50 ways to leave your store

Austin businesses start packing up — or digging heels in — for I-35 expansion

Nature's Treasures is one of the businesses making way for the construction.

Photo courtesy of KVUE

In just a few months, at the end of this summer, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will begin to demolish more than 100 properties along Interstate 35.

The process will be done in phases to make way for the Capital Express Central Project, an 8-mile expansion project stretching from State Highway 71 to U.S. 290.

While some businesses already have a new location picked out, others – like the owners of Stars Café – are waiting down to the wire to see what they will do.

The Trenga family enjoys having breakfast at the Stars Café before dropping off their little boy at his day care around the corner, Escuelita Del Alma. Both the restaurant and the day care are expected to be torn down at the end of the summer as part of the Central Project.

"We decided to take him a little bit late to day care to spend some time together," Elizabeth Trenga said.

She said the day care has already found a new location, but it was a bit of a scramble.

"Austin is growing, and there needs to be some infrastructure investment and development," she said. "But I think it could be done with a bit more care and more of a long-term vision. It just seems like there's a lack of clarity with the timeline and what all is happening."

Heading south on I-35 towards the Riverside and Oltorf area, one of the first properties to be impacted will be Jimmy's Barbershop. Owner Jimmy Baltierra said he worked for 13 years to have his own barbershop.

"At first, I didn't know what to think about it. At first, I was like, 'I guess we're moving?'" he said.

His attitude changed when he heard how TxDOT plans to assist with the move, even helping him find a new building 10 minutes north.

"All the work I put into this place, they're gonna pay me out for everything I spent. So, I was cool with it after that," Baltierra said.

This $4.5 billion project spans eight miles starting in South Austin at SH 71 stretching all the way to U.S. 290. The improvements include removing the existing I-35 decks, lowering the highway, adding lanes, rebuilding bridges and adding pedestrian paths.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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More Foraging

Free 'food forest' in East Austin expands with thousands of new plants

Angelina Alanis at Festival Beach Food Forest

Photo courtesy of KVUE

Angelina Alanis gives a tour of the garden, which is open to anyone.

In East Austin, there is an edible forest garden called Festival Beach Food Forest where anyone can walk around and harvest free produce, nuts, medicinal plant leaves and herbs. And over the summer, it grew to several times its size.

The forest has fig trees, peach trees, grapevines, asparagus and more that's not in season right now. You can grab passionfruit and plants like yaupon holly, with leaves that can make a caffeinated tea, rosemary and lemon balm.

"[Lemon balm] is part of the mint family," said Angelina Alanis, communication and partnership coordinator for Festival Beach Food Forest. "It has a lemony taste but it's good for a nervous stomach. I'm prone to anxiety so I always grab a hunk."

The food forest is located right next to Interstate 35 and Lady Bird Lake on 29 Waller St., near a part of town that's known for being a food desert, lacking grocery stores.

"There's as much as a 20-year life expectancy difference between parts of East and West Austin, and a lot of that comes down to food access, health care access and also access to nature."

Alanis said for the past nine years, the volunteer-based grassroots project been helping with the issue and just recently expanded in the summer from two-thirds of an acre of city parkland to over 3.5 acres.

"We're going to have hundreds of new trees," said Alanis. "We've already planted 150 new trees in the area and then thousands of plants on the ground."

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They also plan to add a community kitchen and a pavilion to do things like cooking classes or informational sessions.

Read the full story at KVUE.com.

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