The Austin Common Radio Hour

Austin City Council has taken a lot of votes lately, aimed at changing our city's land development code. The idea? To allow more housing to be built in Austin... and at a quicker pace. To explain exactly what City Council is working on, host Amy Stansbury sat down with two Austin City Council members - Ryan Alter & José “Chito” Vela.

The regular Texas legislative session officially ended on May 29th... but that's not the end of the story. One "special session" has already been called (and more are expected to come) as a debate stretches on over property taxes and public schools. To fill us in on the latest, host Amy Stansbury sat down with Rep. James Talarico, who represents parts of the Austin area in the Texas House.

How many people in Austin are experiencing homelessness? In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, we dive a bit deeper into the numbers. To guide us through it, host Amy Stansbury interviews Akram Al-Turk, Research & Evaluation Director of ECHO, who shares data from the latest Point In Time Count.

Concerned about climate change? Hear from people who are taking action... right here at the local level. In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with several of the city's Community Climate Ambassadors -Dylan Kazanova, Kecia Prince, Sahabel Porto, & Andres Pedraza. Show Notes: You can RSVP for the city's coop housing event here - bit.ly/3Lbpmri You can learn m...

On, March 21st, the Travis County Commissioners Court voted to take the first steps toward creating a mental health diversion center right here in Travis County. And what is a mental health diversion center? We discuss it all with Travis County Judge Andy Brown.

There's been a lot of news lately over Austin's police contract. In this episode, we break it all down for you & explain what police contracts even are, the ways they impact accountability and staffing, and how an upcoming election could impact the future of public safety in Austin. Our guests include Chris Harris (Equity Action) & Austin City Council Member Alison Alter.

By now, you've probably heard that there are plans to expand I-35 through downtown Austin... but what does that mean exactly? And what will the impact be for our community? And the climate? We cover it all in this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour. Guests include Brad Wheelis (spokesperson for TxDOT), Adam Greenfield (executive director of Rethink 35), & Austin City Council Member José “Chit...

The 88th Texas Legislative session officially began on January 10th... So what does that mean for all of us here in Austin? In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with two Austin area representatives to find out! Guests include state Senator Sarah Eckhardt & state Representative Vikki Goodwin. Not sure who represents you in the Texas Legislature? You can find...

In 2022, Austin City Council approved several changes that will increase what we all pay for electricity... in 2023 and beyond. But what exactly were all those changes again? And why did Council vote the way they did? In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury breaks it all down for ya! Guests include Austin City Council Member Leslie Pool & Kaiba White (Energy and Policy...

In November, the City of Austin Parks & Recreation Department released a draft of the Zilker Metropolitan Park Vision Plan. The plan has received mixed reviews, with community orgs coming out both for and against the plan. But what's actually in the plan? In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury breaks it all down for ya! Guests include Robin Rather (Zilker Neighborhood...

Several local races are headed to a runoff! To make it easier for you to do your ballot research, we're re-publishing some of our election episodes to feature only the candidates who made it to the runoff. In this episode, you'll hear interviews with District 5 City Council runoff candidates Ryan Alter & Stephanie Bazan, as well as District 9 City Council runoff candidates Zohaib “Zo” Qadri & Lind...

Several local races are headed to a runoff! To make it easier for you to do your ballot research, we're re-publishing some of our election episodes to feature only the candidates who made it to the runoff. In this episode, you'll hear interviews with mayoral runoff candidates Celia Israel and Kirk Watson, as well as District 3 City Council runoff candidates José Velásquez and Daniela Silva.

In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with the candidates running for City Council in District 1 (east Austin). You'll hear interviews with Misael D. Ramos, Clinton Rarey, Melonie House-Dixon, and Natasha Harper-Madison.

In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with the candidates running for City Council in District 8 (southwest Austin). You'll hear interviews with Paige Ellis, Antonio D. Ross, and Kimberly P. Hawkins. (Richard Smith did not respond to our interview request.)

In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with the candidates running for City Council in District 9 (downtown/central Austin). You'll hear interviews with Zena Mitchell, Zohaib "Zo" Qadri, Greg Smith, Joah Spearman, Ben Leffler, Linda Guerrero, Tom Wald. (Kym Olson did not respond to our interview request.)

In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with the candidates running to be the next mayor of Austin. You'll hear interviews with Celia Israel, Kirk Watson, Jennifer Virden, and Phil Campero Brual.

In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with the candidates running for City Council in District 3 (south/east Austin). You'll hear interviews with José M.A. Velásquez, Daniela Silva, Gavino Fernandez Jr, José Noé Elías, and Esala Wueschner. (Yvonne Weldon did not respond to our interview request.)

In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury sits down with the candidates running for City Council in District 5 (south Austin). You'll hear interviews with Ryan Alter, Bill Welch, Ken Craig, Stephanie Bazan, Aaron Velazquez Webman, and Brian Anderson II.

Our multi-part series on local climate action continues with an episode dedicated to energy & energy democracy. Guests include Luke Metzger (Environment Texas), Hanna Mitchell and Yesenia Rivera (Solar United Neighbors). Links mentioned in this episode include: **Shining Cities 2022 -https://environmentamericacenter.org/sites/environment/files/Shining_Cities-2022.pdf **Cleaner Cheaper Power For Te...

Our multi-part series on local climate action continues with an episode dedicated to climate equity & food justice. Guests include Larry Franklin (The Austin Common's first-ever Food Justice Fellow), Tane Ward (equity consultant who worked on Austin's Climate Equity Plan), and Celine Rendon (former community engagement specialist for the City of Austin Office of Sustainability).

Our multi-part series on local climate action continues with an episode dedicated to one of our country's major sources of greenhouse gas emissions - electricity. In particular, we discuss the decades of work by local activists to get Austin's publicly-owned electric utility on a path to zero emissions. There's just one problem... the Fayette Power Project, Austin's last remaining coal plant. Gues...

In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, we kick off our multi-part series on local climate action. Guests include Laura Jay (C40 Cities), Shane Johnson (Sierra Club), and Luis Miranda (Ground Game Texas and Sunrise El Paso). Want to learn more about what we discussed in this episode? Check out our list of links below: * Austin Climate Equity Plan - https://www.austintexas.gov/page/austin-...

We're back with another election episode! In this week's episode, Austin Common Radio Hour host Amy Stansbury talks with Julie Oliver (of Ground Game Texas) about Prop A, which if passed, would effectively decriminalize marijuana in Austin and ban no-knock warrants by police. Don't forget to vote! Election Day is May 7th and early voting lasts from April 25th to May 3rd.

Our series on the March 2022 Texas primaries continues with an episode focused on several Texas Legislature races impacting the Central Texas community. In particular, this episode features candidates running in Texas House District 51 Democratic primary, including Claire Campos-O’Neal, Cody Arn, Maria Luisa “Lulu” Flores, Matt Worthington, and Cynthia Valadez-Mata.

Early voting for the Texas primaries starts on February 14th & Election Day is March 1st. The ballot is pretty long, but if you care about climate change, health care, and criminal justice reform, there are two really important local races on your ballot - the Travis County Commissioners Democratic primary(Precincts 2 & 4). To explain it all, Austin Common Radio Hour host Amy Stansbury sat down wi...