Let’s Go Vote!

One of the most critical acts of civic responsibility is voting and some of the greatest impact on our day to day lives is made by local elected officials.  Four out of seven city council members, including the mayor, are up for election and it’s important that Downtown gets out the vote.

Community Impact has prepared a quick fact sheet on each candidate here and each candidate has posted short videos on the city’s website introducing themselves to voters, here.

Saturday, May 12, 2012 | Election Day

Regular voting is from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and a voter must vote in his or her assigned precinct.  To find out where you should go vote, click here:  http://www.traviscountytax.org/showVoterNameSearch.do

In May 2011, only 7.4% of registered voters came out to vote and downtown turnout was about that average.  For the neighborhood that includes city hall, and whose future is shaped significantly by decisions made by City Council, Downtown can do better than average. Go vote!

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When: Thursday, March 22, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Where: Rattle Inn @ 610 Nueces Street

The Austin Food & Wine Festival will be hosting DANA and OANA for a very special, super exclusive happy hour event at The Rattle Inn on Thursday, March 22nd from 6:30-8:30pm. Complimentary wine and beer will be served along with tasty bites from Ranch 616 will be available. DANA and OANA members who buy their festival passes at the happy hour will also received a special gift!  To RSVP, click here.

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DANA has consistently advocated for improved sidewalks and streetscapes as a quality of life amenity in our urban area.  On this week’s Council agenda, there is a project called a ‘Street Patio’ being considered that would help further those goals.

In 2010, DANA took part in a charrette specific to Congress Avenue where the lack of sidewalk cafes was repeatedly highlighted. The vision document that resulted from that community-driven effort made six recommendations, which included “a dynamic pedestrian experience” and “outdoor dining” as top priorities for revitalizing this critical street.

DANA believes that while the pilot program being considered by council is being funded by a private business, the benefit of activated public space for pedestrians constitutes a considerable non-monetary value to the public.  Numerous other cities nationwide have implemented similar programs for mini-patios and parklets.

We are pleased that our organization was invited into the conversation for the pilot and we look forward to giving further feedback during the evaluation period prior to a permanent program.  This site is particularly well suited to this proposal and the two parking spaces being used are being mitigated with two new ones along 7th Street.

We look forward to this exciting development for downtown and the contributions it will make towards the pedestrian environment we all hope to enjoy on Congress Avenue.

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Late last year, the City of Austin established a Bond Election Advisory Task Force to review a sizable $1.5B list of projects pulled together from each individual city department as a part of their needs assessment process.  Now that those projects have been published, DANA also, is looking to provide feedback to our city leaders on what projects are a key priority to downtown.

The full list of projects is listed in this report and in this summary presentation of the non-transit considerations.

*O/M = Ongoing Operations & Maintenance, FTE = Full Time Equivalent Employees

The task force and a separate Transit Working Group will be making recommendations to the city council regarding investments in Transportation, Facilities & Infrastructure, Parks & Open Spaces and Affordable Housing.  These investments are aimed to improve Austin’s mobility, affordability, sustainability and cost-effectiveness in operating.  City Council has asked the group to prioritize projects and recommend a package of $385M which does not require a tax increase as well as at levels that would require a 1 cent or more increase in taxes.

If you have suggestions on what downtown projects need prioritization, please contact DANA.  We intend to provide input to the task force and city council on this important issue.

For upcoming meetings of the task force, please check here.

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When: March 3rd, 9am – 12pm

Where: 900 W. 9th Street, Austin, TX 78703

It’s My Park Day is an annual event put on by the Austin Parks Foundation that enables citizens to volunteer and contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of their local parks.  DANA has sponsored numerous volunteer events over the years and this year we will be focusing on Duncan Park.  Our fellow neighborhood association, OANA will likewise be leading an effort to clean up Shoal Creek.

Please RSVP here on the Austin Parks Foundation website for the DANA event or here for the OANA one.  Both are great ways to be good stewards of our neighborhood green spaces.

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