November 2013 ENGAGE Wrap-Up

Guest post from 2013-14 ENGAGE Breakfast Series guest blogger Alicia Dietrich. Alicia is a public affairs representative at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. See the end of this post for the podcast from the breakfast.
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Everyone knows that Austin is growing at a rapid pace, but did you know that 23 percent of new residents moving here are international?

With this growing global population and rapidly rising cost of living, what does it mean to Keep Austin Weird?

This was the question explored in the November installment of Leadership Austin’s ENGAGE breakfast series last week with panelists Kevin Johns (City of Austin Economic Development Department), Jakes Srinivasan (WobeonFest Austin World Music Festival), and Jim Swift (retired KXAN journalist). The discussion was moderated by Shannon Wolfson (KXAN News).

The City of Austin’s Economic Development Department has played a crucial role in shaping the impact that this influx has on our region, and the city’s efforts earned the 2013 Gold Award from the International Economic Development Council for their Global Commerce Strategy earlier this year.

Kevin Johns noted that the city has launched many programs to support small businesses owned by international residents. The city has a program that awards small business loans to merchants that agree to hire hard-to-employ people. The city tapped contacts in various ethnic groups as they conducted outreach to other countries with similar ethnic makeups for F-1 promotion. Johns also supported the idea of working with local merchants associations to create ethnic commercial pockets around the town so that Austin could have its own versions of Chinatown, Little Saigon, or perhaps a Hispanic downtown.

"If we are able to use the cultural diversity we have, we have a way to revitalize our city over and over again," said Johns. "Our economic strategy is to embrace diversity as one of our building blocks."

But everyone on the panel agreed that top-down solutions cannot sustain the growth and support the new populations on their own. For Austin to embrace this diverse new crowd and make it an asset for the city, people with leadership abilities must step up and take action on the ground, and folks must step outside their comfort zone and explore the unfamiliar.

Jakes Srinivasan is exactly that type of person. He plays with six different bands around Austin, and he’s used those connections to help promote the international music scene in Austin by launching a blog and keeping track of world music events around the city. He encourages everyone to join a band because music has united diverse crowds in Austin for many decades already. But if you can’t join a band, he encourages you to explore and take advantage of the diverse cultural scene that Austin now has to offer, because those personal relationships are the best way to fight back against cultural stereotypes.

Jim Swift has seen firsthand the evolution of the city. He moved here in 1965 at age 17 and witnessed how the music scene brought together a diverse crowd at the now-defunct music venue Armadillo World Headquarters - with performers like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. He saw how the savings and loan industry boom fueled downtown growth in the 1980s and how the tech boom of the 1990s powered further growth and development that drew the ire of environmental groups.

"Through it all, a powerful sense of tolerance and acceptance coursed through the town’s veins," said Swift. "The city grew because people heard about this place, and what they heard sounded good."

But Swift pointed out that the city must continue to adapt and address affordability issues as ethnic groups and artists and creative types are priced out of their central neighborhoods. "I believe that without a vigorous and sustained campaign to infuse the city center with affordable housing options, the heart of Austin is destined to atrophy."

Swift recalled a TV report he did back in 1995 when the area’s population hit 1 million, and there was a quote from then-Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in the piece that is just as relevant today: "We can’t build a wall around the city. There’s lots of us who would love to do that, but we can’t do it. So what we have to do is shore up our wall of the spirit so that people who come here get affected by the magic of this place."

Full Audio from the Event


Download this audio file (MP3)

October 2013 ESSENTIAL Class Day Takeaways

Guest post from ESSENTIAL Class of 2014 participant Blair Dancy, reflecting on the October 2013 class day on Greater Austin's demographics and growth. Blair is a partner with Van Osselaer & Buchanan and a trial lawyer in Austin.
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Common Interest; Uncommon Passion.
Personal family lore has it that Placida Cantu Villarreal encouraged her daughters to marry the palest of men. The story goes that, after the Civil War, the color of one's skin dictated quality of life in the Rio Grande valley. Placida wanted better for her daughters.

