Austin City Council to weigh in on new ordinance to tackle graffiti cleanup #KXAN #Austin

Austin City Council to weigh in on new ordinance to tackle graffiti cleanup

If passed, the ordinance would expand the definition to include any unauthorized mark on private or public property, as well as transportation infrastructure. It also allows a private property owne…

kxan.com

Joining the City of Austin Pedestrian Advisory Council (PAC) or the Bicycle Advisory Council (BAC) is a great way to help guide active transportation policy. Applications are open for the 2025-26 term through Sunday, 9/14: PAC Application: bit.ly/PACAPP2025 BAC Application: bit.ly/BACAPP2025

Ah yes the heart of tech intellectualism, rural texas

Do you know how many acres Cards Against Humanity purchased in Cameron County TX? The $15M lawsuit against SpaceX describes a “plot” of land costing $2,250,000. It’s egregious for SpaceX to trespass and dump massive amounts of gravel on their land, on purpose. Shows abusive character of Elon Musk.

Did you know the heart of #ElonMusk’s business empire is in rural Texas? We used records to map how much land he and his lieutenants have in Bastrop County. It’s more than 600 acres. Have a tip about Musk? Email me! www.kut.org/austin/2025-... #musk #spacex #boring #xcorp #txlege #texas

NEW from me: Austin is set to change how it regulates short-term rentals (aka Airbnbs), after court cases have gutted the city's rules. The city's now focused on getting more owners licensed and less on limiting the number of these controversial rentals: www.kut.org/housing/2025... :

Austin to overhaul how it regulates Airbnbs and other short-term rentals

The city has proposed rules to make it hard to run a short-term rental without a city-issued license. Third-party data suggests thousands of owners rent out their homes without one.

kut.org

Last year Austin's water utility lost 9.3 billion gallons of water because of a leaky distribution system. That's enough to fill Lady Bird Lake about four times over and 31 percent rise from the previous year. Why the big jump? Some of it might be improved monitoring. www.kut.org/energy-envir...

Austin is losing even more water to leaky city pipes than previously thought

Austin Water said improvements in how it monitors the system and an increase in water line breaks pushed up estimates from last year.

kut.org

Keep it weird, Austin!

rich people after moving to Austin:

PBS gave me Monty Python, Siskel and Ebert, Nicholas Nickleby, and Austin City Limits No biggie just some shows that introduced me to nearly everything that would matter to me in life. Good job everyone and I hope you enjoy fucking yourselves! 👍

Join transit fans and advocates to hear from CapMetro about Transit Plan 2035! Also, since AURA board elections are ongoing, we're encouraging AURA board candidates to come and give a short candidate pitch. RSVP: actionnetwork.org/events/aura-...

Austin City Council votes 10-1 to legalize 5-story single-stair apartments, making Austin the largest US city outside of NYC to legalize single-stair! 🎉🎉🎉 Many thanks to all the supporters and to CM Chito Vela for leading this exciting reform! We did it y'all! 🙌

Austin DSA congratulates Zohran Mamdani and @socialists.nyc for their monumental win in the NYC mayoral primary election. This victory shows that working-class politics can triumph over establishment politics for city leadership. Let’s keep up the momentum, join DSA: dsausa.org/join

2/7
Casar began as a labor and immigrant rights organizer in Texas.
At 25, he was elected to Austin City Council.
By 32, he was in Congress.
Now he leads one of the most populous Democratic caucuses in the House, with over 100 members.
His roots aren’t in D.C., they’re in the streets.

Same story played out in Austin. Older homeowners sued the city against a rezoning plan. They “won” but since then almost the entire city council has turned YIMBY and they’ve passed tons of good stuff.

jamelle@jamellebouie.net · last yr.

of course this stupidity might actually be an asset. since the new zoning code was approved, we have elected an even more pro-housing city council that is even less inclined to defer to the complaints of the multimillionaire homeowners.

Four more WaPo departures: Hank Stuever, Ann Hornaday, Craig Timberg, Joel Achenbach. Source says it feels like the Hunger Games: “My inbox has literally dozens of announcements of departures or newsroom wide goodbye notes.” —via @benmullin.bsky.social on X

Before the Austin City Council passed a resolution offered by Mayor Pro Tem Fuentes to urge FAA to provide more air traffic controllers for our airport, I spoke about efforts to keep our skies safe. With less than half of the recommended certified controllers at our tower, we need immediate action.

As Texans recover from the recent floods, we have compiled a list of resources for affected counties, available to both union members and the general public.

Central Texas Flood Resources

As Texans recover from the recent floods, the Texas AFL-CIO has compiled a list of resources for the affected counties for both union members and the general public. Thank you to all of our emergency ...

texasaflcio.org

64.5% of $1.5B general fund is police (36.7%), fire (17.8%), & EMS (10%). Predominately paid for by property taxes, but also sales taxes, utility transfers from Austin Energy, & miscellaneous revenue. Remainder of total budget of $6.3B is $4.8B paid for by fees, etc., & is self-supporting. /2

Public Safety Commission meets 4pm 8/4 Boards & Commission Room at city hall or ATXN live. Agenda item 3: Discussion of the City of Austin Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget and impact on public safety departments. /1

Ray Collins@eraycollins.bsky.social · last yr.

Setting the maximum tax rate. open.substack.com/pub/raycolli...

Austin finally has a real, big-city style arts office at City Hall - just in time for an apocalyptic age for artists and musicians. A deep dive into ACME (yes, that's what it's called). www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2025-04...

Is Austin’s New Arts Umbrella Organization Just in Time or Too Little, Too Late?

After two decades of treating culture and creativity as an afterthought, the city of Austin finally has a real arts department

austinchronicle.com

This! Austin passed major housing reforms because we elected a #atxcouncil that wanted to do the hard work. If you don’t have the right people at city hall, your city can’t change.

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · last yr.

Something I can't stress enough: Vote In Your Local Elections

the electorate has basically always wanted racist peronism, that hasn’t changed. in 2024 they also wanted somebody who was not joe biden

This would mean, in essence, that consumers would be getting paid by manufacturers or retailers to receive medications—in fact, getting paid up to 11, 12, 13, or 14 times what the consumers were previously paying to the sellers for prescriptions. What an utter moron Donald Trump is.

Acyn@acyn.bsky.social · last yr.

Trump: You know, we've cut drug prices by 1200, 1300, 1400, 1,500%. I don't mean 50%. I mean 1400, 1,500%

I sincerely hope that a half dozen billionaires send PBS and NPR about $100 million a piece.

lol @ the number of times people have proposed that white liberals are being manipulated by Fox News into being racist Y’all the thing only works on you if there’s racism to work with

I HAVE NO SIDEWALK AND I MUST WALK

Crockett: My former colleagues from the Texas House—decided to get the hell out of Texas… breaking quorum is where they’re at right now. And they didn’t just do it by themselves—they went to Illinois, where there is a governor that gives a damn. This fight is going to take all of us.