November 26, 2007
The Accidental Gentrifist Announces the 2007 'Genties' (Award to be Named Later)-ies
Editors’ Note: The opinions and ideas expressed in The Accidental Gentrifist are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the outlook or beliefs of anyone else in the Ist network.
Update (11/26): We totally forgot that our friends over at Misprint Magazine originally staked their claim to the term "Genties" back in 2005. Since we're far too delicate to accept Keplesky's offer of an old-fashioned misprint vs austinist knife fight, we're giving ours a name change. Stay tuned, or do our work for us and suggest a name in the comments section! -- Austinist Editor AYC
I can’t believe it’s that time again already, when we at The Accidental Gentrifist, with more than a little aplomb, dish out the 'Genties ': our awards for the best, the worst, and the cumulatively ineffectual aspects of East Austin Gentrification.
The Winners, the Losers, and the Draws, right after the jump:
[ + ] Grand Prize Win: E.A.S.T. (The East Austin Studio Tour)
As if art wasn’t fun enough already, E.A.S.T. puts the artistic industry of Austin a mere bicycle ride away, and places local icon stalwarts like Billy Bishop under the same banner as small contemporary galleries, local jewelry artisans, as well as unclassifiables like Leanne Venier. It also kinda gets artists off the hook as the precipitators of gentrification. The East Village model dictates that artists have no money, and thus tend to congregate in the best (or only) place they can both work and live well. Then people with money who want to adopt a cooler residential status buy into the scene and, by their sheer presence, ruin everything. Not that I buy into that, no pun intended, but E.A.S.T. defies niche mentality and incidentally subverts this idea by demonstrating that young art is a regional phenomenon, and even a small ‘scene’ is in fact varied and inclusive, and exists over a very wide swath of town. And some tour stops, such as The Rhizome Collective, are the antithesis of negative gentrification.
Or maybe I’m wrong and E.A.S.T. will be impossible in five years. Or skyrocketing real estate prices will force all the studios to become crafty, cottage-industry clones (again, no pun intended) of Architects & Heroes. Either way, it deserves appreciation in its present manifestation.
Win, 2nd Place: Action Figure
Matt Hovis and Mark Miks moved shop to the old Meat Purveyor site on Cesar Chavez, simultaneously nullifying the bad karma of millions of slaughtered cows while producing FameCast, an internet show that beats American Idol at its own game. Which is probably much harder to do than it sounds. Not to mention the beautiful irony of enlivening mass culture from a location where so many cattle met their end.
Win, 3rd Place: Rio Rita
The proprietors of Beerland have turned a house of ill repute into a coffee shop with a full bar and a homey aesthetic. Unlike any other offering in town, Rio Rita looks a little like grandma’s house, and makes it possible to go out without actually having to ‘go out’.
Win, Honorable Mentions: KRDB, for those four houses on Clifford. And while I can’t believe I’m listing any kind of loft or condo on the positive side of any conceivable table, I have to note 6th & Brushy. Compared to its hideous neighbors on I-35, this place is like the Sistine Chapel of container living.
[ - ] Grand Prize Lose: The Austin Police Department
Yes it’s a difficult job, and no, I don’t envy them or their position in this city. I mean, they get shot at, ’nuff said. But today we’re speaking strictly in terms of gentrification’s negative impacts.
Now, I’ve known for some time that Texan cops are a generally humorless bunch, and the new generation of Austin police in particular can be, well, prickly. And while the use of deadly force is often reasonable, if not necessary—the shooting of Kevin Brown last June seemed like a continuation of a rather ghastly standard operating procedure: Last March an officer was let go after firing at an unarmed suspect, one of his rounds hitting a van with two children inside. And the 2005 Understatement of the Year was when the police killing of Daniel Rocha was officially termed “avoidable.”
And regardless of trouble in the credit markets and the ubiquitous ‘Yuppies off the East Side’ wheat paste campaign, the East Side is gentrifying and will continue to do so. And regardless of whether or not you want to admit it, there are at least some measurable benefits. The main one is the aggregate effect on property value. The attendant cash flow, as well as structural and aesthetic improvements typically connected to the relocation of young, college-educated wage earners tends to reduce crime, sometimes simply by occupying a space that was previously abandoned, defunct, derelict or empty. Sometimes there is no site-specific, clear-cut improvement. But the overall trend is that increased presence of young families of any race improves the safety of historically crime-ridden areas.
The APD could adopt a more compatible attitude, one that sees violent crime on the East Side as another inevitable casualty of gentrification, one that will eventually succumb to the gradual transition. Essential to all parties accepting responsibility for these mixed-race, mixed-income neighborhoods is that transition from negative stigma includes a reduction of all forms of violence.
