Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane
Forced Growth
RECEIVED Tue., Nov. 29, 2022
Dear Editor,
For the most part, your article "Austin at Large: Don’t Go Away Mad, Just …" [News, Nov. 25] is correct. However, the pro-district, anti-city Texas legislators you mention do have a point: Austin would never have become the over-sized mess that it is if the capital had been located elsewhere. (There is one exception to that statement. African Americans flocked to Austin in the late 1890s and early 1900s because Austin was the only, fairly large city in Texas that didn't tolerate lynching.) And the University of Texas is, after all, a government institution. Lately, Austin's so-called high-tech boom is being funded in part by the citizens of Austin and Travis County, in the form of property tax abatements and other incentives. Why Austin pays Apple, the world's richest company, to locate here is a good example of Austin's needless, forced growth.
For the most part, your article "Austin at Large: Don’t Go Away Mad, Just …" [News, Nov. 25] is correct. However, the pro-district, anti-city Texas legislators you mention do have a point: Austin would never have become the over-sized mess that it is if the capital had been located elsewhere. (There is one exception to that statement. African Americans flocked to Austin in the late 1890s and early 1900s because Austin was the only, fairly large city in Texas that didn't tolerate lynching.) And the University of Texas is, after all, a government institution. Lately, Austin's so-called high-tech boom is being funded in part by the citizens of Austin and Travis County, in the form of property tax abatements and other incentives. Why Austin pays Apple, the world's richest company, to locate here is a good example of Austin's needless, forced growth.
Gerre Gannaway
