Parks enthusiasts around the city are invited to the Waller Creek Conversations to give feedback on the designs for the new Waller Creek Park. The work also includes Waterloo Park and the Moody Amphitheater, as well as the Waller Delta at Lady Bird Lake. The city and the Waller Creek Conservancy welcome anyone to the events, whether they’re just learning about the work being done to Waller Creek or have been following the process from the beginning. Attendees can participate in “an interactive activity during the sessions to provide feedback on bike paths, trails, playscapes and lighting,” for the parks, the city said in a recent press release. “By providing feedback during these public sessions, we will shape Waller Creek Park to fit the needs of our growing community,” said City Council Member Pio Renteria. The first conversation on May 13 begins at 10 a.m. in the Metz Recreation Center, 2407 Canterbury Street. The second, on May 17, will be held at the Palm Door on Sabine, 401 Sabine Street, beginning at 6 p.m.

The city’s Economic Development Department is exploring ways it could expand eligibility for its Music Venue Assistance Loan Program, a $140,000 pool approved by City Council in 2012 to help local live music venues make sometimes-expensive modifications to their sound equipment. Currently only expenditures to help make venues compliant with noise ordinances are allowed, with businesses only eligible if their current lease is at least as long as the loan term. Alex Lopez, deputy director for the department, said city staff is looking at how to make that money available for improvements such as kitchen upgrades or enhanced sprinkler systems to increase a venue’s capacity, both of which could help increase revenue to the historically thin-margined businesses. There is no timetable for an adjustment to the program’s guidelines, and Council would need to approve such changes.

Though the naked jogger appears to be laying low for the time being, Hyde Park now has a spanker on the loose. According to online posts from the neighborhood, there have been at least four incidents since April in the neighborhood, all of which involve women being surprised by a sudden assault at the hand of a man that quickly runs away. From an April 28 post on Nextdoor: “I was walking my dog earlier this evening (and) a man ran up behind me and slapped me on the butt. When I turned around he was running in the opposite direction, so I didn’t get a good at him. Based upon how well he was able to sneak up behind me without me noticing and how well he was able to run away, I suspect that this is a repeat offense. I have reported this information to the police.” And, from an April 26 post on the Hyde Park listserv: “While on a walk today, a man came up behind me, grabbed/slapped/hit my rear-end and ran away. I called the police and filed a report. The police officer suggested that I let you all know about it because he may do it again.” Anyone witnessing or experiencing such an assault should report the incident to the Austin Police Department.

Elliott McFadden has thrown his hat into the race to topple Republican Rep. Lamar Smith from his 21st Congressional District perch. McFadden took to Twitter and Facebook on Monday to announce that he had raised $25,000 in April, a sum that he said will help him “launch a competitive campaign to unseat Lamar Smith, the lead climate change denier in the U.S. House.” McFadden is a former executive director of the Travis County Democratic Party and also chaired the successful $65 million affordable housing bond campaign in 2013. Most recently, McFadden has been working as the executive director at Austin B-cycle. According to the website ReplaceLamar.com, he joins at least eight other potential Democratic candidates, including Austin entrepreneur Joseph Kopser and Tom Wakely, the party’s 2016 nominee. Smith has served in Congress since winning his first election in the mid-1980s. The 21st District, in its current form, includes parts of Central and South Austin, San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.

Against staff’s recommendation, the Planning Commission on April 25 denied an application to rezone 5201 E. Riverside Drive as outside of the East Riverside Corridor. According to Andrew Moore, who is a senior planner with the city’s Planning and Zoning Department, he was prompted by another Riverside resident to look at staff records to see whether the property had ever been intended to be part of the corridor, and what he found was that it had not. Nevertheless, Commissioner Patricia Seeger expressed concern that the owner of the property in question, a foster home facility called Casey Family Programs, had not been consulted in staff’s deliberation. “In a letter (to me) they indicated that if (this property) was pulled out of the (East Riverside Corridor) and they had to relocate it could cause issues,” she said. The motion passed unanimously, with commissioners Chito Vela and Nuria Zaragoza absent.

The fight to preempt local governments from deploying linkage fees took a big step forward at the Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday evening. After a few hours of postponement and several failed efforts to kill it with points-of-order, a majority of lawmakers approved House Bill 1449, a measure that forbids cities from imposing fees on developers in order to pay for affordable housing. In its final form, the bill does not apply to density bonus programs or other voluntary affordable housing or public improvement provisions a developer may agree to. The bill, authored by southwest Austin Republican Rep. Paul Workman – along with Reps. Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton) and Chris Paddie (R-Marshall) – now heads to the Senate. As of Wednesday, there are 27 days left in the 85th Texas Legislative Session.

