After a close runoff election Tuesday, residents of District 6 in far Northwest Austin will be represented for the next four years by Mackenzie Kelly, the first Republican to serve on City Council since 2018. “This is a tough night for all of us … but it doesn’t mean that any of this work ends,” District […]
Ryan Thornton
Posted inDevelopment
Council approves street impact fee program
Beginning in mid-2022, developers eager to contribute to Austin’s growth will need to pitch in to help pay for the transportation infrastructure costs necessitated by the new development. The street impact fee program that City Council unanimously adopted last week will require a one-time payment from developers in proportion to how much traffic their project […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Commission moves to bring transgender voices to public safety table
A discussion on providing support to victims of anti-transgender violence quickly gravitated toward the work of the city’s “reimagining public safety” initiative at this week’s meeting of the Public Safety Commission. In line with repeated requests from local LGBTQ community leaders, the commission passed a unanimous recommendation to City Council to place a transgender or […]
Posted inPolice
Police department sees trend in violent crime uptick
Breaking from typical practice, the Austin Police Department presented the Public Safety Commission with a monthly crime report for the month of October as part of its routine quarterly update on Monday afternoon. While department representatives said the crime report was not meant to serve as a commentary on the ongoing effort called “reimagining public […]
Posted inTransportation
Chamber looks back on 2020 mobility highlights, ahead to 2021
Covid-19 may have shattered many of the expectations local industries had for 2020, but in the realm of transportation, business leaders and elected officials consider the year a milestone for the future of regional movement. “Despite our current situation, a global pandemic, we’ve accomplished a lot of things,” Shaun Cranston, vice president and director of […]
Posted inTransit
Application deadline extended for Austin Transit Partnership board
Application deadlines have been extended to 5 p.m. on Dec. 2 for community members interested in serving on the five-member board of the Austin Transit Partnership, the independent organization that will oversee execution of Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Project Connect. The deadline was previously Nov. 27. Applications will be reviewed by the Capital Metro-City Council […]
Posted inTransportation
TxDOT to hear case for Livable Oak Hill design
Mediation between environmental organizations and the Texas Department of Transportation seeking a compromise in a lawsuit over the state’s controversial plans for the Oak Hill Parkway project will take place Tuesday. The plaintiffs – Save Barton Creek Association, Save Oak Hill, Fix 290, Clean Water Action and the South Windmill Run Neighborhood Association – continue to […]
Posted inBicycles
City prepares next steps for Bergstrom Spur trail
After holding a virtual open house on the Bergstrom Spur this summer, the city’s Urban Trails Program, in collaboration with the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is finalizing planning concepts for converting the abandoned rail line into a six-mile trail and transit corridor. For next steps, Urban Trails has […]
Posted inPublic Safety
City overlooks police overtime dollars
When City Council cut $21.5 million from the Austin Police Department budget in August, it also provided $3.174 million that could be used for overtime as the department adjusted to its budgetary constraints. The dollars were intended to buy time as Council considered future steps to reimagine public safety, but the city has not taken […]
Posted inPolice
Report finds racial bias in 2019 traffic stops
The Office of Police Oversight, the Equity Office and the Office of Innovation released a joint report Monday determining that racial bias continues to influence outcomes in police traffic stops. The report, which analyzed local traffic stop data from 2019, found that bias has in some ways worsened since the previous joint report covering 2015-2018 […]
Posted inTransportation
Local advocates envision I-35 as a boulevard
As the Texas Department of Transportation begins the scoping process for the Interstate 35 Capital Express Central project, a new campaign aims to help clarify the decision at hand. Should Austinites allow the state to build its “expensive, polluting, dangerous, unpleasant highway expansion that makes congestion worse” or support a vision for a “beautiful, safe […]
Posted inCity Council
Council not yet sold on street impact fee plan
City Council passed the first of three readings for a street impact fee program on Thursday, marking a milestone in the multi-year effort to guarantee that developers help carry the cost of adding new transportation infrastructure. Council approved the first reading in a unanimous vote, but Council members raised several issues for the city to […]