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Changes are coming to where people can and cannot ride electric bikes and scooters on the UT Austin campus.
An invasive aquatic plant is expressing itself in some local waterways after it was essentially eradicated close to a decade ago.
An annual movie festival all about the intersection of film and music is, for the first time, being produced entirely here in Austin. Their story and what to see at Sound Unseen.
Plus: Summer break is almost over, but the heat isn’t going away, so we’ve got some frosty recommendations to help you cool off.
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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] Changes are coming to where you can and cannot ride your bike on the UT Austin campus, but the new restrictions are only expected to impact electric bikes and scooters, we’ll tell you what we know so far. And there’s an invasive aquatic plant that’s expressing itself in some local waterways that’s after it was essentially eradicated close to a decade ago. More about that back and forth that’s coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:31] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Kehanel.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:36] An annual movie festival all about the intersection of film and music is, for the first time, being produced entirely right here in Austin. We’ll tell you their story and what to see at Sound Unseen. Plus, summer break is almost over, but the heat isn’t going away. We’ve got some frosty recommendations to help you cool off. That’s coming up next. It’s right here on Austin Signal. Bye. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Kekano. It is Thursday, the sixth day of August. Thank you for tuning in to listener-supported public radio. This is KUT News. New orange signage on the UT Austin campus has some folks worried about bike use through a main corridor of the 40 acres, but university officials say it’s not going to affect every set of wheels that rolls across the campus. Here to tell us more is Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vazquez. She is KUT’s education reporter. Welcome back to the show, Greta.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:01:41] Hi Jerry!
Jerry Quijano [00:01:42] So this kerfuffle traces back to some new signs on campus, I mentioned those, and some regulations that were posted on the campus website. But let’s start with the signs, what exactly do they say?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:01:52] Yeah, so there are signs that were posted on Speedway Mall and they show, they say dismount sewn, walk your wheels, and they showed a person with a bike and a scooter next to him. I’m going to say him because it looks like a man, but it does say walk your wheel.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:09] Okay, okay, so the implication here being that any kinds of wheels that you’re rolling through at this point need to be You need to get off of that scooter or that bicycle and walk your wheels, right? That’s what it seems like at least
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:02:21] I mean, yes, without previous information or without more information, that’s what people assumed. There was also a post on or a website on UT’s website earlier last week, and it talked about the dismount zone. It didn’t quite have a lot of details, but people immediately thought it would mean that Speedway will become a dismount so where people wouldn’t be able to ride their bikes or their scooters.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:46] Yeah, which is a big concern because if you ever spend any time here on the UT campus, lots and lots of scooter and bicycle use and obviously lots and lot of pedestrians there as well. This caused a lot of confusion, you’ve spoken to a lot folks, let’s start with UT officials, What did they have to say?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:03:01] Yeah, I talked to UT officials and first they told us they had a new plan coming soon but that they weren’t ready to share any more details and later on they did share a little bit more and they told that the new plan wouldn’t include banning manually operated bikes so that manually operated bike will be safe.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:21] Okay, so this is more for these e-bikes, these assisted bikes.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:03:24] Well, we don’t exactly know more. Those were the details that were shared, but that’s part of what caused a lot of uncertainty among not only the UT community, but also Austinites in general.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:36] Yeah, lots of bikes on our roadways here. Let’s start with the UT community first. You spoke to one student who rides his bike to get to campus, but also rides his bike to East Austin to get work. What did he tell you about these possible changes?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:03:49] Yeah, so that was Eddie Diaz and he doesn’t have a car, so he uses his bag to go everywhere. He said he has been hit twice on San Jacinto or St. Jack or San Jacento. He has been twice there and once by a scooter on Guadalupe. So initially he said he worried that people wouldn’t be able to go on speedway and so because they need to go places quicker, they can’t always walk their bikes, then people would be forced to go in these other two roads where there’s cars and there’s not always a bike path, a protected lane. And I mean, you bike, Gerry, and you know how scary that is.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:29] Absolutely, especially if you’ve already been hit by a car before.