In the wake of public sexual assault
and abuse allegations against union
organizer Cesar Chavez,
organizers of the annual parade in
Austin honoring him canceled their
upcoming event.
Now local activists and politicians
are calling for the city of Austin
to change the name of Cesar chavez
street, the east to west
thoroughfare running through the
heart of Austin.
We've got the latest from the
fallout and Austin area state
representative James Tallarico will
need to broaden his base of support
in order to win the state senate See
this form?
One group of voters he'll have to
convince will be those who voted for
his Democratic counterpart.
More about those stories coming up
on today's show.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Kehanel.
And March Madness is upon
us. Don't forget to fill out your
brackets, and join us for
today's episode of Austin
Signal.
Howdy out there, thank you for
tuning in to Austin Signal.
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano,
and this is community-powered public
radio KUT News.
We're glad you're spending part of
your Thursday here with us.
We're gonna start today with a quick
elections update that'll impact the
upcoming runoffs.
The Williamson County Republican
Party voted to return to countywide
voting for the May 26th
party primary runoff.
That news was confirmed to KUT by
a representative for the county.
The party must amend their election
contract with the county before that
change can be finalized.
Williamson County Communications
Director Connie Odom says a meeting
to do that is set for March
24th, that's next week.
Earlier this month on primary
election day, Williamson county
voters had to vote at their assigned
precincts rather than at any
polling place in the county, as had
been the custom, and that led to
lots of confusion and frustration
for many voters.
We have more about this story
over at KUT.
Accusations of sexual assault and
abuse of women and girls were made
public against labor union organizer
Cesar Chavez this week, and the
fallout has been swift here in
Austin.
Chavez died in 1993.
Organizers of the annual parade and
celebration honoring him decided
instead to cancel the event,
which was set to take place later
this month.
But a more permanent and prominent
honoring of Chavez is the main
east-to-west connecting road at the
center of Austin that's named after
him. Now activists and politicians
alike are calling for change.
For more about this story, we're
joined by QUT City Hall reporter,
Luce Modeno Lozano.
Luce, welcome back to the show.
Thanks for having me, Jerry.
So when, first off, when did Austin
rename the street for Cesar Chavez
and who was behind that change?
Yeah, you know, the city looked
at this back in 1993,
not long after he died.
And this was pushed by a local
nonprofit called El Concillo.
They're kind of made up of
neighborhoods in East Austin, and
they were the big driving force
behind getting that namesake
across the downtown corridor
and down into East Austin.
And I heard yesterday from the
spokesperson that Austin might have
been among the first to change
a name and honor him like
so soon after he died.
So yeah, so 1993.
And those accusations were made
public yesterday and very quickly,
El Concilio had a press conference
yesterday. What else did you hear
from them?
Yeah, you know, this is very
heavy, and I think people are kind
of reacting in different ways,
particularly this group.
Because they pushed for the change
in the first place, they're now
holding themselves accountable and
trying to be respectful of the
victims by asking counsel
to kind of expedite this process
in changing the name.
You know, there was some discussion
about what the name could be.
You know I think Dolores
Huerta has been kind
of at the forefront
of everyone's minds lately,
especially after the statement she
released yesterday.
And so maybe we could see that name
possibly, but that was something
that El Concillo had supported
yesterday as part of this.
OK, so that was the the
voices from the community.
We also heard from city leaders and
council members.
You talked to Councilmember Vanessa
Fuentes. What did she have to say?
Yeah, she,
she just, man, it's just it's been
a really heavy week.
And I think as a Latina, she has
been very moved by what Dolores
Huerta has shared.
And she believes that the
city should be quick to act on this,
to acknowledge what has happened
here and to find a way to,
to yeah, like acknowledge like,
is Cesar Chavez as part of
this? Like, do we need to do we need
a street rename? And what could that
look like?
Um, I, I think there has been,
um, some push from,
from other council members behind
this that, you know, she's not the
only one on this and so, um
yeah, I think we're going to see
some movement from the city council
on, on a potential name change.
And yeah, there was a statement
put out yesterday that was signed by
Councilmember Jose Velasquez,
Vanessa Fuentes, Delia Garza, and
I'm missing one other person.
Chito Vela. Chito Velas as well.
What else did you hear from those
other councilmembers?
Yeah, you know, I talked with Jose
Velasquez yesterday and
he has also part of this group, as
you mentioned, and he basically
told me, he was like, look, like, it
doesn't matter who
these leaders were.
You could be the president of the
United States, you could be head of
a labor union, you know.
Acknowledging these faults that
they have, that
have occurred is
important. And so, you know.
We have to be respectful of the
people and the women who have come
forward with this information.
And he also was like, you know, I
would not be surprised if the city
council came forward with a policy
change pretty quickly.
