Stories by Josh Rosenblatt
Council puts hybrid-districting plan on November ballot
Austin voters will have two competing proposals for changing Austin’s City Council to geographic representation to choose from this November, after City Council approved on third reading Tuesday to put the 8-2-1 “hybrid” plan on the ballot. That Council decided…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Aug 8, 2012
Council gives final approval to short-term rental rules
After two years of heated debate, which came close to a boil this week, the City Council approved regulations on short-term rentals (STRs) properties last night, voting 5-2 to allow both owner-occupied and the more controversial non-owner-occupied short-term rentals in…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Aug 3, 2012
City’s proposed 2013 budget includes funds for 157 new hires
Just three years removed from the low point of the biggest financial collapse since the Great Depression, the City of Austin’s budget is doing well and getting better. Chief Financial Officer Elaine Hart and Deputy Chief Financial Officer Ed van…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Aug 1, 2012
City Clerk verifies enough petition signatures to put 10-1 plan on ballot
It’s official: City Clerk Shirley Gentry has validated more than 20,000 signatures from petitions gathered by Austinites for Geographic Representation (AGR), clearing the way for the group’s 10-1 single-member district plan to be on the ballot this November. Gentry sent…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 27, 2012
City Clerk says 10-1 petition is valid, will go on November ballot
It’s official: City Clerk Shirley Gentry has validated more than 20,000 signatures from petitions gathered by Austinites for Geographic Representation (AGR) , clearing the way for the group’s 10-1 single-member district plan to be on the ballot this November. Late…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 26, 2012
Medical clinic seeks $2 million in bond funds for East Austin location
The People’s Community Clinic, which provides medical services for more than 10,000 low income and uninsured Austinites, wants the city to add $2 million to this November’s bond package to help pay for a new primary care clinic in East…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 19, 2012
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Citizens’ group turns in 33,000 petitions supporting 10-1 plan
Austinites for Geographic Representation on Monday submitted more than 33,000 signatures in support of a single-member redistricting plan calling for 10 City Council members and one at-large mayor. If the City Clerk’s office validates at least 20,000 of those signatures…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 17, 2012
Fath publishes book of life in Bastrop during World War II
Back in the early 1940s, Dr. J. Gordon Bryson, a family doctor in the then-tiny city of Bastrop, moonlighted as a writer under the pseudonym of Pete Shady, contributing columns called “Main Street Observations” to the Weekly Bastrop Advertiser. Nearly…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 10, 2012
Citizens group sees African-American plurality in 10-1 districting plan
The group responsible for a petition to put a 10-1 single-member district plan on the ballot in November claims it is the best option to create a district where African-Americans would constitute a plurality of voting-age citizens. Austinites for Geographic…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 9, 2012
East side residents want extension of “no sit/no lie” law
Some residents of central east Austin, frustrated with what they describe as an “open-air drug market” at the corner of 12th and Chicon streets, are asking City Council to expand the boundaries of the city ordinance that prohibits people from…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 3, 2012
Dueling geographic-representation plans likely in November
After hours of heated public comments last night, City Council split the difference on the controversial subject of single-member districts and voted to put one geographic-redistricting proposal on the November ballot while approving a second, opposing plan on first reading.…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 29, 2012
Leffingwell touts hybrid plan for electing Council
Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Members Sheryl Cole and Mike Martinez pronounced themselves ready to do their duty as leaders of the city once more last night before a relatively small audience of family, staff and well-wishers. It was a…
