Cherrywood resident Mike Damal’s casual drive ended abruptly last March when he came upon two bright yellow tractors plowing through a small, 60’-by-200’ patch of land on the corner of 34th Street and Cherrywood Road in East Austin. Then he raced home to get his camera.

They were destroying Cherrywood Green, a neatly trimmed “pocket park” built in 2002 and maintained by neighbors in the community. The park provides welcome green space in an area where public play space is scarce. It also bonds residents who share the upkeep chores.

Photo by Jazmine Ulloa

Three telecomm boxes sit at the edge of Cherrywood Green installed by AT&T to launch its U-verse progam.

Damal, a longtime resident, urged the workers to stop the project. He even phoned the City of Austin and AT&T, which had contracted the construction company.

“Stop this here, you could have a real (public relations) mess on your hands,” Damal said he told an AT&T manager on the phone.

The company refused, however, and officials at the City of Austin conceded that the telecommunications company had the right to keep digging. Under Senate Bill 5 passed in 2005 by the 79^th Texas legislature, lawmakers moved cable and Internet franchising from the municipal level to the state. This allowed telecommunications corporations, like AT&T and Comcast, to install their services at any location without public involvement or even notice. It also removed their accountability to the cities they serve.

When Cherrywood residents saw the two large, green power boxes AT&T had installed at the park, “we raised hell,” said Girard Kinney, a member of Friends of Cherrywood Green, the neighborhood association that now sponsors the park. They flooded AT&T and city council with letters and emails.

Photo by Jazmine Ulloa

A handful of neighbors first joined together in 2002 to build the pocket park on the corner of Cherrywood Road and 34th Street.

Cherrywood Green had become the venue for plant and book swaps, Easter egg hunts and other neighborhood gatherings. Before the neighborhood association—then just a handful of residents without an official title—began clean up and construction of the park, the lot had been unusable, covered in bushes, weeds and poison ivy.

The community held garage sales and donated their own funds to help finance the park project. Later in 2005, Kinney, an architect, and a few others also built a water fountain.

At first, AT&T was uncooperative and, at times even rude, in responding to neighborhood outrage, residents said. Eventually, however, as the company realized it would need neighborhood support to sell its services in the area, it came to an agreement with the association, Kinney said. The company moved the two large power boxes, which had been placed in the middle of the park, closer to the park's edge near the street and next to a smaller, green power box  that had previously been placed on the premises.

The dull green, metal boxes appear at odds with the surrounding serene environment, but for now it’s the best comprise for  both sides.

Coming to an agreement at Cherrywood Green involved more than the state’s telecommunications law because of the land's limbo status as an official city park. While the land’s owner in the 1940s deeded the lot to the city to develop as a park, the city never did, said Brent Hay, one of the original leaders instrumental in the Green’s construction. Later, the association had to apply to sponsor the land as a park.

“We were just cleaning up and building and asking for forgiveness later,” said Damal, who received the paperwork from the city for the Green’s official designation as a park in April.

Nevertheless, as corporations compete to develop and install new infrastructure, Cherrywood Green is only one example of the clashes in communities that have become pervasive throughout the city, said Stephanie McDonald, policy advisor for council member Sheryl Cole, whose office is currently investigating the conflict at Cherrywood.

“It’s a sticky, messy situation,” McDonald said. “The city does not have the right to tell AT&T and other telecommunications companies where to put their equipment. We are all trying to play together even though they may have the state law behind them to put their infrastructure wherever they want.”

Graphic by Joey Castillo

In an area where green space is scarce, Cherrywood Green provides a welcome spot for neighborhood gatherings.

But playing fair is tough. In some locations, telecomm equipment boxes  were placed in public right-of-ways, blocking sidewalks and in front of homes without warning. Yet, the state franchising agreements removed the ability of the city to maintain customer service standards, said Rondella M. Hawkins, manager of the Office of Telecommunications and Regulatory Affairs for the City of Austin.

Verizon and AT&T’s massive lobby machine helped pass the state’s 2005 telecomm law, as they promised the legislation would bring increased competition and lower rates across the state, Hawkins said.

AT&T also claimed statewide agreements would speed up installation of its new projects and provide faster service in communities than if it had to go through a permitting process in each municipality, she said.

The companies’ promises have yet to be met, however, and now telecomm companies have the right to service one side of the city and not the other, she said. For a city with an east-west digital divide such as Austin, lack of city enforcement on Internet providers may hamper closing the gap.

Telecomm companies, such as Grande and Time Warner, also clashed with the community in the past. However, conflicts surrounding the latest offender, AT&T, come as it launches its new U-verse program in Texas. The program combines high speed Internet, built-in wireless networking, high definition TV service and built-in digital video recording among other options. Fiber-optic wires to power the program must be installed underground to switch boxes above ground, such as the ones set up at Cherrywood Green.

Across Interstate 35 from Cherrywood, the Hancock Neighborhood Association is striking up new conversations with AT&T. Hancock's relationship with the largest communications holding company in the world also had a rocky start in March—but probably at the fault of a developer in the community, said Bart Whatley former president of the Hancock Neighborhood Association.

Photo by Jazmine Ulloa

Cherrywood resident Girard Kinney and other neighbors constructed the water fountain at the pocket park using their own funding.

With AT&T stepping into Hancock for the first time, the developer allowed the company to install its equipment on a vacant, single-home property he owned in the neighborhood, Whatley said. The equipment, large power boxes that covered most of the home’s front yard, would be used to power the same developer’s commercial property, East Avenue, an upscale redevelopment community under construction near downtown with high-end high-rises, boutiques and restaurants.

However, AT&T responded to the neighborhood’s complaints and agreed to move its installations at no cost to the community, Whatley said.

Although the company has encountered a few minor conflicts in different Austin neighborhoods, none have caused serious problems, said Kerry Hibbs, AT&T public affairs representative for the Western region. In some cases, the company has landscaped to hide its infrastructure, he said.

“We work very closely with public and city officials and get all the necessary permits,” Hibbs said. “We try to be good neighbors.”

There’s a real motivation for the telecomm company to be civic-minded as it expands throughout the city, Whatley said

“AT&T realized they had to work with community if they wanted people in the area to sign up for their services,” he said. “This is the first time both AT&T and the community are looking for ways to work together, and we hope to keep this relationship for future projects.”

Infrastructure telecomm companies, such as AT&T, look to install is important and residents want the services these companies provide, said Whatley, who is also an architect and a current council-appointed member for the city’s design commission, which serves as an advisory board to the council. But, he said the trouble becomes: “What is a good location for their equipment?”

Photo by Jazmine Ulloa

Cherrywood Green provides welcome green space in the neighborhood.

“We have a lot of new technologies and new companies trying to squeeze their own equipment into old, established areas to provide these new services,” Whatley said.

Coupled with the city’s rapid growth and an increasing desire to move to Central Austin, outdated infrastructure creates a problem. The result is a "catch 22."

A public review system of each company’s installation may slow down projects so much that they become stalemated and residents are left without service, Whatley said. Lack of city enforcement over these companies, however, may result in a loss of community.

And preserving their communities, residents of both Cherrywood and Hancock neighborhoods have found is worth the fight.