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They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

texasmonthly.com

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Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#251

Post by gregors »

dbeley wrote: post #156

> A car club member spins his back tires—a practice known as a “burnout”—at a car club meet-up on Sunday, unleashing a cloud of white smoke Is that really something worth calling a tradition? If it were to happen where I live, I would definitely call the police.

I feel you've highlighted the core of the issue without understanding it. With diverse populations people place value on different things. You are obviously not an automotive enthusiast. There are lots who are.

I'm assuming that the location was originally chosen because it was out of the way or the area it was held in was deemed acceptable at the time. You could just outlaw it and then what happens? People will still meet up illegally. City planners have a difficult job. They need to find acceptable locations for disruptive activities.

Getting along doesn't happen by accident it takes city officials, car club members, and new and old members of the community to create a city everyone can enjoy. Easier said than done.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#252

Post by volkl48 »

wutbrodo wrote: post #113
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested in the nuanced version. I'm not familiar with the event. The article painted a pretty clear and unsympathetic story: "these folks have been gathering in this spot to do this thing weekly for 25 years, an expensive apartment building went up, and some of the residents who moved in don't like the event and want it canceled, citing a variety of flimsy pretexts." So what's the interesting and unusual nuanc…

Strip the subjectivity and emotion away from your analysis for a moment (not permanently), and it's easy to see both sides. Construct and add the same amount of emotion/bias in the other direction and you can construct just as "obvious" a one-sided story for the other side! Just for fun, you can construct a weak form from just the phrase you used: "these folks have been gathering in this spot to do this [illegal] thi…

And the article gives little attention to what looks like the most serious safety issue to me:

The rims pictured in the article are one of the most dangerous things you can do to a car (and are not legal as shown) and present a massive safety risk to pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers.

It's basically turning the vehicle into something that will cause amputations/maiming if you're ever near anyone, and other road users won't necessarily see your "spikes" to be able to avoid them, especially in a busier environment. You might as well just stick swords or axes sticking out from your rims, because that's basically what they'll do in motion to anyone you get a little too close to.

I'm somewhat sympathetic to a lot of car culture modifications, but that particular class of modifications should be zero tolerance, car impounded on sight.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#253

Post by 542458 »

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #246
542458 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because race is deeply entwined with culture, and culture is in everything. Every culture owns cars, but not every subculture does things with cars that require you to do most of the work yourself in your driveway. It’s like Ehrlichman’s famous quote: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, an…

Most of that subculture divide is on type of car rather than rather they work on it in the first place. Trust me, there are plenty of car clubs consisting 90% of white boomers showing off their pristine garage queen 1960s muscle cars who would also be inconvenienced by that law.

And there are lots of people who weren’t hippies who smoked marijuana. And voter intelligence tests affected people who weren’t minorities. But that doesn’t mean the laws in question were not passed with race in mind, at least for many of those pushing for them.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#254

Post by [deleted] »

542458 wrote: post #176
toolz wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it seem like people feel the need to make anything they can about race? (Maybe I'm just overly sensitive and it doesn't happen as much as I perceive, to be fair) I don't agree with the law, but literally every race owns vehicles. Why complicate the issue with racism if there doesn't need to be any complication? Seems like a clear cut issue that people can unite over that instead is being made into a minority…

Because race is deeply entwined with culture, and culture is in everything. Every culture owns cars, but not every subculture does things with cars that require you to do most of the work yourself in your driveway. It’s like Ehrlichman’s famous quote: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, an…

[deleted]

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#255

Post by ryandrake »

sjg007 wrote: post #249
leetcrew wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you already established it was illegal. is that the only reason it bothers you, or is there something else?

What about what?

I think the question is: Why is there an ordinance against this? What is morally wrong with having vehicles on one's own property? How does it affect the neighbors? If the only answer is "well it reduces property values," well, there are tons of things that also reduce property values that are not illegal. That is not a good reason to have a city ordinance against something.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#256

Post by zthrowaway »

Bukhmanizer wrote: post #86

There are ways that people talk about gentrification that always makes me slightly uncomfortable. As a non-white person, something always feels like gentrification is something that “good” white people like to blame “bad” white people for doing, when the real problem tends to be wider and more systemic. In this particular instance I find myself asking why it matters that the Weaver residents were originally not from…

Gentrification is really encouraged by the city. It's a way to replace a low tax revenue generating populace with a higher one. People get mad at the richer people (happens to be mostly white due to population ratio), and assume it's due to racism. Nobody recognizes the city is actually to blame. These people who move into these gentrified area's aren't doing it out of malice.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#257

Post by aembleton »

NearAP wrote: post #45

According to the article, this event has been happening almost weekly for years 1) Does this mean the developers did not take this into consideration and have a plan on how to deal with this or handle it? 2) Does it mean the folks buying the apartments (or renting) did not do their due diligence and find out this is a weekly event? Takeaways here (for all of us reading this story) - do you research before you move to…

From the article - [The apartment building] promises renters access to a “community that is rich in history and tradition”.

They just assumed that these traditions must be ones that they would like.

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#258

Post by yardie »

sjg007 wrote: post #194
int_19h wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do cars on his property bother you?

6 of them, in violation of city ordinances. Two on the grass. We all agreed to the rules.

> We all agreed to the rules.

Who came up with the rules? And have you carried out a survey to see if everyone agreed to the rules? If you lived there before the rule is in place can you opt out if you disagree?

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#259

Post by asiachick »

olivermarks wrote: post #34

A variation of this rinsing out of any local culture is going on in Sacramento County California, where arguably gentrification has resulted in a 2019 autocratic edict that residents are not allowed to work on cars in their homes except fluid changes, with fines if you are found to have professional tools on the premises. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/it-is-illegal-to... Since Sacramento County is appro…

I don't know Sac's demographics for people who work on cars but I've never associated being a car nerd (someone who works on their car(s)) as a more hispanic/black thing. In fact my stereotype is the "white trash" (used as a shortcut for the description, not a judgement) cars parked on the lawn. My brother-in-law, in LA, white, has had 10 cars on their property, all beaters, he works on all of them.

Are you sure home car maintenance isn't more associated with poverty than race?

Re: They Just Moved to Austin. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions

#260

Post by OldHand2018 »

eplanit wrote: post #218
goatinaboat wrote: post #127

Californians fleeing the the things they voted for, then voting for the very same things again. Is there a legal way Texas residents can block them coming?

Californiafication is far, far worse than any kind of gentrification. I feel sorry for my beloved home state of Texas.

> I feel sorry for my beloved home state of Texas.

Don't.

Texas, like many states, never misses an opportunity to trumpet the number of people moving there. Texas, like many states, spends a lot of money in the rest of the US trying to convince people and businesses to move there.

You got what you asked for. You got what you paid for.

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