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Tag Archives: SXSW

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…

Public Safety Commission has a HOT debate

As the city of Austin scrounges for money to hire more police officers, firefighters and paramedics, it shouldn’t look to the tourism industry for help. That was the message delivered to the Public Safety Commission Monday by Bill Worsham, a…

Can Austin innovate itself out of long meetings?

Given the recent tilt toward performance art at City Council meetings – those poor eggs! – and running times that are the longest among major cities in Texas, it seems like the last thing Austin needs is more citizen participation…

Examining Austin's "smart city" bona fides

Austin’s reputation as one of the nation’s smartest cities went under the microscope Sunday, with policy and academic experts examining the technology, educational, housing and transportation components – and the city’s shifting needs as it grows – that combine to…

Adler: A blue Texas "all but inevitable"

It’s something of an old saw in the political world that progressive cities in otherwise red states are like “a blueberry in a bowl of tomato soup.” Austin Mayor Steve Adler and his mayoral colleagues on Friday’s “America’s Mayors: Holding…

Austin officials rap about Smart Cities, robot cars at SXSW

Nine months after Austin lost the federal Smart City Challenge to Columbus, Ohio, the vision of a data-enhanced urban future is still alive and well. Top officials from Mayor Steve Adler to Austin Transportation Director Robert Spillar took time during…

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Short-term rentals under scrutiny as SXSW kicks off

The Austin Code Department has started its annual tradition of stepped-up monitoring and enforcement of regulations covering short-term rental businesses, the official policy name for homeowners who rent out extra rooms to tourists visiting for the South by Southwest festival.…

Reporter's Notebook: Of departures (people, codes and forts)

ZAP! Pow! Bang!… People paying attention to the membership of the Zoning and Platting Commission (if you are out there, you are probably reading this) may have noticed change has come/is on the horizon. As we reported, now-former Chair Thomas…

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…

Ethics complaints over free SXSW tickets dismissed

Complaints against two city officials alleging that they used their positions to acquire free tickets to the South by Southwest Interactive Festival were dismissed quickly by the City Council Ethics Review Commission on June 22. The commission determined that although the…

Reporter's Notebook: Passes and postponements

Official solicited, got free SXSW passes… Rondella Hawkins, who oversees the city’s Office of Telecommunications and Regulatory Affairs, requested and received three complimentary badges for 2016’s SXSWi, the interactive portion of the famous festival that Austin hosts, from festival director…

Officials reflect on safety at SXSW 2016

This year’s South by Southwest festival was one of the safest yet, say SXSW and public safety officials, thanks to overtime funding that allowed Austin Police Department officers to fill festival staffing spots internally. Overall, the number of festival-related arrests…

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