East Austin: Signs of Change

The post-mortem

2005-12-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Nice job by everyone to pull this together on deadline. I feel like a broken record saying this over and over, but hats off to Rachel for a job well done with the Flash work. I think our package turned out well.

It looks like we have a few more hours of work ahead of us to get the package finalized ahead of the class visit from the Texan staff on Tuesday. I'd like to put this down for a couple of days - clear my head, get some other work done, etc. How does everybody feel about getting together Monday night for a final work session? We could aim for like 6:00 or so. Does that work with people's schedules?

Text for the front page

2005-12-01T04:53:00.000-08:00

As we discussed last night, here's a general overview to our story that we can use on the intro page of our package:

---

They’re easy to overlook at first, but after the first one catches your eye, you can’t help but notice the others.

‘Stop gentrification now.’ ‘Yuppies off the east side.’ ‘Stop gentrifying East Austin.’

These hand-lettered signs posted on utility poles, traffic lights and stop signs protest the wave of residential construction under way in East Austin. The signs give voice to a concern of many long-time East Side residents: that the ongoing construction boom will make the neighborhood unaffordable for low-income, predominantly Latino and African American families.

Among elected officials, that concern does not fall on deaf ears. The Austin City Council and private developers have taken steps to ensure that low-income residents are not priced out of buying homes in new developments. Over the next few months, the council will examine several proposals to ensure that escalating tax burdens do not force low-income residents to sell their current homes.

With more than a dozen developments planned or in progress, highlighted by the Robort Mueller Municipal Airport Redevelopment and Capital Metro’s redevelopment plan for the Saltillo District, the City Council’s decisions will play a crucial role in determining East Austin’s future.

“The best case scenario is that we get to stay here and that we build housing and help people rehabilitate their homes,” said Susana Alamanza, co-director of People Organized in the Defense of Earth and her Resources, a nonprofit group active in east side development issues. “The worst case scenario is that we’ll no longer be able to live here.”

Wrap it up

2005-11-30T10:54:00.000-08:00

Are we getting together tonight to pull it all together? Ross said he was done at work at 8 and then we could get in the lab. Does that sound good to everyone? Also, Farran offered to help, but if we want it we better let her know ASAP so she can meet us or send emails back and forth or whatever. 615-498-9650 if you need to get a hold of me immediately.

Photo guidelines

2005-11-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

After some expirementing the photos should be as follows:
Max height with caption = 430 pixels
Max width = 355
72 dpi
Caption should be a white box with no border, Gils Sans 11 pt font

Here is an example.

Sunday meeting

2005-11-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

3 p.m. in the lab. Be there or be square.

Group meetings

2005-11-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

Hi kids. Wanted to check in on the meeting schedule. Are we getting together today? Let me know what time. I have no problem meeting later this week as well. My one solid time committment is an interview for another class at 5:45 on Monday. Other than that I can be fairly flexible. Just make sure we post things on here or send out a group email so we can all be on the smae page.

End of the line

2005-11-26T10:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry I'm just now posting this. It's been a busy thanksgiving an dI didn't get the amount of work done that I needed. My computer memory was full and with my extra hard drive back at campus I couldn't download flash...eh...what are you going to do.

So yes, we are meeting and this is what I need if we're going to finish this fast. Your text. The video edited as per Farran's advice. The types of photos you need with your text, or if you just have your text I can do the bext I can to match some of what we have to your text. A list of your sources or anything you want to link to for the credits section. If you want sound anywhere, like a narration some of you talked about, then we need a device to capture that.

Hopefully I should just be able to copy the pages, paste each of your text into the scroll text, put your photos into the slide show. The video may be tricky...but I do have that example to work off of, so I'm a bit confident.

I would LOVE if we could finish today. If you all can give me your parts (text, pics, video) then I could bang out the rest of it. I've still got the rest of my history part to write, I need to scan some photos for it also.

Meeting tomorrow?

2005-11-25T09:47:00.000-08:00

Are we still planning to go up to the lab to work tomorrow? At three o'clock? And Rachel, is there anything we still need in terms of photos, etc. for the package?

Statesman story yesterday

2005-11-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

The Statesman did an A1 feature yesterday about business development in East Austin. The focus of the story is different from ours - it focuses mainly on the changing business climate on the east side and looks at long-established, family owned places as well as some of the newer spots and how some of the older businesses are feeling pressure from rising property taxes.

