- Seth Perlman/AP
- State rep La Shawn Ford: “I’m fighting to keep people out of jail, out of the system, and now I’m in the system. It’s just crazy.”
State representative La Shawn Ford is trying to stay hopeful. “I love Austin,” he says on a recent drive through the west-side neighborhood at the heart of his district. “If only we could get it right and allow opportunities to be here. Otherwise . . . “
Only substantial public investment can stop the bleeding, he argues—like incentives for new businesses. Instead, the government seems to be cutting its losses. Ford waves toward McNair Elementary School, a recently rehabbed brick building that stands out on a troubled stretch of Cicero Avenue. It’s on the list of schools that Mayor Rahm Emanuel may shutter this spring. “That’s not a good sign, when you’re going to close a school you just spent $50 million to renovate,” Ford says. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
