If you’re an aspiring writer, you might want to find some time between holiday parties this weekend to brush up your best short story. The Austin Chronicle’s sixteenth annual Short Story Contest closes on Monday. Winners split $1,500 and get published. ...

Photo courtesy of supersassafrasThe city's Urban Transportation Commission is currently at a crossroads over the future of our quickly-expanding pedicab businesses. As we discovered from The Texan over the weekend, two transportation commissioners are each recommending very different resolutions, hoping to strike a balance between a growing business of bicycles and a growing city whose streets seem to be getting a bit more cramped. There are five registered pedicab companies currently operating in Austin: PediChad,......

Lee Nichols has a nice article in this week's Chronicle about destruction of the urban forest resulting from infill development. Mature trees are a key factor that makes older neighborhoods more pleasant than suburban sprawl. Unfortunately, large trees are often taken down when an old house is replaced with a larger new house. Austin's Tree and Natural Area Preservation Ordinance requires a permit for removal of a tree with a 19-inch diameter. Removing (or killing)......

In less than two days, we'll be hosting our big annual pre-ACL party, Local Music is Sexy IV, Thursday night's soiree will feature Austinites The Lemurs, The Corto Maltese, and Brazos on the outside main stage, with DJs Car Stereo (Wars), Ceeplus Bad Knives*, and Markus with a K supplying dance-party jams inside alongside Magic Surprise. We're also thrilled to be bringing in Seattle indie rockers Say Hi To Your Mom* as our headliners. What's......

As you may recall, CWS Capital Partners is trying to build a new residential development in the place of some aging condos on the shore of Lady Bird Lake between the Statesman's offices and East Bouldin Creek (where the hike and bike trail currently dead-ends). The Parks Board has voted to recommend that the Planning Commission deny CWS Capital Partners’ request for a variance that would allow it to build 150 feet from the......

David Owen has an interesting article in last week's New Yorker (the Aug. 20 issue - only the abstract is online) discussing light pollution. The bottom line is that leaving the lights on all the time (mainly streetlights and building-exterior lights) not only brightens the night sky, but is also economically wasteful, environmentally damaging and probably causes cancer. It also doesn't decrease crime or have any other real benefits. Lights like the "glare bomb"......

At the upcoming August meeting, the city council will discuss an ordinance placing rules and regulations in place for BYOB businesses. If customers are allowed to bring in their own alcohol to a club/restaurant/place of business, that business will be required to obtain a permit. To obtain the permit, businesses must: provide security guards, close at or before 2:15am, and not allow alcohol in the parking lot. This is most likely a response to such......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Everyone knows that Lago Vista is the next Lakeway. Less well known is that the City of Kyle has commissioned TIP Strategies, Inc. to help turn Kyle into the next Round Rock. TIP has released their recommendations - commuter rail is featured somewhat prominently in the Project Overview and the presentation, but in the actual plan (large file - it's boring, but it's long), rail barely gets mentioned. Even when it does, it is......

In the 80th Texas Legislature – going on right now in case you haven’t been near the Capitol lately and seen all the people with megaphones and message-slathered posterboards on the lawn – a bill has just been filed that would regulate commercial party boats on Austin’s local lakes. Senate Bill 997 – filed by freshman State Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin), former Mayor of Austin and former candidate for Texas Attorney General – would essentially......

At the behest of home-builders, Representative Edmund Kuempel of Seguin has filed a bill that would eviscerate Austin's McMansion ordinance, along with similar regulations passed by cities throughout the state. While it is not 100% clear that the McMansion ordinance is a good thing, this seems like an entirely local issue that cities should be allowed to resolve on their own. Allowing the state government to override what cities can do about local zoning......

Despite well-organized citizen outcry and a complete lack of visible public support for the paragon of suburban retailing, the City Council decided not to attempt to stop the proposed Wal-Mart planned for NorthCross Mall. However, councilmembers urged Wal-Mart to work with neighborhood groups to modify the plan to make the development more pedestrian-friendly and add mixed uses -- presumably by adding office and residential space, as the prior setup was exclusively retail. (Pssst .........

