Public Notice: Working Hard for the Money

One of the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps projects featured in a new Photovoice Exhibition at City Hall (Photo via Photovoice Exhibition)

In what might be seen as a complement to the guaranteed income pilot program Austin Sanders writes about in this week's "Council Recap" – or as one of the policy "levers" Council Member Alison Alter refers to in that article – there happen to be a couple of city jobs programs in the news this week.

One is a Photovoice Exhib­i­tion opening this Friday at City Hall: photos and stories depicting the experiences of 11 participants in the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps, a program created by City Council to train and employ Austinites whose lives had been upended by COVID, that has recently transitioned to a focus on training for green jobs and "more equitable pathways to green career opportunities." The ACCC is now managed by the Parks and Recreation Department, in collaboration with various other city entities, and has a number of projects currently ongoing through September – from park and land maintenance to apprenticeships in green building and solar installation – though without any programs or opportunities announced beyond that, they are presumably pending a renewed city allocation from ongoing funding sources.

The exhibit itself opens with a 4pm ceremony on May 20 and is up through May 27; it's a preview of "Expanding Pathways to Quality Jobs in Austin's Growing Green Economy," a report that's a collaboration between the city and the UT School of Architecture's Community and Regional Planning program. Learn more about the ACCC at austintexas.gov/accc.

Then of course there's the lifeguard situation. For a variety of socioeconomic reasons, everyone's out of the pool of applicants for jobs watching city pools. The formerly steady supply of teens on summer break has increasingly either been finding better things to do or can't shoulder the needed training and time commitments. So even with higher pay and signing bonuses, plus benefits and flexible scheduling, PARD's aquatic team still has only 25% of the lifeguards it needs to operate, with neighborhood pools due to open in just a few weeks now … perhaps. It's so bad that PARD considers it the No. 1 challenge facing the department, and I have to make note of it here just about weekly.

So I know the Aquatic Division is not a job-creation program, but on the other hand, if the city were trying to create jobs for its citizens, it couldn't get more direct than, well, creating jobs for its citizens. And when no citizens want to take those jobs, what does that say about the current state of the job market, and the city's role in creating jobs (or trying to)? Just another data point on the wall, I suppose. But meanwhile, if you know someone who wants to get a tan this summer, and up to $1,250 in bonuses, direct them to austintexas.gov/summerjobs.

Also on the May 19 Council agenda is a public hearing on the proposed amendments to the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, one of the last steps in a yearlong process to update this master mobility plan first adopted in April 2019. One thing that may come up is a resolution from the Zoning and Platting Commission asking, among other things, for property owner and tenant notification for properties that are listed for potential right-of-way acquisition. Commissioners reported that three different CMs had fielded questions from property owners who claimed they had never received notification from Project Connect, yet had found their properties listed on the City Council agenda. See more about the ASMP amendments at austintexas.gov/asmp.

Meanwhile: Council will discuss possible changes to the city's vertical mixed-use ordinance at a work session this coming Tues­day, May 17. No action is expected on this item until June 9 at the earliest.

Project Connect's working group meeting schedule marches on, sharing plans for specific transit stations and corridors and gathering feedback. Next up: The East Riverside/Pleasant Valley design team discusses options for a light rail station at this busy intersection, Wednes­day, May 18, 5:30pm on Zoom. Get info and register at projectconnect.com/get-involved.

Soccer News!

Ukraine, still in the running for a men's World Cup berth, played its first match since Russia invaded their country on Wednesday, beating host Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1, in a fundraiser organized by that club for charities in Ukraine. The Ukrainian squad just assembled recently for a training camp in the Slovenian Alps, and this is the only tune-up they have scheduled before their June 1 match with Scotland (at Glasgow's Hampden Park), with the winner taking on Wales for the final World Cup spot (in the U.S. group) four days later.