Placida's daughter Josephine—my great, great grandmother who never learned to speak English—relented, marrying an Irishman almost twice her age. He had immigrated to the U.S., changed his name, joined the Union Army, and after the fighting was done, stayed in New Orleans to run a bar. Something happened (perhaps a repeat of something in Ireland?), and he fled Louisiana, winding up in Hidalgo County, working another bar.

A real catch for a young, Spanish-speaking girl.

The price for non-whites to buy opportunity has changed considerably since the 1800s. But even today, with so many barriers removed, disparity remains.

At our first ESSENTIAL Class Day last Wednesday on demographics and growth, we heard Hispanics will soon be the majority in Austin. Yet, 46% of Hispanics under age five are in poverty in the city, 35% in the Austin MSA. Problems persist for the African-American population as well, with its own unique history. The city itself remains balkanized politically, economically, and racially, despite some level of integration.

One easy link to be made is between education and poverty. The high school dropout rate was 2.9% for whites; 7.9% for African-Americans; and 9.6% for Hispanics in AISD as of 2003-04. Poverty rates are also higher for African-Americans and Hispanics. But education is only the tip of the iceberg.

There is no single solution. It's been decades since AISD first put magnet programs in underperforming high and middle schools, but the degree to which those programs help alleviate disparity remains subject to debate. Next year, we will see a city council morph from at-large seats dominated by voters in central Austin to districts more representative of our diversity. Hopefully that step will help beyond the mere politics of city hall.

Then there are the individual stories. Our guest speaker, Geronimo Rodriguez (ESSENTIAL 2004) of Seton, persuaded his migrant-farmer parents to put down roots for four years so he could graduate high school, eventually becoming the lawyer he is today. Not a typical story; not a typical inspiration.

As for Josephine marrying an undesirable man for the paleness of his skin, I can only hope that is no more than a remnant of the 1800s. But one thing she and Geronimo have in common, separated by more than a hundred years, is the desire for a better life—for themselves and those around them.

There are sixty of us in this Leadership Austin class who share this same passion, and we benefit from our diverse backgrounds. What an impact sixty of us can have on a better Austin, for everyone. I'm looking forward to our remaining classes and our group project, to see what the Best Class Ever can do.

Until next time...

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NOTE: The opinions of Leadership Austin alumni, faculty members, and guest bloggers are their own, and do not represent an official position of the organization.

Some Stage Setting for the 2013-14 ENGAGE Breakfast Series

Guest post from ESSENTIAL 2010 alum and 2013-14 ENGAGE Advisory Committee member Chelsea McCullough.
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The 2013-14 ENGAGE Breakfast Series will begin this Wednesday, October 2. As in previous seasons. this year we will examine key topics with top community leaders in Austin and the surrounding areas. Before diving into each individual issue, we should first have a shared understanding of who we are as a region and how this can shape our conversations moving forward.

Central Texas is a dynamic place that is enjoying incredible growth and expansion. According to a recent analysis by Moody Analytics, economic growth in the Austin metropolitan region is expected to proceed at more than twice the national average through 2015. But our community extends beyond Austin and includes a six-county region of Travis, Williamson, Burnet, Hays, Bastrop, and Caldwell, each with their own unique benefits and challenges. Below are a few points of data that may be helpful in framing some of our ENGAGE conversations this year.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Texas State Data Center, CAPCOG

As you can see from the chart above, the Austin MSA is growing rapidly and the highest densities of that growth are in areas outside of the Austin city limits.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CAPCOG

Source: Central Texas State of the Region, CAPCOG

Of note on the above chart: the fastest growing portion of our population has the lowest levels of education.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

We'll present more information like this as the ENGAGE season continues, to provide some context for our discussions. In the meantime, we're looking forward to the new ENGAGE series launching this Wednesday with our panel on water and the impending "drought of record" for our region. Get your tickets here if you haven't already.

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Chelsea McCullough is Executive Director for Texans for Economic Progress and Principal at Intercambio.

