A global pandemic isn’t stopping the Austin Parks and Recreation Department from giving credit where credit is due. For example, PARD has created a virtual dedication ceremony to honor Rosewood Neighborhood Park’s shiny new accolades – a state Historical Marker from the Texas Historical Commission, and a Lone Star Legacy Park award from the Texas Recreation and Park Society. Austin’s black community has celebrated Juneteenth at Rosewood for 90 years, and the parks department says the park is “the heart and cultural center for the Rosewood community.” Kim McKnight, who heads up PARD’s Historic Preservation and Heritage Tourism Program, said in a news release, “We look forward to the day when we can celebrate in person and are grateful to the community for working with us to develop this engaging online event. We are excited to share the history of this special park with the Austin community.” The dedication video, which “highlights the history of the park with historic photos, longtime community members and local dignitaries,” may be viewed here.

Voters will select a new Travis County Attorney in the July 14 Democratic runoff election since David Escamilla announced he would be retiring from the job at the end of the year. On Tuesday, Escamilla announced he was endorsing Laurie Eiserloh, an assistant county attorney, over her opponent, Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza. Escamilla said in a prepared statement, “We need a county attorney who is not only capable of doing the job well, including providing legal advice to dozens of county officials, but one who has the courage and character to fight for what’s right for our community.” Taking a swipe at Garza over her limited legal experience, Escamilla added, “Laurie is the only candidate in the race with the necessary legal experience to protect the interests of the county and its residents. And Laurie has proven many times she can unite diverse stakeholders to fight for our progressive community values. Given the events of the last few months, we need that now more than ever.” A majority of Garza’s colleagues on City Council have endorsed her, including Mayor Steve Adler and Council members Greg Casar, Pio Renteria, Natasha Harper-Madison, Jimmy Flannigan and Paige Ellis. Council Member Leslie Pool has endorsed Eiserloh.

Former Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell came in second in a six-person race for a seat on the Pedernales Electric Cooperative Board of Directors this week. The winner was Travis Cox, the former chair of the Hays County Republican Party, who garnered 28 percent of the vote. Because there is no runoff, Cox was declared the winner of the District 4 seat. Leffingwell got 22 percent of the vote. Emily Pataki ran unopposed and was elected to the District 2 seat, while Mark Ekrut won the District 3 seat. Leffingwell noted that he has lived in Hays County for less than two years, adding, “I can no longer say I am undefeated.”

East Austin black organizations G.E.A.Y.A., Six Square, CarverMuseumATX, Carver Library, and Jump On It have collaborated to create this year’s virtual Juneteenth celebration, which is themed “Stay Black and Live” and celebrates “not only the timeless themes of freedom and perseverance, but also recognizes the unprecedented times we’re currently living through.” Starting 6 p.m. on Friday, June 19, the event will stream live on Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, and the Juneteenth website. Earlier that day, the 10,000 Fearless First Responders will pass out free plates to communities on the east side and then City Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison kicks off the festivities with a welcome message. The event includes musical and spoken word performances featuring local artists and a raffle with prizes donated by local businesses, followed by an after-party hosted by Capitol View Arts. Get tickets here. Proceeds benefit G.E.A.Y.A. and Six Square.

Calling all artists, poets, scholars and writers of African descent: June 22 is the last day to turn in your application for High Signs and Beacons, a project of George Washington Carver Museum, the city’s Equity Office and the African American Cultural & Heritage Facility. Eight to 12 creative teams consisting of one visual artist and one writer/poet/scholar/emcee will create a large-scale outdoor sign which will be printed on vinyl and displayed throughout Austin’s black cultural historic district, also called Six Square as it occupies six square miles of East Austin. As the application explains, “More than ever, people need help grounding in this moment and visualizing a collective future. What we know is that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the current pandemic, and African Americans are some of the least likely to recover once they have contracted Covid-19. Blessed and plagued by the pre-existing condition of blackness in the Americas, we are in the midst of a system reset.” Apply here to join the creative team.

The newly resurrected Public Safety Committee will meet this Thursday at 1 p.m.. As expected, the agenda of the first meeting will focus on recent protests and resolutions aimed at police reform passed at last week’s City Council meeting. The committee may also discuss “the employment and duties of the city manager” in a closed executive session. Those interested in reading the full agenda can find it here, and those looking for backup documentation for the committee can find it here. Information about Thursday’s meeting has yet to be posted to the city’s online calendar. The Public Safety Committee consists of Council members Jimmy Flannigan, Greg Casar, Delia Garza and Natasha Harper-Madison, though all Council members are welcome to attend. It will be broadcast live on ATXN.