And if the street is renamed,
it would be something that the
community would be part of.
Yeah, and what does the City Council
have to do? Do they have the power
to rename the street officially?
They do.
There's two ways that that can
happen.
A citizen petition like we saw from
Alconcio in 1993 could
help do that.
The city could also put their own
resolution and policy forward.
So yeah, so I think it'll be kind of
a several weeks,
maybe even months long process
because there also has to be
community input. Like they can't
just change the name of the street
without informing all of the people
who live and work along that that
corridor. Yeah the fallout was
pretty swift in the last 24 hours
but this seems as though it's gonna
be a process that plays out over the
next weeks and maybe months.
Before you get out of here there are
other murals and even a statue here
on the UT campus honoring Chavez.
Have we heard anything about the
future of those?
I think both of those will be
up to the entities that maintain
them. El Concillo only has power
to kind of push the street name
and the city only has the power to
change that since it's their
property.
But yeah, you know, UT I don't think
has responded yet.
I heard yesterday that potentially
the art of the Texas who
helps maintain the mural over in
East Austin on Cesar Chavez Street,
I think they like the mural there.
So we'll see how they respond and if
that needs to be changed.
All right, we have been chatting
with Luz Moreno Lozano.
She is KUT City Hall reporter.
We're gonna have a link to her
reporting in today's show notes and
at kut.org slash signal.
Thank you, Luz. Thanks, Jerry.
Texas Democratic U.S.
Senate nominee James Tallarico has
become a prime target for the
state's Republicans since winning
his party's primary.
But Tallarica has also been catching
some flak from fellow Democrats,
particularly those who voted for
his primary opponent, Congresswoman
Jasmine Crockett.
She received more than a million
votes in the Democratic primary and
won overwhelming support from black
voters in Texas.
Between now and the fall, Tallaric
faces a challenge, convincing
Crocket voters to report him.
In the general election.
The Texas newsroom's Blaise Gainey
reports.
While the Dallas area congresswoman
didn't win the Democratic US Senate
nomination, Matt Engel says
she accomplished one important
thing.
Jasmine Crockett did the best job
of consolidating African-American
vote that I've seen in my political
lifetime, and I'm old, I've been
around a while.
Angle, who for the record is 68,
runs the Lone Star Project, a
Democratic political action
committee. He says it's been decades
since Texas saw a black politician
running statewide pool numbers
like Crockett.
She did a better job than Ron
Kirk when he ran statewide and got
nominated in 2002,
you know, over 20 years ago.
She did better job then Colin Allred
did just two years ago when he was
nominated for the U S Senate.
We know that in part because of the
demographics and places she did
best.
Michael Adams is a political science
professor at Texas Southern
University in Houston.
Clearly, Jasmine Crockett
did very well in the urban areas,
particularly here in Harris County
and also in Dallas and
Tarrant County.
In all, she got 46%,
votes for more than 1,068,000
people.
And while there wasn't much campaign
mudslinging, Democratic strategist
Dallas Jones says the results left
many Crockett fans with a bad taste
in their mouth.
I think there's a sentiment of great
disappointment amongst black women.
Something Jones says has been
building for a long time.
Particularly where they often feel
as though they show up for the
party, but the party does not
frequently enough show up for them.
The frustration showed up on social
media, where a wave of black women
have voiced disappointment.
A mediocre white man won.
Somehow, when a black woman is
running, electability somehow
becomes the main concern.
And this is exactly why you
see all the black people on the
internet saying, F this,
we're done.
Now, none of this is unexpected,
especially after a hard-fought race.
That's according to Cliff Walker, an
Austin-based political strategist.
Within a democratic primary, people
have to prefer candidates,
and afterwards, the work is always
to reunite this party.
Something Walker says Tallarico
seems well aware of, even directly
addressing Crockett's supporters
during his victory speech.
It's on me to ensure you
feel welcomed in,
represented by, and proud
of this campaign.
But as the saying goes, actions
speak louder than words, and the
Democratic candidate has about 33
weeks to get it right.
So what's next?
Or at least what should be next if
Talarico wants to win black voters
in Texas who may be a bit
skeptical about him?
For the experts I talked with,
it boils down to two things,
places and people.
He's going to need to be able to get
a number of
well-known black politicians.
Eric McDaniel is a government
professor at UT Austin.
So Jasmine Crockett, but then also
some of those who've been around for
a while to come out in strong
support, basically show up at his
rallies, beat proxies for him.
That's the people part.
As for places, strategist
Cliff Walker thinks Tallarico's
campaign needs to get out
into black spaces.
Visits at HBCUs
to get them registered, to get them
plugged in so that they can
participate in the campaign.
A word of caution though from
McDaniel of UT.
