Austin’s Rainey Street Historic District was created in 1985 to safeguard a crop of run-down bungalows along Lady Bird Lake. The protection’s ability to stave off development was kneecapped when the area was rezoned as part of the city’s Central Business District in 2004, opening it to a wider array of uses. The cocktail bars pounced, and—writing from lived experience—by the early 2010s, it was a hotbed of conviviality.
For most of the decade, one shack was the first brick-and-mortar home of G’Raj Mahal, but the restaurant closed in 2021, leaving behind a site shorn of protected trees and with several questionable patios. A
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