Thursday ·
Parking complaints are now Austin's top 311 request.
Austinites filed 2,437 parking enforcement requests with 311 in October, more than any other kind of request that month and ahead of garbage collection (2,078). A year earlier, in October 2025, there were 1,853 parking requests and garbage was on top (2,263). That's 584 more parking requests, a 31.5% jump, even as total 311 requests fell 13.4%, from 25,429 to 22,013. Parking went from 7.3% of all 311 requests to 11.1%. Keep in mind that 311 counts show how often people report a problem, not how often illegal parking happens, and the data doesn't say why reports rose.
October was the highest of the 17 months from June 2025 through October 2026: monthly counts ran 1,358 to 1,893 through February 2026, and 2,108 to 2,437 every month since March. The rise shows up across intake channels: the Austin 311 app and online, 1,462 to 1,791; phone, 239 to 443; web form, 149 to 202. The City updates the dataset several times a day, so counts can shift slightly; these were pulled Nov. 4 around 11:50 a.m. Central.
What's next: Later pulls of this 311 dataset can differ slightly, because the City refreshes it through the day.
Sources: Austin 311 public data, City of Austin Open Data · October 2026 count, reproducible query
News
Council meets today for the first time since the election.
The current council convenes at 10 a.m. Thursday at City Hall, with general public comment at noon and zoning cases at 2 p.m. The biggest items are unchanged: up to $695 million in Austin Energy revenue bonds (item 3) and up to $1 million for a center-running transit lane at Dean Keeton Street and I-35 (item 22).
Also on the agenda: a directive to rewrite the Strategic Housing Blueprint, including a look at a possible housing bond (item 26). The city's change sheet, posted this week, withdraws item 28, one of two Austin Water eminent-domain filings for the NW Tarrytown wastewater pipeline (a $20,594 easement on Exposition Boulevard), and says item 29, a Save Our Springs amendment for 5811 Southwest Parkway, will be postponed to Nov. 19. A late addition, item 34, would waive or reimburse fees for the Village of Western Oaks' July 4 parade. Y'all City Hall will post what council decided this evening.
Sources: Nov. 5 agenda PDF · Changes and corrections PDF · Meeting page
What council did: see the Nov. 5 meeting on Y'all City Hall.
Pedestrians are most of Austin's latest traffic deaths.
Austin police reported five fatal crashes from early Sunday, Nov. 1, through Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 3. Four were pedestrians. One was struck in the main lanes of southbound I-35 in the 8000 block.
The others were one on South 1st Street by a driver who didn't stop, one on South Congress Avenue, where police arrested the driver on a driving while intoxicated charge, and one on West Longspur Boulevard in North Austin. The fifth was a passenger killed in a two-car crash on northbound MoPac (Loop 1) on Monday night; police said the other driver, 18, was intoxicated and charged him with intoxication manslaughter. Charges are accusations, not convictions. The crashes bring Austin to 81 traffic deaths this year, police say, compared with 85 on the same date in 2025. Anyone with information on the South 1st Street crash can call the Austin Police Department Vehicular Homicide Unit at 512-974-8111.
Sources: Bulletin summary of Austin Police Department releases I-35 · S. 1st St. · S. Congress Ave. · MoPac · W. Longspur Blvd.
Voters can still register for the open council runoffs.
Tuesday's results stay unofficial until council canvasses them, scheduled for Nov. 17 at 11 a.m.; council orders the Dec. 12 runoffs the same day. Nov. 12 is the last day to register to vote in the runoff, early voting runs Nov. 30 through Dec. 8, and mail-ballot applications must arrive by Dec. 1.
The runoffs are Amber Goodwin vs. Misael Ramos in District 1, José Velásquez vs. Neha Shah in District 3 and Ryan Alter vs. David Weinberg in District 5; KVUE reports new council members are sworn in Jan. 6. On the $295 million in bonds voters approved, the city says the library money covers renovating the Hampton at Oak Hill Branch and designing a future Colony Park Branch, and project-by-project spending will show up on its bond dashboard in early 2027.
Sources: City runoff calendar PDF · City release on the bonds · KVUE
A new governor may not be able to stop state intervention in Austin schools, KUT reports.
Gina Hinojosa, a former Austin Independent School District board president, has promised to replace Education Commissioner Mike Morath and end state takeovers of schools. But education policy experts told KUT that state law still requires intervention after Burnet and Webb middle schools' fifth failing ratings.
What a new commissioner could change is the form it takes, such as whether to replace the elected board or close the two campuses. Any nominee also needs confirmation by the Texas Senate, which Republicans still control. Two things could settle it sooner: a pending appeal of the ratings could remove the threat by December, before Hinojosa takes office, and parent petitions to close the two schools have not yet been validated or sent to the state.
Sources: KUT
City budget cuts are shrinking help for older Austinites, nonprofits say.
Family Eldercare has scaled back its financial advocacy and mental health programs after city contract cuts, its CEO told KUT, just as Medicaid eligibility changes take effect Jan. 1. RBJ Senior Housing says a 10% cut to its city contract leaves it unable to meet demand after it grew from 279 units to 503.
Some social-service money was restored this year, but that one-time restoration doesn't carry into the new fiscal year, KUT reports, and advocates are pushing for recurring funding before next year's draft budget.
Sources: KUT
Notices
Austin may drop commercial plan review for triplexes and fourplexes.
Right now a three- or four-unit building has to go through the same engineering and site plan review as a commercial project. A proposed code change would drop that requirement for buildings up to 6,000 square feet, as long as they have fire-resistant walls between units and shared exits, automatic sprinklers and extra fire protections for garages, carports and wooden decks.
The city holds a Zoom session Thursday, Nov. 12, at 11 a.m., and takes comments through Nov. 27; the Austin Chronicle reports council is expected to consider it in December.
Sources: City of Austin Development Services · PublicInput comment page · Austin Chronicle
The Back Page
City Council meets at 10 a.m. today at City Hall.
One Good Thing: Item 34 would waive or reimburse fees for the Village of Western Oaks July 4 parade.
Sources: Nov. 5 agenda PDF