TXDOT is pouring billions of dollars
into I-35 through Central Austin,
adding more lanes and eventually
sinking parts of the highway up to
60 feet below ground level,
which makes it possible to build
parks above the highways.
But that comes with a hefty price
tag. Find out why Austin City staff
is urging elected officials to
hold off on those plans.
And a New York Times investigation
is prompting new conversations about
the legacy of labor leader Cesar
Chavez across the country.
Find out how that ultimately led to
the decision to remove the mural
here in Austin and how the community
feels about it.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Miles Bloxan.
The Austin-based group D'Oreo
is performing at Rock the Park
tonight. Hear about their journey
thus far and their plans for the
future. That's all coming up
right here on Austin Signal.
Hello, Austin!
It's Friday, March 27th.
I'm Miles Bloxson, and this is
The Austin Signal.
Txot is pouring billions of dollars
into I-35 through central
Austin, adding more lanes
and eventually sinking parts of the
highway up to 60 feet below ground
level. That open-air highway
canyon will run from Holly Street
to Airport Boulevard, creating a
rare opportunity to build parks over
the highway.
But those parks don't come cheap.
Austin has already committed more
and a hundred million dollars.
Towards the plan and at least half
a billion more is needed to build
them all out.
But as KUT's Nathan Bernier reports,
city staff are urging Austin's
elected leaders to hold off
warning the plan is too risky
without private money to help pay
for it.
This is a splash pad.
Kids are running around and playing
on a hot summer day.
A few steps away, a father and son
are having a game of ping pong.
Not far from them, a young man and
woman are playing UNO on a blanket.
A little picnic, playing a little
card games, eat some lunch, you
know.
Beneath them all are ten lanes
of highway traffic.
This is Clyde Warren Park in
Dallas. It sits on top of
the Woodall Rogers Freeway.
The park is only five acres,
but it attracts more than 1.5
million visitors a year.
And when I visited Clyde-Warren Park
on that hot day in 2024,
I spoke to one of the guys who
helped bring it to life, Dallas
attorney Rob Walters.
And he had some advice for Austin,
which back then was early in the
process of trying something similar
over I-35.
Everything you see on this park,
everything we're sitting on, all of
this was paid for out of the private
sector.
There are tremendous naming
opportunities.
They shouldn't have to pay a penny
for what goes on top.
If Austin doesn't do this, this will
sound offensive, I don't mean to do
it. It will be an utter, colossal
failure of collective leadership.
Last May, Austin's City
Council agreed to pay more than $100
million just for the support
structures that would hold up
concrete decks over sections
of I-35.
That's after TxDOT lowers the main
lanes.
The biggest of those so-called caps
would effectively tunnel
I- 35 from Cesar Chavez
to 7th Street.
But here's the thing.
Austin is not doing it
the way Dallas did.
I think this is a transformational
park. It changes a city.
This is an old promotional video.
It's going to bring all of us
together as a community,
as a family.
More than anything, it's going to
give Dallasites something to be
proud of.
In Dallas, Clyde Warren Park started
with the private sector,
specifically wealthy people who
wanted to help pay for it and
have their names stamped on it.
Like Chase Bank Promenade, or
the Ginsburg Family East Lawn, or
even Moody Plaza.
By the way, it was not just Clyde
that relied mostly on private
funding. Same for the Rose Kennedy
Greenway over I-93 in Boston
and Southern Gateway, which is a
second highway park being built in
Dallas.
You're watching a meeting of the
Austin City Council.
In Austin, the city is leading
the effort, and so far,
no one from the private sector has
stepped up with any money.
So city staff are delivering a very
different message to the city
council than they were just a couple
years ago.
At this point, we just can't
recommend that that we that
you move forward with such a
decision because that does create
such a significant risk.
That's Kim Oliveras.
She's the City of Austin's Director
of Financial Services.
And city staff are now making this
formal recommendation that Austin
not spend any more public
money on the caps beyond
the $100 million already devoted to
pay for those support structures.
For those who were always skeptical
of building parks over I-35,
this feels like a moment of
vindication.
Crystal Lane represents Austin City
Council District 6.
When we as council committed $104
million to the I-35 Roadway
Elements last year, I,
along with many of my colleagues,
raised serious concerns about
the projected cost estimates,
also about the limited funding
partners that we had at that time
and that certainly I thought was
realistic that we might secure by
now.
Those on the City Council who want
to build 14 acres of parks over
the highway are also frustrated.
