A. Nelessen Associates and the Austin Neighborhood Planning and Zoning Department will present a preliminary concept plan for the East Riverside Corridor on Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 6 to 8 pm at Baty Elementary School, 2101 Faro Drive. The presentation will include suggested new roadways, transportation changes including bike lanes and mass transit, open space, urban design enhancements and land use and development scenarios. ...

Austin may soon cut a policy that gives away a scarce resource to the lucky few: downtown street parking, which is free to those lucky enough to find a spot after 5:30 pm and on the weekends. In connection with the plan to install a new type of parking meter, free times may be cut, perhaps to after 8:30 pm and on Sundays. People park then too, but charging at night might incur the wrath of angry boozehounds and charging on Sundays might incur the wrath of God (or at least the wrath of downtown churches)....

The Downtown Austin Alliance has announced three winners in its bike rack design contest. The chosen racks were submitted by Ann Armstrong, Ben Harman and Kezia and Tom Simister. They will be installed at 401, 600 and 816 Congress Avenue. The winning designers are in the process of meeting with the DAA and working with the fabricators. Installation of the final racks is expected to happen next spring....

Last Thursday, city council heard presentations from the three contenders vying for the opportunity to design the new central library. The contenders are Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects and Taniguchi with Holzman Moss, Lake | Flato and Shepley Bulfinch, and PageSoutherlandPage and Patkau Architects. The presentations and pdfs of the proposals are on the city's website. Also on that page are comment forms soliciting public comment on each proposal. Public input will be only accepted through Friday, October 31, 2008. The presentations and pdfs provide a lot of information about the design process and the teams' relevant past work, but they don't contain much information about what any of the teams would actually build at the site. ...

There will be a meeting of the Austin Live Music Task Force this Wednesday night at 7:30 pm at City Hall (301 West 2nd Street) to hear public comments on the task force's draft recommendations. Those recommendations include establishing a music department to help promote live music in Austin; reducing costs associated with operating live music venues; assisting with health care, housing, parking and business services for musicians; measuring and managing music sound control, sound attenuation and responses to noise complaints; allowing "Outdoor Live Music" as a permitted accessory use in certain commercial base zoning districts; creating additional entertainment districts throughout the city; and expanding the existing entertainment districts (Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Streets between Congress and I-35 and the area between Congress and Guadalupe and Cesar Chavez and Fifth) to cover most of downtown....

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, which represents CapMetro bus drivers and maintenance workers, has rejected a "final" offer from StarTran, Inc. According to the Statesman, that offer included a one-time $1,000 payment instead of a percentage raise for the 2007-08 contract year and a starting salary for some new drivers $6/hour under the current rate. Union president Jay Wyatt is expected to announce on Friday whether the union will strike. If they do, CapMetro will run a reduced schedule and charge no fares....

The current election ballot in Austin includes a proposition for an amendment to the city charter to "prohibit the City from providing financial incentives ... for projects that include one or more retail uses." The proposition is the result of a signature drive by Stop Domain Subsidies....

The Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (DANA) is holding its 5th Annual Downtown Living Tour Sunday, October 19th, from noon to 5 pm, showcasing homes and the benefits of living in downtown Austin. This year's tour includes Gables West Avenue, 360 Condominiums, AMLI on 2nd, AMLI Downtown, Austonian, Plaza Lofts, The Monarch and Brazos Place. Tourgoers will get complimentary food and beverages after the tour at the Belmont. VIP ticket holders are invited to enjoy music, food and drinks poolside at the 360 Condominiums on Saturday night....

Residents who went to the first public meeting to discuss the proposed streetcar system were concerned that the city's plan to run the streetcar in the same lane as car traffic on Manor would slow the streetcar down and make it less popular. The city says that at 60 feet wide, Manor can't support a streetcar and regular car lanes. Some residents suggested that the streetcar run down MLK instead of Manor. That plan would be an improvement over the current one - MLK has more capacity and it would also allow riders to transfer to and from the MLK stop on the commuter rail line. The Downtown Plan team will be having three more meetings next week to discuss streetcar. Details after the jump. ...

