Austin cuts $95 million from
its budget, shrinking funds to
parks, homelessness services and
more after the fallout from Prop
Q. Find out how those cuts affect
you. And for folks in Sandy Creek,
efforts to clean up after the July
4th floods are still ongoing.
We'll hear about ways you
can help.
Plus art groups seeking affordable
studio space find
sanctuary in a downtown Austin
church.
We've got more on how they secured
the space and what that means for
the Austin arts community.
Coming up.
The Austin Signal is a production of
KUT News, hosted by Miles
Bloxson.
And Jason Miller brings us this week
in Texas Music History.
That's next on Austin Signal.
Hi there Austin.
It is Friday, November 21st.
Finally Friday.
I know what you're thinking.
The weekend is almost here.
I'm Miles Bloxson.
This is the Austin Signal and thanks
so much for joining us here today.
A quick headline to start, the
Austin Independent School District
Board of Trustees early this
morning approved a plan to
close 10 schools and relocate dual
language programs.
The move is expected to help the
district generate more than $20
million, eliminating its
19.7 million dollar
budget deficit.
Superintendent Matias Segura
says the district will discuss
in the spring another plan to close
more schools and redraw attendance
boundaries.
That plan could be voted on next
fall.
The AISD board also voted
to approve turnaround plans for
12 campuses that receive three
consecutive failing or unacceptable
grades from the state.
You can find more on that plan at
KUT.org.
The city of Austin cut $95
million from its budget last night
during its city council meeting.
The cuts happened after Prop Q
failed to pass this past election.
Prop Q would have raised property
taxes to generate $110
million in additional funds for
the city.
The original budget passed by city
council in August had already
factored those funds into the new
budget. So with voters rejecting
Prop Q, cuts to the budget
had to be made.
The breakdown where the cuts were
made, We have City Council reporter,
Luz Moreno-Lazano here
joining us.
Luz, great to talk with you.
Hi, Miles.
So with City Council initially
factoring this $110 million
into their budget before it was
approved by voters, this feels a
little like counting your eggs
before they hatch, shall we say?
Is this normally how things are done
when it comes to the budget?
What is normal, you
know, like what is normal anymore?
You know, typically the city council
does adopt a budget and a
tax rate to support that budget.
And in it, they build things like,
you now, they put in money for
police and fire and
parks and libraries.
And yes, this time around, they knew
that they wanted to do more
with some of the money and they had
to ask voters to do it.
So.
You know, depending on,
you know, what the city council is
trying to do that particular year,
normally the tax rate is large
enough. Now, you now, things are a
little complicated this year with
like the end of federal funding and
property tax rate caps, and all of
that has kind of factored into like
a limited amount of revenue that the
city was able to generate.
Okay, and initially they had a
plan for that $110 million,
right? That's right, that's right.
Yes, they had originally
planned to cover a lot of things.
One of the biggest chunks of it was
to support homelessness services.
They were gonna do shelters and
rapid rehousing and permanent
supportive housing and they had all
of these plans to support
homelessness.
They were also focused on public
safety and park improvements.
And so all of that was part of this
110 million.
So now they cut 95 million.
Is that all from where they had
hoped to use those Prop Q dollars?
Yeah, I think so.
I think, you know, they, they kind
of went through and were like, okay,
we, we had plans for this 110
million.
We're gonna have to either slash all
of it or figure out how to make
things work and move them around and
subtract from other areas to support
some of their priorities.
So they ended up slashing a
95 million, they are moving
some money over from their reserve
fund, which is essentially like a
city savings account to kind of help
offset things but They made it very
clear from the beginning that they
had a couple of main focus areas
and that included EMS
services, making sure that they have
enough to keep ambulances staffed.
That included homelessness efforts
and that was like, you know, it's
not every piece of homelessness that
they hoped, but it was some.
And they wanted to have 24 hour
coverage for people who are in
mental health crisis and having
people be able to respond to that.
And so they were really focused on
those main priorities and so they...
Kind of came in and were like, this
is how much money and what we need
to do and what we need work
with within the budget that we have.
Where else were things cut-
Yeah, you know, parks saw a pretty
big cut. You know, part of the
110 million was wanting to
fund new staff to maintain
parks and grounds maintenance.
You know we've seen the city wanting
to invest more in green spaces and
we just don't have the staffing to
maintain them.
Originally they were hoping to fund
60 new positions and now
that has dwindled down to like 15.
