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Crime statistics for Austin trended downward in 2025, with the city experiencing the lowest number of murders this decade. We’ll talk about the trends, both locally and nationally, and discuss why the sentiment that crime is rising still persists.
Also, the city has released an updated design plan for a revamped Sixth Street. What will it look like and when will that work begin?
Plus, the first full week of January means it’s Free Week in Austin. Some of the city’s finest musicians will be putting on shows in venues across the city. We’ll have a lay of the land and let you know what our sister station KUTX is cooking up.
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:10] Crime statistics for Austin trended downward in 2025, with the city experiencing last year the lowest number of murders this decade. We’re gonna talk about the trends both locally and nationally and discuss why the sentiment that crime is rising still persists. And the city has released an updated design plan for a revamped sixth street. What’s it gonna look like and when might that work even begin? Stay with us and find out. That is on today’s episode.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:38] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:43] Plus the first full week of January means it’s free week in Austin. Some of the city’s best musicians putting on shows in venues across the city. We’re gonna have a lay of the land and let you know what our sister station KUTX is cooking up. That’s coming up next right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, and thank you very much for tuning in. This is Austin Signal. It is January 5th, the first Monday of 2026. We are thrilled that you’re starting things off the right way here with listener-powered public radio. This is KUT News. Well, the holiday break is over for most of us, but perhaps you noticed that the roadways were still a bit light today. We’ll savor that feeling while it lasts. It’s back to class tomorrow for Austin ISD. And many other area school districts after the winter break. UT Austin’s first day of classes is not until next Monday, so things are still calm around the KUT studios, for now, that is. And in case you were out of town and missed it, Austin hit some heat records over the holidays, and more may be on the way this week. Tomorrow’s forecasted high is 84 degrees, which would tie the all-time record for January 6th, and we could be setting a new record on Wednesday, too. But there is an end in sight to the latest stretch of warmer than normal weather. Our next cold front is due late in the week, and that’s gonna bring us back to temperatures more typical of January, which is historically our coldest month here in Austin. We’ve got a lot more for you today, so let’s get on with the show. Crime in Austin trended downward last year. The city saw the lowest number of murders since 2020, and overall violent crime dropped as well. Here with us to talk more about the numbers is KUT’s government accountability reporter, Andrew Weber. Andrew, good to talk with you. Good to talk to you too, Jerry. So Austin experienced a decrease in the number of homicides last year, but I was hoping you can give us some context on that data. What were the numbers like in previous years?
Andrew Weber [00:02:54] Yeah, the last five years or so, Austin has been seeing a lot of homicides, increases in homicides. I should say this started back in 2020. Austin saw its highest number, I believe, was 59 that year, which was the highest since APD began collecting this data back in the sixties. And then the next year, the city saw nearly 90 homicides and since then, since that 2021 record, the numbers have dropped year over year. Um, and you know, Austin’s also seen drops in, in different sort of kinds of crimes. A lot of aggravated assaults, uh, those have largely dropped year over year, or at least middled out, um, and sexual assaults as well. Uh, they’ve been down through and within the last year, 2025 to 2024, both of those categories of violent and nonviolent crime, trended downward.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:48] Okay, so when we’re looking at these numbers here in Austin compared to other big cities across the nation, what are we seeing?
Andrew Weber [00:03:55] Yeah, this has been part of a national trend, right? Like during the pandemic era, there was a huge spike in crime across the country. And since then, you know, at that time, everybody kind of thought, okay, is this the new normal? But since then it’s slowly been trending downward. And to get some context about all of this, I talked with Jeff Asher. He’s an analyst, a crime analyst out of New Orleans. He’s a national expert on crime and crime rates. He has this big old dashboard online that he updates with. With sort of, he calls it the real time crime index of any major city. And he had an analysis out right before Christmas that caught my eye that found in the U.S. There was a 30% year over year drop in homicides, which he said was a record. And also that over the last three years, crime has gone down nationally. But he said to me that Austin’s drop in crime isn’t as drastic. As what we’re seeing across the country, but it’s still something that is noteworthy.
Jeff Asher [00:05:00] Necessarily seen the huge drops in Austin this year that you’ve seen elsewhere. There have been less significant declines sort of across the board in Austin, this year relative to last year, but certainly relative to 2023 and the early part of the pandemic you’ve seen pretty dramatic drops in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:20] Austin’s crime rate has been a topic on a lot of people’s minds over the last few years It feels like kind of a sentiment that runs nationwide We’ve had discussions locally here about police staffing and if there’s a sense that crime is rising But the numbers suggest that that’s not actually the case. Can you talk a little bit about that? Why does that sense persist?
