Tag Archives: SXSW
Nearly 434,000 scooter rides were taken during SXSW 2019
Dockless scooters were the headliner in their first year at South by Southwest. City data show the scooters outpaced rentable dockless bikes during the festival, accounting for nearly 434,000 rides over the 10 days of SXSW – 12.3 percent of…
Transportation • By Andrew Weber, KUT • Mar 19, 2019
Open data movement brings tough questions for city-led panel
With Austin chock-full of forward-thinking tech professionals and ideologues from a variety of industries attending South by Southwest, the city and several leaders behind the movement for open data gathered this week to examine where that cause is headed. The…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Mar 15, 2019
Communication and expectations seen as key in move to smart cities
The term “smart cities” has a variety of roles in present-day civic planning discourse. It’s certainly a buzzword – “smart” as a descriptor appears 16 times in the titles of panels and sessions at this year’s South by Southwest conference –…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Mar 14, 2019
Lessons for Austin abound in cities where crises produced affordable housing
The good news about Austin’s growing housing affordability crisis – if there can be such a thing – is that the city hasn’t suffered a natural disaster or a financial meltdown that would serve as the impetus to build new…
Housing • By Chad Swiatecki • Mar 13, 2019
CTM’s Office of Design and Delivery: Corporate workshops should not be awful
As Austin grows and city officials begin to question how their jobs are evolving to meet the demands of the tens of thousands of new residents every year, it stands to reason that the city of Austin would ask for…
Austin • By Jessi Devenyns • Mar 13, 2019
Europe offers a road map for moving from cars to bikes and scooters
As Austin continues to grapple with managing the growing commercial fleets of electric scooters available on its streets, other questions about urban mobility multiplied at this year’s South by Southwest Conference. In a pair of short talks on March 9…
Transportation • By Chad Swiatecki • Mar 12, 2019
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SXSW economic impact grows north of $350M
The economic impact of the South by Southwest festival inched across the $350 million mark in the latest analysis by Greyhill Advisors of the spring festival’s effect on the community. The $350.6 million total for the 2018 festival represented growth…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Jul 10, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Parking and ... other ... concerns
Still hanging around… We have it to thank for our intimate knowledge of celebrities’ lunches, Capital Metro’s train delays and the president’s spontaneous thoughts, so why not also give Twitter pre-emptive credit for helping to establish a working urban cable…
Reporters' Notebook • By Elizabeth Pagano • Mar 19, 2018
Austin's music preservation efforts draw praise. But is it enough?
The attention placed on Austin’s music community in recent years by local leaders – most especially the affordability issues and stagnant income levels of working musicians – went under the magnifying glass Tuesday at South by Southwest. Attendees of the…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Mar 16, 2018
From 'Starbucks' lines to 'full-scale riot': How cops and clubs control crowds during SXSW
The influx of 300,000 to 400,000 people to downtown Austin during South by Southwest requires an extraordinary amount of crowd control, both for event organizers and first responders. Austin’s Police Department uses a Special Response Team to patrol downtown. “It’s…
Music & Entertainment • By Nathan Bernier, KUT • Mar 16, 2018
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…
Music & Entertainment • By Chad Swiatecki • Sep 28, 2017
Reporter's Notebook: This week in conflict management
Fighting for privacy in the nude… During a special City Council meeting Wednesday, John Miki, one of the consultants leading the proposed overhaul of the city’s Land Development Code, described some of the community divisions over development that he encountered…
