What do poor & rich neighborhoods have in common?

The city's economic development department suggests looking at neighborhood sidewalk infrastructure to determine funding priorities for the city's cultural district program.

Over the past decade the city has created a number of cultural or economic districts, including the Red River Cultural District, the African American Heritage Cultural District, the Mexican American Heritage Corridor on 5th Street and the South 1st Street District.

The idea is pretty straightforward: support and celebrate whatever the vibe or heritage of that area is. Since 2016 the city has spent $362,000 a year in support of the districts, hardly a major investment in the grand scheme of things. But only in the case of the Red River District and the African American District

For Red River, the city provides some funding to an association of area merchants, which uses it to promote the member businesses and organize annual festivals. For the African American Cultural District, which covers an area in East Austin that was long the epicenter of the city's Black community, the city funding goes to nonprofit Six Square, which uses it on a range of things that celebrate Black art and culture and the history of African Americans in Austin.

In a memo to City Council, Interim Director Anthony Segura described the department's ongoing efforts to develop an "Equitable Cultural District Funding Model," as requested by a resolution passed by Council in September:

Currently, cultural districts have been funded on an arbitrary case by case basis as funds become available through budget actions. To equitably fund cultural districts moving forward, the City must consider characteristics of the districts that include the prioritization of areas that have been historically underinvested in and/or are subject to heightened displacement pressures. A tool that can be used for this consideration is one that takes measure of the historical underinvestment and existing infrastructure deficits of the districts, with specific attention to sidewalks.

Hmm. My guess is that until recently a memo like this would have referred to "BIPOC communities" or "marginalized communities," but the city is understandably worried of getting engulfed in the anti-woke witch-hunt being prosecuted by the Trump regime and its Texas subsidiaries.

Of course, any celebration or acknowledgement of any non-white group of people now prompts the wrath of the anti-DEI censors.

So instead we're talking about sidewalks. But are sidewalks a reliable proxy for marginalization, oppression, poverty –– the things all of us good liberals aim to conquer? I'm not convinced.