Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Studentrification
The Central Austin Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee (CANPAC) proposed an ordinance amendment which would severely limit, if not prevent, new Coop or Greek housing in the neighborhoods near campus. Originally this amendment was scheduled to be voted on on August 16th, which would of course preclude most student participation, but council member Chris Riley's office told me they postponed it until September 27th.
Mike Hirsch, president of the Hancock Neighborhood Association told KXAN, "As we know, our houses are our most valuable thing that most of us own, and group residential degrades the value of neighborhoods." Power plants also lower your home's value. But we tend to put those in poor communities like Northeast Austin and Del Valle.
The Northfield Neighborhood Association is fighting student housing in their own way. They propose to lower the number of unrelated adults allowed to live together from six to four. They released a "position paper" about "Stealth Dorms," large houses meant for several students built in single family residential areas. To be honest, it sounds awful. Developers come in, rip out the existing cottages, build huge cheap six or eight room houses, and then rent out to six different students. Trash, noise and traffic go up, property values go down.
It's like reverse gentrification. On the one hand, we've got affordable housing moving in to a neighborhood, and making the rest of the neighborhood more affordable. Then all the poor people move in. On the other hand, we've got unaffordable housing moving in to an affordable neighborhood, and making it unaffordable. Then all the rich people move in. In my estimation, both are tied to each other; we can't be libertarian in our policy towards East Austin and big government in our policy towards Central Austin.
If City Council votes against new student housing, they will be sending a message that property values near campus are more important than families being allowed to stay in their homes in areas being gentrified. So, I propose an amendment to this amendment: if you or your family has been living in the same neighborhood for over twenty years and property values begin to spike, as long as you stay living in your house and don't rent to someone else, your property taxes will not increase. We'll call that the Secure Communities Act, and it will slow gentrification and studentrification . Looks like we got ourselves a Mexican standoff.
Or do we? Actually, studies show that affordable housing does not have a negative impact on property value. This isn't just wishful thinking: So. Many. Studies and academic analyses find that affordable and group housing does not lower surrounding home values, and that factors like the design and management of projects play a big role in outcomes. In fact, according to this study from the University of Minnesota, "projects managed by non-profit organizations commonly have positive impacts on property values due to sustained, quality management of property." The idea that students and poor people are scary, and will lower property value seems to be just another example of fear-based conventional logic being at odds with the data.
I look at these sorts of laws and ordinances as just-in-case laws.Their whole purpose is not the intrinsic value of the law, but leverage over a certain group of people, and they are almost exclusively discriminatory in the manner of their enforcement. A great example of this is Austin's sit-lie ordinance, in which people face citations for sitting or lying down on city sidewalks. I have sat on sidewalks several times and have never once been harassed by the police for it. But let's be honest, this law is not for me. It's there "just in case" that someone with a higher status than a homeless person doesn't want them hanging around.
Austin's rule that no more than six unrelated adults may live in the same house is another "just-in-case" example. These laws are designed to be selectively enforced in the just in case that a property owner sees someone or a group as a nuisance. They are not talking about the group of quiet grad students living in the "stealth dorm;" they are talking about the loud, obnoxious ones.
But I guess it's easy for me to say because I don't live near campus. Because I can't stand high concentrations of college students. Luckily, I can choose one of the many other areas of Austin to live.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Criminalization of Homelessness
Faces lined, cardboard signs. "Why lie? I need a beer." A greasy shirt, a window cleaner walking up and down at the light. Do you see them? I don't. I remember the cracks, but I can't remember the faces.
One man invited me to a homeless art show when I gave him an apple. I remember him: short white beard, baseball cap, really cool. And there is the sad boy who sits with his dog by the Walmart at Ben White and I-35, who looks away from the faces in the cars. I remember him.