Ryan Alter represents Austin City
Council District 5.
It just feels like every time we
have this conversation, we're
expecting one of two things to
happen. Either someone to drop off a
$50 million check, which is never
going to happen,
or for the DAA to come to
us and say, hey, we've put together
all the downtown partners, and
here's your $200 million you're
looking for.
The DAA is the Downtown Austin
Alliance.
We have to have an aggressive
capital campaign if this is gonna be
successful.
And that requires someone
to be in charge.
Assistant City Manager Mike Rogers
told council members that attracting
that kind of private money does
not happen overnight, and he spent
three years in Dallas as
a top city official.
By the time somebody
knocked on my door when I was
in Dallas, you had funding
stacks that had already been
generated.
And so we're talking years
of conversations
that have taken place, but
they had the money before they
came to the city, which is a little
bit different than this situation.
And that difference might determine
whether Austin's vision for parks
over I-35 ever becomes
a reality.
But for now it appears a majority of
the city council is ready to build
those support structures and
wait and see if more funding becomes
available, either from a
new administration in the White
House after 2026,
or from those with money who want
to give it up and have a little
piece of Austin named after them.
I'm Nathan Bernier in Austin.
For years, a mural of Cesar Chavez
welcomed people into East Austin.
Now that wall is blank.
The mural was painted over this week
following a New York Times
investigation outlining multiple
allegations of sexual assault
against a labor leader.
Joining us now to talk about the
decision and reaction is Luz
Moreno-Lezano, KUT's
City Hall reporter.
Great to have you here, Luz.
Thanks for having me, Miles.
For folks that are not familiar,
where was the mural of Caesar Chavez
located and how long was it actually
there?
Yeah, so if you're driving down
Cesar Chavez going east,
this mural was facing
west of a building at the corner
of Cesar chavez and Waller Street.
So when you basically enter
the East Austin neighborhood, that's
where that mural stood.
Now there has always been a mural of
César Chavez there, but it
had been plagued with like
vandalism and things over the years.
And so when this new building owner
came in, They asked
to work with the community to
restore it, and that happened in
2023.
Okay, and a New York Times
investigation is prompting new
conversations about the legacy of
labor leader Cesar Chavez.
This is across the country.
How did that ultimately lead to the
decision to remove the mural here in
Austin?
Well, so I talked with one of
the co-owners of the building, Eric
Barth, yesterday.
He basically kind of talked a little
bit about just having to make this
really tough decision to kind of
believe what we heard from the women
who spoke up, but also kind
of work with the community.
And we have a little of a clip here
from him.
With the recent news and
revelations about Cesar Chavez,
we felt like it was no longer
something that we wanted associated
with the business, and that was a
discussion we had, again, with the
community leaders and the
neighborhood leaders.
And when you think about the
community, right, I know it's
affecting a lot of people because
they've seen this mural for like
most of their lives, right?
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think the
the community, the Latino community
has had such a really tough time
trying to wrap their head around
this news, you know, for a long time
this man has been an
icon and a voice for
people who didn't have one.
You know, I spoke
with Bertha Urendo-Nortiz, she
is the co-founder
of this group, Arta Texas, and
they're the ones who restored the
mural.
And she kind of talked a little bit
about how Cesar Chavez had
been part of who they
identify with in East Austin.
And she gave me this really
emotional testimony that we'll hear
here in a second, but I
think that people
are still grappling with how to
respond to this.
And we've seen a lot of movement
over the last week or so in this.
And here's a little bit about what
she kind of showed with me
yesterday.
I've been there 46 years,
going to be 47 years in August.
We've always saw that mural.
When you enter Cesar Chavez and
enter the East Austin neighborhood,
you would always see that mural to
the left. You would see Cesar chavez
face, you would see a field,
you will see farm workers,
and you would see the message Cesar
Puede.
Iconic wow 46
years she said going on 47
so a long time long
Long, long time.
She has been an activist
for her community.
She's run for city council.
I mean, she is an organizer and she
has a really good pulse on
her community and what her
neighborhood is feeling about this.
Yeah, I'm from the east side of
Austin, so of course I saw that
mural growing up a lot.
Any plans of what will actually be
painted in its place?
Yeah, you know, when I talked with
Eric, he he talked a little bit
about not, you know,
even though they own the building,
this wall isn't theirs, you know,
that this wall belongs to the
community. And so they're going to
leave it blank until they can work
with the neighbors and with city
leaders to figure out what should go
there. So I don't think we'll see
anything there for a while, but
it sounds like they are, they do
want to do something and you know
what that looks like is still to be
determined.
