This past year was a big one for Austin. We held multiple elections, engaged in global climate conversations, and approved a plan to bring curbside composting to Austinites citywide. We got into arguments, came up with solutions, and pioneered innovative new city policies. So what’s next for Austin?

Before we can answer that question, it’s time to take a step back and reflect on the big events that impacted Austin and the environment in 2016. Here’s our list (in no particular order).

Cap Metro Releases A New Plan to Improve Bus Service

After months of planning and community input, Cap Metro released a draft of its Connections 2025 plan in August. The plan is designed to increase ridership on our city’s public transportation system, a goal that the city likely needs to achieve in order to reach its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. The plan is set to be officially approved by Cap Metro’s Board of Directors in January of 2017.

Some highlights of the plan include:

• More frequency – The number of bus routes traveling every 15 minutes (or quicker) will increase from six to 17. Under this change, more than half a million people will be within walking distance of a frequent route.
• More MetroRapid – Two new MetroRapid routes will be added through downtown and East Austin
• More east/west routes – Two new MetroRapid routes will travel east/west, along with nine frequent routes
• Simpler fares – The premium rate currently charged on MetroRapid routes will be eliminated, as will some of the local buses that currently duplicate MetroRapid routes
• MoPac Express Service – bus service will be added to the new MoPac Express Lanes, connecting to communities outside of the central core of Austin

Hill Country Under Threat

The University of Texas published a study in January that raised alarm bells throughout the Central Texas environmental community.

The study points out that as sprawl and population growth from Austin and San Antonio continue to push into the the Hill Country, its signature scenic landscapes and open spaces are in jeopardy. It also warned of the region’s diminishing water resources, noting that groundwater is being sucked up faster than it can be replaced by rainfall.

Prop 1 – The First One

Because local government can be a bit confusing at times, Austin had not one, but two Prop 1 elections in 2016. The first one was held in May, after months and months of debate over the regulation of ride-hailing apps, like Uber and Lyft.

The election was officially held to ask citizens whether or not they approved of fingerprint-based background checks, which City Council had passed as part of a series of new regulations on ride-hailing companies in December of 2015. However for many Austinites, the debate quickly shifted to a question over corporate power after Uber and Lyft threatened to leave the city if the new rules stayed in effect and spent millions of dollars on an advertising campaign aimed at winning the election.

In the end, the campaign did not work, and Austin voted to keep the fingerprint-based background check regulations by a 12 point margin. As promised, Uber and Lyft promptly left the City of Austin. However, after their departure, several new ride-hailing apps launched in Austin, including Fare, Fasten, GetMe, and Ride Austin. And, by the end of 2016, Uber began hinting that they would like to return to the city.

But despite the influx of new apps and the months that have passed since the election, Uber and Lyft still remain a contentious issue in Austin. It goes down in the books as one of the biggest debates of the year (and since the Texas Legislature is considering looking at regulations on ride-hailing apps this session, it might become a topic for debate yet again in 2017).

Prop 1 – The Second One

And here’s the second Prop 1 election.  This one was held in November and focused around a $720 million transportation bond proposal, which was heavily supported by Mayor Steve Adler.

After months of debate, Prop 1 passed by about 20 points, which means that Austin is going to see lots of transportation improvement projects springing up in the coming years. Prop 1 is larger than all of the transportation bonds passed in Austin since 1996 (combined)  and includes a major investment bicycle infrastructure.

As a reminder, here’s where the money will be going:

• $101 million for Regional Mobility Projects
• $482 million for Corridor Improvement Projects, or Smart Corridors
• $137 million for Local Mobility Projects

New City Council

Austin elected a new City Council in November, which is always a big deal. Five of Austin’s 10 City Council seats were up for election.

Here’s how things shook out:

District 2:

• Delia Garza – 65.16 percent – winner
• Casey Ramos – 19.62 percent
• Wesley Faulkner – 15.21 percent

District 4:

• Greg Casar – 60.95 percent – winner
• Gonzalo Camacho – 22.85 percent
• Louis C Herrin III – 16.20 percent

District 6:

• Jimmy Flannigan – 55.90 percent – winner
• Don Zimmerman – 44.01 percent

District 7:

• Leslie Pool – 71.94 percent – winner
• Natalie Gauldin – 28.06 percent

District 10:

• Sheri Gallo – 48.23 percent
• Alison Alter – 35.52 percent
• Rob Walker – 14.10 percent
• Nicholas Virden – 2.15 percent

Since no single candidate received the required majority of votes in the general election, Austin’s District 10 City Council race went to a runoff election in December. In that race, Alison Alter beat out incumbent Sheri Gallo, becoming District 10’s newest City Council member.

The big stories of this election came out of Districts 6 and 10, where two incumbent (and traditionally conservative) City Council members lost their seats to more liberal-leaning candidates. This leaves Austin City Council will only one conservative-leaning member (Council Member Ellen Troxclair from District 8). Although Austin City Council candidates do run on a party ticket, this shift will likely have an impact on the way the Council operates in the new year.

Curbside Composting

A full, city-wide, curbside composting rollout was included in the City of Austin’s 2016-2017 budget, which went into effect on October 1st.

