As you noted, thar was procedural rather than reactive — Dallas passed a similar “form-based” code almost a decade earlier that Austin is using as inspiration, I believe, and it’s only been expanded since [1].
Austin also just passed a historic public transit capital program via referendum that the GOP was openly against, and though the state government could have used some shady but technically legal tactics to prevent Austin from building a subway under a state-owned park (simply by refusing to bring a bill up for a vote rather than actively taking the right away, too!), they didn’t and gave Austin a 99 year lease on the ground rights for $1. [2]
Dallas and Austin are currently in a competition to ban parking minimums, which funnily enough has found much bipartisan agreement [3]
Austin also just passed a historic public transit capital program via referendum that the GOP was openly against, and though the state government could have used some shady but technically legal tactics to prevent Austin from building a subway under a state-owned park (simply by refusing to bring a bill up for a vote rather than actively taking the right away, too!), they didn’t and gave Austin a 99 year lease on the ground rights for $1. [2]
Dallas and Austin are currently in a competition to ban parking minimums, which funnily enough has found much bipartisan agreement [3]
[1] https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopmen...
[2] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kvue.com/amp/article/news/p...
[3] https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopmen..., https://communityimpact.com/news/2019/07/23/austin-parking-r...