I started Austin Contrarian to write about Austin land-use issues. Land-use fights are bloodsport in this town; I enjoy writing about them and will continue to do so.
But over the last three years, I've branched out. I'm now as likely to write about urban economics, demographics, New Urbanism or some other topic that has nothing to do with Austin in particular. Lately, I've been writing about these other things more frequently because development has dried up in Austin.
Today, about half of my readers are out-of-towners. I don't imagine they care one jot about Austin's noise ordinance, the Waterfront Overlay Ordinance, the McMansion Ordinance or the VMU Ordinance. On the other hand, I doubt most of my Austin readers care about the more esoteric economics or demographics I like to write about. They started reading this blog for detailed coverage of zoning disputes.
It's gotten harder and harder to juggle these two audiences without alienating one or the other. So I will divide my blogging. In this blog, I will write exclusively about Austin -- zoning disputes, water rationing, city politics, congestion and all the other Austin-related topics I've covered over the years. If an entry has a significant Austin angle, i will post it here.
At Urban Returns, I will write about everything else.
There will be some overlap. If I think one of my Austin entries will interest out-of-towners, I will cross-post. An example would be my entry on cul-de-sacs. I will err on the side of cross-posting.
So: If you read my blog for the zoning coverage or other local issues, don't go anywhere. If you don't care about Austin zoning disputes or ponderous exigeses of the noise ordinance or the land-use code, go to Urban Returns. You won't miss anything here.
If you're one of those who likes both, then you'll just have to add another blog to your feed reader. Sorry.
You can subscribe to my Urban Returns feed here:
Or by e-mail here:
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One bit of housekeeping: I don't want separate comment threads when I cross-post. When I cross-post I will close comments here and include a link to the cross-post at Urban Returns. Urban Returns will have threaded comments, though (if the software is working right). I hope that's some compensation for the inconvenience.