What does that mean? It means that by 2020, all Austin Resource Recovery customers (single-family homes) will have access to curbside composting. They’ll essentially have three bins for waste – one for trash, one for recycling, and one for composting. But the program won’t come free. Customers will be charged an additional $5.40 per month.

However, under the city’s current pay-as-you-throw garbage fee system, customers might be able to cancel out that fee by diverting more of their waste to the compost bin. In case you didn’t know, the city charges you more money if you have a larger trash can. By diverting more waste to compost, customers might be able to downsize from a 64-gallon cart to a 32-gallon cart, saving $61 a year, which is about how much the composting fee will cost.

Since a third of the city’s trash is actually compostable, the program is expected to substantially reduce the amount of waste Austin sends to the landfill. 

Smart City Challenge

The first half of 2016 was dominated by the Smart City Challenge, a grant that Austin applied for, but eventually lost. But that doesn’t mean that the challenge didn’t have a significant impact on the city.

The Smart City Challenge was a $50 million grant competition from the US Department of Transportation to support technology-driven mobility solutions, electric vehicles, and other carbon-emission reduction strategies. In March, Austin was chosen as one of seven finalists. The city spent months working with local partners and putting together big plans to improve the city’s transportation system.

In the end, Columbus, Ohio won the grant, but as Mayor Steve Adler explained at the time, the city is still planning on moving forward with many of the ideas proposed in the grant (with or without the money).

“We’re not stopping the innovative mobility projects we proposed,” Adler said in a Facebook post. “We don’t need anyone’s permission to innovate, so we’re moving forward because that’s the Austin Way.”

Some of the projects that have been proposed include installing traffic signals that auto adjust in varying weather or traffic conditions, converting city vehicles and taxis to electric cars, developing a driverless shuttle bus at the airport, and creating a mobility pass that Austinites can use on everything from Cap Metro buses to B-cycle bikes.

In a blog post written at the time, Adler said that the city is already planning to install traffic sensors on East Riverside Drive as a first step to deploying electric rapid buses from the airport to downtown Austin. He also pointed to his smart corridors bond proposal (Prop 1) as another way to dramatically improve mobility in the city. 

Austin Pledges to Get More Kids Outdoors

In 2016, Austin was one of just seven cities chosen to receive a $25,000 grant from the national Cities Connecting Children to Nature Initiative. The grant was used to develop a strategic plan to ensure that the children who need it the most have access to the outdoors and nature in their neighborhoods. Throughout 2016, Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department, as well as several community partners (including Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center,) worked diligently to put this plan together, which includes better utilizing AISD campuses for public park space in underserved neighborhoods.

Another big project that came out of the grant is the Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights. The idea behind the Bill of Rights is that it makes a promise that the city of Austin is dedicated to ensuring that all children have the right to climb trees, hike trails, ride bikes, gaze at the night sky, and so much more.

“In adopting this resolution, City Council would be conveying to its citizens that access to urban nature is a priority for every child in Austin and that the city should play a role in increasing opportunities for children to learn and play outdoors in the nature rich environments,” said Julia Campbell, program coordinator with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department.

The Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights will likely go before City Council for approval in January of 2017.

A Legend Retires

After 31 years championing consumer rights and clean energy policies in Texas, Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office, announced in September that he was retiring.

Smitty is widely known as the man in the white hat around the Texas State Capitol. He has testified more than 1,000 times before the Texas Legislature and Congress. He has led a team based in Austin, but also oversees staff in Houston and Dallas. And he has affected reforms that have improved public health and safety, protected consumers’ pocketbooks, and helped curb climate change.

Texas State Representative Rafael Anchia of Dallas had kind words for Smitty upon learning of his planned departure – “With the wisdom of Yoda and the dogged determination of the Lorax, Smitty Smith gave voice to the common man in the Texas Legislature for decades.  Smitty is that rare person who always put the best interests of the people of Texas first, and whether he was advocating for more honest government, voting rights, or the environment, he did so with boundless knowledge, grace, good humor, and patience.”

Shades of Green Turns 10 Years Old

Austin’s only local environmental talk radio show (and AEN Partner) turned 10 years old in November of 2016. The show first aired on November 8th, 2006 on KOOP 91.7 FM as a 30 minute radio show, Wednesday afternoons at 1pm. It was founded by Ken McKenzie, Jenny Nazak, and John Hoffner. The show’s first guest was Leslie Libby, then the Solar Program Manager at Austin Energy.

Although the show has gone through many changes and hosts over the years, one thing remains constant. John Hoffner is the lifeblood of Shades of Green, dedicating a countless number of hours in service to his community and top-notch radio programming. John was honored at the Annual Austin Green Holiday Party in December.

After 10 years, Shades is still the areas’s only environmental talk radio show. The crew continues to develop its production quality, with an eye toward big possibilities for the future of the show. With a history that touts a virtual “who’s who” of environmental leadership, representatives of government, advocates and subject matter experts, Shades looks forward to the next 10 years.

