After a court ruling, Austin is in the position of “asking nicely” when it comes to not using single-use bags. But yesterday the Texas Campaign for the Environment spread the word that state Representative Gina Hinojosa of Austin has filed a bill that would restore the right of local governments to regulate single-use bags. “Bag […]
Elizabeth Pagano
Elizabeth Pagano is the editor of the Austin Monitor.
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: City Council, 12.13.18
Welcome to this week’s TipSheet. This is the last Council TipSheet of the year, as this is the last City Council meeting of the year. It’s also the last meeting for District 1 Council Member Ora Houston and District 8 Council Member Ellen Troxclair. Today’s agenda promises to be “long, but boring,” but we’ve highlighted […]
Posted inWhispers
Runoff election today
Today is election day, and the Austin Monitor formally invites all of our readers to join the proud few to vote in this runoff. Representation for City Council Districts 1, 3 and 8 will be decided tonight in addition to one at-large Austin Independent School District trustee and Place 8 for the Austin Community College […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Urgent plodding
District 3 gets into it… The gloves are off in the race for the District 3 City Council seat between siblings Susana Almanza and incumbent Pio Renteria. The long-combative candidates have taken their campaign charges to the digital and physical realms with charged attacks on each other’s level of community involvement and the contributions they’ve […]
Posted inWhispers
Cohen endorses Renteria
After some back and forth, former District 3 candidate Jessica Cohen formally endorsed incumbent City Council Member Pio Renteria yesterday. In a statement to the press, she explained, “Since the election I have spoken at length with Pio and his team to discuss the important issues facing our district and I’m confident that in this […]
Posted inWhispers
Early voting numbers continue to underwhelm
Early votes continue to trickle in for the Dec. 11 special election. By the end of Thursday, just 14,949 votes had been cast, representing 2.26 percent of eligible Travis County voters. The most popular of the pared-down voting locations, by far, has been the Randalls at South MoPac, which has seen 2,911 voters. Early voting […]
Posted inWhispers
Changes for West Fifth
More transportation changes are coming to downtown, according to a press release this week from the city’s Transportation Department. This time, the changes come in the form of transit improvements to West Fifth Street, which include a bike lane between West Lynn and Baylor streets and priority bus and bike signals at Baylor. The press […]
Posted inWhispers
Lyft jumps into the scooter fray
The cat may have been let out of the bag early, due to a convergence of Lime reprimands, a swift-moving city process (?) and time to kill on Twitter, but now it’s official: Lyft is entering the scooter population of Austin. A press release from the company explains that Austin is the fifth market in […]
Posted inWhispers
Early runoff votes trickle in
As everyone reading this probably knows, runoff elections are a much different animal than November elections. To wit: The totals so far for this year’s runoff are much different than last month’s election. Granted, there are only runoffs in AISD and City Council Districts 1, 3 and 8, but as of Saturday night, only 3,867 […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: City Council, 11.29.18
Welcome to this week’s TipSheet. In the interest of space, we’ve decided not to post the entire City Council agenda, but here are the items we have our eye on today. The Office of the City Clerk posts a copy on its website, here. Item 3: Approve adoption of Water Forward, Austin’s Integrated Water Resource […]
Posted inWhispers
Get ready for runoff
Though the November election is a thing of the past, there are still three Council seats up for grabs, with Districts 1, 3 and 8 all holding runoff elections. Over the next week, the Austin Monitor will be recapping those races. For those who want to brush up in the meantime, the city has posted […]
Posted inWhispers
Chamber looks forward
The Austin Chamber of Commerce will be hosting Economic Outlook next Thursday, Dec. 6. The event is, according to a chamber press release, “the premier business and economic forecasting event of the year, attracting more than 600 attendees from the Austin region.” Speakers include Army Futures Command Deputy Commanding General Lt. Gen. James M. Richardson; […]