Terms & Colony Park Readings

Gentrification- the shift of lower-income community towards a higher, wealthier area often resulting in a change in demographics.
-To me gentrification has the potential to cause both good and bad. While it can cause it a displacement in minorities, I feel that if done right, it would have some beneficial outcomes. 
-Gentrification is controversial because although it often involves some sort of  improvement in infrastructure  it can be argued that these changes are made by outsiders and do not actually reflect the desires of the members of the community. In order words, outsiders may benefit from gentrification while at the expense of community members.

Low-income housing- A residential area or neighborhood that has a large percentage of residents that are generally economically disadvantage. This often includes residents who are mostly within a minority group, elderly, and have little education. Before the 1990's East Austin was often consider an low-income area.

Colony Park Goals- For the residents in the Colony Park area their main focus is provide residents with a safe recreational center to be able to promote health improvement to their children and community residents. For many years the city of Austin has ignored their efforts and the necessary steps to improve their living environment were not prioritized.  Although the Colony Park has focused on designed the usage of the grant to increase health concerns, I think that ultimately the goal is to fight and stand against the wealthy taking advantage of lower class residents who do not have the agency to put and end to the social injustice and put an effort to protest against social class having such a large effect in political power.


While learning about the communities of East Austin, Holly Street, the Colony Park grant, and the Mueller development, I've learn that there are so many different elements to consider. All though there is definitely similarities between these communities I don't think here is no one solution to all of these communities. Each should be taken as an individual problem and we should seek to provide indivdual solutions that benefit the members of that given community.