The Mayor Goes to Mexico

Why’d the mayor go to Mexico? To pledge Austin’s support in the global fight against climate change. In December, Austin Mayor Steve Adler attended the C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City, which brought together mayors from a coalition representing 90 of the world’s cities (which includes 650 million people and one quarter of the global economy).

Together, these cities are focused on ensuring that global emission reduction goals are met.

“In order for the world to reach the goals of the Paris agreement, cities and their mayors must lead the way – and they are, because they understand the major economic and public health benefits of fighting climate change,” said Michael Bloomberg, former New York City Mayor and the President of the Board of C40.

At the conference, mayors from around the world swapped stories and shared knowledge so that they could learn from each other and discover the best ways to reduce carbon emissions in their own cities. Mayor Adler spoke on a panel entitled, “Compact, Connected, Resilient Cities: Planning our Future City.”

Pipeline Protests Erupt in Austin

Austin joined in on the nationwide protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline this fall with a series of solidarity marches and calls for divestment from banks supporting the controversial pipeline.

“For everybody that you know that has a bank account, let them know that if they stand for life, if they stand for the water, that they cannot be holding their money in these corporate institutions…,” said Dave Cortez (an organizer with the Sierra Club) at a large protest held in downtown Austin in November. “Each and every one of you has that power.”

Local environmental justice advocates paired these solidarity protests with action right here at the local level by targeting the Texas-based company responsible for building both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Trans-Pecos Pipeline, which is set to be built in the Big Bend region.

Austin Energy Changes Its Rates

As it does every five years, Austin Energy adjusted its electricity rates in 2016, in a process called a “rate case.” The case not only has an impact on Austinites’ pocketbooks, but it also affects the environment in big ways. After all, electricity use is responsible for about half of Austin’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Here’s how the rate case shook out:

• Electricity rates were lowered for all Austin Energy customers, with the average residential customer saving an expected $34 per year.
• Large industrial customers (along with commercial users) received about $37 million in electricity rate cuts. In return, they promised not to ask the Texas Legislature to intervene with Austin Energy until at least 2020. (These customers had long been complaining about the utility’s rates, claiming that they were amongst the highest in the state for major industrial and commercial users. They even brought the Texas Legislature into the discussion, which threatened Austin Energy with deregulation if a deal could not be struck.)
• $5 million were set aside to begin the process of paying off debts Austin Energy owes on the Fayette coal-fired power plant, so that it can be retired. (Fayette is Austin’s last remaining coal-fired power plant and is a major carbon polluter).

Environmental Justice Advocates Push for Equality in East Austin

Environmental justice advocates really flexed their muscles in 2016, starting with a push to clean up the La Loma Trail in East Austin. The trail leads to the beautiful Red Bluff Vista, but years of neglect have left the trail littered with the remnants of an old dumping site. Parts of the trail are also used by children on their way to school and include unsafe water and rail crossings.

Led by the Springdale-Airport Neighborhood Association and the Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice Team (ATXEJ), advocates pushed hard to gather community support and push the City of Austin to clean up the trail and help establish safer routes to school for East Austin’s children. You can learn more about how to get involved with ATXEJ’s many projects here>>

SOS Sues

As Austin’s protector of Barton Springs, the Save Our Springs Alliance had a busy year in 2016, filing several lawsuits aimed at stopping new highway projects that could threaten the springs. Many of these lawsuits are still under review. If you would like to learn more about the Save Our Springs Alliance’s efforts, you can visit their website here>>

Donald Trump is Elected President

Okay, so this isn’t technically a local issue, but it will definitely have a local impact, which is why it is included in this list. Partisan issues aside, early signs indicate that the election of Donald Trump is not a great thing for the environment. He is a climate denier who famously claimed that climate change was a hoax “created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

In keeping with that sentiment, he has said that he will cancel the Paris Agreement (which only went into effect a week before he was elected) and role back the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, which is designed to cut U.S. power plants’ carbon emissions one-third below 2005 levels by 2030. President-elect Trump has also selected Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson to serve as his Secretary of State and Scott Pruitt (a known climate skeptic) to serve as the head of the EPA.

So what does this mean for Austin?

The biggest issue that has been raised by local environmental organizations about the election of Donald Trump is climate change. Scientists warn that serious action on climate needs to happen now in order to avoid its most catastrophic effects. In other words, the world doesn’t have time to wait for the US government to start believing in climate change.

After all, polls show that at this point, it is mostly the government that is still having a debate. A recent University of Texas study shows that 79 percent of Americans (and 91 percent of Americans under the age of 35) believe that climate change is occurring. The majority of Republicans now believe so as well.

Here in Austin, all of this has translated into a renewed push for citizen action right here at the local level. A group of local activists, educators, and community leaders have formed a new climate alliance, aimed at flipping the script and really amping up Austin’s climate leadership in the coming years.

In speaking with environmental leaders across the city, it seems as if 2017 is shaping up to be the year of personal responsibility. They say that the time to act on climate change is now. The time to get more involved in local government is now. The time to volunteer is now.

For advice on how to do all of this, stay tuned. In the coming weeks we’ll be sharing tips on the blog and in our newsletter, so that you can make 2017 the year that you get involved and make a difference… right here in your own backyard.