Tuesday
September 15, 2026
Today at a glance
- Weather 102° / 78°Heat Advisory today. Take the shade and the water bottle with you.
- Air quality 23 · GoodClear air. A great day to be outside.
- Lake Travis 92.4% fullStill close to full, and down a touch from last week.
- Allergies HighRagweed, elm and grass are all running high. Meds early.
- Power grid NormalA busy afternoon: demand near 87,900 megawatts, with 113,700 on hand.
- Sunrise 7:15 a.m.Twelve hours and twenty-one minutes of daylight today.
Good morning, Austin. Another 102 on the way, and a Heat Advisory from noon until seven. Sun up at 7:15, down at 7:36. Somebody in North Austin counted the roaming cats on their block last night and got to eight, most of them wearing collars. Somebody else pulled up to a hobby shop for paint and found a wall of murals left behind by a salon that didn't last. The lake is still nearly full and the air is clean. Ragweed is the thing to watch today.
The Briefing
Rent here is a bargain. The apartment is 45 square feet smaller.
RentCafe put Austin third in the country for renters on Monday, scoring 150 cities on 20 measures: a cost of living it puts 4.4% below the national average, a steady job market, a quarter of the apartment stock newly built. Yardi Matrix, which runs RentCafe, also counts what those new apartments are. The average new Austin unit is 871 square feet, down 45. One-bedrooms are now 55% of new construction, up from about 53% a decade ago. Both things are true.
Doug Ressler of Yardi Matrix said the trade is smaller than it sounds. On a $1,500 budget a renter got about 780 square feet here last year and 784 this year, because rents came down as supply arrived. Land and construction costs went up, he said, so builders are fitting more units on each site.
Monday also brought money for the other kind of housing. Airbnb put $6.4 million into the St. John block the city has owned since 2013, the piece that was missing for its 201 fully affordable apartments. That evening, six people running for the East Austin council seat took questions about costs and displacement. In that district, HousingWorks Austin's 2024 scorecard has 44% of renters spending more than 30% of their income on housing.
What's next: District 1 picks a council member Nov. 3; the registration deadline is Oct. 5 and early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30 (Vote 2026).
Sources: CBS Austin (apartment sizes and what $1,500 buys), KVUE (the RentCafe ranking), CBS Austin (the St. John investment), CBS Austin (the District 1 forum and scorecard)
City Desk
Money & bills
Commissioners vote today on a $1 billion Central Health budget
Travis County commissioners take the final vote Tuesday on Central Health's budget and a property tax rate 6% above the no-new-revenue rate. The hospital district's board approved about $650 million in expenses plus a $365 million contingency reserve last week. Mayor Kirk Watson said he would not back the increase without money for the city's No Wrong Door program. KUT
Also
Austin's Homeless Strategies and Operations department spent $719,361 managing encampments between May 11 and June 5, staff told a city public health committee; 28% of the 127 sites had camps again within 30 days. KXAN
Overheard on Reddit
tenets rights re: water shut off
i live in east austin in the springdale area and my apartment complex has been shutting off the water with no warning. it happened a couple of times during my last lease with this complex. in that year it got shut off maybe 2-3 times? but in the last 4 months i’ve woken up on a late saturday morning or sunday with no water at like 5 times. and when i got home from the gym today at 7:30pm no water
The average new Austin apartment is 871 square feet, 45 smaller than before, and one-bedrooms are now 55% of new construction, Yardi Matrix's Doug Ressler told CBS Austin. CBS Austin
RentCafe ranked Austin third among 150 cities for renters, citing a cost of living it puts 4.4% below the national average and a quarter of apartments newly built. KVUE
Public safety & courts
Police search a Del Valle driveway for the vehicle in a fatal hit-and-run
Austin police got a search warrant Sunday for a dark sport utility vehicle they believe struck and killed a woman at Ross and Saint Thomas roads on Sept. 11. Camera footage from Del Valle High School captured the collision, an affidavit says. Officers found a vehicle nearby with a taped bumper; its owner said it had not moved in two months, and neighbors said it had. KXAN
Also
A Travis County grand jury indicted former Del Valle Independent School District police officer Ernest Ferniz on six counts of tampering with a governmental record, the second such case since June. KXAN
Austin police said smokable hemp products remain legal to possess, the Travis County Sheriff's Office called it a deputy's discretion, and District Attorney José Garza said "the risk for arrest is real." KUT
Growth & infrastructure
Airbnb puts $6.4 million into the St. John block, and crews start clearing
Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky announced the money Monday at Austin Central Library, making Austin the first city in the company's Housing Accelerator. It covers the 201 fully affordable apartments the city requires before a companion 325-unit mixed-income building can go up. The city has owned the site at 800 E. St. John Ave. since 2013. Chesky said Airbnb has "in the past been part of the problem." CBS Austin
Texas' tallest building opens at Cesar Chavez and Red River
The Waterline stands over 1,000 feet, the 24th tallest building in the United States, and took more than four years to finish. The project's construction company, DPR Construction, says crews put in 4.5 million hours and finished two months early. The cheapest apartment listed is 778 square feet at $4,027 a month, fees included, parking extra. KUT
Also
Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that skip required water-use surveys; Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa said Texans need real regulations and a special session. KXAN
Texas has about 71,000 electricians and added nearly 25,000 construction jobs between June 2022 and June 2026, and data center work is driving the demand, trade groups told CBS Austin. CBS Austin
Overheard on Reddit
The ghost work zones finally came to my neighborhood..
