(Even Further) Beside the Point

It's fun to throw on your new duds, compare holiday hauls, and break the cabin fever, but let's face facts: First days back are always a drag, right?

The city manager search may have rung in the new year, but City Council still parties on, noisemakers in hand. The Jan. 10 meeting – the first in four weeks – features a long, workmanlike agenda, long on nondescript consent items and zoning minutiae and short on flashy council initiatives. The only substantive item from the dais is Brew­ster McCrack­en's Austin Parking Enter­prise, where the city (counter-?) intuitively channels its coin from operating garages into pedestrian-oriented amenities like walking trails and transit hubs. In delaying the measure from Decem­ber, McCracken promised a presentation and greater explanation of the program – so let's have it. Other items from council include a kick-start to Gus Garcia Park and making the lumps-of-coal-consuming Trail of Lights carbon neutral "as soon as possible."

Aside from a clutch of vertical mixed-use opt-ins from different neighborhoods and planning areas (Judges' Hill, Old West Austin, Bouldin, Daw­son, Galindo, and Greater South River City), most of the action is reserved for future meetings. For its Thursday, Jan. 31, meeting, council is set to schedule public hearings on mobile food-establishment rules (né Taco Wars Redux), affordable-housing development incentives, and residential space in mixed-use buildings; CWS Capital Partners' Waterfront Variance denial appeal is scheduled for Feb. 14. Will it be a luxe-condo love-in? Or the Valentine's Day Massacre?

It's always New Year's Eve at wdunbar@austinchronicle.com.