City to host "Music Venue Summit" ahead of spring

In preparation for South by Southwest and other spring events, the city’s Music and Entertainment Division will host a two-hour “Music Venue Summit” on Jan. 25 at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. The event will include city…

Shrinking AISD enrollment could be new normal

Trustees for the Austin Independent School District are asking district staff to let them know what variables they have control over after hearing grim student enrollment projections. At Monday’s workshop meeting, board members heard the results of an annual demographics report…

Eckhardt issues public challenge on transit, affordability, justice reform

Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt on Monday challenged the public to get involved and help achieve a broad set of policy goals in 2016. In her first press conference of the year, Eckhardt stood before a line of cameras and…

Disparities persist within city's contracting

The city of Austin continues to disfavor minority- and women-owned businesses in its contracting, a 750-page study finds. Jon Wainwright, a senior vice president with NERA Economic Consulting, which authored the study, spoke to City Council’s Economic Opportunity Committee on…

Council transition committee still working

City Council Member Ann Kitchen, chair of the Council Transition Committee – often called the committee on committees – is hoping that the other four members of her committee will show up at this morning’s 8 a.m. meeting but that…

Planning Commission OKs porch change

There were a lot of long discussions at the most recent meeting of the Planning Commission, but the discussion about changing the city’s Land Development Code in order to allow a more liberal approach to porches wasn’t one of them.…

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Commissioners Court adjusts its aim on gun policy

Travis County Commissioners Court will resume a debate over guns at its regular Tuesday voting session, but it won’t exactly be picking up where it left off late last year. In the three weeks since County Judge Sarah Eckhardt postponed…

Music Commission to tackle licensing issues

Although the city’s Music and Entertainment Division is billed as “an economic development accelerator and centralized resource center for Austin’s music industry,” program manager Don Pitts says he spends about 70 percent of his time on permitting issues. Aiming to…

New city commission takes on economic prosperity

With a new year comes a new city commission. The Economic Prosperity Commission met for the first time Wednesday, although the meeting was mostly administrative. The commission, whose creation was initiated by the previous City Council, will advise the full…

Reporter's Notebook: The elephant in the closet

Must be a walk-in… At the most recent meeting of the Public Safety Commission, members decided it was time to take matters into their own hands to initiate a conversation about Uber and Lyft and the impact that transportation network…

Oracle: when a tech company expands in Austin

Demolition, it seems, follows Robin Wilkins. Wilkins, 54, moved into the Lakeview Apartments on South Lakeshore Boulevard after another apartment building she was living in was slated to be torn down. She stayed for five years, paying no more than…

Seeking more info, HLC stalls demolition for now

For the first time under the 10-1 City Council system, all of the members of the Historic Landmark Commission were appointed and present at the commission’s final meeting of 2015. And, with everyone accounted for, it looks like some of…