After seeing the article about the Shady Grove RV park closing in yesterday’s Statesman, I desperately had to know if Pecan Grove RV Park was also slated for replacement by condos. Even though Barenakedfamily.com declared that this is “not your Grandma’s RV park,” my grandmother actually lived at Pecan Grove back in the ’90s. So I spent a fair amount of time getting to know her neighbors, who became some of her last true friends. Nana, as I call her, was definitely young at heart and didn’t like hanging out with most people her own age. And the RV park, right on Barton Springs Road, was perfect for her.
So today I went by to check and see if Pecan Grove was also in danger. According to the one resident I spoke with, the owners have no intention of selling anytime soon, but that is what then-Council Member Daryl Slusher told me about ten years ago about the owner of Shady Grove. So we’ll see.
Status Quo vs. Change
Having lived in and around Austin most of my life, I definitely have mixed feelings about the pace and face of change, like the conversion of a cool, beautiful RV park full of lovely pecan trees to very expensive condos. I’d rather people not buy into the new developments that have only increased the need for more and bigger highways. I know that real estate has gotten more and more expensive in the central city because more people want to live there. It’s unfortunate that people of limited means, including the artists and musicians that make Austin wonderful, have fewer and fewer places they can afford to live. What’s to be done? I don’t know.
In this blog, I’m going to explore Austin’s change, which doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Stay tuned.
