Austin Signal

The city of Taylor has made a deal with developers on a proposed data center in an unincorporated part of Williamson County. Officials say the city can impose regulations on the development, but neighbors aren’t sure about what comes next.

The median age of the Austin area’s population skews young, but that is changing, and fast.

Hear about a family’s journey and mission to bring Baja-style flavors to Austin at Ensenada ATX.

The weekend is almost here, and we’ve got a roundup of interesting artsy things going on around town.

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.

Jennifer Stayton [00:00:08] The City of Taylor has made a deal with developers on a proposed data center in an unincorporated part of Williamson County. Officials say the city can impose regulations on the development, but neighbors aren’t sure about what comes next. The median age of the Austin area’s population skews young, but that is changing and fast. That’s coming up on today’s show. The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jennifer Staten. Hear about a family’s journey and mission to bring Ensenada Baja-style flavors to Austin. Plus, I know it’s only Thursday, but the weekend is almost here, so we’ve got KUT’s Artbeat editor Stephanie Federico to talk about the interesting artsy things going on around town this weekend for our Where the Art is segment. That and more up next on Austin Signal. Hi Austin, it’s Thursday, October 15th, 2026. I’m Jennifer Staten. This is Austin Signal. The City of Taylor has agreed to a deal with developers of a proposed data center in an unincorporated area of Williamson County. Officials say the deal let the city impose regulations on the development, but as KUT’s Kaylee Hunt reports, the agreement still leaves the project’s neighbors uncertain.

Kailey Hunt [00:01:37] About what comes next. When Loma Cox bought her 17 acre property just outside Taylor city limits three years ago, she thought it would be her forever home. It has a built-in pool, a pond, and most importantly, her children and grandchildren.

Loma Cox [00:01:52] I purchased this as a family compound. It had two previously and I just did a third home on it. So we’ve got three homes for three generations of my family.

Kailey Hunt [00:02:04] But now, the proposed data center across the street has Cox rethinking things. BigWatt Digital and Powerhouse data centers are set to turn the empty 664-acre property into a sprawling data center facility with its own natural gas power plant.

Loma Cox [00:02:20] They’re saying that they’re gonna provide their own power, but it’s gas. And then think of what that does to the air, that pollutes the air.

Kailey Hunt [00:02:27] Under the deal the Taylor City Council approved, the city will annex the property. Council members say the annexation will allow the city to better manage the impacts of the project, including air pollution. Though she doesn’t live within Taylor City limits, Cox says she supports the annexations.

Loma Cox [00:02:44] My initial gut instinct is to say that I think it’s better to have something in place that requires these people to have to do something to protect us, the people that live right.

Kailey Hunt [00:02:56] By them. But she has real concerns about how the city will enforce any regulations on the project. So does her neighbor, Margaret Matta. How’s that going to work?

Margaret Matza [00:03:07] Going to be a constant babysitting. That’s the way I see it.

Kailey Hunt [00:03:11] Matza has lived on her property for 35 years, and, like Cox, thought it would be her forever home. In addition to the environmental impacts, both women are also seriously concerned about how the project will affect their property values. Matza says the plan was to eventually leave her property to her children.

Margaret Matza [00:03:31] We assumed we, you know, I could pass the home and what little piece of patch of land I do have to my children. And basically if it’s worthless now, they have no inheritance. They inherit nothing.

Kailey Hunt [00:03:47] There’s still a lot that’s not known about the data center here. Developers still need to get permits for the onsite power plant. It’s not clear when they’ll break ground. In the meantime, both Mata and Cox are trying to decide whether to stay or to leave now and get what they can for their properties. I’m Kayleigh Hunt and Williamson County.

Jennifer Stayton [00:04:15] Okay, get ready, here comes some numbers about the Austin area. The median age is around 35 years old. About 72 percent of the area’s population is in workforce age groups older than children, but younger than 65. So safe to say Austin skews young, but that’s changing and pretty fast. As part of KUT’s Longview Project on Aging in Austin, senior editor Saida Carrillo and I talked with City of Austin demographer, Lila Valencia, about Austin by the numbers. And by the way, the Austin metro area means Bastrop, Caldwell, Hayes, Travis, and Williamson counties, unless we specifically mention the city of Austin.

Syeda Carillo [00:04:54] We all know Austin to have this reputation as a city that is young and hip and attracts those young professionals. Does the data on age bear that out?

