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The city’s system of 911 call-takers will be moving from the Austin Police Department into a standalone office in an effort to improve response times. The City Council approved the move as part of the city’s $6.6 billion budget — though not everyone agrees on the plan.
Austin’s Fire Chief Joel G. Baker is retiring at the end of the month. He spoke with KUT News about the reason for his departure, his plans and the future of the department.
Elysium, Austin’s oldest goth bar, is celebrating 25 years this year. How the subculture has grown in Texas.
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 – Austin’s system of 911 call takers is moving from the city’s police department into their own standalone space. City Council approved the plan as part of the upcoming fiscal budget and it follows lots of talk about improving local emergency response times. But not everyone agrees on the plan, we’re going to tell you why. And Austin’s Fire Chief is retiring at the end of the month. He spoke with KUT News about the reason for his departure, his plans and the future of the department. More from that conversation coming up on today’s show.
Speaker 2 The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano Austin and Texas have outsized influences on quite a few music genres, but goth music might not be the first category that comes to your mind. We’re going to tell you more about our local goth bona fides, plus a whole lot more. Up next, here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, thank you for tuning in. This is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Kikano. It is Tuesday, August 18th, and we’re expecting another day of triple-digit temperatures in Austin. The National Weather Service is forecasting a high today of 103 and then up to near 105 on Saturday. Please stay hydrated out there. Take breaks when you can. Check on your community. And of course, keep it locked in right here on KUT News for the latest. Austin is making major changes to the way it handles 911 calls. The city is moving its emergency communication sensor out of the Austin Police Department and into its own office. KUT’s Luz Moreno Lozano explains the goal is to improve response times and overall outcomes, but not everyone is on board.
Speaker 3 Councilmember Crystal Lane has been hearing about this problem for years from her constituents. Her district crosses several public safety jurisdictions. And Lane says emergency calls often get bounced between different agencies.
Speaker 4 911 response in my district in far north and northwest Austin has been an ongoing problem.
Speaker 3 Really since annexation. That’s why Lane authored a resolution last summer to explore the possibility of creating a new standalone office to handle 911 calls. The decision was approved just last week as part of the city’s $6.6 billion budget. A majority of the Austin City Council agreed to set aside more than $1 million to create the office. That will allow the city to hire up to four people to get the office started. Lane says it will be separate from the Austin Police and it will be supervised by a civilian. Speaking before the budget vote, Lane said it could bring a new perspective on the type of response that’s needed.
Speaker 4 Are intended to refocus us on improving where people, our people in this city have been left behind, where families have been traumatized, where.
Speaker 3 Response time has cost lives. In 2024, a city audit found that about 77% of 911 calls in Austin were being answered within a 15-second window. That’s below the standard of 90% recommended by the National Emergency Number Association. During peak times, like nights, weekends, and holidays, about half of Austin’s 911 calls were not answered within 15 seconds. Since then, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis says things have improved, but there’s more work to do. Like making sure calls for help get the appropriate response. When someone calls 911 in Austin, they hear this.
Speaker 4 Austin 911, do you need police, fire, EMS, or mental health services?
Speaker 3 The call taker connects them with the requested agency and a dispatcher then sends out a response team. But council member Mike Siegel says recent events have highlighted the need for a more thoughtful approach.
Speaker 5 There’s a lot of concern that sometimes we send police officers to a mental health crisis and unfortunately that can make the crisis worse and more dangerous for the individual who’s in crisis and the officers themselves.
Speaker 3 Last month, 17-year-old Anthony Williams II was shot and killed by Austin police at a park. That’s after Williams, who was unarmed, allegedly called 911 to report someone brandishing a gun. APD Chief Lisa Davis characterized the incident as a potential suicide by police. Since then, advocates have been calling on city leaders to coordinate better response for mental health emergencies.
Speaker 5 The big benefit of a standalone office or department is that you have a civilian leader who’s in charge of best practices, making all of the details of the work better. And we know the chief of police has a lot of other priorities, so we just want to give 9-1-1 the attention it deserves by having a civilian on top of that work.
Speaker 3 But public safety officials and other city leaders disagree. Mayor Kirk Watson and Councilmember Mark Duchin voted against creating the new Emergency Communications Office. Assistant City Manager Ramon Batista, who oversees public safety, said it could quote, add another layer of complexity to the system. Michael Bullock is president of the Austin Police Association, the local police union.