Lose, 2nd Place: Chestnut Commons. Speaking of punishable offenses, this place is an aesthetic nightmare, a paradigm of dysfunction. While it probably only looks like the sketchy neighborhood of tomorrow, it does make Mueller look like Hyde Park.
Lose, 3rd Place: Red House. Go ahead, make your drinks even more expensive, and encourage your bar staff to be even less friendly. I’m still not convinced it’s cool to drink on Manor. The spot-on Joel Mozersky decor almost lifts this place to a Draw, but not quite.
Lose, Honorable Mention: 11th Street Wells Fargo. How strange that this bank—a major and visible aspect of recent urban redevelopment—has no ATM. It’s almost as if it's its own tacit argument against dispensing cash on this block.
[ = ] Grand Prize Draw: Progress Coffee
On the plus side, their cold-brew toddy is probably the best in town, the menu’s interesting, and not only does the place have good art on the walls, it seems strongly committed to local art and culture. But those elements are counterbalanced by a long wait, a slightly overpriced sterility, and a very business-like atmosphere, probably due more to the clientele than the staff, who are actually more than likable. Progress heads the pack in this category because their plusses are hard to come by, while their negatives are reparable, and will hopefully dissolve with the passage of time, if nothing else.
Draw, 2nd Place: The 1305 Lofts. Plus: this project has turned a defunct space into a pretty little revenue-generator. Negative: Its construction has expelled the squatters from the former structure, freeing them to roam East 6th like modern-day Reagan Babies. Bums gotta live somewhere too, so I’m calling this one 50-50.
Draw, 3rd Place: El Chilito. Proof positive that location is more important than quality. But still, it’s there when you’re hungry, if you don’t mind the wait. If it's a rush you can watch poor Cute Girl #3 as she holds the fishbowl taqueria together almost single-handedly. On that note, would it kill the dellionaires to put a tip line on El Chilito’s credit card printouts? Oh well. My all-time favorite response to their tacos is still “Yeah, but what can you expect for $1.50?”
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El Chilito's bad? Compared to what?
6th street vomit tacos out the dumpster behind the Arch.
I don't know. I don't even eat at El Chilito. I got kicked out of Manor road 6 years ago and haven't been back. The manager told me I wasn't white enough to live there which is funny since I am albino.
I'm so over El Chilito -- while the tacos are decent (and decently cheap), they're not worth dealing with the irritable staff. The last three times we've been, they've acted like they're doing us a favor. What's up with the attitude?
Way to rip of Misprint, guys. Vol 1, No 4 - pg 6. Vol 2, No 4 - pg 7.
Megareena,
I like Misprint a lot, but I obviously haven't read it in a long time. Thanks for the alarm.
At 11 o'clock last night I decided to put this column in the form of a "contest"... because it was easier than actually organizing a thoughtful essay. Actually, it was originally the "Gentries," but that's still technically a "rip of" [sic].
Thanks loyal (Misprint) reader. Will make necessary adjustments ASAP.
God, guess I should start 'reading locally'. Sorry.
Ha! That's right, Misprint did call their awards the "Genties," which is very close to "Gentries." I had completely forgotten about that, but knew it sounded familiar. Benj, I am totally gonna tell Bryan Keplesky to kick your behind, but he'll probably just ask you to buy him a beer in return for use of his intellectual property.
Still, this isn't as bad as the time I tried to publish my early diaries under a pseudonym. Oh, the work was original, of course. But unfortunately my randomly-picked nom de plume was 'Anne Frank.'
...because of form rejection letters, I didn't make the connection for almost three years.
I also have an irritable staff... but I don't think I got it from going to El Chilito.
Just call them the "Benjies" - Austinist readers will know what it refers to.
How about "The Gentiles" for the award name?
How about calling them "The White Boy Awards".
"The Jeffersons"?
The "Prix de Pricks"?
"The Whinnies"?
"The Flipper Awards"?
iGhetto?
The Golden Tacos?
Why can't any blogs in Austin get some perspective from people on the East side that lived there before 2000 when talking about gentrification? It's not like the writer's perspective has to be black, but can you find just ONE person to write about gentrification who is not a rich white child?
LoudMouth - I lived on the East Side before 2000, but unfortunately, it was the East Side of Round Rock.
And as you say, the writer would not have to be black, or any other color for that matter, as gentrification is more of an economic issue than anything else. Perhaps if there was a "blue collar" writer, would that work? I don't know the answer, because as Michael on The Office says "I'm collar blind."
Benj - maybe you should call them the Billiam Joel awards - Mama, if that's movin' up, then I'm movin' out...
