City leaders are moving ahead with lighting and other safety measures in the Rainey Street district in response to a pair of recent late-night drownings and growing speculation that nightlife patrons are unsafe in the entertainment district.
The Austin Police Department focused patrols in the district over the weekend, joining additional park rangers stationed along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail in an attempt to prevent additional drownings. The city has also installed fencing between the trail and the shoreline of Lady Bird Lake, and installed solar lighting in four areas to make the contours of the trail and waterway area more visible to visitors.
This week City Council is set to consider a resolution that directs city staff to create a comprehensive safety plan for the district that could include additional high activity location observation (HALO) cameras as well as stepping up safety planning for bars operating on Rainey Street.
Council Member Zo Qadri, whose district includes the Rainey neighborhood, said he expects to learn this week from emergency response leaders what steps are possible to improve safety there. Qadri has co-sponsored the resolution set for a vote on Thursday.
The city’s actions come after two drownings since February that have been ruled accidental with no indications of foul play, according to autopsies conducted on the bodies of Jason John, 30, and Jonathan Honey, 33. There have been five drownings in the Rainey Street district over the past decade, with the three previous deaths occurring between 2014 and 2018.
“We’re looking at kind of reaffirming that infrastructure support with lighting, fencing, cameras, but also have park rangers out and making sure that they kind of look after pedestrians and make sure folks don’t wander into areas they’re not supposed to wander in,” Qadri said. “The trail is not going anywhere, and Rainey Street isn’t going anywhere, and it’s an entertainment district, so I think it’s our responsibility to make sure it’s as safe as possible. It’s also the responsibility of bars and bar owners to make sure that they don’t overserve their customers and make sure this is all taken seriously.”
The drownings have caught the attention of true crime fans online and resulted in highly popular Reddit threads and Facebook groups fostering conspiracy theories about the possibility of foul play involved in the string of deaths.
Qadri’s resolution asks for an initial assessment of the pedestrian safety plan by April 20, and calls for park rangers to maintain an increased presence along the trailhead during the hours of most concern. The plan, which would spell out costs and possible funding sources to carry it out, is due by June 13.
In late February, the families of Martin Gutierrez, who died in the Rainey district in 2018, and Jason John urged the city to improve safety measures in the area, resulting in a funding request by the Parks and Recreation Department to install the new temporary lighting.
Qadri said the online speculation over safety issues real and imagined in the area have led members of the Rainey Business Coalition to report concerns among their employees over their own safety.
“The (bar owners) we’ve talked to, though we obviously haven’t talked to everyone, but they seemed in agreement and were happy to see what we’re planning on. Some of these bar owners have in recent days had their employees afraid because there’s so much misinformation going on and fearmongering that they’re reading about on Reddit or on a Facebook page,” he said. “They’ve been afraid of their safety, so I think what we’re looking to do in terms of safer infrastructure and putting (public safety) bodies on the ground to kind of patrol the area … that’s something that’s up their alley that they’re happy to hear about.”
Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.
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Austin Police Department: the law enforcement entity for the City of Austin.
Rainey Street: Once a quiet residential street, Rainey Street quickly transformed once the historic district was incorporate into the Central Business District in 2004. Currently, the street remains in transition as the bars in the original homes there make way for larger development projects.
