East Austin residents say streets have become clogged on weekends, and crime has foll

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...d-1658850.html

East Austin residents say streets have become clogged on weekends, and crime has followed
'We've become a parking lot for downtown'

By Juan Castillo
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 9:57 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Published: 9:38 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Jesse Flores' late night visitors earlier this month were drinking beer and listening to music, perched on the front porch of his East Eighth Street home.

Problem is, they weren't invited.

"I don't know what they were thinking," said Flores, who told the couple he would summon police if they didn't leave. They did.

Flores suspects the couple were part of the waves of late night revelers who are inundating his Guadalupe neighborhood to park for free and then walk a few blocks to Austin's downtown nightlife scene and the expanding cluster of bars and restaurants along East Sixth Street, east of Interstate 35. The influx is creating parking and traffic snarls that residents say became a weekly nuisance about a year ago, bringing crime and other problems into the neighborhood.