Dangers of Waller Creek Where University of Texas-Austin Student Was Killed Long Known

AUSTIN, TX -- On the day police identified the University of Texas-Austin student killed on school grounds -- her traumatized body found along the stretch of Waller Creek running through campus last week -- the college president vowed to implement heightened safety measures in the killing’s wake.

“I am prepared to take concrete steps to implement the findings and recommendations of the DPS review,” Fenves told a gathering of reporters at the main campus building on April 7. “The DPS review will include video monitoring, outdoor lighting, building security and other aspects of campus safety,” he added.

By DPS, Fenves referred to the Texas Department of Public Safety -- the state agency to which he reached out after the young woman’s body was found.

Haruka Weiser was an 18-year-old dance major from Portland, Ore., whose body was found along the banks of Waller Creek after having left a night class en route to her dorm room. Meechaiel Criner -- a 17-year-old intermittently described by police as a “runaway” and “homeless” -- has since been charged with the crime.

Notwithstanding Fenves’ urgency in heightening security since the homicide, Waller Creek has long been viewed by locals as a hotbed of crime and unsavory activity. Even to the uninitiated -- out-of-state students attending the university whose first contact with its vistas comes via the small stretch that runs through their school -- it’s been a source of anxiety.

A newly elected congressman once walked the stretch of Waller Creek, noting its more unsavory elements along the way. The young congressman decried the presence of “shanties” constructed along its path, referring to portions of the creek as “hotbeds of crime.”

That congressman was Lyndon B. Johnson, and his observations were made in 1938. The exchange is recorded as part of a timeline by Waller Creek conservationists on their website.

Nearly 80 years later, that view is largely intact. Locals avoid the Waller Creek path -- especially at night.

“It's a habitat for wild life of both the human and animal variety,” An Austin Chronicle scribe once wrote. “It's an amenity, an obstacle, and a dangerous threat.”

In the piece, the writer notes operators of the Capitol Marriott Hotel have posted notices on the creek’s edge, discouraging guests from venturing onto the trail. Prone to flooding, the creek is viewed as “...more of a physical challenge than a pathway to the Convention Center,” the writer noted.

“That - along with its adjacency to the police headquarters, jail, Salvation Army, and the like has made it a popular hangout for Austin's underclass. If you are hankering to see used needles, inebriates sleeping on abandoned mattresses, and tricks being turned under bridges, Waller Creek is the place to be.”

Conservationist stewards of Waller Creek describe the waterway as “...a thin, urban riparian ecosystem that meanders from the northern part of Austin southward through UT campus and along the eastern edge of the downtown area before it meets Lady Bird Lake.”

But for students, the portion running through campus is just a scary place to be at night. Students have long complained of poor lighting along the stretch of the six-mile creek that runs through campus, avoiding the area altogether as a result.

“It’s very poorly lit,” junior Stefanie Salyers told a local television station after Weiser was found dead along the stretch. “There’s almost no one around usually, especially the later it gets in the night.”

Salyers once took a similar path as the one Weiser took that tragic night -- her first and only time taking the route, given its poor lighting.

Suddenly, there is police presence along the poorly illuminated portion of campus. But the heavy police presence -- fortified by an additional 50 cops patrolling the area at Fenves’ request -- is something of an anomaly.

Sadly, it’s taken the death of a student to bolster that police presence, Salyers suggested.

“Since they found the body, there has been a lot of police cars,” she told KEYE-TV. “Police officers on bikes, on foot. I wish there had been more security on campus -- more lights on campus at night -- before this happened.”

Ironically, Waller Creek had been in the news months in the weeks leading up to the tragedy at UT Austin. Beautification efforts have been highly touted by members of a non-profit conservancy group transforming some creek-lined portions into more of a park-like setting.

“In partnership with the city, the conservancy is leading the design and constrution of parks, trails and public spaces in the district and, subsequent to their transformation, will be responsible for their maintenance and long-term stewardship," its stewards write on a website detailing the scope of the project.

Austin voters approved a $13 million bond referendum for the creek's redevelopment in 2012. The Waller Creek beautification efforts -- part of a major private-public partnership -- is a 10-year plan that offers as centerpiece a 1.5-mile linear park running from Waterloo Park to Lady Bird Lake.

Indeed, Waterloo Park has emerged as the priority piece of the overall project, with a scheduled opening in 2018.

But those enhancements aren’t focused on the portion of the creek running through UT-Austin. The Waterloo Park project is east of the state Capitol building in the city’s central business district -- and south of UT Austin and its part of the creek.

Much is still unknown about the manner in which Weiser died. Surveillance footage of the suspect shows him not at the crime scene -- given the apparent lack of surveillance cameras at the site Fenves now vows will be installed -- but in close proximity fronting the school’s football stadium.

Also unknown is whether enhanced lighting would have prevented the young woman’s death. Or if focus on Waller Creek conservation encompassing the waterway's UT portion would have yielded rerouted, illuminated paths -- however temporary -- as enhancements may have progressed there, possibly serving as a safe route for Weiser.

It’s all conjecture.

But the danger posed by Waller Creek is no abstraction, but a dynamic long known. Tragically, it’s taken the death of a young student named Haruka Weiser -- killed along its banks by a runaway youth -- to bring those elements of danger into greater focus.

>>> Photo by Tony Cantu: A police officer stands guard, preventing pedestrian access, at Waller Creek on UT-Austin grounds the day Haruka Weieser's body is found on its banks.

>>> Photo of President Fenves via Twitter