By Maria Saporta AUSTIN — “Welcome to the Wild, Wild West!” That was the opening comment from Cynthia Long, chair of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization in Austin — the

equivalent of the Atlanta Regional Commission — to a group of about 120 metro Atlanta leaders visiting Austin for the three-day 2022 LINK trip. The “Wild, Wild West” Long was referring to

was the development and planning policies and practices in Austin as well as Texas in general. “In Texas, counties have no land-use controls or zoning,” Long explained. That has been

particularly challenging in Austin, which is recognized as the fastest-growing city in the United States. In the opening day panel discussions on Wednesday, Atlantans heard about the

every 20 years, we have doubled in size,” Hoffman said. By comparison, the population in the City of Atlanta hovers around 500,000 in a region of nearly 5 million. That means the City of

Atlanta represents only about 10 percent of metro Atlanta’s population.. Leaders from Austin were candid about the issues they’re facing — namely the growing lack of housing affordability.

The problem has been exacerbated by an influx of technology companies moving to the capital city of Texas — Apple, Google and Tesla, to name a few. In the last few years, the City of Atlanta

also has enjoyed increased investment from technology companies, including Google and Microsoft. The housing affordability challenges that Austin is facing parallel what is happening to

Atlanta. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who ran on a platform for more affordable housing as well as one to lure more technology companies to the city, was listening attentively to the panel

discussions — sitting on the front row. “The mayor is in the house,” declared Michael Thurmond, CEO of DeKalb County. Dickens is the first Atlanta mayor since 2012 to participate in the LINK

trip — a gathering of regional business, government and civic leaders who go to a different city every year to find out how other communities are addressing issues that Atlanta also is

facing. The Austin trip is the 25th LINK trip, which began in 1997. Hoffman of the Austin Chamber said the capital city is in the midst of a $20 billion infrastructure initiative, which

includes a major expansion of its airport, an investment to sink the lanes of Interstate 35 and build caps over it plus a voter-approved $7.1 billion multimodal program (known as Project

Connect) that will expand heavy rail, light rail and other modes of transit in the region. It is being paid for by a dedicated property tax rate with no sunset. One recent development in

Austin has been the formation of an alliance between the Austin Chamber, the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Austin

Black Chamber of Commerce. “These ethnic chambers weren’t working well together,” said Tam Hawkins of the Austin Black Chamber. “We’ve realized we go faster together.” For example, the heads

of the ethnic chambers serve on the board of the Austin Chamber. “As fast as Austin is moving, we don’t want people to worry about how they navigate us,” Hoffman said.  “I’ve enjoyed the

reciprocity among the chambers of commerce,” Hawkins chimed in, adding that diversity in the tech sector has been a big focus of her organization, and that Austin would be hosting an

Afro-Tech conference in November. She then told Atlantans she would welcome them “if you want to collaborate with me.” _RELATED POSTS_