The Salvation Army committed on Friday to maintaining operations at its downtown shelter through the end of April. The nonprofit announced on March 2 that it intended to close the facility, but its area management faced tough questions with regard to its plan for relocating its remaining clients at City Council’s Public Health Committee meeting on March 8. In a press release, the nonprofit said it will continue to “safely exit clients” until April 30. “Despite reports to the contrary, the Salvation Army has always been committed to the safe exit of their downtown shelter brothers and sisters,” the statement reads. In a separate Friday press release, the city of Austin announced it would spend up to $100,000 to facilitate this extension.

A variety of citizens with different opinions on equitable transit-oriented developments had their say at City Council on Thursday before Council adopted a resolution to start the process for choosing policies for the eTODs. One particularly thorny problem brought up by speakers relates to how much parking will be allowed around Project Connect stations and accompanying developments. That will likely come up again throughout the planning process. Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison noted that the planning for transit has been ongoing for the past several years and thanked colleagues, past and present, for their work. She said eTODs will allow the city to be the template moving forward for equity. “I want to make sure that all types of people can live” in our city, she said. She also urged her colleagues and staff to do the work to make sure the policy is not simply a binder on a shelf but is a policy that has been implemented. Staff has estimated that it could be a year before the new policies come back to Council for adoption.

As the rest of the city prepares for a deluge of visitors for SXSW, Dell Match Play, NASCAR, Texas Relays and the CMT Awards, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has also taken steps to prepare for the March and April influx of passengers. Towanda Cordon, acting deputy chief of operations for AUS, says travelers should arrive earlier than normal and “pack their patience as our teams prepare for their arrival.”

That means arriving 2.5 hours early for domestic flights and 3 hours early for international flights. Bear in mind that the airport hosted more than 1.8 million passengers through the airport during March 2022 – making it the busiest March in airport history. Airlines are offering 10 percent more seats than last year, and airport officials are predicting that March 2023 will top March 2022.

Peak departure travel times are 5 to 8 a.m., 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. During these times passengers may encounter longer waits at security checkpoints. Passengers who have TSA PreCheck will have shorter wait times, and the federal agency is offering passengers the option to sign up for the service once they have cleared the regular TSA line.

Gun owners should bear in mind that it is illegal to carry a firearm in their carry-on luggage, a fact that numerous Austin passengers have either not known or forgotten. However, guns are allowed in checked and locked luggage.

AUS also wants you to know the airport is offering a special music lineup, featuring 52 different live music performances starting Monday, March 13, and continuing through Friday. March 17. You can view a detailed schedule of the airport’s nine music stages on the Live Music in the Air at AUS program web page.

City Council approved a plan to plan for more public charging stations for electric vehicles across the city on Thursday. The resolution,  sponsored by Council Member Leslie Pool, asks the city manager to develop a vision plan in alignment with the Austin Climate Equity Plan for the equitable distribution of the stations, which should include direct-current fast chargers and level-two chargers, in coordination with local bodies like Capital Metro, Travis County and AISD. “Making charging stations, especially fast chargers, more accessible throughout the city might nudge people who may be on the fence about electric vehicles to make the switch,” Pool said. “Having more access and more users will go a long way toward reducing our use of fossil fuels community-wide.” The resolution asks for a plan to achieve the resolution direction by September 2023.

A $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will underpin a new effort to share data and help those experiencing homelessness. Austin’s Downtown Community Court and UT Austin researchers have teamed up to work on the project, which aims to increase access to food, clothing and assistance for the homeless by providing access to better data. It will be funded by the Civic Innovation Challenge, and the initial $50,000 is a Stage 1 planning award. The team, along with other community partners, has also applied for an additional $1 million in funding that would help further develop the pilot with data sharing, service and a community dashboard. “This current grant is the initial phase to co-create a real-time public-facing dashboard and support data sharing to provide summary information to policymakers and the community, and support the information needs of people experiencing homelessness,” said Robert Kingham, interim court administrator at the Downtown Austin Community Court, in a statement to the press. “Additionally, this project will provide us with the tools and data to support analysis that we can use to allocate services and resources more efficiently and effectively, and better inform policymakers and the community. This effort will also improve our outcome reporting, which we can use to advocate for further funding to expand the services that we provide for people experiencing homelessness.”

Members of the Barton Hills neighborhood have been fuming for a couple of weeks now over some unusually intrusive traffic-calming devices on Barton Skyway, between Barton Hills Drive and Skyway Circle close to South Lamar. As of late Tuesday afternoon, 575 people had signed a petition to try to convince the city’s Transportation Department to make changes to a street they say has suddenly become much more difficult to navigate. The petition contends that changes intended to make the street safer, particularly for bicyclists, has made it less safe instead. According to the petition,“We, the residents of Barton Hills have witnessed many near accidents, and confusion as drivers try to navigate the path. In addition, the sticks have narrowed both sides of the road to the extreme and make it very difficult to turn in or off of Barton Skyway. We also find the design to be extremely unattractive.”

