Travelers who have been frustrated with Capital Metro’s somewhat unreliable service lately will be pleasantly surprised to find their money’s no good when it comes to paying the fare. Acknowledging that its “persistent staff shortage is affecting the quality of service our customers have come to expect,” the transit agency is offering free fares throughout the month of October. “We’re doing this to say thank you to our customers, who’ve been dealing with the effects on our service of staffing shortages,” Capital Metro announced. The free fares apply to all services except for MetroBike. And by the way, if you’re pondering a career change, Capital Metro is actively recruiting for bus drivers and train engineers.

Could there be a more contentious topic these days than election safety? Although the 2020 presidential election was widely praised by elections experts and top industry leaders as being the most secure in U.S. history, with record voter turnout to boot, many Americans continue to believe, without evidence, that our elections apparatus is susceptible to fraud. In an attempt to bring some civility to the discourse, Common Ground for Texans is hosting an online discussion by the National Issues Forums Institute called “Elections: How should we encourage and safeguard voting?” Saturday, Oct. 9, 2-4:30 p.m. Register for this online event here. Participants are encouraged to read this issue advisory from NIFI before attending the event.

City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee approved the creation of a new no-kill committee for the Animal Advisory Commission on Wednesday. It’s been a long-held goal of the Animal Advisory Commission to form a group around this issue. Though the city’s live outcome rate is currently around 97 percent, the pandemic and changes in how the shelter operates have raised concerns about losing Austin’s no-kill status. “The city of Austin has a long-held preference for no-kill, and in fact, we are a leader in the nation for our no-kill policies,” said Council Member Leslie Pool, who explained that the group is intended to bring a “more concerted focus” to no-kill and raise awareness and education in the community. Animal Services Officer Don Bland reiterated his commitment to maintaining no-kill going forward. “We are already exceeding what the standards are for most people. At 97, 98 percent, it’s going to be very difficult to advance that to 100 percent,” he said. “We strive to do the best we can with our resources and save everything that we possibly can.” City Council is expected to vote on the creation of the group at its Sept. 30 meeting.

A 340-unit apartment complex is planned for the growing Four Points area in Northwest Austin, but before the project can break ground, the developer needs to rezone the 17-acre property at 7911 and 8001 North FM 620 to allow multifamily use. The zoning case is moving through the city’s approval process. On Tuesday, the Zoning and Platting Commission unanimously recommended that Council approve Multifamily Low-Density (MF-2) zoning for the site, which currently has three different types of commercial zoning. City staffers also support the rezoning, saying it is compatible with other uses in the area. The existing apartment complex next door is also zoned MF-2. Staffers noted that the proposed apartments would “provide additional residential housing in this area that can serve the students” at nearby Concordia University. The rezoning will likely be on City Council’s consent agenda, in which case Council members would approve the rezoning unanimously and without discussion. A Council date has not yet been set.

A toxin named cylindrospermopsin, which may cause liver and kidney damage and is produced by certain types of cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, has been detected in “concerning levels” in Barton Creek at Sculpture Falls, near MoPac and Loop 360. The city is posting signs near the popular swimming hole to warn people against swimming in the area or allowing their pets to come into contact with the water or drink it. According to the city news release, “This incident is different from previous incidents of harmful algae in the Austin area in several ways. It is a different toxin with different health effects. The toxins were found in water samples rather than in the algae, which increases the risk of human exposure from recreational use. In addition, the toxin was found at a popular swimming hole in a creek environment, rather than in a lake or reservoir.”

Project Connect! Who doesn’t have questions? An upcoming webinar appropriately titled “Project Connect: Ask Me Anything” aims to answer questions about the massive public transit project that includes “Orange, Blue, Red and MetroRapid Projects, light rail, regional rail, high-frequency bus lines, downtown subway, and airport transit.” The webinar is hosted by the Housing and Planning Department and features the project’s engineering and design team. Register for this free event here. Wednesday, Oct. 20, 5-6 p.m.

