It was Austin Weekly News columnist Arlene Jones who pushed for turning the site into a casino/entertainment complex.
“That Entertainment District would consist of a casino, hotel, water park, music clubs… restaurants, bowling alley, roller skating rink, auditorium and 24-hour shopping mall, just for starters,” she wrote in a June 2006 column.
It was also around that time when some community activists started advocating for a “state-of-the-art” high school built there.
Morris Reed, CEO of the Westside Health Authority, said he’s happy that the site is finally being bulldozed after 10 years as an “eyesore and a safety hazard.” But Reed believes a college-preparatory high school would’ve been a better use for the land.
“Right now, the only real high school available for the children of Austin is Michele Clark High School, which is actually in south Austin,” he said.
The Austin High School Campus at 231 N. Pine has actually been home to several small high schools since the mid-2000s. Austin Career Education Academy, a charter high school, has been around since 1999, and Christ the King Jesuit Academy, a college-prep high school, opened in 2008.
Still, Reed insists that Austin is unable to attract young, working-class homeowners due to the lack of neighborhood schools.
“Honestly, why would a family choose to move to Austin when there is a lack of accessible schooling? Consequently, many West Siders are choosing to go to Forest Park, which has better schooling and can attract businesses to reinvest in the area,” he said.