We mentioned the plan a while ago, but it appears to have legs, so here we go again. Brewster is proposing creation of what he calls the "Austin Parking Enterprise." The city would partner with developers to own parking garages in buildings being developed. Initially, it would operate the Seaholm garage and any in the Green Water Treatment Plant redevelopment. We're scared that this proposal will mean more parking gets built, making downtown more car-centric and pedestrian-unfriendly than it already is. According to the proposed policies, the Parking Enterprise "should seek to maximize the availability of public parking" and "may finance more parking spaces than are required for an associated private development."...

Photo of Caritas by Beard Papa on flickr APD successfully halted a home burglary in-progress this morning. Plane crash this afternoon in Fort Worth. Yesterday the United Way Capital Area announced that it is cutting funding to 21 area non-profits; Brewster McCracken says that the city may step in with an emergency appropriation to help. Town Lake Animal Shelter seeks donations of blankets, toys and money. 237 dogs found at the home of a 70-year-old......

Brewster McCracken is pushing city council to create a program to build more parking garages downtown. There are already a lot of parking garages downtown, and every new development includes several floors of parking, but it is often not profitable to open these garages to the public. Similarly, it doesn't make economic sense for developers to build public parking garages. According to the Statesman, McCracken estimates that the proposed Seaholm garage would cost $3.78......

The Austin City Store hasn't been open for a year yet and has already seen its share of controversy. Besides the charges of nepotism involving the shop, the larger problem the store is having is that it is not making a profit. Perhaps because of the disappointing range of items available for sale? Whatever the reason, current projections show that the shop wouldn't be able to cover its own costs until 2013. This will......

Tuesday night, the Planning Commission recommended approval of a zoning change near South Lamar and Manchaca - property which includes Habibi’s Hutch, a particularly awesome South Austin day care run by Andrew Urbanus (shown right), to allow construction of a project including 45 townhomes, 360 apartments, 20 live-and-work units, and 18,000 square feet of retail. The change would allow Cypress Realty to take advantage of VMU development incentives, which include relaxed requirements on setbacks, building......

Austin City Council yesterday voted unanimously to approve economic incentives for NBC's drama series, "Friday Night Lights," in order to keep the production based here. An economic development grant of $40,000 would be offered to NBC Universal if the network commits to filming the second season in Austin; a subsequent $40,000 grant would be presented upon completion of filming. "Austin is becoming the alternative to Hollywood as the kind of ground-zero for independent digital......

"Punky" Brewster McCracken gave a press conference yesterday to discuss the newly proposed commercial design standards for the city's "Core Transit Corridors" (think South Congress, South First, Lamar, etc.). Lots of interesting stuff: 1. 15 foot wide sidewalks - 8 feet of trees or furniture adjacent to the street and 7 feet between that and the building. Trees generally required every 30 feet. Love it. 2. Utility lines must be buried or behind the building......

Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken, former Mayor Kirk Watson and the Texas Film Commission jointly announced today that production of NBC's "Friday Night Lights," which was greenlighted back in February, will be headquartered in Austin. "NBC Universal Television Studio's decision to come here is a big step for us as we capitalize on Austin's reputation as an emerging center for television and film production," says Mayor Will Wynn in today's Austin Business Journal. "This......

First off, the two big propositions (Nos. 1 and 2) failed pretty soundly in Saturday's election. The anti-Props. 1 & 2 naked baby mailers (please tell us we're not the only ones who got it) must have been more powerful than we expected. All other propositions passed with pretty high margins. Mayor Will Wynn won his re-election, which is not a huge surprise. Neither is the Brewster McCracken win for city council Place 5.......

Every state in the United States has failed to meet Bush's already low standards for the No Child Left Behind Program. Apparently. there isn't enough of a demand to get those gas-guzzling, extravagant SUV's; GM is nixing the original Hummer. Hideki Matsui's streak of 1,768 consecutive games played (US and Japan leagues) ends. Will Wynn and Brewster McCracken were both re-elected in this weekend's election. The Senate reached a delightful conclusion regarding School Finanace......

Technology and policy bigwigs from around the world descend on Austin this week for the World Congress on Information Technology. Expect much news about the-world-is-flat-this, Richard-Florida-Creative-Class-that, and maybe even a Colin Powell sighting at Emo's or Home Slice. While the marquee names like Powell and some dude named Dell will likely attract most of the attention this week, local wigs-not-quite-so-big kicked things off today in a peripheral event called Digital Regions. Mayor Will Wynn,......

Cindy Sheehan was arrested at the Capitol (essentially for unlawful conduct) just before Bush's State of the Union Address last night. Ever wonder why the hell you've gotta sit in traffic sometimes? Maybe sometimes it's just a giant roll of steel. That's all. Domestic Partners - gay or straight - might soon be able to share benefits with Austin City Employees. Brewster McCracken wants to appeal the current prohibition of coverage for domestic partners.......