A group of Austin’s leading women entrepreneurs wants the city and business stakeholders to help increase access to capital for women business owners and founders, while creating broader professional networks and providing more business tools and services. Those three areas of need were the most common threads among the 12 recommendations included in a recent […]
Mayor Kirk Watson
Posted inElections
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson declares his plans to run for reelection
To the surprise of practically no one in Austin, Mayor Kirk Watson announced on Wednesday that he will run for reelection this November. In an email to supporters, he outlined victories so far in his current two-year term. “For example, we’ve adopted the most ambitious housing reforms in decades to create more affordability; we’ve made […]
Posted inRoads
Federal grant provides $105M for Chavez-Fourth Street cap over rebuilt I-35
The city received a boost in its plan to construct broad, plaza-like caps over sunken portions of Interstate 35, with the announcement of a $105 million federal grant to fund a portion of the construction. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Transportation named Austin as a recipient of a Capital Construction Grant that is part […]
Posted inEnvironment
Austin receives $1M from EPA for plans to combat pollution
The city has received a $1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency that will fund climate action plans for Central Texas. The grant was announced Monday morning at City Hall, where members of City Council and federal lawmakers gathered to celebrate the award that is part of the EPA’s $5 billion Climate Pollution Reduction […]
Posted inCity Hall
Watson expects City Hall ‘shakeup’ to continue in 2024, with police contract a priority
Mayor Kirk Watson says he didn’t see the widespread shutdown of city services during the February ice storm as an opening to drastically restructure how the city government is organized. But he did take it as confirmation that it was time for the city to change – in a hurry. Within weeks of the storm, […]
Posted inAustin
A look back: Austin’s year in review
With 2023 drawing to a close, it’s time to look back on the local headlines that dominated the news before looking forward to the year ahead. Happy News Year! New city management This year saw a strange kind of sea change at City Hall led by newly reelected Mayor Kirk Watson. On the one hand, […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Watson, Brown declare local state of emergency over wildfire threat
Mayor Kirk Watson and Travis County Judge Andy Brown on Tuesday declared a local state of emergency in response to the threat of wildfires. Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott said that wildfires in 191 Texas counties “pose an imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property,” thus leading to […]