Andrew Weber [00:05:38] Yeah, I think this is something that really struck me when Kirk Watson took over as mayor. He was very insistent that he wanted to obviously address crime, but also the perception of it, the feeling that people have that crime is on the rise. And you know, obviously that’s important. It’s important for people to feel safe in the city in which they live. And I think these numbers don’t necessarily suggest that Austin is an unsafe city. I think if you look, you know, there’s this sort of magnification on social media on certain corners of the internet. I think I’m looking at you are Austin, I’m looking at next door. I’m looking at x.com formerly Twitter. I think I think this perception that Austin is unsafe is highlighted by certain cases, assaults downtown, you know, murders, obviously, and it seems like kind of a thunderdome, if I’m being honest. So I asked Jeff Asher about this. Obviously, he’s a national analyst, he has a whole whole bunch of context. About crime writ large in the U.S. And he’s also a UT grad. So I asked him whether he considers Austin a safe city.
Jeff Asher [00:06:45] Certainly DKR can be like a Thunderdome at times, but for the most part, Austin has a relatively low murder rate, it has a relatively low violent crime rate. I think about breakfast tacos a lot more than I do when I think crime when I think about Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:03] All right, that was Jeff Asher, a national expert on crime and crime rates, and we have been speaking with Andrew Weber. He is KUT’s government accountability reporter. Andrew, thanks for your time. Appreciate you, Jerry. Well the new year always brings with it some fresh changes and some modifications could be on the way to 6th Street here in Austin. KUT City Hall reporter Luz Moreno Lozano is joining us now with more. Howdy Luz! Happy New Year! Happy New Year.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:07:31] Hi Jerry. Happy New year.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:33] I’m glad you’re here with us to give us a little bit of what’s going on. So first off, why does the city want to renovate 6th Street in the first place?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:07:40] Yeah, this has been, you know, kind of in the works for a couple of years. We’ve had a lot of issues down on that street. You know, it’s filled with bars and restaurants and it’s nightlife and the city is trying to not only improve safety, but kind of make it a more welcoming place that would reach a broad range of ages, not just people going downtown to party.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:00] Maybe, yeah, maybe like 20, 21-year-olds, you know, make it applicable to a wider swath of Austin. Exactly. And as you said, we have already gone through some changes on 6th Street. What has been done there so far?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:08:13] Yeah. So one of the big things that they started with was those, um, it was like these metal gates that they put just along the road and that was just to keep people.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:21] Like a barricade, right?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:08:22] Yes, it was just to keep people on the road and over the last year We’ve seen them change these gates to water-filled barricades those like orange and white ones It kind of looked like it was a construction zone and then a little confusing Yeah, and then they put those concrete up ones that are up now So we’ve seen a lot of changes down there in terms of like what those barricade look like just to Keep people on those sidewalks
Jerry Quijano [00:08:42] Yeah, if you have spent any time down there, you would know exactly what loose is talking about So we had a the city recently released an updated design plan I definitely want to ask you about the plan But first how long did it take them to come up with this plan that they’re releasing?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:08:58] So they did some early preliminary looks, I think for the better part of like the summer to now, essentially. They did some community feedback, they’d been talking with business owners and local stakeholders about what that road would look like. So yeah, so they spent a good amount of time on it. And yeah, and they made sure that they were talking, especially with those business owners. I did a story early last year about what some of those concerns were about access to businesses and. Crowding in front of businesses that were kind of blocking entrances, and so all of that was part of the design that they released.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:34] Okay, yeah, as Luce mentioned, you can find that story that she reported on in 2025 at KUT.org. So let’s talk about this updated plan that was released. What is in it and what’s not in it?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:09:47] Yeah, one of the big things is that, so currently Sixth Street, if you drive down that road during the normal time of day, it’s four lanes going west. This new design would take those four lanes down to two. We would use that extra space or those lanes to expand the sidewalk so that people have more access, pedestrians. And it would also include a dedicated access lane. So for anyone who is driving downtown in the middle of the day, some of the-
