Inside Holly, Austin’s ‘coolest neighborhood’ that’s sparking a huge debate about gentrification

• Holly is a neighborhood in East Austin, Texas, that was recently ranked No. 24 in Time Out’s list of the 50 coolest neighborhoods in the world.
• It’s close to downtown Austin and borders the Colorado River, making it the ideal location for all Austin has to offer.
• Holly is in the accelerated and late stages of gentrification, which means that as areas in East Austin are being redeveloped and attracting high-income residents, property taxes increase, pricing out low-income residents.
• Gentrification is a major issue in cities across the US, but Austin’s history of housing segregation makes the gentrification of East Austin especially polarizing.
• I lived in Holly back in 2014, and I recently took a trip back to see how the neighborhood has changed. And I was surprised to find that the neighborhood felt totally different.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

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Welcome to Holly, the neighborhood that Time Out recently dubbed one of the coolest in the world.

Source: Time Out

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Time Out describes Holly as “laidback, earthy, and cool.”

Source: Time Out

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Holly is located in Austin, Texas. For those not familiar, it’s about an hour and a half away from San Antonio and three hours south-west of Dallas.

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The hotspot neighborhood of Holly is just east of Downtown Austin.

Source: Business Insider, Texas Tribune, NPR

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Austin’s tech industry has been on the rise since the early 2000s. Today, Austin is growing faster than any other city in the US, and that is impacting Holly.

Source: World Population Review, Business Insider

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A former Austinite, I spent a day in Holly in October 2019 to see how it had changed. And I thought it felt like a completely different neighborhood.

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Holly resident Sarah DeLaCruz summed up for me why people love the neighborhood: "It's everything people like about Austin," DeLaCruz said.

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"You have the nightlife super close, there's live music every night that's very good, and we can walk to every restaurant we want to eat at," she continued.

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The neighborhood attracts all kinds of creatives, making Holly a cultural hub on the rise.

Source: Time Out

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All around the neighborhood, murals fill the walls of buildings.

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Holly is also close to nature. This park by the river is a peaceful spot where residents can hike or bike on the trails surrounding the water.

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Designated "Grow Zones" keep the area wild. Grow Zones are areas of land that are taken off the city's mowing schedule so they can grow and recover naturally from urbanization.

Source: The City of Austin

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After a peaceful hike, I had lunch at Launderette — a laundromat-turned-restaurant in Holly.

Source: Time Out

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You would never know this used to be a laundromat. The design of this New American restaurant is incredibly hip and nuanced.

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I had the seared salmon entrée and fries. It was delicious.

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But If you're looking for something quick and cheap, Juan in a Million is the place to go.

Source: Juan in a Million, Eater Austin

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It's been a taco joint in the heart of Holly for almost 40 years. "The Holly neighborhood families were our first customers, and up until today their children and grandchildren continue to be our loyal customers and that has not changed," restaurant owner Juan Meza told Insider.

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Fair Market is another neighborhood hot spot. It's an event venue that is used for parties like the QueerBomb, an annual LQBTQIA+ community gathering.

Source: Austin Monthly

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After wandering around Holly, I decided to swing by the place that's most familiar to me — my mom's old condo where I lived in the summer of 2014.

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While the iconic "East Poultry" sign remained, pretty much everything else about the street was different.

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Across the street were new businesses, like the Austin Art Therapy Collective ...

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... and Sir Rat Leather and Gear.

Source: Austin Chronicle

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And old houses were replaced with new ones ...

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... which made me wonder where the previous residents went.

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Holly is just one of many neighborhoods in East Austin that's being gentrified. As areas in East Austin are being redeveloped and attracting high-income residents ...

Source: Business Insider, Texas Tribune, NPR

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... the value of houses go up, which means higher property taxes. This can lead to people being priced out of their neighborhoods.

Source: Business Insider, Texas Tribune, NPR

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To really understand the impact this has on the East Austin community, we have to look back at Austin's racist past.

Source: Texas Tribune, NPR

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In 1928, the City of Austin made it legal to cut off public services like schools from African Americans that weren't east Austin residents.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

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This forced African Americans to create their own community in East Austin, known at the time as the "Negro District."

Source: Austin American-Statesman

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In the mid-20th century, a Hispanic population also found solace in the East Austin community, as racial verbiage made the shift from "no people of African descent" to "Caucasian only," segregating the Hispanic community as well.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

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"Even though our neighbors were not Austin's economically wealthiest, they were, in my opinion, rich in Latino culture and tradition," Juan in a Million owner Meza told Insider.

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The segregation was solidified after the Great Depression, because while the federal government starting backing mortgage loans to create wealth ...

Source: Austin American-Statesman

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... they wouldn't back mortgage loans in neighborhoods considered "high risk," which included minority neighborhoods like East Austin.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

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This left Holly's residents without opportunities residents outside of East Austin had, keeping them in poverty while middle-class America recovered from the depression.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

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Today, Holly is in an accelerated stage of gentrification, while parts of it are in the late stages, according to a 2018 study by the University of Texas.

Source: University of Texas

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This means that many of Holly's low-income residents face direct displacement — a term used to describe being priced out of your neighborhood as a result of gentrification.

Source: University of Texas, UT Liberal Arts

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Some Austinites that are against the gentrification of East Austin formed a group called "Defend Our Hoodz" in 2016.

Source: Austin Chronicle

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"We are a revolutionary organization standing for working-class neighborhoods against displacement and gentrification," Defend Our Hoodz told Insider.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

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Some argue that with direct displacement comes a loss of culture.

Source: NPR

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Former East Austin resident Leslie Perkins was displaced about 14 years ago, and she told NPR that she wouldn't move back now.

Source: NPR

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"I was a part of the community. It doesn't really exist anymore as it did. And that's pretty sad for me," Perkins told NPR.

Source: NPR

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"Holly was a tight-knit community where everyone in the neighborhood knew each other and watched out for one another," Meza said of the neighborhood when Juan in a Million first opened 40 years ago.

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And even East Austin's newer residents can feel the area changing fast.

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DeLaCruz is one of those newer residents. She bought her house on Holly St. in 2012. "It was honestly the cheapest neighborhood we could live in at the time," DeLaCruz told Insider.

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DeLaCruz says she was wary of the neighborhood when she first moved in. She told Insider that she saw a lot of crime in her daily life.

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Fast forward to 2019, and DeLaCruz's realtor was right. She says her home has more than doubled in value.

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But that's exactly what's driving out Holly's lower-income residents.

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And with a Target and a Whole Foods on the way, it seems Holly's gentrification will only continue to take place.

Source: NPR, Austin American-Statesman, Easter Austin