The largest-ever expansion of Interstate 35 through Central Austin officially kicked off Wednesday as the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) held a groundbreaking ceremony on top of a six-story parking garage at UT Austin's baseball stadium.

The windswept roof of the parking garage offered panoramic views of the highway set to undergo its most transformative change since opening in 1962, a time when the federal government was encouraging states to build freeways through city centers even if it meant severing neighborhoods and displacing residents.

More than six decades later, TxDOT plans to increase the size of I-35 from Ben White Boulevard to U.S. 290 East by 32 lane miles, including two high-occupancy vehicle lanes in each direction. Lanes will be narrowed from 12-feet-wide to 11-feet-wide to cram them all in. All east-west bridges will be reconstructed. Sidewalks will be installed along the entire length of the interstate on both sides... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin Mayor Kirk Watson far outraises challengers in reelection bid (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson far outpaced his four challengers in both fundraising and spending in the final reporting period ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Watson raised $102,414 between Sept. 27 to Oct. 26, according to campaign finance reports posted Tuesday. That brings his reelection campaign fundraising total to $1,029,478.

The incumbent mayor spent $300,206 during the latest reporting period and has now spent a total of $955,252 as he seeks a second, consecutive term.

Second to Watson in fundraising during the latest reporting period was former Austin City Council Member Kathie Tovo, who raised $10,253, bringing her campaign fundraising total to $87,226.

The three other candidates in the race — the former executive director of Central Texas Interfaith Doug Greco, community organizer Carmen Llanes Pulido and small business owner Jeffery L. Bowen — have raised a total of $99,487, $113,918 and $14,475, respectively. During the latest reporting period, they raised $1,073, $9,239 and $3,120, respectively.

Both Tovo and Llanes Pulido have made personal loans to their campaigns…

🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin and Travis County approve new plan aimed at making food access more equitable (KUT)

Travis County adopted the Austin/Travis County food plan Tuesday, a comprehensive vision plan seeking to improve the city and county's local food system, from where it’s produced to where it's disposed of and recovered. The Austin City Council adopted it earlier this month.

The plan is large in scope, listing nine goals and 61 strategies to be implemented over the next five years. It’s focused on creating a more reliable and community-based food production and distribution system to increase access to high-quality food and strengthen the local food supply chain in times of emergency in the area.

"I think (this is) a powerful vision for the community," County Commissioner Brigid Shea said. "(It's) one where we have resources at the county, and I think we can be creative in exploring how we can make tremendous use from that."

Data from 2022 shows that 14.6% of the Travis County population is food insecure, amounting to about 187,990 people, according to a study done by Feeding America. This is largely due to the existence of several food deserts, areas with less mobility access to affordable and healthy foods, that affect Black and Hispanic residents at higher rates... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Council to consider $5.5M contract for redo of city’s website (Austin Monitor)

The city’s primary website is slated for a comprehensive revamp from a California-based vendor, due in part to staff’s assessment that the work needed to properly improve the site exceeds their resources and abilities. An item on next week’s City Council agenda would allocate $5.5 million for a six-year contract with TW Lrw Holdings, LLC, which does business as Material Holdings, LLC.

The overhaul, led by the Communications and Technology Management (CTM) and Communications and Public Information Office (CPIO) teams, comes as part of the city’s response to the changing needs of users as well as years of criticism for the website’s performance and organization.

Over the past year, staff implemented several updates, including a new “All Services Hub” and language translation software, while reducing website content from 16,000 to less than 9,000 pages to streamline navigation.

Despite these efforts, the current infrastructure has been deemed insufficient for meeting Austin’s growing population’s needs, according to a recent memo to Council and Mayor Kirk Watson from Kerrica Laake, director of Communications & Technology Management, and Jessica King, director of the Communications & Public Information Office... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ Texas’ housing shortage is getting worse, report says (Texas Tribune)

Texas has a deep housing shortage that’s driving up home prices and rents. And it’s getting worse.

In 2022, Texas needed about 320,000 more homes than it had, up from about 306,000 the previous year, according to an estimate released Wednesday by housing policy organization Up For Growth.

That shortage illustrates how Texas, which builds more homes than any other state, has struggled in the last decade to build enough homes to meet demand amid its economic boom. The problem undergirds the state’s housing affordability woes. Home prices and rents in the state’s major metropolitan regions have skyrocketed owing to increased competition for a limited supply of homes.

“While Texas has been building a lot of housing overall, in many places, it just has not been enough to keep up with demand in the state and people moving in from out of state,” said David Garcia, Up For Growth’s policy director… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Downtown Dallas gets overall thumbs up from business owners, residents, workers (Dallas Business Journal)

While some issues persist in downtown Dallas — namely homelessness — residents and businesses have a mostly favorable view of the area, according to a 2024 perception survey from Downtown Dallas Inc.

DDI held its state of downtown event Wednesday, inviting business leaders, city council members and others invested in the downtown Dallas landscape to the Moody Performance Hall, a theater in the Arts District. Jennifer Scripps, the organization’s president, summarized and shared results of the survey to an audience of hundreds of stakeholders.

“We know there are unique districts within the downtown loop, but we are thinking about all of them and the grand total,” Scripps said.

This year’s survey took place in July and sampled a mix of residents, downtown workers as well as business owners — the latter being a first for the survey that DDI last published in 2022. The private nonprofit, which represents downtown establishments and advocates for the area’s growth, conducts the survey every two years… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ Dodgers overcome a 5-run deficit to win the World Series against the New York Yankees (NPR)

The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second World Series championship in five seasons, overcoming a five-run deficit with the help of three Yankees defensive miscues and rallying on sacrifice flies from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts in the eighth inning to beat New York 7-6 in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, Alex Verdugo’s RBI single chased Jack Flaherty in the second, and Giancarlo Stanton’s third-inning homer against Ryan Brasier built a 5-0 Yankees lead.

But errors by Judge in center and Anthony Volpe at shortstop, combined with pitcher Gerrit Cole failing to cover first on Betts' grounder, helped Los Angeles score five unearned runs in the fifth… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Harris, rips Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 Election (New York Times)

Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, saying that Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were disqualifying and that electing Ms. Harris was the only way to reduce division and anger among Americans.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, the actor and bodybuilder who served as governor of California as a Republican from 2003 to 2011, said in a lengthy statement on social media that he hated what United States politics had become and was tempted to “tune out,” and echoed the sentiments of many voters in writing that he didn’t like either party at the moment. He criticized Republicans’ economic policies as opposed to free markets, and said he believed Democratic policies would increase crime.

But in his statement, he wrote in reference to Mr. Trump’s words and actions: “Rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets. To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious. And I will always be an American before I am a Republican.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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