This is Austin Signal.
Thank you for tuning in.
First off, thanks for being here.
But second, how's the traffic around you
looking right now?
KUT's transportation reporter Nathan Bernier
will join the show to surprise us with
the best days to get on the road here in
Austin. Plus, the Austin Studio Tour
continues this weekend at galleries, studios,
and homes on the east and west sides of the
city. With so much to look at, wouldn't it be
a bit helpful to be chauffeured around to
take in some of Austin's best art?
Well, we thought so, so we hopped on a bus
with 40 of our new best friends.
Come and take a trip with us.
The Austin Signal is a production of KUT
News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
And comedian John Mulaney is in Austin for
a run of four shows starting tonight.
We will hear some of his conversation with
Texas Standard.
That's next on Austin Signal.
Howdy out there.
Thank you for spending part of your Thursday
here with us.
It's November 13th and you're listening to
Austin Signal on KUT News 90.5
on the KUT app and online at
KUT.org.
We are listener powered public radio.
A quick headline before we dive into today's
show, the city of Austin is still set to
adopt an amended budget late next week,
even after the city decided to cancel its
first meeting that was originally scheduled
for today.
Austin City Council members were set to begin
making changes to the city budget after
residents voted down the property tax rate
increase known as Prop Q.
City leaders decided to cancel the meeting
last night after receiving a complaint
about a possible violation of the Texas Open
Meetings Act.
The city will instead begin the process this
upcoming Tuesday morning.
That meeting is going to start at 9 o'clock.
We've got more local news for you.
That is over at KUT.org.
Thank you for spending part of your Thursday
here with us on Austin Signal.
Hope you're having a nice one.
If you drove into your office or your school
parking lot this morning, was it a rough or
possibly annoying ride in?
Or perhaps you've noticed that your bus tends
to run a little behind schedule on Thursdays
and Tuesdays too, now that you're thinking
about it a little bit more.
Well, what's happening there?
Well, when we have a transportation question
here at Austin Signal, we look to one man and
one man only. That is KUT's transportation
reporter, Nathan Bernier.
Nathan, thank you for joining us today.
Thank you for having me, Jerry.
So, you know, we've got a little bit better
idea of when traffic is at its worst
here in Austin and other cities in the state
and the country. I wanted to ask first, where
did this data come from and who did the
study?
Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
They are a research organization
at Texas A& M University.
They study all kinds of transportation stuff.
And every year they come out with this, they
call it their mobility
report, urban mobility report, where they
look at traffic data, really at
almost 500 cities nationwide.
And they're, they're getting their data from
a company called INRIX, which provides
traffic data to the city of Austin as well.
And some federal data.
So they kind of combine it together and they
come out with this report.
And a lot of it is not really geared towards
your typical person.
It's more like traffic planners and highway
designers, but this one component about
what time congestion happened
in 2024 seemed to me to be like the most
interesting to your everyday person who's got
to drive into work.
And speaking of an everyday person, you know,
I have a new roommate. My brother joined me
this weekend because he started a job here in
Austin. And he asked me on Sunday, what's the
traffic going to be like on tomorrow?
And I said, well, I'm guessing Monday is
probably going to be the worst day of the
week generally.
But after reading your story over at kut.org,
I found that that's not the case at all.
So taking a look at Austin, how does traffic
generally play out around here?
So Mondays can be bad.
I'll just say this is an average over the
entire year. So you never know, right?
Each day is different, right?
I had a really bad traffic day on Monday and
I knew this story was going up and I was like
Of course it had to be bad today, but no,
generally speaking, on average, Monday is
the best day to drive into work and it
has the least traffic congestion
in the mornings and afternoons.
Again, that can vary day to day and it can
vary from location to location too, but just
looking at like the region wide and that's
been overall my experience driving on
Mondays. They tend to be better and Fridays
also tend to a little bit better as well.
It varies from city to city.
The Fridays aren't always better in Houston
and in San Antonio and Dallas.
But across the board, at least according to
this data, Mondays tend to be a little bit
better. And of course, the speculation is
just because of the hybrid work week.
No one wants to drive into work on a Monday,
so if you can't choose, you choose another
day.
And you know I took a little walk before we
talked here on Austin Signal and what do you
know there's traffic out on the drag building
up and then made me think like what's going
on you know but as you're saying everything
is a little bit different in every city as
you mentioned is a little bit.
What do we know about the amount of remote
workers that we have here in Austin and kind
of across central Texas.
So it's hard to say for sure, but there was a
study conducted by an organization called
Moveability Austin.
And they're a transportation demand
management association.
Basically what they do is they try and get
employers to encourage
people not to drive
to work alone in a car.
