Austin Water Oversight Committee Calls on City Manager to Explore Options of a Customer Rebate or Investment to the City’s Water Plants

City Council will address the committee’s resolution to mitigate impacts from the recent boil water notice next month

On Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, the Austin Water Oversight Committee held its first meeting following the recent boil water notice. On the heels of a special called meeting and an Austin City Council approved external audit of the utility, newly appointed committee chair Vanessa Fuentes followed this with additional action calling on the City Manager to provide recommendations regarding impacts from the event.

More specifically, the resolution explores different mitigation options:

• First, the resolution would direct the City Manager to provide options to address adverse water bill impacts experienced by Austin Water customers
• Second, the item also directs the City Manager to explore the potential of re-allocating existing funds from within the Austin Water budget to serve as an investment in the utility’s wastewater infrastructure. The potential amount would be based on the amount that could be provided to customers through utility bill relief.

“Much like the action Council pursued following Winter Storm Uri, our community deserves relief from the impacts of the recent boil water notice whether in the form of a rebate or through an investment into operations and infrastructure at our water plants,” said Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes.

According to Randi Jenkins, the assistant director of customer service for Austin Water, the goodwill bill credit would be roughly $10 per residential customer and up to $50 for commercial customers compared to current projections of about $2 million toward Austin Water improvements.

After unanimous approval from the committee, this proposal will be included in the March 3 City Council agenda, with direction to return with recommendations March 24. This information will offer a clear outline of how these relief dollars might be used to reinvest in the utility’s Capital Improvement Plan.

“We need all the information laid out before us before we can determine the best use of City dollars at this point in time,” said Fuentes.

City Building Scores Gold Award for Health and Well-Being

Permitting and Development Center is first project in Austin to secure WELL Gold Certification

A City of Austin building that provides a one-stop shop for permitting and development services has become the first in the Austin area to obtain a WELL Gold Level Certification for maximizing the health and well-being of the residents and employees who use it.
 
The City’s Permitting and Development Center (PDC), on Wilhelmina Delco Drive in central Austin, opened its doors in July 2021, offering a new take on the development experience and complementing the growing range of virtual options that are now available for the Austin community.
 
The PDC brings together resources and expertise from multiple City departments that provide permitting and development services for the Austin community. They include Development Services, Austin Energy, Austin Fire, Austin Center for Events, Austin Transportation, Austin Water and Austin Public Health. The facility is designed to provide a seamless development process, all in one place, for residential and commercial customers who prefer in-person services.
 
Now, the building has been awarded the Green Business Certification Inc’s WELL Certified Gold Level after scoring highly on a range of measures, including:

• Indoor air quality
• Drinking water quality
• Availability of nutritious food
• Lighting design
• Integration of physical activity
• Thermal comfort
• Noise reduction
• Healthy building materials
• Mental health promotion
• Access to essential healthcare

 
The WELL Building Standard is described as a vehicle for buildings and organizations to deliver more thoughtful and intentional spaces that enhance human health and well-being.
 
“This is great news, and a momentous milestone considering the years of planning that went into the Permitting and Development Center,” said Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales.

“Having our entire City’s permitting team in one location, and in a state of the art building, no less, is the culmination of years of community planning and hard work. We are thrilled to serve Austin in such a beautiful space,” said Denise Lucas, Development Services Department Director.

“The new Permitting and Development Center was built with wellness and sustainability at the forefront,” said Lucia Athens, the City’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “By focusing on WELL principles like abundant natural light, good air quality, and healthy food availability, the City of Austin is leading the way in people-centric building design.”
 
“We congratulate the City of Austin on achieving WELL Certification for its Permitting and Development Center project,” said Peter Templeton, President and CEO of Green Business Certification Inc. “Achieving WELL Certification demonstrates leadership in transforming health and well-being in the spaces where we spend our time.”

Hiring Hundreds of Lifeguards, Apply Now, Train During Spring Break

While the summer swim season doesn’t start until June 3, preparations begin now. With only 100 days in the #CountdownToSummerSwimming, Austin Parks and Recreation’s Aquatic Division is hiring and training hundreds of lifeguards starting at $15 per hour.

Training is ongoing and there are lots of opportunities during spring break, March 12-19. New and returning lifeguards must fill out job applications and complete hiring paperwork before they can register for training. Lifeguards must be 15 years of age or older.

There are currently 95 lifeguards on staff. The Aquatics team needs around 650 lifeguards to open summer pools for the 2022 swim season. Help spread the word about these great jobs working outdoors and being a hero. Lifeguarding can be the start of a great career in safety and public service.

Being a lifeguard means prioritizing safety above all else. Read the Lifeguard Training Safety FAQ.

For more information, visit LifeguardAustin.com and follow #LifeguardATX.

