As the government shutdown drags on, Austin Energy has stepped up, releasing a plan describing how it intends to help Austinites who are suffering the repercussions of not receiving a paycheck. For those directly affected by the shutdown, the city-owned utility has committed to postponing collection activity for 30 days, restoring service to customers who were disconnected for recent nonpayment and helping customers navigate the eligibility requirement for its Customer Assistance Programs or helping organize payment arrangements. “As a community-owned utility, we are here to support our customers affected by the government shutdown and who may be experiencing difficulties paying their bills,” Deputy General Manager Kerry Overton said in a statement. All of these measures are applicable until today, at which point – if the government is still shut down – the utility will re-evaluate each affected customer’s account individually and work toward a mutual solution.

Austin Parks Foundation has announced the recipients of more than $280,000 in recent grant funding. Georgian Acres Neighborhood Park has received $100,000 from the ACL Music Festival Impact Grant to help develop the park, with Dell Technologies Match Play matching that amount for the District 4 park in a portion of the city that is deficient in parks. The money will pay for a basketball court, kiosk, pavilion, tables and grills, playscapes, walking trails, and other amenities. The improvements will begin by this spring. Other recipients include Barton Hills School Park ($42,865), Brentwood Neighborhood Park ($50,000), Lamar Beach Metro Park ($10,000), Zilker Botanical Garden ($10,000) and Zilker Nature Preserve ($36,105). The foundation also awarded a series of smaller grants ranging from $500 to $5,000 to eight parks located throughout the city.

The Alliance Children’s Garden design team is slated to present the project at a meeting of the Planning Commission on Tuesday, Jan. 22. The long-awaited children’s garden is the final component of Butler Park and represents the fulfillment of a multiyear master plan effort to provide the city of Austin with a multipurpose cultural park. The garden design team expects to receive the site development permit by the end of January with construction beginning in February and continuing through fall 2019. The park, at 1000 Barton Springs Rd., will be divided into four distinct spaces: The Hill Country Garden, the Rock & Slide Valley Garden, the Skyline Garden, and the Art & Culture Garden. While designed for children, the two-acre park will provide a variety of play and recreational experiences for visitors of all ages.

Austin Independent School District will break ground Saturday, Jan. 19, at 9:30 a.m. on a new $80 million campus for Eastside Memorial Early College High School and International High School. The new school will be built on the site of the original L.C. Anderson campus, at 900 Thompson St. The event features indoor and outdoor activities, including speakers from all three schools and a panel discussion. The relocation of Eastside Memorial and International is part of a $1.05 billion bond program approved by voters in 2017, of which $80 million is dedicated to modernize the new east side facility. Miguel Garcia, principal of Eastside Memorial ECHS, said in a statement about the groundbreaking: “We invite all three school communities to join us at this site on which we will witness where legacy meets the future. We are excited for our bright students to build on what it means to be the ‘Pride of the Eastside,’ a concept that began with original L.C. Anderson students.”

The announcement this week that Austin would receive a new Major League Soccer franchise came with plenty of pomp and fanfare, including the unveiling of the official team hymnal (which is apparently a thing in soccer?) for the Austin Anthem fan group. The third stanza/section of the hymnal is titled “Seven-Four” in a not-at-all veiled reference to the 7-4 City Council vote that approved the land deal for city property that will be used to build the team’s stadium after months of heated and frothy debate. It reads: “7-Fooour, 7-Fooour/It’s not the score, it was the vote/That got us all our brand-new home.” Worth noting that Austin Anthem isn’t directly tied to the team’s Precourt Sports Ventures management group so the hymnal’s content isn’t its direct creation, but you’ve gotta wonder how smart it is for any soccer-related entity to poke a group of elected leaders on a contentious issue when the stadium still has to go through planning approvals and possible variances that would require Council approval.

The city has so far given permits for 15,650 individual dockless mobility units – mostly scooters – to be distributed across the city. That may seem like a lot for a city of Austin’s size, but only 4,650 of those units are licensed to be distributed in the downtown Austin project coordination zone, Austin’s core. Nonetheless, the Austin Transportation Department has placed an indefinite pause on the incoming stream of dockless units in order to assess the level of demand for those currently available. During this time, the department will be studying the data in the mandatory monthly reports of each scooter operator to determine whether issuing more licenses would be of benefit. If Transportation Department staff find that the average number of daily trips per unit suggests demand for more vehicles than are now on the streets, more licenses may be issued. In the meantime, the department will be providing regular updates to City Council and Mayor Steve Adler.

