The Curbed Cup 2017 winner is … North Austin/NACA!

The people have spoken: North Austin—specifically, the area defined as the North Austin Civic Association—is the winner of the 2017 Curbed Cup! The Queens neighborhood pummeled Yorkville in the final round, taking a whopping 60 percent of the final vote.

Some fun facts: This is the first time the North Austin neighborhood/planning area has even been included in the Curbed Cup; thank its active neighborhood association, improvement projects, enthusiastic community, and strong leadership from its City Council rep, Greg Casar, all of which have helped revitalize and rejuvenate the area—which was not terribly long ago farmland, a sparsely populated area that grew quickly and somewhat haphazardly after being annexed by the city in the mid-1960s and early 1970s.

It’s also significant that the prize went to a neighborhood that’s still somewhat affordable and void of traditional tourist attractions. That makes it relatively stable, giving the diverse, committed neighborhood time to develop a community infrastructure and improve the area for themselves.

Add to that the also diverse and inexpensive restaurant choices nearby, some sweet parks and trails, and its central location proximate to the Domain, an Austin Community College branch, the Gateway shopping/cinema complex, and the Chinatown Center, and you have the makings of a winner.

So congratulations, North Austin; you managed to claw your way up from the 8th seed, past heavy-hitters like East César Chavez, to run away with the final round, garnering more than 70 percent of the vote against mighty North Loop and claiming the honor of being Austin’s neighborhood of the year.

The final bracket is below; now, let’s all raise a glass (or a Cup) to North Austin!