April 2013 ENGAGE Wrap-Up

This month's ENGAGE breakfast looked at the growth and impact of the Hispanic population on Austin and Central Texas. Panelists discussed how this influx is far reaching in its influence on our community's economy, education, culture, and politics. Speakers included Perla Cavazos (Office of Texas State Senator Sylvia Garcia), Dr. Paul Cruz (Austin Independent School District), Mando Rayo (Cultural Strategies), and Geronimo Rodriguez (Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce). The panel was moderated by Sally Hernandez of KXAN-TV.

Panelists at the April 2013 ENGAGE breakfast

Below is the full podcast of the event, along with links to media coverage and resources from the discussion.

Audio Podcast

Download this audio file (MP3)

Subscribe to the Leadership Austin Podcast via iTunes

Media Coverage

• Impact News - Growing Hispanic population brings challenges, opportunity to Central Texas

List of Resources

• Austin Independent School District
• Cultural Strategies
• Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Office of Texas State Senator Sylvia Garcia

Our next ENGAGE breakfast will be Wednesday, May 1 when we will discuss housing in Central Texas. Click here for more details and ticket information.

We hope to see you there!

December 2012 ESSENTIAL Class Day Takeaways

Guest post from ESSENTIAL Class of 2013 participant David M. Williams, Ph.D. Dave is Founder and Improvement Advisor at TrueSimple Improvement.
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I moved to Austin in 1998. My sister lived here and made it easy to meet friends. We enjoyed sipping Mexican Martini’s at Cedar Door, watching live music at Liberty Lunch, and talking about our young lives as we were at the beginning of our careers. Everyone was young, educated (mostly UT), and the future was unknown, but bright. It was so Austin, or was it?

Among my friends, I was a little unusual. While they went off to work in non-profit offices, at the Capitol, or at young start ups, I hopped on an ambulance to serve as a paramedic in East Austin. My days and nights meant racing across city streets with lights and sirens, going from house to house, and transporting patients to the hospital. I saw the whole beautiful and sad spectrum of Austin, one person at a time. My experience of Austin was very much like the description a former democratic senator (not to be named) once described so eloquently as “Two Americas."

In September, our ESSENTIAL Class delved into U.S. Census data with City of Austin demographer Ryan Robinson and learned about the transformation of Austin as populations change and shift. It provided color to our own picture of Austin, which is sometimes only partially visible to us from where we live and work. December’s class day continued the discussion with a focus on diversity and inclusion. Here are a few of my impressions from the day.

Silent Beats Video
As part of a discussion led by Ashton Cumberbatch, Jr (ESSENTIAL 2002), VP of Advocacy and Community Relations for the Seton Healthcare Family, we were presented with the Princess Grace Award winning video “Silent Beats” - written and directed by John M. Chu and starring Antoine Grant. Watch the video below or on YouTube.

In this short, 5-minute video we watch a young black teen walking through a convenience store owned by a middle aged Asian man, and there is a white elderly woman customer present as well. As the young man walks through the store, images of stereotypes and biases pop up about the characters. None of which prove true in the end of the film.

For many, it was frustrating to feel or see these themes emerge. For example, the black youth as a person to fear. It also brought into focus how our biases or perspectives are rooted in our own experience, race, upbringing, etc., and how that may differ from the person sitting right next to you. The film and discussion that followed was a reminder of the journey and opportunity still ahead for change.

Building Trust
Sometimes the most powerful statements are those without words. Bobby Garcia (ESSENTIAL 1994), Director of Human Resources at the Seton Healthcare Family, facilitated an exercise that was new to many of us.

Bobby took us through an exercise where class members deeply and confidentially shared a series of their own life events that have shaped who they are as individuals, and that may have caused them to be discriminated against, or discriminate against others. We disclosed a great deal about ourselves, and it was powerful to see who shared your own experiences and who did not. Seeing very different people who shared common experiences - people you would have never imagined having been through such things - reminded us of our commonality. There were many emotional moments and big smiles throughout the exercise, and we sat down with a different perspective.

