Eastsiders Decry BFI

illustration by Doug Potter

Stop. Rewind. Play. There they were again. Angry Eastside residents pointing the finger at the narrow environmentalist agenda, crying racism, and blaming the endangered salamander for stealing their thunder. It seemed like an instant replay of the explosive meeting two weeks ago which had morphed into an Eric Mitchell campaign convention in council chambers. At that May 8 meeting, a largely African American audience repeatedly characterized efforts to preserve water quality in Barton Springs as a short-sighted goal in the face of the declining quality of life on the Eastside. Last Thursday it was the Hispanic Eastside residents who were in attendance, and although their specific complaints were different, their message to council was identical: the economic disenfranchisement of the Eastside amounts to racism, and the environmental community is the worst culprit.

Residents of the primarily Hispanic Gardens neighborhood, located East of I-35 near the intersection of Airport and Springdale, were at council to support a proposal to roll back the zoning of the nearby BFI Recycling plant at 4712 Bolm Road from "LI" -- Limited Industrial Services -- to "LO," Limited Office. While the zoning change would not force the BFI plant to immediately pack its bags, LO zoning would limit BFI's ability to expand the plant and would change the rules governing the property's use if BFI ever moved. Back-to-back with the BFI zoning case was a proposed rezoning of the Balcones Recycling plant which was recently relocated to 2416 E. Sixth, in an industrial pocket sandwiched between residential neighborhoods down the street from Zavala Elementary. Such "checkerboard" zoning, alternating between industrial and residential, all over the Eastside, is behind the residents' protests which generated the standing moratorium on Eastside building permits, and the corresponding Eastside land use study. The moratorium, which was enacted to force council and builders to rethink the wisdom of interspersing residential streets with industrial entities, is set to be lifted in July, by which time residents are hoping to see many more rezoning cases for industrial areas.

Gardens neighborhood residents say that although rezoning will not force the BFI plant to relocate, any change at the property would be welcome. Some of the plant's disgruntled neighbors cite problems with rats, roaches, blowing paper, noise, and traffic, not to mention the raging fire (of unknown origin) which engulfed the plant on July 21, 1996. "Before the fire, we at BFI thought that recycling was a good thing and we ignored that plant," admits BFI spokesperson Lynda Rife, who points to the many changes the plant has made in the past year to appease area residents.

BFI had handy answers for each of the concerns brought by area residents, but the corporation's facile handling of what Gardens residents feel is an environmental nightmare did not go over well with the audience. After residents voiced their concerns about rats, BFI representatives replied that the rodent infestation did not originate with the plant. "We almost fit the requirements for a restaurant, we're told," said BFI community relations representative Tony Villanueva, who tried to make a case that the paper and plastic at the plant did not offer any sustenance for rats. The hissing audience was not buying that argument, and neither was Jackie Goodman. "In my experience, rats don't think of food in the same way we do," she commented slyly. The plant's noise level was another primary concern that was featured in a documentary-style video made by the neighborhood and shown to the council. "If you're at home, you can't even hear yourself cutting the grass," a Gardens resident featured in the video complained. BFI representatives responded that the company had extended a wall surrounding the plant, and had recently cut back their operating hours, which had been 6am to 11pm. Truck traffic is another major problem in the area. "They just come in speeding and reckless," said a resident in the film. Once again, BFI foisted the responsibility elsewhere, saying that they have posted speed limit signs, placing the blame on city truck drivers instead of their own.

However, Gardens residents did not reserve their anger purely for BFI. They also directed their ire at the environmental community who they believe has abandoned them in their fight for environmental justice. "The truth is that the residents of East Austin have been overburdened by unwanted facilities so that others could live in peace," said Susana Almanza of People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER). The irony, of course, is that recycling itself is sine qua non for the environmental community. "If they recycle, they should be aware where their recycling is going to," said a resident in the film.

But the rift between the environmental and minority communities runs deeper than just recycling. As Gavino Fernandez, president of El Concilio, points out, the Eastside strongly supported the Save Our Springs initiative on the assumption that concerned environmentalists would eventually help revitalize the environmental corruption of the Eastside. "Where are my environmental friends who said they would come and support me?" asked Joe Quintero, looking around at the largely Hispanic audience. "Maybe I'll come and support them next time they want to save a salamander or some bugs and bees." Echoing one of the evening's familiar themes, Almanza summed up the community's disillusionment with the priorities of the environmental community: "We, too, are an endangered species."

According to Rife, BFI actually shares the Gardens residents' desire that the plant move from its present location, which she says it will have to do if the company is awarded the 30-year contract to handle the city's curbside recycling for which it is currently under consideration. "We're recycling way too much for this site," admits Rife, saying that the new "Pay As You Throw" garbage policy has dramatically increased BFI's recycling load. Rife says that BFI is protesting the zoning rollback on the advice of real estate appraisers who say that LO zoning will make the property impossible to sell since offices rarely locate in industrialized areas. If BFI could not sell the facility, she says, it would continue using it for storage in the event of the plant's relocation.

Gus Garcia was quick to point out that last week's protest was a tea party compared to the angry May 8 mob which had called not only environmentalists, but also councilmembers, racist. And councilmembers were taking extra precautions to ensure that the finger did not turn to point at them again. Mayor Bruce Todd and Eric Mitchell simply left the meeting early, destroying the possibility of the required six-vote supermajority of council needed to override the petition of BFI and Balcones, who are against the zoning rollback. (A property owner has the right to petition zoning changes.) Instead, to the chagrin of the audience, the vote was rescheduled for July 10, when Todd and Ronney Reynolds -- and possibly Mitchell -- will be long gone.

In fact, Reynolds made the most of his departing status and pulled a kamikaze run at the end of the hearing. "I don't really anticipate any future political career, so I can just lay it all out," he began, launching into a sob story about the blight of his upper middle class Northwest neighborhood where his disenfranchised children must live without the benefit of a park while Eastside residents enjoyed city-funded community centers such as Parque Zaragosa Recreation Center. The audience protested, but a stunned council -- clearly amazed at Reynolds' pity party -- quickly voted to postpone the decision, as well as several other zoning cases, and hightailed it out of the meeting. Expect more swan songs and lazy postponements until the new council is sworn in on June 15.

That, and the early departure of Todd and Mitchell, should send a message. Ironic though it may seem to the neighborhood, which so decries "racist" enviros, the three councilmembers rarely labeled as environmentalists -- Reynolds, Todd, and Mitchell -- were the ones most likely to uphold BFI's petition. Still more ironic is the fact that the neighborhood is likely to fare better when the new, more green-heavy council takes the helm next month.