A brief history…

After the Civil War, newly freed people of color settling in Austin were relegated to reside in vulnerable terrain, flood-prone bottomlands and creek banks - primarily around Waller Creek. In 1928, as Jim Crow racism blossomed into institutionalized policies, Austin underwent a second round of urban development, following the guidance of the Koch & Fowler 1928 Austin Master Plan. A variety of urban development mechanisms (zoning, parks creation, manipulation of municipal utilities, etc.) were deployed to displace and concentrate people of non-european descent into East Austin, a dividing line inscribed by the construction of Interstate 35. Nevertheless, as historian Katherine Pace describes, a mixed-race edge zone persisted along Waller Creek and the adjacent Red River Street cultural-residential district which runs along the eastern edge of downtown Austin, just west of the highway. In the 1970’s and 80’s another wave of ‘city beautification’ swept this community away under the creation of Waterloo Park, hardening I-35 as the racial line of division. Meanwhile, despite significant financial investment, and primarily due to ongoing flood risk, the downtown stretch of Waller Creek became neglected by most, making it a welcoming corridor for unhoused people and wildlife. Yet another round of Waller Creek ‘beautification’ sprung up in the developer’s paradise of the early 2000’s (and ongoing) resulting in acres of parks, trails, an amphitheater, and an epic underground tunnel to divert floodwaters, ‘revitalize’ the creek, and attract investment. Simultaneously, Austin’s Black and brown residents have undergone a second great displacement under the pressures of East Austin gentrification.

Learn more about this history

‘Forgetting Waller Creek: Race, Parks and Planning in Downtown Austin, Texas’ by Katherine Leah Pace [link] [pdf]

‘An Environmental History of Waterloo Park’ by Katherine Leah Pace [link]

‘Shifting Terrains of Risk: A history of natural hazards and displacement in three historic black communities of Central Austin, Texas’ by Katherine Leah Pace [link]

‘Artificially Natural: On the Transformation of Austin's Waller Creek’ by Jack Murphy [link]

‘Austin Restricted: Progressivism, Zoning, Private Racial Covenants, and the Making of a Segregated City’ by Eliot M. Tretter [link]