The 2025 City Council class only has two members who know what it’s like to lead the city under the presidency of Donald Trump. None can say they’ve governed under a Texas Legislature as right-wing as that currently at work at the Capitol. But those two forces are creating the undercurrent to what individual Council members hope to achieve – and what they’ll actually be able to achieve.
Presumably, federal support for social programs will be dramatically scaled back. Trump has already threatened state and local law enforcement agencies who stand in the way of his immigration crackdown. And, beyond Trump, there’s the electorate that propelled him to reelection – how much appetite remains in Austin for progressive politics?
The Chronicle interviewed all 11 Council members, and they agreed that Austin remains a progressive city, but each – in their own way – emphasized the importance of pragmatic progress. Especially in the constrained fiscal environment the city is entering with limited tax revenue, CMs agreed that the city must set reasonable goals around programs and services that can improve the lives of Austinites and, more importantly than that, achieve them in a cost-effective, timely manner.
Natasha Harper-Madison and Paige Ellis will be Council’s two most veteran members (both elected in 2018), and 2025 will see the entrance of three rookies (Mike Siegel, Krista Laine, Marc Duchen). And, of course, Mayor Kirk Watson (something of a rookie in Council’s 10-1 era but as veteran as they come in Austin politics) will return to lead the dais.
THE VETS
At-Large: Mayor Kirk Watson
Kirk Watson only has two years of experience leading a City Council in Austin’s 10-1 era (10 Council members to one mayor), but his first stint as mayor at the turn of the millennium, and the intervening years he spent in the Texas Senate, bump him up to the veteran bracket on the dais. That experience is something he brought to bear on City Hall during his first, shortened term as a 10-1 mayor – love or hate the changes Council made to the city’s housing policy, for example, there’s no denying that the body got a lot done.
Watson says that his first two years as mayor proved that city government can get past political and bureaucratic logjams and that he wants to build on that foundation over the next four years – particularly as it relates to affordability, workforce development, mobility and transit, and climate resilience.
But to make meaningful progress on any of those goals, Watson says, Council will have to acknowledge the context in which they are governing – i.e., under a Republican trifecta at the federal and state levels, neither of which will be very friendly to progressive cities.
But Austin is a progressive city, Watson says. “We will fight for our values,” Watson says, “But I won’t do it in such a way that I can’t partner with somebody. We don’t need to pick certain fights just to pick the fight and create an unnecessary enemy.”
The mayor points to a recent shift in GOP messaging around housing – a shift that indicates support for cities relaxing restrictive zoning regulations and easing onerous permitting processes that can slow down housing construction. Watson and his colleagues have pushed for exactly those kinds of changes in Austin over the past two years.
If that alignment leads to state or federal money funneled to Austin for “getting out of its own way,” then that’s support Watson says the city will gladly accept. “I’m not going to get all worked up about why it is some people that are to the right of me or shooting at the same target I’m shooting at,” Watson said. “They’re still shooting at roughly the same target as us, right?”
That philosophy, Watson says, will help Austin make progress on a range of issues – housing, homelessness, water preservation – amid Republican rule. Even when Austin’s leaders may have different motives for pursuing each of those goals.
District 1: Natasha Harper-Madison
Natasha Harper-Madison is entering the home stretch of her City Council service. Reelected in 2022, she’ll wrap up her second term next year. She wants to spend a portion of that time succession planning. That is, she wants to make sure her successor comes into the job with plans in place for East Austin’s District 1.
For Harper-Madison, that means a focus on two portions of her district that she sees as distinct, but related. One piece runs west of Highway 183 to I-35 and includes the East 11th and 12th corridors, which have been the heart of Black Austin for a century. The other runs east of 183 to SH 130, which includes large swaths of land that are comparatively less developed.
Though both portions of the district are considered East Austin, they are distinct in meaningful ways, Harper-Madison said. “One part of my district is gentrified,” Harper-Madison told us, “and the other part is ripe for opportunity. That makes D1 a special place that needs to move differently.”
For the western part of the district, Harper-Madison said, that means a focus on anti-displacement measures that can help keep East Austinites in the district who have thus far avoided being pushed out. That means more robust land banking and community land trusts (where local government owns the land that houses sit on top of so the structures can be sold below market rates) by local governments, and more support for community development corporations that can turn that land into more housing opportunities for people at the risk of displacement.
