Can Somebody Please Explain The East Side...Thanks (Austin, Spring: real estate, renters)

[Jerksticks]

I need a place to live for a few months while I check out the local real estate/rehab scene. A lot of people live on the east side but I hear people saying to avoid it.

Which specific areas have the crime?

[jobert]

Originally Posted by Jerksticks

I need a place to live for a few months while I check out the local real estate/rehab scene. A lot of people live on the east side but I hear people saying to avoid it.

Which specific areas have the crime?

I assume you mean 'rehab' as in rehabing old houses, and not for substance abuse.

Here is a good resource:Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

There are no truly "dangerous" parts of town like there are in larger cities, but the higher crime areas tend to be closer to downtown and on the east side in general, and the highest crime areas are on the near northeast side of downtown, near southeast side as well as parts of north central Austin north of 183 on the west side of I-35. Some neighborhoods by name that come to mind: Georgian Acres, North Austin Civic Association, East Riverside, Chestnut, and any area that Cameron Rd. or Springdale Rd. touches. I don't know about due east of downtown though. There has been a lot of gentrification there over the last decade, and it's a mixed bag of tricks between Mueller and the river. There are some areas that look safe enough to walk through at night (like east 5th) while other areas just north of there (east 12th/Chicon) I wouldn't walk through during the daytime. It's odd.

[ImOnFiya]

There are some areas that look safe enough to walk through at night (like east 5th) while other areas just north of there (east 12th/Chicon) I wouldn't walk through during the daytime. It's odd.

For further explanation, East 5th used to be old Mexican town and now its white hipsterville (the brown people are gone).

On East 12th & Chicon, the bad and old black people are still there. Not safe for good white people.

I.E, the eastside will be perfectly safe when there are no minorities - save token monuments to their past presence. Due to escalating property values, that should be in 10-15 years??

[geoquiz3000]

East Austin's reputation is a legacy of city policies and real estate / banking practices that were commonplace in many places during much of the 20th century, which led to a concentration of minority racial groups east of I-35.

East Austin's (once) affordable housing stock, access to public transportation, and proximity to UT and downtown made it a popular alternative for students, people without kids, and adventurous families around the 1970-1990 period. UT expanded into the area around Manor Rd and MLK Avenue, further displacing long-time residents and renters.

Today it attracts a diverse mix of residents but remains majority-minority (see maps: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/demograph...ages/mixed.pdf).

There are many renters and property values grew rapidly before the current slowdown. It's an eclectic neighborhood with lots of smaller homes, shady streets, local restaurants and bars. I've lived in East Austin for 11 years and love it here. Certain neighborhoods are already significantly rehabilitated though there are lots of homes in need of an update throughout the area. Many of the older residents take pride in the upkeep of their homes and yards.

12th & Chicon is one location that is frequented by the police; it seems to be an open air "marketplace" of some sort, though what is being sold isn't obvious to me. I'm more worried about someone stumbling into the path of my car than being assaulted.

[CptnRn]

The east side of central austin has traditionally been less desirable for residential property for many reasons not previously discussed here.

• Most warehouse and industrial businesses were located in East Austin, most still are.
• Austin Municipal Airport with all of it's noise and related businesses used to be located there.
• Bergstrom Airforce base, where the new airport is located, also added to the noise from the Austin Municipal Airport.
• Two power plants were built in East Austin.
• Hornsby Bend sewage treatment plant is in East Austin.
• Solid Waste Services, with all the garbage trucks and associated traffic is in East Austin..

All of this kept property values low which made them attractive to people with lower incomes. This is still the case in many parts of East Central Austin.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

The east side of central austin has traditionally been less desirable for residential property for many reasons not previously discussed here.

• Most warehouse and industrial businesses were located in East Austin, most still are.
• Austin Municipal Airport with all of it's noise and related businesses used to be located there.
• Bergstrom Airforce base, where the new airport is located, also added to the noise from the Austin Municipal Airport.
• Two power plants were built in East Austin.
• Hornsby Bend sewage treatment plant is in East Austin.
• Solid Waste Services, with all the garbage trucks and associated traffic is in East Austin..

All of this kept property values low which made them attractive to people with lower incomes. This is still the case in many parts of East Central Austin.

Per these factors, I don't think ANY bargains can make living with such pollution and noise attractive....can anyone truly bargain with ones life and lungs by breathing that air, and hearing that overbearing noise? I don't know that I would call it "attractive" to those with lower-incomes. It's just that they have no choice, per their pocketbook...I'm sure if they had the wherewithal they would choose to live in a wonderful house in the hills west of the city, with pristine views and air....it's a *****, but sad that money is the ultimate divider and arbiter of what choices we have to live in a decent environment....no one ever said life was fair..

[geoquiz3000]

There's "East Austin" and then there's "eastern Austin." The older central areas that I've always thought of as East Austin (I-35/Airport/Lady Bird Lake) do contain warehouses and industries, some reborn as coffee houses, arts spaces, or condos and some serving their original purposes; the old airport which is now a mixed use area of $250K+ homes and a boring strip center; and the former Holly Street power plant (closed in 2007).

