Is "Keep Austin Weird" Actually Dead? (And How We Can Fix It)
Hey everyone, Litsa here.
If you’ve been reading my recent posts, you know that keeping Dear Diary sustainable, principled, and environmentally friendly is a mountain we happily climb every day. But if I’m being completely honest, the single toughest aspect of running this kind of business in Austin today isn’t sourcing ethical ingredients or managing a team—it’s the raw cost of just existing in this city.
We talk a lot about the housing affordability crisis in Austin, but we rarely talk about the commercial affordability crisis. And trust me, it’s just as brutal.
The Missing Market for Small Businesses
To give you an idea of how choked the market is: exactly one commercial condo unit sold in our entire zip code in 2025. Just one.
That total lack of sales points to two major problems. First, purpose-built, small retail spaces like the one we occupy are valued at completely unrealistic, inflated prices. Second, there just aren't enough of them on the market, period.
As I mentioned before, the only reason I was able to buy our 947-square-foot space for a "normal person" amount of money was because of an affordability initiative by the Chestnut Neighborhood Revitalization Project. But here’s the kicker: while one entity helps you get in the door, another makes it incredibly hard to stay.
Travis County lumps tiny condos owned by micro-retailers like me into the exact same appraisal category as massive luxury land development opportunities out in Hudson Bend. It’s apples and oranges. By hitting tiny, independent shops with these astronomical tax appraisals, the county is actively undermining the success of the city's own affordability programs.
Turning Empty Spaces into Community Solutions
If you look at the Austin Business Journal’s Commercial Owner List, it’s no secret that the vast majority of commercial property holders in our city are massive, national institutional investors. They have deep pockets, and they are buying up the city.
A lot of small business owners will tell you that "Keep Austin Weird" died a long time ago because of this. But I don't believe we have to just throw our hands up and accept it. Real, meaningful change is entirely within reach—if the City of Austin is willing to step up and act as a competitor to these outside investment firms.
How do we do that? We get creative with the space we already have.
As many of you know, the city had to close several public schools in 2025. Instead of letting those buildings sit empty or selling them off to luxury developers, I would love to see the city redevelop those closed schools into affordable commercial centers specifically for locally owned, independent small businesses.
We already have a brilliant model for this on the residential side: The Austin Community Land Trust, which sells affordable housing to locals on city-owned land. Why not create a commercial version of that?
By introducing city-backed, affordable retail spaces, we would inject real competition back into the commercial real estate market. It would give local artists, makers, and food trailers a permanent, stable brick-and-mortar home without the fear of being priced out by an out-of-town landlord.
Austin became the city we love because of the weird, passionate, independent spaces that people built from scratch. If we want to keep that spirit alive, we have to protect the ground it grows on. Thanks for supporting our little corner of Chicon Street—every latte you buy keeps a local dream alive.
Warmly,
Litsa
