Josh Rosenblatt

Debate over changes to the city’s controversial Downtown No Sit/Lie Ordinance continued to rage at Tuesday’s meeting of the Public Health and Human Services Subcommittee, with supporters once again advocating for further medical exemptions to the ordinance and opponents warning against creating an unenforceable law.   Last month, Council Members Laura Morrison and Randi Shade […]

Some 30 residents of the Walnut Creek community convened at City Hall last week to voice their frustrations about rising crime rates in north Austin and, hopefully, find a way to bring those rates down.   The members of the neighborhood, led by longtime Walnut Creek Neighborhood Association President Wayne Tobias, met with Bobby Garza, chief of […]

August was a busy month in the continuing saga over of historic zoning.   First, Austin City Council, in response to a record number of homeowners applying for and receiving historic zoning status, voted Aug. 19 to temporarily limit the number of properties the Historic Landmark Commission would consider to three a month. Four days […]

Last night, one of the DIY Channel’s newest shows, This New House, profiled Solutions Oriented Living, the first Net Zero energy subdivision in Austin. To celebrate, Council Member Sheryl Cole, residents, various city officials, and the builder gathered in the subdivision’s Community Green Space for an outdoor screening of the episode.   The 5 1/2-acre […]

Lost in the shuffle of last week’s long and testy Council meeting was the postponement of an appeal regarding an Outdoor Music Venue permit for South Austin café Opa! But the postponement does not signal successful negotiations between the Zilker Neighborhood Association and a new café on South Lamar.   Up for dispute is the […]

The city took a small but significant step into the future Thursday. City Council voted to approve a resolution directing the city manager to take steps to protect Time Warner Cable subscribers’ continued access to Austin Public, Education and Government (PEG) channels as that provider makes the switch from analog to digital service.   Time […]

City Council settled in for a late night last night, as community concern over proposed water rate hikes and the construction of the controversial Water Treatment Plant 4 took over a public hearing on the FY2010-2011 proposed budget, a hearing that was still ongoing at press time.    That hearing was supposed to take place […]

Two simultaneous presentations at City Hall yesterday shed light on the debate over a proposed residential rate hike for water use in next year’s budget. In one corner stood David Anders, assistant director of the Austin Water Utility, who was presenting the utility’s quarterly financial report to the Council’s Audit and Finance Committee. In the […]

Just four days after City Council approved a plan to make the Castle Hill neighborhood a local historic district, the Historic Landmark Commission voted unanimously to recommend that Council do the same for Hyde Park.   The Hyde Park Local Historic District would encompass, generally, West 38th Street to West 45th Street, south to north, […]

At today’s City Council meeting, Mayor Lee Leffingwell will be presenting the Distinguished Service Award to Eleanor McKinney, who recently retired from the Design Commission after 13 years. During her tenure on the commission, McKinney helped write the Downtown Design Guidelines, which started the process of transforming downtown into a more pedestrian-friendly area, and the […]

Homeless advocacy groups scored a major victory yesterday, as the Council  Health and Human Services Committee voted unanimously to make changes to the controversial No Sit/No Lie Ordinance. Those changes, if approved by the whole Council, would broaden and clarify the ordinance, allowing for more medical exemptions to the law that prohibits people from sitting […]

One of the six primary vendors doing business with the city as part of Austin Energy’s weatherization assistance program is under increased scrutiny after the Council’s MBE/WBE and Small Business Advisory Committee expressed concern about its business model.   The company in question, Go Green Squads, is a general contractor for energy efficiency in Austin. […]