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So much is happening in the city of Austin, Texas, that it’s hard to pinpoint why exactly its population has doubled every 20 years. What led Google, Meta, Apple, Tesla, and Indeed to set up there? How did SXSW, its nearly 40-year-old conference and festival, become such a beloved celebration of creativity and innovation?
Isn’t Austin, you know, too weird for all that?
As the 11th largest city in the country and the liberal capital of a strongly conservative state, Austin is certainly complex. Yet its elected officials and city staff work hard to strengthen its progressive policies for the benefit of every resident. From technological innovations to investments in art and culture and affordable housing initiatives, this unique city welcomes new ideas to balance a quirky past with continued growth.
“I want us to be a leading example of how you do things right,” said Council Member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri. “There is a lot of good work we’re doing to ensure we are the most welcoming city, with a diversity of people and thought, affordable housing, and quality of life.”
Mr. Qadri, along with many of the city’s nearly 1 million residents, first arrived in Austin to attend the University of Texas. There was never a clear population boom, although the biggest increase of 190,000 new residents came between 1990 and 2000. The attraction only grew as Austin started making the lists of best cities in the nation.
Along with a collective mission to “Keep Austin Weird,” the city also bills itself as the “Live Music Capital of the World.” The more than 250 live music venues, along with award-winning cuisine, expanding medical facilities, and accessible nature and recreation opportunities, make it a fun place to live. In a time of a national housing crisis, that can be a blessing and a curse.
“When I looked to purchase a home in the early 2000s, Austin was the place to be. It didn’t feel like there was enough housing then,” said Lila Valencia, the city’s demographer. “Three-fourths of our growth comes from migration rather than births, so that requires the city to be very nimble and quickly provide for people. They need housing, jobs, utilities, and infrastructure.”
To meet these needs, Austin City Council and staff work with an open-minded philosophy of embracing innovative strategies and staying proactive to address the concerns of current and future residents alike. They’re focused on projects like artificial intelligence, expanding the city’s light rail, investing in the arts, and addressing the challenge of homelessness.
Like most everywhere in the nation, affordable housing is a complex concern for Austin. The nonprofit Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) counted more than 6,200 unhoused individuals on a single day in May 2024. That’s too high, Mr. Qadri said.
“Homelessness is one of the priority issues we focus on,” he said. “Seeing the unhoused population, in such a wealthy state and country, it’s a policy failure. The council has been proactive in helping.”
Interim Housing Department Director Mandy DeMayo said housing and rental prices are slowly starting to fall — perhaps in part thanks to the city’s years of efforts to add thousands of affordable, income-restricted units through a robust incentive program for developers.
Their density bonus program rewards entitlements such as increased height and reduced parking in exchange for affordable units. A vertical mixed-use zoning overlay along the core transit corridors also supports this goal.
Starting in 2006 and continuing today, city residents have approved general obligation bonds to fund home repair, nonprofit program support, rental assistance, and other wrap-around services to help people find and keep permanent housing.
“We purchased three different hotels in the last five years and converted them to be permanent, supportive housing,” Ms. DeMayo said. “Our goal is always to stabilize individuals and families where they are. We can’t always do that. Evictions are on the rise, but we’re looking for strategies to mitigate eviction and then solve the eviction crisis.”
It involves creativity: Texas state legislators mandated that cities cannot require affordable housing in new developments, she said. So, as part of the referendum to expand light rail, residents approved $300 million over 13 years for land acquisition and subsidized affordable housing to prevent displacement.
In 2023, Austin City Council also dropped parking mandates on new developments. The goal is to reduce housing costs, help the environment, and avoid gentrification.
Housing concerns aren’t the only creative way Austin city officials and staff are thinking. Austin’s academic and tech industries are encouraging an open mind toward artificial intelligence and other innovative improvements in day-to-day business.
“We are focused on training every employee so they can feel comfortable using AI tools in their job, however that might look,” said Daniel Culotta, the city’s chief innovation officer. “We do a lot of different things that no one else does. It’s baked into the culture of the city and the government.”
Austin Energy integrated AI into its wildfire detection system, and the technology is used to translate emergency communications into dozens of languages. They’re also instructing AI to determine future pedestrian crossings, optimize ambulance routes, and find other safety improvements.
“People said we’re a government town, university town, that we’re an events town, or we’re a tech town. Now, we are all those things,” Mr. Culotta said. “It still has its flare and its weirdness. That comes from being a really welcoming, completely resident-focused community.”
As it grows and adopts high-tech solutions, Austin is investing in what made it so special in the early 1900s. Back then, the city was a hub for musicians, artists, and writers, explained Matthew Schmidt, the acting manager for the city’s Cultural Arts Division. He knows because his great-great-grandfather was one.
“We recognize that culture is the foundation of why people want to live and thrive in a space,” he said. “Without a robust investment in arts and culture, you won’t get a strong workforce.”
Back in the 1980s, the city started collecting a percentage of a hotel occupancy tax to invest in a wide range of programs and creative industries.
There are heritage preservation grants for walking tours and cultural programs, creative space assistance grants to support musicians and affordable recording space, and small business training for artists and musicians. And that’s just the beginning.
Austin was home to the state’s first art in public places program, funded by 2 percent of the budget of all capital improvement projects. This includes funding for primarily local artists to showcase their talents within the new $1.6 billion redevelopment of the city’s convention center.
Plus, city cultural district zoning overlays encourage developers to add affordable creative spaces on the ground floors of new buildings. These districts have specialized branding to encourage tourism, while other neighborhoods can apply for city grants for art projects, too.
When Texans for the Arts held their Art Advocacy Day in Austin, Mr. Schmidt said they reported the return on investment in the arts netted $1 for every $4 spent. Austin staff is in the process of completing their own economic impact study for local numbers.
“We have a duty to our constituents to do right for them,” said Mr. Qadri, who is two years into a maximum of eight years in office due to city term limits.
“We keep what’s so special in Austin, but it’s the people that keep Austin weird,” he continued. “They need to know that they are protected no matter who is in the White House or the Governor’s mansion. We’ve done a lot of good work, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.”
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