PODER meeting 11/15

Russ and I went to the PODER meeting on Tuesday, and what we saw and heard there was surprising in some ways. One interesting thing that a lot of citizens kept bringing up was that they get calls, sometimes harrassing calls, from developers and builders every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. The feeling among a lot of these folks is that these practices are kind of predatory.

I thought it was interesting, too, that on the east side, there's no question as to whether the changes in East Austin are good or bad. For them, it's definitely bad, and they feel that they are literally being forced out of their neighborhoods. No one who spoke celebrated the new "diversity" of the neighborhood.

One particularly poignant moment was when of the leaders of PODER spoke. She talked about the fact that some of her new neighbors, who live in the fanciest houses on her block, have come in and been condescending: calling the police about their music, complaining that they have "too many cars," chiding them for letting their children "run wild."

In fact, at the meeting, there were 3 or 4 small children darting around the room under people's feet, under tables, etc. No one seemed at all bothered by this. But that really drove home many of the speakers points. There is a definite sense of "culture clash" over gentrification among long-time residents of East Austin.