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:04:33] Right. So initially without having the information that it wouldn’t affect manually operated bikes, he was very worried about that. And once I told him about the change that UT let us know that it wouldn t affect those bikes, he said he then worried about people who ride electric bikes because they can’t ride a manual one. And he said that also raised questions of like, does this include scooters like electric scooters? Does it not? And also why does this the signs that we are seeing, why do they not? Say exactly that it’s for electric bikes and scooters.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:05] Yeah, because we have a picture of one of these signs at KUT.org, and if I saw that, I would just assume, well, I guess I have to get off of my bike here. It’s not really super clear. But you mentioned that it’s not just students who ride their bikes, there are lots of Austinites use that corridor. Who else did you speak with?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:05:20] Yeah, so I spoke to Alejandro de la Vega, who’s the Chair of the Bicycle Advisory Council of the City of Austin. And he said that any changes that UT makes affect the whole city, especially, you know, people who go from North Austin to downtown, they use a lot of UT’s roads, including the infrastructures, including speedway. So he also mentioned initially when we thought it would include all bikes that, you know, it would push people to unsafe roads and that there’s not enough bike lanes around UT to do that. And then I talked to Michael Hart who uses Speedway regularly. And, um, well, he said, you know, it would affect him. He, but he doesn’t use an electric bike. So once again, once we knew the information, he’s that he had concerns about what it means for people who use e-bikes, but then he also raised the question about the cap Metro’s bike share program because they have a station of electric assist bikes on Speedway. So he said. This is a quote, it’s kind of silly to have an e-bike stand in the middle of a zone that you’re where you’re not allowing e-bikes on. And then he also raised the question of was the community involved in this like that UT asked the community and he asked if there was any analysis or research done before this decision. And you know that UT, yes, while they serve students, they’re also a big part of the city and Austinites are involved so that he would I’d like to see that. UT get an input from everybody. And that’s something that also Eddie Diaz told me, that as a student, he would have liked to see UT reach out and say, hey, we’re making changes. Now, UT is making changes to their plan, their master plan. And on their website, they say they’re gonna get input from people, but so far Diaz said he hadn’t heard anything.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:10] Okay, well, we’re a little less than three weeks away from the start of the school year here on the UT campus. When should we expect more guidance on this dismount zone?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:07:19] So we are expecting to know more next Monday. The UT spokesperson said that they would have more information and they would tell us about the plan on Monday and that they’re very excited to share those changes that will make UT more safe.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:35] Okay, well, when we know more about those changes, we’ll let you know right here on Austin Signal. That is Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez. She is KUT’s education reporter, and we’ll have a link to her reporting in today’s show notes. Thank you, Greta.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:07:47] Thank you, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:53] A non-native invasive aquatic plant has made a major comeback in some of Austin’s waterways. Acreage of hydrilla is near an all-time high, that is according to a memo last month from Austin Watershed Protection to City Council. To help deal with that problem, some are calling for the lowering of Lake Austin. That resurgence comes after nearly a decade of it being virtually eradicated from the lake. But, as Austin signals Alexandra Hart explains, that wasn’t exactly ideal either.
Alexa Hart [00:08:24] Hydrilla has been a pervasive problem in the state for years.
Patrick Ireland [00:08:28] Basically it’s been present in Texas water bodies for many decades. I would say, I think I’ve read that half of Texas public reservoirs have had hydrilla at some point or another.
Alexa Hart [00:08:37] That’s Patrick Ireland, district fisheries biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. They monitor hydrilla and other invasive aquatic species around the state.
Patrick Ireland [00:08:46] So it’s not a new phenomenon. It comes and goes. Oftentimes it’ll show up in a reservoir, proliferate due to ideal conditions such as drought, nutrients, warmth, but then it’ll disappear just on its own.
Alexa Hart [00:08:58] Locally, it’s been particularly bad in Lake Austin. Overgrowth of hydrilla is a problem because it can lead to water quality issues, crowd out native species, and get tangled in boat motors. Brent Spellinger, conservation program supervisor with Austin Watershed Protection, says lowering water levels in reservoirs helps manage hydrila. But during drought, that’s not possible. Plus, hydrilia thrives in drought because water is more stagnant. So it really started growing in the early 2010s when we had a prolonged dry spell. Here’s Spellinger.
Brent Spellinger [00:09:29] You know, unfortunately during the drought period, they weren’t able to do any lowerings. So in response to kind of seeing the plant really take off, because it wasn’t being checked by any large flooding events, and so it was just getting ahead of the grass our consumption.
Alexa Hart [00:09:47] That grass carp he mentioned, it’s a large fish that feeds on hydrilla. Releasing these sterile grass carp into hydrila-infested waterways is one way to manage the problem. The city of Austin originally started doing that in 2003. But as Spellinger mentioned, extended drought was causing the hydrillar growth to outpace what the carp could eat. So in 2011, the city ramped up carp stocking to try to compensate. And it worked. A little too well.
