ATX PULSE 7/9/24: Austin Water to Propose Rate Increases // ATX New Home Sales Up 4% Last Month // Bledsoe Files for D7 with Oliver's Backing // Downtown Plan Draft Coming?

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ATX Pulse

Everything YOU NEED TO KNOW about Austin.

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

By Matt Mackowiak

Please note: Our first edition yesterday had over 24,000 views! Thank you!

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TOP NEWS

~ “Austin Water tees up to propose rate increases to Council,” Austin Monitor’s Kali Bramble — “Austinites can prepare to add their water bill to the list of services getting increasingly more expensive, as a proposal for hikes in utility rates makes its way through City Council’s pipeline.

The proposal, which Austin Water unveiled early last week, would see residential rates increase by 9.5 percent on average, bumping the combined water and wastewater bill for the average customer from $85 to $93.12 per month. Such figures are based on an estimated consumption of 5,800 gallons of water and 4,000 gallons of wastewater each bill cycle.

The proposed rate changes come after a smaller 3.3 percent increase took effect last year, which Austin Water said was needed to cover rising costs of water treatment chemicals, staffing and repairs to aging infrastructure. Now, the utility says a number of more expensive projects are needed to keep up with Austin’s continuing growth.

Chief among these are plans for significant upgrades to the city’s Walnut Creek Treatment Plant, which handles the majority of the city’s wastewater for processing and reintegration to the Colorado River system. The utility plans to expand the plant’s processing capacity from 75 million to 100 million gallons per day, alongside a number of upgrades to its treatment systems and flood resilience infrastructure.

Along with rate increases, Austin Water is proposing a number of changes to its rate design, with particular attention to the fixed fees issued based on five tiers of water consumption. Currently, residential customers sorted into tiers 4 and 5 – or over 11,000 gallons monthly – pay a flat fee of $29.75 per bill cycle. Under the new system, tier 4 customers consuming between 11,000 and 20,000 gallons would see a reduction to $23.04 in fixed fees, while the highest consumers in tier 5 would see an increase to $34.79. Staff says the approach would alleviate the financial burden to larger families while generally maintaining conservation incentives.

Those enrolled in the utility’s low-income Customer Assistance Program will also feel the burn, with proposed increases expected to raise participants’ bills by 20 percent. For the average CAP customer, that translates to a projected $47.53 per month, a nearly $8 increase from the current $39.60 average.

The utility also plans to raise rates for nonresidential consumers, with commercial customers shouldering the largest increase at 22.7 percent. The utility’s largest-scale consumers – which include Cypress Manufacturing, NXP, Samsung, Tesla and the University of Texas – will see increases of 11.4 percent, 15.5 percent, 14 percent, 18 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively.

Lastly, residents in multifamily complexes will see a considerable hike, with projected bill increases at roughly 16.8 percent.

The proposed rates will be one of Council’s many discussion items this budget season, which is due for a final vote in August. In the meantime, staff at Austin Water are continuing to iron out details, with plans to make its rounds to the city’s Water and Wastewater Commission next Wednesday, July 17.

Those interested in hearing more about the proposed rates in more detail can check out a host of recorded presentations, available at the SpeakUp Austin website.” Austin Monitor

~ “New home sales up in Austin region in May, but outlook for the year dims,” Austin American-Statesman’s Shonda Novak — “Sales of new homes in the Austin area ticked up 4.1% in May compared with April, new figures show.

But as builders struggle to move inventory in the face of higher interest rates, a rising supply of newly constructed homes is dimming the outlook for the rest of the year. That's according to the latest monthly report from Ben Caballero's HomesUSA.com, which tracks the new-home market in Texas, including the five-county Austin region.

Caballero, a top-ranked real estate agent, is founder and CEO of HomesUSA.com. He compiles his report using Multiple Listing Service data from the Realtor associations in Texas' four largest metros — Austin, Houston, North Texas (Dallas-Fort Worth) and San Antonio.

New-home sales in the Austin area were the lowest of Texas’ four largest metros, Caballero said. According to his three-month moving average, which tracks market seasonality, the Austin region had 955 sales in May, up from 917 in April.

Despite May's month-over-month increase, Caballero is concerned about signals that he says are “dimming the prospects” as new-home inventory continues to build.

