalks and more streetlights to make it safer for pedestrians and motorists.
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http://www.statesman.com/news/states...of-210083.html

[JAM]

City traffic engineer Lee Austin said adding sidewalks is the responsibility of the Public Works Department. "There's a sidewalk master plan out there, and Rainey is in the lower priority group," she said."

Nice!

The city seems to be collecting its fair share of taxes from Rainey now. What the city could do is allow residents to cut thru the park after park hours and then residents wouldn't need the sidewalks. But if you do that, you risk a ticket for being in the park after hours.

[rhoby13]

I live on Rainey and completely agree. I think the bigger issue is lighting on the street. It is completely dark and very hard to see pedestrians at night. The sidewalks that do exist are torn up and have over grown shrubbery intruding.

[KevinFromTexas]

Ah ha!

Headway on Rainey Street, illegal vendors, run-down house

By Ricardo Gándara
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 11:43 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010
Published: 10:57 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010

Rainey Street residents are seeing immediate action. Last week, Deb Elder, the general manager of the Milago condominiums, talked with city traffic engineer Lee Austin about her fears for the downtown workers and nighttime bar patrons who park in the area and are forced to walk in the middle of Rainey because it has no sidewalks and poor lighting.

Lee said, "When we talked, we learned about some other issues we hadn't heard about. People were parking off of Bierce Street behind Milago in a dirt lot that happens to be park land. The parks department was able to put up some big limestone blocks along the road to block access to the lot. Regarding lighting, we are giving her the name and number of the person to talk to directly at Austin Energy."

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http://www.statesman.com/news/states...wn-224720.html

[verybadgnome]

I bike down holly/river st. every day to work and quite often wonder about what this area will be like in 20 years. I can imagine a lot of developers would be interested buying up a block or two and then try to get the zoning changed.

[Scottolini]

It's zoned CBD currently.

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by Scottolini

It's zoned CBD currently.

Thanks..........And I prefer Peter Gabriel. Phil is a very good prog drummer though.