Speaker 6 You don’t have everybody that’s kind of playing on the same sheet of music. So I think long-term, this is likely to lead more problem to more problems. And in the first place, I still don’t think this is going to solve anything of what they seem to be thinking it’s going to.
Speaker 3 City manager TC Brodnick felt similarly, but he said he would abide by the council’s wishes to move forward with setting up the office. That includes kicking off the search for a civilian director in October. I’m Luz Moreno Lozano in Austin.
Jerry Quijano Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker announced this month his retirement plans. His final day on the job will be August 31st. Baker was Austin’s first African-American fire chief, and he spoke this week with KUT News about the news and what his future holds.
Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker There’s never, in most cases, there may never be a good time to retire, but it can be a bad time to retry. So a bad-time retire when you’re forced out. They just don’t, your department don’t want you, the city leadership don’t to, the men and women you lead don’t wanna to. You forced out, that’s a bad times retire. You always wanna retire on your own terms. And so I’ve been in the fire service, Not if I cheat but in the fire service for 14 years, 40 years a long time to be in the Fire Service. And since I’ve been in the Five Service, I have not been to work a day in my life in the five service. In other words, I have enjoyed every single moment, every minute, every day, every week, every month, every year, and I just love it.
Jerry Quijano After spending almost eight years working with the city, we asked Baker if he had any regrets about his time here in Austin.
Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker I would say the one thing I wish I could have done better is to determine why firefighters had committed suicide, because I don’t know, and that’s puzzling me to this day. I wish we could have called them, because we had some firefighters, I won’t call their name, who either committed suicide or thought about suicide. And I don’t t know if they’re military related or they’re personal effects related or something going on I just don’t I don’t know I wish I knew. It’s painful and it’s painful that I don’t know. I wish I knew why they think they are not important enough to live and I don’t have an answer to that. I really wish But I didn’t answer that.
Jerry Quijano In his place, Tom Vokey has stepped in to lead the department as the acting fire chief and he will hold that interim position starting September 1st. Baker says one challenge facing the department is retention of firefighters.
Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker Is your department providing the best pay and benefits? Is your apartment providing the best tools and equipment? Is your Department providing the best workplace, a healthy workplace environment? Is your department providing the best fire station? Is your department providing the best work schedule? Austin is getting ready to go into a schedule where you work one day on Three days off, two days on, and three days off. That is unheard of for a large metropolitan department. Austin is standing out front demonstrating that. Austin, in my opinion, has some of the best pay and benefit for a metropolitan department that they can have.
Jerry Quijano This is Baker’s second retirement, after he retired from Atlantis Fire and Rescue before he made his way to Austin. As for his future plans, things are still a bit up in the air.
Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker I don’t want to say, no, I’m not going to take another fight to each other. And I’m like, yes, I will take another fights each other, you know? And I said it because I don’t want to close opportunities that come my way. But at the same time, uh, it’s just time for me to go out there and, uh, enjoy life, uh without worrying about coming back to work. You’re hitting the clock, but come back to worry about work. But, um, I don’t really think I’m going to another department. I have not sought out any other departments to go to. I want to do some riding. I want ride my motorcycle on Route 66. I want go to Sturgis, if there haven’t been. I want just get on that motorcycle and just go. I can’t let them win both of my hackers, I don’t have in there. But I want, you know, I just want to me for a change.
Jerry Quijano The city is now launching a nationwide search for Baker’s replacement. We’ll have more about that story in today’s podcast, Show Notes. Got a few more headlines for your day. Austin Independent School District classes are back in session today. Be ready for some heavier traffic this afternoon around the city when school lets out. Be aware of those flashing yellow lights in school zones and for school busses picking up students and dropping them off, too. It is already the second week of the new school year for many area districts. But for students in Georgetown, Marble Falls, Round Rock, and San Marcos, it’s back to class starting tomorrow. Construction within Big Bend National Park has been paused for the time being ahead of a visit to the park by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott. The Trump administration has been facing growing pushback against border security construction within the Big Bend region, after photos emerged recently of heavy machinery clearing land in the park. We have more about that story at KUT.org. And The pre-season Associated Press Top 25 college football poll is out. The Longhorns are ranked fifth, Ohio State is number one. All eyes will be on DKR Texas Memorial Stadium September 12th when Texas hosts the Buckeyes. We’ve got more Austin Signal coming your way after this break. Stay with us.
