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The SAFE Alliance is preparing to make millions of dollars in cuts starting this summer. This could include closing a downtown shelter and the end of services that provide additional housing assistance for people leaving abusive situations.
After public outcry over the unexpected demolition of former East Austin cafe, Cenote, the developer of the property has committed to maintaining what’s left of the historic building it originally promised to preserve. The problem?There’s just one wall left standing. Austin Current’s Sam Stark stops by to talk about it.
Model Railroading has been a popular hobby pretty much as long as trains have been around. Steven Jacobs has been a fan for about half a century. He spoke with Mike Lee about it for the This is My Thing Podcast.
Plus, what is the best Texas rap anthem? We’ve got plenty of tracks to choose from across the state, and the fellas over at The Breaks are searching for a winner. We’ll talk about the choices.
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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 [00:00:08] The SAFE Alliance is preparing to make millions of dollars in cuts starting this summer. That includes closing a downtown shelter and the end of services that provide additional housing assistance to people leading an abusive situation. We’ve got that story, and after public outcry over the unexpected demolition of a former cafe in East Austin, the developer of the land has committed to maintaining what’s left of the historic building it originally promised to preserve. The problem? Well, there’s only a single wall left standing. More about that coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:39] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:44] Plus, what is the Texas rap anthem? We’ve got a decent selection to choose from across the state. The fellas over at the breaks are seeking the one true anthem. We’re gonna talk to them about it. That’s up next, right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal brought to you by Community Powered Public Radio, KUT News. I’m your host Jerry Keconnell, thank you for making us part of your Thursday. It is April 9th and rain chances are moving back into the Austin area, the National Weather Service giving us a 40% chance of some showers today, 60% on Friday, 40% on Saturday, 50% on Sunday. And it looks like these rain chances could stay with us into next week, of course it’s always a little too early to tell, but we’re going to keep you updated on the latest right here on Austin Signal and over at KUT News. Each year the SAFE Alliance provides help to thousands of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. That includes places to stay, counseling, and other services as needed. But now the organization is dealing with a drop in government funding, which could lead to the end of several programs. KUT’s Luz Moreno Lozano has the story.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:02:10] The organization provides about 20 programs to families leaving domestic violence and sexual assault situations. Four of those could be forced to close this year because of a lack of funds. Those programs help house women and children who’ve escaped dangerous situations, programs that keep children safe, and one that performs forensic exams on sexual assault victims. The nonprofit says it’s lost about $4 million over the last year. That includes two million from local, state, and federal funds. Pierre Beresine is the executive director for the SAFE Alliance.
Pierre Beresine [00:02:42] If an organization were operating just a domestic violence shelter, they wouldn’t have access to that whole ecosystem from Planet Safe to Eloise House to Bridge to Safety to health care navigation, court accompaniment, children’s services, therapeutic and counseling services. And I can just go on and on and because survivors have complex lives.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:03:05] He says it’s what makes the safe program model so effective, and without it, people and children could suffer. He says beyond government funding, private donors are feeling the pinch of the rise in cost of living.
Pierre Beresine [00:03:17] Quite a long time now, the SAFE Alliance has provided some core services that benefit austenites and benefit systems that now are under threat if we don’t have an appropriate multi-party investment in our services.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:03:36] One of those investments is the overnight emergency shelter the organization operates in downtown Austin that helps families and their children. Without funding, the facility could close in October.
Pierre Beresine [00:03:45] Currently, right now, we have 55 children in that shelter. 55 children whose parents experienced domestic abuse, physical abuse. And what happens if that shelter closes is that you have 55 and their mothers, for the most part, who have nowhere else to go.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:04:08] Makani Kauck was one of those mothers. For years, she endured abuse from her partner before becoming pregnant. She couldn’t turn to her family, so she ended up living in a tent with her then two-year-old daughter. After her abuser threatened their lives, Safe stepped in, offering her and her daughter shelter. They lived there for several months.
