The Downtown Austin Alliance and the city of Austin have launched a new task force aimed at reducing homelessness in the downtown core. Formally convened on Aug. 6, the Downtown Homelessness Task Force will meet through the end of the year to develop strategies for reducing the number of people entering homelessness and increasing successful […]
Downtown Austin Alliance
A nonprofit, membership-based organization focused, according to its website, on “preserving and enhancing the value and vitality of downtown Austin.”
Posted inRoads
New concrete barricades coming to Austin’s Sixth Street as part of safety plan
Starting today, city crews will begin replacing the water-filled barricades on East Sixth Street with concrete barriers. The swap is one step in Austin’s effort to tame the famously rowdy strip and create a more welcoming district that draws a broader age range and more spending, even if not everyone’s ready to sanitize “Dirty Sixth.” The new concrete barricades […]
Posted inHousing
Office slowdown sparks new downtown housing ambitions
Downtown Austin leaders are increasingly focused on residential development as a way to stabilize the city’s core, as office vacancy rates remain stubbornly high and some buildings struggle to find tenants at all. With more than one-fifth of downtown office space currently sitting vacant or available for near-term leases (and some estimates placing that number […]
Posted inAustin
Downtown report: Office vacancies up, infrastructure growth continues
Downtown Austin is in a transitional period, with the latest “State of Downtown Austin” report highlighting diverging paths for public and private sector development. The Downtown Austin Alliance’s annual review, now in its seventh year, notes an increase in downtown office vacancies, up to 22 percent versus the 18 percent reported last year. Office vacancies […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Early data suggest opening Sixth Street to traffic has improved public safety
Early data from the Austin Police Department suggests that a new public safety initiative aimed at reducing crime and violence on East Sixth Street is yielding positive results. The changes, which took effect in December, reintroduced vehicular traffic on weekend nights for the first time in decades, reversing a long-standing pedestrian-only policy in the entertainment […]
Posted inCity Council
Council approves call for better coordination, planning among downtown projects
The city hopes to bring coordination to the many high-profile projects taking over downtown Austin in the coming years, with the city manager charged with determining the budgetary and planning resources needed throughout the district. On Thursday, City Council approved the Downtown Austin Strategic Initiative, a comprehensive plan aimed at coordinating strategies targeting mobility, infrastructure, […]
Posted inDevelopment
Latest State of Downtown report shows the city core’s businesses and housing are in transition
The latest report on downtown Austin’s economic and cultural health shows the city core is seeing ongoing vacancies and low utilization of office space in a trend that has caused a flattening of many indicators of business activity. That analysis was among the findings of Downtown Austin Alliance’s Q3 State of Downtown report, which looked […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Community-based public safety program reaches out to overlooked and underserved Austinites
Urban Alchemy, a national nonprofit, has been awarded a $2 million federal grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The grant will expand an initiative to create a replicable model to reduce crime and bolster resilience through community intervention. As part of the program, trained, trauma-informed community ambassadors will be conducting outreach in Central East Austin. […]
Posted inAustin
Downtown panelists look at options for equitable development as area grows
As downtown Austin continues to be transformed by a number of major infrastructure projects as well as real estate development, area stakeholders want to put in safeguards to prevent the city’s core from becoming inaccessible to artists, cultural groups and others at risk of being pushed out by high prices. Achieving more equity in the […]
Posted inPolice
Downtown Austin safety team increases patrol in response to APD staffing shortage
Austin has been grappling with a serious police understaffing problem, making patrolling the downtown area harder. In an effort to fill that gap, the Downtown Austin Alliance created a new safety team to hit the streets. The DAA, a nonprofit organization that manages the Downtown Public Improvement District, began the effort in May and has […]
Posted inHousing
Affordability panel looks to city, schools, churches to deliver needed housing
Austin-area housing advocates see major institutions such as the city, local schools and religious organizations as having the most potential for adding affordable housing units throughout the city in the coming years. During a recent panel discussion on the city’s affordability challenges, underutilized tax-free property holdings were seen as one solution to be explored in […]
Posted inAustin
Vacant downtown storefronts eyed for arts, music activations to reverse downturn
Seeking to bring more foot traffic to an area with an increasing number of vacant storefronts, the Downtown Austin Alliance is working to partner local artists and musicians with property owners interested in exposing their spaces to new potential businesses. So far, two spaces have been named as participants in the Downtown Austin Space Activation […]