Brent Spellinger [00:10:14] Population got to be so large that then the carp kind of flipped the tables and the hydrilla and all vegetation was effectively eradicated from Lake Austin.
Alexa Hart [00:10:24] By 2014, the large population of carp had eaten all the hydrilla, and having run out of that food source, the carp moved on to eating other plants, until eventually they ate all the other plants. The lack of vegetation persisted for nearly a decade. According to the recent Watershed Protection Department memo to City Council, that event caused, quote, a cascade of negative effects, including increased planktonic algae blooms and a lack of habitat. Leading to a collapse of the fishery and poorer overall water quality,” end quote. But nature heals, and around 2022, native aquatic vegetation began bouncing back, and eventually the hydrilla came back too, which has now rebounded to nearly peak levels. This time though, the city is taking a more measured approach. Residents along Lake Austin are asking for the lake to be lowered, and it’s something that’s being considered. According to Patrick Ireland from TPWD, all the rain we’ve gotten this year may also help disperse nutrients that feed hydrilla as well as pushing some of the plant out of reservoirs.
Patrick Ireland [00:11:27] Optimistically, I think if nature cooperates and we get flows from Lake Travis through, that can actually act as a natural mitigation. So that’s one of the things we watch. Maybe this El Nino year will provide that. We don’t know.
Alexa Hart [00:11:39] Meanwhile, the city of Austin resumed carp stocking last year, and Spellinger says they’re taking it a little more slowly this go-around.
Brent Spellinger [00:11:46] The thing that we’ve tried to emphasize is that this is a long-term, you know, they can have a decadal kind of control and effect on the system. And we don’t want to repeat what happened in 2012, 2013, overreact, overstock.
Alexa Hart [00:12:01] Watershed Protection says it will likely request another grass carp stocking in the fall. I’m Alexandra Hart in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:09] And today, the National Weather Service is forecasting another triple-digit high in Austin. That would be the fifth in a row and the 10th overall this summer. The service expects that the temperature for the next few days is gonna stick below 100, so appreciate that while you have it. And we got more Austin Signal for you after this break. This is Austin Signal. Welcome back. Austin is of course a big music town, most people know that by now, and even better it also has a thriving film industry to boot. This week those two cultures come together for a four day festival, and for KUT’s art beat Stephanie Federico introduces us to the Austin woman who is running it for the first time.
Stephanie Federico [00:12:54] Walking through Becky Ariaga’s house, you can just tell she’s a music person. The hallway leading to her home office is lined with Austin City Limits posters. But that’s not why I’m here. We’re here to talk about movies. Becky is producing Austin’s Sound Unseen Festival this year.
Becky Ariaga [00:13:11] I’m the Technically Festival Director, which is a great fancy title for doer of all things.
Stephanie Federico [00:13:17] Sound Unseen started in Minneapolis in 1999. Becky met the organizer, Jim Brunzel, when he was living briefly in Austin. He told her about this film festival that was all about music.
Becky Ariaga [00:13:29] I’m like, time out, Jim. You do know that we are the live music capital of the world. And he goes, oh, yes, I’ve heard that. And so I was like, we need this festival. Why don’t we have this festival here in Austin?
Stephanie Federico [00:13:40] After she bugged him for a few years, Jim agreed to expand the festival to Austin in 2020. Then last year, he decided to take a break. That gave Becky and other co-producers here a chance to rethink the festival, which had always been held in December. They wanted to suggest a summer run. It’s hot in Austin. People appreciate the AC in a movie theater. But Becky said Jim had an even better idea.
Becky Ariaga [00:14:05] You guys run your own schedule, run your own submissions, and invite the films you want. It’s all yours. This was literally a dream come true for me.
Stephanie Federico [00:14:14] Becky and her all-volunteer team of five people got cracking. After putting out a call, they received more than 200 submissions of movies, videos, and shorts related to music. They fought over their favorites and then finally were able to whittle it down to seven feature-length films and six shorts. They’ll all be shown this weekend at the Austin Film Society Cinema in Central Austin. The four-day program will also feature filmmaker Q&As, live music, and industry meetups.
Becky Ariaga [00:14:42] I mean, we’re a music town and we’re film town. I mean how many cities across the country get to have those two, you know, those two claims to fame. So I love just mixing these two communities together in one theater and seeing what happens.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:14:57] 2, 3, 4
Stephanie Federico [00:15:02] One of the filmmakers showing this year is Lorne Yapp. They produced a short documentary about Meatjoy, an Austin punk band from the 80s. America’s Entertainment Nightmares, the first movie Lauren has directed that’s been in a film festival.
