Why is everyone giving the Domain such a hard time? Yes, it may be a high class place to shop. Yes, it may not look "Austin-like." But have you ever looked at the bigger picture? The Domain is bringing all sorts of people together with their high class and middle class retail stores. Just because the Domain is characterized as "high class," that doesn't mean that it's gonna suck the money out of your pockets every time you go there. That's only if YOU CHOOSE TO SHOP THERE. There are more things to do there than shop at the Domain. Thanks to the money put into the Domain, people can experience something they can't experience in other parts of Austin. The Domain isn't made to look like Austin. In my opinion, the Domain gives a "New York" feeling. It can be seen as an escape for people. You don't have to pay for an expensive plane ticket to go to a place like New York; you can get a feel of New York right here in Austin. Along with the interesting art and amazing cuisine of numerous restaurants, the Domain can be seen as an all in one place to shop.
Proposition 2 is trying to stop the City of Austin from getting tax money to fund the new parts of the Domain. If we really think about it, the Domain is bringing stores from malls that are run-down and falling apart. Not a lot of people go to Highland Mall anymore and soon enough there won't even be a Highland Mall. The Domain is also taking stores from the Arboretum. They will soon be opening a new Gap, Express, and the department store Nordstrom. The Domain is a convenient place to shop. Looking at the big picture, the Domain is bringing new job opportunities to Austin. This will bring money back to the community. If the City of Austin approves Proposition 2, those job opportunities will be demolished. When the idea of the Domain was brought up five years ago, they agreed to kick-start new jobs. It did exactly what it promised; there are tons of job opportunities at the Domain. So why would we try to demolish new job opportunities for people who need jobs in Austin?
Proposition 2 will not change the city’s future incentive policy in any way. The Domain has also agreed to all of the written agreements that were made five years ago. Also, SIX out of SEVEN current members of the Austin City Council oppose Proposition 2. So with all of these facts, why would we want to proceed with Proposition 2? Doing so will just make more people unhappy than people who are happy.
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3 comments:
First of all I believe that ever since the technology boom because of the outside of state and region influences Austin has rapidly and continually lost its uniqueness and what made it Austin and made it different from everywhere else. In truth as a native Austinite I believe that Austin has lost its character due to outside influences attempting to mold Austin into the places in which they originated rather that the original uniqueness and openness that Austin had before the large migration of outsiders from places like the northern and northeastern states, urban California, and other places that are highly different than the old Austin. What I believe is that these individuals attempted to impress there sameness on Austin and what thereafter happened was cultural nerve-gas that almost suffocated what originally made it desirable to live in Austin. Which was that it was different than any other highly urbanized culture in that it retained friendly people, and cultivated an open atmosphere that equally if not realistically excepted and tolerated different types of people and their ideologies and sub-cultural abnormalities. What is now in Austin is an MTV manufactured norm that is nothing like why in the 60’s through early nineties Austin was the place to be. Not any more just another cultural clone.
In JBT's Blog Bleeds Burnt Orange, I’ve read the article “Vote No to Proposition 2,” and I strongly agree with the writer on this argument. We all know that the City of Austin wants to stop funding the Domain’s new-site; this is one of the disadvantages that the City of Austin has made. As the writer mentions: “Looking at the big picture, the Domain is bringing new job opportunities to Austin. This will bring money back to the community,” this is so true if we want to bring our economic up. The economy mostly bases on the jobs, and the money earn by those workers. In that case, the Domain provides people opportunity to work and earn money. When the Domain first opens, it sounds like a “high class” shopping center, but once you get to shop at the Domain, it is not that all “high-class” merchandise which people cannot afford to pay. It is very convenient to shop there. The shopping center now has some store that applicable for all classes shopper: upper-class, middle-class, and working-class shopper. There are some other stores that are going to build in the Domain, so it is even more convenient to the people. We would all vote No to Proposition 2 to provide people opportunity to work, to shop, to bring our economic up, and making Austin looks nicer with the convenient shopping center.
Ever since the issue of Proposition 2 was brought up in Austin City, we have been hearing “ye” or “ne” uncountable times. It was a good article from JBT's Blog Bleeds Burnt Orange. Everyone has to be very clear what Proposition 2 is all about. Proposition 2 forbids the city from offering tax incentives to developers and prevents the city from honoring its existing agreements to pay rebate sales taxes. In her blog, Julie brought up a good point whether or not we should support building Domain, a large size mall her in Austin.
I agree with what she says about finding everything we can think of: decent shops, decent restaurants, without having to travel New York. It does help Austin City by increasing employment. The only concern I have for not approving Proposition 2 is risk of loosing small business and existing mall because of high competition. Overall, the city will wind up with same number of employee and giving away someone else business to the new one. Therefore, before we vote against Proposition 2, we have to think about the long term consequence of the local businesses that have been giving services to local people for decades.
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