Pending sales flat

“While Austin new-home sales were slightly higher in May, their moderate seasonal strength does not bode well for the rest of 2024,” Caballero said. “Pending sales numbers — an indicator of future sales — are flat and are confirming my concern.”

The Austin region's three-month average of pending new-home sales for May was 1,370, down from 1,399 in April, Caballero's numbers show.

Inventory challenges

“Moreover, active listings of new homes are up nearly 9% year-over-year in May as Austin builders struggle to move inventory in the face of higher interest rates,” Caballero said.

May's new-home supply also was up from April, with the three-month moving average of active listings totaling 5,789, up from 5,701 in April.

“Local builders are working hard to reduce that inventory,” Caballero said. “Based on the pending and active sales numbers posted last month, new home sales' long-term outlook would be worse if it were not for the underlying strength of Austin’s economy."

Prices easing some

Austin-area homebuyers paid a little less for a new home in May: The average three-month price was $520,281, compared with $522,799 in April.

Elsewhere in Texas

As in the Austin region, new-home sales ticked higher in Texas' three other major metros in May compared with April, Caballero said.

May's three-month moving average of new-home sales in Dallas-Fort Worth was 1,986, up from 1,892 in April. In Houston, May’s moving average showed 2,093 sales, up from 2,036 in April. And in San Antonio, May's moving average totaled 1,073 sales, up from 1,054 in April.

But unlike Austin, the three-month moving average price for new homes in May increased in Texas' three other largest markets.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, it came in at $486,197, up from April's $475,516. In Houston, it was $411,767, up from $405,602 in April. And San Antonio's three-month average new-home price was $353,388 in May, up from April's $348,830.” AAS ($)

BUSINESS NEWS

~ “Downtown Commission wants updated downtown plan draft in six months; Council vote next summer,” Austin Monitor’s Chad Swiateki — “The Downtown Commission wants the city to approve an updated version of the Downtown Austin Plan by next summer, with a draft document expected early next year to allow the commission to make needed budget recommendations next spring.

At a special meeting last month, the commission considered how to best move forward with the new version of the 10-year plan that expired in 2021 and is seen as out of date for the current state of downtown Austin. A pair of snapshots from the recommendation note that since 2010, the downtown population has grown by two-thirds to ​​15,360, while the number of residential units has more than doubled to 10,300.

With major projects such as Project Connect, the Interstate 35 expansion and cap-and-stitch efforts and the reconstruction of the Austin Convention Center set to have a major impact on the downtown core, commissioners considered asking City Council for an aggressive six-month timeline for adoption of the updated plan. As another example of the many intersecting interests at play in the downtown core, the recommendation also noted more than a dozen existing city planning documents that would need to be incorporated into the revised Downtown Austin Plan.

City staff said they were best prepared to deliver a draft in 12 months, with adoption six months later.

Commissioner Spencer Schumacher pushed for a timeline of up to two years for the revised plan. He said a quick turnaround would prevent it from including specific details of the caps and stitch planned for I-35, or any considerations for major infrastructure projects that could be covered by a bond proposal package expected to go before voters in 2026.

“Six months is fairly aggressive given what the Planning Department has to work on with all of the big Council items that have come through – which, a lot of them are very important in downtown. I don’t necessarily want to disrupt that work,” he said. “I love that it’s focusing on these other plans, but a lot of these are probably gonna come after that six-month period, like the Great Streets Master Plan. We’re also not gonna have the Project Connect design decision until probably late 2025, which will include possibly one additional station in different alignments in downtown.”

Chair August Harris said waiting more than a year to update a document that is already out of date would leave the city without certainty from the commission and Council about the priorities concerning downtown growth.

“Is it the tail wagging the dog or is the plan being written to satisfy all the other plans that are going through?” he said. “One of the advantages of … moving as quickly as possible is that we want as a commission to be in a better position – and staff might be in a better position to make funding requests in order for us to get that into our budget requests in March to the Council.”

As a compromise, Schumacher suggested an amendment for the six-month draft, with Council considering the related ordinance in one year.

The commission also added amendments from Commissioner David Carroll to include the city’s urban design guidelines as one of the guiding documents, as well as including equity as one of the priorities for the updated plan.