Jerry Quijano [00:10:14] If you spent one hour or one 10 minute drive driving west down 6th street, inevitably you’re going to run into a lane that’s being blocked by some big old truck unloading beer, unloading whatever.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:10:26] Yes, yes, or bands, you know, if they’re setting up, yeah, so this would be a dedicated access lane for those commercial trucks. It would also be a good access lane for rideshare drop-offs. That’s good. So yeah, so all of this would be included as part of it. One of the things it does not include is bike lanes. What we heard from community feedback in the report that I was looking at this morning, everyone seemed to be like, when can we get bike lanes down on 6th Street? This plan does not included that. I think there was a lot of concern about like, are we adding additional protected lanes? And is that safer? Is that not safer? So this plan doesn’t include it, but the city did talk about how they can, um, add bike lanes in other nearby streets to kind of improve connectivity downtown.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:08] Which, you know, if you do some biking downtown, you know that there are a few streets that you can get on, so it makes sense that people would desire a little bit more. But an understanding that there is a little bit of infrastructure there already. Yeah. So, okay, we’ve got this updated plan. Do we expect work to start soon?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:11:25] Probably not until at least 2027. So one of the big things as part of this redesign is that they have to get it funded. And we could see that as part of a potential bond package that could go before voters in November. We won’t know that until later in the year. I think we’ll get a preliminary look actually later this week. So finding the money to fund it is the next big thing. If it is approved by voters and it gets on the bond package, we could start to see construction start in 2027. And this is just a certain stretch of it, I should mention that. So this is from I-35 to Congress Avenue. So the rest of 6th Street will look the same, but this particular redesign would include what we call dirty 6th street.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:06] Okay, well you can find more about this story. Take a look at some of the diagrams yourself. That is over at KUT.org. And that story was written by Luz Moreno Lozano. She is KUT City Hall reporter. Luz, thank you for being with us here on Austin Signal. Thanks, Jerry. And thank you out there for tuning in. This is KUT News 90.5. We’re on the KUT app. And we have more about this show at kut.org slash Signal. And it is the first full week of January. That means it’s free week in Austin. Lots of live music going on this weekend. Come find out what you can’t miss. That’s coming up after this break right here on Austin Signal. This is Austin Signal. Thank you for spending part of your Monday here with us. It’s the first full week of 2026. And in case you didn’t know, that means here in Austin that it’s free week, which means there’s gonna be a bunch of free shows and music around town. A great way to start the new year. And here to talk with us about free week and the shows on her radar is your morning drive time host over at KUTX, Taylor Wallace. Taylor, thanks for being with us on Austin Signal! Thank you.
Taylor Wallace [00:13:26] Thank you for having me, hello!
Jerry Quijano [00:13:27] So let’s just say somebody recently moved to Austin, they’re tuning in to KUT to connect with the community around them. This is the first time they’re hearing about Free Week. Tell us about, you know, I’m assuming that everything’s free, but what are some of the expectations? What goes into the Free Week?
Taylor Wallace [00:13:41] So free week is a wonderful time to support the venues that provide the stages for our artists. January is historically a very down month for a lot of bars and things. People have just spent money. They have New Year’s resolutions that don’t align with going out and everything. So this is a way to encourage people to go out and to, you know, spend some money at the venues because if the stages go away, the musicians have to find somewhere else to play. So it’s a And, uh, and since everything’s free, it’s a wonderful way. I say there’s a trifecta of wonderful ways to do free week. It’s a great way to see an artist you love who maybe you haven’t seen in a while. It’s a great opportunity to see a band you haven’t seen yet, but perhaps have been hearing on your favorite local radio station.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:30] Wink, wink.
Taylor Wallace [00:14:30] And, um, and just a way to like bounce around like, Oh, I like this band, but oh, that’s kind of, maybe it’s a little crowded here or you just want to change the scenery. And so you bounce across the street or next door and you’re like, oh my gosh, I have no idea who these people are. Now I’m their next newest fan and I’m going to go to their next show. And just because the shows are free, there is still merch. So there are ways to directly support the artists as well. And, um, if you’re wanting to get, if your… I don’t know if I can do two full days of all of this free week and you’re trying to get like one show, get a mosaic of Austin Sound. We have our own free week show.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:09] Oh, really? Okay, who’s going to be on the bill for the KUTX show?
Taylor Wallace [00:15:12] So the KUTX free week show is this Friday. It stubs indoors. We’re kicking off the night at eight o’clock with myself. I’ll be doing a vinyl DJ set.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:19] Nice, okay, very cool from your own personal collection my own personal collections
Taylor Wallace [00:15:25] And then we’ll have Paige Plaisance, who is like a country artist originally from Louisiana.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:15:31] Nothing about my mama’s old piano Nothing bad
Taylor Wallace [00:15:56] And there is definitely like some of her songs swing more country country and then some of them get a little bayou, get a Little Swampy Country, yeah! So she’s gonna kick off the proper sets and then we’ll have R&B artist Sweet Lim, fantastic, we’ve been playing him a lot on KU-TX, we’ve played all these bands on KUTX.