Once every decade, Austin residents participate in a process to redraw the boundaries of City Council districts. These boundaries impact city government and shape how Austinites will be represented by their leaders for the next 10 years, so this process matters – a lot. This is actually the first time in city history to redraw these maps, as the existing Council districts were drawn in 2013 and much has changed since then; for starters, the city is more populous and more diverse. To educate residents about this historic process and motivate some to get personally involved, Austin City Auditor Corrie Stokes and her staff will be holding an interactive virtual town hall, open to the entire community, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 18. “We hope you will join us as redistricting only occurs once every ten years and coincides with the census,” Stokes said in a news release. In addition to giving an overview, Stokes will describe two ways for residents to participate in the redistricting process: by joining the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, which is tasked with redrawing the boundaries of the Council districts; or serving on the Applicant Review Panel, which selects the candidates for the redistricting commission. Besides Stokes, Deputy City Auditor Jason Hadavi, Senior Auditor Maria Stroth, Senior Auditor Eletu-Odibo Temitope and Senior Auditor Kelsey Thompson will be on hand and the town hall meeting will be moderated by Patricia Fraga. The meeting will be broadcast and livestreamed on ATXN and livestreamed on the Austin city auditor’s Facebook page. Have questions? The auditor’s office will be taking questions beginning Tuesday, June 16, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, by email at redistrictatx@austintexas.gov or by phone at 512-974-2805. But first, we suggest you check out RedistrictATX.org– the snazzy new website explains everything you’ll want to to know about redistricting and why it affects the next 10 years of life in Austin.

Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore announced Friday that her office has added an online form to report excessive use of force by police. The Use of Force Private Complaint Form is available on the DA’s Civil Rights Unit site. A press release from Moore explains that in addition to the new complaint form, the website offers “other helpful information including annual statistics about the cases handled by the unit, copies of declination letters issued in cases where prosecution is declined, a description of the special grand juries that are used specifically for civil rights cases, and a list of the community members who sit on the Civil Rights Advisory Council.” Moore explained, “We have always encouraged citizens to make independent reports to our office when they think they have been a victim of unlawful force by a public servant. But we are adding an electronic form to our website that will hopefully make the process easier for the public to access and use. It will also allow our prosecutors to review the complaints in a more efficient way.”

This Thursday, City Council will hold its first meeting of the resurrected Public Safety Committee. Council voted to convert the existing Judicial Committee to the Public Safety Committee as part of a series of resolutions aimed at institutional reform of the Austin Police Department, following its violent response to protests against police brutality and racism. The committee will meet at 1 p.m. on June 18, and according to a post from Council Member Jimmy Flannigan’s office, “will include the opportunity to hear from and collaborate with the city manager’s office and executive leadership on how they intend to begin the implementation process for the resolutions passed last night. We intend to meet monthly through at least the end of the year, to continue the ongoing work that is essential to successfully accomplish the scale of reform we are contemplating.” All Council members may (and likely will) attend the meeting, which will presumably drill down into public safety budgets and policies, though an agenda has not yet been posted. The entire Council is not officially scheduled to meet again until July 23, when they will discuss the upcoming budget. With a proposed $100 million cut to the police budget, increased community needs due to the pandemic and questions surrounding new state tax caps, this year’s budget meetings promise to be quite interesting. (And given the overall tone and pace of this year, we certainly aren’t ruling out the possibility of the break being interrupted by something else.)

The city of Austin will give musicians more time to apply to the Austin Music Disaster Relief fund. The $1.5 million fund, which was established to aid local musicians experiencing economic hardship due to the pandemic, is intended to provide $1,000 grants to help the most hard-hit with immediate emergency needs. Applications will stay open until June 26, instead of closing on June 12 as originally planned. Find grant guidelines and applications at ATXrecovers.com and the MusiCares Foundation. “We extended the application deadline because our local musicians are juggling many priorities right now,” notes Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, acting director for the Economic Development Department, in a press release about the extension. “Musicians can quickly complete the online application from their phone or computer. The grant can be used for rent, groceries, bills, and many other personal or professional needs.” Soon after opening the application process, the city faced criticism about its requirements.

Austin Transportation will begin phasing in speed limit reductions over the next few months as part of the comprehensive speed management program approved by City Council Thursday. The effort cuts speeds on residential and downtown streets to 25 mph, with exceptions for some wider, high-traffic corridors, and drops most arterials inside the urban core down to 35 mph or less. Although a large percentage of serious injuries and traffic fatalities happen on state-owned roads in Austin, these changes are intended to help reduce severe crashes and establish a more comfortable speed for all road users. “I really do hope that (this) will allow us to make some pretty big strides towards our Vision Zero goals,” Council Member Leslie Pool said before Thursday’s vote. Austin’s Vision Zero goal is to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2025, but the city has not taken the necessary actions to meet that goal since adopting the target in October 2015. Traffic deaths have continued to climb in recent years, with 38 deaths so far this year, up from 34 at the same time last year. “Speeding is one of the top behaviors that leads to serious injuries and death on our roadways,” said Robert Spillar, director of Austin Transportation. “We believe changes like the proposed new speed limits will better reflect our safety goals and encourage drivers to be more cautious when driving in potentially high-pedestrian environments.” The department plans to continue evaluating arterials outside of the urban core when traffic conditions resume to normal and present speed modification recommendations to Council next spring. For now, the public can browse specific speed changes on the interactive map at the department’s website.

Public health data indicates a disproportionate number of Covid-19 positive test cases in Austin’s Latinx community. Austin Public Health hopes to lower that number by doing outreach in the community. The effort is being launched with an interactive Facebook Live conversation that will be held in Spanish this Saturday, June 13, 10-11:30 a.m. “Representatives from Austin Public Health and the Latinx community will discuss the impact of Covid-19 in the Latinx community, share available resources and seek input from participants about how the city can make improvements.” The city is planning an additional online forum on Saturday, July 11, “to expand the conversation to all communities of color regarding the impact of Covid-19 and long-term public health challenges.”