The city’s Economic Development Department has moved the third stakeholder meeting related to the long-brewing “agent of change” ordinance – or Amplified Sound Compatibility in cityspeak. The discussion session is scheduled to take place Feb. 2 at 1:30 p.m. at LZR, the former La Zona Rosa concert venue that has been repurposed as a multipurpose event and gathering space in recent years. Topics at the meeting will include an overview of the agent of change concept, compliance and enforcement of noise limits, how to mitigate sound from entertainment venues, and possible partnerships within the community that can make the ordinance successful. The city is asking those interested in the issue to take a survey that will be used in the feedback process, which will then be worked into recommendations for City Council.

U.S. Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the big political world addition to March’s lineup of programming for South by Southwest. Already known by the AOC handle, the freshman rep from the Bronx has captured the attention of pundits on both sides of the aisle, making her a natural pick for the conference, which has added a strong track of policy and election-related programming in recent years. Ocasio-Cortez is listed as a featured speaker and will appear with The Intercept columnist Briahna Gray. Speaking of SXSW, a look at the policy programming track offers intriguing panels and discussions likely to be of interest to Austin Monitor‘s wonkier-than-thou readership. Among them: How to Bring Public Safety Into the 21st Century; The Collaborative Approach to Affordable Housing; Fighting Homelessness with Ethical Technology; How to Make More People Ride Bikes in Cities; and Politics in Tech: When the Bubble Bursts.

Austin City Council will return to its first work session of the year on Jan. 29, and according to a post by Mayor Steve Adler on the City Council Message Board, one of the first topics it will take up is the membership of Council committees, the Planning Commission and intergovernmental entities. Though Planning Commission terms are set to expire in June of this year, the recent voter-approved charter change allows some flexibility about when appointments must be made. Adler notes, “Last year, council said that we would have a discussion about Planning Commission appointments as a body. We would like to start this conversation at the Jan 29 work session.” Last year, Planning commissioners were the subject of discussion – and a lawsuit – about its makeup, and whether the number of land use experts was in violation of the city charter.

Neighborhood Housing and Community Development has a new application and review process for affordable housing developers. Developers who are participating in the Rental Housing Development Assistance or Ownership Housing Development Assistance programs may now submit applications at any time, to be reviewed quarterly. Other significant changes are a result of input from the affordable housing community, according to NHCD community development manager James May, who said in a statement that the new procedures incorporate “nearly 40 suggestions from developers, nonprofits, advocacy groups, and individual citizens. Some addressed procedural questions or program misconceptions that we were able to clarify and correct.” The newly revised guidelines for both RHDA and OHDA, as well as the common Housing Development Assistance application are online at NHCD’s Resources for Developers website. NHCD will continue to review and revise the guidelines in response to input from stakeholders. May noted, “We intend to address all comments in the coming months and, where necessary, revise the guidelines for both programs before the end of the fiscal year.”

The city of Rollingwood unveiled its new brand Tuesday, with a new logo and “full identity system” that will be used to promote and boost the city of about 1,500. The logo, which is the first for the nearby community, is a result of work by the city, the Rollingwood Community Development Corporation and local public relations and marketing firm Buie & Co. “This is such a special place, and our primary goal with the branding initiative was to encourage all of our residents and businesses to rally around being a part of the Rollingwood community,” said Rollingwood Mayor Michael Dyson. “Ensuring the community was engaged throughout this process has been a priority for the city since we first considered the effort. We are looking forward to our residents embracing this identity as we strive for the future we want to create while honoring what we love about Rollingwood today.”

District 1’s new Council member, Natasha Harper-Madison, has already completed one of her most important early tasks – the hiring of her staff. Caleb Pritchard will be handling communications for her office as well as land use and transportation policy. He is an alumnus of the Austin Monitor and other publications and worked as a producer at KEYE-TV. Executive aide Daniel Segura-Kelly previously worked at a local software company and is vice president of Stonewall Democrats of Austin. Constituent liaison Elizabeth McDonald served in a similar role at the Austin Revitalization Authority. Lauren Hartnett, who was Harper-Madison’s campaign manager, has a background in marketing and design and will serve as a senior aide. Neal Whetstone, also a policy aide, worked as Harper-Madison’s field director and was the 2018 winner of the Austin Black Democrats Emerging Leader Award.