You know, some of the homelessness
services that they were hoping to
add on to included rapid rehousing
and included bridge
sheltering.
So those kinds of things were all
part of it.
I think one of the other big things
was like EMS in addition to
staffing was also supposed to get
new equipment and other things that
were going to help them as you're
trying to sustain and grow their
department.
And that was also part of some of
cuts we saw yesterday.
And how will this affect us folks
living here in Austin?
I mean, you named a number of things
there, but.
What are the big things?
I think EMS is probably going to be
the biggest one.
And when you think about it, you
don't think about EMS all the time,
right? You're really only calling
911 when there's an emergency,
and it might be one of your worst
days.
But if you do call 911,
you want them to be able to respond
as quickly as possible.
And so that's one of the biggest
things that this is doing is,
how can we ensure that the
ambulances across the city
are fully staffed?
So that they can respond in a timely
manner.
They did say that there are more
things that they need to be doing to
kind of improve that response
time, but that's probably the
biggest one.
Also like homelessness, I think a
lot of people are concerned with
people living unhoused
and trying to solve that
problem means giving people access
to shelter and services to help them
do that. And so we'll start to see
some of these things kind of come
into fruition this year with this
budget.
You know, Luce, I'm not a
mathematician, but they
plan for an additional $110
million, but they only cut
$95 million.
Are there more cuts to come?
There aren't.
So they moved that money from their
reserve fund that we kind of talked
about earlier.
So, I mean, you know, the city
council does have that money there
for a rainy day.
And so, you know, they weren't as
thrilled as, as they wanted to be
in, in moving some of that money
over, but it does help kind of fund
some of these high top priorities.
So.
We've been speaking to Luz
Moreno-Lezano, City Council reporter
for KUT.
Luz, thanks so much for talking to
us. Thanks, Miles.
With this past rain and flood watch,
Travis, Williamson, and Hayes
County were under a
small watch until early this
morning. It would absolutely make
sense if memories of July 4th
floods come to mind, but for
some of us, those reminders
of that tragic day are more lasting
as the cleanup from wrecked home and
property persists.
KUT's Williamson County reporter,
Kailey Hunt, has been
following these ongoing cleanup
efforts. She joins us today.
Kailey, how are you today?
I'm alright Miles, how are you?
Doing great!
So what is happening this weekend?
Yeah, so this weekend the Austin
Disaster Relief Network is
holding a cleanup event in
Sandy Creek.
That's a community located just
outside of Leander in Northwestern
Travis County.
They're among the hardest hit areas
during the July storms
and floods.
10 people died, over 200 homes
were damaged or completely lost.
So they are asking for volunteers
to come out.
For one big last push to
try to clean up some properties for
these folks before the Thanksgiving
holiday.
And you've been keeping up.
With these folks since the floods,
what's been going on with them?
Yeah, so, you know, we're
nearing five months now since
the disaster happened.
Many, many of the residents that
I've spoken to in the Sandy Creek
area are actually
still homeless, technically.
You know, they're still living in
trailers or even tents out
on their properties that still have
debris buried three,
four feet into the ground.
So they are, you now,
still awaiting some disaster relief
funds.
And trying to work through what
their next steps are going to be.
So it's still a lot of work to be
done. Absolutely.
And you've talked with Sarah
Ashworth, a lead volunteer with
the Austin Disaster Relief Network,
and this was during a cleanup
a few weeks ago.
Let's listen to what she had to say
about these cleanups.
Almost three four foot higher
than it was all this settlement and
and all it like this tiles and
glass and it's just like it wasn't
there and
then we'll find you know animal
bones and
Obviously, initially there was bones
being found...
And what are other volunteers saying
about this?
Yeah, so you heard from Sarah there.
She's a really involved
volunteer. She's been there since
the initial days after the
disaster.
During that cleanup too, I also met
with a lady who actually drove
in four hours from the Houston area
just for a Saturday cleanup.
And she says, for her, it's really
important because she herself is
a disaster survivor and she
knows that recovering.
From these types of events,
you just can't do it alone.
You have to have community, you have
to volunteers.
And so that was her big message that
she wanted to get out to the
community.
Yeah, volunteers are definitely
important and you know, we're almost
in December and it's about to
possibly get colder and we just had
thunderstorms in the area with a
flood watch.
Is there any additional urgency
to get things cleared before the
weather gets, you know ugly?
Absolutely.
Yeah. You know, I mentioned
obviously folks want to get some
properties cleaned up before the
Thanksgiving holiday, but I think
the more pressing issues, like you
said, it's been raining.
