About the Author
Chad Swiatecki is a 20-year journalist who relocated to Austin from his home state of Michigan in 2008. He most enjoys covering the intersection of arts, business and local/state politics. He has written for Rolling Stone, Spin, New York Daily News, Texas Monthly, Austin American-Statesman and many other regional and national outlets.
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Stories by Chad Swiatecki
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Planning
Waterfront board waits for progress on city’s development corporation
City staff has been slowed in their work to research and make recommendations on how City Council could move forward with creating an economic development corporation (EDC) that could help facilitate public/private investment deals.The demands of dealing with the October…
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
City seeks grants, partnerships to implement tech solutions for homeless
The city’s Innovation Office has applied for a $400,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with the goal of directing the money toward implementing a suite of blockchain technology solutions to help the city’s homeless population.The grant application is…
Monday, November 19, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Entertainment & Events
With $12M for creative spaces, arts/music group starts shaping allocation process
With $12 million for acquisition of creative space approved by voters earlier this month, members of the city’s music and arts commissions will spend the rest of November generating ideas for how to best use the money for saving and…
Thursday, November 15, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Transportation
Tech leaders consider autonomous vehicles, scooters and more to solve transit
For all the debate and hope over new transit plans and the potential for light rail to move Austin residents around quickly and efficiently, the city’s growing traffic and transportation problems come down to simple math. That was the point…
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Debate over convention center, hotel tax funds spreads to Music Commission
A recently created music activism group has been thrown into the fray of the debate – largely playing out in meetings of the new Tourism Commission – over how to spend money the city generates through its roughly $100 million…
Friday, November 9, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
City taps UT incubator to meet 2040 zero waste goal
The city and the Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas are turning to startup companies to help find a solution to dramatically reduce waste headed to landfills from Austin.ATI’s new Circular Economy Incubator, which launched last month, has…
Wednesday, November 7, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Elections
Tight D8 race headed to runoff to fill Troxclair’s seat
The City Council seat for Southwest Austin is headed for another runoff to determine new representation for District 8, with incomplete results Wednesday morning pointing to newcomers Paige Ellis, who won 30.5 percent of the vote, and Frank Ward. who…
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Housing
Real estate group backs land trusts to preserve affordable housing
With Austin voters about to decide whether the city commits $250 million to increase the local supply of affordable housing, a real estate research group has come out in strong support of cultural land trusts as a tool to prevent…
Monday, November 5, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Planning
Justin Lane parcel primed for parks, affordable housing, creative space and more
The five-acre North Austin parcel known as the Justin Lane tract looks to be the home of a variety of new uses in the near future, including affordable housing, creative space, parkland and mixed-use development.At Thursday’s City Council meeting, a…
Monday, November 5, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Health & Human Services
Seton offers homeless groups space to address trafficking, services
Nonprofits addressing homelessness in Austin will get some long-sought-after help in steering clients through the area’s network of services designed to get them off the streets and into stable housing.Seton Healthcare Family has announced a new partnership with the Ending…
Friday, November 2, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Politics
IndyAustin suspends paid petition drive against stadium deal
An activist group looking to prevent the city from making deals to build for-profit entertainment venues on city land has pulled back some of its resources for a petition drive.IndyAustin began collecting signatures in September with the goal of putting…
Thursday, November 1, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Planning
Long road to expo center revamp could begin Thursday
Thursday’s City Council meeting is expected to see the first moves toward a long-off ballot initiative that will eventually lead to an ambitious rehabilitation of the Travis County Expo Center.The resolution, which is expected to pass on consent, will direct…
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Planning
Golf, recreation areas considered for future of Walter Long Park
Golf course, or no golf course?There are other questions being discussed with community members in and around East Austin about the future of Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park, but one of the main questions is whether the 3,695-acre park should…
Monday, October 29, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
Anti-displacement recommendations take broad approach to combat gentrification
The task force convened late last year by City Council to study strategies for reversing Austin’s growing affordability and displacement problem has released its initial set of recommendations. Those recommendations include a mix of taxing mechanisms, social services and bond…
Thursday, October 25, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Entertainment & Events
Special events ordinance on pace for April 2019 implementation
After six years of drafts and revisions, it appears Austin’s long-brewing special events ordinance will go into effect in April 2019, giving event producers during spring festival season – cityspeak for South by Southwest and spring break – another year…
Wednesday, October 24, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Elections
Mayoral candidates stress leadership on familiar Austin concerns
While common topics such as Austin’s transportation issues and the fate of the city’s CodeNEXT rewrite have been talking points at all recent forums for the four contested City Council seats, at Monday’s forum for the two most prominent candidates…
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Entertainment & Events
Noise enforcement called key to new push for ‘agent of change’ ordinance
The city is making another attempt to find peace and common ground between music and entertainment venues and high-rise hotels or residences as those two land uses becoming increasingly intermixed while Austin continues to grow. A resolution passed under consent…
Monday, October 22, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Elections
Transit, CodeNEXT, homelessness grab attention for District 9 candidates
The candidates vying for City Council’s District 9 seat next month have their pick of issues and pain points that need fixing. From transportation to homelessness to the recently scrapped CodeNEXT process to update the city’s Land Development Code, there…
Thursday, October 18, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Austin
More homes, services on the way for homeless with Community First! expansion
A Northeast Austin community constructed in recent years to provide permanent housing to Austin’s chronically homeless has announced its plans for a second phase that will nearly double its physical footprint to 51 acres and, when complete, serve nearly 800…
Tuesday, October 16, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Entertainment & Events
Legal questions remain as soccer team once bound for Austin may stay put
The possibility of Austin not becoming the relocation destination for an Ohio Major League Soccer franchise has brought a variety of new questions into the issue of the city providing land for a new 20,000-seat sports stadium in North Austin.News…
