Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor, 

Lockhart is an amazing little town with a great big heart. And if you love Lockhart like I do, then you’ll agree that one thing you’ll never want to pass your lips is “I remember when Lockhart was…”. 

But, if you go to the grocery store, it’s abundantly clear the city is growing. To accommodate this growth, I appreciate the hard work our City Council has taken on to create a recreation center, a visitor center and an aquatic center. 

As we prepare for the future with these exciting projects, I wonder if it’s also possible to try and address the gentrification issues we face in Lockhart. An easy example of this is when someone purchases a property in an older neighborhood, tears down the house and builds a large 3,000 sq. ft. home. This new home causes a sharp rise in property tax for the homes nearby, and slowly, one-by-one the residents are pushed out because they can’t keep up with the tax rate. This of course changes the character of the neighborhood forever. 

I think we’ve all heard the compliments about our charming downtown and the small town feel we have. But when visitors talk about the charm of Lockhart, they are really talking about the people. I believe we keep the charm of Lockhart by keeping the people, and I’m concerned about losing the soul of Lockhart through gentrification. 

In April of this year, Council made a few improvements to the Tax Abatement Program for the Historic District. This was a good step and will go a long way to keep the nuts and bolts of Lockhart alive. At the 5/20/25 council meeting, I asked our city’s leaders to consider ex-panding this program by creating a new district for areas in danger of gentrification. It could be called the Lockhart Soul District. It would be treated as the Historic District in terms of tax abatements for improvements, and these tax abatements would be used to preserve the soul of Lockhart districts, and for all of the people that make Lockhart such an incredible place to live. 

I hope to represent District 1 on the Dias later this year to help pursue ideas to ease gentrifi-cation, and to do my best to help keep the soul of Lockhart alive on all sides of town. 

Pat Stroka