This is only a sample of the day’s activities. In each segment, participants broadened their learning about others, expanded their understanding of themselves, and realized common connections that were not readily apparent at breakfast.

As one man in my group said, “I feel like I know some of you better in this moment then I know some of my best friends.”

The day’s content and experience reminds us that we need to step out of ourselves, our norms, and our neighborhoods and discover all who are fellow Austinites. To realize that there are many differences worth understanding, but more in common worth embracing.

Thanks to the Leadership Austin team and the volunteer facilitators and coaches for a valuable day.

November 2012 ENGAGE Wrap-up

Earlier this week we held the second in our 2012-13 series of ENGAGE breakfasts at the Long Center. This month focused on Central Texas' growing veteran population and how our community is supporting these men and women as they return to civilian life. Panelists included Allen Bergeron (City of Austin Veterans Consultant), Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Kopser (United States Army and Chair and Professor of Military Science at The University of Texas at Austin), Steven Pullin (military veteran and advocate for the Heart of Texas Healthcare Network), and Texas State Senator Leticia Van de Putte (Chair of the Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs and Military Installations). The discussion was moderated by KXAN News Anchor Shannon Wolfson.

November 2012 ENGAGE in the Long Center Kodosky Lounge

Below is the full podcast of the event, along with links to media coverage and resources from the discussion.

Download this audio file (MP3)

Subscribe to the Leadership Austin Podcast via iTunes

Media Coverage

• Read a recap from Community Impact News

List of Resources

• White House Business Council's Guide to Hiring Veterans
• Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System
• New SE Austin VA Clinic Nearing Completion
• Texas Veterans Land Board
• Texas Veterans Commission Employer Services
• Texas Veterans Commission Entrepreneur Program
• TVC Fund for Veterans' Assistance

Our next ENGAGE breakfast will be Tuesday, December 4 when we will explore new and innovative models for philanthropy. Click here for more details and ticket information.

We hope to see you there!

October 2012 ESSENTIAL Class Day Takeaways

Guest post from ESSENTIAL Class of 2013 participant Kathy Green. Here Kathy reflects on the presentation on Austin's demographics by City Demographer Ryan Robinson, and the Economic Forecast for Central Texas provided by Jon Roberts of TIP Strategies, at the October 17 ESSENTIAL Class Day.
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On the screen in front of me - in bold colors and graphs - was a story I already knew. A story that gets replayed daily in our pantries and soup kitchen and the shelters we serve at the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB). On a daily basis, the population we see are mostly people of color and many families with children. And their numbers haven’t decreased since the Great Recession.

Hunger is the condition we treat at CAFB, and is a symptom of poverty - the chronic illness we face in Central Texas. In advocating for these neighbors, I often struggle with where our mission should lie at the food bank - are we here to simply feed the hungry, or are we here to end hunger? I would argue it is both.

As leaders in our community, our ESSENTIAL Class can affect both. The first is ensuring our neighbors have consistent access to healthy food - no matter in which color block on that map they live. Tackling the latter is much more challenging, but still doable.

Being a leader in Austin means doing what we can to ensure that families all across our city have the same opportunities, and their children have a positive future. Children have little choice in their family situation or environment, and the ramifications of growing up poor are grave. A low-income child is often a hungry child, a sick child, a truant child, and a delinquent child. The parents of these children love them as much as we love ours, but often have neither the time nor resources to change outcomes.

The human service agencies like ours across Austin do what we can to help change these outcomes, but we cannot do it alone. It will take the leadership of all of us - in resources (both financial and volunteer), in partnerships, and in political will - to make it happen. It means access to solid education and training so everyone can make a livable wage. It means quality healthcare, and yes, preventative healthcare measures such as safe and clean parks and soccer fields so our kids can run and play. It means a strong economy - all over the city. It means going outside our comfort zone to tackle the hard issues. It means recognizing that a city divided among income, race, and culture is destined to fail.

I am thrilled we have the opportunity.

Kathy Green is Senior Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas.

New Editorial Series with CultureMap Austin

Leadership Austin is partnering with CultureMap Austin on a series of editorial columns meant to inform Austinites about the upcoming City of Austin proposition elections, to be held November 6.