And for the eastern part of D1, she says a top priority is the Northeast Planning District, a comprehensive plan the city and Travis County are working on together to guide development in far East Austin. Harper-Madison sees this initiative as a “multi-generational effort” that can address “past inequities” that resulted in the gentrification of the western part of D1 by “promoting inclusive, intentional development” in this less-developed part of the district. Ideally, that will mean the eastern part of D1 develops in a way that doesn’t displace the people currently living there.
District 2: Vanessa Fuentes
Vanessa Fuentes will begin her final term on Council as Mayor pro tem – a mostly honorary title that gets passed around the dais every year, but one that is also a sign of confidence in a Council member among the full body.
But Fuentes will also continue on as chair of Council’s Public Health Committee, where she is set to lead on what every CM we interviewed agreed must be a priority for the coming year: reducing homelessness.
Last year, the committee signaled support for a 10-year plan, authored by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, which aims to do just that. Council is set to adopt the plan at their meeting today, Jan. 30. But it will be a costly commitment ($350 million over the next decade), not all of which the city will pay for, but Fuentes expects the city to be a major contributor. (For more on the ECHO plan, see our prior coverage.)
“Finding new, sustainable, and dedicated revenue sources to go towards homelessness is going to be key,” Fuentes said. Like many of her colleagues, she foresees asking voters for permission to increase taxes to pay for social services – homelessness response included – will be instrumental to generating that revenue. “We’ve made significant strides around permanent supportive housing,” Fuentes said. “But we have to press on. It’s the best way to help our unhoused community and it’s more cost-efficient, too.”
District 8: Paige Ellis
City parks have always been an important issue for Paige Ellis, but with Alison Alter leaving the dais, Ellis thinks it’s her time to carry the mantle as Council’s parks champion. Like Alter, Ellis wants to better fund Austin’s park systems – to both grow it by buying more parkland and to better maintain existing parks.
But the Texas Legislature has made that project more difficult. In the last legislative session two years ago, lawmakers passed a law that changed the formula cities can use to generate money for parks by charging developers what are known as parkland dedication fees. As a result, Austin has generated less money for parks from the once-reliable funding stream.
“We’ve got to figure out how to balance the needs of our park system which include buying more land,” Ellis said, “and making sure that once we buy it, we can maintain it and activate it for people who want to take their kids to the park or spend time there.”
Poorly maintained parkland also poses a greater wildfire risk – and that issue has been top of mind for Ellis and her colleagues representing West Austin for the past month as fires have ravaged Los Angeles. In some cases, poorly maintained parkland means more unkempt vegetation that can fuel wildfires. Alter spotlighted this from the dais, and Ellis hopes to carry on that work.
THE JV SQUAD
District 4: Chito Vela
Chito Vela sailed into reelection this November, beginning his first full term representing Northeast Austin’s District 4. When asked about a project or priority for his district in 2025, he quickly responded: “The St. John redevelopment.”
That’s the redevelopment of city-owned land in the St. John area of D4 that once housed a Home Depot. For more than a decade, the project has inched toward its end point of housing, a new park, and retail space. But, at times, it’s been a frustrating, drawn-out experience for both people living in the area and D4 representatives. The project was initiated under Vela’s predecessor, Greg Casar, in 2017.
But Vela is hopeful construction will finally begin on the new development later this year. The project is a high priority for Vela because it has been a high priority for his constituents for years, but he also thinks it’s important for the city to show all of Austin that it can complete complex projects such as this one. “The city must be able to follow through on major redevelopment projects,” Vela said. “It will build confidence among residents to support us if we want to do similar projects on other pieces of city-owned land.”
Beyond that, Vela says competently redeveloping spaces as a city government can also show people throughout Texas, maybe even other parts of the country, what Democratic leadership of government is capable of accomplishing. That’s important, Vela says, as even the most liberal American cities voted for Trump in greater numbers in 2024 than in 2020. “The failures of solidly blue cities have been major talking points for Republicans over the past couple of decades,” Vela said. “Austin needs to be a counterexample to that and we do that by being a damn well-run city.”
