Agenda Item 2a - Presentation by Sam Tedford, Shaping Austin: Racism and Urban Planning — original pdf

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Shaping Austin Racism and Urban Planning Community Technology & Telecommunications Commission July 13, 2022 Sam Tedford, she/they Principal Planner Inclusive Planning Outline Shaping Austin Inheriting Inequality Learning from History Content Warning 3 Shaping Austin Stay Engaged What you’re experiencing as you listen and discuss (physically, emotionally, mentally) Events that you think are connected to the map or neighborhoods discussed in the previous exercise (think about both the highs and lows) How your personal and ancestral histories intersect with this history Any actions that involved the City government. Keep a list of other key players. Is this the End of Austin? How presumptuous. Endings and Beginnings are always the same process. Austin has been around for a long time; only it wasn’t always called Austin…This cultural territory is old. In fact, it is the oldest continually inhabited place in the Americas. The oldest arrow-point ever found in North or South America was found at the Gault archeological site near Round Rock at over 14 thousand years old. The oldest continually inhabited sacred site in the Americas is the Coahuiltecan presence at Spring Lake in San Marcos at 12 thousand years. “Austin” sits in the middle. Instead of thinking about Austin ending, perhaps we should think of something that has been lost, something we are searching for. Instead of Austin, why don’t we call it Loston…[Loston] has been here for thousands of years, and I think it will be for thousands more, but only when people can find themselves historically, politically, and economically as connected with a larger world. How can we connect [Loston] with the end of…inequality? And what will this be the beginning of? It may take a hundred years to find ourselves…We may not see the great change in our lifetime. But this place will be here, long after we are gone. Dr. Tane Ward Finding Loston (2013) Land Acknowledgement We acknowledge, with respect, that the land we are on is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Tonkawa, Lipan Apache, Ysleta del sur Pueblo, Texas Band of Yaqui Indians, Coahuiltecan, and other indigenous peoples not explicitly stated. It is important to understand the long history that has brought us to reside on the land, and to seek to acknowledge our place within that history. Adapted from the Climate Equity Plan and the research of Celine Rendon and Tane Ward mural by Raul Valdez Enslavement and Colonization of African people  Exploitation of the labor of enslaved African people was part of the original colonization of Texas under Spanish rule.  Despite being outlawed under Mexican rule (following their independence from Spain), Stephen F. Austin (our namesake) gained an exception to the law from the Mexican government to entice more white settlers to move to Texas.  Slavery was legal in the Republic of Texas and free Black people were banished from Texas under the constitution.  The enslavement of Black people continued when Texas joined the United States and, later, the Confederate States of America.  Even after the Emancipation Proclamation legally ended slavery, white plantation owners refused to release their enslaved workers until Federal troops were sent to Texas to enforce the Proclamation two years later. 8 The Plan of the City of Austin (1839)  Created by Judge Edwin Waller, first Mayor of Austin the year Austin became the capital of Texas.  Designed a grid that remains mostly intact today downtown while designating land for the future Capitol building, four public squares, a penitentiary, courthouse and jail, armory, and hospital.  Black people were legally considered property in Texas still. About 47% of Austin’s family heads owned slaves. 26% of Austin’s total population were slaves (about 225 people). Freedperson’s Communities (1860s-1928) • Pleasant Hill • Kincheonville • Barton Springs • Reyna Branch • Masontown • Wheatville • Robertson Hill • Belle Hill • Clarksville • Burditt’s Prairie • Red River Street • West Side • Gregorytown • South Side • Horst’s Pasture Communities such as Clarksville, Wheatville, Kincheonville, Masontown, and Gregorytown were established by former slaves after the Civil War and interspersed throughout the city. Freedpersons’ Communities not indicated on map Burditt’s Prairie (the Burditt Plantation) Ryna Branch Bell Hill • • • 10 Juneteenth and the Emancipation Association Wheeler’s Grove (now Eastwoods Park) was home to many Juneteenth Celebrations Photo (right): 1900 The Austin Emancipation Association (pictured to the left) purchased Emancipation Park in 1907 with the express purpose of creating a place for Black Austinites to celebrate Juneteenth and to gather in community on Black-owned land. This land was later seized through Eminent Domain for the development of a segregated public housing project – Rosewood Courts. Austin History Center Austin City Government Structure • 1840 to 1908: Mayor aldermanic form – voted in by specific geographic portions of the city (wards) Two African Americans held Alderman seats under this form of government (Henry Green Madison, William G. Wilson) in 1871 and then 1883 • 1908 to 2012: Voters adopted commission form of Government; Mayor and four Commissioners elected at large This change was advocated for largely by Anglo Austinites, named Businessmen A.P. Wooldridge and Col. Monroe Shipe In 1951, Arthur DeWitty, an African American, ran for Austin City Council and nearly won. The next year, Austin City Council changed the way elections were held to create more barriers to BIPOC representation in local gov. First African American City Council member is elected