The block doesn’t look the way Steven Brown remembers it. On East 9th Street, the houses he grew up near have been swapped out, one by one, for something newer, something for someone else.
The corner where he played with his friends as a kid is still there, but the neighborhood it belonged to is mostly gone — priced out, pushed east and absorbed into a city that kept growing without asking who was already there.
“I remember a lot of trees … on a block where every other house had a garden. My grandmother had a garden,” Brown said. “It was very self-sufficient … neighbors knew each other.”
Brown, 42, is running for the open Austin City Council District 1 seat, which stretches across central Eastside neighborhoods.
He has never held elected office. For two decades he has worked in health care, most recently as a clinical specialist in neuro-navigation, assisting in brain and spine surgeries. He has a master’s degree in public health from Texas State University.
Brown said his community connection sets him apart from other candidates.
“I’m not a career politician,” he said. “I want to serve my community with the values that were instilled in me — honor, integrity, hard work, and a fighting spirit.”
Root shock
Brown attended Norman Elementary and LBJ High School, where his two sons later went, too.
The sharpest moment in Brown’s biography came when was 17. That’s when his family lost his great-grandmother’s house on 9th Street. He describes it with the trauma research term “root shock.” The grief of being cut off from a home and community without warning or choice.
“It was a root shock that brings on a trauma that not a lot of people experience,” he said.
Ora Houston
Ora Houston, the first person elected to represent District 1, has witnessed such displacement for decades.
“I’ve seen personally what has happened,” she said, “when people come, development companies come and buy the property and just let it sit … they’re waiting to see how they can make a profit off of East Austin.”
Houston is supporting Brown for the seat she once held.
Sidewalks before ‘shiny projects’
Brown’s platform rests on three pillars: affordability, public health and public safety. He is skeptical of big civic projects that advance while basic needs wait.
“There are communities in District 1 who don’t have sidewalks, or their sidewalks are so bad that a community member couldn’t even walk their walker during recovery just to get out for a walk,” he said. “So, before we do these shiny projects … let’s fix that.”
On zoning and development, Brown says decisions must be made through a “social justice lens.”
“I’m more inclined to stay on the side of the community,” he said. “I won’t be compromised or influenced by whatever trinkets or shiny things or deals there are for a political career.”
He also wants City Hall to come to residents, through meetings held in the neighborhoods. His record includes pushing for changes to Austin Fire Department hiring practices, helping set up a COVID-19 testing site at Givens Park and coaching youth football with the Junior Jaguars.
Valerie Gomez, president of the LBJ High School Football Booster Club, volunteers alongside him.
“Because of the way our Eastside community is, he is our homegrown,” she said.
A crowded field
Brown faces five opponents: Alexandria Anderson, 39; Amber Goodwin, 46; Michael Nahas, 53; Misael Ramos, 40, and Portia Riggins, 35. Nahas filed after HT students conducted interviews and wrote stories about District 1. But here’s a profile on Nahas by The Austin Bulldog.
Brown said that fundraising has been his steepest learning curve. He raised $38,089 as of Oct. 28, The Austin Bulldog reported. Goodwin led the field with more than $123,010 in contributions, followed by Ramos with $65,263, Anderson with $36,577, and Riggins with $1,317, according to The Bulldog. Nahas does not accept contributions.
Houston encouraged Brown to run.
“I want somebody that is grounded in what is in East Austin,” she said. “Those 6 square miles that people have carved out for us.”
On a recent afternoon, 9th Street looked the way it looks now: changed. The tree canopies his grandmother sat beneath are mostly gone. The green spaces where he played have given way to apartments and what he calls “McMansions.” The biggest loss, he says, is not the trees or the gardens.
“It’s my loss of friends and neighbors,” he said. “People that I love.”
Some of them left. Brown stayed. He raised his sons here and now is asking the city he grew up in to trust him with a turn at the table.
Early voting ends today. Election Day is Nov. 3.
Editor’s Note: Huston-Tillotson University sits in the heart of East Austin, inside the boundaries of City Council District 1. The decisions made in this race will shape the neighborhoods around its campus: who can afford to stay, how development changes these streets, and whether the history and culture of East Austin are protected. Students at the city’s oldest institution of higher learning and a historically Black university, have a stake in who represents this district. That’s why they chose to profile District 1 candidates who had filed for office during last semester.
Rubyjoy Pepito is a junior at Huston-Tillotson University majoring in communication. She reports for the Austin Free Press Huston-Tillotson Enterprise Journalism Project.
Gerald Dixon is a senior at Huston-Tillotson University majoring in communication. He reports for the Austin Free Press Huston-Tillotson Enterprise Journalism Project.