It’s been a long journey and the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan is in the homestretch. Now it’s time for the public to weigh in on the final draft of the ambitious plan, which will – drumbeat here – determine the future of transportation in Austin. City Council has set a date for a public hearing to allow the community to voice its views on the plan: Thursday, March 28, time TBD, at City Hall, 301 W. Second St. The final draft is available for review online here. The city’s boards and commissions will continue to consider recommendations for the ASMP through March and all of those meetings are open to the public, too. Find the complete list of board and commission meetings here. There are lots of other goodies on the city’s ASMP website, like beautiful interactive maps, a timeline and an animated overview of the plan.

For all of you who nag your local media to get the story right, or yell at your computer when you find a false story (and spread the word), for all of you primed to fight for democracy, know that you are valued. Your acknowledgement came at a South by Southwest event called “Bad Guys Attacking Elections: It’s Not Just the U.S.” New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose thanked the people he called “an amazing community of pedants,” who worked to fight disinformation in the 2018 midterm elections. These people scour the internet and report on the deceptive, false and dangerous lies perpetrated by trolls with a political agenda in many countries. Roose joined panelists Graham Brookie, director and managing editor of the Digital Forensic Research Lab; Katie Harbath, public policy director for global elections at Facebook; and Moira Whelan, founding partner of BlueDot Strategies, to talk about the international problem of online manipulation of opinion. That includes an election in North Macedonia, Roose said: “It’s incredibly strange that the four of us are talking about safeguarding the Macedonian election …. The fact that the integrity of global elections relies on the efforts of a few people in California and New York and D.C. is just incredibly strange and I don’t think we should accept that as the status quo.” He added, “One of the things I will be looking for in the years ahead” will be local news outlets and global platforms willing to make changes to their products. One example was a decision by Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, to limit the number of times a message can be forwarded. The previous limit was 20, while the new limit is just five. Forwarding may be an easy way to spread news, but as Facebook learned, it’s also an easy way to spread lies and rumors. So, to those of you who are inclined to be cranky and nag your local media, we salute you and encourage you to spread your wings. There are an amazing number of elections around the world coming in April. You can help!

Travis County residents and businesses that were affected by the Lake Travis and Colorado River flooding and Austin Water boil water notice of October 2018 may apply for low-interest federal disaster loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration. SBA representatives have set up an outreach center to answer questions, explain the application process and help applicants complete their paperwork. The outreach center is located at Travis County West Service Center, 4501 N. FM 620 (Town Hall Room), starting Wednesday, March 13, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Applications can also be completed online here. For more information, call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.

Films for the Forest, a production of the nonprofit Rainforest Partnership led by Austinite Niyanta Spelman, presented its latest series of films on Sunday. Spelman told the Austin Monitor, “This is the 10th screening of Films for the Forest. We’ve become conveners of content, of stories and films for other NGOs – people standing up for trees and forests around the world.” Among the films being honored was a Brazilian film titled “Forest People,” by Rafa Calil and Tito Sabatini, which is about the struggle of indigenous rainforest tribes and Chico Mendes, the leader of the union of indigenous rubber tappers in the Amazon who was assassinated in 1988. According to the NGO Global Witness, more environmental activists are killed in Brazil than in any other country. Calil described his decadelong journey to make the film and bring attention not only to the trees but to the people who live in and care for and protect the forest. Films for the Forest will be playing at the EarthX Festival in Dallas in April. The Rainforest Partnership is assisting in the production of “Forest People” by translating the film, which is in Portuguese, into English, French and Spanish. “Forest People” is scheduled to be released in April in Brazil.

The leader of Southwest Key Programs Inc. will retire from his position following roughly a year of controversy and scrutiny. The nonprofit group, which provides shelters to migrant children among other services, announced Monday that Chief Operations Officer Joella Brooks will take over for CEO Juan Sanchez so that a national search for a new top executive can take place. Southwest Key had been a target of local protests and controversy in connection with larger debate over national policies concerning immigrant families in federal custody. A New York Times investigation into the group last year brought even more attention and calls for change. The Austin Business Journal reports that Southwest Key reported $242.6 million in revenue in 2016, and $1.7 billion in federal grants over the past 10 years.

Psst! SXSW attendees, are you listening? Here are two apps that will help you safely navigate the busy festival season and stay informed. It’s a free twofer: Download the Austin Police Department app and the SXSW Go app and you’ll be in the know while you stay safe and secure. SXSW Go, the official guide to South by Southwest, boasts a continually updating schedule of events, among many other useful features. APD’s app provides info such as station locations, news updates, crime prevention tips, and the ability to send APD tips anonymously and chat with officers. You can even file select police reports directly from the app. Download APD’s app and SXSW Go at the App Store. Android users can find APD here and SXSW Go here.

An Austin food program for underserved families has seen a dramatic increase in participation and food, thanks to its enrollment in an ongoing consultation program with the Charles Schwab Pro Bono Challenge and the Common Impact nonprofit group. The Sustainable Food Center in Austin reports that its Farmers’ Market WIC program served 1,042 customers in 2018 – triple the number of previous years – in large part due to increased participation in the monthly Triple WIC Day, with more than $14,000 in food benefits provided. SFC sought help in increasing usage of its services – especially the purchase of fresh produce – by low-income clients, many of whom had only attended the market program once or twice and weren’t benefiting from the assistance available to them. The Pro Bono Challenge provides consulting to nonprofit groups in the areas of technology, marketing, operations and human resources. Groups interested in applying to the program can learn more here.