There was an interesting editorial in yesterday's Washington Post. Basically, the price of oil has fallen dramatically in the last few weeks and gas prices are coming down as a result. This is good new for the stock market and Hummer drivers, but it threatens to wipe out recent decreases in domestic consumption of gasoline (U.S. motorists to drove 12.2 billion fewer miles in June compared with a year earlier). The bottom line of the editorial is that higher gas prices result in lower consumption, so any national energy policy seriously aimed at reducing consumption should include an increased gas tax that would maintain the incentives to conserve gasoline....

Las Manitas closed forever on August 31 according to Cynthia Perez (one of the owners). The restaurant will probably be replaced with a complex of three new Marriott hotels....

International bicycling phenomenon Lance Armstrong was named the top water user in Austin, according to a list published by the Statesman. He paid $1,630 for 222,900 gallons of water. Astounding ingenuity and persistence enabled local attorney Carolyn Beckett to take the number two spot by using 174,400 gallons of water, even though her 1/3 acre lot doesn't have a swimming pool or a sprinkler system. Austinites overall use about 180 million gallons of water a day during the summer....

Cooper, Robertson & Partners will be hosting an informational session regarding the Brackenridge Tract tomorrow at the LCRA Hancock Building at 3700 Lake Austin Blvd. Cooper, Robertson is not expected to release final plans at the meeting, but will "share preliminary findings of the consultant team, and share summaries of values, visions, and concerns voiced at the June 25th meeting, as well as final survey results." If you would like to take the survey before the meeting, click here....

clickykbd/FlickrIf you can get past the cover, there is an interesting article in this week's New Yorker about lawns. The article is full of fun statistics like "nearly a third of all residential water use in the United States currently goes toward landscaping" and "space devoted to turfgrass in the United States is growing at the rate of almost six hundred square miles a year." Austin overall is ambivalent about lawns. Lawns are particularly ill-suited......

Road closures downtown for tomorrow's festivities. City of Austin needs more lifeguards to keep summer water programs operating. Holly Street neighborhood concerned about five-story condo development set to be built across the street from the old power plant. New Leander high school will be named after a soldier (and Leander High grad) killed in Iraq. A woman may have lured a man into a Fourth Street alley where he was robbed and beaten by two men Monday night....

Developers aren't the only ones making pie from the pecan trees removed for the BartonPlace condos. Tom Suhler of SideSpin Productions has made a videobituary for one of the trees, which he has named "Baum Verde." "Baum" is apparently a reference to L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! "Verde" is a kind of salsa. According to his website, "Baum Verde, also known as 'BV', philosopher, mother, proponent for green living, and local human shelter advocate, died May 21. She was 89. BV's life was cut short at the hands of an arborist's chain saw to make room for the Barton Place Condominiums." ...

As part of the construction of the BartonPlace condos at the former site of the Shady Grove RV Park, several big pecan trees have been removed. The Statesman noticed and so did Marcia Ball, who apparently mentioned something about it while on stage at a Blues on the Green a few weeks ago. BartonPlace developer Larry Warshaw felt both the Statesman and Marcia Ball were unfair about the tree removal, noting that BartonPlace complied with the law and agreements with the neighborhoods, unlike another developer that recently clear-cut hundreds of large oak trees in Oak Hill. The full letter from Larry is reprinted below....

According to the Statesman, the City of Austin is generally failing to enforce the Water Use Management Ordinance, despite having received over a thousand complaints about violations. Only three citations have been issued so far, all to commercial users. Under the ordinance, commercial and multifamily users can only water on Tuesday and/or Friday year round, residential users with odd-numbered addresses can only water on Wednesday and/or Saturday from May 1 - September 30 and residential users with even-numbered addresses can only water on Thursday and/or Sunday from May 1 - September 30. No one can water between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., except with hand-held hose. ...

The City of Austin, the LCRA, the City of Dripping Springs and two groundwater conservation districts have approved a settlement agreement that would allow the Belterra subdivision to dump 350,000 gallons a day of treated sewage into Bear Creek, which feeds the Barton Springs portion of the Edwards Aquifer. The only remaining required approval is expected to come from Hays County tomorrow. The agreement would make Belterra the first subdivision allowed to dump treated sewage directly into a stream in the Barton Springs part of the Edwards Aquifer....

