Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > September > 18 > Entry
Blake Shanley of the East Village
On June 25, the mysterious yellow, orange, red and white building on East 11th Street erupted. Revelers crawled all over the East Village, a color-blocked gift to East Austin, with its chic retail, office and residential units.
What boggled the sensibilities was the easy, open relationship between the party and the street, flush with Fourth Friday merrymakers. One could visit reborn East 11th Street hundreds of times without seeing that kind effortless mixture of newcomers and longtime residents.
Much of the credit goes to a petite brunette with darting eyes and serious set to her lips, looking a little like Mary Louise Parker from “Weeds.”
“I think what makes this neighborhood so cool is the mix of genres and styles, the extremes of architecture,” says Shanley, soaking up the coolness next to the Purple Bean coffee trailer, parked in East Village’s breezeway, “the historic houses, the red brick buildings and the super-modern, bold new design.”
Shanley’s route to East 11th resembles, in some ways, the stories of other young Austinites.
Born in El Paso to parents of Italian, Irish and English extraction, she moved with her family to Santa Fe at an early age. She played the piano and violin, read a lot, mostly novels.
“I liked to do my older brother’s homework,” she says with a wry smile. Shanley raced through the University of New Mexico, majoring in public relations in order to graduate quickly. “I wasn’t a big fan of college, but I regret not taking classes I might have been more interested in, rather than just trying to get out faster.”
Immediately, she moved to Los Angeles, gravitating to youth magnets: Santa Monica, Melrose, Venice, Brentwood. Shanley considered a music career, but shifted from job to job in retail, food service and music/talent agencies. Los Angeles lived up to its reputation for shallowness.
“I expected it to be superficial and it was,” she says. “I had no idea how much. The ‘what do you do question’ is always first. There was always some sort of agenda. You couldn’t just have a conversation.”
So Shanley peered across the horizon.
“I had never felt at home anywhere and never felt the desire to put down roots” she says. “I am always in search of something. On some spiritual journey. Or in search of truth. Or the best place to be or the right job for me.”
Four years ago, she moved to Austin. Her parents, Lyle and Rae Ann Shanley, as well as her brothers, Max and Ford, migrated here as well. Shanley headed into real estate in what was supposed to be a two-year gig.
“Real estate was for money, at first,” she says. “Wellness, nutrition, holistic healing, etc., that’s my ultimate passion.”
One project, East Village, designed Bercy Chen Studio and owned by Michael Casias of Esperanza Development, combined her interests and skills.
“All of the sudden it wasn’t about real estate,” she says. “It was an incredible opportunity to be a part of something special, bringing in great new businesses, new people, new energy to an already amazing neighborhood rich with history and culture.”
Instead of advertising the project, Blakely kept it fairly quiet until she had learned the lay of the land, which reminded her of the ethnic medley she cherished in Los Angeles.
“I love the people and businesses who were already here and I want them to stay and to succeed,” she says. Other than just sell the units, she is trying to facilitate cool stuff: Trailer parks that include art, music and retail, for instance.
She listened. She talked. She supported.
“There was space for me to take some responsibility for that to happen,” she says. “You really could do it the right way: Preserving what is already here. Bringing back the history that might have been lost; allowing the existing community to thrive; and for the new people to come in with a consciousness and to care about the community they are moving into.”
Did traditional neighborhood leaders resist her efforts?
“I really have had zero real resistance,” she says. “Nothing but openness and support from everyone I’ve spoken to. It is possible to talk, to come together. Maybe they just need someone to bridge the gaps, to help facilitate plans and goals, to help connect the community. Everyone has a story. I want to hear it. Helps me understand the whole picture and fills in the gaps.”
The June party, promoted in part by Taylor Perkins of Rare magazine, announced East Village’s singular place in Austin and, especially East Austin. Eventually, she’d like to open a wellness center — nutrition, healing, meditation, yoga, massage, acupuncture — in the neighborhood.
“My long spiritual journey ultimately brought me back full circle,” she says “Enjoy where you are because there is no other place you are supposed to be.”
For a new Austinite, Shanley is among the lucky ones.
“I think I’m here to stay,” she says. “I want to continue to be a part of this community for the long haul.”
UPDATE
The sequence and some of the substance of Shanley’s employment has been updated since the original posting.
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By Frederick
September 19, 2010 7:47 PM | Link to this
Awesome and wonderful!
By Franco in California
September 19, 2010 8:39 AM | Link to this
If “Los Angeles lived up to its reputation for shallowness” while Blake Shanley and her graces were in town, maybe it’s because Shanley failed to get a dinner invite from Gore Vidal (who probably would have answered all her questions about his books on A. Lincoln). Either that or she failed to get an internship at (West) L.A.-based The Huffington Post, that popular website where, we are told, all un-shallow people go for their news consumption.
Speaking of L.A. and its reputation for shallowness, Truman Capote, a frequent visitor to the city, supposedly once remarked that death in L.A. is redundant. Yet, when it came time to meet his maker, where did Capote cash it in? He died in L.A., of course, while visiting at the Bel Air home of a famous divorcee.