Lorne Yapp [00:15:19] So that means a lot to me. And also this will be the premiere of the film itself publicly. And so I’m glad to be doing it locally at AFS with folks who are just obsessed with music and film. And like, it feels like the perfect audience.
Stephanie Federico [00:15:40] Meat Joy connected with Lauren a couple years ago through Outsider Festival, the annual LGBTQ transmedia arts event in Austin. The experimental band had reunited for a pair of shows and they were looking for someone to make a film about them. Lauren was inspired by how genuine and radical Meat Joy.
Lorne Yapp [00:15:57] So the documentary, it’s a few stories that kind of, I think encapsulates their energy as a band, which is very cooperative, very grassroots, very anyone can do anything, you know, just wanting to encourage each other, like a beginner’s mind, you now. Lauren thought the film was a perfect fit for Sound Unseen. They’re both pretty DIY. You know, like it is all fully locally run and it’s by filmmakers, by music lovers, musicians, like. Who have this passion for that, right?
Stephanie Federico [00:16:29] First of all, director Becky Arriaga says Sound Unseen is going to have a bit more Texas flair this year. Opening night will feature the 20th anniversary screening of the chicks’ Shut Up and Sing. She says the documentary is especially relevant in today’s political climate and looking at what has and has not changed. Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas. A documentary about the Austin punk band Big Boys will also be shown, and there See videos from locals, telenovela, and Mama Duke. Becky can’t wait for those bands to see their work at AFS.
Becky Ariaga [00:17:03] It’s so rewarding to watch their eyes light up when they see their music video on a giant screen versus they’re typically watching it on their phone screen. So that is quite a different experience and that’s just super cool.
Stephanie Federico [00:17:17] She’s also excited to be screening a movie about Grammy Award winner Sara Bareilles.
Soundtrack music [00:17:22] Right on us, say it honestly
Stephanie Federico [00:17:33] The film is called Good Grief. It just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and the director will be in town. Becky says there’s something for everyone and every decade starting with early rock and roll star Eddie Cochran.
Eddie Cochran [00:17:45] I’m a gonna do, but there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues
Becky Ariaga [00:17:51] I only wish that everybody in Austin could watch every one of these films because they’re so good.
Stephanie Federico [00:17:57] She’s already looking ahead to where the local version of the festival goes next. For KUT’s Art Beat, I’m Stephanie Federico in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:12] Well, it’s been said a couple of times on today’s show, but it is very hot out there. And while the summer heat is far from over, summer break is approaching its last days, and one classic way to cool down is by taking in an ice-cold frozen beverage. For the On Our Plates segment, where we talk all things food, drink, and industry here in Austin, I spoke earlier today with Matthew Odom, the restaurant critic for the Austin American Statesman. You know, this isn’t the most conventional, straightforward list of frozen drinks. How did you go about reporting the story?
Matt Odom [00:18:50] So, you know, as you said, it’s hot and nothing’s better than a frozen drink and, you know that could be ice cold water or a smoothie, but you know as part of the job, uh, I’d like to have a drink or two. Uh, so we wanted to run around and find, you know, obviously a frozen margarita is probably the trademark cold drink in Austin and Texas in general, but we wanted to find, uh variations. You know, you just see those frozen machines behind bars all over town. Now, uh people, especially at happy hour offer great deals. Uh, and then in terms of writing it, you know, how, how many words do you really need to spill on a, on a cocktail?
Jerry Quijano [00:19:26] That’s pretty, that’s a good point, I mean, it should be pretty straightforward, I feel like.
Matt Odom [00:19:30] Yeah, I think the name kind of tells you a lot, but I had the idea in talking to my colleague Ana Gutierrez that it would be fun to do this list in haiku style. There’s something simple and clean about it, pun intended, I guess. And so we came up with a list of 10 all over town and we wrote haikus as little modes to those.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:53] Okay, fantastic. You can find the full list of haikus at statesman.com slash restaurants Just to pull the curtain back a little bit because of all the recording hecticness here at KUT today Matthew you and I are recording in studio 1a So I’m gonna ask you to dramatically perform some of these haiku’s if you don’t mind We were you know yodeling before we started recording. So let’s let’s start with the give me the first one What do you what do you have for me?
