5.b - 1500 E 12th St - public comment — original pdf

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From: To: Subject: Date: OCEAN Contact Team Fahnestock, Sam Fwd: Please recommend historic zoning for 1500 E 12th Street Tuesday, July 2, 2024 8:21:07 AM You don't often get email from . Learn why this is important External Email - Exercise Caution Thank you for your attention to Item 26. Sincerely, Nate > ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: OCEAN Contact Team < Date: Tue, Jul 2, 2024 at 8:15 AM Subject: Please recommend historic zoning for 1500 E 12th Street To: <BC-Ben.Heimsath@austintexas.gov>, <BC-Witt.Featherston@austintexas.gov>, <bc- juanraymon.rubio@austintexas.gov>, <BC-Raymond.Castillo@austintexas.gov>, <bc- jamie.alvarez@austintexas.gov>, <BC-Trey.McWhorter@austintexas.gov>, <BC- Carl.Larosche@austintexas.gov>, <bc-roxanne.evans@austintexas.gov>, <BC- Tara.Dudley@austintexas.gov>, <BC-Harmony.Grogan@austintexas.gov>, <BC- Kevin.Koch@austintexas.gov> Cc: <sam.fahenstock@austintexas.gov> Dear Chair Heimsath, Vice Chair Featherston and the Historic Landmark Commission: The Organization of Central East Austin Neighborhoods contact team appreciates staff's research and recommendation that 1500 E 12th Street be designated a historic landmark. We encourage you to elevate that assessment to council with your full support. This structure--known in past lives as the Ministry of Challenge, Eisenbeiser Grocery, Club Fifteen Hundred and Fifteen Hundred Beauty and Barber Shops-- has a long and varied history of adaptive reuse and mixed use dating back to the 1890s, and together with the I.Q. Hurdle House (at 1416) and Southgate-Lewis House (at 1501) comprises a historic anchor at the corner of E 12th and Comal Streets. While the Southgate-Lewis House has become the subject of renewed restoration efforts by the longtime owner, the W.H. Passon Historical Society, sadly, the other two properties have deteriorated and languished under the eight-year tenure of a Dallas holding company's entities called Sodosopa Salmon LP and Poisonous Poinsettia LP. As you may know, that company has amassed scores of properties along and nearby E 12th Street, restoring none and building nothing but fences and parking lots. That should not be the future for a high-profile site which, under decades of African American and German immigrant stewardship, provided groceries, libations, personal services, and even rehabilitation and supportive housing. That should not be the future for properties called out in the 2016 East Austin Historic Survey as eligible for landmark status. E 12th Street needs buildings that testify to its past and invite new waves of vitality and community within them; the street has its fill of clearance, vacancy, temporary uses, fences and parking lots. East 12th needs your courage, commitment and sustained attention to prevail and thrive in the face of indifferent actors who mock its legacy with LPs that reference South Park songs about gentrification and liken historic structures to toxic flora. Please do all you can to save this historic corner. Sincerely, Nate Jones President, Organization of Central East Austin Neighborhoods CAUTION: This is an EXTERNAL email. Please use caution when clicking links or opening attachments. If you believe this to be a malicious or phishing email, please report it using the "Report Message" button in Outlook. For any additional questions or concerns, contact CSIRT at "cybersecurity@austintexas.gov".