Car clubs have gathered for decades at “Chicano Park” in the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood. But residents of The Weaver, a new luxury apartment building across the street, have started calling the police to stop them.

Many residents of the Weaver have grown tired of the loud music, annoyed by the traffic, and turned off by the smell of skidding tires.

One particularly vocal tenant, a non-Hispanic white woman with short blond hair who appeared to be in her fifties and refused to give her name, claimed that smoke from the tires was killing nearby trees and that traffic from the gathering would make it impossible for an ambulance to reach her in the event of a medical emergency (though two other roads to the apartment building remain accessible at all times).

With large tech companies including Apple, Oracle, and Samsung expanding operations in Austin, and many more making plans to relocate there, such conflicts have accelerated during the pandemic. Surrounded by new neighbors, many native Austinites say they’re often made to feel unwelcome in their own communities. For the car clubs, which gather in public parks on the front lines of gentrification, the feeling has been especially amplified.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/austin-car-clubs-gentrification/

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/slabs-donks-swangas-african-american-car-club-seeks-home-changing-austin