And another thing… At the beginning of Thursday’s City Council meeting, Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano took a minute to update Austinites on the flood conditions in the city and efforts by the city to mitigate the issues caused by the heavy rains. He also reminded everyone to practice safe driving habits when encountering high […]
Reporters’ Notebook
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Reporter’s Notebook: The next wave of humanity
Visit commission meetings… The fractious nature of the city’s newly convened Tourism Commission brought about consideration Monday of amending the group’s bylaws, with the possibility of requiring at least seven votes to approve recommendations that would be forwarded to City Council for possible action. Commissioner Michael Cannatti’s suggestion is based on ingrained differences of opinion […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Places and names
What do you say… The Austin street with the most confounding, or at least distinctively quirky, pronunciation could be headed for a name change. A public hearing scheduled for Thursday’s City Council meeting will focus on a request to rename Manchaca Road to Menchaca Road to correct a generations-old misspelling of the surname of Texas […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Who stands alone?
You can’t say that… During a discussion at Thursday’s City Council meeting about a city home repair program for low-income households, Mayor Steve Adler took an opportunity to remind those watching about the $250 million affordable housing bond that will be on the ballot this November, stressing that it would provide funds for repairs to […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: The meatloaf index
Don’t tell your constituents… During a Cap Metro board meeting at the Austin Convention Center attended by City Council members, transportation consultant Jeffrey Tumlin bemoaned the current state of transportation planning in most American cities, which prioritizes minimizing “vehicle delay instead of people delay.” The result, he said, is a situation in which the person […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Eyes wide open
Four-eyed and proud… On Aug. 28, the Parks and Recreation Board considered the Camelback PUD, a proposed mixed-use development on Lake Austin being led by Jonathan Coon, the founder of 1-800 Contacts, a contact lens company that he sold for $900 million in 2012. After lauding the project, Board Member Frank Ward noted that in […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Payback
Adler strikes back… Mayor Steve Adler returned fire at Travis County Thursday over commissioners’ threat to challenge Austin’s authority to allow McKalla Place to be tax exempt after Precourt Sports Ventures takes over the 24-acre parcel to build a soccer stadium. Following a unanimous vote by the Commissioners Court on Tuesday to preserve the option […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Disagreement and understanding
I know you are but what am I?… On Saturday afternoon, Council Member Leslie Pool, the lead critic of the proposed soccer stadium deal, posted a message on Facebook taking aim at the arguments that Mayor Steve Adler and others have made in support of the deal: “It’s frustrating trying to engage a debate on […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Valuable lessons
In other soccer news… Precourt Sports Ventures and the other parties involved in their ongoing lawsuit in Ohio – Major League Soccer, the city of Columbus, and the state of Ohio – will have to file updates every two weeks on the ongoing talks between the owners of the Columbus Crew and parties interested in […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Communication
They don’t want to talk to you… Staff from the Development Services Department repeatedly told members of the Zoning and Platting Commission at their Tuesday meeting that they were legally obligated to approve a site plan for the controversial Champion project. A few of the commissioners were unconvinced that the advice they were receiving from […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: History lessons
Fighting for your government seems to run in families… With Independence Day looming on the horizon, not much was happening at the July 3 Zoning and Platting Commission meeting. In the spirit of patriotism, and to make everyone’s journey to City Hall worth their time, Jim Duncan, the vice chair of the commission, took the […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Gooooooooooooals
Different goals… Politics, as they say, is (are?) a full-contact sport. Unlike men’s soccer, which mostly has a bunch of grown men flopping around like children at the slightest breeze (women’s soccer, we’ll note, is far less lame). Nonetheless, Austin politics is now all about soccer thanks to Anthony Precourt and his aspirations to relocate […]