Lila Valencia [00:05:04] Oh, absolutely. So Austin’s population or its age distribution is really heavily weighted by the young workforce. We see the bulk of our population really being made up of those working ages from about 20 to 45 years of age. But Austin is still aging just as fast as the country, and it’s actually aging faster than pure cities. Why is Austin’s population aging faster? What do you mean by that? Austin tends to have pretty low fertility rates. Those younger workers typically wait a little bit longer before they’re gonna have children. We’re also a college town, so a lot of those young people who may be having children in other places are kind of holding off until graduation here in Austin. We also have very high levels of educational attainment. And so typically people with higher levels of education tend to have fewer children. We also have a really growing older population.

Syeda Carillo [00:06:08] Can you tell us about what has caused some of these changes, perhaps keeping older folks aging in place in Austin or contributing to the growth of that population?

Lila Valencia [00:06:19] In the 1990s and 2000s, our peak migration rates were for those people that were really in, you know, like 18 to about 24 or so. In the 2010s and since then, the peak migration rate are really attributed to people who are closer to 30. Some of that, you can also be attributed to changes in affordability, right? You can’t really come to Austin if you can’t afford to live here. And so that means that people who have, you know, sort of an entry level job, they might not be able to live here in Austin. So maybe they choose a different place to live.

Jennifer Stayton [00:06:56] We hear anecdotally that seniors move here because their kids are here, their grandkids are here. Maybe their kids got jobs here, moved here. Is that a phenomenon that is impacting that growing upper age level?

Lila Valencia [00:07:09] So we do have some data on sort of the characteristics of people who move into the area and it depends on where people are coming from, right? So if they’re moving from other parts of Texas, they tend to be, you know, fairly young. People who are coming out of state can oftentimes have higher median ages than the Austin population. And so that does suggest that there could be, you know more seniors that are moving to the area from other part of the country. When we look at where seniors who live alone live in Austin, they typically live within the city of Austin. And when we look data of seniors who live with their children, they tend to live in the suburbs. And so that suggests that they may be moving into those areas where their families are located throughout the metro region, but maybe not necessarily to Austin.

Syeda Carillo [00:08:02] Do you have any data on multi-generational households and how many seniors in our area are living with children or grandchildren?

Lila Valencia [00:08:11] What we know is that about 30% or so in the city of Austin and maybe a little bit closer to like about a quarter or so of older population in the Austin metro area are seniors who live alone. Most other seniors live with their partners, with their spouses. There are about maybe 10 to 15% who live with they’re grown children. The number of multi-generational households has been growing in Austin, but it makes up a fairly small share of all households. It’s about 5% of Austin specifically. Most of those households are actually made up by Hispanic families. Over half of those multi- generational households are Hispanic families, next largest share in the city of Austin is made up of black multi- generation households. We’ve seen a really rapid growth of Asian multi-generational households. They are definitely the fastest growing. And then the smallest share is made up by white multi- generational households. Can you break?

Jennifer Stayton [00:09:19] Down the age demographics for the Austin area by race and ethnicity.

Lila Valencia [00:09:26] The population that’s really experiencing the greatest sort of indicators of aging is the non-Hispanic white population in Austin. They have the highest median age at about 36. They also make up the the largest share of the population at 65 and older. They are about 65 percent of the total senior population and then the youngest population is the Hispanic population. They have a median age closer to right under 30. They tend to, you know, have lower fertility rates. They also tend to have a significant share that is immigrant or foreign born. And so immigrants, when they come here, they sort of self-select to come around working ages. And so they tend to be younger for those reasons. And then that’s followed by the Asian population that also has, you that sort of immigrant component. But when we look at who’s growing older the fastest, that’s definitely the Asian population has really been growing the sort of senior population much more quickly. And that’s, of course, because the Asian population is now really starting to build roots in Austin. And so they’ve been here for a few decades now. They’re growing their families. And now they’re aging in the Austin metro area. Where do you see Austin’s population headed as it relates. To seniors? Austin’s senior population is the fastest growing age group, right, in the population, and it’s going to continue to be so for the next 10 to 20 years, especially among the oldest senior population, so those that are 75 and older. Our projections for the city of Austin really indicate that the older population will grow from a current rate of about 11 percent to over 28 percent. That really puts both Texas and Austin, especially in what demographers often call, you know, a super-aged society. But as the older population really, you know starts to grow, it’ll also continue to diversify, to reflect more and more the Austin that we see today. By what year are you projecting it? Out to 2060. And that’s for the city of Austin alone because I don’t produce projections for the metro area. What does that mean for the impacts on Austin? When we have a population that’s aging, demographers often think about things like the impact on the workforce. So that means that we are likely to have fewer and fewer workers in our economy. And so how do we support that? Or how do attract more young workers to be able to provide that workforce? We also think about, you know, sort of the impacts. Especially on demands for services in terms of health care.

