Austin will provide up to $856,000 in economic incentives to pharmaceutical giant Merck Sharp & Dohme if the company chooses Austin as the site for a proposed information technology hub. By a 7-3-1 vote, City Council approved a Chapter 380 agreement that will pay the company $85,600 a year through 2026 – based on $200 […]
Chad Swiatecki
Chad Swiatecki is a 20-year journalist who relocated to Austin from his home state of Michigan in 2008. He most enjoys covering the intersection of arts, business and local/state politics. He has written for Rolling Stone, Spin, New York Daily News, Texas Monthly, Austin American-Statesman and many other regional and national outlets.
Posted inAustin
New UT arena slated for downtown, but questions linger
A big piece of downtown Austin’s future fell into place on Friday with the announcement that the arena that will replace the Frank Erwin Center will be located close to the current arena on the University of Texas’ eastern border downtown. University of Texas President Greg Fenves told the school’s development board that the new […]
Posted inAustin
Parking price jump almost certain as study heads to city officials
Increased pricing for street-front parking is almost a certainty in downtown Austin’s near future. That tactic was one of more than a dozen recommended by a consulting firm tasked with solving the parking crunch that plagues many areas of Austin’s downtown core almost daily. The plan from San Francisco-based Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates also calls for […]
Posted inCity Council
Pharma giant’s proposed incentives draw questions in first review
City Council members have tended away from using incentives packages in recent years, averaging one approval per year to lure large employers to the area. Based on questioning and feedback from an initial discussion last week, it appears that 2017’s approval could go toward a proposed information technology hub for the pharmaceutical and biosciences giant […]
Posted inAustin
Downtown drug crisis pushes Adler, Council to pledge increased support
Austin’s police and public health departments will have extra budget and other resources available soon to help them focus on ending an increase in the use of the synthetic drug K2 downtown. At a press conference Thursday, Mayor Steve Adler was joined by several City Council members and assorted city department heads who have already […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Creative community supporters pushing live/work CodeNEXT additions
Austin creatives are stepping up their push to amend future drafts of CodeNEXT so that the city’s future building and development road map makes specific allowances for music and artistic spaces. Dave Sullivan, a member of the CodeNEXT advisory group and vocal supporter of Austin music, has begun circulating a proposal that would amend the […]
Posted inWhispers
About those art spaces, again
The Austin Music Commission has doubled down on its request for a list of all city-owned property, with the goal of identifying spaces and structures that could possibly be converted to house artists and creative groups that are being forced to find new spaces by the city’s hot real estate market. The request, directed at […]
Posted inWhispers
City to talk Merck incentives
The biosciences giant Merck Sharp & Dohme Corporation’s request for an economic incentive package from the city of Austin worth up to $856,000 will get its first public discussion at Thursday’s City Council meeting. The package is tied to the company’s recently announced plan to open an information technology hub near the new Dell Medical […]
Posted inAustin
Looking for history: Austin’s public squares
From Lyndon B. Johnson announcing his first Senate campaign in Wooldridge Square to Booker T. Washington speaking there in 1911, some of Austin’s most historic moments and stories are set to be preserved in the city’s three original public square parks. The program known as Our Austin Story is a partnership between the Austin Parks […]
Posted inCity Hall
Can Austin innovate itself out of long meetings?
Given the recent tilt toward performance art at City Council meetings – those poor eggs! – and running times that are the longest among major cities in Texas, it seems like the last thing Austin needs is more citizen participation on civic matters big and small. But changing the paradigm for how residents and stakeholders […]
Posted inAustin
Decision on unmarked graves, chapel at Oakwood Cemetery coming in April
Austin officials plan to have an idea next month of how to move forward with construction work on the chapel at Oakwood Cemetery that was halted in November when unrecorded burial sites were discovered under the building. Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department, which manages five city cemeteries, is working to learn more about the remains […]
Posted inAustin
CodeNEXT tech talk focuses on familiar topics
Planning consultant Peter Park picked an apt way to describe Austin’s current building code while talking to a room full of technology entrepreneurs and stakeholders at Austin’s Capital Factory. “The (operating system) is kind of broken, and to get the city you want is kind of an arduous process,” Park said of the ongoing reveals […]