Josh Rosenblatt

Over the objections of city staff, the Council’s Health and Human Services Committee voted yesterday to support a request by Austin Pets Alive (APA) to allow the animal rescue group to move its entire operation into the old Town Lake Animal Center site. APA made the request last month after learning the lease on their […]

Yesterday, over the vocal objections of Zoning and Platting Commission Chair Betty Baker, a split City Council approved historic landmark status for the McCrummen-Wroe house, a two-story Adamesque-style Colonial Revival located on Windsor Road in West Austin. Council voted 5-2 in favor of granting the house landmark status, with Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole and […]

At a crowded meeting last night, the Animal Advisory Commission voted 4-1 to recommend to Council a proposed agreement between the city and rescue group Austin Pets Alive that would allow APA to move all of their current operations to the Town Lake Animal Center site. This comes fast on the heels of the Feb. […]

Council approved an interlocal agreement with Capital Metro yesterday to fund additional MetroRail service on Friday evenings and on Saturdays. Starting March 23, the Red Line will run hourly between 6pm and midnight and on Saturdays, every 30 minutes from 4pm to midnight. There is currently no service on Saturdays. According to Cap Metro, MetroRail […]

Four months after the city of Austin signed a temporary license agreement with the rescue group Austin Pets Alive to operate the former Town Lake Animal Center as a overflow adoption space, APA executive director Ellen Jefferson is asking the city to amend and expand that contract to allow her group to move their entire […]

If Sunday’s first-of-the-season City Council candidates’ forum is any indication, this year’s races are going to be heated affairs.   The forum, arranged by the Network of Asian American Organizations – Political Action Committee exposed serious ideological differences between at least two of the incumbents and their challengers over the issues of development and affordability. […]

Nearly six months after an outside transportation consultant recommended Austin put 100 more cabs on the streets, City Council voted last night to approve, on first reading, issuing 45 total additional permits to two of the city’s three taxi cab companies. If the two ordinances are approved on three readings, the city will grant 30 […]

Former City Council Member Brigid Shea officially declared her candidacy for Mayor of Austin before a packed room at Threadgill’s Word Headquarters last night, putting an end to months of speculation and setting up incumbent Mayor Lee Leffingwell for what could be the most difficult fight any sitting Council member faces this election season. In […]

In only a matter of minutes yesterday City Council repealed one controversial law regulating crisis pregnancy centers and approved another, setting up what promises to be an extended legal and public relations battle for the city. The new law, co-sponsored by Council Members Bill Spelman and Mike Martinez, was written in response to concerns the […]

Bolstered by a strong populist message and a song in his heart, two-term incumbent Council Member Mike Martinez kicked off his re-election campaign last night before a large crowd at Nuevo Leon on the city’s East Side. Martinez can now turn his attention to his one challenger in the race for Place 2, businesswoman and […]

Reflecting recently discussed changes to the city’s approach to historic zoning, Council has approved on first reading landmark status for two working-class homes that were part of a poor minority neighborhood on the banks of Shoal Creek. Though modest in design and scale, the homes “represent a vanishing chapter in Austin’s history,” said Historic Preservation […]

City Council Member Bill Spelman kicked off his re-election campaign Tuesday in a room full of supporters representing some of the more disparate, even opposing, constituencies in the city. Acknowledging the variety of political philosophies in the room, and at the same time his reputation as one of the Council’s consensus builders, Spelman told the […]