Visit Your Local Library to Weigh in on Austin Police Department Policies

Austin Public Library, Office of Police Oversight work together to collect community feedback to improve public safety  Community members can stop by their local Austin Public Library to share their thoughts on the Austin Police Department's policies. Until April 1, residents can visit any Austin Public Library location or go to SpeakUpAustin.org to fill out the Office of Police Oversight's (OPO) survey on rules related to how and when Austin police officers use their camera equipment. The survey is available in English and Spanish.   Media Availability   Summary: Office of Police Oversight staff in-person to hand out surveys to community members and answer questions about the initiative.    Date/Time: Thursday, February 24, 2022, from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.   Location: Austin Public Library Central, 710 W. César Chávez Street, Ground Floor   RSVP: Contact Cristina Tangredi at 413-231-0577.    In addition to the survey, community members will have another opportunity to share their input at one of OPO's four community meetings that will take place in February and March. These meetings will include an educational presentation on current APD body-worn camera and dashboard policies and provide a space for community members to offer feedback in real-time. Sessions will be hosted virtually on February 23 and March 2, 9, and 16 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be available in English, Spanish and offer interpretation in American Sign Language. Other languages are available by request.   To RSVP for an event, click here: bit.ly/3GOODDn.    To take the survey in English and Spanish, click here: speakupaustin.org/apdcameras  As part of the directive from Austin City Council and the City Manager, OPO released its report "Body Worn Camera and Digital Mobile Audio Video: Policy Review and Recommendations" in January. This report examined how the Austin Police Department's current body-worn and in-car camera policies compare to national best practices of policing. Now, OPO has launched this survey and community meeting series to facilitate feedback from the public.     After the feedback is collected, OPO will analyze community input in a final report shared with the City Manager and Austin Police Department. For more information on how to get involved, click here: bit.ly/3I2zwrG.

About the Office of Police Oversight   The mission of the Office of Police Oversight (OPO) is to provide impartial oversight of the Austin Police Department's conduct, practices, and policies to enhance accountability, inform the public to increase transparency, and create sustainable partnerships throughout the community.

Austin Artists Collaborate Internationally for UNESCO Creative Cities of Media Arts

City to City: PLAY! is the second edition of the innovative online collaborative project

The City of Austin Economic Development Department announces the second edition of the UNESCO Creative Cities of Media Arts City to City project. Austin is the first (and only) city in the United States to receive a Creative City of Media Arts designation from UNESCO. This honor underscores Austin’s reputation as an innovative global city at the intersection of art, music, film, gaming and multidisciplinary digital experiences. Following the launch of a formal call, 14 artists from 13 Creative Cities were selected to participate in a four-month collaborative project. The 2021 theme for City to City ‘PLAY!” is a direct response to the lack of “playfulness” in everyday human interaction throughout the pandemic.
 
“Austin is widely recognized as a collaborative community at the forefront of media arts technology,” explains Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, Director for the Economic Development Department. “We are pleased to support Austin’s media arts talent in developing a road map to secure capital, patronage, and capacity building through the lens of the UNESCO Creative City Network.”
 
Initiated by the UNESCO Creative Cities in Media Arts, City to City is launched in the presence of the artists, UNESCO officials and civic representatives. Teams of artists were created and encouraged to collaboratively create high quality media art pieces to be disseminated within the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as well as to a wider audience.
 
The artist group selected to represent the city of Austin is ARCOS: Erica Gionfriddo and Eliot Gray Fisher. ARCOS worked with Taeheon Lee (of York, England) and Meiyan Chen (of Karlsruhe, Germany) to create told-hold. The artist team describes told-hold as an alternative social media experience to open minds for understanding individual bodies.
 
Watch the February 9 livestream of the City to City launch on Facebook. Guests attending the launch were welcomed by the Secretary of Economic Development for the Mayor of Calí, Mrs. Liliana Sierra Chavez. There were also addresses by the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture, Mr. Ernesto Ottone and the Coordinator of Media Arts Cities, M. Dominique Roland. The event also featured an interview with Executive Director of the International Symposium for Electronic Art, Sue Gollifer, as well as presentations by members of the creative teams and of the artworks themselves. 
 
List of 2021 UNESCO City to City Artworks and Artists:
 
PlaceHolder – Ivana Durkáčová (Košice), Luciano Rodriguez Arredondo (Guadalajara)
 
BLUR – Jorge Ramos (Braga), Julien Gaillac (Enghien-les-Bains), Anna Kim (Gwangju)
 
The Portal – Yilin Wang (Changsha), Mauricio Díaz (Cali), Miyki Oka (Sapporo) 
 
told-hold – Taeheon Lee (York), Meiyan Chen (Karlsruhe), ARCOS (Austin)
 
Highwave – Manuel Alejandro Jiménez Reyes (Toronto) 

Experience a virtual gallery of the Media Arts Cities artworks online. The 13 UNESCO Creative Cities of Media Arts participating in the project are Austin (United States), Braga (Portugal), Calí (Colombia), Changsha (China), Enghien-les-Bains (France), Guadalajara (Mexico), Gwangju (Korea), Karlsruhe (Germany), Kosice (Slovakia), Sapporo (Japan), Toronto (Canada), Viborg (Denmark) and York (United Kingdom). These artworks will live both virtually in the UNESCO Creative Cities of Media Arts virtual gallery and tour at different events and festivals within the UNESCO network over the next year. Moving forward, City to City will be an annual flagship collaboration between the UNESCO Creative Cities of Media Arts.
 