Tonight at Castle Hill Cafe, the Texas Food and Wine Foundation is sponsoring an interesting discussion on Texas wines titled "Home On The Range: Texas Terroir." There will be food and wine, of course, but what makes this event different is the reflection on what is special about Texas wines when compared to California or Europe, along with some discussion (we hope) on things that haven't worked out in our area. They will also show......

Wal-Mart is building a new Supercenter in Northcross Mall that thinks it's "urban." Today's article about it in the Statesman uses the word "urban" in nearly every sentence. Cute, but wrong. Selling gourmet cheese does not make you urban. Encrusting the exterior with limestone does not make you urban (they don't say it will be limestone, but it's a safe bet). Building a second story, while an improvement on single story super sprawl, does......

Walk in any sex shop in Austin, and you’ll be confronted by a bevy of “educational aids,” “adult novelties,” and “personal massage devices.” Call an in-home sales rep and you’ll be offered a plethora of “marital aids.” Sex toys still circulate; they just go by different names. ...

This weekend, one of the most influential (and controversial) names in contemporary literature will be swooping into town for a book signing and film screening. Irvine Welsh has been smashing up the literary landscape since Trainspotting hit the shelves in 1993, and his latest release, The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs, is already generating much buzz and has even provoked cries of misogyny. His work is infested with raw, depraved imagery, and some of......

Local: Travis County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a controversial 1,800-home Hill Country development project known as Sweetwater. Sweetwater will cover roughly 1,000 acres with its main entrance at the intersection of Texas 71 and Bee Creek Road. Residents and environmentalists have said the area is already stressed by booming development. Christy Muse, executive director of the Hill Country Alliance, said that "questionable" actions by the commissioners allowed the project to fall under the state's......

The Task Force appointed by City Council to suggest new zoning regulations for the suburbs near downtown will present its suggestions to the Planning Commission tonight at 6:30 P.M. in the Assembly Room (1st floor) of Town Lake Center (Austin Energy), 721 Barton Springs Road. They'll present them to City Council on Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 6:00 P.M. at the Austin City Hall, Council Chambers, 301 W. 2nd Street. The suggested zoning restrictions......

Lowe's home improvement store, which opened on Brodie Lane in January, is being honored by the U.S. Green Building Council and Austin Energy's Green Building Program, for "setting new standards in energy-conscious and environmentally conscious building design." We're not sure exactly what this means. What new standard are they setting? How does this new standard relate to the existing LEED standards that the U.S. Green Building Council has already set? Has the building complied......

Soccer moms all over Westlake will be saddened to know that Bill Frist and the GOP will not be sending them a $100 check (The equivalent of about 34 gallons of west-Austin gas, or one trip to the grocery store in your Hummer), as Congress decided yesterday to ditch their tax rebate/gas price relief plan in favor of… welll, nobody seems to have any clue. The collapse of the rebate plan is largely blamed......

Once again, it looks like those of us who rely on public transportation on a daily basis could be faced with a strike of some sort, unless Cap City Metro and the unionized drivers and mechanics can come to terms. We are not very hopeful. Last night the Cap City Metro Board held an emergency meeting to discuss the problem. Union workers from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091 were told after the meeting......

The Statesman reports that the Intel shell could be demolished as early as next spring. Unfortunately, the ridiculous slew of federal regulations and our dismal national budget require that the new federal courthouse that is to be put in its place wait its place in a national queue: Curtis also hopes to unveil a scale model and computer renderings of the new courthouse in February, though final design work won't be completed until the......

It sounded like the plot to a cheesy 70s horror flick: hidden deep inside an old abandoned industrial compound, a massive army of ancient deadly killer bees waited patiently for decades, until that fateful day when four lost teenagers stumbled upon the hive ... and unleashed the greatest terror the world has ever known! So we did in fact copy most of that from a cheesy 70s horror flick, but at least some of......