Because the more single occupancy
vehicles on the road, the more traffic on the
roads. And so as
part of that, they do a survey every year.
And this year, they're broadening it
to include more counties. But further.
Most recent one they did Austin, Williamson,
and Hays counties.
And they found that Travis County has more
than half of employees who
responded to the survey and the sample size
was almost a thousand.
So there is a margin of error.
But you know, a good chunk, about 60%
or so had the option to work from home at
least one day a week.
And then the percentage was lower in
Williamson County and even lower in Hays
County, it was about half.
So that's just a broad estimate.
And again, some of those folks can work from
home every day of the week. Others, maybe
they get one day off. Like a lot of state
employees, they're allowed to work from eight
hours a week.
So it varies, but that's sort of an
estimate.
Okay. We can read more about this study and
about this story over at KUT.org.
I want to say where it's Thursday and this is
the, according to this, the worst rush
hour of the week is Thursday afternoon.
So just to brace yourself.
Just to brace yourself between...
Between 4 and 6 p.m.
So if you can leave the office early today,
please do so. Save yourself a little bit of a
headache. And again, more about that story is
at KUT.org.
Nathan, I want to switch gears.
President Trump signed a bill by Congress
last night, passed by Congress, last night
ending the longest government shutdown in
U.S. History. Had a lot of ramifications,
including impacting air traffic controller
availability at airports across the country,
including here in Austin, Bergstrom.
This was obviously an added stressor, but
what kind of issues was the local airport
seeing even before the shutdown began when it
comes to air traffic controllers?
Yeah, same thing,
shortage of air traffic controllers at
the Austin Tower, the staffing targets
set by the FAA and the union calls
for 60 fully certified air traffic
controllers and they have about half that.
So as you can imagine, any job where you're
half staff, it's going to be a stressful
environment. So for at least since 2023,
those controllers have been working mandatory
six day work weeks,
anywhere from 45 to 60 hours
a week.
And so the problems that we saw before
the shutdown just were made worse
after the shutdown because you had
a slight number more of controllers
calling in sick for a number of different
reasons. It could be stress.
It could that actually their child is sick
and their wife or their husband
is the one that is getting paid and they
need to pay their mortgage.
And so, the controller maybe has to stay home
sick. This is what I was told by a union
representative.
So...
Since October 13th, there were at least four
so-called ground delays at ABIA.
And that's where the FAA restricts the number
of planes that can land per hour.
And what that means for your average traveler
is you're sitting in Newark waiting to take
off to say, we have a ground delay.
You got to wait another hour or so, just so
they can thin out the number of planes
landing and provide some relief to the tower.
Okay, well, I know that we're just digging
into it. There's a lot more, and you're gonna
be doing more reporting on that story.
So stay with us at KUT.org for the latest and
always here on Austin Signal.
We have been speaking with Nathan Bernier.
He is KUT's transportation reporter.
Again, you can find more of his reporting at
Kut.org.
Nathan, always great to chat with you.
Always great to chat with you, buddy!
Well, as I said, with news of the government
shutdown ending, The New York Times is
reporting that some folks could see SNAP
benefits fully funded in their account within
hours of the government opening up.
But despite that funding coming back, those
who are most affected could see long-term
ripple effects from not receiving a paycheck
in over a month, in addition to that
withholding of their SNAP.
Beth Corbett, VP of Government
Affairs and Advocacy at the Central Texas
Food Frank spoke to Austin signal last week.
About the long-term effects of the paused
benefits.
We also know folks have probably
racked up credit card debt, taken on
those longer term investments
that will be impacting them, not just this
month, but really into the future, and
unfortunately during the holiday season where
folks do face higher
expenses.
And it's because of these long-lasting
effects that food distribution efforts, like
those from the Central Texas Food Bank, will
continue to help families.
KUT's Katie McAfee spoke with folks earlier
this week about that help.
Jacklyn Scott shuffled into the Dove Springs
Recreation Center early in the morning.
She got in line, along with over 300
others, and waited to pick out bags of fresh
produce, eggs, milk, and other
pantry staples the Central Texas Food Bank
was giving out.
Scott said she normally would receive SNAP
benefits on November 1st, but that
day came and went.
I was supposed to get them on the first,
but we didn't get them first.
Scott said she usually receives $56
a month through SNAP.
It's already not enough to cover groceries,
but she says every little bit counts.
Plus, it allows her to shop at a store near
where she lives on her own time.
Whereas with the food bank...
I had to come a ways out here
to be here on time,
to be in line.
And it's just a bunch of stuff to go with
it, having a hustle and bustle of getting
here and then there's some lines of people,
it's a lot.
