Recreation can no longer be maintained or stifled at the whims of the wealthy.In light of the impending IH-35 expansion, it becomes crucial to understand how highway development works.Liberation was always the goal of emancipation, but that perspective has been obscured. This publication is available here.Learning about the connections between race and the built environment can be done online, but should also be a personal initiative. In 2019, Decipher City partnered with Ghisallo Cycling Initiative to begin a series of cycling tours to discuss how race has been experienced within the City of Austin. On May 25, 2020, a racial reckoning began, involving the epitome of what it means when some within the dominant narrative are characterized as “above reproach,” and others are seen as inherently worthless. Part of learning involves personal initiative, so after an onslaught of catastrophic events, Decipher City and Ghisallo Cycling Initiative are proud to present self-led cycling tours, because education should never be simply a scheduled event.Earlier this year, Jamie DeAngelo began compiling research on a paper about pipelines—how they get built, what laws support their creation, and (perhaps most importantly) why all the high level environmental review processes we learned about in planning school are not effective at halting what is an obvious environmental problem and water security threat. Download the paper here. In October of 2018, Stephanie Webb and Jamie DeAngelo finalized Not in the Plan: Silencing Communities of Color in Austin’s Planning History. This text discusses the ways in which local activist voices have been written out of Austin’s political and planning processes. This text compares a timeline of the city’s major planning milestones with local activist milestones, in an attempt to show that people of color were regular participators in city democracy–even when their voices were not heard. Download the pdf here . In May 2018, Stephanie Webb and Jamie DeAngelo produced a report on Parks and Access in the City of Austin for review by the Parks and Recreation Department. Like all departments in the City of Austin, PARD is currently working with the Equity Office to assess its projects and programs and determine where there might be gaps in both equitable outcomes and processes. The report was meant to help with that diagnosis. Equity issues fell into three main categories: budgets/spending, outreach/representation, and access. Download the pdf here In March 2018, Stephanie Webb and Jamie DeAngelo wrote and published the first Decipher City paper on urban displacement in Austin. This report focuses specifically on the urban renewal policies that facilitated neighborhood change in East Austin, and their linkages with area crime statistics. Download the pdf here
