The city of Austin is launching an effort to plan for the future of the Montopolis Negro School. The Parks and Recreation Department will hold its first virtual meeting on Oct. 27 at 4 p.m., followed by an open house at the school on Nov. 6 from 10 a.m.-noon. The property has remained fenced off and unused since the city began the process of acquiring it in 2017. The city ultimately took possession of the land through eminent domain proceedings after negotiations with the property owner fell apart. The school has since gone through a hazardous material abatement, and the parks department aims to launch planning efforts this spring.

Citing moderate forecast fire danger, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department has issued a burn ban in city parks, effective today. Low levels of rainfall and consistently high temperatures mean the city is at greater risk of wildfire, according to an Oct. 6 memo from PARD Director Kimberly McNeeley. The memo points to an ordinance that allows the city to temporarily prohibit the building of fires and grilling in city parks, greenbelts and preserves when the threat of wildfire has increased. McNeeley notes that if conditions lessen, the department will terminate the restrictions.

Those who enjoy splashing around in the shallow end of Deep Eddy Pool may take this news hard: Due to a mechanical problem with a well pump, the shallow end of the pool will be closed for the remainder of the year. The pool will also need to be closed three days a week because, with a broken pump, it takes longer to fill the pool. The parks department’s Aquatics Division is working hard to repair the pump so that normal winter operating hours may resume. In the meantime, swimmers can still make a splash in the shallow ends of Barton Springs, Bartholomew, Big Stacy and Springwoods pools.

In honor of National Coming Out Day, which is today, the city is installing a colorful crosswalk at a downtown intersection. According to a news release from the Transportation Department, “The design is based on a previous design requested by the community and incorporates colors from the Progressive Pride Flag which includes black and brown stripes to represent people of color, and baby blue, pink and white, which represent the transgender community.” Mayor Steve Adler, City Manager Spencer Cronk, Austin City Council members, Transportation Director Rob Spillar, and Austin LGBTQ Quality of Life Advisory commissioners will be on hand at 9 a.m. to watch the installation, which includes three nearby utility boxes. The intersection at 400 Colorado St., at the corner of Bettie Naylor (Fourth) will be closed from 3 a.m.-5 p.m.

Just a reminder, the Travis County mobile vaccine team will be at ACL Fest again this weekend, offering first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine as well as boosters to those who are eligible. Travis County now has 70.85 percent of its 12 and older population vaccinated, but as Travis County Constable George Morales points out, “We can’t stop here. Covid-19 vaccines continue to prove to be safe and effective. Vaccines can protect our community from severe illness, hospitalization and death.” The vaccine team will operate from noon-4 p.m. each day of the festival. If you’re getting the booster, bring your vaccination card so it can be updated. 

A variety of exhibits, presentations and virtual experiences taking place from Oct. 11-Nov. 16 fall under the umbrella of the Austin Veteran Arts Festival, or AVAFest. According to the city, which is hosting several of the events, the purpose of AVAFest “is to promote and support veterans in the arts. Many veterans struggle with mental health issues and/or seeking treatment. The Austin Veteran Arts Festival aims to help heal through art therapy, an approach that allows people to express themselves in a nonverbal and non-threatening way that potentially helps individuals to understand themselves and their issues better.” View a full calendar of festival events here.

Most people have strong feelings about spiders, and we’re no exception. But how much do we really know about the gangly critters? Not enough, it turns out. Joe Lapp, also known as Spider Joe, is a self-taught spider taxonomist and nature educator who develops software to support arthropod conservation at UT Austin. Joe loves to talk spiders – jumping spiders, crab spiders, orb weavers, what have you – and he’ll be talking up a spider storm on the next Wild Neighbors webinar, hosted by Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. Friday, Oct. 22, noon to 1 p.m. Register here.