He says black voters could see
Tallarico as inauthentic if
the US Senate candidate suddenly
starts doing things he's not known
for.
He should have been doing this two
or three years ago.
Just like, Hey, I'm just here.
Hey, how y'all doing?
Let people get to know him.
He could have earned that
authenticity if he showed up
several years ago
One thing working for Tallarico is
that Jasmine Crockett's already
voiced her support.
Sort of.
After the primary, she posted on
X about being committed to getting
Democrats elected in November.
Later, on Facebook Live, she
stressed the state's U.S.
Senate race was a big part of that.
No matter what,
whether it's Kim Paxson or John
Cornyn, anyone would be better,
I'm just saying.
Still, Tallarico has his work cut
out for him if he wants to be the
first Texas Democrat to win a
statewide office in more than 30
years.
I'm Blaise Gainey in Austin.
And on the Republican side,
there is a primary runoff in this
Senate race between incumbent
Senator John Cornyn and Texas
Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Some dates to know for that runoff.
The deadline to register to vote in
the runoff or make an address change
is April 27th.
May 15th is the last day for
ballot by mail applications to be
received.
And primary run off election day is
May 26th.
This is Austin Signal.
We'll be back after a break.
This is Austin
Signal, welcome back.
South by Southwest is officially
over.
The festival wrapped up yesterday,
or early this morning for some of
you, but for many, this year felt
a bit different than in years
past.
Maybe it was the convention center
being gone, or the shorter dates,
or just this world in a
post-pandemic age.
Whatever the reason, there was
a time when the streets were blocked
off and festival and their
badges just took over
downtown.
So today we're gonna take a listen
back before the pandemic to
South by Southwest 2019
and find out the best
way back then to get around
downtown.
We met during the afternoon rush
hour at Plaza Salteo in East
Austin. You'll hear the train there
in the background.
Each of our racers represented a
different vehicle.
We have someone who's going to drive
a car. Woo!
This is Tom Buchel.
Yeah, he's my brother.
Someone who's gonna bike.
Yeehaw! Katie De Oyo was our
cyclist.
And someone who is going to try this
newer mobility option,
the scooter.
The most hated vehicle on the
street. This is Zach T.
Bloom, proud scooter guy.
I've gotta, I've got to ask Zach, do
you scoot?
Bro, do you even sk-
I scoot, bro.
It's the easiest way to get home
when surge pricing is on.
I was referee, manning the start
and finish lines and keeping time.
The course would run through the
boozy, beating heart of SXSW
from Plaza Saltillo to the
Convention Center, then up Congress
to 6th Street and back to the
plaza. Does that seem reasonable,
doable? Yeah, totally.
I'm in. Sounds great.
Excellent. But first, a little more
about our volunteers.
Like I said, Tom is my brother, but
I promise I gave no special
treatment.
Katie, I didn't know before she
volunteered, but it turns out, bikes
are kind of her thing.
I'm actually a league cycling
instructor with the League of
American Bicyclists.
She's also served on city bike and
pedestrian advisory councils and is
a fitness teacher and safe cycling
advocate. So I know the laws.
We do know each other.
I met him last year when he took up
a challenge to only eat and
drink what he could find for free at
South By.
Turned out there was a little more
drink than eat in
that experiment.
Everybody, go at your own speed.
Don't endanger yourselves.
I'm looking at you, Zach.
I got a helmet ready.
Right.
Well, Tom ran to get the car.
Katie and Zach unlocked their rides.
He was on one of those standup
scooters.
She chose an e-bike.
And when time got back...
Two, three, go!
Off they go.
Oh no.
We have a cyclist.
Alright, staying in the bike lane.
Scooter person, got her behind
me, and a car.
The bike and the scooter have
both pulled ahead to what
may be an incident.
That's the amount of a lead.
Now to record their progress, I'd
fitted each person with a clip-on
microphone. I didn't hear any of
this until after the race, but the
audio reveals big differences
in technique among
the races.
Up on 4th and Waller O,
the bike's catching up with me
pretty quickly here.
Turn right onto fourth, look over my
shoulder, signal going
right, make clear.
I'm clear.
Alright, I'm gaining back up on them
and we're all approaching the stop
sign on Waller.
Sign it forth and waller if she's
going to pass me here if I'm not
careful slowing to
a stop looking both ways and
going
Ooh, the scooter kinda scooted
that one.
Didn't come to a complete stop at
the sign.
I held the lead somehow.
He's living on the edge.
She got held up at that one stop
sign and I didn't.
Our scooter person is
far ahead of me now.
Huge lead.
Now, before the race had started,
we'd all taken odds on who was going
to win.
Bicycle was everybody's favorite.
But with that early, questionable
stop, Zach was actually
the first to make it to the
convention center.