in 1971 (Berl Handcox) First Latino councilmember is elected in 1975 (Johnny Trevino) “The Gentlemen’s Agreement” • 2012 to present: Voters approve election of 10 Council Members by district • • • • • • and a Mayor at large. Austin History Center Henry Green Madison, Austin’s first Black alderman was appointed by reconstructionist Governor Davis in 1871 Early Mexican and Latino Austinites Mexican Settlement L – 20 MAP Parts of Austin’s old First Ward and settlements along Shoal Creek were predominantly Mexican and Mexican American. With the stabilization of the Colorado River due to dams and the rise of “downtown,” Austin’s business district, the value of land rose and the Mexican Americans who lived there were displaced in waves. Austin History Center Disappearance and Reappearance of Mexican/Hispanic/Latinos/Chicanos  Mexicans, like other racialized groups, have been defined differently at different points in time and in different places. The definition of race is often dependent on the political climate.  In the 19th century, they were classified as white and allowed to naturalize, based upon the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  In 1930, nativists lobbied for them to be classified separately on the census, to limit their immigration, and reinforce their distinctness from whites.  During WWII, as demand for labor grew, Mexicans were again classified as whites.  Precedent-setting court cases in 1950s and 1970s fought to recognize Hispanics as an identifiable minority group and grant them equal protections under the law.  In the 1970s, they are reclassified in the US Census as ‘Hispanics.’ Map of Mexico in 1828 AR.2008.002(001) AR.2008.002(003) Early Asian Austinites Joe Sing (born Jo Fung Sheng) was born in China in 1860 and came to the US around 1890, eventually settling in Austin. He opened Hong Lee Laundry on 311 W 5th Street and provided laundry service to many State Legislators and Austinites. All his life Mr. Sing was prohibited from American citizenship as well as buying property under the federal law, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which wasn’t repealed until 1943. In 1927, Joe died after being hit by a car while riding his bike. Joe Sing and Francis Moreno had four children. Unbeknownst to her, Francis lost her American citizenship when she married Joe Sing as a result of the Expatriation Act of 1907 that mandated that “any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband.” Austin History Center Creating Race  Definitions of who is considered to be “white” has changed over time. “White” as a race did not exist before colonial America and was directly created to distinguish between European indentured servants, for whom freedom was attainable after the completion of their period of servitude, and African slaves, for whom slavery was heritable.  In the early 20th century, courts receive petitions concerning racial categorizations and are given the power to determine who is “white” in the eyes of the law and therefore qualify for things like Naturalized citizenship. The results were highly variable. In 1922, the Supreme Court concludes that Japanese people are not legally white despite their white skin because they are not “Caucasian.” Less than a year later, the Supreme Court contradicts itself by concluding that Native Americans are not legally “white,” even though they are classified as “Caucasian,” and instead declaring that whiteness should be based on “the common understanding of the white man.” The US Supreme Court in 1922. Austin’s Streetcar System Austin had a popular street car system that ran from 1875 until the early 1940s. Investors in the street car were often real estate developers such as Col. Monroe Shipe who founded and promoted Austin’s first street car suburb – Hyde Park. Until 1906, the Austin streetcar was not formally segregated. When the Austin streetcar announced its intentions to segregate, the Black community in Austin led a boycott for several months. However, the state of Texas responded soon thereafter and mandated segregation on public transit statewide, including busses. This wasn’t reversed until many decades later when it was overturned with the activism of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the 1950s and Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s. Austin History Center Congress Avenue, 1913 The rise of the private automobile began to shape cities by the 1940s by prioritizing the paving of streets instead of maintaining rails for public transit, enabling folks to live further away from the city center where they worked, shopped, or congregated, and assisting the separation of places with different functions across the city. Congress Avenue, 1945 A City Plan for Austin, Texas (1928)  Created the “Negro District” in East Austin  Ensured most industry would be placed in East Austin  Laid the groundwork for red lining, displacement, and long-lasting racial divides “Separate but Equal” Kealing JR High, 1935 Redlining Racist Real Estate Practices Travis Heights property advertisement Hyde Park property advertisement Restrictive Covenants “No lot shall be sold or leased to any Mexican or person of Negro blood or to any corporation or firm composed of Negros or Mexicans” Rosedale neighborhood deed restriction map from the City of Austin East Austin Historic Survey and research from Eliot M. Tretter, “Austin Restricted: Progressivism, Zoning, Private Racial Covenants, and the Making of a Segregated City” Racially Segregated Public Housing Santa Rita Courts 1939, PICA 24091 Santa Rita – for residents of Mexican descent Rosewood – for residents of African descent Chalmers – for white residents Rosewood Courts 1930s, PICA 38053 In 1939, Rosewood Courts was built after the City used eminent domain to claim Emancipation Park, to the dismay of Black East Austin residents Urban Renewal Housing Act of 1949  Stated goals: rebuild nation’s cities, eliminate slums & blight, provide decent housing for all  Federal funds subsidized the acquisition and clearing of sites for redevelopment by tearing down slums and “blighted” areas. Less than 1% of funding went to assisting relocation.  