Blue Cat Cafe CLOSED - The Boycott On the Property Remains!
Defend Our Hoodz is proud to announce, after three years of hard-fought struggle, the boycott against Blue Cat Cafe is victorious and the gentrifying, white supremacist hub is now closed for good. A moving truck was seen removing the last of their things yesterday, Feb. 4, 2019. We’re told that they’ve had irregular hours for months and are no longer able to pay their rent.
Now that they are shut down, we continue to uphold the boycott against the landlords, Jordan French and Darius Fisher (also known as F&F), who violently demolished the Jumpolin Piñata store in February 2015.
Any business attempting to lease the space will face the same fierce boycott we have held against Blue Cat that has led to their closing.
From Blue Cat’s opening day in October 2015, until now, we’ve maintained a militant boycott. The demand three years ago was to not provide F&F rent money because of their demolition of the Jumpolin pinata store. When Rebecca Gray, the owner of Blue Cat, ignored this demand, we pursued a strategy of direct action, to make Blue Cat so unprofitable that they couldn’t afford to pay F&F.
For all those who have stood with us, and seen through the lies, the distortions of gentrifiers, and even attacks from supposed community leaders about our organizing and group, we thank you immensely for your support. This victory is yours as well, especially if you have ever joined us on the picket line or spread the word about the boycott of Blue Cat Cafe.
For anyone who defends gentrification, Blue Cat Cafe, the scumbag landlords Jordan French and Darius Fisher, and ignores Blue Cat’s alliance with nazis and trump supporters, ignores their countless customer reviews of animal neglect and poor sanitation, and denies their employee testimonials of abusive management and wage theft - you stand with all of the racism and exploitation that the landlords, Blue Cat, and their white supremacist allies have carried out.
If Blue Cat Cafe and Rebecca Gray, ever deserved empathy (which they didn’t), she gave up any supposed high ground when she invited her Nazi brother and his fellow fascists to organize a picket-busting gang to attack us. Those who attack us and defend her are directly on the side of exploitation and white supremacy, and today, your side lost the battle.
Some may claim that we didn’t have anything do with their closing, and it wasn’t our tactics that won this. This is pure fantasy. Blue Cat Cafe is leaving because they couldn’t withstand the unified force of people militantly holding them accountable. We made her Gentrification project unprofitable.
The fact is, if a cat cafe were to be successful anywhere, it would be Austin, where the dominant, mostly white, liberal ruling-class is notorious for valuing animal life over Black, Chicano, Immigrant, and working class people. We are an animal-obsessed city, and for as long as Blue Cat has existed, people have used the cats as a shield for the actions of Blue Cat Cafe, F&F, and the Nazis themselves. The landlords knew what they were doing by leasing to Blue Cat - they are also in the PR game. They thought cute cats would get people to shut up.
But, it was our resolve and principled struggle against Blue Cat Cafe that has led to this outcome, not the same tired paths of those who want to surrender at the first sign of a long and difficult fight, especially one that will not build political careers or bring in non-profit funding.
Blue Cat Cafe started their first day of business crossing a community boycott against the landlords, Jordan French and Darius Fisher. Blue Cat Owner Rebecca Gray thought she knew better than the community and those saying to decrease the profit from the site after F&F violently demolished the Jumpolin Piñata Store. She was notified multiple times, asked by the Jumpolin family and the barrio not to move in, but she ignored their calls. For this, Blue Cat was picketed on its opening day, and on a regular basis ever since.
Those first pickets were tame - but Rebecca Gray consistently escalated things. Our pickets would stay on the sidewalk, but she would insert herself into our picket, bumping into us, and like a soccer player taking a dive, fake that we pushed her. She would get in people’s faces, like the entitled middle-class business owner that she is, and try to argue with us, when we had made it clear that the only thing to discuss was if she would close her business.
Our resolve caused her to grow more and more unhinged each time she encountered us. At one picket, she came out to the picket line drunk, and proceeded to roll around on the ground, making lewd gestures that disturbed those of us there.
We have known that Rebecca is a alcoholic and has multiple DWIs. While racists and ignorant people claim that working-class people in the barrio are drug-users and don’t deserve to keep their communities because they are irresponsible - the owner of Blue Cat Cafe was a dangerous alcoholic who drives with a suspended license, endangering others in the community. This is the blatant hypocrisy of gentrifiers and small business owners (of all backgrounds) who believe they are harder working or more noble than those who don’t own a business. The fact is that Rebecca needs professional help and has no place operating a small business.