The homeless can soften our hearts with compassion, remind us how lucky we are, give us wisdom, or freedom. They are there, and they affect us. They are also on the receiving end of a lot of aggression. Ex president of the UT College Republicans (a group known lately for their racist tweets) Lauren Pierce joked about killing "drag rats" to gain popularity in her campaign for College of Natural Sciences Representative ("Help me pad my resume!").
The main argument I hear from people against the homeless is that they aggressively panhandle or are rude.Well, I've been called a bitch a couple of times on the street for not giving someone money. You know who else has called me a bitch, and much worse? Young, drunk, rich, white frat boys. But you don't see city council passing ordinances against cat-calling women or loitering on 6th street after 2am. And you don't see people complaining about it like they do with the homeless.
It's not just 6th street at 2am, either. Recently, I was walking down 2nd street one evening with a friend, on the way to dinner. We were dressed up sharp, talking and laughing, having a nice night. Then, a group of young white men walks by and calls my friend a nigger. Well that just puts a damper right on your night. You know, the more I think about it, the more I think we do need to do something about the rich white menace in our streets. I mean, it's not even safe to go to dinner without fear of harassment.
Austin is home to 2,244 to 5,000 homeless people. In line with the trend of criminalizing homelessness in many other cities, Austin has steadily been enacting a series of discriminatory ordinances, such as the sit-lie ordinance, which prohibits homeless people from sitting or lying down in public places. City Council recently adopted new rules allowing homeless people with disabilities to sit down for thirty minutes at a time. Don't go overboard with the generosity there, City Council.
According to this study by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless, the "criminalization of homelessness takes many forms, including:
• Enactment and enforcement of legislation that makes it illegal to sleep, sit, or
store personal belongings in public spaces in cities where people are forced to live
in public spaces.
•Selective enforcement of more neutral laws, such as loitering, jaywalking, or open
container laws, against homeless persons.
• Sweeps of city areas in which homeless persons are living to drive them out of
those areas, frequently resulting in the destruction of individuals’ personal
property such as important personal documents and medication.
• Enactment and enforcement of laws that punish people for begging or
panhandling in order to move poor or homeless persons out of a city or downtown
area.
• Enactment and enforcement of laws that restrict groups sharing food with
homeless persons in public spaces.
• Enforcement of a wide range of so-called “quality of life” ordinances related to
public activities and hygiene (i.e. public urination) when no public facilities are
available to people without housing."
A 2004 study released by the Lewin Group found that housing the homeless in jail costs two to three times as much as housing them in emergency or supportive housing. If you put that money into permanent supportive housing, into helping people get off the street, it's a welfare handout, and that's just the sort of thing Christians hate to see their tax dollars going towards. So we spend more to put them in jail- at least they'll know what we really think of them.
Thirty-four year old Valerie Godoy was found beaten to death in a park on June 15th of this year. She was homeless. She grew up in Austin, studying theater at Bowie High School, only a few miles away from the high school where I studied theater. We probably graduated in the same year.
Her death has shone a light on Austin's lack of support for homeless women in particular. According to our 2-1-1 website, there is only one shelter dedicated to women and children in Austin, but there is a three week wait period for a bed. House the Homeless started a petition to create the Valerie Godoy Women's Shelter.
Austin should be a leader in rational, nondiscriminatory policy, but in 2004 was named the 10th meanest city to the homeless. The criminalization of homelessness costs us tax dollars and lives. It is time to reexamine our approach.
One man invited me to a homeless art show when I gave him an apple. I remember him: short white beard, baseball cap, really cool. And there is the sad boy who sits with his dog by the Walmart at Ben White and I-35, who looks away from the faces in the cars. I remember him.
The homeless can soften our hearts with compassion, remind us how lucky we are, give us wisdom, or freedom. They are there, and they affect us. They are also on the receiving end of a lot of aggression. Ex president of the UT College Republicans (a group known lately for their racist tweets) Lauren Pierce joked about killing "drag rats" to gain popularity in her campaign for College of Natural Sciences Representative ("Help me pad my resume!").
