City Council Member Greg Casar is proposing a measure aimed at maximizing the impact of low-income housing developments in Austin. The measure, which was unveiled Tuesday and will be on Council’s agenda Feb. 21, directs city staff to craft an ordinance that will allow subsidized housing developments to forgo many of the city’s land use […]
City Council
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City of Austin orders outside review of police handling of sexual assault cases
The city has ordered an independent review of the Austin Police Department’s handling of sexual assault cases, asking investigators to track incidents from when they’re first reported to police to when they’re closed or handed off to the district attorney’s office for prosecution. “The goal of the evaluation is to understand the deeper why behind […]
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New city agreement with ARCH would shift focus to housing
The Austin City Council will vote Thursday on renewing the contract for Front Steps, the operator of the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless. The new agreement could bring systemic changes to the city’s homeless shelter. One of those changes would reduce the number of beds from 190 to 130 and focus more resources on […]
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Who’s serving on City Council committees?
It’s finally time for the first City Council meeting of the year – and consequently, time to reconstitute Council committees. But anyone expecting big changes in the membership of those committees would probably be mistaken, though there will be some new committee chairs and vice chairs. Under city ordinance, “Council committee membership will be determined […]
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Council considering emergency shelter resolution
The number of homeless people in Austin continues to grow, yet shelter for these people has not kept pace, according to data gathered by the city and the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO. On any given day, there were 836 “unsheltered individuals” in Austin last year, with 7,498 individuals experiencing homelessness from 2017-2018. As […]
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City proposes ditching Recycled Reads
Some City Council members are alarmed at a proposal from city staff to phase out Recycled Reads, a service operated by the library system that repurposes, recycles or sells books that are discarded by the library or donated by residents. Staffers have asked Council to approve a contract subleasing much of the space at RR’s […]
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Political accelerator ready for next class of future Council hopefuls
Having been an active presence in Dallas-area Democratic and political organizations prior to relocating to Austin four years ago, Zenette Dorsey noticed some unique traits about local political discourse around big issues. “Austin is going through an identity crisis with the conflict between old Austin and people who are used to what the city has […]
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Adler calls on Council to do ‘big things,’ Garza elected mayor pro tem
Mayor Steve Adler began his new four-year term on an optimistic note, saying that the city is “poised to get some really big things done” when it comes to addressing Austin’s major challenges, notably housing and transportation. Adler, along with two new members of City Council and three incumbents who were re-elected, took the oath […]
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Troxclair looks forward to new adventures
After four years in office as the first Council member from Southwest Austin’s District 8, Ellen Troxclair is stepping down. But her departure from Council doesn’t mean we won’t see her at City Hall, she told the Austin Monitor during a recent interview. Troxclair, who was the last conservative on Council, said, “I ran to […]
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Houston: Council should be nonpartisan
In her final speech from the Council dais, Ora Houston urged her colleagues to encourage diversity at every level and to put partisan issues aside. The city’s first representative of District 1 said it is important to look at and care for the city as a whole and not concentrate so much on individual districts. […]
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Tovo to keep focus on housing, homelessness issues in 2019
Questions of where and how people live in Austin – specifically in District 9 – remained a front-of-mind issue for Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo in 2018. Whether she was on the City Council dais or involved in campaign events ahead of her successful re-election in November, Tovo said a combination of displacement, homelessness, affordability, […]
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Alison Alter relishes academic approach to government
Two years into her tenure on City Council, District 10 Council Member Alison Alter said she remains focused on the reasons she ran for the seat against former Council Member Sheri Gallo. “I didn’t run as a political insider, nor because I craved the spotlight,” she said in an interview with the Austin Monitor at […]