As most everyone knows by now, the Public Works, Transportation, and Parks and Recreation departments are partnering to design and build a new car-free crossing for the eastern side of Lady Bird Lake near the Longhorn Dam. An upcoming public meeting will give community members an opportunity to get a 30 percent design update and “defining goals for site-specific public artwork for the project,” according to the news release. Civically involved citizens won’t want to miss this chance to weigh in on what has become a very closely watched process to create a very interesting pedestrian bridge. The Zoom meeting is Wednesday, March 9, from 5:30-7 p.m. Register here for the meeting, and check out the Longhorn Dam Bridge virtual open house to brush up on the project’s background.

The Downtown Austin Alliance is launching a new mural tour with a bike ride and live music at Republic Square. The March 12 bike ride will take off at noon from East Sixth and San Marcos streets. From noon until 2 p.m., live music and art will take place at Republic Square alongside the SFC farmers market. The self-guided mural tour will remain available through the rest of the year, with plans to install more downtown murals throughout 2022.

In light of Austin’s rapidly declining Covid-19 risk level that is currently settled in Stage 2, the city’s Development Services Department is ready to restore in-person services. Operations at the Permitting and Development Center will resume Monday, March 21. The city also plans to continue offering virtual services. For the most part, appointments will be available virtually and in person, Monday through Friday. As part of an ongoing effort, Wednesdays will be focused on clearing up a backlog of applications and permit requests, so no Wednesday appointments will be available for commercial intake, residential intake, land use intake, site and subdivision inspection intake, or the service center.

Interested in learning more about the CROWN Act, which protects against discrimination based on natural Black hair? Want to know more about tenants’ rights, eviction protections or wage theft? Or maybe you’d like to talk about the recent rise in hate crimes against communities of color, or what the city is doing to prevent homelessness. If any of these topics sparks your interest, consider joining one of the upcoming community conversations organized by the city’s Office of Civil Rights. These free meetings are intended to “share and gather information to ensure everyone feels protected in their space and understands what city resources are available to them. Through these discussions, community leaders hope to gather input about necessary protections people need to feel comfortable and not discriminated against in their work, educational, housing, business environments and in every space where we exist.” Register on Eventbrite for any of the virtual meetings:

• March 17, 6-7:40 p.m.
• April 13, 2-3:40 p.m.
• May 12, 6-7:40 p.m.
• June 2, 6-7:40 p.m.

Spring break is here! Sun! Fun! Unfortunately, for some, spring break means more booze-fueled celebration than is necessarily good for anyone. In an effort to reduce the chances of drunk-driving crashes and the ensuing tragedies, the Austin Police Department is conducting its DWI enforcement initiative every night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., with an extended no-refusal period from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., from now until March 20. No refusal, as APD describes, “is an effort to enforce DWI laws, keep the public safe by encouraging drivers to make responsible decisions and to apply for blood search warrants on suspects who refuse to provide a breath or blood specimen as required by law.” In other words, suspected drunk drivers are not permitted to refuse a sobriety test. So be safe, enjoy spring break, and do your drinking at home or with a designated driver.

Candidates and campaign workers, journalists and political junkies from both Republican and Democratic parties were frustrated Tuesday night while looking for election results on the Travis County Clerk’s website. A site that has been totally reliable for many years was suddenly down for about 40 minutes. After a while, people trying to figure out who had won the early vote were directed to another Travis County site that provided the early vote information. According to an email from Travis County Clerk Rebecca Guerrero, the problem stemmed from Senate Bill 1, which, among other things, “requires video surveillance of all areas containing voted ballots to be livestreamed to the public during the election period,” she said. In order to comply with the law, the clerk’s office had been running four cameras during the early voting period. Two more cameras were added for election day, as required by law. One of the cameras was in the ballot storage vault and the other in the ballot programming room. It was too much for the county clerk’s internet server, which was overwhelmed when site traffic increased as polls closed at 7 p.m. As Guerrero explained in her email, “In immediate response, traffic was then temporarily re-directed to the county’s main site to host the election results. By the time our first run of Election Day results were posted, our team had remedied the situation and the site was back up and running.” She noted that this was the first election requiring streaming videos and the office now knows “how to best manage the rapid increase in traffic and how to best maintain the website.” Guerrero noted that, despite the initial temporary delay, “it did not impact the results being processed. Travis County elections processed and published election day returns in record time.”

