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Most Popular Stories
- A plan to end night swimming at Barton Springs is over before it ever began
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- Former Council Member and dedicated environmentalist Jackie Goodman has died
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Reporter's Notebook: Not our jam
Bit of turbulence during that pilot program… An attempt by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to make “data driven decisions” went slightly off the rails at Tuesday’s City Council work session, where Council members learned that a “parks pass”…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • May 15, 2017
Austin Monitor Radio: Reporters' Roundtable
This week, Austin Monitor publisher Mike Kanin is joined by editor-in-chief Elizabeth Pagano, copy editor Nina Hernandez and the Austin Chronicle’s Michael King to gossip about City Council, homestead exemptions and other things going on at City Hall. Audio of…
Radio • By Elizabeth Pagano • May 15, 2017
Years after deadly storms, city still lacks comprehensive flood policy
In the wake of devastating flooding over Memorial Day Weekend in 2015, City Council established the 22-member Flood Mitigation Task Force to examine the city’s flood preparedness and come up with a list of recommendations for how to better prepare…
Public Safety • By Nina Hernandez • May 12, 2017
Allegations fly in music division ethics case
Wednesday’s ethics hearing for a former city employee charged with improperly obtaining city funds featured a series of allegations and testimony against the recently departed head of the city’s Music and Entertainment Division. The 11-member Ethics Review Commission was reduced…
City Hall • By Chad Swiatecki • May 12, 2017
Effort to move buses faster stalls at Urban Transportation Commission
Top local transportation planners on Tuesday tapped the brakes on an activist-crafted effort aimed at increasing transit use. At the monthly Urban Transportation Commission meeting, Transportation Director Rob Spillar, Corridor Program Implementation Office Director Mike Trimble and Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority…
Transportation • By Caleb Pritchard • May 12, 2017
Council outlaws vaping, postpones demolition case
At its abbreviated meeting on Thursday, City Council directed the city manager to make changes to the city’s smoking ordinance to clarify that “smoking” includes electronic smoking devices as well as regular cigarettes, so that vaping will no longer be…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • May 12, 2017
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Commission on Immigrant Affairs responds to SB 4
As the sky crumbled above them, the city’s Commission on Immigrant Affairs scrambled to pick up the pieces Monday night in response to Gov. Greg Abbott’s signing of Senate Bill 4 over the weekend. Slated to become law September 1,…
Public Safety • By Joseph Caterine • May 11, 2017
Council ponders how to pay for golf
Most of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department programs operate on money from the city’s General Fund, but at some point in the past City Council designated golf as an enterprise fund. City staff reported to Council at last week’s budget…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • May 11, 2017
Council Member Flannigan seeks to revise Austin's drainage fee system
For much of her life as a homeowner, Joan Reames never noticed the drainage charge on her monthly utility bill. That was until the city revised the system in 2015. Reames said the monthly fee for her condo complex suddenly…
City Council • By Syeda Hasan • May 11, 2017
Environmental Commission holds off on water quality requirements (again)
Despite the Environmental Commission’s efforts to remove controversial amendments to the Watershed Protection Ordinance at previous meetings, the commission was unable to resolve an amendment relating to water quality control at its regular meeting May 3. Andrea Bates, the environmental…
Environment • By Sommer Brugal • May 11, 2017
Key justice programs survive fight between county, governor
Crucial county programs that lost funding over a row with Gov. Greg Abbott will be able to stay online through at least October thanks to some deep budgetary scouring. On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court approved a proposed package…
Travis County • By Caleb Pritchard • May 10, 2017
Is Austin's 'economic segregation' here to stay?
“Today you are going to find out that we are really not quite as good as we claim to be.” On that ominous note, Austin Board of Realtors CEO Paul Hilgers opened Tuesday’s luncheon hosted by the Real Estate Council…