Matt Odom [00:20:17] Yeah, I feel like this is the closest I’ll ever be to a rock star, yet I’m eating haikus. You know, I was in a neighborhood restaurant in South Austin the other day, the High Road Deli and Bar, and frozen margaritas aren’t my first go-to for a frozen drink. Big Red is not my first goto for a soda, but the Big Red margarita at High Road Deli and Bar really captured me, so the haiku. Marriage of two greats. Vanilla and orange sing Texas forever You know there the people wonder like what is the flavor profile of a big red, you know It’s it tastes like red soda. You know, there’s vanilla and there’s orange in there And so that citrus really works off of the the lime and the citrus and a margarita Uh, it’s it’s a really great drink and it’s pretty to look at as well
Jerry Quijano [00:21:08] All right, that’s not one that I had heard of. I am a big Red fan though, as a native Texan, so that sounds like something that will be right up my alley. Let’s keep the poetry going. What else you got for us?
Matt Odom [00:21:21] Frozen Saturn at Holiday on 7th. The Saturn is a classic cocktail dating back about 100, I think about 60 years and it was made into a Frozen at the bar on East 7th Street. So the Frozen Saturday at Holiday 7th, tropical classic passion fruit and almond glow. I dream of Tiki.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:43] I really feel like there’s so many instruments around us right now, there should be like a strum of the guitar, or we need like a drum-tum-tun, okay, okay. I gotta admit, I’m not familiar with either of the drinks you’ve told me about so far. How hard was it to whittle it down to just these 10?
Matt Odom [00:21:59] You know, I kind of bounced around and I just whatever kind of captured my my spirit at the time pun intended yet again
Jerry Quijano [00:22:07] The performer in you is really coming out.
Matt Odom [00:22:09] I’m really being a hack this week But you know, we also have some some classics like the frozen margarita. It did nada There’s one on Ices a Chavez. There’s on on South 1st Street. They come in those pink cups They’ve become somewhat famous My colleague Ana Gutierrez wrote the haiku for that one. I’ll go ahead and perform her writing To Marg limit stands lime tequila salted rim best sipped with care Wow Okay. Cause there’s a two limit on those. I think they put kind of an excessive amount of tequila in there, maybe double the amount that you’d usually find in a frozen. Uh, so things get a little loose over at Denada, but it’s become a beloved Cantina in South Austin as it is in on, on East Cesar Chavez as well.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:55] Yeah, well, I wasn’t familiar with the first ones you mentioned, but I might be too familiar with that one. Okay, well again, the full list from Matthew and Anna is at statesman.com slash restaurants. Before you get out of here, Matthew, you also had a story out last week about hot dogs. I think a cold drink and a hot dog is like that’s how you really beat the summer heat here in Texas. You don’t have to give us all the list, but just maybe one that really is your your go-to during the summer.
Matt Odom [00:23:20] You know, I’ll give you two real quick. There’s, there’s kind of the, the high end, um, fancy one is at distant relatives, which is a barbecue truck, uh, in the East Austin, Southeast Austin. That meanwhile brewing, uh he fries it in beef tallow and he serves it open face. So there’s a hot dog and sandwich. No, but he does serve it on this open face Texas toast that he fries in beef tallow, which is the best toast I’ve ever had in my life. Uh, so that’s a distant relatives. And then if you want kind of a more traditional one, They do a ripper, a fried dog at Frasier’s long and low. You know, it’s tricky with the fried dog because you don’t want to over fry it and get it dry and tough. They sizzle it just nice snap casing with a cheese sauce and mustard and onions on top. It’s a great dive bar. It’s really great afternoon snack when you’re watching the Astros and having a cold one.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:08] That’s right, I don’t mean to brag, but that is my local bar, Frasier’s. All right, well, you can find all of Matthew’s work over at the Austin American Statesman. That is where he is the restaurant critic, reporter, and haiku writer, Matthew. Thank you again for stopping by. Always a pleasure, Jerry. And thank you out there for spending the day here with us on Austin Signal. Another plug here real quick, Sound and Scene kicks off tonight. Our old boss, Debbie Hyatt, is gonna be conducting the Q&A after the film that’s happening tonight. So go on out there Support Debbie, support film, and you can go to kut.org slash signal to keep up with everything that we are doing right here. Rene Chavez is our technical director, Alexandra Hart is our producer, and Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer. I’m Jerry Kehannel. Austin Signal will be back at the same time tomorrow.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