Over time, numerous customer and employee reports began to emerge of animal neglect and employee mistreatment. Kittens were adopted out with diseases. Liquid Feces would be left on the floor and employees would pay for animal care out of their own pockets. Employees also reported wage theft and abusive treatment from Rebecca.
Our struggle escalated when Rebecca accused our organization of an incident that occurred in October 2016. Someone tagged the building and glued the locks shut. We don’t know who did this, yet Rebecca clearly implied it was us to the Austin-American Statesman, who never contacted us for comment.Because of this sloppy reporting, Alex Jones of Infowars himself picked up the story, and began to direct his rabid, racist Trump-loving followers to attack our organization. Rebecca did an interview with Infowars, where she referred to us as ‘hate group’ and ‘terrorists’.
From that point on, the alt-right and white supremacists made Blue Cat Cafe their own pet cause. The interviews with infowars helped fuel her gofundme, which raised over $15,000, including a $500 donation, left with a comment that said: ‘I hope these protesters die a slow horrible death’ and other violent and racist statements.
We have had regular white supremacist trolls ever since. Nazis in town for the “White Lives Matter” rally in November 2016 spoke of plans to visit the cafe and called to offer their admiration and support.But this still wasn’t the full view of her white supremacist ties. We began to notice a man lurking around our March for Jumpolin in February 2017.
Not long after, he was seen at another white supremacist event, an attack on the revolutionary May Day march, and he was identified as Paul Gray, Rebecca’s brother.And then, we came face to face with Paul when Rebecca invited him to ‘protect’ Blue Cat from our pickets. He gathered fellow Nazis, including Erik Sailors, and others who would later go to Charlottesville, and attacked our picket line on site, before we had even reached the sidewalk of Blue Cat Cafe.
For being uncompromising about gentrification and Blue Cat Cafe, for fighting Nazis, we have earned the insults of people from many backgrounds. And while some may vote for Trump, and others think they’re liberal - they share one thing in common - they took the side of a gentrifier with ties to Nazis because of their own delusions of what is the ‘proper’ way to fight gentrification.
But we know they are on the wrong side of history. We stand in solidarity with militant anti-gentrification groups across the country, especially our comrades in Boyle Heights LA. They too have maintained longstanding boycotts against art galleries invading their community, and because of their resolve, have seen their movement grow, and one by one, the galleries start to fall. The forces of capitalism are beginning to fail in their strategy of using art galleries, or quirky coffee shops and cat cafes, as their forward guard of gentrification.
We know this is only the beginning. Other communities must take up the militant anti-Gentrification fight. But we know that capitalist interests will become more vindictive and more violent in protecting their investments. They will try to target leaders, and anyone affiliated with them. They have money and investments on the line.As Blue Cat Cafe demonstrated when they originally defied the boycott, the on-the-ground gentrifiers don’t think they are responsible for enabling exploiters like F&F, yet they paid rent into their pockets every month and helped shield F&F this whole time.
Now, with their space vacant, we warn anyone even considering moving into the space vacated by Blue Cat Cafe - we will go ten times harder against you than we did against Blue Cat. While Rebecca faked ignorance about the boycott, any business owner claiming the same will be exposed as complete liar.
If working-class Austinites truly want to fight gentrification, and not just feel defeated by it, they must take on the struggle of making sure that gentrifiers, developers, and other exploiters feel as uncomfortable and scared as the working-class feels in the face of gentrification.Gentrification destroys communities, leaves people homeless, leaves children traumatized, the elderly stressed and strained to survive. It is a war, and the longer that we act like it can be fought through fake peace - through going through the system that creates gentrification itself, the longer the working-class will feel defeated. But we are hopeful.
We didn’t give up on our fight, and we have won a small battle. We continue to fight new fronts, like Lou’s Bodega, or our ongoing campaign to stop the ‘Domain on Riverside’ that threatens thousands of students and workers. There are many others on the horizon, but we have been tested and will continue to grow stronger.
Join The Struggle - Fight Gentrification with Revolution!
Boycott the Landlords, Jordan French and Darius Fisher, who Demolished Jumpolin!
Destroy Profits from Violent Displacement!
Build the Militant Anti-Gentrification Movement and Fight for the Working class!
The ‘Pop’ Goes ‘Poof’! Riverside Arts District Sellouts in Retreat!
We are excited to announce that the Riverside Arts District tent, which they refer to as ‘The Pop’, has been taken down and Almost Real Things has moved their $30 a ticket 'Block Party’ away from the lot!