It's been stormy.
The RVs and even
tents, I don't know if you've ever
been camping in the rain, they leak,
right? Like they leak water.
So, you know, folks are in
uncomfortable physical, you,
know, just situations.
And then to add onto it, you
know, lots of folks are still
traumatized. So every time it rains
or thunderstorms,
you know, it brings back memories of
the July floods.
And so, yeah, there is
some urgency to try to help these
folks get a new homes.
And Kailey, you just came into the
studio straight from a rally that
was happening in front of the
Capitol about disaster relief.
What was going on there?
That's right. Yeah, we were.
Actually across the street from
the Capitol in front of the
governor's mansion.
Yeah, so there were dozens
of flood survivors from
Sandy Creek, along with survivors
from Hurricane Harvey as well,
just people from all across the
state. They are coming together and
asking the governor to
establish a $500 million
disaster relief fund for
just Texans to provide them with
immediate, you know,
direct monetary relief.
For folks who who survive these
these types of events and they're
asking him to create that fund using
money from the rainy day fund, right
so They say
transferring over money from The
Rainy Day Fund for an actual rainy
day
Yeah, that's what it's for, right?
And I know we talked about this
earlier in our conversation, but
remind us, what is going on this
weekend with Austin Disaster Relief
Network?
Yeah, so just to put it out there
again, Austin Disaster Relief
Network, they are gonna hold a big
cleanup event in Sandy Creek.
You can go onto their website
to learn more just about who's
eligible to volunteer.
Most everybody, if you're above the
age of 16, can volunteer.
What types of supplies you need,
closed-toe shoes, gloves.
And yeah, sign up, figure out what
you can do out there and help people
out.
And what's been your biggest
takeaway from like being in the
space with these people like going
through what they're going through?
Yeah, you know, it's tough.
I grew up in Leander,
just around the, only like five,
10 minutes away from these folks who
were affected by the floods in Sandy
Creek.
It's emotional every time you go out
there.
The biggest thing I just want people
to know is, is yeah, it has been
four or five months, you know down
the road since the disaster first
struck, but people are still
struggling. They need help.
There's a lot of unanswered
questions, just a lot uncertainty
about.
The future for these folks,
and yeah, we want to make sure that
we share those stories.
Thank you so much.
And we'll have a link with the
Austin disaster relief network
information in today's podcast,
show notes at kut.org slash
signal. We've been speaking with
KUT's Williamson County reporter,
Kailey Hunt. Kailey, thanks so much
for talking with us today.
Thanks, Miles.
Up next, we'll hear from the Austin
Creative Alliance about how they
secured their new home, and we'll
here from Jason Mellard with This
Week in Texas Music History.
This is Austin Signal, I'm Miles
Bloxson and welcome back.
Finding affordable studio space is
a constant battle for Austin
artists. It's a fight that sometimes
ends with a musician or non-profit
being pushed out of town, but
it doesn't always end in a loss.
From the KUT's art desk,
Stephanie Federico reports on one of
those victories.
John Reedy can already see how it's
all going to come to life.
This is going to be a lot of kids
lessons and rehearsals
for dance concerts.
There's a piano in here that's going
to stay.
He's walking me around the campus of
a historic church downtown.
Reedy is the CEO of Austin Creative
Alliance, a nonprofit formed
in 1974 to support the
city's arts community.
The group lost its longtime East
Austin home in May after the
building was sold and rents went up.
Nine artists and three nonprofits
were displaced.
It's a familiar story, but
this one's got a better ending.
Austin Creative alliance was able to
find a new space in just a few
months and for less money than
it had been paying.
It's renting two floors from Central
Christian Church.
In turn, it's subletting studio
space to artists and cultural
groups.
We're going to help them maintain
this beautiful historic space.
And they're going help the arts
community access affordable
space.
How did it all come together?
Austin Creative Alliance was
connected to Central Christian
Church through art.
Pastor Lane Beamer had been an actor
in California.
He met Reedy a few years ago through
a friend of a friend he had done
plays with in the 90s.
The two of them hit it off.
It was a very just coincidental
serendipitous connection.
The two floors in the church
building have been used by a
performing arts school for about a
decade.
After the school closed shop three
years ago, the church rented it out
to a real estate firm.
Then it moved out and the church had
a blank slate.
When Austin Creative Alliance was
looking for a place to relocate, it
reached out to see if they had space
available.
