John Davidson

A pilot project launching in October will put complete video footage of more than 20 public meetings on the City of Austin’s Web site each month.   In addition to being broadcast live on Channel 6, meetings will be available on demand, just as City Council meetings have been since January. Keith Reeves, manager of […]

Beginning sometime next month, there’ll be a new kind of car on the streets of Austin: smart cars. City employees will be zipping around in 8-foot-long, two-seater cars courtesy of a unique pilot program between the City of Austin and European automaker Daimler.   The program, called Cars2Go, is Daimler’s first foray into the United […]

A lawsuit the City of Austin brought against Reagan National Advertising in April has ground to a halt after a judge denied the city’s request for a partial summary judgment on Aug. 10, according to Travis County court records.   The city filed suit in April against Reagan Advertising, a company that owns billboards on […]

The good news for Austin Energy customers is that they won’t see an extra 60-cent charge on their monthly bills in 2010.   The bad news is that they will almost certainly see extra charges on their bills in 2011–charges that will increase to about $5 a month in five years.   The reason for […]

It’s official: The Dillos are done.   During a work session Monday afternoon, the Board of Directors of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved the indefinite suspension of the downtown Dillo.   The Dillos, famously uncomfortable rubber-tire replicas of trolleys that once ran downtown, were singled out for suspension because of steadily declining ridership, according […]

Austin City Council voted 6-1 Thursday to approve the Austin Film Society’s long-term lease agreement with Soundcheck, a Nashville music rehearsal and production company that wants to sublease about 28,000 square feet at Austin Studios. Council Member Chris Riley, who tried to postpone the vote, was the lone dissenter.   In recent weeks, the deal […]

The city announced a program Monday afternoon to help people who have fallen behind on utility payments amid record summer temperatures.   Responding to concerns that customers would get disconnected this fall because they had run up such large bills over the summer, Austin Energy officials met with about a dozen community groups last week […]