Austin’s redevelopment and gentrification

As part of my morning ritual, I sleepily look through The Guardian’s must-read stories delivered to me via email. A few weeks ago, one article written by Eva Wiseman really caught my attention: Wiseman highlighted the wording of advertisements of new-build sites and redevelopments in London. She found several reoccurring words, some of which included ‘decanting’, ‘revitalised’, ‘vibrant’, ‘innovation’, ‘fresh’, ‘luxury’ and ‘authentic’. This made me start to think of Austin. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, when I moved to Austin I knew very little about the city. However, I have now lived here for almost three months and unsurprisingly within that time, I have noticed a few things.

Austin is experiencing redevelopment. The US Census Bureau has cited Austin as one of the fastest growing cities in the United States (Cohen, 2015). As a current resident of the city, this is very much apparent; one does not have to look far to see a crane, to hear the noise of drilling, and/or to experience consequent traffic from road closures. I have wandered downtown and experienced all of this on the way, but most importantly, I have seen the affluent boutiques on 2^nd Street arguably selling pointless (yet aesthetically pleasing) products; I have drunk in coffee shops that serve ridiculously priced lattes; and I have read newspaper articles that have condemned the increased prices of rent and the displacement of lower income groups (e.g. Rahmen 2016). All this evidence helps point to one conclusion: gentrification is occurring in Austin.

And perhaps most surprising to me is that this gentrification is receiving academic attention (e.g. Lavy et al., 2016). One specific area of controversy is Rainey Street District; the neighbourhood is located north of Colorado River, southeast downtown. Rainey Street neighbourhood traditionally exhibited a mainly Hispanic population (Dase and Ward, 2000). However, due to initiatives of the local authorities and their urban redevelopment policies that enabled the location of profitable and high-density housing in the area, Rainey Street has now become home to entrepreneurial businesses (Lavy et al., 2016). In turn, this has resulted in increased land value and a consequent displacement of the mainly Hispanic and lower income community (Lavy et al., 2016).

I decided to visit Rainey Street myself, specifically keeping in mind the list of words Wiseman (2016) had found and whether I would see these words myself.

I approached Rainey Street from the north and instantly came across a block of apartments named The Millennium. An advertisement in the window boasted of ‘luxury apartments’ and ‘downtown views’; this was similarly the case on their website, where the word luxury was commonly used in addition to ‘dream home’, ‘trendy’ and ‘swanky’. The website even described Rainey Street as ‘vintage bungalow houses that have transformed into quaint, cool backyard bars.’ The Millennium was just one of the high-rise apartments within Rainey Street; SkyHouse Austin and Windsor on the Lake are others which also exhibit similar wording The Millennium used and Wiseman (2016) found.

The Millennium

As I travelled further down Rainey Street, I came across these vintage bungalows The Millennium had so aptly described; they were small and quaint and if I’m being honest, pretty cool. I saw Rainey Street during the day but I can imagine that the atmosphere at night has a certain lively vibe. However, significantly all of these bungalows were either bars or restaurants: there seemed to be no sign of residential bungalows. And as I carried on wandering, it become more apparent that Rainey Street had (and is currently still is) experienced dramatic change. Cranes and construction works were abundant and the area just in general screamed gentrification; quirky and expensive bars, high-rise apartments boasting of luxury living that contain rooftop pools, gourmet kitchens and even ‘granite top bath vanities with custom lighting’, funky food trucks, and well-gardened infrastructure.

One of the bars on Rainey Street

A juxtaposition of two bungalows within the neighbourhood

My friend and I spotted an interestingly shaped building and decided to explore. We soon realised that it was the Mexican American Cultural Center, which I found to be quite ironic. The building is supposedly dedicated to preserving, creating, and promoting the cultural arts of Mexican Americans and Latinos but instead, is now no longer located in a predominately Hispanic community. This building is perhaps the final piece of evidence that confirms Rainey Street District, and thus Austin, has been subject to the hands of gentrification.

Food trucks on Rainey Street

References

Cohen, D.T. (2015) Population trends in incorporated places: 2000 to 2013 – Population estimates and projections. Washington DC: U.S. Census Bureau.

Dase, A.E. and R.B. Ward (2000) The peculiar genius of Rainey Street: A social and architectural history. Austin: Heritage Society of Austin.

Lavy, B., E.D. Dascher and R.R. Hagelman (2016) ‘Media portrayal of gentrification and redevelopment on Rainey Street in Austin, Texas (USA), 2000–2014’, City, Culture and Society, Vol. 7 (4), 197-207.