Jennifer Stayton [00:12:16] Of Austin demographer Lila Valencia talking with me and KUT senior editor Saida Carrillo for KUT’s Longview Project on aging in Austin. We’ve got more Austin Signal right after this. This is the Austin Signal. Welcome back. A jazz legend, a University of Texas student and a landmark hotel in Austin, this week in 1931, Louis Armstrong performed at the Driscoll Hotel. In a concert that potentially altered civil rights history. That concert would leave a lasting impression on a UT freshman named Charles Black, who would later cite it as an inspiration for his work, Fighting Segregation. Jason Mellard with the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University tells us the story.

Jason Mellard [00:13:07] This week in Texas music history, a UT student witnesses a jazz concert that alters the course of history. On October 12, 1931, Louis Armstrong performed a concert at Austin’s Driscoll Hotel that sent ripples through civil rights history decades later. Armstrong was then at a critical moment in his career. He had just wrapped up his genre-defining time with the Hot Five and was entering a new era of improvisations on American standards that would make Armstrong among the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. His key recordings of Stardust and Georgia On My Mind came just three weeks after this Austin tour date. This particular concert holds additional weight because of someone who is in attendance, or at least who that someone would become in the wake of hearing Armstrong play. Charles Black, then a freshman at the University of Texas, was utterly transformed. He later said of that night that it is impossible to overstate the significance in 1931 of a 16-year-old white Southern boy seeing genius for the first time in a black artist. Charles Black later wrote those words about the concert’s role in his life after having worked with the NAACP on the victorious 1954 Brown v. Board Supreme Court case declaring school segregation unconstitutional. At a reception at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom in the wake of that victory, Thurgood Marshall introduced Charles Black as a white man from Texas who’s been with us all the way. Following the celebration in Harlem, Charles Black went home. Put Armstrong’s Savoy Blues on the record player, and reflected on the concert that changed his life as well as the course of legal history. I have felt that it was just then, at the Driscoll in 1931, he wrote, that I started walking toward the Brown case, where I belonged. Every person in the South of those days must have had some doubts about racism, but Louis opened my eyes wide and put to me a choice.

Jennifer Stayton [00:15:10] That was Jason Mellard with the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University. Christina Everett and her family opened a Baja style food truck, Ensenada ATX in Austin in June, 2022. Tacos of Texas podcast host Mondo Rayo interviewed Christina about her family’s journey and their mission to bring Ensenado flavors to Austin.

Mando Rayo [00:15:41] Well, tell me a little bit about how you all started with this whole idea around really entrepreneurship. You’re making your own salsa, you have the truck. Where did those early beginnings come from?

Cristina Everett [00:15:55] Oh, wow. Like I would have to say that we’ve always been entrepreneurs. My mom, even when we were in school, she would sell cheesecakes, you know, and she was always doing things to fund like the school and stuff like. So my dad also had his neon sign business in Mexico. So I think we really grew up, you know, in the entrepreneurial world, you know, and we were raised in Mexico our whole life and it just evolved. Somehow we got into the food industry. Well, I did, you And the Encinada food truck started because my sister moved out to Austin.

Mando Rayo [00:16:32] Okay, yeah.

Cristina Everett [00:16:33] And she married a guy from Texas, from Austin, and then when she moved out here, she was like, Mom, there’s like no tacos and like I miss our Baja style tacos. There’s nothing like that out here. So my brother-in-law, you know, like with my sister, convinced my mom to come out here and start, you now, Insanala ATX. And I tagged along because I had previous experience at food trucks, running two food tricks in San Diego. So, we all just kind of joined into that together and we just, you know, this was the first time my mom was doing something like this. So, I get props to hurry to just be like saying, I’m moving from Mexico to Austin to like start this, you know. So, just, I think we just have it in the blood to be honest. Because even my daughter who’s 13 now, like she’s such a big entrepreneur. She has her Brownie business. She has like a.

Mando Rayo [00:17:24] I know she’s on social media too, I see her doing the video.

Cristina Everett [00:17:28] Yes. So it’s really cool. We just have it in us, I believe, you know, and it’s really nice. And this time we get to do it together. You know, we get to do together because Ensenada was just something that really brought us together to do. And we all realized really quickly that we all had our different strengths, you know. And I think that that was such a big key and making Ensenadas a success, you know? Because my mom was really good at one thing, I was really good at another. My sister was really going on and my daughter was really I don’t know, so. It’s just combined.

Mando Rayo [00:17:59] You got like like multiple generations of Latina power. Yes

Cristina Everett [00:18:03] power. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly, literally my mom, my sister and myself and crystal my daughter being third generation.

