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Council member: ‘The future of Austin is east’ BY MAGGIE QUINLAN As jobs spur new growth, decades-old infrastructure issues persist for generations, and poverty persists, said eastern Travis County Commissioner Je Travillion.
pharmacy for years and the rst east of I-35 and south of Hwy. 290 opened in December. One grocery store supplies the area, according to the city’s map of full-service grocery stores. That H E B is about 12 miles southwest of Tesla. “What I want to make sure is that the families who work at Tesla are able to live in the area [and] have a park or access to a grocery store,” Fuentes said. Addressing the needs One roadblock to expanding infrastructure in East Austin could be the patchwork of city and county entities that govern it, said Anna Martin, Austin Transportation Department assistant director. “It takes us all working together to make the investments work,” Martin said. She said that collaboration is happening. The county has designed plans for several existing East Austin roadways and completed construction on at least nine in the area. The county also has plans for new arterials. City Council adopted the Austin Strategic Mobil- ity Plan in 2019, which laid out a street network. As developers come in, they are required to lay roads according to that plan, Martin said. Through massive bonds, the city has also ded- icated tens of millions to improving substandard roads, Martin said. Fuentes said safe sidewalks are also crucial. The 2016 mobility bond identi ed 22 miles of sidewalk in high need of repair plus 2 miles of new sidewalk needed in District 2, which includes Southeast Aus- tin, according to data from Austin Public Works. Meanwhile, Austin libraries have been working to improve internet and health care access, Austin Pub- lic Library spokesperson Emi Johnson said. Libraries had at least 120 Chromebooks and 190 Wi-Fi hotspots circulating in Southeast Austin in December, Johnson said. Using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, libraries will also be able to build private sound-proofed spaces where resi- dents can attend virtual doctor’s visits. To address the lack of grocery stores and food inse- curity, Travillion is working with the Central Texas Food Bank to create food pantries in schools that are more than 2 miles from the nearest grocery store and are designated as Title 1. Most of the city’s food
Fourteen years before Tesla would open a 4.2 million-square-foot factory in Travis County, Doug- las Gilliland bought the 2,000-acre property in East Austin that would become the Whisper Valley community. Before building houses, his team laid 7 miles of o -site water lines, starting in 2014. They also built a wastewater plant and miles of roadway, said Gillil- and, president of real estate rm Taurus of Texas. Now, there are 300 new families in the neigh- borhood, 400 homes under construction and more planned as Tesla attracts new residents. “All the developers right now are having a hard time getting enough lots on the ground to meet the demand,” Gilliland said. But as homes spring up, District 2 City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said infrastructure, includ- ing access to food and child care, is already too weak for her district’s current population. “The future of Austin is east,” she said. “It’s where the land is a ordable, where there’s space, but we have to ask ourselves as policymakers, do we have the infrastructure needed to make sustainable communities?” Catching up East Austin’s infrastructure has been inequitable CLEARING PATHS The city of Austin and Travis County have invested millions of dollars in improving sidewalks and roads in Southeast and East Austin.
Travillion said private and public entities ignored East Austin when it was a segregated Black district and have continued to make policy decisions that hurt the area. He points out there is still no hospital there today. “You’ve built an area that you have deprived for years and years and you put land lls on it and then when it’s pointed out what you’ve done, you say, ‘Well, we don’t have any more money,’” Travillion said. “We are a wealthy city.” One persistent issue is unsafe roads. These will become more dangerous and tra c-jammed with more drivers, Travillion said. The city has identi ed at least four substandard roads east of I-35: Johnny Morris, Ross, Bradshaw and Nuckels Crossing roads. “[Certain] things are necessary so a workforce can actually get out there and work,” Travillion said. “We have to make sure we’re solving problems that we know are the result of institutional racism, and if we don’t, the responsibility lies with us.” Travillion said the city and county must work together to address streets and ensure locals have easy access to food and child care, which will help them ll roles atTeslaandother incomingbusinesses. “It’s hard to be comfortable and do excellent work if you don’t know that your child is safe,” he said. Travillion said eastern Travis County also faces poverty. A Central Health report found poverty rates decreased in parts of east Central Austin in 2020 but increased east of US 183. In Del Valle ISD, which serves Southeastern Travis County, 87.9% of students were economically disad- vantaged, per 2019-20 data. Fuentes said low-income families in Southeast Austin are isolated by low access to transit and broadband internet services. They also face a de cit of grocery stores, pharmacies, child care facilities, community centers and usable parkland, she said. Southeast Austinites have been pushing for a
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6 Approximate miles of road planned to be constructed 20 by city by county
miles of sidewalk added in City Council Districts 2 and 3
SOURCES: CITY OF AUSTIN, TRAVIS COUNTY COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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