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Arts commissioners signal support for city funds for The Contemporary art museum

Members of the Arts Commission appear ready to advocate for The Contemporary Austin fine art museum and sculpture park to receive consistent city funding beyond Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars. This week’s commission meeting featured a presentation from Sharon Maidenberg, executive…

New report showcases Travis County's sustainability efforts

Issued annually ahead of Earth Day, Travis County’s report on its own sustainability efforts highlights a host of victories this year – including expanding recycling services, improving energy consumption and facilities practices, implementing staff programming and trainings, and enhancing sustainable…

Photo courtesy of city of Austin. City Council on July 20 approved an agreement to operate a temporary emergency homeless shelter at the Marshalling Yard.

Marshalling Yard shelter could get $1M extension and stay open through March 2025

The city’s Marshalling Yard congregate shelter, which currently serves up to 300 people at a time, could receive an extension from City Council to stay open until next March. An item on today’s agenda would provide an additional $1 million…

Planning Commission endorses 'plot twist' for South Central Waterfront Plan

Though the future of Austin’s south shore has been shaken by a court ruling against the proposed tax increment reinvestment zone, members of the Planning Commission last week took their turn tackling the South Central Waterfront Plan in a sprawling…

New rules in the works for electric vehicle charging stations

In addition to changes to major portions of the city’s land use regulations, City Council heard at last week’s meeting about proposed changes to rules governing where public electric vehicle charging stations can be located in the future. Because of…

TipSheet: Austin City Council, 4.18.24

City Council will once again honor us with a Thursday meeting, and we’ve done the work of looking through the agenda for you and picking out what strikes us as interesting from said agenda. There’s a whole bunch of interesting…

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Budget deficit looms over city this year and beyond

The city of Austin is facing a $3.5 million deficit for the current year, with a much larger deficit – more than $13 million – projected for Fiscal Year 2025, which starts on Oct. 1, 2024. That’s the bad news…

Council hears proposed changes to city charter for November ballot

City Council on Tuesday officially received the Charter Review Commission’s proposed revisions to the city charter, along with some additional staff-proposed changes. Council members limited their questions to the administrative items brought by staff because the commission’s nine recommendations will…

Women entrepreneurs seek greater support and opportunities throughout Austin

A group of Austin’s leading women entrepreneurs wants the city and business stakeholders to help increase access to capital for women business owners and founders, while creating broader professional networks and providing more business tools and services. Those three areas…

Travis County Diversion Center moves forward

The Travis County jail system is the single largest mental health care provider in the county area, and arrests across all categories have been rising since 2021. Since 2023, the Travis County Commissioners Court – in an effort spearheaded by…

Austin's airport is getting a new concourse and 20 more gates but not until the 2030s

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) is gearing up to add at least 20 new gates, expanding capacity at the overcrowded airport as it struggles to serve millions more passengers each year than it was designed to handle. The planned gates will…

Judge rules city can’t use taxpayer money for South Central TIRZ

Travis County District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum has ruled that the city of Austin and the developers of the Statesman Planned Unit Development may not move forward with funding of the development on Lady Bird Lake with $354 million in…