Austin

Roads, Rails and Riders: A Look into the Austin Transit Experience

In 2019, city council unanimously passed the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, detailing a mission to bring the number of people driving alone to work down to 50%. Through interviews and new first-hand experience on public transportation, Nathan Adam Spear tries to see what Austin is doing to make this dream a reality.

By Nathan Adam Spear

Photo by Matthew Mateo

The similarities between Austin and the other metropolises of America grow each year as skyscrapers fill the landscape and more large businesses become our new neighbors in the Texas capital. With Austin’s developments also including an accelerating population and frequently mind-numbing traffic, the city has found the need to develop another big city similarity – public transportation.

Due to the sprawling geography of Austin, and subsequently Austin Community College, high-capacity public transportation networks like the New York subways or the London Underground, have so far refrained from being Austin’s primary public transit style. Currently, Austin takes the bus.

Since its establishment in 1985, Austin’s transit-service, CapMetro, has led the way for Austin’s public transportation through its fleet of 358 buses and 83 routes. ACC specifically has nine of its eleven campuses serviced by CapMetro, the two currently excluded being the Hays County and Elgin locations.

ACC students, faculty and staff are even allowed free access to the CapMetro Green Pass as of 2019, providing unlimited use of CapMetro services. Still, according to a transportation survey in 2019 by ACC’s office of energy and sustainability, only 7% of respondents had utilized public transport to get to campus.

As a long-time member of ACC’s car dependent students, my own experience with public transportation is likely similar to many others – severely lacking.

My car parked on the curb in Pflugerville Texas, April 29, 2023. Photo by Adam Spear.

The car I’m dependent on – a red Chevy Sonic equipped with several strips of duct tape, a broken taillight and an increasingly unbearable noise every time I push the brakes – continues to fight the title of ‘efficient’ and ‘preferable’ with every use, making other transit options grow more attractive.

It was the evening of April 6th when I began my first public transit journey aboard the route 20 bus headed toward Capitol Station. Besides being within walking distance to its namesake building, Capitol Station also begins my eight-minute walk to ACC’s Rio Grande Campus, the location of my Thursday afternoon American Sign Language class.

My first commute on the bus had a promising start; the recommended stop and route was easily found with the CapMetro app on my phone. Directions to my stops were also on Apple Maps, which has an option for public trip options readily available. My ticket, a local day pass, was also purchased conveniently for $2.50 through the CapMetro app – a temporary expense before I set up the available ACC Green Pass.

Ruby Krimstein, an ACC student and ACCent writer, has experience on the bus that far exceeds my own. Having previously resided in cities like Chicago and New York City which have very developed transportation networks, Krimstein has never owned a personal vehicle or even a driver’s license.

A CapMetro Bus drives near Highland Station, which services the ACC Highland campus with bus and rail commuting options. Photo taken by Matthew Mateo in Austin Texas, April 25, 2023.

“Everyone would say to me ‘you need to have a car, you’re moving to Austin, this is the time to get your license, this is the time to get a car,’” says Krimstein who, since moving in January, has found these friendly warnings not to be the case.

Splitting her time as an English major between the Highland and Rio Grande campuses, she not only utilizes the bus, but CapMetro’s commuter rail – AKA the Red Line – as well. Krimstein says she has found surprisingly few issues getting where she needs to go from her apartment in east Austin, even compared to her previous experience commuting in more mass transit-oriented cities.

“There’s an idea of Texas being very ‘car-centric’, but I think [public transportation] is more efficient than people realize.”

The efficiency in Austin has not been without some effort; in 2019, after four phases and two years of brainstorming, city council unanimously passed the Austin Strategic Mobility plan, the first adopted transportation plan since 1995.

This 358-page citywide plan of action aims to decrease the 76% of the city’s drivers that take a car independently to work down to a bold 50% by the year 2039, with transit ridership increasing to 16%. The reason being to handle the predicted traffic congestion as a result of population increase as well as lower the city’s carbon emissions.

“We are trying to reduce our consumption, there are lots of ways to do it, but transportation has the biggest impact,” says Lonny Stern, public involvement manager for the Austin Transit Partnership, “Choosing to share your trip, even just carpooling, that’s a 50% reduction right there.”

Commuter delay, affordability, travel choice and safety were found to be the primary concerns of the focus group formed by city officials before drafting the ASMP.

Affordability isn’t an issue as an ACC student, but Krimstein is well aware of the occasional delay and feeling of discomfort experienced while using the city’s public transportation. Most especially, though, she finds issue in a “lack of autonomy” from relying on public transit.

On the CapMetro Red Line, that she uses frequently to access the Highland campus due to its “cleaner” environment, Krimstein says missing a train can sometimes lead to hour-long waits for the next.

A train from CapMetro’s Red Line, which began operations in 2010, awaits departure at the Highland Station. Photo taken by Matthew Mateo in Austin Texas, April 25, 2023.

With the bus’s varying service times and limited travel distance, she says some freedom is lost without owning a car. Often, events that are on a far side of the city or in a different one altogether are practically unreachable when depending on public transportation.

As for my own maiden bus trip, I fortunately arrived at my stop on time with the bus arriving shortly after to pick me up at the scheduled 5:00; However, frequent stops and a minor delay (after the driver answered a phone call and stepped off for a few minutes) made the future of getting to my 5:30 ASL class on time grow unlikely.

With all this stress for an otherwise roughly 15 minute car ride, I wondered what might make daily-use of these services, when other options are available, appealing.

“I’ve found it’s a good way to see the city,” says Krimstein, “It’s like an effortful journey which can be fulfilling.”

With that I can agree; getting to spend time outside in the community, with my eyes off the road and on the view around me, I find myself feeling unexpectedly content with my place in life and society. As Krimstein says, public transport isn’t so isolated compared to driving independently.