Makani Kauck [00:04:27] So we ended up using lots of different services. We used supportive housing, which was great because it came with the added security, it came the added case management.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:04:37] Today, Calc’s daughter is 13 years old. She visits her dad on some weekends through a secure child exchange program called Planet Safe, another program that could close this summer without funding.
Makani Kauck [00:04:46] A lot of us as survivors are co-parenting with our rapists and our abusers. Planet Safe is so crucial to that. They actually retrieved my child when they were kidnapped at one point. But I still co- parent with my abuser and it’s scary, it’s really scary.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:05:06] The Safe Alliance doesn’t just focus on getting people away from their abusers and providing shelter. Another program that could close this summer works to keep families together. Jo Meyer and her daughter were able to be reunited with help from Safe Futures. As a young mom, she had started doing drugs, which resulted in her daughter being removed from her custody. She had to work to get her back, but she did it. She got sober, she got a steady job, and with the support of her Safe Futurs advocate, she was able to navigate the court system and her CPS case. Myra says the outgate was one of the only people.
Jo Meyer [00:05:38] She trusted. She was somebody who was not, did not work for the court system or CPS. That was like an outside entity that I could like tell everything to about what had happened and what’s going on and like just like literally anything and like she was able to like help me in ways that nobody else could. Beyond those specific
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:06:00] program’s funding cuts could mean just less help can be offered. Everything from emergency support to ongoing care. Makani Kalk not only benefited from the SAFE Alliance, but she is now a peer support specialist. She gets to help others heal the same way she did.
Makani Kauck [00:06:16] And it was peer support that really started to heal my heart and my spirit. And I think at the heart of peer support, it’s about connecting with people that have been there and that are going through and living through the same situations. And so we are mutually vulnerable in a lot of ways.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:06:33] SAFE CEO Pierre Berestine says he’s still working to find the money needed to keep those programs running. He’s met with city and state leaders and now local hospitals.
Pierre Beresine [00:06:42] It’s not on the city alone to figure out. It’s none of the county alone to figure out, right? This is why we are in active conversations with the hospitals right now to ensure that these services stabilize because we prevent folks from coming inappropriately to the emergency room.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:07:00] Austin City officials and the hospital systems have been working with SAFE to find a path forward. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson says he is optimistic about finding a solution to keep all four programs running. I’m Luz Moreno Lozano in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:21] For years, the coffee shop and eatery Cenote occupied what many considered to be an iconic Austin structure built in the late 1800s. Over the years, owners made efforts to preserve the historic site while also maintaining their business, and when they vacated the property, they did so with assurances that the next tenant would have the same viewpoint and preserve the building, and so did the city of Austin. But with nearly all of the property now bulldozed over, with just one wall left many austenites are left wondering what happened. For more, we’re speaking with Sam Stark, government reporter at Austin Current. Great to have you back, Sam. Yeah, thanks for having me. So walk us through the story a little bit. Who first noticed that something was wrong when they looked at this plot of land after construction at?
Sam Stark [00:08:05] Started already. Yeah, so it was actually the former Cenote owner who is now operating her cafe out of a restaurant just a couple of blocks away from the original site. But she saw that the building was reduced to essentially just one wall, the facade of the historic building. She knew the developers who were moving in after she vacated. It was a South Texas developer. Who purchased it, planning to bring a Southern California-based chain, Earth Cafe. They applied for a permit saying at the time they would quote, or the quote, intent would be to preserve as much as possible of the shell, but that’s clearly not what ended up happening.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:49] Yeah, seeing that one wall just there was pretty jarring. What were the original work parameters that the city gave to the new tenants?
Sam Stark [00:08:56] The city told them, or they were okay with their plans to essentially renovate and reconstruct a lot of the facade, but as soon as they saw how much they demolished, they issued a stop work order and which still remains in effect this week.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:13] Okay, well this destruction has gotten a lot of people upset. What is the reasoning behind that? Is it because Austin is already changing so much and here’s one more piece of Austin that’s gone away? Or is it more so a focus on this iconic home that was in East Austin?
