Michael Mares Mendoza, Courtney Bee Peterson and Jeff Grauzer at their 2019 art installation, A Lord of the Plains. (Photo courtesy of Tori Rivera)

The city’s Art in Public Places program has selected metal artist Courtney Bee Peterson, mosaicist Jeff Grauzer and digital artist Michael Mares Mendoza to create a permanent public artwork for the Burnet Road corridor. The team is conducting public outreach in the Burnet community “to pinpoint the artwork’s location and design to ensure that it reflects and honors the Burnet neighborhood,” according to the announcement. The artists invite residents to share their thoughts and ideas for the artwork, which is one of 11 corridor art projects currently in progress across the city. Assistant City Manager Gina Fiandaca said, “Public art is a powerful expression of a neighborhood’s character and history, and we are proud to be involved in supporting local artists in creating public celebrations of local culture.”

While most Austinites will be gathered around the table this Thanksgiving Day, Austin police officers will be patrolling the streets and keeping a sharp eye out for intoxicated drivers. The department’s No Refusal initiative will be in effect all week, 9:30 p.m.-5:30 a.m., ending Sunday, Nov. 27. As APD explains, the public safety initiative “is an effort to enforce DWI laws and 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 plain English? Make good choices and don’t drink and drive.

During this year’s Downtown Austin Alliance Holiday Stroll, the city is inviting you to a Fika at the Old Bakery and Emporium. The conversation and coffee at the event will center around a new mural on the south-facing wall at the 1006 Congress Ave. park. According to a press release from the city, “(C)ommunity members are encouraged to grab a hot chocolate and chat with local artist, RichesArt, who will provide graphic sketches and work with community members to project their vision onto the future mural wall, helping visualize a mural in the space. RichesArt will also provide a spray paint canvas wall for people to experience the process of creating a mural.” The open house will take place on Saturday, Dec. 3, 5-10 p.m. at the Old Bakery and Emporium.

The hardworking epidemiologists at Austin Public Health have been monitoring the spread of flu-like illnesses in Austin-Travis County and they’re not liking what they’re seeing. Cases have started popping up earlier in the season than usual and area schools have reported at least eight flu outbreaks so far. Local emergency departments are busy treating flu and other respiratory illnesses. So what to do? Health officials strongly recommend getting a seasonal flu shot and making sure everyone in the family is up to date with their Covid-19 vaccines. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, this is not the time to take chances with your health – or with anyone else’s health. APH has commonsense advice: “People will be gathering indoors during upcoming holidays, and it is important to take precautions to limit spreading viruses.” Those who are hosting gatherings in their home are advised to read the CDC’s advice on how to improve ventilation indoors.

The Travis Audubon Society is urging Austinites to contact their City Council member and ask them to include extra protections for birds in the Statesman planned unit development on Lady Bird Lake. A hearing on the development is scheduled for Dec. 1 after many months of discussion. While the PUD remains controversial, particularly because of how much it will cost taxpayers, the Audubon Society wants to make sure birds are not left out of the planning process. According to the group, the developer of the PUD intends to use bird-friendly glass with 15 percent reflectivity only on the lower floors of the building – but that’s not enough. Millions of songbirds are killed every year when they collide with glass windows and glass-clad skyscrapers. Bird-friendly glass is glazed with a special coating that enables birds to see the glass as a solid barrier and avoid it. The Audubon Society is asking Council “to require 15 percent reflective glass for all building glazing systems at the Statesman PUD project, no matter the height, as recommended by the American Birding Conservancy.” Find your Council district by entering your address in this map.

A new service called SkySquad may make holiday travel a little smoother for passengers at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The SkySquad service, which starts at $49/hour, “connects passengers with a trained, pre-vetted airport assistant to provide an extra pair of hands from the curbside to their gate (from ticketing, checking bags, loading items onto the security belt, keeping an eye on travel items when they go to the restroom and more),” according to a news release from AUS. SkySquad launches on Nov. 21, just ahead of Thanksgiving, which is expected to bring record crowds to the airport. Passengers are advised to book SkySquad 24 hours in advance.

The draft Zilker Park Vision Plan document and map are now available for community members to check out and offer feedback to the parks department. There are a few options for providing feedback. You can read and comment on the draft plan online. You can review the map and then complete a short survey. Or you can attend a community meeting, and two of them just happen to be coming up. Register here for a virtual meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 6 p.m. or attend an in-person open house on Saturday, Dec. 10, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the McBeth Recreation Center, 2401 Columbus Drive. Finally, the project team is planning a series of pop-up meetings across the city – visit the project web page for info on scheduling. Sign up to receive updates on the Zilker Park vision planning process.

Texas Health Action is recognizing World AIDS Day with 24 hours of free HIV testing at its Kind Clinic along with two days of fun stuff for the entire community. The Rock the Ribbon event includes a movie screening, yoga, meditation, dance instruction, trivia, a market curated by the Little Gay Shop, drag queen performances, and a class on harm reduction. Dec. 1-2, Kind Clinic Austin-Koenig, 101 W. Koenig Lane, Suite 100.

The Junior League of Austin is revving up its annual coat drive for kids who don’t have enough warm clothes to see them through the winter. The goal this year – the 36th annual event – is to provide 30,000 warm coats for children in need in Central Texas. You can donate $20 to buy a new coat or visit the registry to purchase a coat for the drive. Those who would like to donate new or gently used coats may drop off the items at any Jack Brown Cleaners location or at the Junior League at 5330 Bluffstone Lane through Dec. 7. The coats will be distributed through Dec. 10. Find out more about the coat drive here.

Wildfire isn’t always a disaster; in fact, fire is a normal, healthy part of the natural environment. According to Austin Water’s Wildland Conservation Division, “In savannah ecosystems such as those found in Austin’s water quality protection lands, wildflowers and native grass communities flourish after prescribed burns” and “grassland birds like quail and northern harrier hawks immediately benefit post-fire from newly open habitat for nesting and feeding.” That’s why the division is gearing up to conduct prescribed burns on the land it manages in Travis County. As spokesperson Matt Lore explains, “Prescribed fire is a key tool used to manage this land and improve the quality and quantity of groundwater entering the Edwards Aquifer. Beyond our core mission of improving groundwater quality in Central Texas, the use of prescribed fire also improves landscape resilience, promoting a vibrant and biodiverse ecosystem above the aquifer.” The prescribed burn season usually runs from November through late February. The burns are conducted by a team of trained professionals composed of Austin Water staff from the Wildland Conservation Division, city and county fire departments, and federal, state and local land management agencies.

Photo: Austin Transportation Dept.

In what used to be considered a transit desert, residents of North Austin’s Georgian Acres neighborhood now have their pick of options to get around town. Thanks to a partnership between the city, UT and the nonprofit Jail to Jobs, a new mobility hub on East Wonsley Drive offers residents a fleet of e-scooters and circulator buses operated by staff at Jail to Jobs. Benches at the hub are supplied with solar-powered charging pads so people can charge their devices while they wait.

Community members are invited to attend the big reveal to see the design plans for the Asian American Resource Center’s future performing arts center. The schematic design drawings, which have been created with lots of input from community engagement events held earlier this year, will be available to view and the project team will give a presentation. There will be activities for kids and interpreters for Mandarin, Vietnamese, Burmese, and Korean will be on hand. This event is held concurrently in person and on Zoom (register here). Doors open at 6:30, presentation begins at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17, Asian American Resource Center. 8401 Cameron Road.