It's a long story, but it's worth the read. Here's the main story, here's a sidebar story that accompanied the main piece, here's the photo gallery we ran online, and here's the accompanying video.

For some reason it cracked me up to hear the hardware store owner say 'yippies.'

Interesting comments from the small business owner with the beard about getting static from what he calls 'the first wave of gentrifiers.'

There's some overlap with our angle in the video. An encouraging sign, I guess - at least we know we're on the right track.

Mueller interview in brief

2005-11-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

I had a pretty good interview with the David Ross, director of development for Catellus, who is handling the Mueller development. Of course he painted a glowing picture of the entire project, and though I am always wary of PRish optimism I can definately see the positive aspects of the project.

First and most importantly, this area was going to be developed no matter what. Such a massive chunk of land in a booming urban area is not going to sit untouched. The public scrutiny, meetings with neighborhood groups, and partnership with the city have resuloted in a plan that does seem to combine the best of both worlds: growth and preservation. The mixed use development will provide over 10,000 jobs once it is complete and significant tax revenue for the city. No one is actually being displaced since this is vacant land, but it does seem inevitable that higher property values may force some of neighbors out of their homes. He did highlight and expand upon the afforable living initiative. It isn't a perfect solution but it will address one aspect of gentrification.

As you can tell my thoughts are not completely cohesive yet, I still need to find my exact quotes and pull in some numbers. Also, if anyone has additional quotes on the development from their interviews (PODER maybe?), I would love to get a more varied perspective. But I think the gist of my "future" section will be this: A city is a dynamic entity. Neighborhoods inevitably change as the urban center grows and develops. But intelligent urban planning and active citizens can promote the best aspects of gentrification while still preserving some of the history and flavor of an area.

No, it won't be that cheesy when I write. It just won't be a death march either.

I aint afraid of no flash

2005-11-21T10:22:00.000-08:00

hey guys, Thankfully being a journalism major has instilled in me the philosophy that "it will get done because it must get done", so I'm not sweating this project too much. I used my new flashy knowledge to put in the slide show at the beginning of the presentation and I plan to come to class tomorrow with a lot done. if you have any ideas for a clip of music that would suit this little opening, please tip me off. it would be nice for me if you could send at least a rough example of what you will have written on your page so that I can start matching photos for your section's slideshow to the point you're trying to make and also figure out what we are lacking so that we can try to get it before it's too late. As painful as it seems, I think we're also going to have to decide on a time to work over the holiday..I'm going to be realistic and say that both Saturday and Sunday I will be working and it would be nice if a few people could be there to help..Oh, and Russ...you do have the lab key...friend. See you in class..crunch time is here and when the this project is finally over we shall all meet once again at dog and duck for beer.

Superflash

2005-11-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

A big thanks to Rachel for the good work on the flash stuff. It's looking brill!

PODER meeting 11/15

2005-11-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

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.

Interview secured, finally

2005-11-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

OK guys, I wanted to let you know that we officially got the developer interview at 10:30 a.m. on Friday. Phew. I have an informal set of questions, but if you can think of anything you want to know please post it so I can bring it to the interrogation session. I am such an intimidating J-student.

Flash dance

2005-11-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

Ah the great flash adventure begins....so far so good, it's just a bit slow. I'm going to open our show with photos fading in and out, right now I put in some dummies but I figured out you can switch them out later with real photos. If possible I'd like to put music behind them as they fade (image in some blues music, or some harmonica maybe?), but haven't solved that yet. I've got an opening page and a menu bar, I'm using the font gill sans and I'm holding out on a theme color until I see photos. Today I'm going to animate the fades into the opening page and then make on of the menu buttons jump to my history section. I'll set up my page as the first template complete with scroll text and slide show. Hope you guys like the design...I'm keeping it simple.

Stuffed up, stressed out, and sorry

2005-11-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

So obviously I wasn't in class today and did not get pics for Flash. SO SORRY! I am pretty sick as well as just dealt with my parenst coming in town and some personal issues they brought along. THis is not an excuse, just an update. In light of all that I won't be able to make it to PODER either. Emily, if you get me the digital recordings I will try to gather quotes. I'll email out some pics of Mueller tonight. And because I feel like I might not doing enough on the reporting end I want to volunteer my services for major Flash work. I don't know much but I don't think any of us do, I'll just be a set of hands willing to do some serious tutorial reading. Let's set up a meeting for later this week or over Thanksgiving break and do some serious work.

jump drive trouble

2005-11-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hey Emily, I put your jump drive into a mac in the J lab and it told me it had no recognizable files on it. I figured it was a mac/pc issue, but when i took it to a pc at the FAC the computer said it needed to be formatted, which would erase everything in the memory. I'm not sure what's going on but either it's messed up or..I don't know...anyhow..I decided to stop before I do anything that will screw it up. In a nutshell, I don't have your photos. We'll have to burn them on disk.

