Here you’ll find a historical series of maps about Austin. Even those who have lived in Austin for years don’t realize just how much of a small town it was until very recently. This has implications for the condition of infrastructure and local governance. Very few people in Austin understand how to deal effectively with servicing a city of 2 million people, let alone the 5 million that is just around the corner. Local officials and staff typically have experience with a small town fabric. There is a tendency to manage without much outside “influence”, but Austin needs to reach out more to private and public expertise in cities where they’ve already cut their teeth.

Look at the 1954 map. For some of us, 1954 was the recent past. The south edge of Austin was Oltorf, a mile south of downtown. There was no Mopac Expressway, and I-35 was US Highway 81 on a boulevard in a new alignment on the east side of downtown. Previously, it had come down Lamar from Dallas and went south on Congress Avenue toward San Antonio. The north end of town had just crept past Koenig, and Tarrytown was just partly developed. There were just a few houses in Rollingwood and Westlake.

In 1994, I moved to Austin from Toronto, in part seeking a smaller community. So it’s not that I promoting Austin to grow to 5 million. That’s just the reality based on national immigration and internal migration factors. Our challenge is to understand the dynamics of our urban region so that we may better guide its development.