Shadows of a Sunbelt City: The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy in Austin by Eliot M. Tretter (review)

Eliot Tretter’s engaging Shadows of a Sunbelt City: The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy, examines how Austin, Texas, became the “typical prospering innovative city” (2) after being barely big enough to be considered a city in 1940. In his introduction, Tretter recognizes what many have fervently come to believe about Austin: that it has a “great quality of life” and is a “dynamic and creative place for new start-up firms and a base for artists and musicians” while also offering “sunny weather, great food, and a fantastic nightlife” (2). What Tretter’s book does differently and so well, however, is to focus on what he calls “Austin’s shadows”—the price black and brown communities have paid for this growth and innovation, the effect this growth has had on the environment, and the role the State of Texas and the University of Texas have played in “creating the industrial landscape in Austin” that we see in 2016 (3).

Tretter’s book is divided into two parts and six chapters, though he warns his readers that it was not written with an historical chronology. Part one deals with the knowledge economy and the changing role of universities (specifically the University of Texas) as “drivers of urban and regional development” (5). Part two shifts to “contemporary planning practice in Austin, particularly Smart Growth and its relationship to the city’s urban governance” (7), examining Austin’s shift toward urban sustainability and, specifically, how this related to Austin’s strategy of “revitalizing its existing urban core” (7). It then looks at how Austin’s revitalization efforts have affected the city’s “more modestly resourced communities of color” (7).

Well written and well researched, the book does an exemplary job of succinctly explaining how Austin “acquired a reputation as one of the most progressive, creative, and tolerant cities in the United States” (79). Tretter’s research clearly explains how the local government, including the Austin Chamber of Commerce, took a series of “progressive steps to implement a range of innovative, ecologically sustainable initiatives,” propelling it to the top of the rankings of the American Business Journal’s Green Cities Index (81). Tretter then concisely explores how city policies affected the redevelopment of Austin’s downtown and how the policies of the business community and the local government “moved from a strict law enforcement agenda (“cleaning it up”) to a more environmental one (“greening it up”) (82). During this process, Tretter argues, these “ecological benefits” have also been used to justify further excluding homeless people from downtown areas as well as pushing people of color away from prime downtown real estate by allowing developers to build properties specifically for Austin’s middle-and upper-class citizenry.

As an African American woman who lived in Austin from 1994–2001 while a graduate student at the University of Texas, I had many racialized experiences in Austin and around UT’s campus. Although most of my white classmates rarely wanted to talk about race and racism in Austin and at UT because it did not seem to directly affect them, it was not something I could so easily ignore. I am glad Tretter did not ignore the racism that led to black and brown Austinites being moved away from the lucrative parts of the city into less desirable neighborhoods, but I wish he had written more specifically and in more depth about the long-term effects of this displacement on these two communities. Nonetheless, sustainability and the knowledge economy are challenging topics to make interesting to readers, and Tretter does an admirable job bridging the gap between specialists and those who are simply interested in how cities like Austin grow while remaining cognizant of the need to protect the environment.