Austin Animal Center is partnering with Council Member Pio Renteria to host a free drive-thru microchip and rabies vaccination clinic for pets who live in Austin and Travis County. AAC field services manager Mark Sloat explained in a news release, “Microchips are essential to getting pets reunited with their families. We have thousands of dogs getting picked up and brought to the shelter by community members, and the majority aren’t finding their way back home. We know from our animal protection officers’ work that most pets are picked up really close to home, so in addition to educating the community we’re really pushing microchipping.” City Council members are working with AAC to host microchip clinics in each Council district in an effort to get more lost pets reunited with their families. A representative from Renteria’s office explained that, thanks to microchipping and the hard work of Austin Animal Center staffers, District 3 has “one of the highest lost pet return rates in the whole city.” The drive-thru event will be held at Austin Animal Center, 7201 Levander Loop, 9 a.m.-noon, on Saturday, March 5. Dogs must be leashed and cats must be in carriers.

Running out of streaming options for your evening entertainment? ATXN, the city’s government access channel, is now available on television apps like Roku, Apple TV, Google Play and Amazon Fire. Want to watch City Council meetings, public meetings and press conferences from the comfort of your own device? All you have to do is download the free ATXN app from the streaming platform of your choice, check out the ATXN viewing schedule, make some popcorn, and you’re all set. As city spokesperson Keith Reeves explained in a recent news release, “The goal of ATXN is to provide transparency to city of Austin activities by televising City Council and Boards and Commissions meetings, educational programming, and airing live news conferences. These new ways of watching ATXN provide a high quality, easily accessible way for Austinites to follow their local government.” Read up on the various ATXN programs available here.

Progressives claimed several victories in Democratic primary races Tuesday night, with former Austin City Council Member Greg Casar leading the pack. Casar easily defeated his rivals for the 35th Congressional District nomination, with a 40-point lead in early voting. Casar received 59.5 percent of the early vote in the district, which includes East Austin and parts of Hays, Comal and Bexar counties.

Casar received 71.2 percent of the early vote in Travis County. His closest rival, state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, received just a little more than 18 percent, and the other contenders, Rebecca Viagran and Carla-Joy Sisco, each tallied less than 6 percent of the early vote.

The 35th district is drawn to be a Democratic stronghold and Casar should have no trouble defeating Dan McQueen, the Republican nominee for the seat.

Casar, 32, had the support of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and the group he started after the 2016 presidential campaign, Our Revolution. The progressive political action organization worked hard to elect Casar, along with several other Texas candidates.

In a statement emailed to supporters and members of the media, Casar said, “Our campaign has built a movement of working people from San Antonio to Austin who are ready to fight because our futures depend on it. I’m incredibly honored to be the next Democratic nominee for TX-35. Together, we’re taking our fight to the halls of Congress – to fight and deliver on passing Medicare for All, protecting reproductive rights, creating good jobs, and fixing our power grid.”

The group said 100 volunteers had made 40,000 phone calls on Casar’s behalf, and sent out 24,000 texts to boost his election effort.

Austin developer Gary Bradley has filed suit against Gatehouse Media Holdings, owner of the Austin American-Statesman. Although the newspaper featured Bradley in numerous stories about development battles while Bradley was pushing for the development of Circle C and Rob Roy residential neighborhoods, he is not suing over editorial coverage, but because of the paper’s alleged failure to keep the purchase of an advertisement confidential. According to the lawsuit, which was filed Friday, members of Bradley’s church were attempting to oust the minister, and as part of that effort, Bradley paid for an ad in the Statesman to raise awareness about a vote on the pastor’s budget. According to the lawsuit, “In many churches, denying a pastor’s budget is akin to removing the pastor.” Bradley purchased the ad in February 2020. According to the lawsuit, the Statesman ad rep promised the purchase would be anonymous; however, the Statesman “mailed a copy of Bradley’s invoice to the church.” As a result, word spread about Bradley’s involvement, causing him “economic damages and losses” as well as anguish and ostracism. As a result, he left the church. Bradley is seeking damages under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, among other causes of action, of more than $1 million. Attorneys Geoffrey D. Weisbart and Mireya Braxton of Weisbart Springer Hayes are representing him.

We at the Austin Monitor know that our readers are extremely busy and maybe didn’t get around to voting early. Only 9.59 percent of Travis County’s registered voters cast their primary ballots early. With only 58,865 Democrats and 23,511 Republicans marking their ballots either by mail or in person during the early voting period, it seems fairly certain that some people who intended to vote early just didn’t get around to it. Today is your day. Find a list of polling places and other helpful information here.

The Austin Strategic Mobility Plan team is preparing to present the proposed amendments and related public feedback that was collected back in fall 2021 to early 2022 to the city’s boards and commissions and to City Council’s Mobility Committee. This means community members will get another chance to provide comment on the proposed changes. If you need a refresher, the ASMP is a kind of road map for all of the ways people get around Austin. Or in city-speak, it’s Austin’s “first comprehensive, multimodal transportation plan, and guides our short- and long-term transportation projects, programs, initiatives, and investments.” Use this form to offer feedback on the proposed changes to the ASMP policy document and Street Network proposals. After the plan makes its way through the boards and commissions process in spring, final steps include a public hearing at City Council sometime in late May.