Texas an Oil Powerhouse; Adding to the Harvey Buy-Out Fund

Photo of the Glassell School of Art: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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  • Other than possibly renters, which are transient by nature anyway, I just don’t believe long time multi-generational Hispanic families in the Second Ward are being forced out. I just don’t see it and have been here for almost ten years. What I do see is a lot of the younger Hispanic generations are inheriting their small, old, in need of renovation, East End family homes and cashing out to move to larger, newer suburban homes. This is the desired goal for many especially those with small children. No one is forcing them to leave.

  • I’m glad to hear that they’ve successfully added more lanes to US-290. It’s an excellent and efficient use of tax dollars that creates a long term solution to the problem of traffic congestion.

    Let’s hope TxDOT is already in the process of acquiring right of way for the next expansion in five years when we need to fix the problem again.

  • @ Eldorado Ed – Bingo, hit it right on the head

  • @Eldorado Ed
    I’ve lived in the Second Ward a few years now as well and would agree completely with your observation.
    .
    Also, it’s important to note that much of the new townhome construction that Mr. Quesada derides in the article is being built on sites that were formerly commercial and industrial in nature. With very few exceptions, the East End/Second Ward is not experiencing the “remove one bungalow, build three townhomes” epidemic as other areas have (Montrose, Rice Military, etc.)

  • @midway – would be nice to see the conceptual Amazon bid. Although, something tells me that they are courting a few others right now.

  • The East End and Broadmoor were a combination of Hispanics, African Americans, Italians, Poles, and generic white people. It was not all hispanic, either in population or culture. Hispanics slowly became the majority, starting maybe in the early 80’s?

  • @Ed
    Low income long term renters, principally Hispanic, are very common in the neighborhood. They’re the most vulnerable population subject to gentrification. They live in the smaller run down multifamily, garage apartments, section 8 housing, etc, that is being torn down to make room for townhomes. There are certainly longtime homeowners who are coming out as winners, but the poor and working poor come out as losers. For what it’s worth, I’ve lived in the East End for three years now. It’s gentrifying slower than 3rd ward, but gentrifying none the less.

  • Anti Gentrification is just a dog whistle to be anti white. None of us miss it, I assure you. The irony is that so many of these neighborhoods were originally white.

  • Re: Harris County Gets Another $8M for Harvey Buy-outs
    .
    Does this found money mean that the bond election will be reduced by that amount? (Doubtful.) Or, will this just mean that the County has $8 million more for squandering? That’s going to buy a lot of expensive dinners and taxpayer-paid trips to other flood-prone cities for “research”.

  • Jdogg- I’m half German and half Pol. Wondering if that makes me a generic white dude. Is there a generic label for other colors?

  • I dont see quesada as being against newcomers. He just wants to remember how things were and leave a marker for who lived there. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with moving in for a downtown view either. Cities are constantly changing. That is how it has always been.

  • @Pitts
    I’d love for you to point out any specific examples of multi-family or Section 8 housing being torn down to build townhouses. It simply isn’t happening. In fact, there have been several Section 8 complexes built in the area in the last few years, intended specifically for the lower income population which you express concern over, with others planned. It is true that Clayton Homes is going away, but that is due to a combination of Harvey and the proposed 59/I-69 expansion, not townhouses.
    .
    Again, new construction is almost exclusively limited to former industrial and commercial sites.
    .
    As an aside, the Second Ward was referred to as Das Zweiter initially, due to the fact that the population was predominately German. In fact, Canal St was originally named German St, until it was renamed during World War I. To bemoan the perceived displacement of Latinos and Latin culture from the neighborhood due to gentrification while not acknowledging that the origins of the area were intrinsically tied to a different people and culture is a bit disingenuous.

  • @Rich
    I’m confused. Are the anti-gentrification people in Montrose and the Heights also anti-white? Or is it possible that they’re against higher property taxes, higher rents, and the demolition of affordable housing?
    So far as your feelings of white entitlement none of us miss it, I assure you.