“I would encourage some language in here about using equity as a lens as part of this process because the original downtown plan was so inequitable,” he said. “There’s multiple examples, but it calls for preserving the residential character of northwest district downtown, while at the same time also calling for the Rainey Street district to be turned into high-density residential use.”” Austin Monitor

OTHER NEWS

~ “It’s official: Bledsoe running for District 7,” The Austin Bulldog’s Ken Martin — “Gary Lynn Bledsoe, 71, made it official by appointing a campaign treasurer late yesterday afternoon.

He’s one of six candidates aiming to succeed Council Member Leslie Pool in the District 7 seat. Pool has held that seat since 2014, when voters were first able to elect council members from geographic districts. She is term-limited and will retire at the end of this year.

While Bledsoe’s entry in the District 7 field of candidates was foreshadowed by the Bulldog’s article published June 27^th , what was not foreseen was who he would appoint as campaign treasurer.

That person is Julie Oliver.

Ground Game Texas cofounders split

Oliver cofounded Ground Game Texas with Bledsoe’s chief opponent, Mike Siegel, who the Bulldog profiled last October.

The two Democrats started Ground Game Texas after each of them were twice defeated in running for Congress against entrenched Republicans. 

Oliver and Siegel had a falling out, she told the Bulldog. 

She said that Siegel was upset when she filed an application February 11^th  to be considered for the job of Austin city manager. She was one of 39 applicants for that position, ultimately won by former Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax.

“He called me and was very angry that I’d applied for city manager position,” Oliver said. “In a month I was gone.” 

Oliver said board member Ana Salas-Porras was on the call with Siegel when she was “fired” March 29^th .

Siegel evaded several questions

Salas-Porras did not respond to the Bulldog’s request for an interview sent through the form on the Ground Game Texas website.

Siegel did not respond to a voice mail message asking for an interview. Instead he sent a text message to ask that questions be texted to him.

These questions (numbered here for clarity) were sent via text as requested:

(1) Seems like your council race has gotten tougher with the entry of Gary Bledsoe. How will you compete with such a major force in civil rights?

(2) Bledsoe’s campaign treasurer is Julie Oliver, which strikes me as odd since y’all were cofounders of Ground Game Texas. Why would she support Bledsoe instead of you?

(3) She says that starting Ground Game Texas was her idea and so was the strategy to initiate ballot measures to decriminalize marijuana. Is that true?

(4) Julie says you fired her from Ground Game Texas because she applied for the city manager’s job and that interfered with your council campaign. Is that true?

Siegel’s response sent by email says, “Here’s a general quote you can use:

“I have tremendous respect for Mr. Bledsoe’s work throughout his career, including several efforts we have worked on together. At the same time, I’m excited about the campaign we are running and the movement we have built in District 7 with hundreds of voters pledging support and more than 950 financial contributions to date.”

Siegel did not respond to the Bulldog’s follow-up to his email:  “Thanks for the response and general statement, Mike, but I texted your four questions…and you didn’t answer the three pertaining to Julie Oliver’s comments.

“Please answer those too….”

Integrity the key issue for Oliver

Oliver said she supports Bledsoe in this race because “He has an extraordinary reputation for helping communities across the state for decades through his work as president of the Texas NAACP.

“He’s a fighter. And we need more diverse representation on the council,” Oliver said.

“He is an extraordinary man of integrity whose reputation precedes him,” she added.

Siegel, she said, lacks that important character trait.

“I don’t see him to be a man of integrity and it’s hard to support a man without integrity. He’s a political climber who didn’t want to settle down and work.” 

Oliver said that Siegel wanted to run for school board and then didn’t after he was told he would not win. Then he wanted to run for Gina Hinojosa’s seat in the Texas House of Representatives if she ran for Congress, but then she didn’t do so. 

“He doesn’t care,” Oliver said of Siegel. “He just wants to get elected.”

Because Siegel did not respond to previous questions the Bulldog did not invite him to respond to Oliver’s remarks about his character.” Austin Bulldog

~ “City to consider selling its district cooling system,” Austin Monitor’s Jo Clifton — “City Manager T.C. Broadnax has notified City Council that staff will be seeking approval during the July 18 meeting to hire J.P. Morgan Securities LLC to provide “strategic advice about the potential sale of Austin Energy’s district cooling system.”

The system provides chilled water to help air conditioners efficiently cool large buildings occupied by thousands of people downtown.