This past November, the Italian Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture granted this collaborative initiative ‘Best International Project’, highlighting both the importance of inter-city collaboration and the role of culture and creativity in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is also at the core of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network’s mission and activities. View the online exhibition of the first edition of City to City: Human Responsibility, in 2020. 

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About the City of Austin Economic Development Department 
The City of Austin Economic Development Department supports business growth, creative industries, and local communities. These programs build an equitable, sustainable economy to improve the lives of all Austin residents. To learn more about helpful resources, visit www.austintexas.gov/edd or follow us @AustinEconDev on Facebook and @AustinEconDev on Twitter.

About the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN)
The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. The cities which make up this network work together towards a common goal: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level. 
 
As a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) since 2015, Austin works individually and in partnership with other UNESCO cities to promote creativity and the integration of culture into urban development plans. Through the designation, Austin artists are given opportunities to exhibit locally and participate in international cultural exchange programs with other UNESCO Creative Cities.
 
About the Artists representing Austin:
EG Gionfriddo is a dance artist and educator who believes in the intelligent body each of us occupies. They are co-founder of ARCOS (arcosdance.com), whose ongoing inquiry probes the intersection of technology and humanity through rigorous interdisciplinary experimentation. With ARCOS, EG has been commissioned as a dancer and choreographer for festivals and symposia including the American Dance Festival, Ammerman Center Biennial Symposium on Arts and Technology, Engagement Symposium of Philosophy and Dance, CURRENTS International New Media Festival, and an award-winning production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. They have been awarded artistic residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the arts, Playa Summerlake, Ucross Foundation as well as nationally at colleges and universities. EG is Assistant Professor of Practice in Dance at the University of Texas at Austin and holds a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Shenandoah Conservatory and an MFA in Dance from Hollins University.
 
Eliot Gray Fisher is an interdisciplinary artist originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose practice bridges overlapping layers of technology with performance. As co-director of interdisciplinary performance group ARCOS (arcosdance.com), he has presented award-winning work at festivals including CURRENTS International New Media Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, created commissions at interdisciplinary symposia at Connecticut College’s Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology and Texas State University, served as a guest artist at institutions including the University of Michigan and School of the Art Institute of Chicago, published in the peer-reviewed journal Theatre Design & Technology and The Bloomsbury Handbook of Dance and Philosophy, participated in residencies including Ucross Foundation and Signal Culture, and received grants from the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media and the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation. Eliot has a BA in Film Studies from Wesleyan University and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.

2022 Austin Marathon

The Austin Marathon is coming up this Sunday, February 19. The Marathon, Half Marathon and KXAN 5k run directly through SoCo. You can find the course maps for all three races HERE. The first race begins at 7 a.m. and the final race concludes at 2 p.m.

As usual, you can expect road closures on the day of the race, so if you want to plan ahead for getting around, the marathon organizers recommend using Google Maps or Waze on those days as routes have been altered in their systems. You can find more info on navigation via Austin Marathon's website HERE as well as a handy, detailed Traffic Guide provided by the organizers HERE.  

New murals reflect impacts of car crashes on Austinites

Feb 18, 2022 

In a year where 116 people were killed on Austin roadways despite the community having a Vision Zero goal, it can be difficult to see the progress that has been made over the past few years. The video linked below of the murals installed at Odom Pavilion and City Star Foods remind us why eliminating severe traffic crashes is so important. The murals were inspired by testimonials provided by crash survivors and families of crash victims. Neighbors, friends, co-workers, visitors and other loved ones could be alive today if crashes were avoided or happened at lower speeds.

VIDEO: New murals reflect impacts of car crashes on Austinites

Austin Transportation is working hard on our primary strategy to reduce severe crashes - engineering solutions - and we know these solutions take time to implement across Austin. In the meantime, every driver's decision can make a life-changing difference. Deciding not to speed, eliminating distractions, choosing to get a safe ride home before a drink, and choosing to stop-and-yield to people crossing intersections before you turn will save lives.

Austin has made progress. There were 515 serious injuries on Austin roadways in 2021 – that is the lowest number of serious injuries since 2015 (excluding 2020’s pandemic year). In fact, Austin may be the only large city in Texas to see a reduction from 2019 serious injury numbers, and doing that in the face of continued growth in the region is a positive data point.

However, 600+ people suffering life-changing injuries and fatalities from car crashes should not be acceptable to anyone who uses the roadways. 

Art enriches lives and transforms public spaces, and can provide a visual reminder of what our community values. Austin Transportation encourages the community to visit the murals, read the stories and quotes, and remind each other that individual driving decisions matter.

It takes everyone in the community working together for everyone to get home safe.

Austin Transportation thanks the families and crash survivors who shared their stories, which the artists used to create their murals.