Parks and Recreation Board Rejects Rainey Street Center

By Jillian Gaier
AUSTIN, TexasThe 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 Parks and Recreation Department 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,
developer Austin Rainey St. D/E/P, LLC donated the home to the City of Austin because the
company wanted to build a new 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.