- [Female Announcer] ATX Together is made possible by Texas Mutual Insurance Company, workman's compensation insurance for Texas and by Roxanne Elder and Scott Borders.

- One of the biggest obstructions to me is I-35.

I call it the Red Sea, it takes an act of God to cross it.

- [Narrator] Just ahead on ATX Together, a new vision for I-35 that could help right the wrongs of its racist past.

- But really sort of thinking about our history, and who's been marginalized in our city.

And how can we leverage this as an opportunity?

- The best outcome for the people of color is to prioritize their values, to avoid further harm.

(upbeat music) - Hello, I'm Judy Maggio and this is ATX Together.

For the next half hour, a look at reimagining and rebuilding our city's most famous dividing line.

Austin is embarking on a once in a lifetime opportunity to help repair the legacy of segregation linked to I-35.

The highway has stood for decades as a reminder of our racist past when communities of color were all but forced to live east of that roadway.

Here to help us all understand our community's role in reshaping I-35 and the opportunities it presents, are Linda Guerrero, the co-chair of Our Future 35, Brion Oaks, Chief Equity Officer for the City of Austin, and Emily Risinger, the Planning and Urban Design Manager for the Downtown Austin Alliance.

Thanks for joining us.

I first want to set the stage and explain to people what's at stake here.

The Texas Department of Transportation has given the green light to a multi-billion dollar project.

So ultimately TxDOT is in the driver's seat on the infrastructure of I-35.

But the community's part, is influencing the process of how this highway is redesigned and reimagined.

So, imagine the possibilities for new land on top of the highway or beside the highway that could serve as a real resource and lift up communities of color and highlight cultural richness throughout our city.

It sounds like Austin could really be a model for major transportation cities that take equity and transparency into consideration.

And when you think about the fact that the new transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg is a good friend of the mayor, perhaps we really will be able to set some high standards.

I want to begin with this question.

Could each of you explain, even though the state is in the driver's seat, how the community can help navigate I-35's future.

Brion, let's begin with you.

- Sure, so I think this project brings us a really unique opportunity for the City of Austin.

And I'll be honest, I'll tell you that it took me some time to really get my hands around you know, how does this all work, right?

What is a cap and stitch really look like?

But the possibility for us to be able to really sort of cap I-35, if it's lower through textile plants onto your point we'll bring this new opportunity for new real estate new land to be developed within our city and therein lies this unique opportunity that it actually presents us to really kind of imagine what we could do with this space.

And I think that there's a lot of things that have to sort of come together to bring that to fruition, such as the, you know, the financing or the funding, or where are we going to find it to be able to sort of carry out some of the ideas.

But I think most importantly is the process that we go through as a community to really sort of figure out how we envision the use of this potential new space.

And I know that we'll get into it more in our discussion but really sort of thinking about our history, and who's been marginalized in our city, and how can we leverage this as an opportunity to really sort of make amends with some of our history of wrongs, I think is a really important piece of this project for me.

- Linda.

- You know, the I-35 working group came together and the main focus was that, you know, righting wrongs is an important and crucial step in order to begin to heal.

It's a process.

And we felt like the best outcome for the people of color is to prioritize their values to avoid further harm.

And so the I-35 group has come together by using the Urban Land Institute report as a guide, to create and share a mutual community vision.

And we were able to identify the community values such as equity and accountability.

And through this whole process, we began by scheduling four community engagement sessions with KAZI to address historical injustices and exclusions in the East Austin community.

And with several of these sessions, you know, when you acknowledge the past injustices, and share experiences, you're able to have this crucial step to move forward to a healing process.

And these sessions were able to unite a core group into a process to build trust and consensus that enabled us to create a working group, a scoping working group, to tackle the required work.

And through this scoping working group we were able to collectively review and respond to TxDOT's, scoping documents.

And, again, this is so important because a huge component for us was to be able to have a facilitator.

