Stories by Audrey McGlinchy
Thursday, June 22, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Entertainment & Events
As city debates how to keep the peace, an expert explains how to keep things quiet
City Council members have delayed a vote on the so-called “agent of change” proposal, which would establish rules aimed at easing tensions between neighbors and music venues over amplified sound. An early version of the rules asked both new businesses…
Thursday, June 1, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Public Safety
Here’s what we learned about requests from ICE to pick up Travis County inmates
Drunken driving. Property theft. Possession of a controlled substance. These are some of the crimes for which the Travis County Sheriff’s Office did not honor requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain suspected undocumented immigrants past their sentences…
Friday, May 26, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Housing
Is ‘missing middle’ housing still missing from CodeNEXT?
Jake Wegmann, an assistant professor of housing and real estate at the University of Texas, stood on the sidewalk in Mueller, a large mixed-use development on the site of Austin’s old airport. He pointed across the street to a string…
Thursday, May 25, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Housing
What is ‘missing middle’ housing?
Annette Naish used to work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, traveling across the U.S. responding to natural disasters. “I found out that in this country there are some of the most wonderful people in the history of the Western…
Monday, May 8, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
City Hall
Austin’s inaugural artist-in-residence takes up her post
Rehab El Sadek marries silly and sober. Take her outfit: a colorfully patterned turtleneck atop a stern dark skirt. Her straight, black hair in low pigtails. Glasses. And while her paintings and prints dot the walls throughout the home she…
Friday, May 5, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Texas State Legislature
How does Texas’ ‘sanctuary cities’ bill stack up against Arizona’s ‘show me your papers’ law?
City Council Member Greg Casar sat on the floor, his back blocking one of the two main entrances to a state building on the Capitol grounds. He’d taken a seat as part of a sit-in Monday to protest Senate Bill…
Wednesday, April 26, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Public Safety
Sanctuary cities debate revolves around ICE detainers. But what are they?
Members of the Texas House of Representatives today will consider Senate Bill 4, popularly coined the “sanctuary cities” bill. The practices of the Travis County Sheriff’s Office have been heralded as a reason to pass this bill – one that…
Monday, April 24, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Police
Activists weigh in on police contract as city begins negotiations
As the city of Austin moves forward with the renegotiation of its public safety contracts, local activists are asking for several changes to the city’s contract with the local police union. The contract, which is negotiated every couple of years,…
Thursday, April 20, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
City Council
Sleep researchers cheer on Council members as they consider ways to avoid late nights
Early on June 24, 2016, City Council Member Delia Garza checked her watch. “We’re making a decision about $720 million at 1:35 in the morning after lengthy discussions,” Garza told her colleagues. “After in my opinion, no real agreement on…
Tuesday, April 18, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Land Development Code
CodeNEXT, as explained to a 6-year-old
Two people – one grown, the other growing – sit in a University of Texas office. The younger one, a girl of just 6 years old, wears a gray T-shirt, pink leggings and cowboy boots, which dangle from the edge of…
Thursday, April 13, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Travis County
Travis County DA announces not all police shootings will go before grand jury
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office will no longer bring all police shooting cases before a grand jury. Flanked by representatives of the local NAACP, police union and the Austin Police Department, District Attorney Margaret Moore announced the changes –…
Tuesday, April 4, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Housing
135,000 new housing units over the next decade: feasible or overly ambitious?
Socar Chatmon-Thomas points at an apartment building under construction along the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, near East Riverside Drive. “So this whole thing used to just be nothing,” said Chatmon-Thomas, who has worked in Austin real estate since…
Tuesday, March 28, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
City Council
Construction of new Central Library overdue, again
City Council members learned last week that the completion of the new downtown public library has been hit with delays, again. “I do think that it is getting very close, but I don’t have a specific date that I can…
Thursday, March 23, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Development
What’s the future of Austin’s East 12th Street? Ask these guys from Dallas.
Property ownership can be a stealth business, with land changing hands before anyone’s had time to notice. For the past four years, one North Texas company has quietly begun buying up property on E. 12th Street. Ironically, the company takes…
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Austin
Forty years after its fiery demise, a movie theater continues to be missed by East Austin
Ada Harden, 81, stands on a vacant lot at the corner of E. 12th and Salina Streets. While gravel and shorn grass crunch beneath her feet, she sees instead a maroon seat made of velvet and a wide screen where…
Tuesday, March 21, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Public Safety
Travis County tops list of jurisdictions declining immigration detainers
A new report suggests Travis County refused more federal requests to detain undocumented immigrants than any other law enforcement agency. The report from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is the first of what are promised to be weekly…
Tuesday, March 14, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Transportation
After Uber and Lyft exit, local ride-hailing options stumble during first SXSW
Mel Roe was eating dinner Saturday night at Manuel’s Mexican Restaurant in downtown Austin when she nearly threw her phone at the wall. Roe says the app of one of Austin’s six fledgling ride-hailing companies, Fasten, would not let her…
Tuesday, February 28, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Housing
Affordability plan before Council emphasizes housing needs
City Council members are hoping to make good on promises to create a more affordable Austin. Or, at the very least, ratify a plan to. Council members will vote on an “affordability action plan” at their regular meeting Thursday. The…
Friday, February 24, 2017 by Audrey McGlinchy
Planning
Local interest groups gear up for a year of CodeNEXT talk
At the rear of the Terrazas Branch of the Austin Public Library on E. Cesar Chavez Street, roughly 10 people gather in a meeting room. It looks like any classroom. There’s a white board at the back, unflattering lighting above,…