I was nearly finished practicing, ‘Sorry, I’m late’, in sign language when the bus came to its hissing stop at Capitol Station. My relaxing city walk turned into a sweaty urban jog, but I arrived at class on time, slightly damp, but on time.

It was 2020, when voters not only addressed improving the efficiency of its transportation by funding the Transit Enhancement Program, but also approved the planning for a different type of transportation entirely through funding Project Connect.

Project Connect, supported by a portion of the city’s property tax revenue and run by the Austin Transit Partnership, is primarily focused on the construction of a new citywide light-rail system. The light rail, named for its smaller size, boasts high-speeds with frequent arrival times.

Focused on implementing the light rail without displacing low-income communities, ATP was formed to lead the program and works along CapMetro’s and the city’s ETOD or, Equitable Transit-Oriented Development, strategies as well.

Initially, Project Connect planned 28 miles of accessible light rail throughout the city and presented these plans in early 2020; But after necessary changes to the rail’s design had accompanied the city’s accelerated cost of living, the original $5 billion cost estimate was doubled, and the vision was replanned.

Lonny Stern (left) , representing ATP, explains the initial plans for Project Connect to a student passing his table for ACC’s Earth week. Photo taken by Adam Spear at the Riverside campus on April 20 2023.

“In a way, we were building our dream home,” says Stern who, I discovered later, is a local realtor. “But now we know we need to start with a starter home and add on to it.”

Stern has been conducting community outreach for ATP since the light rail’s open house in March. Along his quest for public input and as part of ACC’s Earth week, he presented five options for the first phase of Project Connect’s construction at the ACC Riverside Campus.

The presentation was scheduled to include an electric vehicle demonstration, but the weather had other plans according to Amber Orr, the ACC energy and sustainability manager.

Stern assures that the five more affordable options he presented are just for phase one of the long spanning project, and that the plans promised in 2020 have not ceased entirely, just slowed considerably. For Stern and ATP this brings the issue of finding routes to service first.

“Some people may look at this and say, I want to go as far as possible, pick the cheapest branch, let’s do that, and there are other folks who are more specifically concerned about where we are serving,” says Stern.

Focused on implementing the light rail without displacing low-income communities, ATP works along the city and CapMetro’s ETOD or, Equitable Transit-Oriented Development, strategies as well.

Each of the five options, which fit into a more conservative budget, presented a portion of the original light rail system. The underground and elevated lines that were promised initially were only offered in the shortest of the five lines due to the unexpectedly high production costs of specialized rail.

ATP’s outreach to ACC’s Riverside location was because one of the presented tracks did not reach far enough to service the campus efficiently; The northernmost reaching option, starting from North Lamar, only went as southeast as Pleasant Valley, whereas the others continued southeast to Yellow Jacket or, in one, all the way to the airport.

With troubles even arising at this year’s legislative session, in the form of House Bill 3899, it seems Austin’s light rail future is still some time away with speed having only increased semi-recently. After the the bill lost steam and the comment period ended May 2^nd, it was less than a month later when ATP announced its agreed first phase of development.

“Full steam ahead!” posted CapMetro’s Twitter account announcing their board’s agreement on June 2nd 2023. The plan is a modified version of the five presented by ATP last month. Graphic from @CapMetroATX on Twitter

Most notably, the approved $4.5 billion plan will begin from 38th street down to Yellow Jacket, with a “priority extension” connecting Crestview up north as and from Yellow Jacket directly to the airport.

Last Friday, CapMetro’s Twitter announced that the CapMetro board unanimously approved the adjustments, putting Project Connect finally on the road, or rail, to construction.

Even with this decision being a big step towards the optimistic plans that we were shown in 2020, construction for this first phase will likely not feel much quicker; and several public comment periods can be expected in the meantime.

After acquainting myself with the city’s current transportation options and some of its riders, though a fulfilling experience, it does still have room for improvement with limited distances and varying delays. Austin’s Transit Enhancement Program, voter funded in 2020, provides a place for those of us using the bus to be heard while we wait further for Austin’s transit future.

HB 1686: No Place for Hate

by Foster Milburn

On March 27, 2023, Equality Texas, a statewide political organization that advocates for LGBTQ rights, posted a “call to action” on their social media websites. They called for an emergency rally titled “Fight for our lives.” The rally took place at 2 p.m. at the rotunda located on the ground floor of the Texas State Capitol. Their reasoning – to protest the imminent passing of House Bill 1686 (HB 1686).

HB 1686 aims to prevent healthcare coverage for gender-affirming care amongst youth in the state and allows the prosecution of a medical professional who provides such care regardless of parental consent. As of March 28, 2023, the bill is likely to pass the house and activists revisited the capitol to protest the bill and the detrimental effects it would have on transgender youth.

On the capitol grounds, activists were lined up down to the street on the south side. Due to the legislative session, the capitol has been crowded, but the energy was different, with activists feeling more panicked than usual at the prospect of the passing of this bill – one of several anti-LGBTQ+ bills that the state legislature is working to pass.

Testimonies were cut short at midnight and activists fell to the ground and chanted “Klick lies, kids die” referring to Representative Stephanie Klick, Chair of the Public Health Committee, who is overseeing discussions regarding the bill. Those who were unable to speak out may submit a public comment of their testimony through Friday, limited to 3000 characters.

Another bill, HB 2055, aims to repeal an antiquated law preventing same-sex relationships. The law remains on Texas books. Activists are calling for support of this bill and urging the public to stop by capitol grounds to drop a card and/or give a testimony.

You can track the status of all bills using Equality Texas’ bill tracking system.