Kendyll Gross, who is the education coordinator at The Art Galleries at Black Studies at UT Austin, will moderate a free, in-person talk featuring artists Temitope Olujobi, Hypatia Sorunke and Adrian Armstrong, members of the Small Black Museum Residency Project inaugural cohort. The artists will discuss their new series of works, produced during their three-month residency and now on view in the George Washington Carver Museum’s gallery until January 2022. The residency series is designed to support and promote artists of African descent, both established and emerging. The talk will be hosted in the atrium of the Carver Museum and seating is limited. Patrons are strongly encouraged to wear face masks inside of the museum and observe social distancing. Saturday, Oct. 2, 1-3 p.m. RSVP at Carver.Museum@AustinTexas.gov to reserve your seat.

The fourth and final installment of a series of workshops facilitated by the city’s Office of Civil Rights “will focus on educating the community at-large and the re-entry community on housing discrimination and the Housing Authority criminal background review process.” The free online workshop, titled “Identifying and Understanding Housing Discrimination: What Is Discrimination? How Do You Recognize It? What Should You Do If You Experience It?” is open to the public and designed for job seekers, community and business leaders, and human resource managers. Led by Laura Bodai of the Housing Authority of the City of Austin and Enrique Serrano of the Office of Civil Rights, the workshop will “help Austinites identify and understand their rights when it comes to housing and employment discrimination.” Wednesday, Oct. 20, 1-2:30 p.m. Register on Eventbrite.

Though Covid cases are down and 80 percent of eligible Travis County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, public health officials filled in the rest of picture on Monday. In a statement to the media, Austin Public Health and area hospitals warned that the surge isn’t over yet. “Since July, our hospitals in the greater Austin area have had more than 3,500 Covid inpatients, and more than 1,000 of those required care in the Intensive Care Unit. Unlike previous Covid surges, all of the acute care hospitals were very full with non-Covid care when this surge started. ICUs across the Austin area are now completely full, and many hospitals are surging beyond their licensed ICU space to provide ICU-level care to Covid patients in need,” officials wrote. “The vast majority of these Covid patients are on ventilators, and approximately 90 percent of them are unvaccinated. Generally, patients who have been hospitalized during this surge are sicker and staying in the hospital longer.” In addition, the mortality rate for hospitalized Covid patients is higher and approaching 10 percent. Due to the overcrowding, patients from area hospitals who would normally be transferred to receive complex care have not been helped. To ensure that care can be available for all who need it, officials urged everyone 12 years or older to get vaccinated, wear a mask and practice social distancing.

A $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Civic Innovation Challenge will help a UT Austin professor, the city’s Transportation Department and local nonprofit Jail to Jobs create a solar-powered mobility hub in North Austin’s Georgian Acres neighborhood. According to the announcement, “Mobility hubs are places in a community that bring together public transit, bike share, car share, and other ways for people to get to where they want to go without a private vehicle …. The hub will provide access to a neighborhood bike system, a bike-share station, e-scooter stations and more while offering free Wi-Fi and other community services such as a mobile health clinic and food pantry.” Gina Fiandaca, Austin’s assistant city manager overseeing mobility, explained that Georgian Acres “is bound on all sides by highways and high-speed roadways, making it difficult for community members to travel in or out of the neighborhood. It’s also a traditionally low- to moderate-income community, which means that affordability is a significant barrier to transportation for these residents. Our hope is that this community hub project will provide a variety of affordable transportation options, empowering community members to select the modes that best meet their needs.”

Beginning this Friday, outdoor burning will be prohibited in the unincorporated areas of the county, per a ban issued by the Travis County Commissioners Court. As Travis County Chief Fire Marshal Tony Callaway explained, “We have thoroughly evaluated current conditions throughout the county and determined a burn ban is necessary to ensure the public’s safety. Above-normal temperatures and minimal rain chances are expected to create drier, more dangerous conditions over the next seven to 10 days. Additionally, as growing season ends, vegetation will dry out, which increases the risk of fire.” The ban does not affect prescribed burns or outdoor welding, cutting or grinding operations. The burn ban will expire on Wednesday, Oct. 27, “unless further action is taken by the county judge or county fire marshal prior to that date.”

People are on the move, pandemic or no pandemic – at least, that’s what the numbers from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport suggest. Passenger traffic for July was up 279.6 percent compared to July 2020 with 1,541,305 passengers flying during the month. According to a news release from AUS, “This makes July 2021 the fifth busiest month in AUS history, following May, June, July and October of 2019.” The release didn’t say whether those 1.5 million-plus people were coming or going, but either way, it spells good news for Austin.