Here in Austin, you can call 311
to deal with or report a
variety of things, and Austinites
did that this year, to the tune of
nearly 300,000 requests,
covering everything from garbage and
loud music to animal bikes and
scooters.
We've got more about those requests
and some coyotes, plus
KUT News launched a new desk
in 2025, the Artbeat,
the return of a beloved outdoor
gallery and the venues that are
planning for the future.
We're gonna talk the year in arts
here in Austin.
That is coming up next.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
And the Texas football team wraps up
their season tomorrow against
Michigan.
It's not the ending fans and pundits
predicted at the start of the year.
We've got that next on Austin
Signal.
Howdy out there, and thank you for
tuning in to Austin's Signal.
It's Tuesday, December 30th.
We're glad you're closing out 2025
here with us.
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
Let's get into today's
show.
Austin handles hundreds of thousands
of requests each year for services
like trash pickup, parking
violations and noise complaints,
things of that nature.
And 2025 was no different.
The city handled just short of
300,000 of those requests
this year.
And KUT's government accountability
reporter Andrew Weber took a look at
him. He sat down with host Jennifer
Staten to talk about what he found.
So, Andrew, how many people
requested service through
311 this year?
A lot.
I kind of want to explain just how
301 works.
It's calls for service,
stuff like trash pickup,
recycling, composting now.
And it also is sort of
a clearinghouse for APD
calls. So for non-emergency calls,
things like fender benders and
police reports as well.
But of those calls that were not
handled or transferred to APD,
a lot of people, 285,000,
more than 285,000 people
in this last year.
And Andrew, do you have a way to
know what the most popular
asks were?
What were people most likely
to call 3-1-1 about?
Mostly trash.
It was a lot of trash related stuff.
Uh, 67,000 people called just
about refuse.
I'll say, I say that because it
could be compost.
It could be recycling.
It could.
Garbage. It could be bulk pickup of
garbage.
It could also be dead animals.
6,200 people called about dead
animals, uh, but it was mostly,
mostly that, uh, was the, was a big
chunk of a lot of the three or one
calls and a lot of people called
unsurprisingly, maybe.
About live music, 22,000
people, 22307 people,
uh, complain about loud noises or
loud music, specifically in
residential areas, near venues
or bars and stuff like that.
Also, maybe unsurprisingly,
a lot of people called about illegal
parking.
Nearly 19,000, people called about
either illegal parking or
towing. Another 8,700 people called
about towing a car.
So, Andrew, what else stuck out
to you in the data, like any unusual
calls, any calls that maybe you
weren't expecting to learn about?
If there's a lot, there's a lot
here, a lot of people call three on
one for a lot of different reasons.
394 people called three on one
because they saw a coyote.
A coyote.
A coyote, which we were talking
about this just a few minutes ago.
Like I just saw a coyote for the
first time in years in
my apartment complex parking lot.
Did you call 3-1-1?
I didn't call 311.
It made me think, should I have
called 311?
Cause a couple of my neighbors have
tiny little dogs.
Well, just to continue the sort of
animal theme of 311 calls,
I called 311 earlier
this year because we had a
bird flying around in our
backyard and it flew into our window
and the bird landed
on the ground and could walk around
fine, but couldn't fly
and so we weren't sure what to do.
So we called 3-1-1.
They get a lot of calls for that.
Actually, I'm glad you brought that
up because in the numbers, we found
23,684
people were in maybe
a similar situation because it's
kind of a broad category, but they
called for animal protection
services, which is maybe there's
a loose dog, maybe, maybe a bird
flew into your window and is having
a moment, so you weren't alone
there.
Now, Andrew, I do want to go back.
You mentioned, so in addition to
animal calls, noise
calls, that people also
call 3-1-1 for
things that may require police or
maybe they're not sure.
You know, things like traffic
crashes or you talked about towing
or even police reports.
Talk a little bit more about that
category and what that looked like
in 2025.
Yes, ma'am. Those calls were just
traffic related.
So you get an offender bender and
you need to work something out
through insurance, you need have
documentation of that.
That was pretty on par
with last year, but these sorts
of calls for non-emergency
services have increased over
the last couple of years because
just the Austin police department
has been struggling to staff.
And 301 is sort of, like I said
earlier, kind of been like a
clearinghouse for some of these
non-emgency calls and that's
something that the city has.
Continued to lean in as it's
sort of struggled to staff its
police department.
So, Andrew, 311, it's a
city department, folks call
311 and ask all kinds of questions
we've been hearing about, get those
questions answered.
Did 311 have anything happen
to its budget in
this current budget cycle?