SXSW: Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase, Unwrapped

Many projects and discussions have taken place at SXSW Festival 2023. Among them, ACCENT Reporter Marisela Perez Maita was able to cover the uprising innovation showcase that offered a glimpse into the transformative state of our future.

by Marisela Perez Maita

On March 11, 2023, 55 finalists across 14 categories presented their innovative projects at the JW Marriott Downtown conference rooms. These categories included health, design, tech, audio and AI. Here are five of the numerous stands that were present:

Musichealth

Musichealth is an AI that uses music therapy to help patients with dementia and their caregivers. The software —called Vera— creates a playlist that brings nostalgia and reminiscence of the patient’s past to their present. Once the patient starts listening to a song they enjoy and remember, their mood and behaviors change, relaxing the patient’s body and mind and making it much easier for caregivers to carry them through different activities. Combining neuroscience, technology and music, Musichealth helps dementia patients reconnect with emotions and caring memories

Edubank

Founded in Brazil, Edubank is a bank that provides credits to schools in Latin America. The founder, Daniel Costa, started this project after realizing how the lack of financial support retains Brazilian schools for improvement. Traditional banks don’t like to give credit nor provide access to capital for education because “It’s too complicated” according to Costa. For this reason, institutions have a hard time finding resources to improve their facilities and quality of education. Edubank has helped over 400 schools in Brazilian states. They hope to reach 1 million students by 2026.

Chptr

Chptr is an app for those who want to remember relatives and friends who have passed away. The way it works is very simple. People join a “profile” which is the space created for that person, and anyone invited to that profile can add a memory or a moment. A memory is either a video or audio where the user expresses their emotions or thoughts. A moment are pictures, videos, conversations or any media that shows how that person was for those who loved them. Chptr embraces memory, grief and love through the timeless space of technology.

The app is completely free and can be downloaded from the App Store or Play Store.

Neuralight

Neuralight is an AI that, by capturing oculometric movements, diagnoses neuronal disorders, measures sickness progression, and allows doctors to find the best treatment for the patient. Neuralight presenters pointed out that neurological disorders are usually diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease, nd many of them share similar symptoms, so the risk of being misdiagnosed is high. Some of the most common are Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s Disease (HD), and Major Depressive Disorder (MD). Neuralight’s technology uses oculometric data to diagnose and predict these disorders accurately. Following a dot on a screen, gives information such as reaction time and many other complex neurological data that are useful for medical diagnosis.

Shrimpbox

The company Atarraya presented Shrimpbox —the first AI-powered aquaculture farm designed to allow the production of shrimp sustainably. Traditional shrimp production pollutes oceans, destroys habitats, and contributes to overfishing. For this reason, Atarraya built the technology to cultivate shrimps in a “box” that replicates the breeding environment of the shrimps, be it in urban, hot or cold areas. The box can be built anywhere in the world, making it a sustainable farm that significantly decreases the environmental impact.

From the presented stands, Neuralight won in the category of Health and MedTech. The Finalists Showcase emboldens the importance of festivals like South by South West, where people with brilliant ideas get the opportunity to showcase their passions and innovations to others and inspire more ideas to come.

Breaking Threads: Weaving the Changing State of the Austin Art Scene

As art and technology accelerate Austin’s growth, the city’s large number of artists as well as its under-represented communities have struggled to match pace.

by Nathan Adam Spear

The surplus of creative events in the city paired with the increasing presence of several large tech company headquarters like Dell (1984), Apple (2019), and most recently Tesla (2021) has made the once quiet capital’s cost of living increase, displacing the historical communities and the artists that make it attractive.

Celina Zisman, the chair of the City of Austin’s Commission for the Arts, says that the commission has been facing this increasing loss of culture with the implementation of an equity lens on its funding model inspired by the strategic direction that city council adopted in March of 2018.

In June of this year, the arts commission along with the city’s cultural arts division released their review process, which details how the city will support the preservation of its culture with three new funding programs.

The newly applied equity lens on these funding programs places the commission’s funding priorities on local artists and creative organizations that take action to accommodate and uplift under-represented communities.

Zisman has been involved with the arts commission since 2019. The organization, composed entirely of volunteers, faced its share of funding difficulties after the year’s pandemic.

Austin’s arts and culture funding, which is sourced from a fraction of the city’s hotel occupancy tax, dropped significantly after traveling restrictions during the pandemic caused hotel revenue to drop. The city was met with a long period of no events, and the artist’s struggle worsened.

“I’m honestly just proud we were able to keep our s**t together,” said Zisman, who moved to Austin from the Bay Area in 2008 and has since been closely involved with the city’s developed creative community. Like many local artists, Zisman remembers having her start renting space on Austin’s previously more affordable east side.

“I had a few friends who lived over there, but I didn’t really have any guides or context when I moved,” says Zisman about her experience moving to Austin as a low-income artist. “It was just the affordable place to live.”

The low costs of the neighborhood, before it garnered its more recent attention, was in large part due to Austin’s history of segregation. In 1928, the segregation plan that the city adopted aimed to relocate the African American community to the homes and neighborhoods east of I-35.

For years the neighborhood developed as a prominent African American community, the highway physically separating the under-represented Austinites on the east side from the more expensive and white parts of the city.

When artists wanting to live in the culturally vibrant urban area discovered the large number of affordable homes and renting options to the east, the historically segregated neighborhood’s reputation as a creative hotbed began to form and the originally segregated communities faced displacement again.

“Do artists play a role in gentrification? Hard stop yes. Artists are notorious for being brave and living where other people might not want to,” said Zisman, elaborating on the trend of artistic communities transforming the low-income areas they settle in and displacing the neighborhood’s preceding residents as more attraction for the once-undesirable location is created.

The population in the city has continued to grow rapidly, even reaching as high as 2.2 million in the latest report from the 2021 United States Census Bureau, a 22% increase in the last decade alone. The white, non-Hispanic population leads this charge contributing nearly 40% of the population’s total growth according to the same report.

The American Growth project, led by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, listed Austin as 2022’s second fastest growing U.S city. The project points out how the city developments that were made in response to the area’s growing popularity continue to increase expenses as well, reporting that the average rent for multifamily housing has increased around 10% every year.