Pandemic or no pandemic, traditions are important, and one enduring tradition is the annual Zilker Holiday Tree Art Contest, hosted by the Parks and Recreation Department. As in years past, Austinites between the ages of 5 and 10 are invited to enter their original drawings of the Zilker Holiday Tree. The young artists may use crayons, watercolors, ink, colored paper, pastels or paint, and the winners from each age category will get to help light the holiday tree. The Zilker holiday tree is, of course, not just any old tree: at 155 feet tall it’s festooned with 3,309 lights. Check out prize-winning renditions of the tree from years past; it’s pretty wonderful to see the many ways kids’ imaginations have captured the tree. Submit your entry online until Nov. 1. Make sure you read the rules carefully before submitting artwork.

After teasing a “major announcement,” Save Austin Now founders revealed that their campaign supporting Proposition A, an initiative that they petitioned to have on the ballot, has the support of three former Austin mayors: Lee Leffingwell, Lee Cooke and Ron Mullen. Leffingwell explained that he asked the other mayors to join him after he was asked to go on the record with his support. “There’s nothing wrong with having too many police officers,” he said at the press conference, “but there’s a lot wrong with having too few.” His comments were echoed by Cooke, who said that the ratio of two officers per 1,000 residents was a goal they had “strived to fund” since the 1970s, but now it was time. “Cities started 5,000 years ago for one reason: safety. Protect the citizens,” Cooke said. “In those days, they put up walls.” Council Member Mackenzie Kelly also spoke in support of Prop A.

Those at the press conference expressed skepticism that Prop A’s mandated staffing increase would threaten other city services or Fire Department jobs, but the Austin Firefighters Association recently voted to oppose the measure, and city budget staffers have estimated its annual cost at $54.3 million to $119.8 million, which could mean tough choices in upcoming budget cycles. 

Though Save Austin Now leader Matt Mackowiak introduced the three mayors as “the living mayors that live within the city of Austin,” making them “quite in tune with what is actually happening in our city,” Leffingwell now lives in Driftwood. However, Austin remains home to former mayors Kirk Watson, Bruce Todd, Carole Keeton and Frank Cooksey, none of whom spoke at the press conference.

Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison, Council Member Alison Alter and Mayor Steve Adler have announced a partnership with the Appointments Project of United WE to increase the number of women on the city’s boards and commissions. Austin is doing better than most cities in terms of recruiting women to serve on the city’s 65 boards and commissions: A spokesperson for Harper-Madison told the Austin Monitor that 50 percent of city commission appointees are female and 48 percent are male. However, only 14 percent of board members are Black and 25 percent are Hispanic, according to city data. Of the 728 seats on commissions, 677 are currently filled. Harper-Madison told the Monitor, “I’ve been saying from the start of my political career that representation matters, and that all voices need to be at the table. I’m proud that more than half of the people we as a Council have put on our boards and commissions are women. However, I recognize that we still have work to do when it comes to adding more diversity to specific board and commissions.” Alter noted that her city service on the parks board inspired her to run for City Council. “As a supermajority female Council, we work to create opportunities for women in our community to lead. Through the Appointments Project, I hope we chart even more pathways for female leadership and service.” According to Wendy Doyle, president of United WE, the group “created the Appointments Project so local boards and commissions could reflect the communities they serve.” With the help of Harper-Madison, Alter and Adler, she said, “we are addressing the gender disparities in local leadership and are able to make real changes in our communities.” The group will hold public training events for those interested in learning about civic leadership on Oct. 7 and Oct. 29.

Digital Inclusion Week continues with a slate of virtual events designed to raise awareness about the digital divide between those with access to technology and those without. In the pandemic era, the gap between the connected and the not-connected is growing wider all the time, and digital inequities can have severe economic consequences. As the city’s Telecommunications Officer Rondella Hawkins puts it, “Imagine a single mom of three kids without internet during normal times. Now imagine the same family during the pandemic when all the schools are locked down and she has to work remotely. Access to online information is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for so many.” The city has partnered with the Digital Empowerment Community of Austin to create a full calendar of events for the week, from brainstorming solutions to technology training and support.