The Downtown Commission is the latest citizens’ body to officially roast CodeNEXT as the controversial Land Development Code rewrite tumbles down the final stretch before official City Council consideration. On Wednesday night, the commission passed a recommendation damning the effort for falling short of principles outlined in both the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan and the […]
Caleb Pritchard
Posted inWhispers
Council gives temporary extension to ARCH operator
City Council gave the nonprofit operator of the city’s downtown homeless shelter a six-month extension last week. The vote to keep Front Steps at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless through the end of next March slipped through without fanfare on the consent agenda. Front Steps has been running the ARCH since the facility […]
Posted inBicycles
Solution for Shoal Creek landslide coming soon
City engineers are getting closer to figuring out how to fix a catastrophic landslide that knocked out a portion of the Shoal Creek Trail earlier this month. “By the end of next week, we’re probably going to have an idea of what a solution is going to look like,” Mike Kelly, managing engineer with the […]
Posted inWhispers
B-cycle signs up for another five years
Despite the potential threat of dockless bikes and scooters, Austin B-cycle is here to stay, at least on paper. Last the week, the board of directors behind the nonprofit operator of the city’s station-based bike-sharing system voted unanimously to approve a five-year renewal of its contract with the Austin Transportation Department. The deal will keep […]
Posted inTravis County
Contractor apologizes for racist remark at county meeting
The contractor who used a racial slur against Latino immigrants during a Travis County-sponsored meeting last week is apologizing. Aaron Cabaza, president of Aaron Concrete, sent an email to county staff on Tuesday afternoon expressing regret for his remarks at a stakeholders discussion focused on recommendations that would augment protections for workers on county projects. […]
Posted inTravis County
Contractor drops racial slur at county meeting, participants say
A Travis County-led stakeholder discussion between construction contractors and labor interests reached a boiling point last week when one of the participants used a racial slur, according to people at the meeting. Multiple sources confirmed to the Austin Monitor on Monday that, when discussing wages and other work site conditions, Aaron Cabaza of Aaron Concrete […]
Posted inWhispers
Suspected drunk driver crashes into Central Health clinic
It was business as usual for Central Health’s Southeast Health and Wellness Center on Monday morning even after a suspected drunk driver slammed his car into the building overnight. According to a press release, no patients or staff were at the clinic when the crash happened at 1:30 a.m. The driver plowed through an exterior […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: Travis County, 5.15.18
The Travis County Commissioners Court meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday. In the interest of space, we’ve decided not to post the entire agenda here. The County Clerk’s Office hosts a copy at its website. 7. Consider and take appropriate action on amending the form and structure of the Travis County Code. (Commissioner Gómez) Monitor’s Take: […]
Posted inTransit
Capital Metro: Perhaps a stopgap plan for fill-in-the-gap stops
Reversing course, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is now planning to use temporary signs and posts for at least some of the agency’s long-awaited new MetroRapid stops. Since announcing in 2016 the eight pairs of stops intended to fill in key gaps along the Nos. 801 and 803 routes, the agency has declined to expand […]
Posted inTransportation
Transportation Department revises sweeping taxi recommendations
The Austin Transportation Department staff has scaled back a set of draft recommendations aimed at saving the city’s flagging taxi franchises. On Tuesday evening, Acting Mobility Services Division Manager Jacob Culberson revealed to the Urban Transportation Commission a revised version of the proposals he initially debuted during the UTC’s Feb. 13 meeting. “Some of our […]
Posted inWhispers
Before CAMPO’s TIP vote, pointed words from Eckhardt
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Board on Monday night approved its latest Transportation Improvement Program. The vast majority of the $435 million collection of projects across the organization’s six-county jurisdiction will begin construction before 2021. Staff had whittled the list down from a larger tranche of requests totaling up to $1.5 billion. […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: Travis County, 5.8.18
The Travis County Commissioners Court meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday. In the interest of space, we’ve decided not to post the entire agenda here. The County Clerk’s Office hosts a copy at its website. 3. Consider and take appropriate action on the issuance of a mass gathering permit for Lone Star Jam to be held […]