Investigation Launched Over City Staffer's: 'Gays, Mexicans, Blacks' Map

DOWNTOWN AUSTIN-UT, TX -- A city staffer is on leave and an internal investigation is under way after a satirical map used during a formal municipal meeting was deemed culturally offensive.

Long circulated on social media forums, the map delineates sections of the city according to the perceived nature of their residents among some observers. The map labels areas of the city primarily along racial, ethnic and sexual preference classifications.

For example, the boundaries of fast-gentrifying East Austin are labeled as “Blacks resisting gentrification.” North Austin is marked as a “boring gays” zone, while South Austin is re-named as “South Mexico.”

The map was used on Tuesday during an official meeting of the city’s transportation department before the zoning & platting commission, according to a joint report by KVUE-TV and the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.

City Manager Marc Ott took disciplinary action upon learning of the fake map’s use, according to the report.

“I took immediate action to identify the employee who used extremely poor judgment,” Ott wrote in a memo to the mayor and members of city council. “That employee has been placed on administrative leave pending further investigation into this matter.”

The incident comes ten months after a city-led training session for municipal staff purportedly designed to coach city workers on how to deal with a majority female council. The presentation was first exposed in a Statesman blog and subsequently garnered national press attention.

Among the tips to that primer: Women ask a lot of questions, and they aren’t interested in finances. Once exposed, that earlier controversy led to the resignation of an assistant city manager.

Dubbed the “judgmental Austin map,” the prop used this week is another embarrassing blow to a city that prides itself on the diversity of its population makeup. The map began making the rounds as early as 2012, and was the topic of much discussion in the blogging community once it surfaced.