Open Letter to the Mayor on CodeNEXT

March 14, 2017 Mayor Adler: AURA is an all-volunteer grassroots urbanist organization focused on building an Austin for everyone by improving land use and transportation through policy analysis, public involvement, and political engagement. While our members are still dissecting the…

CodeNEXT Draft 1 Response

For Immediate Release AURA Statement on CodeNEXT Draft January 18, 2017 Austin, TX On Tuesday AURA became aware of a leaked draft of CodeNEXT which was posted to Twitter over the holiday weekend. The document, weighing in at 327 pages,…

Austin Strategic Housing Plan Draft Response

In June, the City of Austin Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Office (NHCD) released a draft of the Austin Strategic Housing Plan. A representative from NHCD attend AURA’s November board meeting and presented on the plan and received feedback from AURA…

Cap Metro’s Connections 2025 Plan Response

INTRODUCTION Earlier this year, AURA released Transit City: A Vision for a Multimodal Austin wherein we outlined a number of critical steps for increasing ridership on public transportation. Our recommendations focused on ways to increase the usefulness of transit in…

How to Vote and Why 2016

Prior to the AURA membership vote for our Austin City Council endorsements, the AURA board shared with members its set of recommendations and reflections on each Council race being contested this November. Since the endorsements line up with the board’s original…

Election Endorsements 2016

The members of AURA offer the following endorsements in Austin’s City Council elections: Delia Garza, for District 2 Greg Casar, for District 4 Natalie Gauldin, for District 7 Sheri Gallo, for District 10 AURA’s members encourage Austin residents to learn…

CodeNEXT Expectations

In line with AURA’s Platform for Austin, we expect that the items below will be seriously considered by staff and consultants while writing and mapping CodeNEXT. If AURA does not see substantial progress on most or all of these items, we…

Where the Sidewalk [Money] Ends

The Mayor and City Council recently endorsed a bond proposal for $720 million addressing mobility concerns across the city.  The mix of funding in question follows the chart below: Category Amounts Notes Regional Highways $101,000,000 Loop 360, Spicewood Springs, Parmer, et. al.…