keep east austin east ......oooohh how's that for a project title?

so i did my usual bang-up job of researching and this is what i came up with:

i think we need to do one piece on the hispanic community. like kelly said in her earlier blog, gentrification is pushing these people out, eating away into their business, culture and homes. i think i talked about this earlier, where i said that looking at the hispanic community and seeing if they are still unified, or are becoming a threatened species, is a good angle for a short video. interviews with hispanic residents, catholic church groups, youth clubs, eateries, community centers in east austin, interspersed with corresponding vibrant images of their everyday life today, would make a nice short. we could talk to a bunch of hispanic oriented groups, activists or associations too in east austin. there are tons of them out there. there's a guy, john langmore, who has spent more than a year capturing on film the lives of east austinites. he's a good source too. i also found the Latinos for Texas blog, who are very active about the whole east austin changing thing.

my second idea has been harped on by me already so here i go again. businesses in east austin - not the ones shutting down, but the ones that couldn't afford to stick around in west austin or downtown so had to move shop to east austin where it's cheaper and rich people are slowly moving into those localities due to gentrification. the austin independent business association is the best place to start, followed by some restaurants i found on the austin chronicle and statesman websites, which recently closed down and moved to east austin. we could talk to residents again, businesspersons, customers, etc. the only thing is, i don't know if this should be a video too. maybe we could make a really cool slideshow of photographs with voiceovers of people interviewed as well one of us doing narration.

i think both the ideas tie into each other. the first one focuses on the problem and one of its symptoms while the second one focuses on a corollary. i think we should also include an interview, or many of them with gene burd. he's been in austin for centuries and knows every nook and cranny. he is a fantastic source. so we should definitely include him.

ok so that's it. bring it on.