How does a business owner feel?
I mean, to know, like that was a
part, you know, when he started the
business, that was the part of his
business, essentially, right?
Yeah, yeah, I think,
you know, he seemed to know
that this mural,
this neighborhood has
gone through a lot of change.
And just because they bought the
building, it doesn't mean that they,
you can like own the side
of the wall that welcomes
neighbors and that has been there
for so long.
And so I think he's really kind of
embraced the East
Austin community and he wants
them to be part of this decision.
I think we're starting to see that
all across the city as
city leaders respond to this and
we might see name changes to the
street and we've seen celebrations
canceled and I think that's all part
of like how the community is
responding.
That was KET City Harbor.
Reporter, Luz Moreno Lozano.
Great talking with you.
Thanks, Miles. Of course.
We'll have links to that story at
KUT.org slash Signal and
in the podcast show notes.
Coming up next, you'll hear from the
group Dorio about their performance
tonight at Rock the Park.
This is Austin Signal.
We will be right back.
This is the Austin Signal, welcome
back.
Our sister station, KUTX, is back
with a new season of the
award-winning, good time for all
happening, that is Rock the Park.
This latest go-around kicks off
tonight with Bananerman and is
headlined by Dorio.
This is Chad, Dorio
Court, and Rachel Roscoe, who are
joining us now in the studio.
Welcome to the show, y'all.
Hey. Hi.
Thanks for having us.
Of course.
For our listeners who may not be
familiar with y'all, who is Dorio
and how long have y'al been making
music together?
So I guess we've been making music
since 2019.
And yeah, we're three albums in,
I guess, right now.
But yeah, the project compromises
of me, Chad,
and Rachel.
Yeah, I'm Rachel and we're
a musical duo based
here in Austin and we make,
I would say like,
our music has pop and rock
and a lot of different influences,
but we produce
everything ourselves so it's kind of
just what we
hope the inside of our brains to
sound like coming through on D'Orio.
What I need, I'll
try my best
I'd better
I love that, so your album, Super
Love 3, has been out for almost a
year, right?
So what are y'all most proud of,
looking back on the album and the
tour that you were on last year?
Yeah, it was our first time going
to the West Coast and our first-time
playing like LA and a bunch of
cities out there.
So it was really fun to bring the
album out last
summer. And I feel like
it had a really warm reception in
Austin too.
We got to do a KUTX
Studio 1A taping.
That was fun to
get those live recordings.
And I feel like, so that was
our third album.
And I felt like it was,
we kind of talked about it a lot
where we'd been working with the
same people up until
this album. And we really felt like,
just because of the relationships
we've formed, like with friends
and stuff that have helped us out,
I feel that was kind of the
culmination of the project
and kind of like seeing all
like the work and
relationships that we kind
of built upon leading up
to that album.
Yeah, I don't know, it felt really
good to keep working with the same
people and then see the project kind
of keep snowballing.
Speaking of recording new stuff,
what do y'all have planned for this
year?
So, this might
be the, I guess
the announcement, but we do have a
new album coming out this
summer.
We have some new music coming out
the summer. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah,
but later in.
Can you tell us anything?
I'm laughing at Chad because he told
me not to say that we had a new
album, and then that was the first
thing that he just said.
We definitely have new music coming
out this summer that
we're really excited about, and we
are going to play some new songs
tonight at Rock the Park for
the first time.
So we've been practicing those
and figuring them out in a live
format, and we're really excited
about that. Exactly, yeah.
Debut in some new songs on
Fresh.
Yeah, at the
park. I think it'll be the perfect
place.
You know what, I love this for
y'all, that y'alre gonna be at
Mueller and rock the park.
But you know, that's all about the
kids too, right? Like there'll be a
lot of kids there. It is family
friendly. And recently we got some,
a little bit of criticism from the
kiddos that we needed to be a little
more fun on the radio and that we
don't need to be so serious.
You know, they tell us what's on
their minds and we listen.
So I need to ask you all, what
is your first concert that you
remember from your childhood?
You know, I grew
up going to a lot of public
arts events, like free
concerts in San Antonio that my mom
was really good at keeping up with.
So that's why I'm really happy to
play stuff like Rock the Park
because I have really sweet memories
as a kid of just kind of rolling
up at these big downtown
events and kind of getting to
experience what performers are
and all that stuff.