Everything has a brand these days – even neighborhoods. Upon reaching its third year as a bona fide merchants’ association, the Red River Cultural District decided it was time for a major brand refresh. The new branding is the result of a partnership with the city’s Souly Austin Program and the district’s new board of directors and executive director. RRCD’s new tagline, “United Through Music,” honors the area’s deep roots in the live music tradition. Visitors to Red River Street will find the street festooned with banners featuring iconic musical artists, a fitting tribute for a three-block radius that is packed with nightclubs and bars and alive with the sounds of music. The corner of Ninth and Red River streets sports a neon installation that was created through a partnership with Ryan Garrett at Stubb’s. A new logo courtesy of local designer Bart Kibbe, and a website created in partnership with Levitation co-owner Rob Fitzpatrick, round out the district’s fresh new collection of visual identity markers. Says Cody Cowan, the new executive director of RRCD, “Live music is a culture and an attitude – like family, it can be both passionate, supportive and challenging at times. Our hope is that this new work captures this vibe and helps us highlight and share these experiences visually.”

Last week, Council approved amending a contract with URS Corporation to take the next steps in designing a replacement for the Redbud Trail/Emmett Shelton Bridge over Lady Bird Lake. The circa-1948 bridge has suffered degradation and steel fatigue and has insufficient bicycle and pedestrian paths and roadway shoulders, according to backup material. If it seems like this project has been in the works for a long time, that’s because it has been. Austin voters approved initial funding for replacing the bridge in the 2012 bond election. Public Works Director Richard Mendoza told Council that the next phase of the project would deplete 2012 funding and use money from the 2018 bond funds. The amendment increases funding by more than $1 million to a contract amount of a little more than $2 million. Council awarded the contract to URS Corporation in May 2015. In response to questions from Council Member Kathie Tovo, Mendoza said there would be public input on the second phase of bridge design, which will include more meetings with stakeholders as well as an “aesthetics workshop” with city staff. Construction is slated to start in 2021 or ’22 and be completed in 2023 or ’24.

Following a presentation on the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan at the March 6 meeting of the Environmental Commission by Annick Beaudet, the assistant director of Austin Transportation, commissioners began asking about some of the environmental aspects of the plan. While questions about tree canopy removal in order to widen streets made a predictable appearance, issues of air quality, right-of-way and autonomous vehicles were also raised. Commissioner Mary Ann Neely noted that Austin is uncomfortably close to being in violation of air quality requirements and the new transportation plan will likely push the city over the edge if it doesn’t take pollution into consideration. While Beaudet said that air quality improvements are part of the plan (there are limitation on idling vehicles), Commissioner Katie Coyne observed that “the indicators and targets don’t have any quantifiable metrics.” Some initiatives in the plan already have quantifiable metrics, and the rest will be instated within a year of Council approving the plan. One other point that commissioners touched on was the necessity of the city encouraging autonomous vehicles, and Commissioner Andrew Creel encouraged the city’s Transportation Department to get out in front of the future to welcome and participate in the innovation. The ASMP does have a section on emerging mobility solutions that mentions autonomous vehicles, but Creel had a more proactive role in mind, suggesting that the city begin implementing low-cost solutions like striping and signage that are specifically engineered to support autonomous vehicle systems. After some discussion about the current impacts of human-driven vehicles, the commissioners applauded the efforts and expressed their confidence that the plan would help alleviate some of Austin’s traffic concerns. They recommended the plan unanimously to Council with Commissioner Wendy Gordon absent. Commissioners Peggy Maceo and Curtis Smith were off the dais for the vote.

Staffers’ recommendation was quickly usurped in a rezoning case that was pulled for discussion at the March 5 Zoning and Platting Commission meeting. Owners of the two-lot property at 2503 Westlake Dr. were seeking a rezoning from a Lake Austin Residence and Family Residence zoning to Urban Family Residence zoning with a conditional overlay limiting the property to seven units. Staff members had no objection to the conditional overlay, but did not find it necessary to include it in the official recommendation because site constraints and Urban Family Residence district regulations would likely not allow for the construction of more than seven units. Commissioner Jim Duncan made the motion to approve staff’s recommendation along with the conditional overlay anyway, which was seconded by Commissioner Ana Aguirre. The motion passed unanimously.

If you’re a member of Austin’s struggling creative class, you might want to sit up and pay attention to this one: The city’s Cultural Arts and Music & Entertainment divisions have fired up a joint funding initiative to help protect and preserve local music, arts and performance spaces. The Creative Space Assistance Program was created to provide direct financial support – in the form of up to $50,000 each – to creative organizations that face temporary or permanent displacement due to rent hikes, the need for facilities improvements or to defray the costs of moving to a new venue. Priority will be given to groups with immediate and critical needs. Nonprofits serving historically underrepresented communities are encouraged to apply. Learn more at upcoming informational meetings on March 19 and 25 from 2-3:30 p.m. at Austin City Hall in the Boards and Commissions Room. CSAP’s complete guidelines can be found here.