city council

Coordinated Urban Candidate Forum – April 4th

Jude Galligan | March 27, 2009 |

In what could become the most attended and media covered of all the candidate forums, mark your calendar for the coordinated Urban Candidate Forum.

On Saturday, April 4th the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association will co-host a forum to learn where the city council and mayoral candidates stand on the issues that affect Austin and its urban core. The major candidates will debate such issues as economic development, the livability of the downtown neighborhood, public spaces, urban rail, and parking.

DANA is combining forces with:

-Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA),
-Congress for New Urbanism (CNU),
-Alliance for Public Transportation,
-Old Austin Neighborhood Association (OANA),
-Rail4Real,
-Austin Parks Foundation,
-Austin Metro Trails and Greenways,
-6ixth Street Austin,
-Austinist.com.

Complimentary coffee, water, and light breakfast items will be provided.

WHEN: Saturday, April 4th, 10 am – 1:30 pm

WHERE: St. David’s Episcopal Church @ 304 E. 7th Street (map)

Paid parking will be available in the St. David’s garage. You may also plan your trip using Capital Metro’s trip planner. Enter the church at the intersection of 8th & San Jacinto.

Downtown Austin Car Share – Smart Car Pilot Program

Jude Galligan | March 27, 2009 |

How do you increase parking? Shrink the cars, of course!

Daimler will partner with the City of Austin to operate a car-share pilot program, Mayor Will Wynn announced yesterday morning.

From the Statesman:

“The city will set aside urban-core parking spaces for 200 of Daimler’s “Smart” cars. Rather than paying for the spaces, Daimler will let city employees use the cars for a number of hours that’s equal to the monetary value of the spaces. (That amount hasn’t been determined yet; it will be negotiated over the next few weeks, city officials said.)…The program will start in October and run for six months. Daimler will pay for fuel, maintenance and insurance during that time, said the city’s transportation director, Robert Spillar.”

The car share program is a proven model in many cities, and the Smart Car program specifically is already smashing success in Germany. Austin mayoral city council candidate Chris Riley is responsible for Austin Car Share – a small but well utilized car share program in Downtown Austin.

Thanks to Austin Contrarian for picking up on this story.

Austin Medical School Courtesy of Carole Strayhorn?

Jude Galligan | March 23, 2009 |

Here is an intriguing idea courtesy of Carole Strayhorn!

1) Build a medical school, 2) enhance the medical/bio-tech industry in Austin, 3) create jobs, 4) create revenue for the city.

“This Council Spent $2.3 Billion for Biomass Energy in Nacogdoches. For less than half that cost, we could build this medical school, create $1.5 billion a year in revenue, and create 14,400 permanent jobs.”

If built in close proximity to Brackenridge, which I assume it would be, this could bring much needed life to the northeastern quadrant of downtown Austin.

Refreshingly, this makes good sense.

[link]

A Vision For Austin Rail

Jude Galligan | March 23, 2009 |

[youtube = http://youtube.com/watch?v=8YWXbGgUJ1o]

Imagine you work in Austin, but you live in San Antonio. Rather than enduring Interstate 35 each morning, in a more perfect world you would have a rail system that drops you off into a downtown terminal. Imagine if our city leaders could design a “Grand Central” of Austin. This short homemade video makes Austin appear to be an international city. It’s incredible to see the city come into view.

These days CapMetro can’t seem to tie its own shoes. I do hear Amtrak is getting stimulus money, though.

link [via skyscraperpage]

DAP phase II approved!

Jude Galligan | March 12, 2009 |

Great news! According to our knowledgeable members of DANA, the vote passed 7 – 0 this morning. Laura Morrison moved to postpone the vote but there was no 2nd.

Just in from the ABJ…

“The Austin City Council approved a a professional services agreement with San Francisco-based Roma Design Group for planning services to complete the Downtown Austin Plan.”