The Riverside Arts District is a project of the Austin Creative Alliance and Presidium Group, the developers trying to tear down 1400 units of student and worker housing in order to build a ‘Domain on Riverside’. Defend Our Hoodz alongside Riverside tenants have called for a boycott of the arts district to fight the attempts to make Riverside the next ‘hot’ area for real estate investment that will displace more and more working-class Austinites.
Multiple artists honored the boycott and took their name off the lineup. We especially thank Kiko Villamizar for making a strong statement against the Arts District. Chulita Vinyl Club left the lineup but still will not acknowledge the organized boycott or the community fighting the 'Domain on Riverside’.
The arts district sellouts such as Almost Real Things, pump project, Austin Creative Alliance, and others are realizing that Riverside is going to put up a fight against gentrification, and it won’t be as easy as the gentrification of North of the river over the past two decades. There, many of these same middle-class, mostly white artists exploited the working-class mostly Black and Chicano communities for the cheap rents while sidelining the existing community. Once they helped raise the profile and value of real estate for developers, they want to cry that they are victims of displacement and are trying to move South. This time, they are explicitly working with the developers from the start so they can make sure they’re taken care of while the working-class community of Riverside gets kicked out.
We won’t let them. We have picketed their events and dozens of artists are standing with the people and joining the boycott. Now is the time for everyone to fight back against the wealthy developers who play games with our communities. The people must unite and organize against the attempts to make Riverside the next playground for the wealthy.
Artists must pick a side! When you collaborate with developers, you aren’t 'trying to make it’, you’re stepping on the working-class and serving yourself. Art should serve the people, not wealthy developers!
Sellout artists who side with exploiters will be treated as exploiters. Our fight is just beginning and wherever the Arts District goes, we’ll be there! With the tenacity of the working-class and the creativity of the people, we will show Austin’s elites that we aren’t going to let their gentrification schemes go unopposed any longer!
We are excited to release our first podcast, Riverside Rising! We hope to bring you more episodes soon documenting the ongoing struggle against the ‘Domain on Riverside’ and amplifying the voice of the Riverside community. In this first episode, we go from our community journal release party at the Metropolis Apartments pool, to running developers out of their own meetings, get our mics cut at a gentrifier music venue, and confront parasite managers for calling the cops on people just for organizing and informing tenants. It’s all part of the struggle that is building to fight back against developers’ plans to turn Riverside into another playground for the rich. But their plans won’t happen unopposed, because Riverside is Rising!
Dont Rhine, who visited us from Los Angeles, shares some words of solidarity at an action to mark Blue Cat Cafe’s gentrifier anniversary. Dont talked the talk and shared his experience organizing tenants in Los Angeles at our discussion event, but he walked the walk on the picket line to show gentrifiers from Austin to LA - that they need to go away!
Solidarity On The Cheap - A Response to Treasure City Thrift’s ban of Defend Our Hoodz
We are sharing our response to Treasure City Thrift for their unprincipled decision to reject our request for event space for our upcoming Discussion with Housing Activist Dont Rhine on Saturday Oct. 13, 4PM at Austin School of Film. Treasure City had ‘months long deliberation’ regarding our group but never once invited us to sit and discuss their concerns.
Their response to our request:
“Thanks for thinking of us as you are planning this event. Following months-long deliberation, we’ve decided that many of DOH’s tactics, and their repeated incidents of ill will and aggression towards our community partners, do not align with our values at this time. Perhaps in the future we will reconsider, but for now we must respectfully decline your request.
We hope that this leaves you enough time to find a different venue.
Best,
Treasure City Collective”
Our Response:
Dear Treasure City Collective,
We are extremely disappointed in your decline of our request for event space after an extended and productive relationship with our organization. We were grateful when y'all openly supported the boycott against Blue Cat Cafe from the beginning, and have been grateful for the many times you have opened your space to us.
But this decision shows a clear backwards trajectory regarding your engagement with the community and a downward path to divorce yourselves from the struggle against exploitation in our city.
We would hope that Treasure City, which many of us have a long relationship with even prior to DOH, would find ways to once again support our organization. But with this decision, the burden is on y'all to show a willingness to engage with the very real politics that must be addressed regarding gentrification and the movement against it, especially because you didn’t even engage with us before coming to your decision.
Our most basic disappointment comes from the fact that over the ‘months-long’ deliberation, you never once reached out to discuss things with us, even though our representatives were proactive in offering to do so. We understand there are disagreements with our tactics and politics, but we are more than willing to defend and explain them, and will also acknowledge the truth in criticisms that are made in good faith. This shows the hypocrisy of your decision. While you had collective discussion for yourselves, our community was excluded from the chance to respond to criticisms or allegations against us.
