Pick Me! Pick Me!

The contenders for the pilot program include:

• Three applications -- small, medium, and large -- from South Central Austin (the aforementioned Sector 12, which basically matched the 78704 ZIP code). "Small" is from the Dawson Neighborhood Association (DNA) alone, between Oltorf and Ben White, Congress, and South First. "Medium" combines DNA with Bouldin Creek NA, directly to its north between Oltorf and Town Lake, and South River City Citizens (SRCC), representing Travis Heights and environs. "Large" adds the Zilker and Barton Hills/Horseshoe Bend NAs to complete the "South Central Coalition."
• In the same mode, two applications from predominantly Hispanic East and Southeast Austin. The big one, El Pueblo Network, covers a vast area from East 11th Street south to Bergstrom, broken up into "pueblitos" including Guadalupe, East Cesar Chavez, East Town Lake , and Montopolis. At the eleventh hour, the East Cesar Chavez team submitted a separate and additional application, covering its area between I-35 and Chicon, Town Lake, and East Sixth.
• To the north of that, two applications from the northern, predominantly African-American reaches of East Austin. One, covering the Chestnut neighborhood (MLK to Manor Road, Chicon to near Airport Blvd.), is spearheaded by David Chapel Baptist Church. The other, submitted by an outfit called Tri-Angel Unlimited, covers a much larger slice of East Austin (including parts of El Pueblo's terrain) and lots of NAs and community groups, none of whom participated in developing Tri-Angel's proposal.
• Applications from the other two (along with Travis Heights) of Central Austin's Big Three neighborhoods -- Hyde Park, which wants help finishing a planning process it's been working on for years, and Clarksville's Old West Austin NA.
• Two transitional neighborhoods on opposite edges of the city center: The Southeast Austin Neighborhood Alliance, which lies between the Riverside Drive student-apartment ghetto and Montopolis, and the Highland NA, lying due north of Highland Mall and south of U.S. 183.
• And two applicants at the city's far-southern corners: Oak Hill/Deer Park, from Barton Creek out to the county line, and the Onion Creek area, running southeast around the corner of William Cannon and South Pleasant Valley Road.
• Two other applicants, the Walnut Creek NA in North Austin and the Oak Creek Village community center in South Central Austin, have since pulled out of the running.