But I
don't really.
We weren't like a super musical
family, so I don't have historically
a first concert, but I
know the first memorable
Austin concert that I was taken
to was in middle school.
My friend's parents took us to
see cake at Stubbs,
and I didn't know
anything about cake and I did
know anything Stubbz.
I learned that you're not allowed to
bring umbrellas in, I remember it
was raining. But I feel
like that started
off.
This kind of obsessive journey of
like seeing shows at Mohawk and
going to fun, fun, fun fest and just
being obsessed with coming to Austin
for concerts when I was in high
school and stuff. So I, I
do really, I remember that, that
cake show.
That's a pretty epic, uh, for sure.
What about for you, Chad?
Um, why was a
former emo kid?
Well, I'm still like emo,
but emotionally, but I guess on the
music taste I have, um, well,
I still like, but anyways, um it
was, um taking back Sunday with
my sister, um in
Dallas and she took,
it was our favorite band growing up
and yeah, I don't know.
It was cool.
I grew up in a small town and I feel
like go into a concert.
Arena concert with Taken Back Sunday
in Dallas, was just like,
well, this is cool.
And yeah, I don't know.
It was intimidating, but it was also
fun, I think, being around people
that had similar music taste as
you.
I don't know, I think I was just
pretty insecure going there, but
then when I got there, I was like,
okay, cool, there's people like me
that exist, even though I might
listen to this music that maybe my
friends think I'm weird for
listening to.
Important to go out to shows, I
think, and find people that
are like you.
Find your tribe.
What advice do you all have
for up and coming artists out there?
I mean, I was a kid who was
like in choir and
I was in orchestra at school, but
I didn't, I think I was too shy
to like make my own music
and like I was writing songs,
but I wasn't ever like thinking
about recording them until I was,
a lot later, like in my late
twenties. So I think kids should
just, if you want to make music,
just start doing it and
don't be too
like scared to share it
or just record it for yourself.
And don't share it for a while
and develop it that way.
But I think with everything
you can do on your computer now,
it's both nice,
the accessibility, but it's also
overwhelming that anyone can
record stuff at any time.
Yeah, and to go back on like being
scared to release something or even
scared to write music, I feel like
that feeling, I always
think that feeling is going to go
away every album, every
song we release, but it never goes
away.
So I've just kind of learned to,
you know, that feeling's always
going to be there. So might as well
just embrace it in a way and
just, or maybe not embrace it.
But it's never going
to go away.
But it's just fun
to make music for yourself and
maybe not worry about anything else,
which is easier said than done.
Yeah.
I would also, this is kind of a
different point, but I also think
there is never too much music
in Austin.
Chad and I really were, he's from
Bryan and I'm from San Antonio, and
we really were drawn to Austin by
the music.
And I think even though it's
such a discussion now that like,
oh, Austin's not as creative
anymore, there
is still like, I think the
music community, the community of
people here that are interested in
going to shows and checking out
smaller records is still
pretty unbeatable.
And I think staying in a
community for a long time is just
a great way to
kind of meet like-minded people.
We've been chatting with Chad and
Rachel from Dorio.
They're headlining Rock the Park
tonight at Gerard Kenny Park at
Mueller. It's a free and
family friendly event that starts at
6 45, but our friend Jackie
Fuller over at KUTX says it's
best to arrive around six o'clock.
If you want to nab your ideal spot,
trust me, you don't want to miss it.
Thanks so much for being here,
y'all.
Thank you for having us.
Don't forget, if you miss an episode
of Austin Signal, you can catch up
by listening to the podcast.
Stream it or download it.
Austin Signal is available on
Spotify, Apple Podcast, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Well, that's it for us right here on
Austin Signal.
It's been so much fun being
your host these past couple of days
and giving our good old friend
Jerry Quijano a break, which is
much needed. But don't worry, he
will be back on Monday.
I wanna thank Luz Moreno-Lazano
for her reporting and joining us in
the studio today, Nathan Bernier for
his I-35 story and Dorio
for chatting with us before their
Rock the Park performance tonight.
A special thank you to Rayna
Sevilla, our technical director, and
Kristen Cabrera, our managing
producer.
And a special shout out to our
showrunner, Jimmy Maas, who is doing
a thousand things around here,
including being our board op today
in the KUT Studio.
I'm your host, Miles Bloxson.
This is Austin Signal.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
We'll talk to you on Monday.