🟪 Austin Council meeting agenda and livestream link

🟪 Austin estimates it could cost up to $1.2 million to rename Cesar Chavez Street (KUT)

🟪 Austin moves to annex 2,600-acre Dog’s Head tract near airport (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 City poised to transfer St. John property to housing authority for two-parcel development (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin considers storing water underground in Travis County after Bastrop pushback (KXAN)

🟪 Republicans brace for money problems in Texas after Ken Paxton’s win (NBC News)

🟪 Latino voters set to play key role in Texas Senate battle (The Hill)

Austin City Council meets tomorrow at 10AM

AGENDA

LIVESTREAM (ATXN 1)

✅ Austin estimates it could cost up to $1.2 million to rename Cesar Chavez Street (KUT)

The city of Austin estimates it could cost up to $1.2 million to rename Cesar Chavez Street.

The cost includes paying for new street and highways signs, and the public engagement process. It does not include helping businesses deal with the name change. Businesses would be responsible for those costs once the change happens.

Cesar Chavez Street stretches from MoPac through downtown and to U.S. 183. The road is home to hundreds of businesses and homes that would be affected by the change.

In March, Austin City Council members said they wanted to rename the street after a New York Times investigation included allegations from women that Chavez sexually assaulted and abused them as young girls.

Before the city can change the name, it must hold community input meetings. Some Austinites have said they have conflicted feelings about renaming the road.

During a City Council work session this week, city staff said they plan to host three public meetings, one of which will be virtual, throughout July and August… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin moves to annex 2,600-acre Dog’s Head tract near airport (Austin American-Statesman)

A sprawling, largely undeveloped stretch of land along the Colorado River could become one of Austin’s next major mixed-use development after the City Council unanimously approved a 45-year annexation and development agreement for the area, despite concerns from some residents.

The vote puts Austin on course to annex one of the largest undeveloped tracts near the city’s urban edge. City leaders say the agreement would give Austin more control over growth, while some residents argue the deal moved too quickly and without enough scrutiny of its effects on nearby neighborhoods and the Colorado River.

The agreement approved by council is with Dog's Head Land JV Ltd., an entity tied to Endeavor Real Estate Group, one of the developers behind the Domain and the long-stalled plans for the former Austin American-Statesman site on Congress Avenue.

The more than 2,600-acre tract is known as Dog’s Head, a nickname that comes from the shape the land makes on a map, with the Colorado River curving around it in a way that resembles a dog’s head. The land sits just north of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and would add more than four square miles to Austin’s city limits.

Austin, which is experiencing a budget crunch, does not collect property taxes from the site because it sits in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, rather than within the city limits. Officials say annexing the land could eventually bring new tax revenue to the city… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Mayor drops plan to scale back I-35 park deck project (KXAN)

A proposal from Austin Mayor Kirk Watson to pull back some of the city’s commitment to building highway caps over I-35 won’t move forward this week.

The item was expected to go before Austin City Council on Thursday, but it was withdrawn after it became clear it wouldn’t get enough support to pass.

“We have had conversations lately about if we wanted to retreat from that commitment and I’m glad to see that we are not going to take back what we have said we’re going to do,” said Council Member Ryan Alter.

The debate centers on a major project tied to the Texas Department of Transportation’s plan to lower and widen I-35.

The city’s vision: build parks and community spaces on top of sections of the highway, connecting east and central Austin.

Last year, City Council approved $104 million for what are called vertical “roadway elements” — structural components needed for about six planned highway coverings of varying sizes, stretching from near the river to North Austin… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ City poised to transfer St. John property to housing authority for two-parcel development (Austin Business Journal)

The plans to transform a 19-acre site in North Austin into an affordable housing project are beginning to come into focus. 

The Austin City Council is set on May 28 to vote on transferring the ownership of the St. John site — located at the northeast corner of Interstate 35 and St. Johns Avenue — from the city of Austin to the Housing Authority of the City of Austin. The move would spur the development of two separate projects totaling 526 residential units, with about 70% of those units at affordable levels.

The council vote would sell the St. John site as two separate parcels — St. John North Property and St. John South Property.

The St. John South Property would hold two buildings that would have all of its residential units be income restricted to families making 50% to 80% of the Austin area’s median family income. The project would contain 201 residential units across 4.1 acres… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin considers storing water underground in Travis County after Bastrop pushback (KXAN)

A plan to store Austin’s drinking water underground is shifting closer to home after pushback from residents in Bastrop County.

