austin

South by SouthWHY? Why Locals Should Accept SXSW

asoybel

Now that the buzz from Austin’s “South By Southwest ” has calmed down a bit, lets reflect on the event in the context of population.

First of all, just what is South By Southwest? Well, sxsw.com explains that South By is “13 days of industry conferences, a 4-day trade show, a 6-night music festival featuring more than 2,100 bands, and a 9-day film festival with more than 400 screenings.” With those features, who wouldn’t want to attend, really? But, we’ll get to that later. Let’s focus on who does. In 2014, SXSW was said to bring in registrants from 87 countries and bands from 57 countries. This is an international event, all happening right here, in Austin, Texas.

With all of those people coming into our little, aforementioned “anti-growth” city, where does everyone stay? Well, 60,458 room nights were booked in over 70 official hotels, with a whopping 13,990 individual reservations booked!  And if you’re late on booking your room, or just want another feel for the city, you can always rent out some space at someones apartment! Thankfully, we have that kind-hearted southern charm to accommodate y’all! Well, some of us anyway.

Image by Forbes

Take a look at what  Number 9, Jacob, has to say about South By Southwest. His telephoto lens and sad puppy eyes tell a story that anyone who’s resided in Austin for more than a year knows too well. “When do I get my city back?” Well Jacob, you’ll get your “it’s-only-around-the-corner” line at Hopdoddy back soon enough, we promise. But is it really all bad, Jacob? We get it, I-35 is rough, you already can’t handle the traffic. We understand that the only reason someone would attempt 6th street is for the adrenaline rush of drowning among other humans. We know, really, we do.

Image from realityaustin.com

 

Hear us out though, lets take a look at some numbers, again. The total impact of South By Southwest in 2014 created  315.3 million dollars for the Austin economy in revenue in just those few, albeit, chaotic days. What does that mean? Do we really have to explain that money = good?  Just for a little modest comparison, the entire Longhorns Football season (almost half a year), only brought in a total revenue of 109 million (and we know how Texans just love football).

Lastly, don’t you as an Austinite want a tight grip on the title of “Live Music Capital of the World?” If so, and if you want what’s best for your city, you’ll grin and bear the beautiful chaos that is South By Southwest.

Photo by Jose Lozano

Photo by Jose Lozano

All data is from SXSW 2014, 2015 stats have not yet been published 

 

The head of Texas is feeling a little congested

asoybel

Forbes lists Austin, Texas as the 4th US city with the worst traffic, sandwiched between San Francisco at number 3 and New York at 5.  So just how is it that a laid back, eclectic, and fun-loving city like Austin has such an appalling case of congestion? We’re about to get into that.

Coincidentally, Forbes also lists Austin as the fastest growing city in the nation with a population of 1.8 million and a  growth rate of 2.8%! This is a heavily weighted factor in our dilemma of traffic jams for a few reasons.

First of all, as stated in this NPR article, Austin has long been a city opposed to growth and industrialization. The liberal atmosphere never allowed for mass growth and therefore, no infrastructure was erected in regards to that sentiment. The article continues stating that this mentality is one of a “If We Don’t Build It, They Won’t Come” idealization. However, this thought process has obviously failed any Austinite that has driven ( if you call 2 mph “driving”) along I-35 around 4:30-6pm. Actually, KXAN states that Austin drivers wasted a sum of 41 total hours stuck in traffic in 2014.

However, there is hope! Gov. Tech. explains the possibility of utilizing crowd sourcing for data on how to better improve traffic lights. This could potentially be a structural answer to the ever-lasting issue of traffic. Ideally, this smart-version of congestion control is something we could see being implemented in the next few years. Another structural solution is that of infrastructure like ideas such as Prop. 1 have  proposed. Unfortunately,  Austin’s residents seemed to think implementing a railway in a strange location would be an unnecessary waste of tax dollars.

Another phenomenon to observe is the course of housing costs and their correlation with traffic. Various residents often cite having to move complete locations in order to happily commute to work or leisure. Therefore, housing rates increase and make Austin a more expensive place to live.

Each of these occurrences, stemming from Austin’s desire to maintain it’s cool and quirky vibe have consequentially been it’s visible downfall. And unfortunately, if structural answers aren’t put into place, we might see this once lively, peculiar, city become a town full of angry motorists.

Lastly, If there’s one nice thought to have while you’re stuck watching the sunset on the capitol building as the hours go by, it’s that traffic has been shown to have a direct relation with economic health. So if you’re not doing well in the traffic, at least your city is!

I-35 photo by Deborah Cannon

Combating Gentrification

dspiro

Does urban growth automatically mean more gentrification? Not necessarily. Here’s some sure fire ways to avoid gentrification from coming to fruition.

1. More low-income housing!

This one seems almost too obvious of an answer. By making providing low income housing at an equal rate as high cost areas grow, displacement may still happen but at the poorest of a city are not literally losing ground in their city. Making sure that low income housing projects don’t disappear in the future is crucial to preventing gentrification from taking place.

Going back to our previous example of Rosewood Courts. While I agree that the land value of Rosewood has increased in value over the years, that does not given developers the right to tear it down and rebuild for the incoming upper to middle class families, thus displacing the previous residents.

However, there are various programs in place for those who do get displaced or just need low income housing today. The City of Austin has many different programs to choose from, therefore I cannot argue that the displaced residents will automatically become homeless. Most of the problem gentrification brings is the displacement of people from their homes that they’ve lived in for decades.

That being said, according to Roger Valdez from Smart Growth Seattle, neighborhoods have notoriously shifted from wealth to poverty to wealth again within the decades since it’s been around. The process of a changing area is not something new and cannot be solely blamed on gentrification. However, one it becomes to the point that only minorities are being displaced and there are no new low income housing areas to go along with the growth of the city’s wealthy metropolitan area, then that becomes a gentrification problem.

2. Protect existing low income housing areas

Again, this one seems too obvious of answer as well. Protecting existing areas will slow down the process of gentrification and it will keep families in the homes they’ve owned for the last couple of decades. It makes sure that families stay in the areas they want to, regardless of their income. Sadly, there are not many programs out there to help families keep their home as much as ones to help them find a new one. I suggest demanding a program for the families who do not wish to move out of the area so they can keep their home.

For more good reads on the subject, I suggest Kalima Rose’s blog post on Race, Poverty, and Environment.