Rahman, M. (2016) Gentrification worsens Austin’s diversity problem [Online]. Austin: The Daily Texan. Available at: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2016/08/31/gentrification-worsens-austins-diversity-problem [Accessed 31st August 2016].

Wiseman, E. (2016) Beware the vibrant, emerging, misleading language of gentrification [Online]. London: The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/09/beware-the-vibrant-emerging-misleading-language-of-gentrification [Accessed 10th October 2016].

9th November: a dark day for the environment

2016 continues to cause political turmoil. Nobody thought that Trump was going to win this presidential race: all but one poll predicted Clinton to be the victor; it was clear she was to break the glass ceiling and become the next president of the United States. However, just like the result of Brexit, 2016 once again proved me wrong.

As I watched the election coverage and the result become increasingly clear, I grew shocked. And now nine hours later, this feeling has not left. I am hugely disappointed and sad. I grieve for those who have been left behind and for those who passionately did not want this outcome.

As a geography student, it was especially disheartening to see climate change continuously cast aside within the election campaign. During the three presidential debates, only five minutes and twenty-seven seconds were spent discussing climate change or other environmental issues. Similarly, no question was asked about climate policy (Merchant, 2016).

Yet climate change is happening now. Over the period 1880 to 2012, there was a 0.85 degrees Celsius warming trend (IPCC, 2014). And according to the IPCC (2014), this surface temperature is projected to rise as we just continue into the twenty-first century, regardless of the emission scenario. Heat waves are likely to become more common and last longer; precipitation events are expected to become more severe and frequent; global mean sea level is expected to rise; and the ocean will become warmer and more acidified.

However, the future president of the United States has failed to accept that this unprecedented warming is happening and instead has claimed that climate change is indeed a ‘hoax’. On Trump’s website, none of his policies mention or address climate change mitigation. Trump has caused global fear, suggesting he will undo Barack Obama’s ambitious environmental progress. He has claimed that he will scrap the Clean Power Act and repeal all federal spending on clean energy, and has hinted that he wants to get rid of the US Environmental Protection Agency, asserting that ‘they are a disgrace’ (Pulmer, 2016). Furthermore, Trump has plans to ‘cancel the Paris climate agreement and stop all payments of US tax dollars to UN global warming programmes’ (Whyte, 2016).

We are currently living in a pivotal moment. Carbon dioxide levels have now surpassed 400ppm for the first time in recorded history (NASA, 2013) whilst 2016 has officially been the warmest year on record (NASA, 2016): we must act now or pay for the consequences. The UN Paris Agreement has given a little bit of hope, exerting diplomatic pressure on countries to increase their mitigation action. There are indeed some serious flaws with the deal but it is a welcomed start. It offers potential momentum.

So now I also grieve for the environment.

The USA is currently the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide (Boden et al. 2015). If the US successfully decreased its carbon footprint, it would be revolutionary for the planet. The US has the chance to become a role model to the rest of the world, a pioneer in renewable energy, a leader in climate policy. But instead, the US may plunge backwards; if we take Trump for his word, his victory is an environmental disaster. This is dangerous. This is scary. This is real.

References

Boden, T.A., Marland, G., and Andres, R.J. (2015). National CO2 Emissions from Fossil-Fuel Burning, Cement Manufacture, and Gas Flaring. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge: National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy

IPCC (2014) Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers. Geneva: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Merchant, E.F. (2016) Climate change enjoyed its 2 seconds of fame in the final debate [Online]. Seattle: Grist. Available at: http://grist.org/election-2016/climate-airtime-presidential-debate/ [Accessed 9 November 2016].

NASA (2013) For first time, Earth's single-day CO2 tops 400 ppm [Online]. Washington D.C.: NASA. Available at: http://climate.nasa.gov/news/916/for-first-time-earths-single-day-co2-tops-400-ppm/ [Accessed 9 November 2016].

NASA (2016) 2016 Climate Trends Continue to Break Records [Online]. Washington D.C.: NASA. Available at: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/climate-trends-continue-to-break-records [Accessed 9 November 2016].

Pulmer, B. (2016) There’s no way around it: Donald Trump is going to be a disaster for the planet [Online]. New York: Vox. Available at: http://www.vox.com/2016/11/9/13571318/donald-trump-disaster-climate [Accessed 9 November 2016].

Whyte, L. (2016) Donald Trump vows to pull US out of Paris climate agreement if he is elected [Online]. New York: International Business Times. Available at: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/donald-trump-vows-pull-us-out-paris-climate-agreement-if-he-elected-1562350 [Accessed 9 November 2016].