Isabelle Cunningham You’re listening to Austin Signal. My name is Isabelle Cunningham, and I’m on the membership team at KUT. There’s a few weeks left in the field guide to Austin’s Summer Reading Bingo Challenge. If you still need a few book recommendations to finish strong, I’ve got two for you. First up is Abigail by Magda Szabo. This book follows Gina, a headstrong teenager growing up in Hungary during World War II. For her protection, her father sends her to a Catholic boarding school, but her rebellious nature quickly puts her at odds with teachers and fellow students. That leaves Gina with no choice but to entrust her fate to Abigail, a legendary statue on the school grounds known for keeping secrets and granting wishes to those in need. The novel was originally written in Hungarian, but the English translation preserves the charm of this coming-of-age story, filled with lovable characters and a mystery that you can’t help but see through to the end. The next book on my list is Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. In this gritty memoir, the late American chef gives a firsthand account of his rise through what he can only describe as the culinary underbelly. I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Bourdaine himself, and his conversational, sometimes confessional delivery makes you want to lean in closer, like you are hearing stories from an old friend. You can feel the sweltering heat of a Cape Cod kitchen and imagine the bustling excitement of a late night izakaya in Tokyo. Filled to the brim with industry secrets, travel anecdotes, and practical tips like why you should never order fish on a Monday, this book is sure to offer an unforgettable reading or listening experience. To get your own bingo card and find out more about the KUT Field Guide to Austin Summer Reading Bingo Challenge, go to kut.org or click the link in today’s podcast show notes. I’m Isabelle Cunningham and this is Austin Sigma.
Jerry Quijano Texas has an outsized influence on many music genres, from country to blues to Tejano and everything in between. In recent decades, Texas has also become an incubator for goth bands. Alongside them, the goth and darkwave subculture has grown to support several businesses. Right here in Austin, the alternative club Lyceum is celebrating a quarter of a century. Texas Standard’s Charlie Sharp has that story.
Charlie Sharpe I’m outside Elysium, an alt bar in Austin’s Red River District. Heat from the 100 degree day radiates off the sidewalk. It’s a Sunday a little before 10, and already dozens of patrons walk past me and into the pulsing music. Not everyone here embodies the big-haired trad-goths from Hollywood. I see lacy sundresses, battle jackets, muscle tees, and jorts. It’s 80s night, and echoing from around the blind corner is Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode. So what actually is Goth, and why are Texans flocking to this decades-old subculture? Elysium’s owner, John Wickman, says that while he identifies as Goth, the label is somewhat amorphous.
Jerry Quijano0 There’s a running joke in the subculture that in order to truly be goth, you have to deny that you are goth. Bauhaus, The Cure, Suzy Sue, all those bands that don’t know we’re not goth which just basically means they’re goth
Charlie Sharpe Sebastian Nolfo, a musician and owner of the Austin store Bloody Rose Boutique, says that while goth starts with the music, the range is quite vast.
Sebastian Nolfo You have the traditional goths, which are into Bauhaus and to the first wave of gothic music and Susie and the Banshees and stuff, which crossed over from punk rock. And then it’s expanded to the mall goth and the cyber goth. So you have people listen to metal and pop music and they’re all goth, you have goth who listen to album.
Secret October. To me goth is about the music. It’s that that’s the number one thing. Some people come at it from literature. Some people come out it through movies and some from just the fashion or just the makeup. But to me it is 100% the music but you can’t go dancing.
Charlie Sharpe If you don’t have anything to wear. Down at Cassandra Davis’s clothing store, Secret October, sheer black curtains with little bats are the only thing keeping the punishing Texas sun at bay. Inside, at least a dozen shoppers browse through a menagerie of clothes from Victorian poet shirts
trip pants. I really like the fashion. I love the big hair and in the 80s I had the big Robert Smith hair but honestly now I’m old and tired and lazy and I don’t have time to spend two hours doing my hair every day and it’s too hot to wear makeup although I’ve never been good at makeup anyway so but I still wear all black and I love like gothic imagery I don’t even know why.
Charlie Sharpe Towards the front of the store, Davis has racks of studs, O-rings, and sewing supplies.
Sebastian Nolfo The OG goth has a lot of punk rock in it and it was all about making your own thing and back in the 80s and even most of the 90s you could not just go and buy a lot of this stuff. Even though there are certain styles everyone does you don’t want to look like a clone and just look like you just went online to Tmoo and bought the goth collection or whatever and look like everyone else. Want to. Put your own stuff in there. So to recap.