For every unit of public housing created, one “slum” dwelling unit was supposed to be cleared. Far more housing units were demolished than were created as a result of this act.  This is why Urban Renewal became known by many communities of color as urban removal. Slum clearance became a means of moving Black people from potentially valuable real estate. This cartoon written in both Spanish and English summarizes and talks about Urban Renewal. - East Town Lake Citizens (1979) Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 • Originally billed as a “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.” • Federal funding favored privately- owned vehicles over public transportation and subsidized suburbanization. • Originally estimated to cost $27 billion, but by 1958 the cost was at least $41 billion. Interstate Highway 35 Austin before the construction of IH35 (1940 aerial) Austin’s IH35 today (2019 aerial) Industrial Development Plan of 1957  In 1957 large swaths of East Austin were designated as an industrial zone.  The plan guaranteed that polluting industries were located in primarily communities of color and resulted in hazardous living conditions, lowered property values, and the construction of heavy industrial developments like the Tank Farm and Holly Street Power Plant.  Lower property values meant that property owners lost wealth – making it difficult to get loans to maintain and expand their buildings– and opened the door to predatory buying practices in later years. 32 Old Anderson High School 1967 AISD officials said the school as “impossible to desegregate” and closed the school. Black students of the former AHS were bussed to different high schools in other parts of town. “The federal government said to integrate black schools, not to close them down. You said Anderson can’t be integrated, have you tried? Have you told white and Mexican students that they would have to go to Anderson? Why is it every time you have a problem you throw it on the blacks?” - AHS students 1970 Chicano Civil Rights: Desegregation & Education • Lack of culturally responsive education system for Latinx students • Disinvestment created inadequate educational facilities • Pre-determined career and education paths for students in East Austin versus West Austin 34 Economic Development and Recruitment  From the 1950s to today, business leaders have led an economic development effort to expand the city’s economic base with the tech industry.  Public investments went into efforts to expand Austin’s tech economies, yet public benefits were not equitably received by all Austinites  The Austin tech industry is a primarily white workforce even today due to barriers in educational opportunities and other facets of systemic racism. IBM campus [PICA-14175] PBS Documentary – Austin Revealed: Booting Up Big Tech 35 SMART Growth and Desired Development Zones CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index CDC Vulnerability Index: Social Vulnerability Refers to the resilience of communities when confronted by external stresses of human health such as natural or human-caused disasters, or disease outbreaks Planning and Power have been Racialized Planning is inexplicably tied back to race historically. Since we have racialized the movement of people (migration/immigration/displacement) and who has power (the ability to control someone’s reality) and access to places, services, resources – then planning has been racialized. 37 Histories of Resistance Community resistance and resilience has always been there 38 Black Austin Boycott of Segregated Streetcars 1906 WarnettaOverton and Members of the NAACP Demanding Equal Rights for Housing, Schools, Voting 1964 AS-64-45169-20 Brown Berets The Day the Klan Marched 1983 PICA 37566 People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) PODER members demanding the relocation of BFI Recycling Plant and solutions for historic and environmental racism in East Austin 1997 Inheriting Inequality How we carry our racialized history with us today 43 years of “Two hundred fifty slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we compounding America will never be whole.” reckon with moral our debts, Ta-Nehisi Coates The Case for Reparations We Carry our History with Us • Segregation • Gaps in Wealth and Income • Health Disparities • Educational Attainment • Disparate Impacts in Housing • Gentrification and Displacement • Climate Resilience • Public Safety • Access to Opportunity 47 Racial and Economic Segregation Percentage of the Population that is Black, Indigenous, or Other People of Color (2020 Census) 48 Growing Racial Wealth and Income Gaps Austin Median Household Income 49 Disparate Health Outcomes Map 3.2 shows the average age at death by zip code. Overall people are living longer in the zip codes on the west side of Travis County as compared to the zip codes on the east side. There is a variance of 21 years from the zip code with the lowest average age at death (78741) to that of the highest (78731). Source: Austin Public Health Critical Health Indicators Report (2017), Texas Department of State Health Services Center for Health Statistics Displacement Risk Where do we go from here? Learning from History to Build a More Equitable Future 52 Why is history important? We fill those gaps in history with our own assumptions, stereotypes, and bias. We repeat what we don’t repair. Nothing can be changed until it