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Memories of Home Are All That's Left After Gentrification Plans
By Antonio Reyes López
There used to be a two-story house over there, a hamburger place over
there. There’s none of that no more. Now people are
buying, selling houses. There are new condos going up. Taxes are
going up…. How we gonna live?
—Rudy Estrada, East Austin resident for
50 years
WHEN I GO to Chicago
to visit my family I like to drive through Logan Square with my sister
and talk about the experiences of our childhood. Unfortunately, the
working-class neighborhood that we grew up in has become unrecognizable
because recent economic development programs have caused
gentrification. In other words, as property values, taxes, and
living expenses have increased, long-time residents have been forced to
move away and community businesses have closed. Sadly, the last time we
drove through Logan Square it did not feel like home. Our barrio was
transformed into a trendy, upscale part of the city. With the
approval of the Downtown-Segundo Barrio Redevelopment Plan on October
31, 2006, city officials and the Paso Del Norte Group initiated a similar  process for South El Paso. In a few years when people drive through Segundo Barrio with their family will they recognize home?
Urban economic development plans like the one passed in El Paso have
been implemented in many cities across the country over the past
decade. Numerous articles and studies have shown that urban economic
development programs have not fulfilled their promises to bring jobs to
impoverished neighborhoods and increase the living standards of
community members. Instead, long-time residents, usually
African-Americans and Latinos, are forced to move out of their
neighborhoods due to forces of gentrification. For many people the loss
of community caused by gentrification is very traumatic.
Working-class
blacks and Latinos in East Austin have been sharing the same labor
market, neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, elderly homes, day-care
centers, playgrounds and other resources since the implementation of
the city’s 1928 master plan.
—Susana Almanza, Executive Director of People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER)
In 1928 the city of Austin decided to relocate all
“undesirables” east of Interstate Highway 35. Many people
that moved to East Austin in 1928 bought homes in the area for 6,000
dollars and have lived there ever since. Over the past 10 years
long-time Latino and African American residents, the so called
“undesirables” of East Austin, have been displaced by
mostly white, middle-class professionals working in the growing
technology industry of Austin. Property values and taxes have
skyrocketed over the last few years causing east side residents to sell
their homes. Even when homes are sold for a high value people still
cannot afford to live in the area and have to move far away.
The
project didn’t generate anything. It wasn’t designed
to revitalize… The East Side doesn’t want to be treated
like a stepchild of the city. We want to control our own destiny.
—Richard Franklin, East Austin community activist
Neighborhood businesses in East Austin have also been impacted by
gentrification. The rise of property taxes and the growth of new
business developments have forced many community stores to close.
Francis Aguallo, a 75 year old owner of floral shop has seen that
economic pressures have hit the community hard. He says, “Little
by little, we’re going to be pushed out eventually.” Sadly,
the Austin Revitalization Authority (ARA) has failed to notify
community members of funding available to small business owners.
Instead the ARA has bought vacant lots and condemned houses once owned
by African American families to promote economic development.
Consequently, the population of African Americans in East Austin has
declined by 19 percent .
Why?
There’s nothing there. Everything is gone—all the
stores. Even the church is gone. There’s no place to meet
my friends and shop any more. We used to just go there and walk around.
Or I’d meet my comadre there and we’d shop and talk…
My daughter comes and visits. That’s my community now.
—Long-time resident of San Jose,
California in her late sixties when asked why she doesn’t go to
downtown anymore
Following World War II San Jose, California attracted military and
technology industries to the region. As the center of the high
technology economy in the United States it is now a vital part of
Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, the rapid growth of the city and suburbs
resulted in urban renewal programs and highway projects that displaced
many Chicano/Mexicano residents and pushed them to the eastside of the
city. Like the city officials and PDNG in El Paso today, San Jose city
officials in the 1970’s considered the downtown area a
“wasteland.” In the mid-1970’s a Redevelopment Agency
was formed to transform the downtown area. Although a convention
center, hotels and a sports arena were built the majority of
Mexican-owned businesses were pushed out of downtown. In San Jose,
downtown redevelopment created a dual city marked by extreme wealth and
extreme poverty.
Right
over there. That’s where the church used to be. Sagrada
Familia. I was just a child then, but my parents talked about it all
the time. They built the freeway; tore down the houses; lots of
families had to move. But, it hurt the most to lose the church. That
was like cutting the heart out of the body.
—Gilberto Morales, local university professor
San Jose first appears as a wealthy city where everyone enjoys a high
standard of living. Wealth, however, is not equally distributed in the
city. The majority of jobs created by economic development in San Jose
pay minimum wage, are non-unionized and lack benefits. Latinos are less
than five percent of the managers and professionals in the
county. The history and cultural expressions of people of Mexican
descent, African Americans, and Asian Americans are also excluded from
the cultural centers of downtown San Jose. In trying to compete with
San Francisco urban redevelopers focused instead on bringing
professional sports teams and high culture events to downtown.
I don’t go downtown anymore because I feel so disoriented – it’s like someone has taken my memory.
—Long-time resident of San Jose
Urban economic development programs often promise to improve living
conditions and create jobs in our communities. There is an
overwhelming amount of evidence that shows that this does not happen.
What happens more times than not is that long-time residents lose their
homes and have to leave communities that they have been a part of for
generations. Downtown redevelopment projects have consistently
resulted in gentrification and created a wider gap between the rich and
the working poor. The downtown El Paso plan approved on October 31st
2006 is similar to urban economic development plans that have taken
place throughout the United States in the last decade. In places like
San Jose and East Austin long-time residents testify to the traumatic
loss of community that they have experienced due to gentrification.
They too were made big promises by city officials and redevelopers that
chanted for progress while looking for profits. I, like many other
people that have experienced gentrification should have fought harder
to preserve our communities and now we only have memories of what home
used to be like. The Segundo Barrio should never be lost to
memory. It should remain the heart of the city and the community
should be respected for its history, hard-work and dignity.
Antonio Reyes
López is a graduate student at UTEP who was raised in Chicago,
Illinois. He studies Chicana/o history and United States
colonialism in the borderlands.
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