It was another very busy year for Austin Mayor Steve Adler. He represented the city both in the United States and abroad on climate change. He joined with other Texas mayors in fighting Senate Bill 4, the Texas legislation to punish cities and local officials for failing to cooperate completely with federal immigration officials. Adler […]
Mayor Steve Adler
Mayor of the city of Austin, elected in November 2014
Posted inCity Council
Memo outlines ‘downtown puzzle’ progress headed into 2018
Work on Mayor Steve Adler’s “downtown puzzle” policies package will be almost certainly put on hold until the spring when newly hired city manager Spencer Cronk will be able to study and work on how to execute the proposal. That was the word from Adler on Wednesday, following a Friday memo from Assistant City Manager […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Let the games begin
He’s running… The 2018 election cycle has gotten off to a painfully slow start on the local level, but we finally have our first big – and thoroughly unsurprising – candidate to take the field. An eagle-eyed reader tipped us off on Sunday to the new look of www.adlerforaustin.com, the campaign website of Mayor Steve […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Rising hotel and other costs fuel SXSW’s growing economic impact
A rising cost of living and high prices for hotel rooms and other tourist accommodations helped fuel a 7 percent increase to the economic impact the city of Austin felt as a result of the South by Southwest festival. That was one of the observations of SXSW Executive Director Mike Shea during a press conference […]
Posted inCity Council
‘Downtown puzzle’ plan sets aside millions for Austin music
City Council endorsed one new plan for hotel occupancy taxes last week. At the end of this month, it will take up another. Last Tuesday’s release of Mayor Steve Adler’s Initial Financing Framework for Downtown Investments – known colloquially as his “downtown puzzle” plan – puts some numbers to a recently simmering idea for the […]
Posted inAustin
City welcomes Harvey survivors, helps Houston
Mayor Steve Adler on Monday sent out a message of welcome to survivors of Hurricane Harvey seeking shelter in Austin. During a news conference at the Delco Center, the mayor said the state has asked Austin to take in 7,000 survivors from the Gulf Coast and Houston. Adler said the city is doing an assessment […]
Posted inCity Hall
Adler says he won’t pursue tax swap this year
Mayor Steve Adler said Thursday that he does not intend to pursue the idea of a tax swap with the Austin Independent School District this year. He also confirmed that he would not be pushing City Council to set the tax rate above the current rollback rate. Adler had proposed to raise the city’s tax […]
Posted inHousing
UT study, proposed task force would tackle residential displacement
With the issue of residents being priced out of their longtime neighborhoods becoming a topic of discussion in most city initiatives, Mayor Steve Adler said the time has come to tackle the issue directly. That was what prompted Adler to announce earlier this month his hope to form a task force on displacement and gentrification […]
Posted inAustin
Hotel taxes key to ‘downtown puzzle’ to help area homeless
For all the interlinked pieces of the “downtown puzzle”-solving plan that Mayor Steve Adler unveiled Monday morning – and in a 20-minute speech he name-checked just about every relevant downtown Austin presence – the ambitious and far-reaching policy gambit boils down to one key transaction. That exchange would see hotel guests and their wallets as […]
Posted inAustin
‘Middle skill’ workforce plan aims to stabilize area’s poor, vulnerable residents
Austin and Travis County leaders’ focus on growing the region’s middle-class economy was spotlighted Thursday with the announcement of a multiyear effort to train local workers for a growing demand for so-called “middle skill” jobs. The release of the Master Community Workforce Plan, led in large part by the Workforce Solutions Capital Area nonprofit, came […]
Posted inTexas State Legislature
Texas sues Austin, Travis County over ‘sanctuary city’ law
Texas is preemptively suing the city of Austin, Travis County and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund to enforce the state’s newly minted “sanctuary city” law, Senate Bill 4. The suit, filed on Monday, asks a federal court to declare the law constitutional. Precedent allows states to consolidate impending legal challenges to a […]
Posted inAustin
Adler: Challenge to state’s sanctuary cities law ‘almost a certainty’
The state’s proposed sanctuary cities legislation faces an almost certain and likely quick challenge in court, Mayor Steve Adler said Wednesday after returning from his trip to Washington, D.C., to discuss the issue with federal law enforcement officials. The Texas House of Representatives’ debate late into Wednesday ahead of a vote on its version of […]