Austin Monitor

After a long history of covering City Hall, Travis County and the like, the Austin Monitor stopped publishing in October 2025 to pursue a new project: Austin Current. For the foreseeable future, the Monitor will live on as a searchable archive, open to anyone who needs it. We invite our longtime readers and casual fans to join us over at Austin Current to experience our evolution firsthand. What’s happening to the Austin Monitor?

Today’s newsletter is supported by Austin Energy and the Value of Public Power 🚨 The new Austin Current newsletter launches Nov. 10 and will be coming from a new email address, so watch out for messages from newsletters@mail.austincurrent.org and thetexastribune@mail.beehiiv.com. You’re already signed up, so just keep an eye out for it in a couple weeks. 🚨 Today is the last day of the Austin Monitor.

Nearly three years after the city approved funding to upgrade the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex, the project remains incomplete. The wait for new theater seating to complete the upgrade has been pushed back to at least summer 2026 amid departmental transitions and procurement delays. The delay extends a yearslong effort to modernize the sizable East Austin cultural facility, which first opened in 1999 as a safe gathering place for neighborhood youth.

Today’s newsletter is supported by Austin Energy and the Value of Public Power 🚨 The new Austin Current newsletter launches Nov. 10 and will be coming from a new email address, so watch out for messages from newsletters@mail.austincurrent.org and thetexastribune@mail.beehiiv.com. You’re already signed up, so just keep an eye out for it in a couple weeks.

In August of 2023, after three years of planning and many thousands of dollars, City Council was forced to scrap its comprehensive Zilker Park Vision Plan, amid a bitter battle waged by detractors and the park’s surrounding residents. But the million or so visitors to the park have not flagged in the years since, and many of the issues identified with the vision plan have only persisted: principally, severe erosion stemming from overflow parking and recreational trail use.

Today’s newsletter is supported by Austin Energy and the Value of Public Power 🚨 This is the last regular Austin, Monitored newsletter as we gear up for the launch of our Austin Current newsroom. You’ll have two more (slightly different) messages from us on Monday and Tuesday about what’s next. Don’t worry, we’ll be back in your inboxes on Nov. 10 with the first Austin Current newsletter. If you need to reach us, just send an email to community@austincurrent.org.

Austin’s most famous trail is on track to get a $25 million upgrade. A new boardwalk is planned for the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, replacing a cramped section of the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail between South First Street and Congress Avenue. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is paying for the boardwalk as compensation for taking several slices of parkland around Lady Bird Lake to make space for the expansion of I-35 through Central Austin.

Although Austin has fewer overall automobile crashes than other major Texas cities, the percentage of crashes involving serious injury or death of a pedestrian is still at the same rate — 27.9 percent– as other large Texas cities. That is one conclusion of the special report from the Austin City Auditor’s Office.

Today’s newsletter is supported by Austin Energy and the Value of Public Power 🚨 We are winding down Austin, Monitored as we gear up for the launch of our Austin Current newsroom. The last newsletter will arrive Oct. 28. Don’t worry, we’ll be back in your inboxes on Nov. 10 with the first Austin Current newsletter and updates about what’s next. If you need to reach us, just send an email to community@austincurrent.org. We can’t wait to bring you great journalism for Austin.

The Downtown Commission is asking City Council to reject new height limits for downtown towers and, instead, replace the city’s Downtown Density Bonus Program with a funding system tied to future property-tax revenue. Their recommendation, which was approved last week, contrasts with the Planning Commission’s call a day earlier to set a 700-foot cap in the Central Business District that would double the 350-foot limit proposed by city staff.