When a new mayor came to power, he found what he thought would be a compromise — a way to build housing for all the people coming to Austin without threatening the city’s ecological gems. It turned out to be more complicated than that.

In the 1990s, Austin voters passed landmark protections for parts of Southwest Austin that sit on top of the aquifer that feeds Barton Springs. That set off a chain of events that had a profound effect on how the city would grow in the coming decades.

I-35 is more than a road. It's been sculpting Austin's housing scene for more than 60 years, encouraging endless sprawl and making gridlock a lifestyle.

Austin has grown a lot in recent years — and the East Side has been impacted the most. To understand the city's pattern of displacement, we have to go back to 1928.