The other facilities CptnRn mentions--Bergstrom, the solid waste facility on St. Elmo, Decker Power Plant, and Hornsby Bend are in the eastern third of the city, but their remoteness makes them hardly more evident in East Austin neighborhoods like Guadalupe, Rosewood, or Cherrywood than they are in Bouldin, or Allandale. These facilities are five miles or more from 7th & Chicon in the heart of East Austin. I'd say I-35 itself is the most blighting feature of the area today, both as a barrier and a pollution/noise/traffic generator.

Cities evolve so old stereotypes about closer-in areas east of I-35 are worth re-examining. I'm not denying that many less desirable land uses have been pushed east (though some locations, like the sewer treatment plant, are dictated by topography--water flows downhill), and that most higher income residents choose to live west of I-35. But many middle class households are locating in East Austin by choice, for some of the reasons that others flee to the hills--they prefer urban environments with their history, density, variety, proximity, walkability, etc.

Originally Posted by CptnRn

The east side of central austin has traditionally been less desirable for residential property for many reasons not previously discussed here.

• Most warehouse and industrial businesses were located in East Austin, most still are.
• Austin Municipal Airport with all of it's noise and related businesses used to be located there.
• Bergstrom Airforce base, where the new airport is located, also added to the noise from the Austin Municipal Airport.
• Two power plants were built in East Austin.
• Hornsby Bend sewage treatment plant is in East Austin.
• Solid Waste Services, with all the garbage trucks and associated traffic is in East Austin..

All of this kept property values low which made them attractive to people with lower incomes. This is still the case in many parts of East Central Austin.

[captaincatfish]

Originally Posted by ImOnFiya

For further explanation, East 5th used to be old Mexican town and now its white hipsterville (the brown people are gone).

On East 12th & Chicon, the bad and old black people are still there. Not safe for good white people.

I.E, the eastside will be perfectly safe when there are no minorities - save token monuments to their past presence. Due to escalating property values, that should be in 10-15 years??

Austinites, I apologize for the intrusion...earlier this morning, I was reading a thread on the Hawaii forum, in regards to no longer using the term 'haole' to describe whites living in Hawaii...toward the end of the thread, a poster there quoted this particular post, and it aroused my curiosity, as well as my ire...

Sir/ma'am...this is the year 2010, and it's a shame that some people in Austin, and the rest of the country, still get their hind ends in a lather because 'minorities' have the audacity to draw breath and walk on THEIR sacred patch of turf, and then walk around like Marvin The Martian bellowing 'Oooooooooh! minorities make me so ANGRY!'..

And wherever did you get that 'good white people' stuff from? As if anyone not white can't be good? I beg to differ on that point...as a black man, I do NOT spend every waking moment of my day muttering 'kill whitey'...I don't walk around giving whites the 'stink-eye', and wishing they would move out of 'MY' neighborhood(s)...that's because that s**t is childish, unproductive, and just plain damn dumb...nobody is going to stop doing what they do because one black man is hacked off about something, so it's absurd for you to think that, just because you click your ruby slippers together and close your eyes and chant 'I wish *******s and coloreds would go away...I wish *******s and coloreds would go away' and throw up little 'angry' smileys on a chat forum, that suddenly Austin would become some vanilla-paradise...not gonna happen, sporty...

My point is this...of the entirety of the white race (and this is just MY opinion), the vast majority would just as soon all of us would get along with each other...however, there is that sector that feels that nothing will be right until they wake up one day and everyone non-white has magically been teleported to another planet somewhere, because those old nasty minorities are the cause of all the troubles in Austin, and America proper...

I would suggest you change your long-term view, because as long as minorities work hard, and achieve, and succeed and generally carry on like law-abiding citizens, then MOST people will have no problem with them...now, truthfully, there are bad apples among minority groups, and I'm not gonna sugarcoat that fact...but judging from the tone of your post, you subscribe to the theory that 'one is like that, therefore they ALL are like that' and you won't be happy 'til we go away and leave your (supposed) vanilla utopia unsullied by our presence...

But to close, I and a lot of other people are quite happy that you don't run anything, and the worst you can do is have a non-relevant fit on a chat forum...

Austinites, I thank you for your patience, and once again apologize for my intrusion, but I could not let this go unanaswered

[TexasHorseLady]

captaincatfish, I think you missed the sarcasm in the post you're reacting to, no surprise if you just read it out of context.

[captaincatfish]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

captaincatfish, I think you missed the sarcasm in the post you're reacting to, no surprise if you just read it out of context.

That I have misread something, and went off on a 'hammer-dropping' tangent, only to find myself backpedaling and even apologizing later because I didn't read between the lines...

Thank you so much for calling me out and bringing that to my attention...if indeed that post was intended as sarcasm, then my apologies to the poster for, as TexasLady said, taking your remarks out of context