Week of September 13 //
Happy Friday! I just have one class on Fridays, so it’s nice to get an early start on the weekend. Plus, I can carve out a chunk of time to reflect on my week.
I realized that I completely forgot to include my trip to Veracruz All Natural Tacos in last week’s article! I’ll start out with that, then share a story about a local hotel’s problematic advertising. I’ll wrap up with what I learned from the Chronicle this week.
About two weeks ago, my friend Katy sent me a New York Times article about Veracruz All Natural Tacos. To summarize, Veracruz is a food truck-style taco restaurant started by two sisters here in Austin. Their authentic Mexican tacos have been so popular that they’re now opening a location in Los Angeles.
The NYT article touches on what it’s been like for the sisters to start their restaurant in a predominantly-Mexican American part of East Austin and watch it grow in popularity across the city. However, Veracruz hasn’t attracted the same popularity among Mexican Americans as it has among white Austinites. The article goes into why this is, and how Mexican immigrants interact with the greater Austin community.
I visited one of Veracruz’s six Austin locations on Labor day and tried three tacos: the Migas, El Sancho, and El Tradicional. Veracruz is also known for their fresh juices, so I tried the Nice One Juice, made with orange juice, pineapple, and grapes. It’s photo is very on-brand for me!
The tacos were phenomenal, but more than the breakfast taco goodness, I really enjoy looking at Austin through these lenses of food and culture. The NYT article describes not just the delicious, natural ingredients that Veracruz uses, but also segregation and the experiences of women entrepreneurs in Austin.
At a broader level, it reminded me of how everything– even tacos– is connected to humanitarian and social issues.
As I’ve shared before, I take the bus to get to the law school each day. Every day, I walk past Moxy Hotel on Guadalupe Street. Among other signs, I see this everyday:
When I first read this, it definitely annoyed me. But over the past few weeks, I have thought more about the message that this sends to students who walk by it or wait at the bus stop across the street.
To be clear, the sign is perfectly legal, and I’m not sure that it can even by characterized as misogynistic. But, it is demeaning to women. And there are some really disturbing implications: That women are subjects of conquest. That fraternity brothers should be with women at a bar and hotel for the purpose of making each other proud.
Moxy Hotels are around the world, and many are near college campuses. Many American universities have high rates of domestic assault and rape, and fraternity culture is often a part of this problem. This includes the University of Texas at Austin. A 2017 student survey revealed that 15 percent of undergraduate females have been raped.
I posted the photo above on my personal Instagram story this morning, and received about a dozen messages from women agreeing that the sign is disgusting and problematic. I took action by contacting Marriott Bonvoy, the parent company of Moxy Hotels. I would have preferred to contact Moxy Hotels directly, but could only find a phone number. I will call the hotel directly if I don’t hear back from Marriott by Friday of next week.
I’ve also tweeted about this on my public Twitter account. I hope you’ll read the thread below and consider sharing it.
I walk past this sign on my commute every morning. It’s disgusting and demeaning to women. @MoxyHotels @MarriottBonvoy pic.twitter.com/5aOGnNLqZH
— Alexa Bussmann (@alexa_bussmann) September 17, 2021
A Marriott Bonvoy customer service account responded to my tweet saying that it will share my feedback with the hotel and that hotel management will follow up with me.
One last thing- this sign is particularly ironic given Marriott’s reputation for stellar customer service. Apparently that doesn’t extend to their college-aged female guests.
I have a now well-established Friday ritual of taking the bus to Upper Crust Bakery and enjoying one of their heavenly red velvet cupcakes. It is literally the best cupcake I have ever had: decadent cream cheese frosting on a moist, nearly bouncy cupcake.
Now I’ve paired the Chronicle, a local newspaper, with my cupcake. This week, I read an opinion article about plans to expand I-35, a major highway that goes through Austin (fun fact, my Dad and I took I-35 all the way from Minneapolis to Austin when I moved here). My Constitutional Law professor briefly mentioned these expansion plans in class last week, so I was vaguely aware of them. The Chronicle opinion article was a great reminder of why infrastructure and urban planning are so important. They can quite literally unite and divide communities.
There’s actually a movement to remove highways from cities– read more about it in this NYT article.
A related news article describes UT-Austin research into how different parts of the city experience heat waves. It’s a super interesting article that I recommend reading. Issues like poverty, health and the environment are so interconnected.
That’s all for this week! I’ve already got some ideas for what I’ll be doing next week… be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you don’t miss an article!
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