Because of your lack of engagement, we have chosen to go public and forgo a private response. While are still open to discussion and addressing your position face to face, you have shown an unwillingness to operate in good faith, and we believe our supporters deserve to know why we will not be working with Treasure City for the foreseeable future.
Many of our members have committed time, energy, and resources to Treasure City as a collective project. We have not only held events there, but promoted and helped Treasure City thrive as a community space throughout its existence.
Sadly, Treasure City, while professing to be a radical, revolutionary space, has shown that you have no taste for political struggle, a trademark of liberals. Treasure City claims to be built on anarchist principles of collectivism, accountability, and horizontalism. We have already pointed out how this 'horizontalism’ was not extended to us, even though it was our actions that were in question. Collective discussion was not extended to us. The 'accountability’ was never offered for us to even show up and answer for what they paint as 'aggression and ill will’.
And while anarchism claims to be against the state, and against institutional authority, Treasure City has sided with the very people who are protecting capitalist hegemony in our city and beyond, in particular those who have shown institutional alignment with gentrifiers and other venal organizations, such as the detention center and charter school operator, Southwest Key.
You claim we have shown 'ill will and agression towards your 'community partners’. Since you do not specify, we can only make educated guesses about who you mean. Looking at your community partners on your website, we assume you are talking about Undoing Racism Austin.
Undoing Racism Austin, and their 'white caucus’ - Undoing White Supremacy Austin, is notorious for having led the blockade against us at the 'Real Solutions to Austin’s Gentrification Crisis’ held earlier this year. They held a blockade to defend a panel led by the NIMBY group, Community not Commodity, which included a real estate developer, a ruling-class journalist, and so-called community leaders.
One of these leaders was Susana Almanza, who is now running for city council. Defend Our Hoodz was specifically there to highlight her role in facilitating the displacement of Cactus Rose Mobile Home Park and Thrasher Lane. A resident from Thrasher Lane, now displaced to Del Valle, stated her own intention to 'warn everyone about Almanza’.
Undoing Racism worked themselves into a panic prior to the event, and blocked the doors alongside others who started calling us and our supporters many things, including racial slurs. A young black organizer was called the n-word by one of the people helping Undoing Racism block the doors. They not only blocked many of our organizers, but other community members who were only there to attend.
In addition, Undoing Racism, which postures as anti-racists, allowed the white supremacist cops to be called on us by the event. They have absurdly claimed since they had no role in the cops coming, even though the entire escalation of the situation was their doing.
We also have to add that this entire event was hosted at Southwest Key, the very same non-profit organization that operates 27 child detention centers across the US and whose CEO makes $1.5 million a year off of the backs of immigrant and working-class children. Undoing Racism Austin literally defended the doors of an organization profiting from child detention centers. These are the 'community partners’ that Treasure City has chosen to side with.
Looking through the list of Treasure City’s other community partners, we have had no issues with any of them. The only other group we have criticized in the past was Casa Marianella, when they partnered with a former Border Patrol agent to raise money off his book sales. We don’t apologize for our criticism of this or regret the disruption we participated in of this Border Pig’s book discussion, which raised money for Casa Marianella.
What is clear is that Treasure City, which was founded with an expressly political purpose, fears political struggle. You are hiding behind terms like 'aggression’ and 'ill will’ to paint our politics as extreme or without purpose. This is nothing more than liberalism with a radical mask. In fact, we see Democrats and liberals use the same respectability politics time after time to try and discredit any organizing outside of institutional channels.
We reiterate that had Treasure City asked to speak with any representative of DOH in their 'months-long’ deliberation, we would have gladly met with you to address any concerns or acknowledge the truth of any criticisms. But you’ve shown that your 'collective’ process is merely for yourselves, and true engagement with other organizing communities about tactical and political matters are off the table, especially it it means having to have difficult conversations.
We call on our supporters to question Treasure City on their stance. We also call on those who have supported either of our orgs to investigate things for themselves, and recognize that we have been open and clear about our politics and tactics. We regret Treasure City’s decision, but even as people opportunistically try and dismiss us, we will continue to organize and grow, as we have been doing steadily. We stand by our organizing and our struggle against gentrification and exploitation in this city.
We have draw many lines and we will continue to see people fall to one side or the other. We can resign ourselves to the path of capitulation, opportunism, and the taming of resistance, or we can enthusiastically join the path of struggle and fighting back against our exploiters and those who aid them. While we enjoy the support of many organizations and spaces, at the end of the day, the only space we truly need to carry out this work is in the streets.