The notoriously low-income artists, especially those on the east side, are facing the consequences as well after the influx of attention and development. The east side, after years of neglect, is seeing the presence of rapid high-income focused development like Waterloo Central – which boasts 39,000 square feet of Class A office space – outpaces the city’s opportunities for artists.

Pump Project Art Complex, previously located on 20,000 square feet of Shady Lane, was a longtime participant in the East Austin Studio tour and an active creative space for 13 years in this location. Now, after the building’s owner put the space on the market for $2.4 million, Pump Project lacks a physical shop and hosts pop-ups under the name ArtUs at the Arboretum in Northwest Austin.

“It was organically grown with all these little incubator spaces, and it became this thing that grew, and we kind of gentrified ourselves,” said Joshua Green, the co-founder of Pump Project, to Texas Monthly in 2021.

Pump Project was one of the city’s many art hubs that felt pressure as inflation increased. In the Economic Development Department’s (EDD) 2017 Creative Spaces survey, 51% of the participants had even admitted to considering leaving Austin for another city or state.

In the most recent Austin Studio Tour, previously known as the East Austin Studio Tour before joining the western side with a name change in 2021, the concentration of artists that once occupied the east side has largely dispersed.

Hoping to unite the efforts of artists trying to live sustainably and the city wanting to keep its culture, the arts commission worked with EDD’s Cultural Arts Division to prioritize funding with an equity lens that looks at an organization/individual artist’s diversity and potential impact.

In June of 2022, the Cultural Arts division released their cultural funding review process, detailing the new programs in place after reaching out to the needs of the arts community and evaluating the equity of previous funding programs.

“You may not be a person of color but does the work you’re doing serve communities of color?” explaining the priorities of some of the new programs, “If you’re a non-profit, does your board represent a spectrum of the community?”

The division’s entry-level funding or Nexus Program has the lowest award amount of $5,000 and the easiest application process. Nexus focuses on the support of new talent in and out of the city.

The Thrive program, which has the highest grant amounts, intends to correct the city’s past participation in gentrification and its history of funding biases by focusing support on non-profit organizations that are reflective of Austin’s culture by, for example, possessing a 5-year or more history with the city. Looking primarily for non-institutions as well, the Thrive program has award amounts going as high as $80-150k a year.

Despite the development of these new programs and the recovery of funds from the hotel occupancy tax, the artistic community still struggles as inflation rises. According to a 2022 survey by the EDD, only 30% of respondents have access to an affordable creative space.

Finding awareness of these opportunities and a lack of business experience to be recurring problems for the creative community, Zisman or as they like to be known, The Craft Advocate, offers insight and financial advice to local creatives.

Zisman finds the preservation of what’s left of the Austin culture through direct collaboration with artists, generating more local creative opportunities and placing a high priority on a more affordable renting market for artists.

“I mean we got to have some spice, we got to have flavor and I think without our creatives feeding this culture, we’re just another spot on the map.”

Ahead of the Curve: Student Mobility in the ACC District

Students discuss the benefits of the ACC Green Pass and public transportation.

Story by Jacob Tacdol

Graphics by Marisela Perez-Maita

For students living in the Austin area, commuting to and from school can be a stressful and time consuming task. This year, the Austin Community College District is once again offering the Capital Metro Green Pass to its students, faculty and staff.

Green Pass holders are allowed an unlimited amount of free rides to anywhere using the CapMetro transit system, including buses and the rail line, for one semester.

“The Green Pass has helped me a lot,” ACC student Elijah Williams said. “It allows me to manage my time more effectively and stay productive throughout my day. I’m able to get to point A, B, C and wherever else I want to go and save money.”

CapMetro services 542 square miles and offers nine modes of transportation to the general public, which includes 83 bus routes and nine train stations along a 32 mile track from downtown Austin to the northwest suburb of Leander.

Photo by Jacob Tacdol featuring a CapMetro railway station.

“Being able to utilize the bus and the train is a great skillset to have,” Williams said. “It changes a lot of people’s foundations. I don’t have to wait in traffic. That’s why I’m able to go to the Domain in less than 15 minutes from [Highland]. For most people, it takes 30 or 45 minutes on a good day.”

Without a Green Pass, CapMetro fare costs range from 60 cents to $96.25 depending on which service and length of time riders choose. ACC funds the Green Pass program using the ACC sustainability fund and revenue from parking permit fees.

“The pass is useful no matter which type of public transportation you choose,” ACC student Dierdre Gormley said. “I don’t have to worry about paying for it, because I’ve already put my money into the school. I might as well take advantage of it.”

Students enrolled in ACC credit classes, Adult Education students and ACC faculty and staff can apply for a Green Pass through ACC’s Green Pass webpage. CapMetro offers both a digital and physical option.

“I ordered the physical pass and I received it in about five to seven days,” ACC student Aster Fohl said. “They made it easy to navigate the website. It really is a doable option and you just have to look up how the system works. It’s a legitimate form of transportation for so many people.”

Of the many reasons why students and other members of the ACC community may opt for public transportation, the costs and anxiety associated with driving a car in Austin is a large contributor.

“I am 30 minutes out from the Highland Campus and I don’t want to spend a lot of money on gas to get to school four days a week,” Fohl said. “It’s made me a lot less anxious coming to school, because driving, especially with the growth of the greater Austin area and the city itself, has made things very difficult.”

One of the main arguments for increasing the usage of public transportation in cities is the lighter impact that mass transit has on the environment compared to personal vehicles.

“I’m someone who is very big on trying to eliminate my personal carbon footprint,” Fohl said. “There’s so many organizations and corporations who need to cut down on their emissions and I personally do it by giving more attention to public services. It’s a personal choice that I’m glad I’ve made.”