  • Gentrification – The the dog whistle for people who don’t like certain other types of people in their neighborhood. Seems like we’re trying to get back to the days when certain “types” were not allowed to live in certain areas. The worst part of it is that the people pushing this attitude are smug, arrogant and have no idea how racist and classist they are. I think that some of the people that drove out Jews and blacks at least knew they were racist and admitted it. They actually overtly made laws that kept certain people from drinking at water fountains. The new racists just gin up hatred and and use government policy to steal from and discriminate against who they don’t like since they can’t overtly get laws passed that support their racism.

  • @Mutt – well said. I was born in the East End (mid 1950″s) and lived there a long time. I was (still am) in the generic white people pool.

    There were a lot of folks that could be categorized by their last names or by skin color. Lotsa Italians, some of whom opened famous restaurants. Lotsa African Americans. Austin High and Jackson Junior High were a mixture of everything.

    One thing comes to mind as the memories burst through the fog…. many of the Poles/Eastern Europeans (names with lotsa double consonants or ending with “ski”!) were firefighters. Any idea how that happened?

    And Austin High had this strange female marching band thing where almost all members were white girls and they wore these strange looking scottish kinda skirts? They performed at school functions and football games.

    I would venture that it was all a mixture of what was then middle class and slightly poor folks between I45 on the south and Harrisburg on the north until maybe the late 70’s, early 80’s. It began to go predominantly hispanic from that point. Broadmoor was predominantly white until maybe the late 80’s.

    Another memory…. I worked at a restaurant on Calhoun across from UH and in front of the old Blue Ribbon stock yards in the early 70’s and lived close to Austin High. The father of a black guy at work would not give me a ride home one night. I was 16 at the time. It was after 11pm and he made me walk because he did not want to go on the other side of 45 at night “too many white people”

    OK, walk down memory lane is over. Gotta take a nap.

  • Eldorado Ed is correct. Structures do not get torn down for townhomes unless the land value exceeds the value of the improvements. That is why you see so many bungalows getting facelifts or expansions in various neighborhoods in the east end. The tear towns are where the owners have allowed the structure to become so dilapidated that it would cost too much to salvage it. Having those structures removed is no loss to the community.

  • @Donald Feel free to check out the blocks between Live Oak and Ennis, on Clay and Bell streets. Lot of older home demo’ed and replaced with townhomes. Or just search the pertinent zip codes on Swamplot for the daily demolition reports. Or the dozens of houses demo’ed for the new Justice High School. Of course lots of these townhomes are in former industrial spots (that is true to an extent for the other neighborhoods you mentioned). Like I said earlier, the East End is in earlier stages of gentrification than other inner city neighborhoods, but it’s headed that way and I expect 2nd Ward to look a lot like Rice Military in 20 years
    .
    I’m not making any judgement calls about gentrification here (you have your good and bad aspects, and I don’t expect to change anyone’s opinion on this website). But what is true, is that these neighborhoods are becoming less affordable. Developments like the New Hope Housing don’t contribute enough units to make a difference in the overall neighborhood affordability.

  • @BigTex. Nobody is more anti white than white liberals, they hate being white yet always live in liberal white neighborhoods or soon to be white thru gentrification. Heights, Montrose, Eastwood’, Riverside Terrace Real. The irony. I agree that for minorities it’s often us against them sort of thing and they use the term “gentrification”to mean none of others, which often mean white.

  • Gentrification is mostly just a problem for entrenched political interests that see their most poor, ignorant, and apathetic constituencies being supplanted by enough people with enough of an economic stake that they rightly should collectively give a shit about their neighborhoods. It doesn’t really matter what their skin color is. It was never really about that. It was only ever about power.

  • PEOPLE WHO COMPLAIN ABOUT GENTRIFICATION ARE RACIST!

    PEOPLE WHO COMPLAIN ABOUT DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT BY POLICE, SYSTEMIC BARRIERS TO OPPORTUNITY, ETC ARE MORANS.

    WHY CAN’T LIBERALS UNDERSTAND???

  • @The Niche

    How much more gentrification will it take for us to get rid of Sheila? I might miss the endless entertainment value she provides but nothing else.