District 7
drawn to comply with federal voting rights laws. District 7 thus mostly has white residents, but also has one of the largest Asian populations of the 10 districts.
Whichever candidate prevails here will represent distinctly different neighborhoods.
Allandale, Brentwood and Crestview were post-World-War-II suburbs that are now considered central — and targets for redevelopment.
Less-trendy, middle-class neighborhoods to the north were built mostly in the 1960s and ’70s. Residents there are not as worried about teardowns as they are about traffic along corridors like Parmer Lane and MoPac Boulevard.
And in the center of District 7 is the Domain, a dense mix of retail stores, offices and apartments that feels like a world unto itself. City leaders imagine the Domain and areas near it becoming a “second downtown” someday.
Crestview on the district’s south end is a blend of ages and incomes, including retirees and young families, said Matthew Armstrong, 40, a software company sales director who moved here about a year ago with his wife and two sons.
The streets are flat and lined with big trees, good for walking and biking, he said. The area has fun, small businesses like Little Deli and Top Notch Hamburgers; three high-quality, arts-focused schools; and deeply engaged residents “who form political groups like other people in Austin form bands,” he said.
What Crestview lacks is a park, he said. Residents are trying to persuade the city to turn an old Austin Energy site into parkland. (District 7 has the least park space of the 10, according to city demographer Ryan Robinson.)
Another problem is transit, Armstrong said. Crestview has a commuter rail stop at Lamar and Justin Lane, but there are no good paths to walk there, so it feels cut off from the neighborhood, he said.
Areas like Crestview and Allandale are also bracing for a wave of redevelopment, as buyers look for homes near the urban core and developers eye Burnet and Lamar for mixed-use projects. Allandale residents are even thinking about starting a legal defense fund to fight proposals that are out-of-sync with its zoning patterns.
“We have age-balanced neighborhoods, but the new infill growth tends to target a narrow demographic of young people. That’s been the cause of some cultural conflict,” said Steven Zettner, 46, who edits a neighborhood website about District 7. “We need good transportation and housing but want to do it in a way that maintains the existing communities here.”
Redevelopment isn’t a big concern farther north in Gracywoods, a subdivision off of Braker Lane.
The neatly kept homes were built in the 1970s and ’80s on what was formerly the Gracy dairy farm. The Gracy family home still stands, and guineas wander through landscaped yards.
The surrounding area has evolved from rural to suburban in the past few decades, with new apartments and offices on Metric Boulevard, a rail station on Kramer Lane, an Austin Community College branch and a large medical complex, said Gracywoods Neighborhood Association President Francoise Luca.
Gracywoods could use features like more sidewalks, storm sewers and creek erosion projects to protect a tributary of Walnut Creek, she said.
“There is still sort of a country feel here, and we need infrastructure to catch up with what’s happening around us,” said Luca, 54, who owns a marketing firm and a finance company.
On the district’s north end, hundreds of single-family homes are hidden behind sound walls on Parmer Lane. These areas sometimes struggle to get the city’s attention.
Homeowners in Scofield Farms, an upper-middle-class subdivision of brick homes, would like to see city leaders do something about traffic congestion along such heavy commuter corridors as Parmer, MoPac and Lamar, resident Steven Walden said.
Milwood, a neighborhood of smaller homes nearby, wants more speed bumps to fight cutthrough traffic, said Milwood Neighborhood Association President Ryan Lanier, a 44-year-old Spanish tutor. It is also waiting on the parks department to finish a hike-and-bike trail connecting Walnut Creek to Balcones District Park – a long-promised project that has been plagued by contractor problems and delays.
But Lanier said the neighborhood is safe and welcoming, with a city library, a park and plenty of shopping and amenities along U.S. 183.
“If you don’t want to go downtown, you don’t have to,” she said. “We have most of what we need right here.”