Charlie Sharpe Goth is a music subculture, but it doesn’t have one specific sound. Goth doesn’t’ have one kind of look, but has thriving clothing stores that cater specifically to the subcultures. Maybe to understand goth in Texas, I need to look at how it got here.
Sebastian Nolfo I would say that starting back in the 80s, we used to have these things called teen clubs. So it was that sort of mix with sort of the clubbing scene that I grew up in in my teenage years and just really people who felt free expressing themselves and the whole darker esthetic, some of the music.
Charlie Sharpe Lisa Santacoy, better known in the scene as Bunny Voodoo, runs Blood Over Texas, which produces horror events in Central Texas. Santacóy said that in the past 20 years, the subculture has seen an explosion of activity online, starting first on platforms like Myspace before migrating to Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.
Lisa Santacoy In this community people wanna, you know, they’re very introverts online. Nowadays you get lost in a lot of stuff. So as far as being digital, it’s just hard to find people and then in person it’s much calmer. But you just have to get people out. That’s the hardest part is to get together.
Charlie Sharpe From what I heard, folks in the scene are getting out, especially after the pandemic.
Jerry Quijano2 I think it’s actually at a really good size right now. It changes, is the thing. I moved here in 1998, and when I first moved here, it was vibrant, and that was the big goth bar, Elysium. Nolfo says goth is now.
Charlie Sharpe Spanning generations.
Jerry Quijano1 It’s really cool and vibrant here, how diverse the scene is. And even here at the store, I’ve got customers who are in their 50s and 60s coming in with their teenage and tween and younger kids shopping together. And it’s like whole goth families. I’ve even had goth grandmothers with their goth moms and the goth kids come in.
Charlie Sharpe And there are goth hotspots all throughout Texas. Davis told me of a flourishing scene in San Antonio. Some of my favorite.
Cassandra Davis DJs come from there. I don’t know what is in the water there but they just, the DJs there are incredible and there’s a new place called Oh Death there, a new bar that’s that’s having a lot of cool live bands. Houston’s home to numbers.
Charlie Sharpe Which has been around for 47 years. Its first live band was The Goth Essential, Suzy and the Banshees. Elysium owner John Wickman says Dallas has its scene too.
Lisa Sanacoy I would be remiss if i didn’t mention the church in dallas the church has been around for quite a while they just recently lost their original location which was beautiful uh… But they’re still going
Charlie Sharpe From the Hemlock Fox Bar in Denton to the band Twin Tribes from Brownsville, almost everywhere there’s Texans, there’s goths. And when I asked what it’s like to be a goth in a state that regularly hits the 100s, I was generally met with laughs. There is no thing is being cool and dressing goth. It doesn’t matter. It’s so hot out it doesn’t even matter so you just suffer. But usually it’s the t-shirts. T-shirts is what does it. I’m all about the flowy hippie skirts with with a t-shirt and I guess like the trip pants they’re big and baggy so it’s flowy so that lets you get some air flow.
Cassandra Davis I don’t dress for the weather. I dress to make myself feel good. And for a lot of guys, it’s the same. You see us wearing black jeans and black t-shirts or black shorts or whatever. It doesn’t matter. So the only difference for a lotta people is whether they care parasol or not. Because they keep themselves shaded.
Charlie Sharpe There’s a reason Texans are still coming to the scene despite the heat.
Cassandra Davis I think there definitely is a resurgence in the Goth subculture. More people are interested in it now, probably than ever before. You know, we all have similar passions and interests. And so there’s a very big inclusivity part of it. And that’s also kind of a side note, you know, the kind of weirdos or people that are, you know, alternative or whatever word you want to use. This is a safe space for them. You know you need to have a sense of community where you’re accepted and not judged.
Charlie Sharpe In Texas, the goth subculture remains undead. In Austin, I’m Charlie Sharp.
Jerry Quijano All right, we are wrapping up today’s show. Coming tomorrow, we will be bringing you the latest episode from the KUT news series, The Data Center Next Door, and all the other important news you’ll need to know. But for now, that is it for us today here on Austin Signal. We will have more about the stories we shared with you today in the podcast show notes, and you can find that also at kut.org slash signal. Jake Perlman is our technical director, Alexandra Hart is our producer, and Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer. I’m your host, Jerry Kikano. Austin Signal is gonna be back at the same time tomorrow. We’ll 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.
