Austin Racism??? (Houston, Portland, Canadian: live, zip code, dangerous)

[frank a bowers]

In my faith they are but one human race and no no one seems to worry a lot the politicians make it easy even for the criminal illegal aliens to steal money and homes from the citizens so I don't know what you mean but as for as nationalities they seem to all live okay even the criminal illegal aliens what is your nationality.
Frank Bowers of Austin, Tx 1979 until now.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by cls88

Is that the reason why current Austin City government still favors west side over east in terms of development dollars and efforts? If that is motivation behind the city’s decisions, then it is the ultimate racism of Austin – straight from the governing body!

Just out of curiosity what development are you talking about? I am seriously asking because I have only been back about 5 months and don't know the recent development landscape. Other than Meuller what has the city had a hand in developing?

If the city has spent more development dollars west of I35, I would guess it has more to do with money and political clout than race. One might argue that lack of money on the east side of I35 is a vestige of institutional racism. It typically takes more than a generation for a family to accumulate a great amount of wealth and if merely a generation ago people of color were shut out from jobs, many minority families will still live in lower income neighborhoods. But I don't think Austin politicians would base their decision solely on race. They want to be reelected, so they are going to curry favor with those having the most political clout and money.

[brattpowered]

Originally Posted by cls88

Is that the reason why current Austin City government still favors west side over east in terms of development dollars and efforts? If that is motivation behind the city’s decisions, then it is the ultimate racism of Austin – straight from the governing body!

I would imagine it has more to do with the presence of people with money (and its attendant political power) in West Austin rather than the color of the people.

[readymade]

Originally Posted by carolinajack

i think because the topic is Austin "Racism" and many use the term in a racist way when saying "Mexicans", like they say the "N" word--i hate that why not just say the word

That sort of reminds me of an episode of the office when Oscar says he's Mexican and Michael says "Oh, you shouldn't use that word!"

Oscar is pissed off and asks why not.

"You know, because of the connotations...." Michael replies.

"WHAT connotations?!" Oscar demands.

Michael is all "Oh, you know...." and then just sort of trails off while everyone stands around awkwardly.

Yeah, there are people of all races here. But we DO border Mexico, so I would imagine that Mexicans make up the majority of hispanic people.

My point is: Mexican is not a "dirty" word. It means you're from Mexico.

[cls88]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

Just out of curiosity what development are you talking about? I am seriously asking because I have only been back about 5 months and don't know the recent development landscape. Other than Meuller what has the city had a hand in developing?

If the city has spent more development dollars west of I35, I would guess it has more to do with money and political clout than race. One might argue that lack of money on the east side of I35 is a vestige of institutional racism. It typically takes more than a generation for a family to accumulate a great amount of wealth and if merely a generation ago people of color were shut out from jobs, many minority families will still live in lower income neighborhoods. But I don't think Austin politicians would base their decision solely on race. They want to be reelected, so they are going to curry favor with those having the most political clout and money.

I am sorry I don't remember the details. But it seems to be a forever topic for many city decisions (big or small) that west get good deals and east get bad ones. Off course what I heard are biased one-sided stories, since I live east and only know the poor people in Austin. Hope some forumites here can give us some unbiased views.

I think you are right that the policies were made in favor of money than anything else - who can blame them (don't we all work towards money )? It's just hearing the history of the segregation made me wonder a bit.

[homeinatx]

Like many U.S. cities, Austin has a long and nasty history of racial segregation, and its legacy has not entirely gone away. Sure, Clarkesville is one of the oldest, if not the oldest freed slave community west of the Mississippi, but the city did its best to drive African American families out - school closures, the building of Mopac (loop 1) in the late sixties destroyed a third of the houses, and the city only provided basic amenities like paved roads in 1976!! Still families descended from the original former slaves still live in the neighborhood, but this is despite rather than because of city policies. The Clarkesville Community Development Corporation fights a valiant battle to preserve the historic character and racial and class diversity of the neighborhood - where else in Austin can you find million dollar homes adjacent to HUD housing? But rampant gentrification makes this increasingly harder. For now Clarkesville - and I mean Clarkesville - the area where the freed slaves under the leadership of John Clarke, built their homes, not Enfield or old West Austin is the most racially integrated neighborhood of Austin, but for how much longer? One hopes that the gentrification of East Austin can be managed a little better. I would say that mostly on the level of interpersonal interaction Austin is not an obviously racist city, though some of the "ghetto" comments about east Austin on this board give me pause, but structural racism still lingers. Of all the big cities in Texas, Austin is the only one seeing its African American population proportionally decrease, because it has the reputation of not being friendly to black people. When last did the APD shoot a white kid? At least the city is starting to realize that it needs to address the race problems of "liberal" Austin, through things like the African American Quality of Life Initiative. Racism in Austin might be less than it was 40 years ago, but there is still lots of work to be done.

[Trainwreck20]

It is a chicken and egg story, unfortunately.....the poor people livein the less exepensive area of town because, well, they don't have a lot of money. When it comes time for a business (mall, restaurant, whatever) to invest in a new property, where do you think it goes? Where there is no money? And since there is little invenstment, the area stays 'cheap'. I don't think it is politics at all, it is just money and capitalism.

The Holly St. power plant was a good example...the built the power plant there because the land was cheap and sparsely populated. The power plant contributed to the ongoing cheapness of the land, so more low-income people moved there. In the news, it became a 'story' that the city was dumping on the poor since they could not afford to fight them..but the plant was there before them? And once the plant is completely gone, I suspect that there will be gentrification of the area over time, and we will hear about how awful it is that the property taxes (and values) are going up. Sigh.

Anyway, Mexican technically means a citizen of Mexico. Adding 'connotations ' to it is fairly common (in may limitied experience) in many places, but here (Austin and Texas in general) it usually means just what it says. It is NOT a racial term. Hispanic is a racial term, mean of latin American, south American, or of Spanish descent. Hispanic is usually more accurate since, believe it or not, there are a lot of American Hispanics, although the term was coined and defined by the US Census Bureau.

[jobert]

It is all about political involvement. People in poorer neighborhoods tend to rent instead of own. What is the point of speaking up when they will most likely move within the next couple of years? During the last election, the stats about voter turnout were staggering when comparing Dove Springs vs. Tarrytown:

Austin neighborhoods' votes linked to voice on issues (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/05/0405voters.html - broken link)

[jobert]

Apartments/renters = apathetic constituency = that neighborhood accepting the next eyesore without a fight = ghetto

These people do it to themselves, and I don't feel the need to apologize to them.
PC disclaimer: when I say "these people" I am referring to the 97% of the residents in this zip code who didn't even bother to vote during city council elections, not minorities in general, so spare me your sermon.

[cls88]

Originally Posted by frank a bowers

In my faith they are but one human race and no no one seems to worry a lot the politicians make it easy even for the criminal illegal aliens to steal money and homes from the citizens so I don't know what you mean but as for as nationalities they seem to all live okay even the criminal illegal aliens what is your nationality.
Frank Bowers of Austin, Tx 1979 until now.

Ok, let me try this again. I was responding to your posts and got deleted because I commented about illegal immigrants complaints in your post .

To summarize, racism has nothing to do with illegal immigrants, rather only related to color.