In their Sustainability Vision Plan, CapMetro outlines their initiatives to reach a carbon neutral state by 2040. Methods including reducing carbon emissions and using renewable energy will go into their efforts.

A MetroRail shuttle at a standstill during a station layover. Photo by Jacob Tacdol.

“ACC is ahead of the curve,” Williams said. “This is what it’s shifting towards: cleaner, more efficient and faster travel. If you get this going now and start using public transportation, you’re getting ready for the future.”

Q & A with State Representative Gina Hinojosa

By Pete Ramirez

Edited by Angelica Ruzanova and Ky Duffey

The Texas State Legislature is not currently in session but that doesn’t mean State Representatives are not working. ACCENT’s Editor-in-Chief, Pete Ramirez, recently had the opportunity to chat with Texas State Representative Gina Hinojosa of District 49 which covers a large portion of central Austin.

In their conversation, they discussed a wide range of topics affecting Texans such as how families of transgender people are dealing with the increased scrutiny from the governor, climate change, abortion restriction and why young people shouldn’t lose hope in democracy.

Read the entire conversation below.

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Pete Ramirez (PR): Can you tell us about yourself?

Rep. Gina Hinojosa (RGH): I’m in my third term at the Texas House so I’m in my sixth year. I’m running for reelection. I have a Republican opponent in the November election.

I was on the school board for one term before I ran for the House. I was president of the Austin ISD school board.

I ran for the school board because my son’s school was going to be closed along with a bunch of other inner-city schools and I got angry and decided to run.

I’m a lawyer and I represented employees in discrimination cases.

I’m originally from South Texas. From the valley- Brownsville. I went to public school down there and then I came to UT in Austin and I’ve been here ever since except when I went to D.C. to attend law school at George Washington National Law Center.

I’m also married with two boys.

PR: Can you give us a quick rundown on the Texas Legislature and your duties as a State Representative?

RGH: We meet every two years here in the Capitol.

We get paid $600 per month so it is not a salary that many people can live off of and most legislatures have other jobs to support themselves and their families. As a result, it limits who can run because most people can’t take six months off every two years to come to Austin and work. I’m able to because I live here.

We are required to pass a budget for the state every session. Other than that, it’s just whatever is the agenda that the Speaker and Governor set.

We file our own bills. I’ve focused a lot on public education, environmental issues, renewable energy issues and efforts to combat climate change as well as reproductive health and corporate reform issues.

The thing about being in the House, is you’ve got to know about everything. Every issue you can think of comes before us. I only have a staff of three and we often feel like we are just inundated with policy issues to work on. Also, a lot of the policy issues we have to work on are unfortunately made up by politicians.

Right now we’ve spent a lot of time trying to protect the kids and families of kids who are transgender because the Governor has decided that Child Protective Services is going to investigate them and threaten to take them away from their families. I have constituents who are scared so they reach out to me.

But there are always these emergencies that are created by our statewide politicians for political reasons and the result is that we don’t get to focus on the things that really matter to Texans.

PR: What is the job like in between sessions and how do you help constituents during this time?

RGH: A lot of it is informal so really every legislature’s job is going to look different.

For me, with the example of the transgender kids, we’ve reached out to lawyers and advocates to get resources to families, educate families about what to do if CPS shows up at their door and expose the problems that are not being dealt with.

One of the hardest things about this issue is people are terrified to speak up and be public because they don’t want to lose their kids. They are afraid.

We have a responsibility to tell their story. To fight on their behalf against this.

PG: It’s a midterm year. You are up for reelection along with all other State Representatives. How important is voting to you?

RGH: It really is the foundation of all of our rights, to vote, right? I mean that’s how we hold the government accountable. Government has enormous influence and say over every individual’s life and if we’re not a government by the people then we are living in something that is not a democracy but something that is closer to having a king or a dictator.

Voting is everything and because when more people don’t vote, the government doesn’t work as well as it should. Because more people don’t vote we have politicians who get elected by what is just a small fraction of the population and it’s typically more far-right and far-left because a lot of these races are determined in primaries that happen in March. While we need more people voting in November, the turnout in these March primary elections is so abysmally low that it’s just a small sliver of the population that is deciding who will represent us.

We’re so gerrymandered where Democrats are packed into these districts, Republicans are packed into these districts that even though most people pay attention to the November races, most of it is baked in March.

Now, in the race for governor, that’s not the case. That’s a state-wide race. Attorney General, U.S. Senators and all other statewide races are open to the entire state to vote on those.

[Voting] is everything and we saw in the last election that lots of people who voted by mail had their ballots rejected.

And I mean, an unprecedented amount of ballots were rejected because of the new voter suppression law/anti-voter law that was passed during the special session. The one we broke quorum to try to fight against and get Congress to pass some comprehensive voting rights protections. They didn’t do it and we ended up with a bad anti-voter bill and we saw that lots of people were disenfranchised this last election as a result.

PR: Why is it important for young voters to participate in elections?

RGH: Well, let’s talk about climate change.

Young voters are going to deal with the impacts of a warming planet far more than older people are, right? Young people are likely to be around a lot longer.

The policies that we enact today are a result of who you vote for and what you tell politicians you expect from them in order to earn your vote. That’s going to be affecting you for the rest of your life.

Also, data shows young people are not voting their numbers and so the concerns of young people are not front and center for many politicians.

I’ll give you an example: I had a bill that would’ve required a polling place to be on the campus of every large university.

I couldn’t even get a hearing on that bill because the committee chair didn’t care. She wasn’t afraid of the young people in her district.

Votes move politicians. You’re supposed to be responsive to your people. If people don’t vote, politicians aren’t going to care what they think.

You can have all the data in the world and it doesn’t hurt but if you don’t have the votes to back that up, you’re not going to move policy because politicians don’t do something just because it’s the right thing to do. I know that’s shocking but that’s not what moves politicians.

