While some of the past six previous district-specific CodeNEXT mapping meetings provoked strong debate and vocal concern, Wednesday’s District 4 community session involved more listening and less venting.

The Bernice Hart Early College Prep Elementary School cafeteria hosted roughly 20 people for the seventh installment of the CodeNEXT mapping roadshow. Attendance and impassioned inquisition were low compared with previous presentations. Monday’s presentation in District 5 brought pointed questions, opinions, and some outbursts, but District 4 residents came with more general curiosities regarding how CodeNEXT would affect them.

While he said other council members may be overwhelmed by residents’ comments, questions and anxieties about the CodeNEXT maps, District 4 Council Member Greg Casar said he and his staff are working enhance the public’s voice in District 4, which he said was muted under the previous council’s system of representation.

“This district was traditionally neglected under the at-large system—politically,” Casar told Community Impact Newspaper on Wednesday. “There aren’t as many eligible or frequent voters, so you didn’t see City Council members or campaign managers investing to build civic engagement in this area.”

Unlike previous meetings, Wednesday’s presentation did not feature a general question-and-answer session, but residents got the chance to talk one on one with CodeNEXT staff. Some residents had questions about the capability of the city's existing civil infrastructure, and other questions applied to specific properties.

Casar said District 4’s priorities with the CodeNEXT maps are the citywide priorities—learn how to grow Austin in an affordable manner while improving the environment and enhancing the mobility of residents.

While the area is too diverse to have any one unique, overarching challenge, Casar said, he did acknowledge that gentrification was being to occur in District 4, which is home to the largest renting population of any council district. He said he plans to take lessons learned from Districts 1 and 3 to keep the consequences of gentrification at bay, and he sees an opportunity to do so using the CodeNEXT process.

“[District 3] Council Member [Pio] Renteria told me he wished they had done some of this work to help folks in District 3 maintain a diverse community years ago,” Casar said. “I take his sage advice really seriously.”