Trey Apprendick, who's been volunteering for
Central Texas Food Bank for four years, knows
this hustle and bustle firsthand.
He spent all morning carting wagons of food
from the gymnasium to people's cars.
He says it's gotten busier since the
government shutdown.
I did the one in Pflugerville last week,
and it was just at least
twice as crowded. And I'd say almost three
times as crowded as during normal
times.
So it's not surprising,
but a lot of people coming out, a lot people
in need.
This month, Central Texas Food Bank is
offering 10 more distributions, like this
one at Dove Springs Recreation Center,
than it usually does to meet the increased
need. There are roughly 270,000
people in Central Texas on SNAP, and over
74,000 federal employees in Central,
Texas that haven't received a paycheck in
over a month due to the shutdown.
In Travis County alone, there are about
87,000 who receive SNAP and
about 9,000 federal employees.
Beth Corbett with the Central Texas Food Bank
describes the service they provide as the
supplement to the supplement.
It's there to help families when there's an
unexpected bill or emergency.
Corbette says the food bank has spent an
additional $1 million each week of
the government shutdown not only to purchase
more food, but also types of food they don't
normally offer.
We're now buying things like eggs and
milk, the basics that we
might not normally under
blue skies, but doing
our best to make sure that those items are
available for families who've been impacted.
In the meantime, Scott says the food bank
will get her through Thanksgiving.
The carers gonna come in handy cuz I'm
supposed to be having my kids over
and grandkids.
She says she's gonna have a full house.
I'm Katie McAfee in Austin.
And you are listening to Austin Signal.
We are listener powered public radio.
And you can hear us at KUT News 90.5
on the KUT app.
And you could find more about the show and
find past episodes at kut.org
slash signal.
We're gonna take a short break coming up
after that. We're going to talk John Mulaney
and Austin Studio Tour.
Stay with us.
This is Austin Signal.
Thank you for spending part of your Thursday
here with us.
Let's get a quick check in with the KUT
newsroom. This comes from KUT's Trey
Schar here in central Texas.
The lack of rain has drought conditions
worsening in the Austin area.
The map out today shows all of Travis
and Williamson counties with moderate to
severe drought and extreme drought
is stretching into Hays County.
And it looks like rain is gonna stay away
until next week, but.
Extended outlooks from the Climate Prediction
Center show rainier than normal weather
ahead later this month along with
temperatures warmer than normal
Well the weather this weekend However should
be conducive to getting out and about here in
Austin and luckily so because it's the second
and final weekend of the Austin Studio
tour what's that you hear well hey in
years past weekends have been split between
East and West Austin But this year
under new leadership visits to gallery
studios and artists' homes are happening
all across the city simultaneously,
which presents kind of a problem since you,
like me, very likely only have one
body to experience it at all.
One helpful option could be a chauffeured
ride. How about a 45-seater
bus that twists and turns its way through
tiny city streets with free drinks
and flamingo koozies to boot.
Let's hop aboard and join the Art
Bus Tour.
And did you guys all meet Anthony when
he came on? Anthony's our driver today.
Let's clap for Anthony!
He is also a DJ, so
ask him about that. He always has digs after
he drives bus.
It's important that you see everything,
because you may not
appreciate it, you may appreciate it.
You may not like it.
You may love it.
You may hate it, but you have to
see it. You have to experience it to
know what you don't know and what you
do know.
I do the Art Circuit in Houston,
but the Art circuit in Austin is
a little crazy.
The few times I've tried to do it here, it's
been extremely difficult.
Because you get to a location and
it's hard to park and then hard to see
everything.
So we're on our way to Blackster Elementary,
again it's their annual showcase of
their students.
So they're going to have like drama club
there, they're gonna have what they call a
trash-in show, which is reusable
fashion, I think they're having an
auction, and a lot of visual art to
see. So we'll be there in just a couple
minutes.
Woo! You can woo, by the way.
Woo!
A lovely boy stolen from an Indian
king. She never had so sweet a
chain link.
But Janice overrun it hard with the child.
But she prefers Holtz's loving boy.
Comes to him with flowers and makes them all
her joy. And now they never meet or grow
but green, By fountain clear or
sprinkled starlet sheen.
But if they do square all their elves, Both
of you creep into acorn cups and hide them
there.
All right, we made it to a future kind
studio. Again, this is the home studio
of Elena Cortez.
She is expecting us.
She's welcoming us into her
home. I told her it was 40 people
coming into her homes.
So she's a very eclectic house.
She likes to collect things.
So expect to see bright, cool, unique things.
Did you make this already?
Yeah. All of it?
Yeah. You made everything? Mm-hmm.
