Bullock Texas State History Museum
Remember the Dark Side as Well as the Light
RECEIVED Mon., Sept. 12, 2005
Dear Editor,
Austin is a pretty amazing place, and opening our doors to people of New Orleans and surrounding areas is just another example of that. We will have our own little taste of that city for quite some time! Cooks, musicians, and performers and people of all types will certainly enrich our town. That's the good news. Unfortunately our altruism has a down side that probably has not been mentioned much to keep the spirits high. The fact that 4,000-plus people from some of the poorest neighborhoods in one of America's most dangerous cities are now in downtown Austin is something to be taken very seriously. I lived in New Orleans right on Napoleon Avenue, a comparatively decent area just five blocks away from a Domino's Pizza where the employees were sequestered behind bulletproof glass 2-inches thick. A manager had been shot in the face with a shotgun. Yes, many are fine citizens who will contribute to Austin's own small scale melting pot, but we also have to realize we are accepting the bad with the good. Frankly, we need to become a little more aware of our surroundings when we are out enjoying downtown. The APD has not voiced concerns publicly yet, and I am sure there are those who will see this as alarmist and perhaps racist or quasi-xenophobic, but the heritage and legacy of the Big Easy, wonderful and terrible, is with us now for better or for worse.
Austin is a pretty amazing place, and opening our doors to people of New Orleans and surrounding areas is just another example of that. We will have our own little taste of that city for quite some time! Cooks, musicians, and performers and people of all types will certainly enrich our town. That's the good news. Unfortunately our altruism has a down side that probably has not been mentioned much to keep the spirits high. The fact that 4,000-plus people from some of the poorest neighborhoods in one of America's most dangerous cities are now in downtown Austin is something to be taken very seriously. I lived in New Orleans right on Napoleon Avenue, a comparatively decent area just five blocks away from a Domino's Pizza where the employees were sequestered behind bulletproof glass 2-inches thick. A manager had been shot in the face with a shotgun. Yes, many are fine citizens who will contribute to Austin's own small scale melting pot, but we also have to realize we are accepting the bad with the good. Frankly, we need to become a little more aware of our surroundings when we are out enjoying downtown. The APD has not voiced concerns publicly yet, and I am sure there are those who will see this as alarmist and perhaps racist or quasi-xenophobic, but the heritage and legacy of the Big Easy, wonderful and terrible, is with us now for better or for worse.
Tim Pipe