Broadnax wrote in a memo to Council, “With the consultant’s help, we will determine the range of interest and value before taking next steps.” The Electric Utility Commission is scheduled to consider the item at its meeting Monday.

The agenda item states, “This entire process will take approximately 9-12 months to complete. If offers are favorable and a sale of the system is deemed worthy of proceeding, that transaction will be separate and will require further City Council approval.”

The utility’s district cooling system operates four plants: two downtown, one in the Domain and one at Mueller. District cooling uses electricity to chill water during nighttime hours when there is less demand for electricity. This reduces peak energy demand and improves the system’s overall efficiency.

The downtown chilling plant system, named the Paul Robbins District Cooling Plant after the well-known local environmentalist, began operating in 2001.

The Austin American-Statesman reported in 2019 that it cost Austin Energy $22 million to pump cold water through a network of pipes to fuel downtown air conditioning units. The 68 downtown customers paid $25 million for the service, generating a $3 million profit, the Statesman said. Data on Austin Energy’s overall profit from all of its cooling systems was not available on Monday.

According to the memo, “The district cooling system is separate from Austin Energy’s core electric system, and a potential sale of these assets would have no impact on providing electric service to our more than half a million customers. We are proud of the district cooling system – it is efficient, it benefits the environment, and serves customers well.”

However, the memo states that in addition to providing opportunities for further growth, “The sale could improve Austin Energy’s ability to provide clean, affordable, reliable energy to customers by paying off debt and freeing up capital dollars for grid enhancements. Currently, the district cooling system’s capacity needs substantial investment to continue to grow at a pace that is needed for Austin. Austin Energy is financially limited in its ability to maintain and improve the core electric system while also growing district cooling to its full potential.”

Robbins was not pleased with the possibility that the city might sell all or part of its district cooling system. He pointed to Article II, Section 7 of the Austin City Charter, which says in part, “the Council shall have no power to and shall not … sell, convey, or lease all or any substantial part of the facilities of any municipally owned public utility, provided that the Council may lease all or a substantial part of such facilities to any public agency of the State of Texas if the qualified voters of the city authorize such lease” in an election.

Robbins agreed that the important point of that section is the word “substantial.”” Austin Monitor

~ “Anti-Semitic flyers found in Travis County neighborhoods cause uproar,” CBS Austin’s Jamahl Kennedy — “People in the Steiner Ranch area are upset after they say anti-Semitic flyers were left on their property last Thursday.

The Steiner Ranch Home Owner’s Association says there’s no place for hatred in our society.

People in the Steiner Ranch area are upset after they say anti-Semitic flyers were left on their property last Thursday. (Photo: CBS Austin)

“I think it’s pretty sad, actually. I don’t think their mission was accomplished at all,” said Amy Yukich.

Yukich is the president of the Steiner Ranch HOA. She says the perpetrators failed in their goal to intimidate their Jewish neighbors.

Yukich says residents found flyers in their yards beginning around 11 p.m. Thursday night after Fourth of July celebrations had begun to wind down.

She said the phone calls started rolling in the next morning.

“I got a barrage of phone calls and people were telling me what it said and what it was but they just ran out and started gathering them from driveways,” she said.

Yukich declined to share the contents of the flyer, sharing that neighbors did not want to empower the group who distributed them. However, she says this act is not befitting of Austin.

“Something that’s really special about Austin that I love is you can be whoever you want. As long as you’re kind. So, we don’t have those barriers here,” she said.

Travis County GOP Chairman Matt Mackowiak says whether you’re Jewish or not, “antisemitism should offend us all.”

He says this is not something anyone should take lightly.

“We would hope that all good, decent, honorable, patriotic people in Austin would agree with us that the outrage nature of this - and look - every Jewish Austenite deserves to feel safe in this community, period,” said Mackowiak.

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office says it is investigating these acts. In the meantime, Yukich says their spirit in Steiner Ranch isn’t broken.

“We’re a very in general friendly community and support each other,” she said. “And so, this just made it even stronger.”

Yukich is asking neighbors in the Steiner Ranch area to look at their ring camera footage and share anything suspicious from last Thursday night with the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.

Yukich says no one feels discouraged about living in the area.” CBS Austin

~ “Man arrested during investigation into ‘illicit’ North Austin game room,” KVUE’s John Diaz — “A man faces multiple charges following an investigation into an 'illicit' game room in North Austin.

