Page Two

This issue's cover story, on the buildings currently planned for downtown Austin, offers a blueprint for a city that will be hard to recognize in the future. Politics editor Amy Smith charts the projects under way and on the boards. If this boom continues, this is only the beginning. In the next two decades, Austin as we know it will disappear. When I first moved here, I loved our compact downtown, more like a big town than a city. Now there is a skyline. Approaching from very far away, you'll find the city sparkles in the hot Texas sun, because there is so much of it. Traffic, big buildings, and disappearing old ones is the trend. I don't like it, but we really don't have a vote; our city is growing, and these are the consequences of growth. This isn't the first and won't be the last time we focus on downtown development.

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Friday evening the extended Chronicle family gathered for our annual end-of-the-year party. This was also an end-of-the-decade party, although there's a split vote on whether it was an end-of-the-millennium party, with many die-hards holding out for next December. Quibbles aside, it was quite the party. The American Legion Hall literally overflowed with people, spilling out on to the front lawn. We invited not only the core working group involved in getting the Chronicle into your hands each week -- full- and part-time staff, freelancers, and distribution drivers -- but also the more extended family we've built up over the years.

It was a great party, spearheaded by Deborah Wilson, Tommi Ferguson, and Dan Hardick of our staff. Tables could actually be heard groaning under the weight of food, including turkey and barbecue from Ruby's, sides from Hoover's, a range of dishes from Curra's, more sides from Threadgill's, Mangia pizzas, Thai food from Sea Dragon, shrimp from Red Lobster, and hors d'oeuvres from Austin Java, accompanying desserts by our own Virginia Wood and pies by the wonderful Kathy McCarty. All kinds of liquids were also provided, with wine from Wiggy's and beer from Live Oak.

At the end, I looked out on the lawn and dreamed of future parties. There is no way I would have guessed this paper would become what it is from what it was, that the staff and paper both would have grown so much. But there seemed something very hard-core Austin about the party -- people, food, booze, and talk, everywhere talk. There was this sense of community, that these people weren't only sharing a party but a creative adventure. Overwhelmingly, these are people who take their work seriously but have a great deal of fun doing it, not just Chronicle staff but family and friends. Whether it is putting out the paper, making music, making movies, writing, acting, painting, running a business, working a job, living and/or dreaming, this community shares a sense of purpose. A surprisingly optimistic thought in what I usually find an unnervingly sober season.

Late in the evening, I walked down the lawn to look at the river and smell the night. For a moment, I blocked out the city noise and the city's lights and felt deeply rooted in the Austin of forever. I sucked the smell of this earth, this soil, this city, and the night deep into my lungs, then headed back to the party to open some more bottles of wine.

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Enjoy this issue, it grows out of the soil of its community. Next week our office will be open on Monday and then closed the rest of the week/year/decade/millennium. We will open January 3, 2000, in the brave new world of every day we haven't lived yet.