This report serves as a first-person account of the conceptualization, pre-production, and post-production phases of my short documentary thesis film. We Will Always Be Here interweaves stories from residents, historians, and grassroots activists in a visual essay about the transforming landscape in the rapidly expanding neighborhood of East Austin. The film explores themes of identity politics and cultural resistance amid the seemingly unstoppable expansion of the city of Austin. / text

This report discusses the feasibility of multifamily development through the use of undeveloped or underutilized parcels of land in the central east core of downtown Austin. Included in the discussion is the history of the market area, tools the City of Austin is using to promote infill development, the housing development process, financing of infill housing projects in Austin, a supply and demand analysis of the current market, and site selection theory and application. The author found that there is significant quantitative demand for a multifamily product in this market area and this report may act as a general guide to the process of bringing a multifamily product to market. / text

Despite the close proximity to downtown, East Austin is one of the more underprivileged and under-developed communities in the city of Austin, Texas. A lack of access exacerbates the lack of resources of the poor. It is essential to identify the current accessibility of urban facilities for East Austin’s residents in order to understand how the location of key support services serves to maintain East Austin’s underprivileged and under-developed status. The objectives of this study are 1) to evaluate the accessibility of residents in East Austin neighborhoods to urban facilities using spatial data analysis in geographical information systems (GIS), 2) to compare accessibility in East Austin with other Austin communities, including West Austin and North Austin, and, finally, this study will allow me to measure whether the more underprivileged populations of East Austin do indeed have equal access to urban facilities and, if not, to identify which neighborhoods in East Austin offer the best access. In shortly, I can see that many public owned facilities, such as Sports and Recreational, Educational, Health, and some of Community Service facilities are relatively dispersed in poor neighborhoods in the City of Austin. It should be noted that public authorities have made deliberate choices to distribute facilities in poorer neighborhoods. / text

This study examined two community programs, Helping Everyone Recognize Opportunity and Excellence in Success (HEROES) and the Alamo Recreation Center (ARC). Both programs incorporated art making in order to serve central East Austin residents affected by gentrification in the area. The purpose of this study was to present ways these two programs utilize the arts to provide a voice for a population challenged by gentrification. This study integrated firsthand experiences obtained during participant observations of the programs and a historical look at of East Austin to identify the significance of HEROES and ARC in their surrounding community. / text

In this report I analyze both historical and contemporary urban planning policies enacted by the City of Austin, TX, through which I establish patterns of structural inequality affecting working class communities of color residing in East Austin. I examine early 20th-century urban beautification initiatives, along with the Progressive era segregationist project of the modern city. Austin city planners solidified segregation along racial lines with the 1928 Master Plan, which mandated the systematic displacement and relocation of African American and Mexican American communities to Austin’s Eastside, along with all “objectionable industries.” Today, East Austin working class communities of color continue to experience unequal burdens of environmentally hazardous industry in their neighborhoods. I examine initiatives implemented by the local grassroots environmental justice organization PODER and their fight for the health and safety of East Austin residents of color in combination with their protest against gentrifying urban planning policies and practices. Through an analysis of the PODER Young Scholars for Justice documentary, Gentrification: An Eastside Story, I look at the ways in which gentrification has changed the East Austin urban cultural landscape. This report aims to shed light upon spatial and racial social geographies that have contributed to the nearly century long battle East Austin residents have waged against discriminatory urban planning policies resulting in educational segregation, environmentally racist industrial zoning, and contemporary displacement of working class communities of color for city profit. / text