These organizations have all aligned themselves with the ‘‘Riverside Arts District’, which is headed by the Austin Creative Alliance in collaboration with Presidium Group, the developers who want to build a ‘Domain on Riverside’. We will boycott these groups and businesses as long as they maintain ties to the developer to their own benefit and at the expense of the working-class and oppressed residents of the Riverside area.
This collusion between sell-out artists, non-profits, and a gentrifier developer is a slap in the face to the tenants of Ballpark and Town Lake Apartments and all working-class residents in Riverside. While the developers are attempting to rezone our apartments in order to tear them down and build a luxury development, they are cutting deals with gentrifiers.
The Pump Project will be the anchor tenant of the ‘Interim Arts District’ at 1600 Pleasant Valley, directly across the street from Ballpark West. The land that it is holding space on is slated as part of phase 2 of the ‘Domain on Riverside’.
This arts district offers nothing to the working-class, Chicano, Black, and immigrant community who live in the Riverside Area. While the working-class creates art by and for the people, developers use art to cover up their plans for our destruction.
The arts scene and artists can not remain neutral in the fight against gentrification and displacement. They must choose to side with the people, not the developers, landlords, and other hustlers who exploit us for profit. If you side with the developers, we will treat you no differently than we treat them, as unwelcome invaders. We will not allow Riverside to go the way of central East Austin, without a fierce fight.
Gentrifiers have only one agenda - the full displacement of working-class communities. There is no entertaining them as equal partners with the working-class who they displace. They have waged war against us but we call on the people to fight back.
Boycott the Riverside Arts District!
Boycott Non-Profit Hustlers like Austin Creative Alliance!
Artists, organizations, and businesses signed on to boycott:
Savannah Garza, Mopac Media, JT Kelley, Keith LLC, Adam Serwa, On The Fringe Productions, Sean Shirley, Outer Limit, Anna Suits, GEOFFE & EVERYBODY, Dyrtwülf, Street Sects, David Rawlinson, Kriss Bellatrix, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Latino Comedy Project, ChiClopz, SOMAR ATX, La Lucha Sigue, Austin Tango Blast, Home Rituals, Stonewall Militant Front, symlink, Maddy Brotherton, EHSP16, ATX Barrio Archive, Oscar Ornelas, Social Justice Warboy, Sertified, Filiberto Mendieta, Nepantla, USA, The Gnarly Florist, Doppelgengar, Jumpolin, Christelle
More Information
Austin Creative Alliance
has been working hand-in-hand with Presidium Group, the main force behind the “Domain on Riverside” to create their Riverside Arts District. They are soliciting numerous other artists and try to get artists, art groups, non-profits, and more to be part of what is nothing more than a real estate scheme with the mask of a cultural project. The site they are beginning to develop is shown as the second phase of the ‘Domain on Riverside’ maps created by the developers. Groups like the Pump Project are highly aware of this, and we can assume they expect to get subsidized space in future massive developments by colluding with the Presidium Group. Austin Creative Alliance will be a tenant in the ‘Interim Arts District’.
Pump Project
will be the anchor tenant of the ‘Interim Arts District’ at 1600 Pleasant Valley which sits on land owned by Presidium slated for development as the ‘Domain on Riverside’. They rent studio spaces to mostly white, middle-class artists, and recently left their space in the historic East Austin Barrio endind up in Riverside,
Pump Project offers nothing to the working-class and immigrant community who live in the Riverside Area. While the working-class creates art by and for the people, the predictable oil paintings, geometric jewelry, and corny Etsy shops are the products of an empty, self-indulgent, middle-class consumer culture that is passed off as creativity.
Their studio spaces are for people with the luxury of having art as a hobby or selling overpriced handmade jewelry. In fact, one of the Pump Project Artists, Limbo Jewelry, has a storefront in the Domain itself! This fact is ironic after the revelation of the racist Domain ad that described a typical Domain customer as ‘well-heeled woman’ who describes herself as ‘Anglo, Jewish, or Asian’ who drives two cars and wears designer jewelry…that she probably got at Limbo!
Come and Take It Live has Presidium Group as a landlord. This in and of itself is not our grievance. Instead, they are receiving reduced rent from Presidium Group and are part of Presidium’s overall push of the Arts District.This reduced rents is a slap in the face to the Ballpark Residents who are facing rent increases as their complex is targeted for rezoning. By taking Presidium’s bribe, they are acting as scabs. They should reject any special treatment or deals with Presidium if they stand with the working-class of Riverside.