East Austin in the news

2005-11-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

Wondered if anyone saw the news report last night about the houses that were defaced in East Austin. I can't recall which block it was on, but the houses had rocks thrown through the windows and "not in our hood" spray painted on the front of the unfinished homes. Might be a good picture. The reporter also pointed out a light pole that had the infamous "stop gentrifying east austin" sign on one side and something to the extent of "we want the truth" (in regards to Daniel Rocha) on the other.

on track..?

2005-11-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

I'm having some trouble finding historical pictures of high enough resolutiom and I realize the clock is ticking. I guess I'll make another reluctant stop at the history center and see what they can offer me. Anyone have any good ideas on where else I could look? I have a test tomorrow at 8am, but after that this project is my week..I'm going to stay during lab tomorrow and work on flash..is there any way those of you with photos could bring them on a disk or with a website I could pull them off of?

Update on the Mueller section

2005-11-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

Here is my plan for the Mueller section:

None of the contractors for Mueller or the other lofts are getting back to me. I am actually pretty surprised, I thought they would want the opportunity to tell us their side of the story. Plus I presented it as a "growth in East Austin" story, not one on gentrification. Hmm, whatever, maybe next week I'll hear something.

So to get quotes I am banking on the PODER meeting from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 15 (I may be running a bit late, but hopefully I'll get at least the last hour). I'll take a digital recorder and hopefully figure out how to work a video camera as well. Does anyone have any experience with that? Would anyone like to come to the meeting with me to get quotes for their own section? Let me know ASAP so we can check out equipment tomorrow.

For now I am going to write a draft of the Mueller development story sans quotes. Just background, description, future implications, etc. If I can find appropriate quotes from past meeting transcripts I will include those with the proper attribution.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. before I get too far in? Hope everyone else is having a fun time with their section.

On a personal note

2005-11-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

Rachel, good luck with Stitch tonight! Hopefully I'll be there to support the current and future bohemian population of East Austin. But seriously, have a great time, it will be a great event.

History of East Austin

2005-11-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

Visited the Austin History Center and, despite the rudeness of their staff, was able to look at the original 1928 City Plan

"There has been considerable talk in Austin, as well as other cities, in regard to the race segregation problem. This problem cannot be solved legally under any zoning law known to us at present. Practically all attemps of such have been proven unconstitutional.

In our studies in austin we have found that the negroes are present in small numbers, in practically all sections of the city, excepting the area just east of East Avenue and south of the City Cemetery. This area seems to be all negro population. It is our reccomendation that the nearest approach to the solution of the race segregation problem will be the reccomendation of this district as a negro district.

This will elimate the necessity of duplication of white and black schools, white and black parks, and other duplicate facilities."

later in the plan they talk about how to move undesirable people out of deired areas..

"We have already mentioned the Waller Creek Driveway which will provide a convenient avenue for traffic from the northeast portion of Austin to the business district, and on south to the Colorado River Drive. The completion of this drive will entail the aquisition of certain cheap property along the banks of Waller Creek from Eighth Street to Nineteenth Street. Most of the property which will be needed is at present occupied by very unsightly and unsanitary shacks inhabited by negroes. With these buildings removed to provide for the trafficway, most of the remaining property will be of a substantial and more desirable type"

To help digest this information I was reading a book called Austin: A History of the Capital City by David Humphrey

According to his book in 1880 blacks were scattered throughout the city living in virtually every neighborhood, but by 1910 their homes became more concentrated on the east side, which accelerated through the 20s and 30s. The founding of Anderson High School, the first all black high school, on Comal Street in 1896 attracted many blacks to the area. In 1920 1 in 5 Austinites was black.

