The city’s “Code Talk” series of public meetings – each focused on a key topic relating to the new CodeNEXT land development code – resumes this week with the session on Affordability. Which is of course a loaded topic to begin with, but this discussion will be specially hamstrung by the fact that one of the major parts still missing from the draft code is the density bonuses/affordability incentives, which were last said to be expected sometime “in the May timeline” (see “Ten Things,” April 21). We can but hope that that timeline might be firmed up to be part of the staff presentation on Mon., May 8, 6-8pm at Town Lake Center, 721 Barton Springs Rd.
On the next day is “Divided City? A Conversation About Economic Segregation & CodeNEXT,” wherein the Real Estate Council of Austin and recently exhumed ex-City Council Member Chris Riley will be putting the RECA spin on a recent study from Richard Florida and the Martin Prosperity Institute (www.martin
prosperity.org), tabbing Austin the most economically segregated large metro area in the country – and arguing, no doubt, that if they were just given free rein to build whatever they want wherever they want, that segregation would be reversed. It’s worth considering one of the key findings of “Segregated City,” however: “Economic segregation appears to be conditioned by the behavior and location choices of more advantaged groups. The creative class is more segregated than either the working class or service class. College grads are more segregated than those who did not finish high school. The wealthy are more segregated than the poor – indeed they are the most segregated of all and by a considerable margin. These more advantaged groups have the resources to isolate themselves from less advantaged groups.” And then consider why it is that the most segregated parts of the city are the areas with the least change in the new code, while the areas that are under the most development pressure – that currently house a mix of housing types – are the ones slated for the most intense upzoning? Anyway, the meeting is 11:15am-1pm Tue., May 9, at the Four Seasons Hotel. RECA has “confirmed that staff from the majority of City Council and the mayor’s offices will be attending.”
Also, CM Leslie Pool‘s series of District 7 meetings continues the next two Tuesdays,
6:30-8pm, covering:
• Parmer & points north, areas which will be largely under “non-transect” code, May 9, Milwood Library.
• North Burnet & Gateway, communities that have neighborhood plans, but will be under “non-transect” code, May 16, location TBA.
May is National Bike Month, and there are scores of events happening all month long (www.biketoworkaustin.org and rides.bikeaustin.org are two good info sources); notable among them is a series of city of Austin events on Thu., May 11, at the new Alamo Drafthouse at Mueller, 1911 Aldrich, marking the launch of the Big Jump Project, a multi-year initiative of PeopleforBikes, aiming to double bicycle ridership in three years in Central Austin. The evening starts with a 6-7pm Bicycle Infrastructure Tour, a “guided ride on some of the best bicycle infrastructure in Mueller,” followed by a Film Festival Reception, 6:30-7:30pm, and the Cycling for Cities Film Festival starting at 7:30, “a program of inspiring and lively short films about how bicycling improves cities and the lives of the people who live in them.” Tickets available at www.drafthouse.com; more info about the Big Jump initiative at www.austintexas.gov/bigjump.
Meanwhile, the 20th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival is underway, running through Sun., May 7. In one of its components, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) presents a “Hecho en Tejas” program and jury award for films shot and/or produced in the state. The films screen at the Blanton Museum on Sat., May 6.
The city Music & Entertainment Division is holding a final round of informational stakeholder meetings to discuss proposed policy changes, including creation of an entertainment license for music venues. Staff has already presented their final recommendations to the Austin Music Commission, and plans to go to City Council for approval in June. The last two meetings are Mon., May 8: A Music Venue Summit at 3pm at the Entrepreneur Center of Austin, 4029 Capital of TX Hwy. S. #110, and an open stakeholder meeting at 6:30pm at Cepeda Library, 651 N. Pleasant Valley.
Remember the Armadillo? Most everyone does, even if they weren’t around when it closed at the dawn of the Eighties. Celebrate the roots of the modern Austin live music scene Tue., May 9, at 6:30pm at the Austin History Center, 810 Guadalupe, at a book discussion with Eddie Wilson, impresario and now author of Armadillo World Headquarters: A Memoir, along with co-author and musical legend in his own right Jesse Sublett. Free; see info at austinhistorycenter.org.
Open Source computing fans and practitioners are meeting at OSCON, the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, next week at the Austin Convention Center, May 8-11: training and tutorials on Monday and Tuesday, and the conference on Wednesday and Thursday. More info at www.oscon.com.
Code Black, a 2013 documentary about a notorious trauma bay in an inner-city ER known as the “hurt locker of medicine,” is presented as part of UT’s Controversy & Conversation: A Difficult Dialogues Program. Thu., May 4, 7pm at Terrazas Library, 1105 E. César Chávez.
This article appears in May 5 • 2017.