Matthew Evans was arrested on July 2 while the Austin Police Department (APD) investigated a "well-established" game room on Pollyanna Avenue near Interstate 35.

According to an affidavit obtained by KVUE, APD officers were in an unmarked vehicle outside of the game room after identifying it as a "high drug trafficking area." Police identified Evans, who had outstanding felony warrants for his arrest, allegedly leaving the game room.

According to the affidavit, Evans is known for having violent tendencies. Officers were able to arrest him nearby the game room as he rode his bicycle.

Evans was allegedly found with multiple plastic bags containing fentanyl or fentanyl residue, along with counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl. He also allegedly had a handgun, a pair of fully loaded magazines, and a digital scale that also contained fentanyl residue on it.

Officers said they seized 17.5 grams of fentanyl from Evans, which is about 175 times more than the average person uses. He remains in Travis County Jail at this time.” KVUE

~ “‘Demand has just gone up and up’: Food banks struggle to keep up post-pandemic,” KUT’s Maya Fawaz — “Drivers line up down the street to grab groceries from a small, white house in the Dunbar neighborhood of San Marcos.

/

For some time, the renovated house worked for the Hays County Food Bank, but as more and more people rely on it, the food bank has outgrown the space. Executive Director Lisa Young said overhanging tree branches and telephone wires also don't allow trucks to bring in larger quantities of food.

Now, the food bank is moving to a bigger building.

“It's going to be transformational for us,” Young said.

The food bank distributes leftover produce, meat and baked goods from local grocery stores. Young said the volume of food the bank sends out has gone up every year since the pandemic.

“In 2023, we distributed 1.3 million pounds of food through this little carport here,” she said. “That was a miracle.”

The food bank has already distributed about 26% more food in 2024 than this time last year.

“We're expecting this year to be the highest we've ever had," she said. "The demand has just gone up and up.”

A region-wide problem

Sari Vatske, president and CEO of the Central Texas Food Bank, said more than 16% of adults and 25% of children in the region are food insecure. This means they don't know if they will have enough food or where their next meal will come from.

At the end of 2023, food insecurity in the 21 counties the Central Texas Food Bank serves — including Travis, Hays and Williamson — was at 14%. That's slightly higher than the national average, according to Vatske.

The phasing out of COVID-19 assistance, like stimulus checks and temporary food stamp programs, has increased reliance on food banks. Inflation has added to the strain.

The USDA reports the cost of groceries should go up by about 2.5% each year, with some items like beef and eggs getting even more expensive annually. But prices increased overall by 11.4% in 2022 and another 5% in 2023.

“We are surpassing the number of individuals that we're serving now, beyond at the height of the pandemic,” Vatske said.

A survey conducted by her organization in 2023 showed 36% of respondents had to choose between paying for food or for rent.

"Families are facing difficult decisions with their overall household budget," she said.” KUT

SPORTS

~ TEXAS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: “Texas women’s basketball lands commitment from Aaliyan Crump, No. 4 prospect in 2025 class,” Austin American-Statesman’s Danny Davis — “Since Vic Schaefer took over as the head coach of the Texas women's basketball team ahead of the 2020-21 season, the Longhorns have signed high school prospects out of seven states: California, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Dakota and, of course, Texas.

Minnesota can now be added to the Longhorns' national recruiting map.

Coveted prospect Aaliyah Crump announced on Monday that she will play at Texas. A 6-foot-1 guard from Minnetonka, Minn., Crump is currently listed by ESPN HoopGurlz as the No. 4 recruit for the class of 2025.

Crump is the highest-rated player to commit to a Schaefer-coached team at Texas. Forward Aaliyah Moore and guard Rori Harmon were respectively ranked sixth and 10th in the class of 2021. Guard Jordan Lee was the No. 9 prospect in 2024.

As a junior, Crump was Minnesota's MaxPreps player of the year. While leading Minnetonka High to a state championship, she averaged 24.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals and had a 56.3 shooting percentage.

Crump is the first player to commit to Texas' 2025 class.” AAS ($)

~ TEXAS WOMEN’S TENNIS: Golden: “Texas ex Lulu Sun is rising in women’s tennis with her historic Wimbledon run,” Austin American-Statesman’s Cedric Golden — “Now a great Cinderella story at Wimbledon, Texas ex Lulu Sun has her mom to thank for helping her make history in college. And also Texas tennis coach Howard Joffe for sure.

