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A liberal bastion of Texas

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A liberal bastion of Texas Empty A liberal bastion of Texas

Post by confuzzled dude Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:35 am

The celebrated Mueller project in Austin, Texas, is one such place. This master-planned development seems to have it all: electric cars, solar panels, green buildings, walkability and native landscaping.

But what happens when one of Austin's most progressive, welcoming neighborhoods experiences racial incidents involving some of its own African-American residents who don't feel so welcome?

In Mueller, where construction began in 2007, the incidents quietly accumulated to the point where the community realized it had a problem — and needed to be confronted.
Lucky Berry, a black Baptist minister, remembers the time four years ago when he and his wife were building their house at Mueller. He was driving around, checking out at all the other new homes under construction.

"Yeah, I was photographed and followed," Berry says. "And no one ever said anything to me directly or asked me anything, but I did notice people taking out their phones and taking pictures of my car."

On another occasion, "we had a neighbor who's an African-American come to our house," he recalls. "And as he walked up our stairs, someone asked if they could help him, suggesting that he might be lost or in the wrong neighborhood."
From 2000 to 2010, Austin's general population jumped 20 percent, but the number of African-Americans shrank by 5 percent. Among the reasons given in the study: high property taxes, bad relations with police and disparities in public schools.

"Because race is such a barrier still in the 21st century, I think we need to be affirmative and intentional at overcoming that barrier — push ourselves to get to know one another," says the neighborhood association's James Nortey. "And I think when we do that we'll find we have vastly more in common than we have apart."
http://www.npr.org/2015/02/13/385495327/a-community-takes-on-racial-tensions-once-hidden-under-the-surface

confuzzled dude

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