City Council Notebook

For Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007:

Item 2: Redeveloping city property along Montopolis for Austin Energy's energy control center. Oh, and stop snitching!

Items 3 and 4: $125,000 and $200,000 for wireless and biotech start-up cash for the University of Texas' tech incubator program. Because UT doesn't have enough cash.

Items 5 and 6: More than $100,000 in state grant funds to fight sexually transmitted diseases. Remember, chlamydia is not a flower.

Item 11: Proposed reforms to the Boards and Commissions system – only six years in the making!

Items 28-37: Today's Purchasing Office largesse encompasses a few 138-kilovolt potential transformers, the milling of hot mix asphaltic concrete pavement, a $2.2 million SF6 pad-mount switchgear and a $9.8 million 5000-ton water chiller. You know, in case company's coming.

Item 40: Adding a sidewalk cafe application fee.

(Interior: shot of sponsor Will Wynn with Toby Futrell)
"Do you remember that time in Paris?"
"That cafe!"
"That waiter!"
"Jean-Luc!"

Item 41: Revamping the East 11th/12th Street plan with the ARA, et. al, to include vertical mixed-use, public parking, and affordable housing. What were they doing before?

Item 42: Directing Futrell to establish a Waterfront Overlay Taskforce "to evaluate the current ordinance for inconsistencies and ambiguousness." Delicious irony aside, we all know what happened last time she was charged to do this. Apparently we've entered some Matrix-esque feedback-loop in the City Hall space-time continuum where Futrell's always rewriting the overlay ordinance …

Items 43-46: A bevy of enviro-minded items from council: creating a Hike and Bike Trail enhancement plan, standardizing Austin Energy green building participation and incentives, and calling for the “highest optimal levels of sustainability” in municipal construction projects and city buildings. How about capturing all the hot air on West Second there to go with districtwide cooling?