After the Flood: Retrofi tting Austin’s Urban Core to Accommodate Growth - Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology, and the Sustainable City - page 90

fi x Shoal or Blunn [Creek], but it's just a matter of getting the boat going in the
right direction. 78
In the fl ood-prone environment of Central Texas, it is perhaps most re-
alistic to have modest goals for water quality, particularly in the inner city,
where the built environment exacerbates the already fl ashy conditions.
Despite the trashed conditions of the inner-city creeks, urban residents
and municipal staff members continue to hope that the creeks can be as-
sets rather than liabilities for Austin's future. This hope for an improved
future drives municipal staff members to work toward shared missions
of multifunctional and aesthetically pleasing stormwater structures and
brings neighborhood residents back to their local waterways with desires
to rework them into the fabric of their neighborhoods. In the meantime,
the creeks in the inner city wait quietly for the next Texas-sized storm.