.wonder how long until they even start work much less finish.
The rebuilt Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard bridge over Interstate 35 is fully open, with two lanes each way since early August; crews finish the shared-use paths this month. Community Impact
The MoKan Trail's Boggy Creek bridge, the last piece of a 1.5-mile link to the Southern Walnut Creek Trail, is due to finish late this year. Community Impact
Signal work on the Airport Boulevard corridor is active at 51st Street and at Springdale Road; the $3.7 million mobility bond project is due to finish in late 2026. Community Impact
Design is pending on $6.2 million in turn lanes, protected bike lanes and bus stop work along Cesar Chavez Street between Pleasant Valley Road and Shady Lane. Community Impact
Overheard on Reddit
Uber/Lyft Prices and Wait Times
Anyone know what is going on with the ride share services? The prices skyrocketed over the weekend (expected because of the game) but have stayed elevated and the wait times are taking forever. Uber spent over 15 minutes to find a driver today. And before anyone asks, I have a high passenger rating (4.95 on Uber and 5.00 on Lyft).
City Hall & county
A federal judge blocks the new mail-ballot rules, citing Travis County
U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols blocked the Postal Service rules Sunday in a suit brought by the Travis County Clerk's Office, writing that they risk leaving mail ballots uncounted. The order behind them, signed by President Trump in March, is aimed at "reducing the risk of fraud and protecting the integrity of Federal elections." The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 against the administration Monday. KUT
Also
Travis County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado's office ran public logic and accuracy testing of its ballot equipment Monday, a check that ballots are programmed and counted correctly, ahead of the Nov. 3 election. KXAN
Limon-Mercado said in the mail-ballot suit that the county had already spent more than $21,000 on ballot envelopes the new federal rules would have made noncompliant. KUT
Six candidates for the open District 1 council seat took questions on a possible $350 million housing bond and on displacement Monday at Assembly Hall; Natasha Harper-Madison leaves the seat in January. CBS Austin
Schools
Mayor Kirk Watson urged Burnet and Webb parents to petition the state to close their campuses, saying it keeps local control; parent Marie Lebron said some seem "comfortable sacrificing certain children." CBS Austin
Railroad commissioner nominee Bo French wrote that social media is "exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners." Longhorns fan Zaina Jafri said it left "an underlying sense of not belonging." The Daily Texan
Media executive Cary Granat becomes dean of the University of Texas at Austin's Moody College of Communication on Sept. 28, Provost William Inboden announced Monday. The Daily Texan
The University of Texas is merging student affairs and enrollment management into one unit, Texas Student Experience, putting admissions, financial aid, the registrar and student life in one place. The Daily Texan
Business & street life
Perla's has closed temporarily while it cleans up after a Sept. 6 kitchen fire on South Congress Avenue; its owner, MML Hospitality, has given no reopening date. Community Impact
The Austin company Paradromics said a Michigan woman with a motor neuron disease used its implanted Connexus device to speak her own sentences by phone to her grandchildren. CBS Austin
Overheard on Reddit
these murals are killer
so i roll up to a hobby store to buy panel liner - and greeted with these amazing murals. quick search and the salon that commissioned these murals didn’t stay in business very long, but super cool that the art lives on. kudos to @vpmurals if your on reddit.
Austin Emerging Arts Leaders held its VISIONARIES showcase at The Cathedral in East Austin, the close of a yearlong program pairing young artists with a mentor. The Daily Texan
The Austin Chronicle reviewed the Saturday and Sunday sets at Levitation, among them Peter Hook & the Light, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats and Angine de Poitrine. Austin Chronicle
Overheard on Reddit
New neighborhood shopping center in Hyde Park to bring in Rockman Coffee and Bakeshop
A neighborhood retail center to be anchored by Rockman Coffee and Bakeshop is in the works at 38th Street and Speedway with plans to preserve the original structure in the historic neighborhood.
Weather
Today: sunny, with a high near 102 and heat index values as high as 106. South wind 5 to 10 miles per hour. A Heat Advisory runs from noon to 7 p.m. for heat index values of 108 to 111. Tonight: mostly clear, low around 78. National Weather Service
A high of 102 would pass the date's record of 100, set in 2024, KXAN's meteorologists said. KXAN
Wednesday reaches 100. Thursday has a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms with a high near 99, and Friday goes back to mostly sunny and 99. National Weather Service
A surge of Gulf moisture brings the better rain chance Thursday, and a trough developing to the west may raise chances again late in the weekend or early next week. KXAN
The Back Page
20 days until the voter registration deadline · Texans must be registered by Oct. 5 to vote in the Nov. 3 election; early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30.
August was a good month to be a shelter animal in Central Texas. Across the 14 shelters and rescues that took part in KXAN's Clear the Shelters drive, 2,596 animals went home: 1,003 dogs, 1,579 cats and 14 others whose species the tally does not record, which is its own small pleasure to think about. The partners run from a senior dog sanctuary up in Bertram to the city-run shelter in Bastrop, and each one spent part of the month explaining what it needed — the old dogs nobody asks for, the litters that arrive all summer, the kennels that fill faster than they empty. Then people showed up. Somewhere out there this morning are the dogs who spent last night on a couch instead of a concrete floor, and the cats who have already decided the whole house is theirs. KXAN