Because most Austinist writers were in middle school, or at best, high school in 2000, Einstien.
Just for the record, this Austinist writer lived and went to high school on the East side, pre-2000. Does that mean I have permission to complain about gentrification? Whoop!
Elizabeth S., have you written anything ever about East Austin gentrification on Austinist? I feel I have a legitimate complaint. We're getting exactly one perspective about gentrification in Austin from the Austinist and that's generally celebrating it. All I'm saying is would it kill you to offer the thoughts of someone who is not young and white and just moved to the East side when it became expensive?
See, you love me. I get you all hot and bothered.
Look, I can't find it online but just read The Onion article from last week that is pretty much this same exact story. The Thanks / No Thanks piece (of shit). Maybe that will help you see what I mean by only getting one perspective on an issue and how boring and biased that can make the whole story seem when the same class of people are regurgitating the same old shit that their side has puked up from the begining. If you have to keep talking about it, at least keep it fresh or get some new perspectives on this.
LoudMouth, Start a blog. For serious. It is easy. You obviously have the time to devote to it. And if you have only lived on the East Side for no more than 4 years, find an old-schooler to assist you. Voila! Problem solved.
LoudMouth, I, for one, have had enough whining from your side of the gentrification debate to last me a dozen lifetimes. Even if the Austinist never posted pseudo-Marxist crap on this topic (they do; just not pure enough for your taste, I guess), they'd still have 11 more lifetimes to make up for.
themo, I can't afford to live on the East Side anymore. Haven't been able to for a few years now. I'd just like mdahmus to slip me a link to where people can whine about the loss of the East side in peace since all I can find is white kids saying that they're not the problem, someone else is, while defending the bars they deem cool enough to stay.
you can't afford to live on the east side or OWN on the east side? NOWHERE on the East Side? I find that kind of hard to believe. But maybe I am just myopic. As far as whining in peace, I am sure there are places on the net that that happens, but here is obviously not one of them, it seems. I imagine this type of whining happens more in 'real life' than cyberspace, so if you go to a pool hall or dive bar or corner store or housing project or church deep on the east side, you might find people with whom you can commiserate without being condescended to by hipsters or whomever.
Hey LoudMouth,
Personally and for the official record, I appreciate everyone who reads my column, and more so those who care enough to comment, no matter what they think. (I'll spare you the usually obligatory Friends of Voltaire quote.)
I've only lived here since 1998. You got me on that one. But my part of my family's been here since about 1890.
My grandma (from the other side of my family) was a teacher from San Antonio, but also lived in Austin while she got certified through UT in the late 1940's. That's when she discovered most (or many) whites in Austin (including many fellow educators) had their own 'colorful' name for East Austin. I'll give you a hint: It wasn't "Ninja Town".
I'm not going to tout a bunch of MLK rhetoric about integration, nor am I going to spout off half-remembered Malcolm X quotes about some benefit of racial separation. But I would offer that a situation where young whites (and Mexicans, and Asian Americans, whatever) don't hesitate to move into historically black neighborhoods is a pretty big fucking improvement from the previous situation.
This transition anecdotally supports a situation where black residents are "forced" from their homes. But I can counter with my own anecdotal evidence of several families that have sold their shitty houses in states of disrepair for a lot more money than they could have sold them for in 1995. This includes my own house.
If you're not benefiting from this economic transition, it's not because you're black. It's simply becasue you're too young to have taken advantage of the opportunity.
Furthermore, in regard to your claim that East Austin is no longer affordable to you, I would argue that I've never had any significant amount of extra money left over after rent and bills, never had a high-paying job (I got an English degree), my credit sucks, and I've almost always only lived here. So I don't believe you.
Unless of course you have difficulty finding roommates.
Finally, "whine" and "whiner" is how the disinterested describe the complaints of others. If you use it, don't be surprised if that's how you yourself end up being categorized.
I can't remember which episode, but there was a piece done about the Eastside by the "Downtown" crew last season. Listening to real people who have lived and run businesses there all their lives and now being outsted because of high-cost condos and remodels raising their taxes to all time highs might actually bring some reality to those who believe that just building for the sake of building or for pure profit is the right thing to do.
Episode #205 – Celebration, Victory and Literary Achievement
Happy Birthday Paramount – On the 90th Birthday of the Paramount Theatre, this DOWNTOWN anchor is remembered for its architecture, history, importance to the arts community and role as a catalyst for downtown redevelopment. / From the Victory Grill to the emerging East End – East Austin’s rich history and future goals. / From The Rolling Stone to Philosopher’s Rock—literature to writing—Austin’s literary history all comes together with the Texas Book Festival.
