A gaping gap

The house we always called "Roy's Taxi" (a graduate student who drove for his day job was the inhabitant with the longest extended tenancy) is now gone. In its place two ugly out-of-scale structures will stand. "Roy's Taxi" was not considered to be of enough value to be protected by the City's regulations on historic preservation. It was one of the early houses on the gateway thoroughfare of a streetcar suburb just across the river from the historic original core of Austin. "Roy's Taxi" was a Craftsman-style bungalow with rooms of generous proportions. Newer houses have been constructed in the side yards of original houses, but thus far they have not been hideous and some have even been distinguished. This is the first removal along the entire length of the street. Austin is busy destroying the features that make it different from Anywhere, U.S.A.