After reading the 3 articles, here are the things I found the most interesting and shocking:
1) The most vulnerable people when dealing with gentrification are the renters. I had always thought that most people could hold out if they really wanted to or could afford to. Nobody could forced them out as long as they are able to pay their payments. However with renters, they can be forced out at anytime, no matter if they can pay or not. They can be evicted or if somebody buys out the house/ apartment their are in they can tell them to move.
2) I did not know that East Austin has such a rich history extending all the way back to the Civil War era. One that started with French diplomacy and freed slaves and reached what it is today. I did not know that there were black communities in both west and east Austin and that the government forced all of them to move into the east side and stopped basic public services on the west side to "convince" them to move. I had always assumed, for some reason, that the history of east side did not extend further back than World War II.
3) I saw that there is a big distrust among the east Austin residents of the local government. They feel that since they never seem to care about their needs, they just do not feel like participating. They also do not want to raise issues because they feel that their lack of education and language barriers will make them seem as uninformed or dumb. Finally, it could be that the government system itself could be a problem because they are not able to elect a representative that represents their needs.
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