A tough route to Eastside Memorial High School : the issue of educational inequality in Austin, Texas

The following report examines the mobility challenges encountered by youth in the Govalle Neighborhood in East Austin, specifically focusing on the obstacles students face on their daily commutes to Eastside Memorial High School. A case study was conducted of an unofficial, unsafe route that students have developed to walk to school, revealing how children appropriate residual spaces to maintain the route and how they personally experience the route. Students who utilize the route, parents, and local residents in the Govalle Neighborhood were interviewed to gauge their perspectives on the route, and recommendations for alternative and improved routes to school are provided. The study shows that this informal route is a result of economic and spatial inequalities in Austin, which have resulted in poorly developed infrastructures in East Austin that exacerbate the challenges facing minority students of a lower socioeconomic background.