Sam Stark [00:09:28] Yeah, well, this this structure specifically had people had their eyes on that for being preserved, it was on a list of buildings with a high priority of being preserved. But especially on East Austin, where a lot of historic and older buildings have been demolished, people are sensitive to when something like this occurs. But the developers actually had to go back in front of the historic landmark commission last week and the historic Landmark commissioners did not hide their disappointment from the developers. What did you hear at that meeting? So the developing team told them that when their intent was to preserve as much as the building as possible, but when they started demolishing it, they realized that the damage was far beyond what they expected. And they had to demolish what was there in order for it not to collapse. But the commissioners did not necessarily buy this excuse. They said if they were well versed in preservation. They would have recognized that these are common issues one might encounter when working with older buildings. They said instead of proceeding with the demolition, they should have consulted with a preservation expert or with the commission for advice if they were serious about preserving the structure.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:41] There is now a stop-work order on this property. What does that mean for the?
Sam Stark [00:10:45] Future of the land? So the developer actually will go in front of the commission’s architectural review committee this afternoon, or Wednesday afternoon, to outline the proposed rebuilds. Without official historic designation though, the commission power is limited to giving advice, so after they present their plans, it is expected that they will be able to proceed with building that new cafe.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:08] Okay, there are certainly lots of upset feelings around this story and many people are calling for consequences. Is that likely to happen? I mean, is it even possible for consequences in this kind of matter?
Sam Stark [00:11:19] Yeah, so one group with a vested interest in this type of stuff is Preservation Austin, and they were very disappointed in this process. They told me that they think it’s time that we figure out a way to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again, calling it unacceptable. Right now, however, there is no indication of a new ordinance or code to prevent this from happening in the future. But they said just getting the word out about situations like this is helpful.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:46] Okay Sam, before we let you go, in your role at Austin Current you also work hand-in-hand with Austin PBS on the show Austin Insight that airs Thursdays at 7 p.m. What are you working on this week?
Sam Stark [00:11:56] Yeah, so my story is on the cumbersome rollout of the new short-term rental regulations. On July 1st, all short-terms rentals on sites like Airbnb and VRBO will need to have a license listed, but some of the short- term rental operators I spoke to say the convoluted process is likely to make some operators miss the deadline.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:15] All right, that is on Austin Insight that airs Thursdays at 7 p.m. We have been speaking with Sam Stark, government reporter for Austin Current, our partners in covering the city of Austin. Sam, it’s always great to talk with you. Great to be here. We’ll be back after a break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. Model railroading has been a popular hobby pretty much as long as trains have been around. Steven Jacobs has been fan for about half a century now. He spoke with Mike Lee about it for the This Is My Thing podcast.
Mike Lee [00:12:56] Going over the bridge, you’re going to turn the shift. And this is something you’ve been doing for decades.
Stephen Jacobs [00:13:03] My dad passed on a train set to me when i was ten years old it didn’t take for him as a hobby but it took for me every boy needs an obsession at that age and i found a good one least i think i thought
Mike Lee [00:13:23] So what do you think it was about that first train, when you were 10 years old, that just kind of grabbed your brain and made you love it?
Stephen Jacobs [00:13:32] So I think it was that I could create a whole complicated world, that I could really track work such that it would move in complicated ways and could simulate what real trains do, which move with purpose. It was something I could always go to and add in terms of details, whether it was building or painting cars, learned about electricity, learned about woodworking. I learned a little bit about metalworking, I could create things. So we are in our spare room which I share with my wife and what we have is it’s about 11 by 14 is a built over time a shelf that holds the trains halfway around the room so what you’re looking at is a mythical might-have-been railroad that would have run between Austin and Taylor northeast of here was a big railroad town Taylor was and that’s where we started. So we’ll start over here.
Mike Lee [00:14:34] When you were 10, how long did it take between opening that box and realizing you were a train guy?
