A post on my personal Facebook page from July 2020:

For the past year and a half, I’ve been working on this guidebook of Austin with a fellow emerging local writer, Kelsey Roslin. It's out now, but it feels weird to be celebrating anything. Back when we first got hired, Kelsey and I started by drafting a list of the most strange, unusual, and, for lack of a better word, “weird” places in Austin. The book is in part a collection of all things eccentric, musical, earthy, and folksy in Austin, from spots with Willie Nelson memorabilia to funky bathrooms and ghost stories citywide. But from the jump we knew we also wanted to focus on places that played a role in achieving justice in Austin. We included Black, Latinx, queer, and woman-owned businesses wherever possible. We avoided new ventures in Austin that felt exploitative or inauthentic to us. It felt imperative that our book didn't center upscale, exclusive, gentrifying businesses, and I hoped we could get outside of the usual role of the tourism industry, which is built to favor the wealthy, the white, and the new, and has thus directly sped up gentrification here and elsewhere. So instead, the book is, mainly, a celebration of spaces, old and new, that represent the best of Austin, that actively build community, and that helped me learn about people and about the land this city is built on.

Here's a quote from an article that I really love from writer and creator Doyin Oyeniyi: "How do you enjoy a city like Austin knowing how segregation and gentrification are warping the city? I believe it’s possible to be a “conscious visitor” here -- perhaps even necessary. Get outside the bubble. Find the older, deeper Austin. Spend your money in that Austin. Keep it going."

Hopefully, our book can help facilitate that ongoing process.