The car, we'd always known would
probably be a loser.
The question was, by how
much?
And soon after Zach pulled ahead,
Tom hit some trouble with street
closures.
As is common knowledge,
6th Street is closed between
I-35 and
Congress Avenue.
Now we thought we had all this
figured out.
I think I can...
To take a left.
Sorry about that.
Tom was sent up I-35,
looking for a street to get him back
downtown.
Meanwhile, as the other two
neared six in Congress,
Katie was gaining on Zach.
Following us behind.
Going to be a little bit of a bind
here.
But whenever she got closer,
something would happen.
There'd be a stop sign, a one-way
street, a rule to follow.
We have to yield the right-of-way to
people walking here at the
crosswalk.
She'd stop to talk to.
I have to yield the right of way to
you.
Zach was taking a
different approach.
Going on the sidewalk, ignoring the
rules. She's not going to like this,
but I'm doing it.
Zach's going on the sidewalk,
which is verboten here in
Austin.
This won't win brownie points,
I'm not going to make friends with
the pedestrians, but I'm going to do
what I had to do.
And back in the car,
Tom was...
Conceding defeat.
The inability to move
or accelerate the car
at all, you can really
engage in top-notch
people watching.
Yeah, we should just shut down all
the roads down here.
Strangely enough, that was the same
thing Katie was thinking at around
the exact same time.
I think it's not moving.
Let's go, let's go.
He was coming up on
the finish line.
Woo!
Wait, what?
Is that Zach? Yes it is.
Zach is back.
That did the loop in 14 minutes
and 30 seconds.
I want. This is an upset.
Oh my god. I was just pacing saying
this is an up set.
I got him.
Katie arrived almost exactly
a minute later.
Cheers, cheers, cheers!
All right, come
on over here out of the way and
we'll talk.
We huddled up and went over the
race. I cut down the sidewalk the
wrong way.
And I mean...
It's illegal in Austin,
I promise you, it's against the
rules.
A-ling-al-ish.
As you can tell, the race raised
more questions than it answered.
One, if Zach had paid better
attention to the rules and
etiquette, would he have been first?
To do to win.
I just am like, I'm not gonna
ride my bike on the sidewalk.
As things stood, it seemed like Zach
came in first while Katie chose
the moral victory.
Well, congratulations.
Thank you, second is the best.
Then there was Tom.
After a while, I decided to call
him. Don't worry, he was talking
hands-free.
Hey man, just
checking in, how you doing?
Pretty rough man, pretty rough.
He had reached neither checkpoint
and was at a standstill.
Oh, look at these scooters just
whizzing past me.
This is really just rubbing it in,
all these scootars that are
just whizzing
past.
Oh, look at them go.
We decided he should just try to get
back to me, and I would jog
towards him to save time.
In the end, we got
some running in, too.
Hey!
You made it.
One hour and 31 seconds later.
Not bad, man.
Not bad.
Mo's Mouchel, KUT News.
Well, the men's NCAA basketball
championship tournament officially
tipped off this morning.
And after squeezing by North
Carolina State in Tuesday's
first four game, the 11th seed
of Texas Longhorns will face sixth
seed BYU in tonight's round
one matchup.
Texas has only advanced past the
second round of the tournament once
since the 2008-2009
season. That's a long time.
Head coach Sean Miller says getting
an early start could pay dividends
for his team tonight.
And on into the tournament.
Let's hear from him.
You know, I think that our nerves
sometimes can settle through game
one. You can gain confidence.
You already have one game to
your advantage.
But we're going to have to play a
really good team. And we're gonna
definitely have to pay better.
The Longhorns will face the Cougars
tonight in Portland, Oregon.
Tip-off is scheduled for just
before 6.30 this evening
local time.
And the action continues tomorrow
with the beginning of the women's
championship tournament.
Texas is a number one seed in
this year's tourney, and that means
they're gonna start the games with
a home court advantage.
The Moody Center will be hosting
games tomorrow and Sunday.
The action starts with an
eight, nine seed match up tomorrow.
That's Oregon versus Virginia
Tech. And that'll be followed by
the one seeded Longhorns taking on
Missouri State.
The winners will meet back up at the
Moody Center on Sunday for
a spot in the Sweet 16.
And we will keep you updated
on all the action happening here
in Austin.
Right here on Austin Signal,
we are community powered
public radio from KUT
News.
Here with you every weekday
afternoon at one o'clock and
wherever you listen to your
podcasts.
And if you want to catch up on
any shows you might have missed this
week, head on over to
KUT.org
slash Signal.
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
We will be back with you tomorrow.
Enjoy your spring break.
Enjoy that lighter traffic.
Thanks for tuning in.
This is Austin Signal.