Sweet Limb [00:16:17] I just wanna be happy I just wanna make all my dreams come true I just wanna be present sometimes I just wanna be a better man too
Taylor Wallace [00:16:40] Then we kick it into the rock drive with this punk garage band called Cormé. That’s C-O-R-M-A-E if you’re wondering.
CorMae [00:17:00] We get a job and a rock and roll!
Taylor Wallace [00:17:07] And then we rounded all night out the night with some like real good funk-infused what I like to call little dance punk from Blaspa who put out one of my favorite albums of the year and put out specifically my favorite Austin album of 2025. Yeah So that is our whole night, it’s a little bit of everything and together, threaded together, it sounds absolutely fantastic. And that’s Friday. And then if you’re also looking to go out on Saturday, we’ve got a couple of good suggestions of some different sounds you wanna go out exploring.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:52] Yeah, a little taste of everything because it sounds like the KUTX show is pretty eclectic already, but you got a little extra mix for us
Taylor Wallace [00:17:59] Indeed. And so on Saturday at chess club, which if you haven’t been to chess club yet, it used to be plush and it’s a small venue. So you want to get there early to make sure you get a spot, but the energy there is fantastic. And this experimental rap group called Ha Ha Laughing is going to be playing and they are to be heard better to be than to just be described.
HaHa Laughing [00:18:24] Take my money, take my money Take my, take, take Take my Money, take Take my
Taylor Wallace [00:18:37] I think if you really want to surprise yourself with one of the most off the wall sounds that you’re going to find, it’s going to be at 1130 at chess club on Saturday. And then kind of bringing it back to the KU TX fold and kind of more of the, uh, maybe one of the more core sounds of the indie music scene. Good looks who have been a KU-TX artist of the month and definitely, um, Austin music darlings for the last few years. They haven’t played a show. It’s been a hot minute, so I’m excited to go. Like I said in step two, revisit an artist I haven’t gotten to see live in a while. And they’ll be playing Mohawk Outdoor on Saturday.
Good Looks [00:19:18] Skyline, take me back Say goodbye, it’s nice to be
Taylor Wallace [00:19:35] And what’s really cool is Bright Light Social Hour is going to be rounding out the night. You don’t normally get a free Bright Light social hour show.
Bright Light Social Hour [00:19:54] Bange your locks until the sun comes up
Jerry Quijano [00:19:57] Yeah, and Saturday looks like it’s gonna be a really nice, really the whole weekend is shaping out to be perfect weather for an outdoor show just like that. Okay, so we’ve got a great mix of what you can expect to see and hear out at Free Week. It’s kind of reminded me of Art Tour, the art studio tour around Austin. It’s a way to get a little bit of a taste here and there of everything you don’t have to commit to one big experience, but you can dip your toe in. And you mentioned a great way, a couple of great ways to support local artists. Going out to see them buying some merch. It’s free week this weekend, but all January long we are celebrating Love Austin Music Month. For our listeners who might not be familiar, what is Love Austin music month?
Taylor Wallace [00:20:36] Love Austin Music Month basically is just a reminder and kind of an encouragement to connect with Austin Music, to stay connected with Austin music. It’s very easy to do that if you listen to KUTX and party with us all the time. But it’s also a reminder to maybe go reconnect with some live music, to go listen to that album. Well, I hear that song, but what does the whole album look like? And it’s really just a way to be really connected and whether you do it all the time and Love Austin Music Month is just your life anyway, or sometimes we need some reminders. We take some things for granted sometimes. So I think it’s a good opportunity to really connect. And then with at KUTX, we already play a lot of Austin music. Every song of the day this month is gonna be from an Austin artist. Our My KUTx and all of our specialty programming will be reflecting Love Austin music month. So at the very least, you tune into 98.9 and boom, there you go. You’re doing Love Austin, Music Month.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:32] That’s right and you can find more about Love Austin Music Month and free week over at KUTX.org. That is Taylor Wallace, your morning drive time host over at our sister station KUTx. Taylor, thank you for joining us on Austin Signal.
Taylor Wallace [00:21:45] Always a pleasure.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:00] A big thank you to Taylor Wallace for those recommendations and congrats to Taylor and KUT and KUTX’s Mark Fort. They’re both nominated for best radio personality in the 44th annual Austin Music Awards. Also nominated for Best Live Sound Engineer is our guy Jake Perlman. Go cast your ballots for all of them and best station of course, KUTx989, that is at vote.austincronicle.com. And that’s it for today’s show. Thank you to Luz Moreno Lozano and Andrew Weber for stopping by. Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director. And I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We are with you every weekday afternoon at one o’clock. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And we have more at kut.org slash signal. We’ll be back tomorrow. Talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