Last year, Austin Water explored pumping treated water into an aquifer beneath Bastrop County. But after backlash from people who live there, the utility is now focusing on sites in eastern Travis County.

The project, known as aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), would store treated drinking water underground when supplies are plentiful and bring it back during drought… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Fast-growing Austin-based defense tech system to move HQ to Cedar Park (Austin Business Journal)

A fast-growing Austin-based defense technology company plans to move its headquarters to Cedar Park, where it plans to expand operations and reach 135 employees by 2030.

Aeon Industrial Inc. on May 26 was approved by the Economic Development Corporation (Type A) Board for a maximum of $2.1 million in performance-based incentives to move into a 48,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility at 2305 Scottsdale Drive. It is headed to City Council for final approval on May 28.

The company would be the first tenant in the 280,000-square-foot Cedar Tech I development being built by Dallas-based Holt Lunsford Commercial. The project is aiming to deliver by the end of this year. It comes as Cedar Park, which is 20 miles northwest of Austin, aims to market itself as an aerospace and defense hub… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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✅ Republicans brace for money problems in Texas after Ken Paxton’s win (NBC News)

President Donald Trump may be celebrating that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won Tuesday’s Senate primary, but some Republicans now worry that they have a Texas-sized problem on their hands.

Paxton, with Trump’s endorsement, handily defeated four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the runoff. Democrats largely viewed Paxton as the weaker candidate because of his many controversies. But his fundraising struggles are also raising alarm bells among Republicans.

“Economically, it’s a disaster. Texas is extremely expensive,” said a GOP consultant working on Senate races, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about party resources.

So far, Paxton’s fundraising has paled in comparison with that of the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico, who has raised more than $40 million — though he spent most of it in a hotly contested primary. But Talarico is expected to raise millions more; he pulled in $600,000 in just two hours following Paxton’s win, according to Talarico’s campaign. The haul was first reported by Politico.

Paxton has raised $7.6 million, and his campaign had $2.3 million left to spend as of May 6. The Paxton campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The consultant noted that the GOP groups will most likely have to quadruple their original spending for the race. Their contributions could reach $100 million, potentially pulling resources from other key battlegrounds as Republicans defend their Senate majority.

And Texas is an expensive state; with its roughly 20 media markets, statewide ads can cost several million dollars to air per week… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Latino voters set to play key role in Texas Senate battle (The Hill)

Ken Paxton’s victory in Texas is putting the spotlight on Hispanic voters, who could play a key role in November as Democrats set out to flip the state’s Senate seat.

Democrats increasingly see Texas as a key pickup opportunity of the 2026 cycle after the state’s scandal-plagued attorney general defeated longtime Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in Tuesday’s bruising primary following a last-minute endorsement from President Trump.

But the outcome of Paxton’s November matchup with Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico could hinge on Hispanic voters, who moved sharply toward Republicans during Trump’s 2024 campaign but have recently shown signs of drifting back toward Democrats in the polls.

“The Latino vote is the biggest swing vote in Texas, so whoever wins them in big numbers is going to be victorious,” Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor, told The Hill in an interview.

Recent national surveys have found Democrats regaining support among nonwhite and Hispanic voters, after Trump made significant gains with those voting blocs last cycle. A Pew Research Center survey released this month found Trump’s approval rating among Latinos who voted for him in 2024 down 27 points since the start of his second term — falling to 66 percent in April… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ More people are going hungry now than at the height of the pandemic (NPR)

More people in the United States are going hungry now than during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago.

A survey released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found higher levels of food insecurity this year than during the summer of 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak sparked double-digit unemployment.

The New York Fed periodically asks Americans whether they're having to skip meals, having to rely on food donations or receiving federal assistance to buy groceries. Replies from the most recent survey, in February, show hunger is a more pervasive problem now than at any time in the last six years… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ NY, NJ attorneys general open probe into FIFA World Cup ticket pricing (Gothamist)

The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey said Wednesday they are investigating ticketing practices by the international governing body for soccer and the upcoming World Cup matches, amid widespread complaints about high ticket prices, which average $2,800 for matches at host MetLife Stadium.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a statement they had subpoenaed FIFA for documents detailing pricing for the matches, with a focus on the eight contests at MetLife, which begin June 13 with a Brazil-Morocco match.

The two attorneys general said they were prompted by news reports of fans’ ire over soaring prices and complaints of fans in some instances not receiving tickets as advertised — for example, their purchasing tickets in a premium section then discovering upon receipt that they had been reassigned to lesser-value seats… 🟪 (READ MORE)