District 5: Ryan Alter
In two years on the dais, Ryan Alter has proved to be not only one of the most progressive CMs on the dais (see his early support of the Office of Police Oversight and push against fossil fuel reliance in the recently adopted Austin Energy generation plan), but also one of the body’s most astute legislators (see his behind-the-scenes and on-the-dais maneuvering around the 2025 budget).
Now, he wants to turn his attention to a somewhat under-legislated aspect of city life: family recreation. One idea Alter hopes to pursue, in particular, is how to utilize facilities the city already owns, like libraries, to build out spaces where families can gather. “Families move to Cedar Park, Round Rock, or Lake Travis because they have these kinds of amenities,” Alter told us. “As we look at future bonds, we have a great opportunity to incorporate more STEM or children’s museum type learning environments into our libraries.”
But, as Alter acknowledges, families also move to the suburbs because the tax bill for Austin homeowners has steadily increased in recent years – due, in large part, to the Austin ISD portion of the tax bill which voters agreed to increase in November. That’s why he wants to also explore ways to alleviate some of that tax burden, perhaps by helping AISD pay for ancillary school services. “We need to take a look at the total tax levy from all of our local jurisdictions to figure out where we might get creative and save taxpayers money,” Alter said.
District 9: Zo Qadri
Over his two years on the dais, District 9 CM Zo Qadri says he’s gravitated toward mobility issues – and that’s a policy area he wants to focus on in the final two years of his first term. That makes sense for the Downtown CM, as Qadri’s district naturally contains some of the most pedestrianized spaces in town.
Qadri hopes to decrease car dependency in D9, and the city at large, by emphasizing “trail-oriented development,” which is basically what it sounds like: commercial and residential development around urban trails to increase their utility as avenues of city life and commerce. “I would love to see more small businesses and housing along some of our trails,” Qadri said. “It could help with Austin’s growth as a vibrant city and hub for business.”
Which connects to another of Qadri’s priorities: better support for labor throughout the city. One of the ways he hopes to do that is by establishing a labor commission – a volunteer board that would be tasked with studying ways the city and Council could support working people and the unions that represent them. Austin currently has dozens of such commissions, though a smaller share play an active policymaking role.
More broadly, Qadri hopes to be a beacon for progressive policy amid the coming years of Trump-dominated darkness. That’s the best way to win support for liberal causes, he says. “Progressive politics are what the people want,” Qadri said. “Moderate politics are not inspirational and they don’t do the work that the people desperately need done,” like bold action on climate change and social justice. “We need the kind of enthusiasm for social programs that progressivism can build.”
District 3: José Velásquez
One of José Velásquez’s goals when he was elected in 2022 was to bring as much on-the-ground experience into City Hall policymaking as possible. One way he did that in 2024 was through a resolution he authored to improve how the city permits food truck businesses.
He had heard from food truck owners how cumbersome the city’s inspection process was – owners would have to move their truck to a central location for inspection, which could sometimes cost thousands of dollars (from towing fees, lost revenue during the inspection, and from damages to cooking equipment sometimes incurred from moving the truck).
But Velásquez’s resolution initiated a process among city staff to address those concerns, and the city is preparing to launch a pilot program that will allow food trucks co-located at a brick-and-mortar business to get inspected on-site.
Velásquez, who was born and raised in Austin, hopes to make similar strides in 2025 that can help local business owners. “We all love small-business owners,” Velásquez said. “We all say that this is one of the best ways for upward mobility, especially in Austin, but we continue to ignore some of the roadblocks in place.” Last year, Velásquez’s office started a small-business roundtable to give business owners a space to talk about issues they faced and how the city could help. In 2025, Velásquez hopes to go even further and start a “microbusiness roundtable” to help entrepreneurs looking to launch a business at an even smaller scale.
“We don’t always know what’s best,” Velásquez said. “Especially when finances are getting so tight for people, we have to work on solutions that actually help. The best way to do that is to talk to the people you’re trying to help.”
THE ROOKIES
District 6: Krista Laine
Every Council member is thinking through what governing as a local progressive should look like as the nation enters a new Trump era. That question is perhaps most salient for Krista Laine, incoming CM for Northwest Austin’s District 6, which has consistently been one of the most Republican districts in Austin.