PR: What is your view on the abysmal voter turnout during midterm elections and primaries and what are you and the Democratic party doing to turn that around?

RGH: Right now we have to find a way to tap back into people’s hope for a better tomorrow. We’ve all been so beat down by the pandemic by the ugliness of politics, with the insurrection and Donald Trump as president. Just the nastiness of politics.

I do worry that people won’t feel the hope that we need to inspire us to go out and vote and think that we can change things. We need to figure out how to talk about policy in a way that gets people excited about what we do so that people want to engage.

If you think about climate change, for instance. There’s a depressing issue for most people. It feels overwhelming and hopeless, right?

What gives me hope about that is that we spent a year doing research on climate change. What we found is that Texas really is the problem and solution when we are looking at things at a national level. We create more methane emissions and more CO2 emissions than any other state by far but we have the largest wind energy sector and we have the fastest-growing solar energy sector.

So there is all this innovation happening in Texas but we are also a big contributor to the problem. We here as Texans hold a lot of the cards to fix this problem and it is fixable. It’s fixable in ways that are not so extreme.

There are things we can do that wouldn’t impact our daily lives at all that would have a significant impact on global warming.

We try to educate people. I think if we can get the information that we have out to the public they may feel like maybe it’s not as hopeless as they feel it is.

PR: What are your thoughts on SB-1 (Texas’ new restrictive voting rights law) and do you think it has made it more challenging for Texans to vote?

RGH: Yes, it has. It’s also scared a lot of Texans. We talked about the vote-by-mail problem where ballots were rejected.

We also have a problem that we have lost constituents to work our polling places to be what’s called election judges because we now have criminal penalties that penalize honest mistakes and people are afraid. As a result, you might’ve seen on social media places that said “only Democrats can vote here” or “only Republicans can vote here” because we didn’t have enough precinct judges. They’re the people who sit at the table, check your voter card and send you to the next volunteer.

Citizens make our elections work and when they are afraid to participate our elections don’t work.

We saw very troubling problems and barriers during the primary elections and when you have, in November, more than twice as many people voting, it’s going to be that much more impacted. We need to get everyone educated and comfortable with our new system. We’re working in my office to try to explain what are the changes and what people need to know in order to feel confident about participating.

Another example is people are afraid to register voters because they’re afraid they are going to do something wrong and will be charged with doing something illegal.

We need people to understand you can still register voters. Those penalties aren’t on the people, they are on the government.

It’s going to take community partners to get out the word and educate people about what the law is so they can feel comfortable about participating.

There is so much opportunity to get students at ACC engaged in policy and voting and politics. I think it’s an exciting prospect.

PR: There’s been an obvious recent surge of right-wing policies being implemented in Texas such as the near-total abortion ban. How do you feel about this and what gives you hope about the future of Texas and the Democratic party?

RGH: Well, you all.

The young people give me hope. We need you all.

Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

My whole life abortion has been legal. Y’alls whole life abortion has been legal. What’s it going to be like when it’s not? Are y’all going to allow for this to happen?

Where you can’t make these basic decisions about your body or about your family. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. There’s not an exception for when a woman is pregnant with a fetus that is not viable.

Are we really now going to tell women, ‘no, we’re going to force you to go through nine months of pregnancy for a baby that will not live’? That’s what our law says now.

Are we really just going to take that? I think it’s an extreme attack on our human rights and I can’t believe that in this country, given our experience with freedom, we’re going to tolerate it.

My hope is that y’all rise up and organize and say absolutely not. Change who is in power to change the laws.

All it takes is for young people to vote.

PR: If ACC students want to get more involved with local government or activism, what advice would you give them?

RGH: Whatever is your passion, there is a group for you to get engaged with on policy issues. Google it or call my office and we’ll connect you to some group.

It’s about showing up.

If you care about something, show up to those meetings. You get to know people who are making things happen and you become one of those people making things happen. At first, you may feel uncomfortable and you may not know what’s going on but eventually, you’ll catch on and you can be part of the change.

PR: Anything you would like to say before we wrap this up?

RGH: I think it would be super cool if ACC did a town hall on voting or engaging students. Even to have members of the Texas House Delegation hear what are the issues y’all care about.

It’s so important that we hear from you and know what are your hopes, dreams and struggles and how can we help with them.

UT Students Seek Help From ACC With Community Outreach Initiative

The student-led Texas Civic Impact Council needs help from Austin Community College and other Austin area colleges to shine a light on socio-economic opportunities for the community ahead of a major transit infrastructure project.

Written by Ky Duffey

Edited by Pete Ramirez

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist and author.

Mead’s exemplary words are not lost on Vaishnav Kuruvanka and Ruth Mewhinney, two University of Texas-Austin students and co-founders of the Texas Civic Impact Council (TCIC). TCIC is a student-led organization that strives to bring the community together by engaging college students to work as a team to solve social issues.

Sponsored by Promoting Education Across the Country (PEAC), a platform that supports youth entrepreneurs at the community level, TCIC aims to be a bridge for student progress on city-wide issues.

While TCIC has made strides so far in launching social campaigns, its newest campaign is focused on Project Connect, an upcoming transit infrastructure project for the city of Austin. Find out more about TCIC and how to apply here.

The following is my recent conversation with Kuruvanka and Mewhinney about TCIC and Project Connect.

Ruth Mewhinney and Vaishnav Kuruvanka are co-founders of the Texas Civic Impact Council and students at the University of Texas at Austin. Their organization is looking to get ACC students involved in their work helping to shape Austin’s massive transit project known as Project Connect.

Ky Duffey (KD): Tell me about Project Connect.

Vaishnav Kuruvanka (VR): Project Connect is a $7.1 billion investment in public transportation in Austin. There are three components to it: a light rail connecting North and South Austin, an expanded all-electric bus fleet and an underground transit tunnel that will go through downtown. The purpose is to make it easier to get around Austin through public transport.