Jennifer Stayton [00:18:17] That was Mondo Ryo, host of the Tacos of Texas podcast. We’ve got KUT’s art beat editor, Stephanie Federico, here to talk about the interesting artsy things going on around town for our Where the Art Is segment. Stephanie, thanks for talking with us here on Austin Signal. Happy to be here, Jen. Okay, so Stephanie, I like to plan chronologically. So let’s go through some Saturday options first. Now there’s a fascinating event sounds really fascinating from Austin Cantorum. Who are they and tell us what this event is.

Stephanie Federico [00:18:50] Jen, I’m really excited about this. I actually just went to a rehearsal on Wednesday. We’re going to have a story running tomorrow. This is a local chamber choir made up of about 28 singers. They’re doing this concert called Visionary. And it’s based on a playlist that researchers at John Hopkins came up with for participants in their studies on the effects of psychedelics. In treating depression and PTSD. So there’s this playlist. It’s eight hours long. It like mimics an actual.

Jennifer Stayton [00:19:20] Oh, is the performance eight hours long? No, it’s not.

Stephanie Federico [00:19:21] No, it’s not. They were the directors being kind. So it’s like an hour and 20 minutes or so. But it mimics the arc of like a mushroom trip. And you’ve got this rise and onset and peak and descent. And it’s going to be gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. And it’s free. It’s over at First English Lutheran Church right near us here in Saturday, yeah.

Jennifer Stayton [00:19:48] I’ve got a ton more questions, but you say a story’s coming out on it. So I will wait and hear more in your story. That one sounds pretty intense, Stephanie. So let’s move on to another option for Saturday. This one we actually heard a little bit about on the signal yesterday from Austin Creative Reuse. Tell us about this fashion show. Yeah.

Stephanie Federico [00:20:05] I’m really also really excited about this. And I got to be there when one of the designers was creating a look that she’s gonna put down the runway on Saturday. So Austin Creative Reuse is like this, it’s like a shop of donated crafty things and it has all sorts of things in the shop. And they have this annual fashion show where people make clothing out of reused and recycled materials. And you could use anything. And I’m just like. Blown away by how creative people are. And one of the designers I met and did a story on, she used a lot of cracked pickle balls that she kind of smushed and melted into flowers and pinned onto these outfits. And yeah, it’s gonna be really cool. Fashion show on Saturday. It’s at Mueller, their little branch park pavilion over there.

Jennifer Stayton [00:20:56] Now that sounds like a must-see with a pickleball, so everybody file that away. Now Stephanie, I think you also wanted to point out a show that’s closing on Saturday. Tell us about that one.

Stephanie Federico [00:21:06] These, this is over at Ivester Contemporary in the Canopy building. This is Christine Garvey. She’s an Austin-based painter. It’s called Parlor Tricks. And the paintings she has are really striking. They’re kind of messy and feral. These are, there’s some like really beautiful colors that she uses, but there’s a lot of like levitating women and bodies sawed in half and. The exhibit is an exploration of female archetypes. And it kind of reflects the psychological complexity of being a woman in this day and age. There’s like references to magic and patron saints. And one thing it says on the iVester website is that the exhibit asks the question, who gets to create the stories and symbols through which women understand themselves? And so, yeah, that’s closing on Saturday. So check it out while you can.

Jennifer Stayton [00:21:59] To check that out is Saturday. And then Stephanie, one more thing, tell us about, this is spanning both days, now moving on Saturday and Sunday. Lots of people may be familiar with Art from the Streets. They’ve been doing an annual show and sale for a long time. It’s coming up this weekend. Tell us about that.

Stephanie Federico [00:22:14] Yeah, it’s over at Blue Genie on both Saturday and Sunday. This is art from the streets is like a place where people experiencing homelessness. They have this space where they can paint and be creative. And last year, well, they do this every year. It’s an annual event where they have a sale and a show. And last, year more than 2,000 pieces were for sale by 55 different unhoused artists. And I imagine it will probably be similar this year. The artwork costs around $35 and up, and 95% of every sale goes back to the artist. So it’s a really special event, and you might be surprised at by how much talent you see there, so.

Jennifer Stayton [00:22:49] Well, we’ve been speaking with Stephanie Federico, Artbeat editor here at KUT. Stephanie, thank you for coming in. Thanks, Jen. You can find out more about what’s going on in the Austin art world by signing up for the Artbeat newsletter at kut.org slash Artbeat. We’ll have a link to that. Sign up in today’s podcast show notes. Today on Austin Signal. Thank you to Stephanie Federico for coming on the show today. Caroline Feil is our technical director. Alexandra Hart is our producer. Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer. Jimmy Moss is our showrunner. And I’m your host, Jennifer Staten. Be sure to join us tomorrow.

This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.