The Red River District is one of the biggest sources of live music revenue for the city each year, but its proximity to the ARCH homeless shelter may be having an impact on those businesses. Cody Cowan with the Red River Merchants Association said the sheer amount of crime in the area has made customers and performers look elsewhere.
Cowan also states there have been recent attacks on musicians late at night, and there’s a general sense of unease as people walk from building to building.
Cowan is very sympathetic to the plight of the homeless, but says these issues can have a lasting economic impact since Red River encompasses much of Austin’s downtown music scene, which remains a major economic driver for the city every year.
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