Artwashing is a well-known strategy in the toolkits of gentrifiers. Property owners and developers use the cultural cred of the arts scene in order to facilitate their agenda of raising the status and profitability of neighborhoods. They do this by catering to and uplifting first-wave, artist gentrifiers who are directly involved in transforming a working-class neighborhood into a gentrified community. These artists are typically mostly white and middle-class, though gentrifier artists come from all backgrounds.
To combat artwashing, we look to the brave people of the Boyle Heights barrio of Los Angeles, who have upheld a long-term boycott campaign against art galleries that have invaded their community. They have successfully shut down five art galleries and counting. They understand, and we agree, that the arts scene and artists are not neutral in the fight against gentrification and displacement, and must pick a side. Their struggle inspires us and shows that when the people fight back, with commitment and ferocity, we can win, and reverse the course of strategies that developers have employed to mask their exploitation of working-class hoods.
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No More Rubber Stamps for Gentrification! Tell City Staff ‘No Domain on Riverside’!
As tenants at Ballpark and Town Lake Apartments organize to defend their homes, the rezoning application threatening to turn their land into a new ‘Domain on Riverside’ slowly but surely makes its way through the city’s review process. In other Austin battles against redevelopment, communities have typically used this period of bureaucratic evaluation to prepare for the city commission hearings, the legally-sanctioned venue to voice dissent against rezoning cases.
City staff are often treated as impartial employees just doing their job, but they are an integral piece of the tsunamis of redevelopment that are flooding out our communities. Which is why today, Defend Our Hoodz and tenants from the Riverside area visited city offices to tell them to say ‘No’ to the rezoning application that will allow developers to build their luxury monstrosity on Riverside.
The City of Austin does its best to appear as if it is against gentrification. It adopts phony Strategic Housing Blueprints and starts do-nothing Anti-Displacement Task Forces to direct attention away from its clear collaboration with parasitic developers. But the city is not controlled by developers, nor is it an ignorant accomplice in gentrification. It can only be described as an active partner in the hostile removal of working people from Austin.
We know that Nimes Capital, Presidium Group and their gang want to flip Ballpark & Town Lake into a new Domain to make money, and we know that the people of Riverside want to protect themselves from this vicious upheaval. What does the city want?
Since 2006 with the East Riverside/Oltorf Combined Neighborhood Plan, the city has had its eyes on southeast Austin for rampant development. This plan proposed to densify Riverside and Oltorf by rewarding developers with incentives if they flipped properties in the area. Planners promised that by encouraging an abundance of new housing construction, there would be more affordable homes for all.
As the plan went into effect, it became clear that the redevelopment was not intended for working-class Austinites and students already in the area, but exclusively for the rich. Apartment complexes that housed working people were ripped down to be replaced by luxury condos, with the most notable example being the assault on Shoreline apartments in 2009. In that rezoning case, the city gave the developers permission to build beyond the constraints of city code in exchange for the developers agreeing to pay relocation assistance to the nearly 200 working class households living there. When the developers failed to uphold their end of the bargain as tenants were forced to leave with nothing, the city stood by and did nothing. Gentrification in the ‘41 has steadily escalated since then, especially with the arrival of the tech software giant, Oracle, to the area.
The truth is that the city has no reason to resist developer schemes and every reason to cooperate with them. Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. and the city government wants to keep it that way, even at the expense of the working people who live here. A wealthier, larger tax base means more funding for city departments, increased salaries, and beefier resumes. We see no excuse to spare city staff from the righteous anger of a community they could give the green light to destroy.
And that’s why Defend Our Hoodz, along with Riverside tenants, went directly to city staff today to demand answers and make sure they know the consequences of their rubber stamping. They can’t hide behind the bureaucracy when they make decisions that reshape entire neighborhoods.
While some of us showed up right at their offices, we are calling on Ballpark & Town Lake Tenants, Riverside residents, and all of our supporters to waste no time before the commission hearings and to protest the city’s review of Ballpark’s rezoning application now! Scott Grantham, the case manager in the Planning and Zoning Department, is overseeing the review, and can be reached at:
Let him know that we are demanding staff recommend denial for the case and that we won’t give them any peace until they do. We see them for the collaborators they are and we won’t stand by as they push through a rezoning application that endangers our hood!
Defend Ballpark! Defend Riverside!
No peace for those who approve gentrifying projects!
A Letter to City Staff From a Resident Threatened by the “Domain on Riverside”
Mid-April of 2018, I received the letter from the Owners of Ballpark Apartments stating their plans to file for the rezoning and removal of Ballpark Apartments in order to create an “urban village” with “opportunities for seamless connectivity to Oracle” and other luxurious amenities. I was scared and confused when I read the letter, because while the message was painted to be a progressive step forward, I knew this would mean someone is working yet again to push thousands of low-income and working people out of Austin - and this time that person could be me.
