Gentrification in East Ausitn

The three examples of gentrification we have seen last week are very different, both in terms of scale and state of progress of the process.

   The neighborhood the most advanced and where the most impressive gentrification occurred is definitely Mueller. The entire neighborhood is new; all the houses are brand new, big and beautiful. Low and moderate income are clearly not welcome anymore. This brand new neighborhood doesn’t allow any social diversification at all. Property taxes must be really high, therefore the closest school is probably very well subsidized, to the detriment of other schools in the city. When gentrification is that much advanced, the social discrimination is not only geographical but is reproduced in the educational system.

   The process of gentrification is completely different in Holly Street. It is progressive compared what happened in Mueller. Yet, it seems all the same irrevocable. When one drives through the neighborhood, the contrast between the houses is very interesting and striking. Old single-story houses stand next to brand new enormous houses. I would say that Mueller illustrates gentrification as a fact, as a result, whereas Holly Street illustrates gentrification as a process.

   Gentrification is not as noticeable in Marlo Heights as it is in Mueller or Holly Street, but, for all that, the process is definitely starting. We can already see some renewed houses and the community members are clearly worried about it. When we went to the community meeting, they had a guest speaker explaining “How to protest against the increase of property taxes”. This clearly shows their concerns regarding the future progression of the gentrification process.

Neighborhood gentrification

Low-incomes suffer from the gentrification of their neighborhood. One could think that only low-income house-renters suffer from it, but actually all of them suffer from gentrification. In different ways though. House-renters suffer directly form the gentrification because their rents increase. House-owners suffer from indirect consequences of the gentrification. First because everything in the neighborhood becomes more expensive (shops, food, restaurants ...) and secondly because of the marginalization. They gradually become a minority (social or ethnic minority, often both of them) in their own neighborhood. 

I am part of the group working on the Marlo Heights community, located in East Austin and I found some interesting information in the article Austin, Texas : the East Austin Neighborhood.

   One of the biggest issue in this neighborhood is the increasing crime. The article confirms that East Austin is the part of the city with the highest rate of crime. Even if efforts are made to tackle this issue, the worsening relationships between the police and the minorities make it harder. 

   The second interesting information I found is about civic engagement. Civic engagement is one of our challenge with the community. We want them to participate to community meetings and feel involved in the beautification of their neighborhood. This same article teaches us that the challenge of civic engagement is a wider challenge that concerns all East Austin. Those communities often feel neglected, they lost confidence in the government and in the possibility of things to change. 

Beginner's Guide to community-based ARTS

In the book Beginner’s guide to community based art, I chose a story from the category Research, the technique Community sounding. I think I chose this one because we are at the beginning of our work with the communities and we still don’t know them very well. This story highlights the process of learning about a community and explains the importance of listening, observing and questioning. I agree with this fact. I believe that in order to understand a community’s or a social group’s interactions, issues and working, statistics and theoretical researches are not sufficient. I find it crucial to immerse myself in that community and learn about it directly from its members. 

If one wants to take the most of this process one has to be sensitive and be really aware of verbal and nonverbal communication. Artists are said to have an increased sensitivity and I think it is one of the reasons of the success this project. 

Even if we are not artists, we will have to do the same and try to be as attentive. I think we have already started when we interacted with residents from Marlow Heights at the National Night Out last Tuesday. Attending the community’s meetings could be also very useful!

Cultural Assignment

Hey everyone !

Here are five things that I think had a great influence on me and on my behavior. 

A picture with my brother and my sister : 

I am the eldest of my family, I have a little brother and a little sister. And as my parents are divorced I often had to take care of them even when I was pretty young. I think it made me quite autonomous and may have increased the fact that I really like to take care of people. And that’s probably why I often have a maternal behavior with people.

My «Rêve d’Enfance» polo shirt : 

This is a concrete item that represent my commitment to this organization and to those children. An english translation of its name could be «childhood dream». I already talked about it in the former post, that was the first time I felt so useful. And I am now thinking of working in a real charity organization later. 

Cookies : 

I picked cookies to represent food in general. Food is really important in my family, we like to cook and share good meals especially for special occasions. I personally like to try new kind of food especially when I travel. 

A revision notes :

I know this is just a school thing that could look insignificant but it is actually pretty important for me. It refers to my first two years of college when I had to work a lot to train for a very competitive exam. I have done several hundreds of them.

It showed me that life is made of hard choices and when one wants to achieve a long term goal, one has to do sacrifices on the short-term. It also showed be that when one really want something, hard work is usually profitable.

Diversity (I don’t really have an item for this one but I still wanted to mention it because I find this point quite important)

I went in several different schools because my parents moved several times. Sometimes I was in really good schools and sometimes in very disadvantaged ones. I have been in contact with people from very different social and ethnic backgrounds. It taught me to adjust myself to different people and situations, and most of all opened my mind. 

Why did I choose this class ?

I am an exchange student at UT for this fall semester and normally I study in a business school in Paris. I come from Marseille, a city in the south of France. Here is a picture of its port. As I said in class, poverty and criminality have been increasing in this city and that is one of the reasons I am very interested in this class. I look forward to see what kind of projects can be developed to tackle those issues so maybe I could bring some ideas back in France. 

I really like to work to improve peoples’ life, especially children. Back in France I am part of an organization that organizes activities for sick children (especially cancer and leukemia). For example  last June we spent 10 days in Corsica (a french island between France and Italy) with 35 children who had just got out of the hospital, it was one of the best time of my life ! It was amazing to see those kids gradually forgetting about their sickness and growing happy ! This project was a lot of work to organize but it was worth the effort ! I really hope that we find good ideas and that we have a concrete impact on those communities too !

I look forward to work with you all !

Have a nice week end

Lucille