Do they expect to maintain similar
staffing?
They do, they expect to maintain
similar staffing.
I think it was maybe two, three
years ago that they had turnover
and that was within 301
and within 911, so emergency
and non-emergency communications.
But the city has done a very, very
good job of staffing up that
department.
And they obviously have a
lot of demand.
Well, and given the types of calls
you've been describing,
noise complaints, animal,
trash collection, doesn't sound like
that's probably gonna abate next
year.
It would be, it would be incredibly
strange if for some reason
people stopped complaining about
noise, maybe stopped seeing coyotes,
um, or, you know,
needed a bulk trash pickup.
I know you will be tracking all of
that, Andrew. Andrew Weber is KUT's
Government Accountability Reporter.
And Andrew, thanks for joining us
with all this 311 data.
Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Jim.
And you can keep up with more of
Andrew's work at KUT.org.
Texas football is ringing in the
new year in Florida, where they'll
play the Michigan Wolverines in what
typically would be seen as a marquee
game. But as the season ends,
KUT's Jimmy Maas reports both teams
enter the matchup with perhaps more
questions than answers.
If in August, you said Texas
would be playing Michigan in
December, Texas fans would
have guessed, great season,
they are in the playoffs.
But the season that started so
promisingly in Columbus, Ohio.
This is a gift from the football
gods take
Meet Awake with
the preseason top ranking.
The expectations could not be
any higher.
They say everything's bigger in
Texas. Well, the expectations for
Arch Manning are bigger.
Is ending in the Cheez-It
Citrus Bowl and part
of that reason is Texas pressing
their luck with the schedule.
The school is not shied away from
taking on big blue blood schools
in non-conference play, beating
Michigan and Alabama on its way to
the college ball play off the last
two seasons.
But this year?
Offensive Jim.
But in the end.
The national champions prevail
14
to 7 Ohio
State defeats
Texas.
A loss to Ohio State is not
irredeemable.
All Texas had to do was hold on
through conference play.
And a valiant effort from Mark
Spanning, Lewis.
This is a heartbreaking loss so
many expectations for Texas
Despite this, all was not lost.
Texas turned the season around.
Red River belongs to Texas for
the second consecutive year
knocking off their
unbeaten arch rivals 23
to 6.
And picked up some bragging rights
along the way, beating its rivals
and three of the five teams ranked
in the top 10 they faced this
season, more than any other team
in the NCAA.
But Texas was down to its
last spin, arguing its case
to the selection committee.
You want us not to schedule Ohio
State? Because if we're a 10 and 2
team right now, this isn't
a discussion.
We're in the playoff.
But we were willing to go up there
and play that game.
And so now, when you play five
top 10 ranked teams in the regular
season, and you go three and two,
you beat three of them, and your
schedule in Ohio State at a
conference play, I surely don't
think we want to punish us to do
that. Because what are we all going
to do? We're all going get out of
those games. Just like a lot of
other teams in the country have
done. Stop! Oh, you're
out!
Texas was not selected to the
college football playoff for the
first time since the 2022 season,
which meant change for the program.
Despite their defense carrying them
through several key moments of games
this season, defensive coordinator
Pete Kwikowski was let go in favor
of former Texas coordinator,
Will Muschamp.
Other assistant coaches were let go.
Among the players, many of the
defensive starters and featured
running backs are opting out of the
bowl game to prep for either the NFL
draft or the transfer portal,
such as Modern College Football.
And that may not be all the changes
for Texas this off season.
And as tumultuous as the month has
been since Texas beat Texas A&M,
it is nothing compared to what's
happened at Michigan.
The Michigan Wolverines have
fired its head coach, Sharon Moore,
for cause, citing
quote credible evidence, end
quote, of an inappropriate
relationship with
a staff member.
The woman involved was not
identified.
But as word of his termination was
spreading, police were called to the
home of his executive assistant.
Now he faces charges of stalking
and home invasion.
Go back and forth between,
my gosh, the football aspect
of it, but more importantly,
the personal aspect of it.
Because right now, family
and lives are shattered.
Michigan hired its new head coach
Kyle Whittingham over the weekend.
The Wolverines will be led in
Orlando at the game by interim coach
Biff Poggi, who has had his
hands full. With everything but
football.
It's just a lot of listening,
a lot of talking, a lot
of talking to the kids.
And we have
we've changed basically everything.
So both teams.
Take the field New Year's Eve
afternoon looking toward the
future looking to press their luck
once again Michigan Texas
in one of the
top snack sponsored bowl games of
the season the Cheez-It Citrus
Bowl
Who's ready to show who's
the cheesiest? I woke up feeling the
cheeziest, coach!