The main argument I hear from people against the homeless is that they aggressively panhandle or are rude.Well, I've been called a bitch a couple of times on the street for not giving someone money. You know who else has called me a bitch, and much worse? Young, drunk, rich, white frat boys. But you don't see city council passing ordinances against cat-calling women or loitering on 6th street after 2am. And you don't see people complaining about it like they do with the homeless.
It's not just 6th street at 2am, either. Recently, I was walking down 2nd street one evening with a friend, on the way to dinner. We were dressed up sharp, talking and laughing, having a nice night. Then, a group of young white men walks by and calls my friend a nigger. Well that just puts a damper right on your night. You know, the more I think about it, the more I think we do need to do something about the rich white menace in our streets. I mean, it's not even safe to go to dinner without fear of harassment.
Austin is home to 2,244 to 5,000 homeless people. In line with the trend of criminalizing homelessness in many other cities, Austin has steadily been enacting a series of discriminatory ordinances, such as the sit-lie ordinance, which prohibits homeless people from sitting or lying down in public places. City Council recently adopted new rules allowing homeless people with disabilities to sit down for thirty minutes at a time. Don't go overboard with the generosity there, City Council.
According to this study by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless, the "criminalization of homelessness takes many forms, including:
• Enactment and enforcement of legislation that makes it illegal to sleep, sit, or
store personal belongings in public spaces in cities where people are forced to live
in public spaces.
•Selective enforcement of more neutral laws, such as loitering, jaywalking, or open
container laws, against homeless persons.
• Sweeps of city areas in which homeless persons are living to drive them out of
those areas, frequently resulting in the destruction of individuals’ personal
property such as important personal documents and medication.
• Enactment and enforcement of laws that punish people for begging or
panhandling in order to move poor or homeless persons out of a city or downtown
area.
• Enactment and enforcement of laws that restrict groups sharing food with
homeless persons in public spaces.
• Enforcement of a wide range of so-called “quality of life” ordinances related to
public activities and hygiene (i.e. public urination) when no public facilities are
available to people without housing."
A 2004 study released by the Lewin Group found that housing the homeless in jail costs two to three times as much as housing them in emergency or supportive housing. If you put that money into permanent supportive housing, into helping people get off the street, it's a welfare handout, and that's just the sort of thing Christians hate to see their tax dollars going towards. So we spend more to put them in jail- at least they'll know what we really think of them.
Thirty-four year old Valerie Godoy was found beaten to death in a park on June 15th of this year. She was homeless. She grew up in Austin, studying theater at Bowie High School, only a few miles away from the high school where I studied theater. We probably graduated in the same year.
Her death has shone a light on Austin's lack of support for homeless women in particular. According to our 2-1-1 website, there is only one shelter dedicated to women and children in Austin, but there is a three week wait period for a bed. House the Homeless started a petition to create the Valerie Godoy Women's Shelter.
Austin should be a leader in rational, nondiscriminatory policy, but in 2004 was named the 10th meanest city to the homeless. The criminalization of homelessness costs us tax dollars and lives. It is time to reexamine our approach.
Friday, August 3, 2012
In her recent post, "Texas' War on Women," Alec says, "I don't understand it, I really don't. I just can't grasp the logic behind denying low-income women the
ability to acquire contraception and treatment for STDs along with
routine wellness and cancer screenings." There is nothing to understand, other than it ain't Granny in the local and federal legislatures; it's the Big Bad Wolf, and we'd better stop naively waiting for the lumberjack to come along to save us and start sharpening our own axe.
Sexism against women permeates every aspect of our culture, and because we mostly view the world through the glasses our culture has given us, we literally can't see it. What are women on television, in movies, and in literature? Bodies. Objects.
Bodies are easier to control than people, and the laws against women are symptoms of the larger issue of women not really being perceived as human beings. One in six American women is the victim of a completed or attempted rape, while 97% of the rapists never spend a day in jail. These are also symptoms. Now the Federal Legislature is also rolling back what few protections from violence women (particularly immigrant women) do have.