We at TCIC are interested in it because we see it as more than just an infrastructure investment. We see it as a way to connect Austin geographically and socially. We see it as a way to develop jobs and affordable housing. To initiate this equitable and innovative future for our city. It’s a generational opportunity. When will we see this kind of investment again?

Ruth Mewhinney (RM): If Project Connect is done well, we’ll be creating communities of opportunity in the four corridors of the city the project will engage. To make projects like this work, we need community engagement to make sure community priorities relate to public policy. We recognize this as an amazing opportunity, and our job is to amplify community voices. We want to serve as an accountability check for Project Connect and what it can do for the citizens of Austin.

So basically, how can the infrastructure in Austin, the fastest growing city in America, bring opportunity for us to connect statewide and nationally.

KD: How did TCIC come about?

VR: TCIC is a chapter of a non-profit called PEAC. PEAC has one main goal: getting young people involved in solving social issues.

When I moved to Austin, I noticed there were so many great students here yet they weren’t all working together on issues they commonly deal with. So I decided to get a bunch of diverse students together to see how we can tackle common issues.

I met Ruth in 2019 and we worked to build TCIC from the ground up. TCIC’s goal is to connect students to the city of Austin and take an interdisciplinary approach to solving social issues. We represent 9 colleges on campus and two representatives on the council from each college.

KD: Your goal is to get college students across Austin involved as well through fellowships. Tell me about those.

RM: To be a council member in TCIC, you have to be a student at UT, but we wanted to make sure TCIC is not just representative of UT students, but any young person in Austin.

So TCIC is leading a student-led, grassroots community engagement along key Project Connect corridors. There are three ways for students across Austin to get involved.

We have community engagement fellows who are leading that boots on the ground engagement.

We have data fellows who are cataloging and analyzing that data.

And we have design fellows who are taking all these data and stories and turning them into the written content we’ll present to the City of Austin and Project Connect leadership.

VK: The main goals of our fellowships are to strengthen the connection between Austin residents and city leaders, getting people across Austin to work together from City Council, company leaders, and community members.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is called Project Connect, I think there is an opportunity to connect Austin here in a deep and meaningful way, and students are a very important part of that opportunity.

This isn’t a UT Austin issue, this is an Austin issue, so we welcome students from across the city to join us.

Texas Civic Impact Council members pose for a picture in downtown Austin. Photo provided by TCIC’s Instagram account @peac.tcic.

KD: How can students in Austin apply?

VK: We have a simple application at www.bit.ly/tcicfellowship.

You don’t have to have a lot of skills to get involved in this project, you just need an interest and passion for serving your community. No matter whether you’re an undergrad or grad student, all are welcome.

RM: TCIC is student-led and student-built so come on board! We need numbers to do community engagement.

VK: The community engagement fellows are the lifeblood of our project. If we don’t have a lot of students out there connecting with the community, we can’t get the data to present to community leaders.

So we need a lot of people who can be boots on the ground.

RM: We’re the only program that is entirely student-run. You may see other programs similar to us, but they aren’t doing it like us. Student-led!

Find more information about Project Connect here.

Engaging with your community, especially at the college level, not only provides an opportunity for you to be a voice for those who are usually ignored within our neighborhoods. It’s also an opportunity to show desired transfer universities and future employers your efforts to make the world a little better.

Young people across the country normally feel that their voices are not taken seriously. This initiative is a chance to highlight voices that have been drowned out in the past.

Do your city and yourself proud. Join TCIC to connect with others around Austin fighting to make this city’s future equitable and enjoyable for all.

In the Eye of the Beholder: A Museum Exhibition Review

ACCENT’s Web Content Editor, Angelica Ruzanova, gives us an in-depth look into Daniel Johnston’s “I Live My Broken Dreams” exhibition at The Contemporary Austin’s Jones Center.

Story by Angelica Ruzanova

Edited by Pete Ramirez

Truth, deep-seated within each one of us, finds its own way of expressing itself. For the late Austin artist and musician Daniel Johnston, it manifested through personified ideas in his imaginary – and perhaps very real – scattered world.

Upon my first visit to the installation located within The Contemporary Austin’s Jones Center museum on Congress Avenue active from September 11 to March 20, my friend and I overheard a gentleman admiring the hung pieces on the walls in awe. He was led by a guide and was in a rush, but it was clear how much every display meant to him.

We later determined the visitor to be Johnston’s best friend, David Thornberry. Thornberry is also an artist and painted the Jones Center exhibition’s front entrance portrait in Johnston’s memory. The acrylic painting on 24″ x 30″ canvas portrayed Johnston in his McDonald’s uniform from his days working there in the 1980s.

An art gallery filled with Daniel Johnston's work. — The gallery at The Contemporary Austin’s Jones Center featured the work of late Austin artist Daniel Johnston. Best known for his mural of a frog asking “Hi, How Are You?” Johnston was also a prolific musician with a distinct childlike voice. Courtesy of The Contemporary Austin website.

The guide leading Thornberry, Tori Sal, gave us insight into the museum’s collaboration with individuals and organizations who helped make the exhibit.

“The Contemporary worked with the Daniel Johnston Foundation and collaborated with No Comply – the skating company downtown, as well as Vans and a lot of local businesses,” Sal said. “We worked with Austin Books and Comics to recreate this comic book in his style to celebrate him, and the mural on the side of our building was premiered on Daniel Johnston’s day.”

The collection of handwritten letters, poems, and symbolic artwork showcase the progression of Johnston’s rugged fate, and the newspaper features with authentic cassette tapes are an exploration beyond merely make-believe worlds.

The displayed work of the late songwriter and cartoonist is a deep dive inside the heart, mind, and soul of an intuitively-driven prodigy of outsider culture and underground music.