First up is a column by Mike Clark-Madison on single member districts. Head over to CultureMap to read the full post. Mike Clark-Madison is a faculty member for Leadership Austin programs and will be a panelist at the October 10 ENGAGE Breakfast Town Hall event with KXAN News.

Single member districts: Will Austin vote for representation the seventh time around?

NOTE: The opinions of Leadership Austin alumni and faculty members are their own, and do not represent an official position of the organization.

Arts & Creativity: The February 2012 Essential Class Day

Guest blog post by Essential 2012 Class member Meredith Powell, following her participation in the February Essential Class session that focused on Arts and Creativity.

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Essential Arts and Creative Day Panel Speakers

According to a recent GOOD web site report, in a survey conducted by IBM last year, 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the number one “competitive edge" of the future. And Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently wrote that dance, music, theater, and visual arts "are essential to preparing our nation's young people for a global economy fueled by innovation and creativity.”


In short, I look at it like this: art > creativity > innovation > progress. And, progress we must as a community, as a nation, as a world, as humanity.

The February Essential 2012 Arts and Creativity Day was jam-packed with information representing a myriad of passionate perspectives ranging from arts advocacy and education to established artists, producers, city leadership and our youth. Much like the day unfolded, the venue showcased our history, acknowledged our present and celebrated the possibilities of our future. And the Scottish Rite Theater was ripe for rediscovery.

Good news on the numbers front: Economic data is finally proving a correlation between arts, creativity and economic success. A few key resources compiled and analyzed by Texas Perspectives, Inc:

• City of Austin’s Creative Sector Impact

• State of Texas Economic Report via Texas Cultural Trust

Robert Faires, a tireless advocate and invaluable asset, asked us to think of art as live, as experience, as energy. I like that. I like that because when you start to look around, when you start to notice art and creativity is all around you, you begin to seek it. You begin to value the differences all around you.

It also resonates because for art and creativity to be sustainable and adaptable particularly as economic models shift, it is at least as equally important to have demand for the work being produced as it is to support the infrastructure that helps make the work possible. It is on this exchange we must equally focus our attention when articulating the value and necessity of nurturing art and creativity.

For me, the most inspired moments were the involvement of Graham Reynolds, observing the brilliance of Brent Hasty and hearing the raw truth from the youth perspective on art in Austin moderated by Emily Marks. Connecting directly with artists is critical to the conversation. In these moments, minds opened. And of course, I always enjoy spending time with peers and partners.

Leadership Austin usually provides a stimulating break from my every day, an opportunity to learn about the issues we’re facing as a whole and inspires my mind to envision how my work in the arts can affect the change we’re responsible for leading—particularly across the sectors of which I’m less familiar. I complete the class exhausted but energized, informed yet curious.

It is my hope that my classmates completed the day informed, yes, but more importantly, energized with a curiosity to seek out and nurture creativity in the every day. We are responsible for Austin’s progress, for strengthening our position as a leading city of the 21st century — and creativity is at the heart of solving the complex problems we face today. Socially and economically, creativity provides a mechanism for innovation. It’s so simple. Who knew our progress started with art?

Essential Class 2012 member Meredith Powell is the executive director of Art Alliance Austin. Each year, 55 people representing the diversity of Central Texas are selected to participate in the Leadership Austin Essential Class. The curriculum focuses on regional issues, leadership skills, and the building of strong networks to encourage innovative, collaborative solutions to the region's challenges.

October 2011 Essential Class - A Crash Course in Austin's Plan

Guest post from Essential Class of 2012 participant Monica M. Williams. The October 2011 class day theme was "Demographics and Growth: Creating a Baseline."
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Our first Essential Class day hit me in the middle of the busiest week of the year for the Austin Community Foundation, where I'm Communications Director. But considering the content of that day, maybe the fact that I was already running at a breakneck pace was for the best.

Because in a way I probably was more prepared for PowerPoint presentations that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Who knew +40 page slide shows could be so riveting? And yet the presentations from Ryan Robinson and Jon Roberts were just that.

