Members of Deep Holly Advocates and East Austin stakeholders reached out to Free Zilker a few months ago asking for support. We felt we had to assist them because their cause mirrors our own: to stop moneyed interests that undermine the public trust to carve up Austin parks for their own uses.
Please sign their petition! https://www.change.org/p/save-nash-hernandez-chicano-park
At issue is a former City Council member’s proposal, which ignored the Edward Rendon Sr. Park Master Vision Plan that neighborhood stakeholders had spent years crafting, that had gained final approval, and, finally, funding! The new proposal is to use the Nash Hernandez Building (NHB) for an “Inter-generational Resource & Activity Center” (IRAC), using the $ 3.3 million of taxpayer funds promised for the original Master Plan for NHB rehabilitation. Sources say it will cost as much as $11 million and possibly much more. This is a pilot project that would study the interactions of senior citizens and youth registered in the program.
This proposal halted the implementation of the Master Plan for the park, for which the community had long fought. The Master Plan had designated the NHB to be community space and PARD office space.
For the past two months, we (Deep Holly Advocates, East Town Lake Citizens Neighborhood Association, Rewild ATX and Free Zilker) have been meeting with City Council staff and members of boards and commissions to try to gain support for moving forward with the Master Plan. Although there seems to be only three individuals pulling for the IRAC (a former City Council member and his wife, who are on the BoD of the IRAC, and LBJ School of Public Affairs Professor Jacqueline Angel), we are struggling through dozens of meetings and bureaucracy to try to get the Master Plan back on track.
We have finally gotten a meeting with District 3 (Chicano Park) representative José Velásquez, making it our most important meeting to date. It is scheduled for April, and we hope will have more reason to have good news after that.
—Cedar Stevens, Carol Stall and Phil Thomas