Almost ready. It's all her already.
We are on our way to see
an artist collective, they're calling
themselves Pierce and Paint.
So it's a few different artists that are
all kind of working with the theme of West
Texas, so they say it's very kind of
western-y looking.
So we'll be there in about six minutes.
Woo! Okay woo girls let's go!
Thank you.
This is my fifth year.
So I say I'm a recovering interior designer,
turned artist.
So I've been figuring it out and growing slow
and steady every year, and each tour has been
bigger and better. So this is my first time
hosting six people.
Last year we had three, but it's been tons
of fun. We're doing a Western theme this year
because a lot of us have a passion for
the West, and three of us did a residency
at different times out in West Texas at a
place called Willow House in Terlingua for
two weeks each.
And yeah, so you'll see a common thread of
art, like cowgirls, yucca,
landscape, just anything that speaks to that
genre.
Our last stop is going to be the Little Gay
Shop, so this is a retail shop supporting
LGBTQ artists around Texas and
a lot of locals.
I think as artists, you
spend hours and hours or months on
a piece, and if it's in a gallery or it's on
a wall, you don't always get to interact with
the people seeing it.
So that's why having a conversation with
someone about your art makes it feel
so special.
People always have their own interpretation
too of what you're showing, so it's really
cool to hear what people think or like
what's coming up for them, you know, what are
they relating to in your work.
So it really helps artists grow in their own
process too.
But just supporting art in any way you can.
Not everybody can afford an art piece, that's
okay. But if you can compliment
someone, if you show up, if can
follow them, if could share their work, it
really goes a long way.
Thank you, thank you, again, one
more, wait, when
I say art,
you say buzz, art, buzz, art, all
right, thank guys so much.
We heard from Natalie Earhart, Candice
Pearson, artist Bartell there.
Tonight, John Mulaney kicks off a run of
four shows at Bass Concert Hall.
He spoke with Texas Standard this week about
his Texas-sized tour and
about how the state played a big moment,
a big role during the beginning of his
career.
The first club I ever headlined in my life
was the Laugh Stop in Houston.
Wow. 2007.
Yeah.
What's your takeaway when you think of Texas,
what comes to mind?
I think of it like a Texas is this
father with like a bunch of different
sons that are his cities and,
you know, Dallas is like trying to
do everything right and run
the family business and is responsible with
money and Houston's has a
good job is just boring as hell and
Austin is like
the little more emo kid at the
end of the table that's like, What did you do
today, Austin? He's like, I colored and,
you know. A sort of artistic
libertarian son at the end of the table that
does whatever he wants.
Yeah, well you're gonna be going to San
Antonio. You don't want to say anything about
San Antonio here?
I love San Antonio.
San Antonio is like that kid that's just
always fine but doesn't visit a lot.
All right, so maybe Austin is the artsy
Sibley to the other cities.
We are, after all, the live music capital
of the world.
And while both music and comedy light up the
stage, Mulaney says how the two acts prepare
is different.
You know, it's funny, like,
we're the reverse of musicians.
We tour and tour and then record
the special, whereas musicians record the
album and then play the album as they
recorded it. We're putting it, we are like in
the studio the whole time through the tour,
putting the hour together.
Mulaney says the show, called Mr.
Whatever, will consist of all new material,
and he's set to tour the country till summer
of 2026.
But Austin is the last stop for the Texas
States. He is doing a show tonight,
tomorrow, and a pair on Saturday at the Bass
Concert Hall.
But if you miss him there, maybe, just maybe,
you'll find him casing the Harry Ransom
Center as the Texas Standards David
Brown found out.
Big deal recently here at the Harry Ransom
Center at the University of Texas unveiled
the Lauren Michaels collection.
Lauren's papers, yeah.
Right, right.
I know you were a writer on SNL for a while.
Any thoughts on Michaels and his impact on
comedy?
Well, the impact is enormous
and I feel like that was kind of fun about
the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live
as we got to pay
tribute to him a lot.
But I'm just heading, I'm breaking into
the Ransom Center at night and seeing if
there's any inter-office memos about
me. I just want to find a piece of paper that
says, you know, John's my favorite writer and
then I'll steal it and I'll be content
with myself for life.
But I can't wait to break in and loot the
papers.
That was John Mulaney speaking to Texas
Standard earlier this week.
His show, Mr. Whatever is on tour
in Austin today through Saturday.
We'll have a link to more in the Austin
Signal podcast show notes.
That's at kut.org slash signal.
And there's more from that conversation at
Texas standard dot org.
That's it for today here on Austin signal.
Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer.
Rayna Sevilla is our technical director
and I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
We will talk to you tomorrow.