I'm Jimmy Maas.
And we have more Austin Signal
coming up after this break.
Thank you for tuning in today.
You're listening to the Austin
signal.
Hi, I'm Rene Chavez, an audio
engineer for KUTKTX.
And one of my favorite songs out of
Austin from 2025 is Bravo,
featuring Ile by Adrian Quesada.
Adrienne hardly needs an intro.
He is a former founding member of
Grupo Fantasma, who has gone
on to have a...
Very successful and storied solo
career, putting out records that
explore, celebrate,
and fuse various sounds and
genres from American and Latin
American music styles.
Bravo!
His current frontier is the bolero,
the heartbreak love song ballads
made famous by groups like Trio Los
Panchos, Juan Gabriel, Luis Miguel,
and others.
Quesada, alongside the other really
talented musicians and artists that
he collabs with, are bringing a
decidedly psychedelic tone to
the format and
have put out a second record called
Boleros Cicadelicos II,
on which is Bravo,
itself being a cover of a rendition
of a classic bolero tune.
The arrangement is fantastic on the
track, of course, but where the
magic really lies is Ile's vocal
performance.
It's an incredibly emotional,
heartbreaking delivery.
And it guts me every time I hear it
in a really great way.
De odio tanto,
que yo misma me espanto
De mi forma
de odio
Now, Ile, who's
an incredibly successful artist and
performer in her own right, brings
in a depth of pain into
the song that makes it
heartbreakingly beautiful.
Now, those things are defining
features of these kinds of songs,
but what I really like about this
one is the character of the song
is applauding their heartbreaker
at being so devastatingly
efficient and crushing them.
And towards the end of the songs,
the band chokes when they reprise
the first verse and Ile
just drops the word bravo.
Kind of spoken word.
And it's, it's just amazing.
It's such a it's such it's my
favorite part of the song.
And she does it so well.
They all do your
The vibe is devastating.
But you don't have to take my word
for it, there's video proof.
Adrian Quesada and Ile and the full
band came by KUTX's Studio
1A back in August of 2025 and
performed it for us.
You can find that video and more of
our favorite songs from 2025 over
at KUTx.org.
I'm Rene Chavez, and this is the
Austin Signal.
El infierno
resulta un
cielo
This is Austin Signal.
Thank you for making us part of your
day. As we are bringing 2025
to a close, we're looking and
listening back to some of our
favorite things from the year that
was. One very fine thing that
happened this year was the addition
of a dedicated arts desk to the
KUT newsroom.
Stephanie Federico is the editor of
that arts desk and she's with us now
on Austin Signal, howdy Stephanie.
Hey, Jerry.
Avid listeners of KUT
and KUTX are no doubt familiar
with how federal budget cuts
have impacted local businesses in
2025.
The Austin art scene was not immune
to those struggles, correct?
Yeah, a lot
of arts organizations were
notified by the National Endowment
of the Arts early this spring that
their funding was going to be clawed
back.
And they were expecting $20,000
grants, whatever size grants.
And suddenly, they were told that
their mission no longer aligned with
the administration's priorities.
And so I think that was a
bit of a surprise for a lot of
folks, a shock for a lots of folks
who were depending on that money to
thrive in this year.
Out.
I'm not sure if federal funding cuts
had anything to do with
what happened with the Hideout
Theater, but I know they're having
to move their location, right?
Yeah, they are.
Yeah, rents went up and that's
a familiar story.
A lot of other little theaters
that got pushed out over
the past decade or so, you know,
this is, you know, Austin
is one of the wealthiest cities in
the country.
You know, we had a big tech boom and
you've got millionaires and
billionaires moving here and what
that does is it raises the cost
of living.
And so rents go up and
folks who cannot afford to
pay those rents are getting pushed
out in the hideout theater.
They are moving down a little bit
south of the river on I-35 on
the frontage road there with like
Good Dad Studios is over there too.
Folks are getting pushed out because
rents go up.
And, you know, with the lack of
funding from the federal government,
a bunch of different organizations
got letters saying that their, that
their priority is no longer aligned.
Zach theater, Museum of Human
Achievement, AFS,
among other folks, women in their
work also lost
their funding this year from federal
government. So it's been tough.
And on the flip side of that,
we're talking about the tinier
theaters. We also have these bigger
theaters in downtown Austin, the
Paramount and the state side.
They are looking for a lot more
money as well because they're gonna
be undergoing some renovations,
right?
Yeah, they announced back, I think,
last month, was it? I believe so.
