Still hanging around… We have it to thank for our intimate knowledge of celebrities’ lunches, Capital Metro’s train delays and the president’s spontaneous thoughts, so why not also give Twitter pre-emptive credit for helping to establish a working urban cable transit system in Austin? That would at least be the will of Travis County Commissioner […]
Reporters’ Notebook
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Grin and bear it
Putting himself out there… Randy Clarke spent his second full day as the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s CEO personally apologizing to riders. Clarke and top agency brass posted up at the downtown rail station just before rush hour on Thursday to greet commuters before they boarded Red Line trains. The service has recently hit some […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Humanist mockery and moonlight towers
Thoughts and prayers… Following the most recent mass shooting, a familiar debate has emerged that pits those who argue in favor of gun control against those who emphasize mental health treatment and (in some cases) more guns. In a Facebook message posted shortly after the Parkland massacre, former Council Member Don Zimmerman seemed to suggest that […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Reasons for beauty
Where the sidewalk bends… Austin badly needs to fill in the large gap of missing sidewalks across the city, but simply making each stretch of sidewalk longer than it has to be probably isn’t the most efficient solution. On Saturday, a loyal Austin Monitor reader surfaced on Twitter a photograph of a new zigzagging sidewalk […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Roses are red, violets are blue
He who speaks the loudest wins… During a discussion about a proposed public voucher program last Monday, it appeared that two camps were forming among the commissioners of the Charter Review Commission. There were those who lauded the equity promised by this public campaign funding solution, and there were those who utterly dismissed the idea. […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: We’ve made haranguements
Save Our Strings… Could the city be moving toward declaring musicians as an endangered species? Not yet, but at last week’s meeting of the Austin Music Commission there was a good deal of talk about declaring the city’s music culture as a natural resource that needs to be actively protected from growing development pressures throughout […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Which side?
More news from the Amazon (bid)… Austin has landed on the bad side of an LGBT rights group’s effort to influence online retail giant Amazon’s decision on where to build its next headquarters. The “No Gay? No Way!” campaign issued a statement last week that singled out nine of the 20 finalist sites for being located […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: What blind spots?
Colossus of roads… “There’s no question that I am probably the largest road proponent in the Milky Way.” Thus Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty began a stemwinder about his transportation prescription for Central Texas at a luncheon hosted by the Real Estate Council of Austin last Thursday. The Republican road warrior was one of four […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Is back
Lee’s new team?… Former Mayor Lee Leffingwell never had the noted social media chops of his successor (or his successor’s spokesperson, at least), and after he stepped down in 2015, his Twitter account mostly retired with him. In 2017, he posted a handful of tweets that mostly reminisced about his time at City Hall. However, […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: ’Tis the season
No nativity scene for you, says Zimmerman… Former Council Member Don Zimmerman is evidently still smarting over his 2016 defeat, and especially the fact that a majority of his neighbors did not vote for him. In years past, Zimmerman and his wife, Jennifer, participated in a Christmas tree lighting festival in their neighborhood, Canyon Creek. […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Why not?
Wrestling with a tough decision… Austin’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America party scored a significant boost this weekend when Council Member Greg Casar agreed to sign up as an official member. The District 4 representative spoke at a DSA town hall on Friday evening alongside national health care activist and Party World Rasslin’ […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Let the games begin
He’s running… The 2018 election cycle has gotten off to a painfully slow start on the local level, but we finally have our first big – and thoroughly unsurprising – candidate to take the field. An eagle-eyed reader tipped us off on Sunday to the new look of www.adlerforaustin.com, the campaign website of Mayor Steve […]