P006 → save murder drive
ive been living in austin for 4 years now. south congress x ben white, bluff springs, 12th and lamar (clarksville), UT campus 6 months, and now burton dr for almost a year. All these different neighborhoods and i’ve seen more life on”murder drive” than any other. More children, more smiles, more people just outside hanging out/walking around in the middle of summer despite the lack of trees in the oltorf pleasant valley area.
my first day moving into my apartment on burton i heard an ice cream truck go by for the first time in my 3 years in austin. i hear it all the time. loud music blasting outside on the weekends, people enjoying life, their neighborhood, their community.
i’ve documented a lot of photos of moments that make this neighborhood special and had been digging through GIS data to see what the future holds for riverside because i would be sad if this area turned into another east austin gentrification bulldoze.
i got curious around march 2025 and googled my neighborhood when i came across this article about ATX Peace’s intervention with the community and how violent crime in the area has statistically went down . a quote from jeremiah cooper - ““The ones that are doing this (clothes drive) are the ones that are on the block every day,” “They might be living in a way that’s not agreeable to certain people, but what they’re doing is trying to step out of that space and become something different.”
i drive by this group of men everyday with a lot of curiousity about them. i see them as a totem of the nieghborhood , and knowing theyre actively wanting to help the place they spend all their time is inspiring
a career in urban development and greenwashed ideas about “social mobility” has left me wondering what the alternative to bulldozing crime-plagued areas and pushing lower-income people out was. I knew it was never the answer but its usually the choice that is made. I often wondered if groups like ATX Peace actually exist or if they work- but while living here i’ve seen proof with statistics to back it up.
doordashing has allowed me to see other apartment complexes within the neighborhood. motel style apartments consistently have more life, people sitting in chairs next to their front door, children playing in the communal yards. A more humanistic design than the sterile gray towers they want to build. I’ve lived in all types of apartments , i don’t see “life” in these towers we’re copy pasting all over the US. there is no life in enclosed hallways, gated communities. You can easily isolate yourself and you will. Smaller buildings are needed for intimacy, more open space less built structure.
FIND IMAGERY (CURRENT) (+HISTORICAL)
REFLECTIVE NARRATIVE WITH PERSONAL IMAGERY
CRIME STATS/ARTICLE LINKS/GIS MAPS
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT PLANS
SIDE NARRATIVE ABOUT GENTRIFICATION?
CASE STUDIES..