Local disability advocates appear ready to ask the city to conduct a census or general accounting of the number of local residents with disabilities who may require city services beyond those currently offered locally. Earlier this month, the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities discussed the need for data on disabled people living locally, with […]
Austin
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SXSW’s $380M economic impact shows return to prepandemic heights
This year’s South by Southwest appears to have had a local economic impact on par with the years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which nearly wiped out the popular music, tech and film confab in 2020. An analysis from Greyhill Advisors found this year’s event generated $380.9 million in economic activity, a jump of $100 […]
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Idle lands: Austin joins cities looking to put real estate assets to best use
By next spring, the city is expected to have a detailed plan for how to turn its underutilized real estate assets into money-producers, in an attempt to add General Fund revenue and counteract state limits on property tax increases. Austin was recently announced as a participant with three other cities – Evanston, Illinois; Mt. Vernon, […]
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Students voice solidarity, outrage as conflict in Palestine escalates
As the sun set in Texas last Thursday, a somber crowd gathered beneath the university’s clock tower to mourn casualties of the escalating conflict between Israel and Palestine. The vigil, led by the University of Texas at Austin’s Palestinian Solidarity Committee, was the second since Hamas’ breaching of Israel’s southern border in a deadly attack […]
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East Austin factory would feature world’s largest rooftop solar array
Tesla’s factory in East Austin would be the largest rooftop solar installation in the world when complete, company officials say. “We finished phase 1, so we can pull roughly 10 megawatts. When it’s all said and done, it will be 30 megawatts, which will be the largest rooftop solar I think in the world,” Logan […]
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Hiring headache: $25B in mobility projects will require 10,000 new workers every year through 2040
With $25 billion in infrastructure and mobility projects on tap over the next two decades, the Austin area will have 10,000 new jobs in those sectors per year for the next 17 years. That total is one of the findings of an analysis shared last week with local political and business leaders during a summit […]
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The sun is so bright, you gotta wear safe solar shades (for this weekend’s annular eclipse)
Now’s the time to get proper glasses to view the annular eclipse Saturday and be prepared for the big one next spring. This time around, the sun will be about 89 percent obscured from our view in Austin, so long as the weather works out. So far, forecasts are looking good. But even if the […]
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Council members want action, updates to improve city animal shelter
Members of City Council want ongoing updates from the Animal Services Office about the conditions at the Austin Animal Center, which a recent audit found to be routinely overcrowded due to a variety of management issues. Council’s Audit and Finance Committee received a briefing on the audit Wednesday and told top city managers and the […]
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The city says shelter is coming for homeless Austinites. Nonprofits would like a word.
Lee esta historia en español For years, Austin didn’t focus on finding shelter for people living outdoors. Instead, the city prioritized longer-term solutions, like getting people into apartments. That philosophy at City Hall has changed. Under Mayor Kirk Watson, the city opened a 300-bed shelter during the summer’s record-breaking heat, and it aims to open more […]
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Animal shelter audit calls out overcrowding, management issues for no-kill facility
An audit of operations at the Austin Animal Shelter has found that the no-kill facility is often beyond its capacity and lacks the data, staff and processes to meet the city’s 95 percent live-release goal. A draft copy of the audit, which was called for last summer by City Council, produced four broad findings, including […]
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Starting next year, researchers will seek relatives of long-lost Oakwood Cemetery residents
City officials say genetic testing of 35 Austinites buried at Oakwood Cemetery more than a century and a half ago is done, and researchers could be ready to test possible descendants of those people as soon as next year. City staff discovered the bodies of 36 people under the Oakwood Chapel during a renovation in […]
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Life sciences, housing policy seen as keys for Austin’s five-year growth strategy
Business leaders see the life sciences sector as the next major piece of the Austin economy and expect it to grow quickly along with semiconductor and automotive manufacturing, financial services and national defense in the years to come. Focusing on those industries while addressing housing costs and the growing local labor pool were some of […]