And the most music-friendly city in Texas is?… Not Austin. At least not according to the Texas Music Office and its new Music Friendly Communities program, which last week recognized Fort Worth as its first member. The program is part of the state’s effort to get cities around the state thinking and acting with musicians and […]
Austin Monitor
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Oompa Loompa, doompa-dee-doo
I’ve got another puzzle for you… The “downtown puzzle” continues to, well, puzzle. At the moment, Mayor Steve Adler’s plan for downtown that includes funding for music, homelessness, and Austin Convention Center expansion using Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue and a tourism improvement district is scheduled for this Thursday’s meeting. But even that scheduling is causing […]
Posted inRadio
Austin Monitor Radio: CodeNEXT with Community Not Commodity
This week, Community Not Commodity’s Michael Wong and Barbara McArthur join Austin Monitor editor Liz Pagano to talk CodeNEXT. The discussion, which tackles the second draft of the code, how the rewrite could negatively impact neighborhoods and why the group is concerned about things moving too fast, is embedded below: Curious about how we got […]
Posted inRadio
Austin Monitor Radio: CodeNEXT with Evolve
This week, Evolve Austin’s Eric Goff and Austin Housing Coalition Executive Director Nicole Joslin chat with Austin Monitor freelance reporter Caleb Pritchard and editor Liz Pagano about CodeNEXT. To hear more about Evolve’s take on what needs fixing in the city’s Land Development Code and how that fixing is going, tune in below! Curious about […]
Posted inPolice
The implosion of Austin’s crime lab: A timeline
It has blindsided Austin’s criminal justice community. What started a year ago as a few concerns over an audit has spiraled into the permanent closure of the city’s crime lab and the firing of nearly all of its employees. The lab’s failures have added to a decades-long testing backlog, and may have compromised the evidence […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Zero vision
More, no doubt, to come… As we all well know, the second draft of CodeNEXT was released Friday. As usual, it’s a dense tome that land use enthusiasts studied in earnest over the weekend, and will continue to study in the weeks to come. However, we were gifted some initial impressions from local groups and […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Look at all these rumors
Film Commission rumor not confirmed… Louis Black, who is retiring as publisher of the Austin Chronicle, emailed City Council last week claiming that the recent vote to allocate a portion of the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax from Visit Austin (previously known as the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau) “to fund operations and maintenance of city […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: A doozy of a notebook
A doozy of a day… Council Member Ora Houston is a consistent advocate for citizen input. But that doesn’t mean she has to enjoy it. “Thank you Jesus,” she muttered to herself when City Council voted at 9:40 p.m. Thursday to approve a Hotel Occupancy Tax proposal after taking comment from scores of citizens on […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Field trips and missteps
Why extend the deadline when you can eliminate it?… During a budget work session on Wednesday morning, Council Member Ora Houston asked whether the deadline for submitting items to the budget concept menu was Tuesday night or Wednesday night. Don’t worry, she was assured, she still had until midnight to submit items. What followed was […]
Posted inWhispers
Forum for all
Occasionally, Austin Monitor reporters get to put the notebook down, steel their nerves and address the public for a change instead of merely listening to what they’ve got to say. That’ll be the case on Sept. 22 when Chad Swiatecki will hold court as moderator at the Austin Forum on Technology and Society. The session will […]
Posted inRadio
Austin Monitor Radio: The Aquatic Master Plan
This week, Interim Director of the Parks and Recreation Department Kimberly McNeeley sits down with Austin Monitor freelance reporter Jack Craver. Tune in below for a conversation about the Aquatic Master Plan, which is done after years of work and causing instant worry about the state of our pools. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/339777553″ params=”color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Lessons learned
A parking pittance… Members of City Council listening to a lengthy presentation on the Development Services Department budget Wednesday didn’t suggest any major changes to the way the department is running or spending its money. But a number of Council members were bothered by the parking policies the department has implemented at One Texas Center, […]