$55 million capital
campaign.
They're looking for money to
completely redo the state theater
and then renovate the
Paramount Theater.
And when they're asking for
that money and then there are the
little organizations that are asking
for money, it's kind of like where,
if you do have that money
to donate, who are you going to
donate to?
And everybody wants the
same slice of the pie.
So. It's going to be tough.
It's gonna be a tough choice.
Let's talk about a little bit
happier, lighter news.
We did lose some things like that
federal funding in 2025, but we
gained other things, including
another return last month of an
Austin tradition.
What was that?
Oh, yeah, the Hope outdoor gallery
reopened down south out
near the airport on Dalton Road.
And it's not the
same thing.
So people can't go expecting that,
you know, you have the same thing
that you did over at Castle Hill,
where there's just like these big,
you know,
slabs of concrete and people just
putting up murals left and right and
everything. It's an actual gallery,
you you There's a 6,000
square foot gallery that has
curated exhibits and it
can be used as an event space.
And then on the
outer sides of the property,
you can bring
your spray paint and do
your tagging or do your own
creations on the outside.
But yeah, it's pretty cool.
But it's not something that you
would just stumble over, like just
walking along.
You have to make a trip out of it
and go down there.
And it's not the same physical space
like you're saying not the old space
of people were used to But it sounds
like the people behind it are trying
to keep the same spirit
of what used to be a castle hill,
right?
Yeah, they want to keep the same
vibe, you know, and like Castle
Hill, it's free.
So that's a great thing.
Um, and they want
it to be a space where people can
try things and be weird.
So yeah.
Excellent. Well, Austin is a great
place to be weird.
And speaking of that, you took on
this new role and
next to your desk, there's been a
very weird, simple question
plastered on a whiteboard.
It says, what is arts?
I think that's too big of a question
for us to tackle here in Austin
signal, but in what
new ways are you seeing and
interacting with art since taking on
your new role?
I wasn't expecting this question.
Well, that's okay.
I've just, you know,
there is so much
art in this city and it's
kind of overwhelming.
Like I'm getting a million different
emails and people are passing along
things that I had no idea
about.
And it's just such a
larger community than I
ever realized.
And it is just exciting for
me. Like it's so, there's so
many creative people here and there
are so many different little facets
and theaters and just.
Little musical groups that I
had no idea about.
And it's really been kind of
overwhelming to kind of decide what
rises to the level of coverage.
What do we wanna cover?
But next year, we're gonna launch
a newsletter.
And I think that'll be a way
for us to get even more
out there to the public, to our
audience, just to like, because
there are so many things and I'm
just like, let's do this, let' do
this. And I just, I am one person.
You know, I have a few freelancers
and, of course, people on staff who
are interested in the arts
and want to contribute stories and
everything, but there's just so
much and I
would love to share it with our
audience and get things out there
and get people going to the arts,
and finding out about things that
they had no idea about, like
me.
So, yeah, all those little hidden
things, the little gems that are
out there that are you know,
accessible and maybe free and,
you know it doesn't have to be get
all dressed up and spend a lot of
money and go out on the town.
There are just like little, little
things like they're the shed shows
which I don't know if you know about
Jerry.
No, I don't
It's over here near
UT campus, um,
and it's just like a shed and there
are just exhibits that change every
now and again. And it's something
you could stop by for 10 minutes and
it is free. And there, there it is.
And it is really, really cool.
And it sounds like something you
might walk by without knowing
that it was even there, right?
Totally, totally.
Yeah. So there are a lot of little
things going on in this city and
I'm excited to share them with
our audience.
We're happy that you're going to be
exploring those and we'll be getting
to take part in them here on
Austin Signal.
We've been speaking with Stephanie
Federico. She is the editor of the
Arts Desk here at KUT
News.
Stephanie, thank you for your time
and let me be the first to wish you
a happy Artsy 2026.
Thank you,
Terri.
And you can find more from
the KUT Art Beat
over at KUT.org.
We've had a few stories put
out on the website since we spoke
with Stephanie, and you can more
from us over at
kut.org slash
signal, including all the episodes
that we made in 2025.
We've got one more to make tomorrow,
and that's at the same time,
one o'clock right here on KUT News
90.5 on
the KUT app and again online.
Kut.org.
Thank you to Andrew Weber,
Jennifer Stayton, Jimmy Maas, Rene
Chavez, and Stephanie Federico
for their help with today's
episode.
Kristen Cabrera is our managing
producer and Rayna Sevilla
is our technical director.
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
Have a great day and we'll talk to
you tomorrow.