Stephen Jacobs [00:14:41] It didn’t take very long. This is up in Northern Wisconsin. We lived in a city called superior on Lake superior. And it’s cold up there for 10 months of the year. So guys are down in their basements with their model railroads began spending a lot of time at the hobby shop by time was 14. I was spending so much time there that they hired me. So
Mike Lee [00:15:00] You’re going to be there anyway.
Stephen Jacobs [00:15:01] I was going to be there anyway and I did not take much money home, got paid a buck and a quarter an hour and didn’t even take that home, but I took a lot of product home, some of which I’ve still got and still put to use today. And you’ll hear…
Mike Lee [00:15:29] And to see what looks to be possibly a work in progress over here of a boxcar.
Stephen Jacobs [00:15:33] We have a, yep, we have a box car in progress, it’s in the paint booth. You’ll hear an exhaust fan and a compressor, we’ll fire it up, do that quite a bit here because one of the things I really enjoy is…
Mike Lee [00:15:48] I know that you can go into a hobby store and buy little buildings and things to put in a train layout. Do you buy some of yours or I know you make some as well?
Stephen Jacobs [00:15:59] So, the part that really attracts me, gives me energy, is the creative part, you know, this little myth I made up about Austin and Taylor, that’s one, but the other is fashioning something that didn’t exist before. To be honest, I don’t buy anything without improving it. Absolutely nothing is as it would have come out of the box.
Mike Lee [00:16:24] Did you know that you needed that sort of creative outlet or did that just sort of come?
Stephen Jacobs [00:16:30] Good question. So a lot of people like things settled. I’m not someone that likes them settled and if they are settled my instinct is to unsettle it. I’ve always been of the mind that things can be improved and maybe it’s because I was the youngest of five and the job description is you have to be the rebel. The older ones are the rule makers and you want to be the rule reshapers.
Mike Lee [00:16:58] You must come from a very wholesome family if you’re the family rebel, and as a teenager you were working at a hot shop and building model trains.
Stephen Jacobs [00:17:07] Not a wild child, I admit.
Mike Lee [00:17:09] There are plenty of ways to rebel. Yeah, that’s right. They don’t have to be destroyed.
Stephen Jacobs [00:17:14] That’s right.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:20] That was model railroading enthusiast Steven Jacobs speaking with Mike Lee for the This Is My Thing podcast. We’re going to have a link in our show notes so you can listen to the full episode that is This Is My Things. Brackets for this year’s men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments wrapped up in the past couple of days, but there is still one competition looking to crown its champion. For more about that, we are talking with the hosts of The Breaks, Fresh Night and Confucius Jones. Welcome back to the show, fellas. Thanks for having me. Thanks.
Fresh Knight [00:17:49] Thanks for having us. I feel like a regular.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:50] You are becoming regulars very quickly very quickly. So let’s talk about that competition. I mentioned y’all been playing that out over the last few weeks on the breaks What is the competition?
Fresh Knight [00:18:00] It is a March Madness Final Four style bracket of the Texas rap anthems. So songs that we or most Texan rap fans would deem an anthem for the state of Texas once you hear it.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:17] 64 just like the 64 Texas rap anthem
Fresh Knight [00:18:23] I think the initial list we had we were probably closer to 64. Okay. Okay, I think we Initially had maybe 40 to 50 songs. Okay But we whittled it down to 16 which it took a lot. Okay? So who were some of those 16? 16 we started with were little flips. I can do that June 27th by DJ screw 25 lighters 25 light years DJ DMD most hit it down by zero, which I am surprised
Jerry Quijano [00:18:53] Okay, I was definitely gonna ask y’all about about upsets in the tournament, but were there any Austin are there any, Austin Texas rap anthems
Fresh Knight [00:19:01] Fortunately, there were not. It was very Houston heavy, because I just think Houston is the purveyor and steward of the culture here in Texas, so most of the songs that you would know off the top of your head come from Houston.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:17] Okay, so you mentioned a song that you didn’t anticipate was going to be knocked out. What were the biggest upsets?
