It’s no secret that Austin, Texas is a prosperous town largely because of our brand as a progressive, inclusive, innovative place. But we’re also facing serious challenges: Austin is one of the most economically segregated regions in America, which means a significant portion of Austinites are not sharing in our city’s prosperity. Almost a year ago, Council Member Greg Casar sponsored a proposal for Fair Chance Hiring in Austin to extend economic opportunities and expand civil rights for tens of thousands of people in our city. Fair Chance Hiring laws are anti-discriminatory at heart and require employers to consider a job candidate’s qualifications first, without the stigma of a conviction history, before running a background check at the end of the hiring process. Stable employment helps prevent recidivism and re-incarceration, so fair chance hiring policies also improve public safety for our community. Continue reading
Yearly Archives: 2016
#DOTSmartCity update for April 7
The Mayor has returned from Washington, DC where met with White House, congressional, and industry leaders in support of Austin’s bid for the Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge. Here’s the latest rundown of coverage on the Smart Cities Challenge. Continue reading
#DOTSmartCity update for April 5
With Mayor Adler and Austin transportation officials in DC today in connection with the city’s bid as a finalist for the DOT’s Smart City Challenge, we wanted you to get a quick rundown on the latest coverage of this topic.
“What the Smart City Challenge Means for Austin now and Long-Term”
by Matt Glazer, executive director of the Austin Young Chamber of Commerce
https://www.austinyc.org/smart-city-challenge-means-austin-now-long-term/
When fully implemented, these technological advancements would provide greater opportunities that are now limited by access to having a working car—not to mention the time to navigate our clogged roads. But here’s the best part, and I was pretty excited to hear this myself: Austin is already doing all these things.
In some form, every one of those transportation transformations is already underway in Austin. The City of Austin just partnered with the University of Texas at Austin on a big data project. Google is testing driverless cars in our neighborhoods, and General Motors and Lyft are exploring driverless ridesharing. And the City’s transportation department has been working towards linking all mobility options to Park & Ride centers.
SXSW 2016: Watch the Mayor of Austin Discuss the City’s Future
ICYMI: #DOTSmartCity Austin update
Mayor Adler is barnstorming across the country in support of Austin’s bid for the Department of Transportation’s $50-million Smarty City Challenge. This week, he flew to the World Economic Forum’s urban mobility conference in San Diego, and next week he and a delegation from the City of Austin’s Transportation Department will be in Washington, DC for a series of high-level meetings related to the Smart City Challenge.
In DC, Mayor Adler has meetings scheduled with the congressional delegation, Sen. John Cornyn, the White House, representatives of Daimler North America Corp., General Motors, Ford, Continental Automotive Systems, Leidos, NXP, Amazon Web Services, the Intelligent Car Coalition, and AAA.
Press roundup:
On Tuesday, Mayor Adler discussed Austin’s Smart City bid with new
energy business leaders at the energy summit. Michael Theis of the Austin Business Journal (who also took the photograph to the right) was there to record the Mayor making a bold promise: Win or lose, we’re going to do this.
Whether Austin wins the Smart City grant competition or not, Adler also said city leaders were committed to incorporating “intelligent transportation systems” — the term the federal Department of Transportation uses to describe the next-gen technologies that are the focus of the Smart City Challenge — into the city’s transportation infrastructure. …
“The challenge has been great. It served to catalyze the business community,” Adler told me after his speech. “Regardless, it is still something that we need to do in this city. We have to be smarter.”
Here’s KXAN’s story about the Mayor’s remarks. (Fun fact: That’s Theis in the baseball cap.)
Driverless shuttles coming to airport?
KEYE gave some airtime to one of the pilot programs in Austin’s Smart City application: driverless shuttle buses at the airport.