Diverse Council District faces Many Challenges

Eight candidates are running this fall for District 4 in North Austin. It has the fewest square miles of the10 districts that each will be represented by a City Council member under a newly transformed city government... Divided by Interstate 35 and Lamar Boulevard, this district is a melting pot, with large numbers of refugees and immigrants of all races and ethnicities. Hispanics form the majority: 65 percent.

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Diverse council district faces many challenges

By Sarah Coppola SCOPPOLA@STATESMAN.COM 

Eight candidates are running this fall for District 4 in North Austin. It has the fewest square miles of the10 districts that each will be represented by a City Council member under a newly transformed city government.

 Divided by Interstate 35 and Lamar Boulevard, this district is a melting pot, with large numbers of refugees and immigrants of all races and ethnicities. Hispanics form the majority: 65 percent.

 By nearly every metric, District 4 faces big challenges. It has the fewest registered voters and least amount of parkland of the 10 districts, as well as low homeownership rates and a high poverty rate. On its eastern edge is the Rundberg neighborhood, an area considered so crime-ridden that the federal government gave Austin a $1 million grant to try to clean it up.

  But District 4 also has bright spots. Austin Community College has turned the old Highland Mall into a hub of classrooms, computer labs and other spaces. And Bartholomew District Park now features a new city pool.

  Several candidates moved into the district in the past year, prompting accusations of carpetbagging. Most of those candidates say they were living in nearby neighborhoods or previously had lived in North Austin.

from the Statesman, behind the paywall:

www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/eight-running-for-austin-city-council-district-4/nhGNK/