Rosewood

Like many of the neighborhoods east of Interstate 35, Rosewood is a low-income area with reasonable single family homes, apartments, and condominiums. It's not for people who are looking for quiet, as a railroad line runs through the middle of the neighborhood and it's close to the noise of Interstate 35 and other major thoroughfares. Homes here run the range from $150,000 to $300,000, but the area is marred by several low-income apartment complexes that help to feed the criminal element of the neighborhood.

This is primarily an African-American community with some Hispanics mixed in. It's easy to get to more desirable parts of the city via Capitol Metro public transit. The neighborhood is served by the Austin Independent School District, though most schools perform at a lower level than the norm for the city. This is not the place for families with children or anyone else who can afford to live in a safer part of the city. There are few nightlife options and a lack of quality restaurants, you'll have to travel to experience that in the city.

Rosewood is a small neighborhood on the northeast side of town that’s been targeted pretty hard for revitalization. There’s no doubt the area is ripe for gentrification, being pretty centrally located, close to downtown, near major roads, and offering plenty of transit options. Rosewood also has some spectacular green spaces, and residents tend to be pretty loudly proud of their neighborhood.

The area is overrun by poverty, however, with nearly half the population living at or below the poverty line. This level of poverty manifests itself in numerous ways, including run-down homes, higher-than-normal crime rates, and poor school systems and healthcare options. And while downtown isn’t too far away, Rosewood itself offers little by way of nightlife, fine dining, or shopping.

The community is predominantly African-American. Housing prices are far below Austin averages, for both rentals and purchases. The neighborhood does seem to be on an upswing lately, which might make it worth considering as an investment; if revitalization efforts pay off as well as they already have in some neighborhoods on the east side, housing prices and rental demand could jump considerably over the next couple of years, especially as students and artists discover the gritty charm of this little nook.

Rosewood, located in central east Austin, has a long history as one of Austin’s oldest African American neighborhoods. In the 1940s and 1950s, many local businesses had established themselves in the area, and the community, while segregated from the west side of Austin, was strong and vibrant. The neighborhood unfortunately experienced decline around the 1970s, and crime increasingly became a problem.

Efforts to revitalize the Rosewood neighborhood have continued over the past few decades, with some success. The city of Austin worked with the neighborhood to develop a neighborhood plan in 2001, with the goal of improving the neighborhood, attracting local businesses and increasing safety in the area. The boundaries for this oddly shaped neighborhood are generally Manor Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard to the north, Webberville Road and Oak Springs Drive to the south, Northwestern Avenue and Chicon Street to the west and Airport Boulevard to the east. As would be expected for a neighborhood in transition, housing prices remain modest here. One can easily find a home for under $100K in this area. Schools servicing this neighborhood include Oak Springs Elementary, Kealing Middle School and Eastside Memorial High at Johnston.

Rosewood has some nice amenities, including Rosewood Park, which is also home to the Rosewood Recreation Center. There is a swimming pool, ball fields, tennis court and playground in the park, and the recreation center offers programs and classes year-round. Also located in Rosewood is the Boggy Creek greenbelt, with lovely trails for walking or biking. In 1999, the Millenium Youth Entertainment Complex opened in Rosewood to provide east Austin youth a safe place to go within their neighborhood. The facility has an indoor roller skating rink, bowling alley, arcade, movie theater and food court, covering over 55,000 square feet.

It’s a shame Rosewood hasn’t seen the benefits of rejuvenation like nearby Pleasant Valley. Though the neighborhood is about 50/50 Hispanic and African American residents, Rosewood played an important historical role in the latter group’s local history. Between 1910 and 1940, East Austin was officially reserved as segregated area for African Americans. Even after the policy officially ended, it was still common to think of the east side as the natural place to develop industry. Homes here didn’t get running water until the late 1960s, and roads weren’t fully paved well until the 1970s. Yet this neighborhood was important to the nightlife and culture of its African American population during WWII. The Doris Miller Auditorium, which still stands today, served black servicemen and their families, and the many jazz clubs and one of two black-only movie theaters (the other was the Ritz downtown) made Rosewood THE hot nightspot. Even though there was a movement towards urban renewal in the late 1960s, owners of the 50% of homes that were deemed substandard were offered inadequate funds and forced to relocate to other slum areas in Austin. By 1970, this area was more segregated than it had ever been. New homes were finally starting to be built in the 1980s, and in 1999 the neighborhood residents successfully fought city plans to relocate a drug treatment center for released felons just blocks away from an elementary school. With a new branch of ACC being built in 2000, this area is slowly seeing improvement, but it’s still got a long way to go.

Many appreciate the cultural genuineness of a neighborhood, and Rosewood is filled with it. This neighborhood, though, is not for everyone. One of the lowest income areas in the city, the crime rate is higher than most neighborhoods. That given, it still does not raise too many eyebrows since the overall crime rate in Austin is extremely low, but it may still be enough to deter some potential residents. An extreme upside, however, is that Rosewood has some of the cheapest real estate in the city with rental prices often going below $400. The neighborhood is also close enough to downtown and the University of Texas campus that one only needs to take a short bike or bus ride.

E. 12th Street has its own treasures to offer such as Space 12, which is a creative community space, as well as a few shack style BBQ and Mexican restaurants. Pleasant Valley Rd. goes through two of the three public parks that are in the immediate area and Rosewood Ave. passes by Oak Springs School and other educational facilities. Along Rosewood are several public housing complexes, which inadvertently makes the percentage of residents below the national poverty line higher than most of the neighborhoods in Austin. The Rosewood neighborhood can be a pleasant place to live for those who like cheap rent and do not mind the less than perfect social landscape, but those who are picky about their surroundings would do better looking elsewhere.