For as long as I can remember, I've had the distinct urge to be the protagonist in my own story. This should not be a radical idea, but it is. It is in contrast with what we see, and, as women, it is unfortunately our task to develop media literacy to understand how we are affected by this.
Writer Caitlin Moran made some excellent remarks on women's power in her interview on Fresh Air from August 2nd. On Lisa Brown's being banned from speaking on the House floor for using the word "vagina," Moran said she wished every woman in the room would have stood up and said the word, too, like "I'm Spartacus."
She also said she'd like to see women stop working for a day in protest of the cutting of women's health funding, and watch the country grind to a halt, "and that would be a beautiful and symbolic thing to happen, because women's lives grind to a halt if they are not in control of their fertility, if they can't make a decision about when they're going to become a mother and have responsibility over someone for the rest of their lives."
I hadn't taken the time to develop a position on abortion before. I've had friends who've had abortions, but never in Texas, and it was just something they did; it didn't directly affect me. Now I see that the right to choose gives a woman freedom over her own life.
I wonder what would happen in the abortion debate if men were the primary caregivers to children. In Texas, 36% of children live in single parent homes, and 85% of single parent households are led by mothers. Since women still make 77 cents for every dollar men make, it is hardly surprising that single mother households are three times as likely to be below the poverty line.
According to this report from the Texas Legislature, Texas is 2nd in the nation for the overall birthrate, and 49th for female voter turnout. Barefoot in the kitchen much anyone? We're 6th in the nation for women living in poverty, and douchebags like Greg Abbott threaten cutting off all funding for women's health over abortions.
The only upside to all of this is how skinny I will get by puking every time I think about it.
Sexism against women permeates every aspect of our culture, and because we mostly view the world through the glasses our culture has given us, we literally can't see it. What are women on television, in movies, and in literature? Bodies. Objects.
Bodies are easier to control than people, and the laws against women are symptoms of the larger issue of women not really being perceived as human beings. One in six American women is the victim of a completed or attempted rape, while 97% of the rapists never spend a day in jail. These are also symptoms. Now the Federal Legislature is also rolling back what few protections from violence women (particularly immigrant women) do have.
For as long as I can remember, I've had the distinct urge to be the protagonist in my own story. This should not be a radical idea, but it is. It is in contrast with what we see, and, as women, it is unfortunately our task to develop media literacy to understand how we are affected by this.
Writer Caitlin Moran made some excellent remarks on women's power in her interview on Fresh Air from August 2nd. On Lisa Brown's being banned from speaking on the House floor for using the word "vagina," Moran said she wished every woman in the room would have stood up and said the word, too, like "I'm Spartacus."
She also said she'd like to see women stop working for a day in protest of the cutting of women's health funding, and watch the country grind to a halt, "and that would be a beautiful and symbolic thing to happen, because women's lives grind to a halt if they are not in control of their fertility, if they can't make a decision about when they're going to become a mother and have responsibility over someone for the rest of their lives."
I hadn't taken the time to develop a position on abortion before. I've had friends who've had abortions, but never in Texas, and it was just something they did; it didn't directly affect me. Now I see that the right to choose gives a woman freedom over her own life.
I wonder what would happen in the abortion debate if men were the primary caregivers to children. In Texas, 36% of children live in single parent homes, and 85% of single parent households are led by mothers. Since women still make 77 cents for every dollar men make, it is hardly surprising that single mother households are three times as likely to be below the poverty line.
According to this report from the Texas Legislature, Texas is 2nd in the nation for the overall birthrate, and 49th for female voter turnout. Barefoot in the kitchen much anyone? We're 6th in the nation for women living in poverty, and douchebags like Greg Abbott threaten cutting off all funding for women's health over abortions.
The only upside to all of this is how skinny I will get by puking every time I think about it.
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