Gentrification

14. The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people.

Recently my business partner and I for Order Experts moved our office to the “Eastside” of Austin, Texas. This traditionally lower income area of town is undergoing a renaissance of sorts bringing the artistic community, new development, and retail to an area that can hardly afford to keep the streets safe. Why did we move there? It was close to downtown, and affordable.

Like all instances of gentrification, the area is mixed with recently renovated or entirely new development, with other existing buildings that range from condemned to being perfectly suitable for a family or small business. However, this mixture of middle and lower income populations rarely coexist without friction.

At my office, our frontage is all glass and faces East Cesar Chavez Street in Austin, Texas. We are greeted daily with large snot filled collections of saliva on the glass, shouts from cars ranging from “Fuck you Yuppies!” to “Die white boy”. Last week there was a new “posting” on the light pole at the intersection of our office.

Since I have employees, I had to call it in to the Police. I was met by two officers who found the situation unremarkable, but were at least impressed that they didn’t have to explain to me the local situation. I was a little surprised when I found that both Police Officers were excited about the spread of gentrification, but I guess for them the result has a direct impact on lowered crime.

As I sit in my office tomorrow, and I watch the large collection of middle and high school aged students walk by when school lets out, I will again notice that they are all wearing either black or white because their school is too worried about gang colors to allow the personal freedom of expression. I will again notice that not a single one of them is Caucasian. And I will again watch as one of them spits on the window, or throws a rock at the sign outside our office.

While I have made no points or amazing conclusions in this post, I will say this: Gentrification brings out many problems with our communities. And while the result may improve the local area, the reason is not the new buildings, or the improved services. It’s the literal change in the local population. And that is about the worst possible solution I could envision.

Office Space

Today, two of my business partners and I from Order Experts LLC, (http://www.orderexperts.com) looked at new office space. We are about to double the company in terms of personnel (not really that big of a deal when we are currently at 5) so we need more space. Additionally, our current office space isn’t really anything to brag about (operated by PS Business Parks: http://www.psbusinessparks.com). I have had office space in the North Lamar Austin complex for one of my businesses, or one of my associate’s businesses since 2000. Strangely, as my lease expiration approaches, my landlord has made no effort to discuss our future plans for tenancy.

My business partners and I are all about density. When I say “density”, I mean lots of people and “living spaces”. A lot of fun buzz words flying around many metro areas trying to describe the idea of living downtown. The idea isn’t anything new, but with gas prices, being able to talk to the places to want to hang out at, and the idea of walking to work all in the same place, everyone seems to be on the band wagon. This of course has created a high demand for downtown living and many changes to the Austin feel (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/planning).

We looked at some interesting commercial spaces at the new Brazos Place development (http://www.brazosplacecondos.com) on 8^th and Brazos in the former Commodore Hotel Building (circa 1950). The pricing was pretty decent at $199/sq. ft. on the 5^th floor, but going up a floor priced at $219/sq. ft. allowed for a large improvement to the view. Here is a quick view of the Brazos Place Condos in case you refused to click on the link above:

Moving downtown is a great idea for corporate culture, but be prepared to pay for it. There is a reason that downtown city centers seem to gather bankers and lawyers; they’re the only one’s that can afford to pay for it.