I live in one of the "truly hideous subdivisions" you describe from The Unforeseen. Whenever you look at a housing area from the air, the area looks overbuilt. Much of old Austin would look the same, and happens to be built on land every bit as environmentally sensitive as the Circle C area. The movie is relatively accurate, and too many homes were built out here. But there is no way short of condemning and buying the land to preserve it in a natural state. The legislation Deck Brown helped overturn would have somewhat limited, but not prevented development. And in the end, much of the land out here was built under the standards of the better ordinance because that was the best way to get all the approvals necessary. So, much of what you saw in the "hideous" part of the flyover was built under Austin's citizen-driven environmental protections. Anyway, the film is good, I encourage people to see it, especially if you have your own development issues. While the director took some license, its still a good film. Oh, and if you left the film with the impression that Austin has a damaged water supply, that is not correct. In fact, it was recently rated one of the best systems in the country for water quality .
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Posted on June 5 at 4:04 p.m.
I live in one of the "truly hideous subdivisions" you describe from The Unforeseen. Whenever you look at a housing area from the air, the area looks overbuilt. Much of old Austin would look the same, and happens to be built on land every bit as environmentally sensitive as the Circle C area. The movie is relatively accurate, and too many homes were built out here. But there is no way short of condemning and buying the land to preserve it in a natural state. The legislation Deck Brown helped overturn would have somewhat limited, but not prevented development. And in the end, much of the land out here was built under the standards of the better ordinance because that was the best way to get all the approvals necessary. So, much of what you saw in the "hideous" part of the flyover was built under Austin's citizen-driven environmental protections. Anyway, the film is good, I encourage people to see it, especially if you have your own development issues. While the director took some license, its still a good film. Oh, and if you left the film with the impression that Austin has a damaged water supply, that is not correct. In fact, it was recently rated one of the best systems in the country for water quality .
On Enlarging the Change