The proposed Kyle redistricting plan is another decade-long continuation of the institutional bigotry at the heart of the original Council districts. The new plan perpetuates the dumping of Kyle’s poor minorities into Kyle’s largely industrial southern District 2. Hispanics are 52%, Blacks are over 7%, and by any measure as food stamp recipients, net worth, income, or government dependence, we are the poorest of Kyle’s three Council districts with the largest number of minorities.
Kyle is clearly divided along the same lines of minority and financial well-being as is Austin. District 4 is Kyle’s upscale residential “silk stocking” district with Plum Creek, Hometown Kyle, Silverado and Spring Branch as is Austin’s Tarrytown and Hills of Austin. District 6 with the commercial development such as Kyle Crossing, Kyle Parkway and other interstate development, follows Austin’s interstate economic engine pattern with Round Rock and Georgetown’s major employers as Dell Westinghouse.
Ah, but East Austin has long been Austin’s dumping ground for unwelcome minorities, high crime, and undesirable commercial enterprises such as landfills, privately owned prisons, and noisy polluting industries for over 100 years. Kyle’s District 2 is following East Austin’s pattern now going on 20 years if Council approves the plan before them.
This current plan, as was the original, is a Bob Barton product as he chairs the Redistricting Committee. I am not aware of any minorities on the Redistricting Committee who live in District 2. This is all being handed down by Bob’s committee. When my wife and I appeared at their public hearing, they uniformly refused to consider even changing one line on their precious map. And talk about hostility toward District 2 residents!
The phony political paternalism of Bob Barton and his committee is clear by the fact that no active prominent Black or Hispanic associated with Kyle lives or has lived in the carefully designed District 2. Council member David Salazar, Mayor Miguel Gonzalez, School Trustee Joe Munoz, Councilmember Ray Bryant and Mayor James Adkins all reside outside District 2. And former Mayor James Adkins is on the Redistricting Committee but he lives in Spring Branch, well outside District 2.
Bob Barton, James Adkins, and others on the Redistricting Committee should be ashamed of themselves.
Jerry Kolacny
Kyle
(Editor’s Note: District 2 is represented by Becky Selbera.)