And Life Anew was able to guide us through some very difficult and important sessions to address and identify the issues to help move forward in the major issues that community felt were the most important.

- Emily, Brion mentioned something that I'd like for you to expound on a little bit, because some people might not understand what cap and stitch really means.

So I'd like for you to talk about the city's role, but before you do that, could you explain what the whole cap and stitch process is and what that means when it comes to the design of a highway?

- Sure.

So we, we use the term cap and stitch a lot during this process and probably a well-known example that people are familiar with from Texas of a cap, in Dallas they have something called Klyde Warren Park where the highway was tunneled underground, and then atop of that they were able to build a multiple acre park with lots of amenities, it's a, you know, a tree lined, civic space, it's a gathering space.

There's a transit hub that runs through it.

So when we're saying cap, we're referring to being able to have a park over where the highway is today.

And by stitches we're meaning bridges that also have a green element to them.

So for example, instead of having fast moving cars right next to a sidewalk, we could have, you know, lanes for cars and buses, but also have more room for cyclists and people walking, or crossing of all ages and abilities to get across and along the corridor.

- So talk about the role that the community can play in this opportunity to redesign this highway, Emily.

- You know, really, it's a lot about thinking of this bigger picture and by bigger picture, I mean thinking beyond what exists there today, you know, where we've got this special opportunity right now to address a lot of the deeply entrenched systemic inequities and injustices that have been created by the creation of highways and in our major cities.

And we also have an amazing opportunity to have a voice in the process now in these early phases of the design as TxDOT is starting to look into ways to renovate the highway.

And so, you know, just thinking about this broader picture and a future where there's no longer this massive concrete barrier cars go underground, we could have, you know, a green spine, if you will, or boulevard that makes healthier ways for people to get to their jobs, to their homes, to their schools, safer crossings, and really just recreating, recapturing that land where the highway is now so that we can have community benefits from this.

And so having a voice in the process, is really important right now before, you know, the construction would get underway.

And so we can make sure that the project addresses community needs and provides positive outcomes for the communities as particularly the most vulnerable.

- Linda, let's talk about what you're hearing from the community because I know you've been holding these forums with Our Future study group, Our Future 35 study group.

So what are you hearing?

What are the key takeaways from the people who've been attending these meetings about reimagining I-35, Linda?

- I really feel like they have been extremely thoughtful and considerate about formulating the categories that are most important to them.

For example, you know, environmental justice, public space, affordable housing, right to return.

They came forward with some very significant categories that meant a lot to them when they were looking at participating in the scoping working group.

And one of the things that I think was extremely important was how they brought forward their concerns, for example, you know, over again, and over again they brought up concerns about the homeless living under I-35, and how they could advocate for a plan to be implemented.

It was very important to this group, that they agreed and had consensus on this mutual goal of quality of life.

And this led the group into creating a protective circle of you know, these major categories such as affordable housing and environmental justice.

And the one significant thing that I felt came out of this was the need to implement affordable requirements for new and existing housing options using the federal standards as a very high priority.

You know, what's interesting is that, our participants have a deep understanding of the depth of their community issues, and the potential road blocks and harms that could affect the residents, business owners, and the college students that live and work within this I-35 corridor.

And so, you know, they establish these core values that transformed into working groups with specific issues as they worked through being able to, in the end, come up with a report that was submitted to TxDOT regarding their virtual scoping documents.

It was quite significant, how concerned and considerate this group was.

- And I understand the community's already written like 2,000 letters to TxDOT, is that right?

- Yes, the involvement has been enormous.

This cohesive group has come together, and put forward a lot of effort, and they've stepped up to the challenges, and they've worked very hard to spread the word that this is the time to step forward in order to ensure that they have a voice and a place at the table with TxDOT.

- Brion, you know very well that transportation and equity issues go hand-in-hand.

But this is a quite unique situation.

You have a highway that's rooted in racism for decades separating communities of color with white Austinites.

How can a redesigned I-35, this re-imagined I-35, make amends to the people who've been hurt the most by this barrier?