As far as Mexican Americans were concerned, the area from the Colorado River to W. 5th Street neighborhood was called Mexico by the Anglos of Austin during the 1870s. Slowly they too moved to the far East side. When the Mexican churches finally made the move over there (particularly Our Lady of Guadalupe) a large portion of the Mexican pop. moved along too. By 1930 10percent of austin was Mexican Americans. By 1950 the Mexican American population expanded to 13,000 and most lived in th East Austin Barrio between 1st and 11th.

Services were slow to reach the East side, well into the 30s they were without proper sewage. The area only got attention from the city when commercial interests began picking up in the east. One of the business-turned-political figures was Roy Velasquez. Anglo cab services refused to carry blacks and the east trolley stopped at Chicon. He created Roy's Taxi, a wildly successful cab company that serviced this area of town.

Affordable Housing Forum

2005-11-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

PODER (an East Austin non-profit, which is Spanish for "to be able to" and also an acronym for People Organized in the Defense of the Earth and Her Resources) will sponsor a housing forum next week "addressing the broken promise of affordable housing." The forum runs from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 15th. More information is available at http://www.poder-texas.org/.

Sunday trip to East Austin

2005-11-06T18:22:00.000-08:00

Russ and I went to the eastside today to take photos, especially of the block we're profiling. While we were there, we met a group of kids who live on E. 18th. They asked why we were taking pictures, and then the oldest of the group, a 3rd grader named Ashley, asked if we "only wanted to take pictures of the nice houses on the block." They were excited that we wanted to take pictures of their neighborhood.

We also spent some time at the old Mueller airport, walking and driving around and taking pictures. Spending an afternoon all over the east side crystallized an idea that we had discussed: the Mueller airport project will change the east side of Austin, and it needs to be a more central part of this project. If Russ hadn't pointed it out, I never would have noticed that this old vacant building is a former terminal building for the Mueller aiport.

Adusting our angle? The Mueller development

2005-11-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

Emily and I spent some time on the east side today taking photos. We also talked with a handful of people, who confirmed something that both she and I have been thinking: it might make sense for us to narrow our focus and concentrate on what effects the development at the old Robert Mueller airport will have on the east side community.

There are a number of reasons this might make for a fruitful focus:

*It's without a doubt the single most important ongoing development anywhere in the city. Its scope is enormous: more than 4,000 new residential units and 5.3 million square feet of various commercial properties.

*It's got a good current hard news peg. Ground-breaking took place recently, and the construction is under way in full force. There are also community forums and town hall meetings coming up soon that will give current residents the opportunity to speak their minds, incluing a Nov. 8 Mueller Plan Implementation Advisory Commission meeting (at 6:00 p.m.). One week later, PODER is hosting an East Austin Housing Forum to focus on 'addressing the broken promise of affordable housing.' Very interesting interaction there because the Mueller development pledges that 25% of its housing will be affordable to people who make less than 80% of the city's median income. Sounds nice, but according to TexasHousing.org, ,
that's still $64,700 per year .

*It definitely will allow us to keep the general attention of the story concentrated on what's coming next. That's something we've talked about wanting to do, and this story will definitely support that:
-How will the Mueller development impact property values on the east side? Will the sudden influx of new-construction homes drive down prices on older houses, or will the Mueller development function to speed up the influx of wealthier, predominantly white home-buyers into the east side?
-What kind of effects will the development have on the predominantly Latino neighbordhoods "behind" (north and east) it?

Plus, I think concentrating on the Mueller development will interact with the work we've done with our sample block on e. 18th quite well. This block, as Emily posted earlier, is in the heart of a transition. Fortuitously for us, it's also almost exactly equidistant between the Mueller development and the keystone developments closer to downtown, such as the Waterstreet Lofts on Cesar Chavez and the Sixth and Brushy Lofts on, well, Sixth and Brushy. I think what happens to that block will be a snapshot of what happens to the rest of the neighborhood: does the availability of new housing drive down demand for older places, resulting in a leveling off of the property value increases the area has seen in recent years? Or do those developments serve to open the floodgates and fully sanitize East Austin from a white homebuyer's perspective?

Also, two unrelated notes

1) Props to Julie for the 'Signs of Change' idea. I think that's going to turn out to be a realy cool way to unify the visual elements in the presentation. It's also just a cool thing to pay attention to. Emily and I a got bunch of pictures of signs today. The highlight is probably the one from the mixed use development on e. 11th: "Just another sing of progess in the East End." You couldn't have asked for a better sign for our project

2) Emily and I heard a bunch of speed-bike engines when we were poking around the old airport. I'm wondering if there's a group of people who use the old straightaways to race bikes. I'll head back next weekend and see if I can track them down. Could make for an interesting vignette (maybe).

