� This week the city held the first of several meetings regarding parking times at city meters. Proposals being discussed include extending paid parking hours Downtown from 5:30pm to midnight. The issue comes before a meeting of a joint subcommittee of the Urban Transportation Commission and Downtown Commission Jan. 11, 6pm, at City Hall.
� City Council returns from winter hiatus Jan. 13. Items commanding attention include the return of the Bradford-Nohra House zoning saga and the Park planned unit development on Barton Springs Road.
� On Monday, Mayor Lee Leffingwell led the annual Mayor’s Resolution Run/Walk event around Lady Bird Lake, initiating his Let’s Move Austin program to combat childhood obesity. Next year’s project: Let’s Move Urban Rail?
� Highland Mall‘s slow decline accelerates as Macy’s announced this week that it will close its location there in about two months. The move will leave the Dillard’s clearance center as the only anchor tenant at the ailing, underperforming mall. Plans for potential redevelopment of the site and the Airport Boulevard corridor remain uncertain. See “Naked City,” for more.
� A stripped-down but festive celebration was held New Year’s Eve, thanks to City Manager Marc Ott‘s decision to sustain the city-sponsored event despite a late-year pullout by private sponsors. Good music, delightful performances, and terrific fireworks.
� Farther up the river on New Year’s, fireworks were the apparent culprit in a blaze sparked at the Hula Hut restaurant on Lake Austin Boulevard, destroying the lakeside deck and causing more than $50,000 in damage. The restaurant remains open, and the owners plan to rebuild.
� So We Lied: The state’s Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Commission voted to allow waste from 36 states to be trucked into Texas and deposited at Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews County disposal site – originally designed to accept waste from only Texas and Vermont.
� Congress opened Wednesday with cries of “Down with health care!” and the Texas Legislature opens Tuesday, to cries of “Down with Joe Straus!” This is called conservative governance.
� Austin lost two local luminaries this week with the passing of poet/activist Susan Bright on Dec. 29 and of preservationist/journalist Sue McBee on Jan. 3. Bright, who devoted much of her time to promoting environmental stewardship, was remembered by friends at the annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Splash at Barton Springs. McBee’s family, in honor of the historic preservation work for which she was best known, requests donations to the Heritage Society of Austin, among other local organizations, in lieu of flowers.
� Katz’s Klozes. Kontrary to its “Katz’s Never Kloses” slogan, Katz’s Deli on Sixth Street finally closed on Jan. 2 after 32 years. The iconic Downtown diner filed for bankruptcy last July over unpaid back taxes.
� And they’re off: Bulldozers started rolling on the planned Formula One facility in Elroy over the holiday period as the developers prepare to relocate gas lines on the property. A formal groundbreaking ceremony for the track is planned within the next two months.
This article appears in 2010.