Two big wins for the patriots fighting to keep Allandale among the least dense, slowest growing neighborhoods in central Austin. First, Wal-Mart has abandoned any pretext of urbanity at their proposed Northcross location. Second, City Council acceded to Allandale's demands to opt out almost all of its eligible tracts from VMU zoning (all that they added was the Wal-Mart/Northcross location and a lot that is already VMU)....

The Austin Police Department is conducting a web survey about driving safety and driving behaviour. With just a few clicks you can agree or disagree with questions like "There are a lot of bad drivers on the road." "Bad" seems redundant, but there are certainly a lot of drivers on the road, so umm ... "Strongly Agree" seems right....

City Council has unanimously declared Trammell Crow the winner in the contest for rights to redevelop the Green Water Treatment Plant and the Energy Control Center. The Trammell Crow proposal was the most ambitious in many way - most total square footage, most parking, most green roofage and most solar panels crammed into a small area. They were among the lowest in retail square footage, and more parking just means more smelly cars, so they weren't our favorite, but they were the City Staff's favorite....

APD seeks help in finding the man (pictured on the right) who hit a South Austin convenience store on June 15. Georgetown landscaper charged with deceptive trade practices (taking customers' money and not doing the job). Austin firefighter who was fired for sexual harassment of a co-worker (and for viewing porn at work) is appealing. Visitability organization asking city officials to require homebuilders make new homes handicap-accessible....

A Belgian company has bid on Budweiser. A building housing a nuclear reactor in Kansas was hit by a tornado. The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Guantanamo detainees. Congressman v. Blogger Before you head to China for the Olympics, their government would like you to know a few things . . . And you thought Austin had a mansion problem? This 5-year old has become the youngest tattooer in the......

A message from our beloved mayor: Over the last several months, you may have heard talk about a proposed City plan for achieving improved energy efficiency in existing homes. Some have called it the "point of sale" ordinance, or even the "green home tax." There's been a lot of confusion and misunderstanding on this issue, so I want to try to set the record straight. I hope that you will take a moment to read this. ...

Oak Hill developer accidentally destroys ancient oaks. Salmonella case in Travis County linked to those tainted tomatoes. APD is on the lookout for aggressive drivers. Chief Acevedo fires officer for lying about a 2007 arrest he made. Billy Dan Carroll, accused of molesting six kids (at least), requests a court-appointed lawyer. City staff prefer the Trammel Crow plan for the Green Water Treatment Plant site. Texas Democratic officials in no hurry to change the primary/caucus process, but may set up a committee to collect opinion about it....

As gas prices continue to rise and the bimonthly resurrection of the lightrail debate goes on-and-off, Austinites are left with the option of riding Capital Metro buses. What can sometimes be a nuisance for some and a necessity for most, Cap Metro has a love-hate relationship with the City of Austin and its drivers. Whatever your thoughts of the bus system in our city, they did have some good news to report this month: ridership is up! Over 675,000 more people rode Cap Metro buses this year than in 2007—that's an increase of over 6%. The amount of people who choose to park-and-ride went up, as well, over 13%. Reports of full buses and long waits have filled Cap Metro inboxes and, in response, the company hopes to add between 10 to 15 more buses to its fleet. Additionally, Cap Metro says they hope to use these to create new, more rider friendly routes....

Last week, five developers presented their proposals for the redevelopment of the Green Water Treatment Plant and the Energy Control Center - six prime acres of downtown real estate worth something like $55 million. The city is requesting your opinions here, but only until this Sunday. Our pick? Stratus had us at HEB....

A 4.5 mile stretch of the elevated highway will be demolished and replaced with a boulevard and park. A new highway, constructed on a parallel route, will be built in a ditch so that normal streets can pass over it. Unfortunately, this progressive plan isn't happening in Austin. Instead, Oklahoma City, our forward thinking neighbor to the north, is the one choosing to put urban fabric above highway bypassability....

Unmellow Lance Armstrong's new bike shop, Mellow Johnny's on Fourth and Nueces, opened last weekend, just in time for Bike to Work Day this Friday, May 16. The Austin Cycling Association is coordinating free breakfast that morning at the locations shown after the jump....