The fear and confusion I felt turned into frustration as I found out that the was letter only sent to Ballpark residents after the owners and developers were confronted for their plans by Defend of Hoodz and other supporters. It’s baffling to me that they held a meeting to discuss the rezoning process and invited business and home owners in the area but not the thousands of residents who are currently living in the complexes they are trying to tear down. To me, it was clear from then on that the developers wanted to keep us in the dark and unable to stop their project from catalyzing the redevelopment of Riverside for a new, wealthier community.
The Riverside area and Ballpark Apartments is home to the few remaining affordable options for students and working people in Austin. If this is stripped away, I know this is the only first step towards redeveloping the rest of east and south Austin, thereby displacing more communities. I have seen this process take root time and time again in cities all around, and everytime it leaves the hardest impacts on one group - the original, existing community. The community of people who are driven out by increasing rent and redevelopment plans with the inability of coming back to the neighborhood they called home.
The stress and anxiety of finding a new, affordable place to move to is more than enough, but there are people who will be displaced, denied housing, and have nowhere else to go if this application pushes through. I personally have worked with people for months trying to find housing as a social work intern, and I know it is nearly impossible for working class folks in Travis County and the city of Austin to find affordable housing let alone maintain their home through the rising costs of living. I have friends who were accepted to universities and schools here in Austin but were unable to come or left their studies early because their housing was unaffordable. And I know if there wasn’t student housing in Riverside, I myself would most likely not be able to pursue school while working.
The city of Austin knows very well there is an affordable housing crises. Yet people continue to develop store fronts which cannot hold a lease and luxury housing which is unaffordable for people who are low and even middle-income earners. I am hurt and confused as to why the city would even consider to approve for developers to continue to destroying the few remaining housing options in Austin. This rezoning and redevelopment plan is dangerous for working class people and students, and it is something I have learned to recognize as the city’s redevelopment attempts to wipe away the history, communities, and cultures of east and south Austin.
Overall, the more I found out about the plans to redevelop Riverside as a new “Domain”, the more I knew that this must be stopped. And so I am writing this letter and going to the city staff office because these apartments are my home and so much more than that. For many students, families, and working adults, this is their only option to live in Austin. I am doing this because I want to make sure that they are not forced out of the city because of new developments and rising rent. Even if students and people come and go, I want to make sure there is a affordable space secure for them in Austin in the future and that any plans for neighborhood improvements is made for the existing community in mind.
The developers discuss wanting to create seamless connectivity between tech companies and luxury assets, but I don’t even want to imagine it - I can’t imagine it because when I try to, I see nothing but a huge loss for Austin and the community. Closing in and shutting out working people and students from UT, Huston-Tillotson, St. Edwards, ACC, Concordia, and more is not progress. Choosing to invest in a neighborhood only after you tear down and displace the existing community is not progress.
I joined this fight to see to it that the community which is here stays and does not get pushed out any further. We say no to the developer’s rezoning application, development plans, or any project which seeks to place a “Domain” style urban village here or throughout Riverside because we know what it will do. We cannot and will not leave because this is our livelihood at stake, and we deserve to exist more than someone’s luxury playground.
No More Cats at Blue Cat Cafe…Except in the Freezer!?
We are excited to announce that Blue Cat Cafe has lost its primary supplier of cats, Fuzzy Texan Animal Rescue. Fuzzy Texan were secretly supplying animals up until they abruptly announced on July 2 on facebook they were breaking ties with the cafe and that they would be removing all 18 of the cats at the cafe on July 3. But, while there are apparently no more adoptable cats at Blue Cat, a former employee claims, no joke, that Rebecca Gray has a dead cat in the freezer!
Fuzzy Texan was one of the groups that had supplied to cats to Blue Cat Cafe ever since we successfully pressured the Austin Humane society to cut ties in October 2017. After this, Blue Cat continued to find a cat supply, but there were agreements between suppliers and Blue Cat to keep the relationship hidden to avoid bad publicity. Fuzzy Texans breaking on their own is a sign of deep crisis at Blue Cat. When we found out that they would be removing the cats between 7 and 8PM on July 3, some of our group and supporters went down there to document the removal.
A statement on their facebook page shares some vague reasons that they didn’t feel the cats were being cared for properly, and they throw in the bogeyman of vandalism, yet again. We know though that the operator of Fuzzy Texan stated that she didn’t believe the claims that Rebecca is a racist. Ok, then what do you call someone who asks her Nazi brother to protect her cafe or stands by as Nazis attack people? A nazi!
