Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church
Blames PODER
RECEIVED Tue., May 30, 2006
Dear Editor,
I was over in East Austin, down Cesar Chavez this weekend, at a friend's new house. Really nice. I was asking him in general terms about the price, he said it was a mere $350,000. Gosh, down on South Padre Island that will buy you one hell of a house on the beach. He said he'd bought it from someone who had bought it a year earlier for $80,000 but had done a lot to the house. The thing was that his taxes were pretty substantial. As were his neighbors', and everyone else in the neighborhood, including the old timers, the elderly residents of East Austin, most of whom were of modest means and low to moderate income. How are they going to deal with the gentrification of their neighborhoods and the ridiculous increase in property taxes brought about by skyrocketing property values? Sell their homes and move is the only solution for many. Who can they thank for being driven out of their homes of many decades? PODER of course. PODER was the group instrumental in the closing of the power plant on Town Lake, and the immediate result was the destruction of the traditional neighborhood, gentrification, and skyrocketing property taxes. Well done, I wonder if PODER feels proud of what they did? Doubt it. Course, now I see the woman who took credit for closing the power plant complaining about the McMansions that resulted from her actions. Less generation capacity, millions of taxpayer dollars to close, decommission, and clear the current closed power plant, and the cost of building a new one, plus the destruction of old East Austin and the end of affordable housing for the poor and the loss of homes for the elderly. Brilliant. Of course, now that East Austin is a gold mine of property taxes and filling with yuppies, maybe the City Council will suddenly take notice. You think? After all these years of pretending Austin ended at I-35? Maybe the chick from PODER can start a new campaign to keep her occupied, like finding homes for the elderly and low-income people she displaced.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
I was over in East Austin, down Cesar Chavez this weekend, at a friend's new house. Really nice. I was asking him in general terms about the price, he said it was a mere $350,000. Gosh, down on South Padre Island that will buy you one hell of a house on the beach. He said he'd bought it from someone who had bought it a year earlier for $80,000 but had done a lot to the house. The thing was that his taxes were pretty substantial. As were his neighbors', and everyone else in the neighborhood, including the old timers, the elderly residents of East Austin, most of whom were of modest means and low to moderate income. How are they going to deal with the gentrification of their neighborhoods and the ridiculous increase in property taxes brought about by skyrocketing property values? Sell their homes and move is the only solution for many. Who can they thank for being driven out of their homes of many decades? PODER of course. PODER was the group instrumental in the closing of the power plant on Town Lake, and the immediate result was the destruction of the traditional neighborhood, gentrification, and skyrocketing property taxes. Well done, I wonder if PODER feels proud of what they did? Doubt it. Course, now I see the woman who took credit for closing the power plant complaining about the McMansions that resulted from her actions. Less generation capacity, millions of taxpayer dollars to close, decommission, and clear the current closed power plant, and the cost of building a new one, plus the destruction of old East Austin and the end of affordable housing for the poor and the loss of homes for the elderly. Brilliant. Of course, now that East Austin is a gold mine of property taxes and filling with yuppies, maybe the City Council will suddenly take notice. You think? After all these years of pretending Austin ended at I-35? Maybe the chick from PODER can start a new campaign to keep her occupied, like finding homes for the elderly and low-income people she displaced.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Carl Swanson