Winter in West Campus

The flow of traffic and people in West Campus is largely determined by UT’s academic calendar. Thus, the first week of December the neighborhood rapidly depopulates. All the undergraduates leave as they finish their exams, and new graduates move out for good. Over the next couple of weeks, traffic thins even more as UT staff take their breaks and all the Austin transplants travel home to visit families. Many businesses and restaurants close for a week or two and/or operate with reduced hours.

This dramatically changes the feel of the neighborhood for those of us who live here all year round. Without the typical traffic and people, the neighborhood is much quieter. The week between Christmas and New Year’s can be almost eerie, like being in a movie where all the people have suddenly disappeared.

Game On

One of my family’s Christmas Day traditions is playing in 29th Street. In the afternoon and usually until sunset, we’ll be throwing footballs and kicking soccer balls, riding bikes and scooters, and playing with any other new toys. There are usually a few interruptions from passing cars, but for that busy street, there is only one day a year we can do this.

Keeping a Watchful Eye…

While the quieter atmosphere is a nice break from the usual city cacophony, there are some drawbacks. Opportunists see all the vacant houses and apartments as targets. I keep a closer eye on my properties when I know the tenants are out of town, and more than once we’ve called the police on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. One time turned out to be a burglary in progress, another time was a misunderstanding where a resident in a house full of women had a brother in town with a key stopping by to pick something up.

Maintenance Time

Replacing decking on a porch…

Something else I try and do during the break is to have work done on the houses. It is the one time of year when coordinating parking and deliveries isn’t an issue. This year I’m having the flooring on a deck replaced and repainted, along with some other maintenance.

The classes at UT traditionally begin the Tuesday after MLK day, so starting next week, the neighborhood will fill back up for the spring semester and we’ll quickly have our usually ambient noise back to the typically elevated level.