Grape and Ben,
Both of you make excellent points, back to back.
It would be interesting to know the number of people ousted by those raising taxes vs the number of people who cashed out because of the raising sales prices.
I noticed in the MLS listings since early this summer that the number of 78702 homes priced at
I wonder if that's because the market has cooled just enough that a rundown 500 sqr foot dump on the east side isn't actually worth $180k and now its not worth it to cash out? If that's the case, it should stem the rise of property taxes and it'll be much easier to argue that house X is valued at $90k not $180k.
This is all I want to say, it bothers me that this site is called the Austinist but all the writers all seem to come from this one little slice of the Austin pie. You might have someone gay or Indian or Muslim on staff or whatever, but all the people on Austinist seem to think the same and gang up together whenever they read a viewpoint that they collectively don't agree with. It makes my stomach turn to read the same argument and have everyone jump on the same bandwagon all the time. It shows me that you guys lack critical thinking skills and creativity if you're all hive-mind, which you seem to be. When's the last time Benj and truecraig got into a serious debate here? When was the last time oh_steph told Elizabeth S. she was wrong?
It's just disturbing that you all think alike and I'd like to see more diversity in your views. That's all I am saying.
What happened with me is that my landlord kicked us out because he sold the land our house was on to some developer so they could put a McMansion there. Fits in real nice with the neighborhood. I think it'd be interesting to find out how many rental houses were sold as opposed to how many primary residences were sold on the east side since the start of the boom.
LoudMouth, again with the bullshit. If you were affording a rental house within the last few years, but somehow you can't afford a rental house, and here's the key: OR APARTMENT now, you must have had a real sucker for a landlord before.
If your point is that you shouldn't have to deign to live in an apartment, you're proving your opponents' case for them.
My point is that a lot of the of the people benefiting from the richening of the East side were already rich to begin with. My point is that when property out there started to get hot, I had the choice of moving to far North Austin, far South Austin, or far East Austin with no choice to stay in the neighborhood I lived in for years and loved. My point is that if all the Austin internet editorializing is being told from one very narrow perspective, we're not getting a full picture of anything that's going on and some people are going to feel marginalized and argue about the opinion writers.
Maybe one day all of West Austin will burn down in a fire and you'll have no home to go back to, your insurance claim will be denied and you'll have to live in South Austin with all the Mexicans. On that day, you can bitch, mdhamus. Until then, you can't relate.
Oh my God. Is there a violin small enough?
Me and my friends got booted from the first house we rented because it became too valuable to the owner to keep renting. Then we became temporarily homeless because our contract for the next place was canceled at the last minute, for the same reason. 4th and 5th houses were actually pretty cool, but we couldn't afford them and they weren't for sale anyway. When I tried to buy the 6th house, the landlord ignored me, knowing he could keep eating the taxes and get a lot more later. Then, while house hunting, I lost stupidly high bids on four houses, to flippers with "cash".
At the time, I thought losing several high bids for decent houses in sketchy neighborhoods to money-hunters was 'unfair'. I just wanted to live there and be a good neighbor, etc.
But you can cry, or you can suck it up. Play the game or get off the field.
LoudMouth - Generally I agree with you about the character of an area of town being lost to gentrification.
And I hated having a Californian landlady when I lived in East Austin. So frustrating!
But I post about that stuff on my personal blog, and not Austinist.
Sorry!
Again, LoudMouth, I call bullshit. You just didn't want to live in an apartment. Guess what? The world doesn't owe you a house.
i think LoudMouth is just Brewster McCracken having a laugh
I now hate Chilito. Why? They one decent item and it's the fish burrito. The staff, on balance, quite sucks except for that nice lady with the Neutral Milk tattoo. I remember a staffer seeing me at the order window and then move on to do a few tasks as I waited without a simple acknowledgment. Made me pissy. Their salsa sucks anyway.
KRDB's style is getting a little staid if not insipid. Design/Build is fine and all but advance the design. There are serious issues with their designs. Aaah. I'll admit it. I think their style is, well, boring and they cost. Alot. There are better companies. Larry Speck had better designs.
That's Funny. I just had the fish burrito last week. Kinda like the fish taco, just bigger. I guess they're trying to get as much mileage as possible from the same basic food units.
Wonder if they're modeled after Taco Bell.
Taco Bell indeed. Problem is the Bell gives me the gas. Poot! You and I agree the Tilapia is all we care for. The masses just think it's cool. I wish Mi Madre's was open later.
Go Arsenal.
and another thing. Longtime eastside residents who paid nuttin for their homes 20 years ago trying to sell their shit homes for 300K are annoying.