Confucius Jones [00:19:24] Most of the time, definitely. I’ve been in parties before. Fresh has been in a party where that song comes on and everybody knows the words to it. I thought it would at least make the final four, it didn’t. I thought maybe 25 lighters would make it to the last two and it didn’t so that was my two upsets. I might have to think about it.
Fresh Knight [00:19:42] My biggest upset would be Mo City Dawn, much like Confucius. Like he said, we’ve both been in functions where the song comes on, and even before people play the verse from Zero, they ask you, like, if you’re not from Texas… If you don’t know this song, then you’re not from Texas. I need to hear y’all say it.” And then the whole crowd will know the song word for word. And most people would probably say, if you asked them what the anthem for Texas is, they would probably go to zeroes most of the time. But fortunately, it was knocked out of the first round.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:14] Okay, okay, and who’s been voting on-
Confucius Jones [00:20:17] Just anybody who visits the KU T.
Fresh Knight [00:20:18] KUTX.org. It’s available for you to vote at KUTx.org, so shout out to the fans for going and voting, man.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:25] There’s some upsets right like yes, that’s why you play the games were you to say?
Confucius Jones [00:20:27] Were you gonna say something, Fishus? No, I was gonna say, I thought Riding Dirt by Comedian would go further, too. That was a huge song, but.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:34] Okay, well you guys already mentioned some big songs, so I’m kind of nervous to figure out what the Final Four are, where are we at in the competition.
Fresh Knight [00:20:40] The final four are as stands Mike Jones still tipping featuring Slim Thug and Paul Wall UGK with international players anthem featuring outcasts DJ DMD 25 lighters featuring a little Kiki and fat pat and Look Kiki solo with Southside
Jerry Quijano [00:20:58] Okay. Okay. And you said that people can vote over at kutx.org. I was listening to your show on Saturday and y’all were talking about bootlegging albums, right? Like songs that you heard way, way, way before on a bootleg version than you heard on the official CD version. So of these 16 Texas rap anthems, how many did you hear on bootleg and how many you hear on a CD that you purchased from a store.
Confucius Jones [00:21:21] You know is it overwhelming on one side to the other I see the list again But if I had to put a percentage on it probably 90% of those songs. I heard
Fresh Knight [00:21:28] I was about to say the majority of those songs I probably heard like somebody downloading it from Lime War and putting it on a burnt CD first before officially hearing it.
Confucius Jones [00:21:37] They spoon like Houston music really heavily down here, too. So I didn’t get an actual real like switch out CD for years
Fresh Knight [00:21:43] I don’t think I’ve ever had a real official Swisher house.
Confucius Jones [00:21:45] I didn’t know where to get them at. Every place I went to had the bootlegs.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:50] Okay, well that was part of what y’all talked about on Saturday. You also talked a little bit about Jay Cole’s recent publicity tour that he’s been going on. You can hear the breaks every Saturday from 10 to 1 a.m. On KUTX and wherever you get your podcasts. What are you all talking about this weekend?
Confucius Jones [00:22:05] We’re talking about this Gucci Mane and Pooch Icedee altercation. And we also have an interview with Tiana Major-Nine, an R&B artist from London who has worked with Babyface, been Grammy nominated, and is trying to build up her profile here in the States. Very cool, well
Jerry Quijano [00:22:21] You know, it’s not often that the what happens on the brakes overlaps with what happens in the KUT newsroom But somebody asked last weekend. Does anybody know who Gucci Mane is? So like now I’m actually Well, we’ll have to bring you into the conversation but check that out again Saturday nights from 10 to 1 a.m And wherever you get the podcast wherever you’d get your podcast. We’ve been chatting with Confucius Jones and fresh night They are the hosts of the brakes. Thanks guys. Thanks for being regulars. Thanks And thank you for spending the Thursday afternoon here with us on Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We will be back with you tomorrow. Have a great day. Be safe out there.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
