{"id":482517,"date":"2026-10-31T16:52:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T16:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/482517\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T16:52:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T16:52:30","slug":"homegrown-candidate-steven-brown-runs-for-utterly-transformed-district-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/482517\/","title":{"rendered":"Homegrown candidate: Steven Brown runs for utterly transformed District 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

The block doesn\u2019t look the way Steven Brown<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The corner where he played with his friends as a kid is still there, but the neighborhood it belonged to is mostly gone \u2014 priced out, pushed east and absorbed into a city that kept growing without asking who was already there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember a lot of trees \u2026 on a block where every other house had a garden. My grandmother had a garden,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt was very self-sufficient \u2026 neighbors knew each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown, 42, is running for the open Austin City Council District 1 seat, which stretches across central Eastside neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s degree in public health from Texas State University.<\/p>\n

Brown said his community connection sets him apart from other candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a career politician,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to serve my community with the values that were instilled in me \u2014 honor, integrity, hard work, and a fighting spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Root shock<\/p>\n

Brown attended Norman Elementary and LBJ High School, where his two sons later went, too.<\/p>\n

The sharpest moment in Brown\u2019s biography came when was 17. That\u2019s when his family lost his great-grandmother\u2019s house on 9th Street. He describes it with the trauma research term \u201croot shock.\u201d The grief of being cut off from a home and community without warning or choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a root shock that brings on a trauma that not a lot of people experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"OraOra Houston<\/p>\n

Ora Houston<\/a>, the first person elected to represent District 1, has witnessed such displacement for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen personally what has happened,\u201d she said, \u201cwhen people come, development companies come and buy the property and just let it sit \u2026 they\u2019re waiting to see how they can make a profit off of East Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston is supporting Brown for the seat she once held.<\/p>\n

Sidewalks before \u2018shiny projects\u2019<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s platform rests on three pillars: affordability, public health and public safety. He is skeptical of big civic projects that advance while basic needs wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are communities in District 1 who don\u2019t have sidewalks, or their sidewalks are so bad that a community member couldn\u2019t even walk their walker during recovery just to get out for a walk,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, before we do these shiny projects \u2026 let\u2019s fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On zoning and development, Brown says decisions must be made through a \u201csocial justice lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more inclined to stay on the side of the community,\u201d he said. \u201cI won\u2019t be compromised or influenced by whatever trinkets or shiny things or deals there are for a political career.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Valerie Gomez, president of the LBJ High School Football Booster Club, volunteers alongside him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the way our Eastside community is, he is our homegrown,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A crowded field<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a\u00a0profile on Nahas<\/a>\u00a0by The Austin Bulldog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brown said that fundraising has been his steepest learning curve. He raised $38,089 as of Oct. 28, The Austin Bulldog reported<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

Houston encouraged Brown to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want somebody that is grounded in what is in East Austin,\u201d she said. \u201cThose 6 square miles that people have carved out for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cMcMansions.\u201d The biggest loss, he says, is not the trees or the gardens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my loss of friends and neighbors,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Early voting ends today. Election Day is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s 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\u2019s oldest institution of higher learning and a historically Black university, have a stake in who represents this district. That\u2019s why they chose to profile District 1 candidates who had filed for office during last semester.<\/p>\n

Rubyjoy\u00a0Pepito is a junior at Huston-Tillotson University majoring in communication. She reports for the Austin Free Press Huston-Tillotson Enterprise Journalism Project.<\/p>\n

Gerald Dixon is a senior at Huston-Tillotson University majoring in communication. He reports for the Austin Free Press Huston-Tillotson Enterprise Journalism Project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The block doesn\u2019t look the way Steven Brown remembers it. On East 9th Street, the houses he grew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-482517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}