Austin Archives

Gentrification / Revitalization

In late 1978, Carole Keeton McClellan was Mayor of Austin (1977-1983) and the City issued “Strategies for the Economic Revitalization of Central Austin,” a slick publication with a target audience of developers. A number of East Austin groups mobilized to protect the primarily Chicano neighborhoods threatened by the City’s economic development plan. The groups included the Brown Berets, East Town Lake Citizens, El Centro Chicano, East 1st Advisory Board, Rainey Street Association, Govalle Association for Survival and Barrio Unido as well as staff of the newspaper La Conciencia. This was before East 1st had been re-named Cesar Chavez and before the Austin Convention Center and surrounding hotels had been constructed. The Antioch campus, Juarez-Lincoln, stood at 715 East 1st. A large mural by artist Raul Valdez covered the front wall. The building was razed to accommodate an International House of Pancakes.

The comic in Spanish and English described the City’s revitalization plans, who they would benefit and who they they would harm, and detailed actions that could be taken. Illustrated by Carlos Lowry, it captures the spirit of the 1978 Chicano insurgency. East Austin has now been penetrated and re-shaped by Anglo gentrification, although neighborhood groups still mobilize to protect long-term residents from the onslaught of condos and the displacement caused by rising property taxes and opportunistic developers.