When we arrived to Blue Cat, we watched as volunteers went in with empty pet carriers and came out with crying cats. It was a little sad at times. Contrary to wild rumors, many of us are animal lovers, and the kitties crying was a sad sight, but we were glad they were finally getting out of there.
We asked one volunteer what it was like inside. They said that there was a strong smell of ammonia, i.e. cat pee, and it was not a place you would want to linger and have a cup of coffee. One of the volunteers noticed a pregnant cat, and asked Becky when she started taking pregnant cats (watch video here). Becky said she was a stray she had trapped.
The cops did show up, but for once, they weren’t called on us. Apparently, Fuzzy Texan called them out of fear that Rebecca would not be cooperative with their extraction operation. The cops came and spoke to Fuzzy Texan volunteers for about a minute, and left without incident.We’ve been hard at work on the campaign to #defendRiverside, but that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about the nazi-aligned Blue Cat Cafe, which has been our longest campaign. We’ve known they were in dire straits, and heard rumors that Rebecca lived out of the cafe, a clear violation of local zoning and restaurant code.
Speaking of code, a former employee claims that when Marla, one of Rebecca’s cats, died six months ago, instead of finding an appropriate way to bury or cremate it, she put the cat in the freezer. This employee has called for ‘Justice for Marla’. This macabre situation should give pause to anyone still thinking that Blue Cat Cafe should remain open.
We have no sympathy for Rebecca Gray, who has only stayed afloat this long thanks to her alliance with people who think gentrification is a good thing and with white supremacists and the alt-right, including her own brother. They have injected money and support into the business simply to send a message to our community that they will uphold gentrification and racism to spite us.
Rebecca made her bed that she now lies in when she crossed the community boycott against her landlords, Jordan French and Darius Fisher, the men who tore down the Jumpolin piñata store. She dug herself in further when she welcomed the support of Alex Jones, Infowars, and her nazi brother, Paul Gray.
And even though people will wildly claim this was all our fault - the fact is no one but Rebecca and her supporters allowed the cafe to reach this condition. We didn’t allow cat pee to permeate the air in the cafe. We didn’t cram 18 cats into a small room. We didn’t force Rebecca to go on Infowars and begin her alliance with the alt-right, or call on her nazi brother and friends to ‘protect’ her cafe. And we definitely didn’t put a dead cat in the freezer.
We have not picketed Blue Cat Cafe since February of this year. We have been busy building power against gentrification in the Riverside Area, and this surprise announcement took us so off guard that we had to reschedule some planned canvassing.
We knew we had to be there to document and watch this happen, but we also won’t declare total victory yet. As we have said, Blue Cat Cafe has lost their cat supply in the past and kept on going. They resorted to secret partnerships, and clearly taking it upon themselves to trap stray cats. Fuzzy Texan was one of these secret partnerships. It’s a shame because Blue Cat Cafe’s record of gentrification and white supremacy is clear. For many of these ‘animal lovers’ though, human issues are less important than animal ones, especially when they affect working-class brown and black communities.
But even if they take the typical white liberal position, customers and employees have shared numerous testimonies of animal neglect and employee mistreatment that many of Austin’s animal lovers have ignored. Fuzzy Texan, like many others, think they know better than the employees and community on the front lines. As we said, Fuzzy Texan operator, Rachel Nicole, on facebook, even as she was breaking ties, claimed that Rebecca isn’t a racist, or think it’s racist to ask nazis to protect your cafe.
So we still won’t put it past another racist, oblivious animal rescue operation to flout the boycott and partner with Blue Cat. Or we won’t put it past Rebecca and her dwindling supporters to start trapping more stray cats or cruising Craig’s List ads for animals. Blue Cat Cafe is a capitalist operation, not only as a small business, but as pusher of gentrification in the historic barrio. Maintaining it is a goal of Rebecca, the landlords Jordan French and Darius Fisher, other gentrifiers, and the reactionary liberals, Trump supporters, and white supremacists who see Blue Cat Cafe as their pet cause. Capitalists will go to extreme lengths to maintain their charades in the name of profit, and especially to send a message to show how little they care about what the community wants.
Capitalism has to keep its crimes hidden away, just like Marla the cat is hidden in the freezer. But we will continue to apply heat and confront the shady dealings of exploiters in our community.
Our fight isn’t over until the cat lady sings! The boycott of Blue Cat Cafe will continue, and even if they shut down, the boycott of the landlords Jordan French and Darius Fisher (F&F) will go on. Any business or operation that tries to cross the picket line will face the same resistance, but with even greater fire!
