I walked into a house located at 1000 East Cesar Chavez Street; inside it was dark, dirty, and full of closed doors and hallways. My real estate agent and friend, John Hernandez, came with me. We walked upstairs and found more closed doors. I forced one door open facing west and a raccoon ran out of the room. We both jumped and laughed at the same time. The room was full of dirty clothes, old newspapers, smelly trash, and an old broken bed. It was very hard to breathe inside. I looked at one window that was about 20 feet tall and I pulled the old curtains down and the bright sun came in like thunder, and I saw Downtown Austin. Without hesitation I said, “I’ll take it.” The year was 1995. The house was a 105-year-old Victorian mansion with 3800 square feet of space, and the price was $95,000. That was the beginning of an interesting journey, a love affair with the east side, and a commitment to fight gentrification.East Austin history is as rich as all of Austin but with a different twist. In the 1940’s East Austin started to become the home of primarily poor Hispanics and African Americans. Small businesses owned by people of color that served the minority populations prospered, including newspapers, restaurants, barber shops, accountants, doctors, and attorneys. The houses were small bungalows with Victorian mansions in between them. For the longest time East Austin was a haven for these families and their businesses. Here, segregation was very vivid but the comfort of the surroundings, friends, and families made the neighborhood feel safe. For many years, East Austin was neglected, forgotten, and underserved by elected officials and city leaders.
The year that I bought my property, East Austin was considered a very dangerous area. If you had no business being there, which was the case of most of the population in Austin, you simply did not go. In fact, most of the Austin population was not even familiar with the east side of Interstate Highway 35, but they knew that poor “Mexicans and Blacks” lived there.
Through out the years there were rumors that wealthy people were buying properties and leasing them back to those families. The east community was concern but still could not understand what was going on since the people that sold their properties did not provide any information. In 1999 the Travis Central Appraisal District raised every one’s properties taxes by at least 30%. People were concerned about losing their homes because they could not afford to pay their taxes. At that moment we all knew something was definitely happening. The Austin City Council under the leadership of Mayor Kirk Watson appointed a group of East Austin community leaders to head a planning process with the charge of creating a plan for the future of East Austin. The request for the plan came a little too late. By that time the exchange of ownership of properties was moving at a rapid pace.
The dictionary defines gentrification as “the restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people.” In other words, gentrification displaces long residing poor families from their neighborhoods to create new living spaces for the wealthy. A lot of these families are not aware about their property values and sell their homes at a lower price, and because the income of the sale is not enough to purchase another property, they either have to rent or buy a house outside the city limit. It is important to point out that gentrification not only displaces families, but it also destroys the character and history of a specific community creating a new urban character and sense of community.
The average value of a house in the year 2000 with 1200 square footage in the 78702 zip code was approximate $57,000. Today the average value of a home with the same square footage is $270,000. Currently, the web site http://www.ziprealty.com/ is advertising five houses in the market for over $500,000. The highest one is advertised with a value of over $750,000. The same site is advertising over 20 condominiums with the highest price being $299,000 and the lowest $229,000. Small houses are now sitting right next to either an urban upscale house with all the luxuries or a condominium complex of 3 to 5 floors.
These changes not only are challenging for the community, but also for the city. Because of the new structures and the new high density in the area, the city now needs to provide new roads, improved utilities, state of the art technology, and urban transportation to decrease traffic. New businesses are making East Austin their home and killing the old small mom & pop shops. Affluent residences are the new neighborhood leadership while the old school residences are trying to survive and maintain their voice.
In a short period of time, East Austin has changed and it will never be the same. We do not have the same character; we are losing the culture; the small businesses are closing; and the old families are moving out. Gentrification is not stoppable but it can be controlled. After the 2000 Gentrification Study took place, the City Council created several ordinances to protect the residents in East Austin, including new zoning change procedures, limitations of the use of land, and a series of incentives for the developers to create affordable housing. The city also created a program for residences to obtain loans, grants, and other financial assistance for regular maintenance of their properties. The Travis Appraisal District also created a series of workshops for the business and residential property owners to educate them about current property values, sales trends, and property rights. Most important the community, businesses, and non-profits are working together to maintain the fabric of the neighborhood and to create an environment to communicate with the developers to look for win-win strategies before the design and construction phase of new structures.
Gentrification is not all negative though. Thanks to the new developments, we now enjoy a greater diversity of services and businesses creating new job opportunities for the residents, at the end of this month East Austin will be one of the few Austin areas with two rail stops, and crime has come down. The city has also made investments on the area such as new street signage and better street lighting. This has changed the flow of some of the major streets to increase mobility. East 11th and East 7th can apply for grants to renovate the façade of the properties; 7th street is one of the official corridors to the international airport creating traffic and visibility for the East Austin businesses; and a new commission (Austin Revitalization Authority) was created by neighbors to watch and provide comments to any development, site plans, or zoning changes in the area.
My office is still located at 1000 East Cesar Chavez, I bought the property because I felt in love with the architecture, $95,000 was a lot of money for a commercial property on that side of town back then, now, about 6 months ago, a non-profit organization offered $650,000 cash to purchase the property, John Hernandez, my friend and real estate agent, represented the organization. I smiled at him and said, “No thank you."
Works Cited
"Gentrification Committee Report." City of Austin. 14 June 2001. City of Austin. 1 Mar
2009. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/housing/downloads/gentrification.pdf
"Travis County Property Information." Travis County Appraisal District. 2008. Travis County Appraisal District. 1 Mar. 2009. <http://www.traviscad.org/tcad_search.php?mode=situs&kind=real>
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