History of SCAN - Southeast Corner Alliance of Neighborhoods
Residents in the Southeast Combined Planning Area have a long history of working
together to achieve community improvements. According to residents, in the past this
area experienced a steady increase in crime and a decline in neighborhood appearance
and resident involvement. As a result, longtime and recently-arrived residents worked
to turn their community around through a series of key events beginning in the 1980s.
Starting in 1980, the first neighborhood association formed, called the South Highland
Neighborhood Association. Residents came together to encourage the City of Austin to
install a traffic light on Nuckols Crossing Road. A few years later, at the suggestion of a
local graduate student who was studying effects of community activism, neighbors
concerned about recent crime trends met to discuss the problem. The group of residents that met, later became committed members of the Dove Springs
Neighborhood Association and Southeast Corner Alliance of Neighborhoods (SCAN),
among others.
In the mid-1980s, City of Austin staff contacted the director of the River City Youth
Foundation, Mona Gonzalez, to ask the organization to relocate to the shopping strip at
Pleasant Valley and Nuckols Crossing roads. The intention was for the organization to
focus its full attention on addressing criminal problems in the 78744 area. Gonzalez then met with residents for eighteen straight Saturdays to brainstorm
solutions to crime and juvenile delinquency.
Stepping up their efforts, community members began to solicit funding commitments
from the City, State, and Federal Governments. In 1992, City voters approved a bond
issue of $4 million dollars for two major facilities in the Southeast area: 1) the Dove
Springs recreation center with park and pool, and 2) a local branch of the public library.
While waiting for the construction of the approved recreation center, a temporary site
was secured in the commercial center at Pleasant Valley Road and Stassney Lane. The
Center was manned by the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) and included a
community policing center, a Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) aid program, and a
children’s library along with more typical recreation center resources. The center
created a template of activities and a crew of support staff that moved into the
permanent facility in 1998.
In 1993, the City Manager’s Office initiated the Self-Reliant Program, a citywide initiative
aimed at engaging neighborhood associations and other stakeholders to take an active
role through education and partnering with the City of Austin and Travis County to
address crime, health, transportation, and park conditions in their neighborhoods. The
City named the southeast area as one of the first areas to participate. City staff, nonprofit
organizations, and community members joined forces to create this plan, roughly
bounded by Ben White Boulevard, William Cannon Boulevard, Interstate 35, and Nuckols Crossing Road.
The group held their first meeting in 1993 and by their last retreat in late 1998, the
neighborhoods had achieved 70% of their collective goals. Some of those were: a
legally enforced youth curfew for Dove Springs and the City at large; a graffiti
abatement ordinance adopted into the City Code; and an active recreation center that
facilitates everything from summer camps, to weekend picnics and basketball clubs, to
extended-learning classes. Hundreds of parents volunteered for team sports at the
Dove Springs Recreation Center and neighborhood volunteers planted trees, organized
weekend cleanups, and became trained COPS, Citizens on Patrol, and vigilantly
reported the presence of abandoned vehicles.
Throughout 1994, several neighborhood associations applied for and received
Community Development Block Grants, allocated by the Federal Government. They
purchased lawn equipment to create a community-lending program and supplied
neighborhood associations with newsletter printing budgets and a community copy
machine. Then they secured money for PARD to build three baseball fields with
bleachers and dugouts at Dove Springs Park, and started a Little League baseball outfit.The associations also used Community Block Grant money to help purchase a 2.5 acre site with park space for the River City Youth Foundation.
The last major grant of the 1990s was an annual allowance from the Governor’s Office,
which started in 1996 (as of 2002, it was still distributing). The allowance is earmarked
for combating juvenile crime and providing reform options, and has been instrumental in
funding programs at Dove Springs Recreation Center as well as other locations.
Throughout the 1990s, community members active in the Self Reliant Plan Program or
involved in other organizations encouraged neighboring areas to form associations of
their own. They changed the structure of SCAN from the Southeast Corner Alliance of
Neighbors to an Alliance of Neighborhoods and held regular meetings with
representatives from all neighborhood associations in the Southeast area. The result
was a regional team that was better equipped to manage the problems that affected
them all.
SCAN residents continue to strive for the betterment of their community. Current
efforts revolve around protecting the natural environment, improving park infrastructure
and amenities, expanding youth activities and programs, and beautifying the area. This
organization acknowledges the residents’ past accomplishments and draws upon their proactive
nature to achieve the goals and objectives defined during the Self Reliant Program's planning process.
Early History of South Austin
The earliest inhabitants of the area were Native Americans who took advantage of
the numerous creeks and springs and the nearby McKinney Falls. Archeological deposits show that farming provided sustenance to these early residents.
Around 1716, the first recorded road in the Southeast area appeared. It was part of
the first true thoroughfare from Mexico to San Antonio to Austin and onward to
Nacogdoches and East Texas (known at different times as the Camino Real, the
King’s Highway, the Old San Antonio Road, and the San Antonio-Nacogdoches
Road). The general route had been established as a result of Spanish expeditions
from Mexico to East Texas to establish missions and bring relief supplies. Later, it
was used by colonist expeditions, trade and commerce outfits, and cattle drivers. At
one time, covered wagons could have crossed Onion Creek, McKinney Falls, and
the Dove Springs Park areas.
Forty thousand acres, an area stretching from the Colorado River to Kyle, and from
I-35 to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, was given as a Spanish land grant to
Spaniard Santiago del Valle (see map below or click here). He was a secretary of the
Mexican government who had served in the Mexican Congress.
Thomas F. McKinney bought the Del Valle grant in 1839. His family lived on the
land but sold most of it off by the time of his death in 1873. He built his homestead
on the banks of Onion Creek and later raised racehorses. It is said that he owned a
steamboat in which he would travel to Mexico to trade his horses. Notably,
McKinney was one of Stephen F. Austin’s original 300 colonists.
By 1850, there were about 15 public roads in the Combined Planning Area. These
typically followed property lines. The land for the roads was either donated by the
landowners and built by groups of volunteers, or Travis County mandated property
owners to build roads in the areas where they lived.
At the end of the Nineteenth Century, Burleson Road, Todd Lane, and Nuckols
Crossing Road were shown on maps in their current alignment.
Other early settlers in the area included W. D. and Nancy Miller, owners of a 562-acre cotton and corn farm. Farming and cattle ranching characterized much of the region, and a
community called Bluff Springs with a post office, basic services, and about 350
residents developed further south. It served the broader agricultural community,
while Austin was considered “far north.”
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Source: Austin Connections
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