I think that's it for now.

rf

East 18th St. by the Numbers

2005-11-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

Poring over tax records is not the most glamorous part of prepping a story. But hours of data entry and squinting at numbers pay off as the numbers coalesce and begin to tell a story.

Travis County tax records for the 2200 block of E. 18th St. tell the story of a neighborhood in the midst of a transition of some years. But with ground broken on the first new construction in decades, this quiet eastside block is on the verge of huge change.

In fact, if property trends continue as they have, folks won’t recognize this block in ten years.

In the past five years, E. 18th St. has changed in ways consistent with the patterns of gentrifying neighborhoods. Between 2000 and 2001, average values for homes in the 2200 block of E. 18th St. jumped by 45%. Between 2000 and 2005, values almost doubled.

This increase in home values is not unusual (as the housing market in American cities has grown at an unprecedented rate over the past five years, due largely to the tail-end of the internet boom and historically low interest rates in the wake of September 11). However, neighborhoods like the 2200 block of Chestnut Street in East are particularly likely to change in the wake of such a housing boom

Tax records show that ownership of 9 of the 14 houses on the block changed hands within the last five years. Today, there are only 7 owner-occupied homes on the block.

The owner-occupancy rate has much to tell about the way a neighborhood is changing. Here on 18th, when the housing market began to boom, bringing the first wave of property-tax increases, owner-occupancy rates declined as residents sold their homes.

Some optimists (or euphemists, as the case may be) say that this wave of sales is a positive trend; they laud the fact that long-time owners are able to sell their homes for far more than they bought them for. The less optimistic (and probably more realistic) perspective is that long-time residents are forced to sell in such a market upswing because their property taxes become unwieldy.

The second wave of E. 18th’s change will likely bring a new increase in the owner-occupancy rate as new construction in the area begins. Builders already own two lots on the block, and construction has commenced on one. New construction in the area has sold for upwards of $250K, more than twice the current median home value in the area.

So it looks like the change is going to keep on coming.

The sale of two brand-new homes in the area would likely have a significant impact on home values on this block. And it is axiomatic that new construction begets more new construction and remodeling, especially with several new commercial projects planned in the neighborhood.

The numbers tell us that E. 18th St. is really a neighborhood on the verge: still diverse, but poised for a big shift that could quickly tip the dynamic of change from transitional to fully gentrified.

E. 18th St. Median Home Values: 2000-2005
2000 Median Value $38,689
2003 Median Value $74,323
2005 Median Value $92,447

Project summary

2005-11-03T06:19:00.000-08:00

Per Rosental's request Tuesday, here's a quick summary of what we've come up with so far and the direction we're headed with our reporting:

Signs of change are everywhere in East Austin. One sits in an empty lot, announcing the pending arrival of the Waterstreet Lofts on E. Cesar Chavez. Another has been hand-written across a construction sign: “Stop the gentrification of East Austin!”

Historically, the areas east of I-35 have been home to low-income, predominantly black and Latino families. Over the past 15 years, significant demographic shifts have taken place in several neighborhoods, most notably French Place, as their centrality and 'character' have begun to appeal to more affluent, predominantly white home buyers. Median home values and property tax levels have skyrocketed, which in is spurring more development and attracting new residents

Among new and long-time residents, there is a wide range of responses to the ongoing transformations of their neighborhood. Some new residents are aware of the larger transformation of which they are a part and have conflicted feelings about their roles therein. Others, including some developers and contractors, view the economic activity they bring to the neighborhood as a boon. Some longtime residents rue the decline of traditional communities and cultural practices, while others credit development with reducing crime and increasing economic prosperity and view the change to their neighborhood as an opportunity to strengthen their grip on a middle class lifestyle.

More than half a dozen major development projects currently are underway on the east side. Over the next five or ten years, this already-changing neighborhood will undergo a massive remaking, reshaping and rethinking. How will this transformation impact current residents from all walks of life? Is it possible to step back from this process and make a judgment about its desirability, as advocates on both sides of the issue often attempt, or are its effects so multifaceted and unpredictable as to make global valuations impossible?

Welcome to the Signs of Change blog

2005-11-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

This is the blog for the East Austin group in Rosental Alves' multimedia journalism course.