Robinson, the City of Austin's demographer, also happens to be a born-and-raised Austinite. His presentation of the top-ten demographic trends in Austin showed that he loves the city and he loves his work. Roberts, an economist, used his expertise to help us connect the dots, too. His presentation about the future of Austin's economy was no less than thrilling - and I hated economics in college. Together, it was a one-two punch of some pretty heavy stuff.

So first we got the city's data, then we got the city's plan.

In the afternoon, we heard from Imagine Austin about the city's comprehensive plan. There were some disconnects and lots of questions. Overall the effect of the day's presentations was a little like Charlie's tour of the chocolate factory.

Based on the information I have now, I have come to a few conclusions that are probably premature, uninformed and way too simple. (Maybe I'm taking this too personally?) Here they are:

1. The way we talk about racial inequality in Austin needs to change. In the nonprofit sector, where I work, we talk about diversity. Clearly, according to Robinson's presentation, we are a diverse city.
   
   It's time for us to talk about integration.
   
   Now I for one hate both of those words. They sound archaic and forced, corporate and nebulous. In my gut it feels like we're all at the eighth-grade dance and no one wants to be the first to make a move.
   
   But I'm a Mexican-American who's used to being one of the few - if not the only - Hispanic at every job I've ever had. Trust me, it's only as scary as we make it. In about 15 years, we're all going to have Hispanics in our family (by marriage) anyway, so it will be less of an issue. In the meantime, let's dance!
   
   
2. What's good for the Austin economy ignores the population that's growing the fastest in Austin: poor Hispanics.
   
   Roberts described a steep decline in manufacturing jobs across the country and how Austin's economic growth has been tied to its ability to create an "ecosystem for innovation." He concluded that Austin's growth opportunities for the next decade include international tourism, a medical school and more corporate headquarters.
   
   But Robinson had just told us that the gap between the have and have-nots was increasing. That the fastest-growing population is mostly poor and undereducated Hispanics. Is it the destiny of the city to become a bunch of janitors at hotels catering to F-1 fans and SXSW geeks? (Sorry. I can get overly dramatic.)
   
   
3. Sustainability is the "central policy direction" of the Imagine Austin plan, but I wish that word hadn't been co-opted by environmentalists. Because it's a fitting word, but it implies that we should focus our efforts on the planet over people.
   
   My impression from the day's information is that most of our policy direction should be in growing Austin's middle class, particularly by providing mentoring, education and training ladders for our growing, young Hispanic population.
   
   This could resolve many of our current issues, including the racial divide, the economic gaps, and public-education shortcomings. And it's less about "helping the less fortunate" than it is about investing in one of our natural resources - people.

Robinson talked about the new, growing barrios in Austin and how they can either be a toehold for Hispanics to step into middle class or a trap. We already have them in a trap. Are we going to let that happen again?

Monica M. Williams is Communications Director at the Austin Community Foundation and Editor-in-Chief at GivingCity Austin Magazine.

January 2010 Engage - Race: Progress, Division, and Inclusion

In "post-racial" America, race is still a very important issue for us all to consider and discuss. This is particularly the case in Central Texas, where the racial divide can sometimes seem as impenetrable as the IH35 freeway. How best do we explore the lessons of the past and put the realities of the present into a vision for the future?

Ryan Robinson, Jeffrey Richard, and Celia Israel

Speakers:

• Celia Israel – Board of Directors, Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Community Affairs, Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, Inc.
• Jeffrey Richard – President and CEO, Austin Area Urban League
• Ryan Robinson - City Demographer, City of Austin
• Moderated by Jim Walker – Director of Sustainability, The University of Texas at Austin

References from the discussion:

• Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Austin Area Urban League
• City of Austin Demographics
• COA African American Quality of Life Initiative
• COA Hispanic Quality of Life Initiative
• Celia Israel's handout - Travis County Minority Voter Participation (PDF)

Audio:

Download this audio file (MP3)

Subscribe to the Leadership Austin Podcast via iTunes