Can a roadway actually right wrongs?

- The first thing that I think about is for this project to be successful in order to, I should say, rewrite our history, it really has to be rooted in the voices of the people that experienced historically that harm.

And I really appreciate the efforts that Linda and her team are doing because they're really centering those voices in the process.

And it really has to be led and designed by them.

And I feel confident to say that if we can really sort of center those voices and let those voices lead, we'll come up with ideas and solutions that can really get us to, you know, to that.

Could this project be the end all be all to make amends for all those wrongdoings?

No, of course not.

But I think it presents a unique opportunity for us to figure out how to get it right and to do it in the right way.

I think some of the things that I think about from an equity perspective is that, JP Morgan did a report for us about a year ago around the racial wealth gap.

And one of the things that really sort of, just sort of struck me, was that Black and Latinx families back in 1980 were better off financially than they are today.

They shared a higher percentage of median family income in 1980 than they do today.

You know, we step into a history of other sort of development projects like this where I will honestly say that I didn't feel Black and Brown communities benefited at the level that they should.

And this is an opportunity for us to get it right, and to do it in a different way.

- One of the things that Linda mentioned was the city's homeless population.

And you told me a statistic that I think everybody should know, about the number of people of color, especially Black Austinites, who are homeless compared to the percentage of Black Austinites that live in the city.

Could you talk about that and maybe ways that this redesign of I-35 might help attack that issue.

- Right, I think when we talk about people experiencing homelessness in our city I don't feel like we have enough of this conversation around how racialized of an experience that is for our city.

And so for me, one of the things that I would really look for in this project is the opportunity for deeply affordable, low-income housing, resources for our community that experiences homelessness, and how do we sort of really connect those things to this opportunity that we have are some of the things that I look for and really trying to champion and advocate for as we develop our vision.

I just think that that's essential for us.

- Emily, your group, the Downtown Austin Alliance is partnering with the city to make sure this corridor is built for, as you said, for people and not just cars.

Because when you look at it right now, as you said, it's just a big block of cement and we see way too many cars on it.

But how would that work?

How would that people factor play a role in the development and vision of this new highway and what it could mean to the community?

- I think, you know, kind of to what Linda was saying too, it's a whole new model.

This is a whole new way of doing business, if you will, than how we've done these types of large infrastructure projects in the past by really centering communities of color in the driver's seat, in partnership with the city, and the Downtown Austin Alliance is partnering to help everyone in the process so that we can move forward towards some more positive change and to a corridor that really connects us as opposed to divides us.

And so I think part of this new model that we're working towards that.

As Linda mentioned, you know, it started with the healing, and the acknowledgement and a lot of tough community conversations that we needed to have and that we continue to have and need to have.

But just, you know, working together as a community so that we're not just reacting to this type of project but that we're proactively restoring this as a civic space, and identifying together the outcomes that we want to see as opposed to, you know, working in silos or working, you know, not as a unified community around this major project that will really affect everyone in our city and beyond.

So we encourage everybody to, you know, get involved and to broaden their understanding of this project from just being about cars, and really being focused on people and the opportunities that we can have to have better spaces for families, and for future generations, and other cities that might also be going through similar processes of lowering a highway that's divided their city and us providing a model, and a new way of approaching engagement that's equitable and participatory, and a real partnership where the community is driving that vision and those outcomes.

And building capacity for everybody to work together, to achieve them.

- This sounds wonderful.

I'm wondering, in reality, explain how even though TxDOT is in charge of the design, how can we as a community really do this influence on making it an equitable resource?

So what rights do we have, if we have to come in and kind of pay, Brion, for some of this park land, or, you know what would be the city's role in this from an economic standpoint?

- Well, I think that's going to be one of the challenges as a part of this project is, you know, we need TxDOT to ensure that as they redesign I-35 that they build it to the specifications so that we can actually have this cap and stitch that we've talked about.

