Former Austin Mayor Will Wynn had a goal of 25,000 downtown residents by 2010 and I think we are close.

The number of new condo projects and conversions currently planned or in production is staggering for our little downtown.

In the past few years we've also seen many new businesses in downtown that support an urban lifestyle. The not-to-be believed Whole Foods flagship store is just one of them. The 2nd Street District is another.

The advantages are obvious. You can dramatically reduce your dependency on cars and save on your gas bill; walk to art galleries, museums, restaurants, live music, parks and Lady Bird Lake and get excercise at the same time. And, according to our mayor, condos offer much lower utility costs than single family homes and there's no yard work.

If you are new to the area, check out the following local Austin businesses and you'll understand the attraction to Austin urban living.

THINGS TO SEE & DO DOWNTOWN

Waterloo Records (Austin loves it, they love Austin and they are so good to our musicians); Book People, (voted the best independent bookstore in the nation); Jo's on Second Street (great food, great vibe, great people and some of the best coffee around); Lambert's Downtown Barbecue in the historical Schneider Brothers Building on 2nd has amazing food and live music upstairs (owner Lou Lambert is one of our best chefs and Austin is fortunate to have Lou and his sister Liz investing their talents in our town); Austin Children's Museum (your kids will go nuts); Amy's Ice Cream (you will go nuts); The Counter (cozy neighborhood diner serving farm fresh eggs and produce), Walton's on Sixth Street for amazing coffee and baked goods.

A little west of downtown is Clarksville with the famous Nau's Drugstore. One of few places left where you can have lunch at an old fashioned soda fountain. 

Clarksville is also home to locally owned Galaxy Cafe which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in a casual setting. Pretty amazing cookies too.  A block down the street you'll find their new sister cafe, ZoCala, serving authentic Mexican food.

A little closer to campus is the retro Cookie Lounge where you can choose from 6 kinds of dough and 30 mixins to create your own cookie. 2222 Rio Grande.

There is too much to list so for more on what's cool about downtown, check out http://www.downtownaustin.com/ and www.austinchronicle.com/guides/downtown-update