Robin Rather talks about Austin's future, and her own, after stepping down as chair of the Save Our Springs Alliance. Proposed hotel and golf course would be constructed on city-owned parkland. Election Day held few major surprises, except for the increasing strength of Republican candidates in Travis and the surrounding counties. Capital Metro fires its freight rail carrier, Longhorn Railway, and its litigious owner, Don Cheatham, and finds a temporary replacement. A transportation bond package combining roads and light rail is planned for November.
Primary races start heating up in nearby counties, across Texas, and around the nation.
Austin Energy debates plans, initiated in the last budget cycle, to start burying above-ground power lines. Round Rock residents decry the western alignment proposed for SH130 and plead the case for an eastern alignment before the Texas Turnpike Authority. Building SH 130 is still being considered in terms of costs, routes, and whether it will be a toll road. But neither do most buildings built on campus since the mid-1960s. Downtown design guidelines provide a blueprint for the future of the central city.