Laine campaigned as a liberal Democrat, but she emphasizes her understanding that Council seats are nonpartisan – and that’s for good reason, she thinks. “We’re supposed to represent everyone and work with everyone to find the right path that will [improve] city services,” Laine said. As for city governance under Trump, Laine says City Hall is facing “an important moment for adapting.” She wants to find ways she can secure support for her district and the city from the state and federal governments, as hostile as they may be toward cities more generally.
One area she intends to focus on is transportation. As a suburban district, D6 is not often front of mind for policymakers when it comes to transportation policy, but Laine points out that much of Austin’s recent apartment construction boom has occurred in suburban areas like her district. That means D6 has plenty of opportunity to develop avenues for transportation that are not car-centric.
Like figuring out a way to connect Cap Metro’s Red Line – which has a stop in D6 – to the new Dell Children’s Hospital located on Lake Creek Parkway. The hospital will be a major employment center, Laine says, and she wants people to be able to get there via public transportation. “That could be a hike-and-bike trail, bus service, or something like that,” Laine said. But, as of now, Laine said, the city isn’t doing enough to help people in D6 use their cars less frequently. “But we’re not supporting the overall city goal of helping people reduce the number of cars per household.”
District 7: Mike Siegel
Mike Siegel campaigned as the candidate most committed to centering climate change as one of his top policy priorities, but sitting in his new office on the second floor of City Hall, he says constituents should expect to see a broader focus. “I don’t think the voters elected me to work just on climate,” Siegel said. “They elected me to combine my progressive values and hard work ethic to be their voice on a wide array of issues.”
An issue that was not a focus of Siegel’s campaign but will be a focus of his first few months on Council is what to do about caps over the expanded I-35. This would create new open space on top of I-35 that would likely become a park, flanked on either side by roadway. In March, Council will have to decide if they want to commit up to $1 billion in city funding to pay for the caps. It will be the first major decision of the year facing Council and one that will have reverberating budgetary impacts – all without public benefit until 2032 when the caps are finished.
Most of the CMs we talked to were in agreement that it makes sense to fund Downtown portions of the caps (at minimum, from Cesar Chavez to Fourth Street, which amounts to about 5 acres of land). The Texas Department of Transportation estimates that project would cost about $314 million, with the city contributing $168 million to the total. It’ll be another $47 million every year to maintain them.
The long-term financial impact is what Siegel – like many of his colleagues we spoke to – is wrestling over. No one on Council doubts that capping the highway would serve Austinites well. But there are trade-offs. Staff has told Council, in no uncertain terms, that borrowing money to build the caps will harm the city’s ability to borrow money for other projects, like parks or climate resilience infrastructure. “If the choice is between building more parks or fixing the city’s leaky water pipes and these caps,” Siegel said, “it becomes a much tougher choice.”
District 10: Marc Duchen
Like his southern neighbor Paige Ellis, Marc Duchen is also determined to find a solution to the “parkland dedication riddle” the city is facing post-legislative action. Like Ellis, Duchen sees the additional parks funding as both a social benefit and a good way to mitigate wildfire risk. He points to ongoing maintenance efforts in the 216-acre Bright Leaf Preserve (located in Duchen’s District 10 near Mt. Bonnell) as an example of efforts the city can undertake in other parts of the city to improve green space.
And he thinks the time to fund those initiatives is now – even if it’s just at a small scale. Duchen said he is toying with the idea of pursuing a small-scale voter-approved bond in the next year or two, perhaps even for just tens of millions of dollars, that the city could use to purchase parkland to be improved later.
Duchen thinks this could have two primary benefits: one, it would allow the city to buy land in the immediate future in a real estate market where land prices have continuously boomed over the past two decades. Second, it would provide the city an opportunity to show the public it can utilize bond dollars in a more expedient, judicious manner than with prior bond funds. That could build public trust – and support – for a much bigger bond.
“I’m hoping that if we can go and execute bonds efficiently in a reasonable time frame,” Duchen said, “two years down the line the city can say we did everything we set out to do. We accomplished our parkland mission, now let’s go do another.”
This article appears in January 31 • 2025.