And I said, boy do we,
come take a look.
That's Pastor Beamer.
And so when we walked with John
and started talking about who might
want what room, we
really let go of the notion of
what's been and
said, well, what do the
artists need?
It was a puzzle figuring out who
should go where, based on lighting,
room size, and function, but the
new tenants all had one need in
common, affordable studio space.
Rent varies for each of the 13
studios in what's now called the
sanctuary.
Reedy says it comes to around $3
per square foot per month,
all utilities included.
For comparison, space in the Canopy
Arts Building in East Austin is
around $30 a square foot.
Sharon Anderson is the founding
executive director of ATX
Theater. One of the group's
subletting studio space.
There are lots of places where you
can put on a concert or practice
whatever, but
there are not a lot of places that
people who make performances
can afford to rent.
ATX Theater moved into a 660
square foot room on the second floor
earlier this month.
It's going to require some
adjustments of course, like for
example that is clearly not a sound
proof door, and we're
going to have people singing and
dancing and doing all kinds of
things in here, so we just
moved in. She plans to rent the
space out for rehearsals.
You can imagine all those cool,
funky little garage band theaters,
you know, that
often rehearse in their backyard
because they can't afford the
expensive rehearsal spaces.
They're gonna be pretty excited to
get a space for $10 an hour instead
of 25.
Makes a big difference.
Hopefully that extra 15 bucks will
go to pay actors or get nicer
costumes or something.
Beamer is glad the space is going to
be used.
It has a spirit and
I think it's been feeling
a little neglected.
And so I really do believe that
if buildings and
rooms have
their own spirit,
the building is happy.
He says the church has not always
been a welcoming place, and he wants
to quote, do damage control for
Jesus.
He hopes Austin Creative Alliance's
presence will help bring neighbors
in to see what's going on.
That evangelism today is
just letting people know you're a
Christian and not being a jerk.
The opportunities to have people
come in and out of here and
have a pleasant experience and be
supported and nurtured.
The idea of sanctuary.
Sanctuary not just for the religious
community that's at the heart, you
know, of the church,
but we're really to be a safe space
for everybody.
The new tenants started moving in
this month and all the studios
should be full by the end of the
year.
I'm Stephanie Federico in Austin.
Texas has so much music history.
We learn something new all the time
or every week with the help of Jason
Mellard from the Center of Texas
Music History at Texas State.
This week in Texas music history,
free jazz from Fort Worth hits the
spot.
On November 17th, 1959,
one of the more legendary opening
nights in jazz history took place.
Ornette Coleman's quartet debuted at
the Five Spot in New York City.
The Fort Worth-born saxophonist was
joined on stage by Don Cherry,
Charlie Hayden, and Billy Higgins
and supported their revolutionary
Atlantic Records LP, The Shape of
Jazz, to come.
Informed by bebop, rhythm and blues,
and Ornette's homilotic
philosophies, the quartet was
greeted by a collection of hipsters,
aficionados, and even skeptics,
all curious to see what this new
turn in free jazz was all about.
As Coleman described his innovations
later in the liner notes of his 1960
release, Change of the Century,
the members of my group and I are
now attempting a breakthrough to a
new, freer conception of jazz,
one that departs from all that is
standard and cliché.
The Five Spot, located at Cooper
Square, just off the then-run-down
Bowery, was already a hotspot for
the newest in jazz when they booked
pianist Cecil Taylor in 1957.
But Ornette's arrival was a downtown
sensation.
Lines snaked around the block, and
celebrities of the creative world
like James Baldwin and Robert
Rauschenberg found their way to the
packed venue.
The original two-week booking
extended well into 1960.
Coleman's stand at the Five Spot
proved to be a pivotal moment in
jazz and creative improvised music.
Marking a shift in musical
consciousness and practice that
continues to resound in Texas and
across the globe.
You can hear music from the Lone
Star State 24-7 on the
Texas Music Experience at TMX.fm.
Support for This Week in Texas Music
History comes from Brain Audio,
maker of a compact portable speaker
featuring an internal subwoofer that
produces deep bass sound.
Engineered in the live music capital
of the world, more at
BrainAudio.com.
That's B-R-A-N-E audio
dot com.
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That's where you can listen to
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find the daily reporting from
the KUT newsroom.
And that's it for today on
Austin Signal.
Kristen Cabrera is our managing
producer.
Rayna Sevilla is our technical
director.
And I'm Miles Bloxson.
This is Austin Signal