Hersh the homeowner… Pay enough attention to local politics, and you’ll eventually notice a collection of commonly repeated phrases and cliches: “There are many tools in the toolbox,” “We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” “That passes on a 10-1 vote, Council Member Zimmerman opposed” and so forth. Last week, however, […]
Mayor Steve Adler
Mayor of the city of Austin, elected in November 2014
Posted inTransportation
Adler labors to clarify a complicated bond package
Mayor Steve Adler used two separate forums on Wednesday to address a set of “myths” that he said are circulating around his $720 million transportation bond proposal. “The myths as I hear them in the community are that the total cost of this is actually $2 billion,” Adler told the Austin Board of Realtors during […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Saving Austin music with words, if not dollars
Of the many long looks, panel discussions and reports that have examined the fragile state of Austin’s music economy and culture over the past 18 months, few were as fortunately timed as last week’s guest lecture/panel event “The Crisis in Music: Austin Edition.” Organized by the Front Porch public church group and held at All […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
SXSW touts $325M economic impact for Austin
According to Mayor Steve Adler, South by Southwest is more than just a cash cow. In an evocative metaphor at yesterday’s annual reveal of the festival’s economic contribution to the city, he likened the festival instead to “a herd that comes to our city” every year. This year, like the year before it and the […]
Posted inBonds & Propositions
Mobility bond limps out of the gate toward November
Mayor Steve Adler’s gambit to fast-track a $720 million transportation bond proposal onto the November ballot succeeded on Thursday despite some last-minute flak from several City Council members. The final drafts of both the ordinance ordering the election and the resolution outlining Council’s intent passed on a 7-1-3 vote. Council Member Ora Houston stood alone […]
Posted inTransportation
Could the mayor’s ‘Go Big’ bond go bigger?
Mayor Steve Adler has christened the $720 million transportation bond as the “Go Big Corridor Plan,” which prompts the question: Is this really that big? Seattle recently placed on a ballot a $54 billion transportation bond. Still, judging by other news reports, a number that large seems like an anomaly among municipal bond programs. Regardless, […]
Posted inTransportation
Martinez jumps on the mobility bond bus
Former City Council Member Mike Martinez has plunged back into local politics in order to support former rival Mayor Steve Adler’s $720 million transportation bond proposal. Addressing a packed press conference at City Hall on Friday, Martinez said he was fulfilling a promise he had made to Adler during their otherwise contentious mayoral campaign in […]
Posted inTransportation
Austin Monitor Radio: Mayor Steve Adler on a potential 2016 transportation bond
Austin Mayor Steve Adler joins Austin Monitor publisher Mike Kanin to chat about a potential November 2016 City of Austin transportation bond. Post is embedded below. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/277212886″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
Posted inTransit
Corridor plans pushing forward with bus pullouts
A prominent selling point in Mayor Steve Adler’s pitch for a $720 million mobility bond has drawn a lukewarm reception by the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. On multiple occasions, Adler has hyped bus pullouts as a key feature of his so-called Go Big Corridor Plan, a package that would spend hundreds of millions on regional […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Can’t lose
Clear eyes, full hearts and… a sled… Mayor Steve Adler is hip with youth culture and he’s not afraid to show it. Last week, Hizzoner unleashed a small tweetstorm that focused on local music culture and also featured GIFs borrowed from every millennial’s favorite television series, Friday Night Lights. “Not only is music related to who […]
Posted inAustin
Reporter’s Notebook: Things happened
So, what’s up with Wednesday?… After last week’s epic City Council meeting that stretched until about 3 in the morning, there were very few people left bemoaning the looming July break. In fact, Thursday was scheduled to be the last official Council meeting before the summer break, but eagle-eyed Austinites (aka our readers) may have […]
Posted inTransportation
Poll: 56 percent favor big bond election
Of the 1,200 Austinites polled about a proposed $720 million transportation bond election, 56 percent said they would vote in favor of such bonds if asked to do so in November. Thirty-six percent indicated that they would vote against such a proposal and 8 percent said they were unsure. Littlefield Consulting conducted the poll of […]