is faced. Understanding the need for equity vs equality Key Terms Power themselves Systemic Racism • “to be able to” • The ability to define reality for yourself and other people • The ability to deny people the ability to determine reality for • when policies, practices, and procedures across multiple institutions work better for white people at the expense of people of color – even if unintentionally so – over decades and generations • Power is fundamental to understanding systems of oppression/racism/structural racism. It is the confluence of power and prejudice that shapes inequities, and power that allows these systemic inequities to continue even many years or decades after they were put in motion. If we don’t address a root cause, then the systemic inequities will continue to persist, if not widen. Adapted from Nothing About Us Without Us: Racial Equity Anti- Displacement Tool Power Analysis Who had institutional power in: • 1776 - “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” • 1840 – founding of the City of Austin • 1863 – “government of the people, by the people, for the people…” • 1908 – Austin adopts a new city government structure • 1928 – Austin creates a city plan to address “racial segregation problem” • 1949 – US Federal Government adopts Housing Act to address “slums and blight” • 1950s – Austin leaders work to expand tech industry in Austin • 1960s and 1970s – Austin moves to desegregate public schools • 1980s and 90s – Austin implements “smart growth” planning approach and protects environmentally sensitive areas of West Austin Austin History Center Key Terms Root Cause  An underlying condition or event that set in motion a cause-and-effect reaction that ultimately led to an inequity we see today (health, wealth, housing, income, and other quality of life outcomes)  Examples of root causes: slavery, colonialism, government disinvestment, capitalism BIPOC: Black, Indigenous, People of Color  People of many different backgrounds  Categorically connected through structural racism, though with differences in particular outcomes and characteristics Adapted from Nothing About Us Without Us: Racial Equity Anti- Displacement Tool Dig a little deeper - Root Causes What are some of the root causes of the following outcomes? • Racial segregation • Economic segregation • Racial wealth gap • 20+ year variance in life expectancy among Austin zip codes • Disparities in access to culturally responsive education • Gentrification and displacement of BIPOC communities • Increased vulnerability to environmental disasters • Fewer protections against environmental destruction and pollution in East Austin • Growing population of people who are unhoused in Austin • Lower rates of homeownership among BIPOC communities compared to white people • Unequal access to healthy foods in Eastern Crescent Austin History Center Equity is About Better Outcomes  Equity is the condition when every member of the community has a fair opportunity to live a long, healthy, and meaningful life.  Racial Equity is the condition when race is no longer a predictor of quality of lifeoutcomes in our community.  The City of Austin recognizes that race is the primary determinant of social equity and therefore we begin the journey toward social equity with this definition.  The City of Austin recognizes historical and structural disparities and a need for alleviation of these wrongs by critically transforming its institutions and creating a culture of equity. Building an Equity Framework 1. Know the history: Acknowledge it and create space for communities to share so as not to repeat the same mistakes. 2. Review and monitor data: What do the data tell us? Are they disaggregated by race/ethnicity? What is missing? 3. Engage the community: Are there opportunities to expand engagement and what were the efforts to reach most marginalized populations and give those people power in decision making? Are we creating spaces that are inclusive of different cultures? 4. Advance racial equity: Be intentional. Normalize discussions of racial equity and inequity. Does this project have an opportunity to advance equity within the six strategic outcomes and reduce or eliminate a disparity? Are we addressing root causes or symptoms? 5. Analyze unintended consequences: Could the project have a negative impact on communities of color and/or other marginalized populations? From the City of Austin Equity Office Normalize Operationalize Organize Operationalizing Racial Equity Lead with Race Focus on human- centered design and institutional empathy Engage residents, especially those adversely affected, in decision making Bring conscious attention to racial inequities and disparities before decisions are made Avoid or minimize adverse impacts and unintended consequences Affirm our commitment to equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility 61 Questions to explore  How did my dept/field begin? What was the impetus?  Has race been explicitly used for planning or other business purposes in my dept/field in the past?  Has race ever impacted the way our residents experience our services? Has it impacted the quality of our services?  Has a need for our services been created or produced through another facet of systemic racism?  Has my dept/field made “color blind” policies/programs that disproportionately impacted BIPOC due to our racialized environment? What else was going on in our history that might have racialized an outcome?  Who has historically provided leadership in my dept/field? Have there been BIPOC voices at the table? Are there now?  Have there been attempts to remedy/repair racist impacts? Do we have accountability structures in place today that ensure BIPOC communities have power and receive equitable outcomes? Thank you all Resources