Parks and Recreation Board Rejects Rainey Street Center

By Jillian Gaier
The Parks and Recreation Board voted down the Austin City Councils proposal
to create a Rainey Street History Center from a donated home. The vote took place at a
meeting at the PARD Annex building on Oct. 13.
On behalf of the City Council, Ricardo Soliz, division manager of the Parks and
Recreation Department, presented three potential locations for the center64 Rainey St.,
700 Cummings St. and undeveloped land on East Avenue. After explaining the
advantages and constraints of each site, Soliz asked the board to pick one to endorse. But
instead of selecting a site, the board rejected the project altogether.
Discussing the individual locations is kind of a moot point, said Parks and
Recreation board member Lynn Osgood. The issue here is the larger fact that there is no
partner organization looking to run the cultural facility and therefore, it doesnt even
seem viable in the first place.
According to Soliz, the current available funding for the project is about
$100,000, which would barely cover the cost of moving the house from its original
location at 93 Rainey St. In May, a developer donated the home to the City of Austin
because he wanted to build a cocktail lounge on the property.
But the board was skeptical of taking responsibility for the dilapidated house.
The reason I voted to reject (the recommendation) was because sometimes gifts
are more expensive than helpful, Osgood said. The city would have to take care of the
structure and the site and it would require too many resources.

Soliz responded to these criticisms from board members by informing them that at
this point, the City Council was more interested in the placement of the house than its
funding.
Its understandable that they rejected it because they had a lot of questions I
couldnt answer, Soliz said. We still dont know who would run it or pay for it yet.
Nevertheless, Soliz said he still believes the story of Rainey Street is one that
needs to be told.
According to The Texas Observer, Rainey Street was a low-income,
predominantly Hispanic neighborhood from the 1930s to the early 2000s. When it was
rezoned as a central business district in 2004, most residents couldnt afford the rising
property values and got displaced.
Demetrius Bertinelli, an employee at Container Bar on Rainey Street, said that he
thought the proposal for a history center was a joke.
Its not old enough for any of that, he said. I mean, the streets extremely old
so I guess there was stuff going on long before it got rezoned, but I dont think that
theres anything worthwhile.
Meanwhile, Bridget McCann, another Austin resident, said that shed be
interested to see how the unique row of eateries came to be.
I would go to a Rainey Street history center, she said. Ive always wondered
what the houses were before they were gutted out and turned into bars and restaurants.

Although Osgood rejected the recommendation on the grounds of insufficient

funding, she said that the Mexican American Cultural Center on Rainey Street could
potentially be a good place for the districts history to be highlighted.
I think Rainey Street has a fascinating past and its had huge developmental
changes that should be recognized, she said. Does it need its own independent facility
to do so? That Im not sure of.
However, in Solizs opinion, if someone were willing to fund it, the Rainey Street
History Center could have a lot of cultural value.
I dont know whether its a moneymaker or not, but definitely a tourist
attraction, he said. They could sell things like artifacts from the districtmaybe even
have an outdoor venue or patio of some sort that people could rent out.
While the Parks and Recreation Board voted the proposal down, Soliz plans to
continue seeking approval for a site to suit this purpose. He will appeal to other
government committees such as the Waller Creek Conservancy, the Hispanic Quality of
Life Commission and the Rainey Street Neighbors Association before the history centers
fate is decided in December.