"The damage has already been done. People have already moved out and communities displaced. It's over, and now you want to have a conversation about it? This conversation is 10 or 15 years too late. That's not to say that good things can't come out of it, but waiting on the city, I'm just not really part of that game."
The sad truth is most musicians have moved so far south where the price for rent is not as big of a hit. The cool Hispanic rich culture of the East Side is really gone...most of my homeboys and musician friends I have in the neighborhood have moved south...far away from the yuppies that have moved in.
I have come to terms with this and enjoy my South Austin life these days its very much feels like old Austin. Me and my wife are going to be South Austinites for years to come but we are very aware of the increase on our yearly taxes pushing us even further South or into San Antonio in the future.
I am not worried about shit like that though these days I am still trying to work on creating new interesting music and let the real estate condo's build where they want, it's usually in central Austin. I say let them have it...the rich local music scene is mostly gone from there anyway.
The article mentions Stay Gold a struggling music venue on East Cesar Chavez but what they fail to mention is that used to be a tejano bar named El Leon where I, along with my homeboys used to have a blast drinking cheap beer all night listening to Tejano music.
That's the thing about Austin...the people complaining about it are the main reasons this city is the way it is.
Welcome to the Slow Death.