After being shuttered due to the pandemic, the Austin Municipal Court North Substation has reopened to the public and expanded its virtual services. The court is now open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at 12425 Lamplight Village Ave. According to a press release from the city, “customers may now contest a parking ticket with a civil hearing officer; speak to a Youth Services team member regarding juvenile cases; fill out a payment plan application with support from compliance staff; and/or print a copy of their driving record, as well as access relevant court information via the web,” at either the service windows or on-site computer kiosk in the lobby. The main Bergstrom Tech Center location of the municipal court is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with Thursday hours extending until 10 p.m. More details about court services can be found by calling  (512) 974-4800, or via chat by visiting www.austintexas.gov/court.

This month, the city has launched a new artificial-intelligence-powered assistant that is intended to help Austinites file reports more quickly and help alleviate the current backlog of non-emergency requests. The system is the result of a partnership between the Austin Police Department and Versaterm Public Safety’s Case Service and can be used for non-emergency online reporting (in multiple languages) via IReportAustin.com. According to a press release from the city:

To file a report online, the following guidelines must be met:
•    No immediate danger to people or property
•    The suspect is no longer on scene
•    The reporting party must be 17 years old or older and have a valid email address

The online system accepts the following report types:
•    Assault (minor or no injury, excluding domestic violence)
•    Threats (excluding domestic violence)
•    Burglary that does not involve fire/arson
•    Theft (excluding prescriptions, firearms, explosives, vehicle license plates, and motor vehicles of any kind)
•    Lost or missing property (excluding narcotic prescription medication, vehicle license plates, and firearms)
•    Damaged property or graffiti
•    Fraud
•    Harassment
•    Counterfeiting or forgery
•    Identity theft
•    Illegal use of a credit or debit card
•    Minor, non-criminal child custody issues for documentation only
•    Trespassing (suspect no longer on scene)
•    Shoplifting reports

The Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Mayor Kirk Watson announced 300 project-based housing vouchers that total $93 million in homelessness-ending investment over the next 20 years. The rental assistance vouchers, which include 100 Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers for homeless veterans, will help provide stable housing for Austin’s chronically homeless. From a press release, the projects receiving the vouchers are:

• Austin Housing Finance Corporation (city of Austin): 10 VASH vouchers for veterans at the Country Inn Hotel Conversion, 7400 N. Interstate 35
• Caritas: 30 project-based vouchers and 20 VASH vouchers for use at its Cairn Point property, 7205 Cameron Road
• Elizabeth Properties: 25 VASH vouchers for veterans at Kensington Apartments, 3300 Manor Road
• Family Eldercare: 25 project-based vouchers and 10 VASH vouchers at Real Gardens, 2826 Real St.
• Foundation Communities: 30 project-based vouchers and 20 VASH vouchers for use at Burleson Studios, 7905 Burleson Road, and 10 project-based vouchers at Skyline Terrace, 1212 W. Ben White Blvd.
• LifeWorks: 25 project-based vouchers for The Works at Tillery, 701 Tillery St.
• SAFE Alliance: 30 project-based vouchers at the Lancaster, 5111-5115 Lancaster, and 25 project-based vouchers for use at The Sasha, 1401 Grove Blvd.
• SGI Ventures: 25 project-based vouchers and 15 VASH vouchers at The Roz, 3435 Parker Lane

Those seeking future vouchers can apply through the Communitywide Coordinated Entry System that is managed by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition.

“I want to commend HACA and the city of Austin for their ingenuity and determination to make a difference for people who have fallen upon hard times,” HUD Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman said in a prepared statement. “The rental subsidies provided by HACA will create new affordable housing dedicated to those experiencing homelessness. This will help remove the complication of finding a place to call home.”

This Saturday, March 4, the city of Austin will hold a “Pop-up ATX” event aimed at making city services more accessible to residents. The services include free vaccines, health screenings, information on Austin Water rebates and a chance to connect with the Austin 311, Animal Services, Austin Transportation, Housing and Planning, Municipal Court, Office of Police Oversight, and Watershed Protection departments. The event will also feature the city’s “Soil Kitchen” that gives gardeners a chance to see what’s going on in their dirt – with results that include metal screening and nutrient analysis available four to six weeks after testing. The resource fair will take place Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Givens Recreation Center (3811 E. 12th St.).

Though Thursday’s public meeting on planned improvements to the Barton Springs Road bridge was postponed due to the threat of severe weather, anyone with an opinion to share with the project team is still invited to say their piece via a virtual meeting on Speak Up Austin. Right now, the bridge is overdue for improvements and current plans include the prospect of widening it and adding new bicycle lanes and pedestrian paths, or replacement of it altogether. According to an estimated timeline provided by the city, the design phase will launch this fall, with construction expected to take place from fall of 2025 until spring of 2027.

With a forecast through Friday that includes wind gusts up to 50 mph during a time when ice-storm-damaged trees are still widespread throughout the city, Austin Energy is preparing crews to respond to potential outages caused by weather and downed limbs. Austin Energy customers can report outages through Austin Energy’s Outage Map, by texting OUT to 287846, or by calling 512-322-9100. Austin Energy has also compiled a list of ways to stay safe during an outage and around downed power lines, and how to prepare for the power going out.