Plans to livestream a military execution at Fort Hood send host Mark Long back to childhood cockfights and photographs of Jesse Washington’s 1916 lynching in Waco. Photographer Fred Gildersleeve sold images of the killing as postcards, letting buyers keep—and share—the occasion. Later, the NAACP used the postcards in a campaign that helped turn public opinion against lynching.

An invitation to watch someone be killed asks something of its audience. Authorities may call it a lesson in consequences, while spectators find reassurance, belonging, or disgust. The question is what follows after the thrill—or horror—of the moment is over.

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An organic lemon can cost $1.30 without proving Waco has become a luxury market, and a Waffle House can inspire civic delirium without saying much about affluence at all. The arrival of The Scout Guide business directory is making a different wager: that there are currently enough places selling expensive things to benefit from reaching an overlapping clientele.

At Hotel 1928, a gathering for the forthcoming Waco edition of The Scout Guide leads to a conversation with a fine-art gallery owner, leaving host Mark Long with the impression that the gallery’s buyers are becoming more local—a small piece of evidence, not a census of people with disposable income. Downstairs, gold lettering on the “Gents” bathroom door by Mike MacDonald complicates the sense of being somewhere foreign: apparently, these different Wacos already share a sign painter.

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Developers and advocates for the homeless can look at the same low-budget motel and make two very different assessments. One sees redevelopment leading to affluent buyers, short-term rentals, and upscale retailers to transform the property; the other warns that removing cheap lodging will push precariously housed people into even worse conditions.

Dottie Oaks advertised $695,000 townhomes that could approach $900,000 after being made habitable, and the complex has been sitting empty for years. Meanwhile, Mission Waco founder Jimmy Dorrell’s warning about Waco’s “invisible homeless” eventually helped inspire Creekside Community Village, a supportive-housing tiny home development near the edge of town.

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