Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
side perceived the landscape as a bundle of resources to be harnessed for
human ends; the other saw the landscape as integral to the unique culture
of Austin and in need of protection from future development. It was an
urban manifestation of the classic U.S. environmental debate between
conservationists and preservationists in the late nineteenth and early twen-
tieth centuries.
35
Nature could be revered or it could be exploited—but
not both.
Urban Growth Politics in the 1970s
The urban growth that resulted from the booming high-tech industry was
a boon to landowners and developers but was increasingly unwelcome
to many Austinites who perceived the rapid population increase and land
development activities as a threat to their cherished quality of life. Austin's
politically liberal population, based on employment in state government
and higher education, created a community of highly educated middle-
class residents. The University of Texas fueled the activist character of
the community beginning in the 1930s, when university professors and
students railed against the Austin establishment on contentious social is-
sues, notably segregation.
36
In the 1970s, neighborhood groups began to focus on activities to slow
or stop the explosive urban growth patterns fueled by aggressive economic
development activities. Neighborhood activists fought battles over new
apartment complexes and traffi c congestion to protect the integrity of their
neighborhoods from new development; by 1983, there were more than a
hundred and fi fty neighborhood groups active in Austin as well as numer-
ous local environmental organizations that focused on protecting unde-
veloped land from environmental degradation.
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The environmental and
neighborhood groups often joined under a shared banner: “limit growth,
limit urban expansion.”
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As such, it was in the 1970s that environmental
protection became synonymous with protection of Austin's cherished qual-
ity of life.
39
The green romantics in Austin questioned the assumption that
urban growth was an inevitable and positive outcome of societal progress
and instead promoted an idea of bioregionalism and respect for place.
40
This perspective is refl ected in the militant, uncompromising position of
famed Texas naturalist Roy Bedichek:
Personally, if I have to fi ght for this country, I will not fi ght for the fl ag, or the
American “way of life,” or democracy, or private enterprise or for any other
abstractions, which seem cold as kraut to me. But I will fi ght to the last ditch
for Barton Creek, Boggy Creek, cedar-covered limestone hills, Blazing Star and
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