It’s a sure bet Sun will improve upon her current No. 123 world ranking after she won three qualifier matches to enter the Wimbledon women's singles main draw, then has followed up with four straight victories, including a huge 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win over British favorite Emma Raducanu in a Round of 16 match Sunday on the famed Centre Court.

The lefty’s game is well-suited for grass courts because she takes the ball early and is unafraid to go for shots, taking the net if need be. She was clearly the heavier hitter against Raducanu, an oft-injured player who won the 2021 U.S. Open as a qualifier. Sun overcame a brief battle with nerves to close out the biggest win over her young career.

Sun, who clinched Texas’ 2021 NCAA championship win over Pepperdine, earned $480,000 in her first appearance on the sport’s biggest stage and earned her first Final Eight appearance in a grand slam, also the first for a former Longhorns women's player. If she beats Donna Vekic in the quarterfinals Tuesday, her payout goes up to $916,000, which nearly triples her career earnings of $313,000.

This professional journey could have been much different had she not returned a text message.

The New Zealand-born Sun ventured to the Lone Star State as a high school junior and didn’t like what she saw.

“I actually played a tournament at Texas Tech and I was like, ‘Oh my God, there is nothing here,’” she told reporters after Sunday's match.

Some time after, Sun received a text message from Texas tennis coach Joffe. Her mom insisted she write back and schedule a visit to campus since her daughter was coming off an injury and turning pro immediately had become less likely.

That visit changed everything. 

“I was so in awe with Austin the city,” Sun said. “I loved it so much and thought the school was so big and they had everything. Howard was so nice and supportive. I guess it was luck or good timing, but I’m really happy that I chose Texas.”

Now 23, she is one of two Texas alums rising up the ranks. Her UT teammate Peyton Stearns had a memorable fourth-round run at the 2023 U.S. Open. Stearns lost in the first round of singles and the second round of doubles at Wimbledon.” AAS ($)

CULTURE

~ “WorldSprings planning to build $5 million resort with outdoor mineral pools in Cedar Park,” Austin American-Statesman’s Claire Osborne — “A company is making plans to build a resort in Cedar Park featuring 40 pools, including hot and cold mineral springs, and a health and wellness spa.

WorldSprings in June opened the nation's largest outdoor mineral springs project at its first Texas site at The Colony, a city near Dallas.

The company plans to spend an estimated $5 million to build a 40,000-square-foot facility northwest of New Hope and Scottsdale drives in Cedar Park, according to project details it filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in June.

Construction would begin in February 2025 and end in May 2026, according to the project details. WorldSprings has begun the permitting process by submitting its site plans to Cedar Park, said Fran Irwin, a city spokeswoman. The building and pool permit applications are pending, she said.

Cedar Park has no natural mineral hot or cold springs. WorldSprings would add minerals to the pools it builds to mimic natural hot and cold springs found in different regions of the world, said Ethan Harwell, a planner with Kimley-Horn, who represented WorldSprings in a presentation to the Cedar Park City Council in March. Kimley-Horn is an engineering and design consulting company.

"WorldSprings is a new project that takes the hot springs concept and freshwater pool concept out of the mountains and brings it into communities like Cedar Park," Harwell said. The largest pool at the project will be freshwater and the second largest will be treated with minerals to mimic the Dead Sea, Harwell said. The Dead Sea is a landlocked salt lake between Israel and Jordan. The resort also would include cold water plunges and a bar.

The amount of water the project would use daily is an estimated 54 living unit equivalents, Harwell said. One living unit equivalent, known as an LUE, is an average of 450 gallons of water and represents the amount of water that a single-family home uses daily, he said. The water that the resort would use would be for locker rooms, restrooms, an office, a kitchen, landscaping and the mineral springs and pools, Harwell said.” AAS ($)

WHAT TO DO TONIGHT

~ LIVE MUSIC: Two Tons of Steel, Gruene Hall (8:30pm, $12 at the door). Info

~ DINNER: “Restaurant review: MEXTA” Austin Chronicle

~ DINNER: “Best thing I ate in June 2024: 8 Places to Try” AAS

COOL JOB ALERT

~SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) (Austin, TX) // Pay: $5,250/month. // Apply here.