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Amidst the frenzied last-day buzz of preparations for our DowntownGuide sits Robert Faires, a picture of calm, smiling as he gently thumbs through the first Downtown Guide -- a guide created by the Chronicle staff back in 1985.
Click on a section above to see detail map.Perusing those ancient pages, it becomes clear what a staff of that size (fewer than 50, including contributors, ad staff, and distributors) accomplished in creating that fine time capsule of Downtown Austin, 1985.
Welcome to our little time capsule of Downtown Austin, 1998. This is our first attempt to update our guide since 1993. Needless to say, much has changed in our fair Austin since then, and we set out to document as many of those changes as we could uncover. A crew of writers and reporters, including Ghislaine Ball, Michael Bertin, Kevin Fullerton, Jay Hardwig, Sarah Hepola, Nicole Kleman, Alison Lince-Bentley, Kim Mellen, Lisa Tozzi, Claiborne Smith, and myself, took to the streets to annotate the digs between MLK and the River from north to south and between I-35 and just a tad bit west of Lamar from east to west. We were assisted greatly by Mary Sledd, Sue Beckwith, Jason Bowers, Craig Campanella, the staff of the Austin History Center, and Austin Carriage driver Cyndee and her horse friend Rowdy.
Perusing these new pages, it becomes clear: Downtown Austin is the wild beating heart of a city just coming into its own. The growth, the changes, all reflect an influx of new people and new ideas here to make their mark. After all, Austin is less a city of ideas, per se (as the ad campaign campaigns) as it is a city of people. Vibrant, exciting, laid-back, intelligent people. Whether enjoying the crowd and a 40 oz. while watching Superfly at the Alamo Drafthouse, sipping on a scalding Earl Grey at Little City, wolfing down a plate of Migas Especiales con Hongos at Las Manitas, admiring the grace of the Caswell House, slurping a smooth Prohibition at the 1920s Club, or hugging a favorite tree on the Capitol lawn, the real joy is in the people with whom those experiences are shared ó the barkeeps, the bus drivers, the guitar slingers, the poets, the cruisers, the decked out, the down and dirty, the freaks... People. That's what defines Austin's character: People.
Hey, maybe we are going to make it, after all. -- Kate X Messer
Maps by geographic location:
Descriptions by category:
Other:
Periodically listings will be updated for pertinent changes.
Please send corrections for listings (addresses, phone numbers, URLs or email addresses) to: guide@auschron.comOriginal publication date: 1/30/98
Last udpated online: 1/30/98
