What evidence do you see of improvements on Airport Blvd?
It would be nice to get a major employer to locate there. It's not likely to happen - it's close enough in to be difficult to get to by car during rush hours; yet not close enough in to get the spillover benefits of downtown. (Northcross is far enough out that you could get there by car during rush hour without too much trouble).
Again, major employers typically locate along transit lines long after residential TOD has occurred. The residential TOD (true TOD, not just long-overdue upzoning that doesn't lead to more transit use) only happens after a rail line proves it's successful at attracting choice commuters because it delivers them within walking distance of their offices at the other end of the line.
That's not happening here (will probably never happen), so it's a non-issue.
Did any of you see the picture in the ABJ article about Highland Mall redevelopment? It's particularly telling that the only image showed huge amounts of surface parking. It wouldn't stop Austin folks from calling it "TOD", of course, but the rest of the world would rightly view it as TAD.
http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin...20/story1.html
That's a La Frontera in the making there, people.