But, you know, the second part of that is that as we sort of visualize and envision what we want these sort of newly developed spaces to be, is also finding the funding to be able to do that and exploring different funding strategies for us as a city and community, to be able to sort of pay for some of the themes of the ideas, you know, that we have.

I know that in some of the conversations there have been discussions around what they call tax increment financing zones, perhaps as a strategy to really be able to generate funding for projects in this area.

But then I also think that as a city, in terms of how we sort of visualize this space there could be other opportunities for us to sort of allocate dollars for different initiatives that we have as a city to really sort of come together to be able to fund some of the projects in this area too.

- So we talked about the city's role, but really we're here today to talk about individual roles, and what we can all do.

And that is what our call to action is all about.

And Linda, I'll start with you.

What can people watching this program today do to really help make sure I-35 in the future is this equitable resource, and perhaps right some of the wrongs of Austin's racial past?

- I think that it's key that we form together the idea that East Austin is going to be the most effected by this change.

They will be enduring for years, whatever dust, debris, whatever change has happened, the kind of, you know, traffic that has to be re-aligned to get this built out.

And so I think it's important that they do understand that these values are very significant components, and that they come to our website, I-35, the Future of I-35 website, and participate with letter writing, to show their support for this community, to make that contribution and acknowledge.

Acknowledgement is so huge.

And it's a big piece of this entire process that we've been working for over a year on.

And so I feel like if the community can come together and completely understand the need to move forward, to heal and to ask for more, to show that they're willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work in order to get what they consider prime quality of life back.

I think it's important that everyone else join forces and we unite as a city and come together and say, we will do this.

We will step up to the task that is needed, and give the support needed to make and ensure this actually happens five, six, or eight years down the road.

Whatever it's going to take, we're going to be there, and we're going to stand together.

- Emily?

- Yeah, I'll just add to what Linda said.

You know, we definitely encourage everybody to visit OurFuture35.org.

We have an advocacy page where the groups that have been working together in the community in partnership with the downtown and the city will continue to post calls to action.

We encourage you to stay up-to-date by visiting OurFuture35.org and supporting those community values that we've been working on.

And also, you know, I think being involved in committees and commissions is very helpful, you know, reaching out to your elected officials and council members to share with them, your vision for the project is always a great way to be involved.

And also TxDOT is going to be having a next comment period for the public.

And you can submit comments directly to TxDOT.

And this next open comment period will start on February 24th and last through March 25th.

And you could submit comments directly through their website as well, My35capex.com.

So we encourage everybody to have a voice in the process, get involved, check out our advocacy page, and help share, you know, the history and the importance of this project with others.

- Brion, what is your call to action today?

- I would definitely say reach out to your city council members and the City of Austin.

We actually have recently formed an inter-departmental team that's really dedicated to this project so that as city departments we can begin to sort of plan and strategize.

And we also plan on working and connecting to community the work that Linda and Emily are doing as well.

And so definitely let your voice be heard, through the city of Austin itself because we sort of see ourselves playing a big role in being a partner with the community in this process too.

- Well, I know there's a long road ahead, so to speak.

But it sounds like all of you are doing a tremendous job to get the community involved, and let everyone know that we all have a voice in the future of the interstate to make sure it is an equitable resource.

Brion Oaks, Chief Equity Officer for the City of Austin.

Linda Guerrero, Co-Chair of Our Future 35.

And Emily Risinger with the Downtown Austin Alliance.

Thank you so much for giving us insight on how we can all have a voice on the future of I-35.

If you'd like to take a deeper dive on the redevelopment of I-35, simply go to the Austin PBS website and click on ATX Together to find links and resources.

Another way to keep the conversation going, join the ATX Together Facebook group, or on Twitter, use the hashtag atxtogether.

Thank you for watching and join us next time for another vital discussion on ATX Together.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] ATX together is made possible by, Texas Mutual Insurance Company, workman's compensation insurance for Texas.

And by Roxanne Elder and Scott Borders.

(flute music)