Anyone planning to attend the Pecan Street Festival this Saturday, May 6, will be glad to know the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is extending MetroRail service hours for the first day of the event. Service begins with a 10:20 a.m. southbound departure from the Kramer Station. Then, beginning at 11:08 a.m., the rail will run every 34 minutes. The last northbound train departs at midnight. The agency warns passengers that it will be a busy day, and therefore wagons and non-folding strollers are prohibited. (Collapsible strollers are welcome.) Unfortunately, the offer is only good for Saturday, since the train does not operate on Sunday.

Political organizer, consultant and Democratic activist Pat Crow passed away Monday at the home of her sister, Barbara Rush. She was 74. According to her friend and colleague David Butts, Crow’s professional consulting career began in 1982, when she became campaign manager for Justice of the Peace Debra Ravel. Prior to that she had worked as a financial manager at IBM. Butts said he and Crow began working together in 1983 to elect Sally Shipman to the City Council, and again for Shipman in 1985 and 1987. Crow also worked for numerous judge candidates, for state Rep. Glen Maxey, for Brigid Shea for City Council, and for Gus Garcia for City Council and for mayor. Rush wrote on her Facebook page, “Working alongside David Butts for over 25 years, Pat became one of (if not the most) Winningest Campaign Managers in Austin & Travis County. From 1982-2008 Pat won 27 out of 31 political campaigns, including important ballot initiatives: the Save Our Springs Ordinance in 1992; creation of the Healthcare District in 2004 and the Smoking Ban in 2005.” Crow was one of the founding members of the Texas Women’s Political Caucus, and Butts told the Austin Monitor that she was also the most successful president of the Austin Women’s Political Caucus. One of the people Crow mentored along the way was Heidi Gibbons, one of several dozen people who attended a gathering in Crow’s honor Monday night. Gibbons said Crow taught her and others how to do campaigns. “And she would say to the candidate, ‘You will go sit there and find for the next 15 minutes,’ to raise money. If you don’t raise money you don’t win. She trained many of us who are doing grassroots Democratic campaigns. She had the funniest laugh and I will always remember her voice.” Also among those attending Monday night’s party were Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo and Council Member Leslie Pool. Crow suffered a stroke in 2008, and then a very serious stroke during heart bypass surgery after that. She worked hard to recover from the second stroke, which initially left her unable to speak. Although she was later able to talk and laugh and enjoy her friends, she was not able to return to political consulting. Crow is survived by two of her three children, Marc and Elizabeth Childers, a number of other relatives, her sister, and many friends.

The Capital of Texas Media Foundation – the parent nonprofit of the Austin Monitor – had planned to kick off its new membership model this evening. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we’ll have to delay this event. Please watch this space for a new date!

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department has some recommendations for the graves found during the restoration of the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel. Following a series of public meetings about the discovery, a May 1 memo to City Council from Acting Parks and Recreation Department Director Kimberly McNeeley states the department “is recommending that the recently discovered burials within the footprint of the Oakwood Chapel, where safely recoverable, be exhumed and re-interred in close proximity to the Chapel and within the section of the cemetery historically called the ‘Colored Grounds.’” McNeeley explains that the recommendation has the support of “regulatory and professional feedback, precedent” and some of the descendants of those interred in the historically black section of the cemetery. In addition, McNeeley writes, the department will work to commemorate the burial and the cemetery, with information about that project to come later this spring. However, the memo also warns “there are limitations to exhuming every burial that may be discovered due to constraints imposed by the building’s structural grade beams.” The full, final report detailing the department recommendations was released April 27, and is available online here. The total number of burials on the site is estimated at 25.

Though final recommendations won’t be in until the end of May, it doesn’t look like childcare for city meetings is coming to Austin any time soon. An April 28 memo from Chief Communications Director Doug Matthews to City Council explains that a working group formed to discuss the possibility of providing childcare “feels that implementing a policy that covered the entirety of Council meetings, Boards and Commissions, and committee/working group meetings would be both logistically and financially challenging. They instead felt that an initial policy should focus on childcare services for community meetings and community engagement activities that occur outside of the City’s more formal proceedings.” The memo also elaborates that the process for hiring a firm to provide childcare would be complicated, and could cost the city as much as $75,000 annually.

The Austin Independent School District is a diverse community. More than half of its students are Hispanic, another 8 percent are black and 3 percent identify as Asian/Pacific Islander, and a quarter of the student body enter the district as English-Language Learners. The Maestro en Casa program offers English lessons and other life skills to non-native English speakers who have children enrolled in AISD schools. On Wednesday, May 3, the program will host a graduation ceremony for a class of around 160 parents, who are encouraged to further continue their education through a GED or further English language courses. The graduation begins at 6 p.m. and takes place in the Austin ISD Performing Arts Center, 1500 Barbara Jordan Blvd.