The Person

“Well it just goes to show that we are all on our own

Scrounging for our own share of good luck.”
Lyrics from “Grievances” in Daniel Johnston’s album “Songs of Pain.”

Daniel Johnston’s sketches portray common themes the late Austin artist used in his drawings. He frequently used satanic imagery, humans with cut-off limbs, and multi-eyed animals. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.

The innate drive to create began early in Johnston’s childhood. His predominantly Christian household and the popular culture of the time sparked an interest to draw random sketches and recreate the likeness of various comic book characters in his notebooks.

Elements paralleling Van Gogh’s art style, Cubism, and recurring appraisals of Lennon of the Beatles shaped Johnston’s style into what would become a proliferation of unfiltered thoughts inspired by his early idols. As a young student, Johnston began writing songs to amuse his classmate for whom he’d formed an unrequited love.

When Johnston moved to Austin in the early 1980s, the young artist would hand out homemade tapes, recorded individually on a portable device, to strangers and friends while working at a McDonald’s near the University of Texas at Austin. It was through Johnston’s method of making direct connections with people in Austin that he began recruiting a local audience.

Daniel Johnston's musical instruments are arranged in a display in The Contemporary Austin's Jones Center. — The Contemporary Austin was able to acquire Daniel Johnston’s musical instruments for their exhibit “I Live My Broken Dreams.” With this display, the museum aimed to portray the eccentric artist’s workspace and influences. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.

As word of his music spread, so did his cult-like following. Johnston’s childish-like voice accompanied by often sorrowful and sincere lyrics yielded a wave of national recognition for its alternative feel, especially after it was featured on a 1985 MTV episode of “The Cutting Edge”. The title of his first song on television, “Broken Dreams” premiered in front of a live audience. Among his fans and supporters, Johnston was acknowledged as an inspiration to other artists and bands such as Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, and Yo La Tengo.

Johnston’s mental health began deteriorating around the time of his rise to fame. His unresolved love for his lifelong muse and trips in and out of psych wards undoubtedly made Johnston live his “broken dreams.”

The Art

“The sun shines brightly on my soul

But, there’s something missing.”
Lyrics from “Mind Contorted” in Daniel Johnston’s album “Fun.”

Wild images from Daniel Johnston portray a sinister looking devil, a three-eyed dog from hell, a boxer with an erection fighting a many eyed monster are some of the many images drawn. — “Daniel Johnston’s Symbolical Visions” gives the viewer insight into themes he used throughout his art. Some images are graphic, some are dark and grotesque while others are occasionally cute, but they all allow the viewer to understand the artist’s mind. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.

Johnston’s work is a deep dive inside a scattered mind.

One of my favorite pieces, “Daniel Johnston’s Symbolical Visions,” reveals so much about the inner workings of his often religiously interpreted delusions.

Demon figures, bodies with cut-off limbs, void heads, and imaginative frog-like creatures with many (and I mean many) eyeballs are common themes in the work displayed at the installation.

Every time I laid eyes on one of Johnston’s sketched pieces, the amount of detail enveloped me in its metaphorical universe of events that were either real, made-up, or a mixture of both.

Whether the framework of these anarchic universes is what led to Johnston’s displaced reality or if the digression in his mental state was what the drawings depicted, the line between art and mental illness is blurred.

In the self-titled excerpt “The Origin of the Dead Dog’s Eyeball,” Johnston recalls various memoirs on the distinguishable side of a double-sided paper handwritten in blue ink. The recollection of first learned word “eye,” inspiration from a Beatles song lyric, and a vivid memory of a road trip during his childhood make it possible for him to jump through timelines of his life.

Many sketches of Daniel Johnston's "Captain American" series. — Daniel Johnston’s untitled “Capitan America” series showcases a more fictitious side of the late Austin artist. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.

In his Captain America extensive collection of comic-like drawings with colorful markers, he implies hyper self-awareness through satirical comics and phrases like “fear yourself,” “it’s cold to be alive,” and “there is still hope.”

A lot of Johnston’s artwork is a product of isolation, and so he often speaks of existentialism and makes naive jokes about serious issues or situations. It is simultaneously strange, captivating, and raw. And yet at times, it’s relatable, refreshing, and original.

The Phenomenon

“When I was a little kid

And all the people they looked big

I never exactly understood

How to tell the trees from the wood.”
Lyrics from “Joy Without Pleasure” in Daniel Johnston’s album “Songs of Pain.”

An image of a man with only a skull for a head plays a small piano. — Another of Daniel Johnston’s sketches at The Contemporary Austin. Johnston, who played the piano himself, may have been attempting a self-portrait in this sketch. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.

With a huge, messy collection of EPs and albums in his discography, lofi self-taped recordings and serious struggles with mental health, Daniel Johnston checks all the boxes for artists categorized into the “outsider” music genre.

Artists in this unofficial category, often driven to create music out of self-prophetic callings and not out of contractual obligations, have an unconventional sound and look to their art. Getting past the first impression of the strangeness and eccentricity of their work allows the observer to experience a new perspective on the world.

If you want to dive deeper into the world of outsider music and the fine line between creativity and trauma, I recommend this documentary on origins of this genre and this short film about Johnston’s embodied manic schizophrenia.

From his famous mural promoting an album titled “Hi, How Are You?” on a now out-of-business indie record store on Guadalupe Street, to the misery and hope depicted in his homemade recordings and sketches, Daniel Johnston openly shared his vulnerability with the world for all to see.

Black Voters Matter Tour Visits ACC

On February 16, 2022, organizers from Black Voters Matter visited Austin Community College’s Highland campus as part of their Campus Blackout Tour. The outreach tour across Texas aimed to educate and register young voters ahead of the recent March 2 primary election. The weeklong bus tour began in Houston, Texas on February 14 and ended in Tyler, Texas on February 18.

Story by Ky Duffey

Edited by Pete Ramirez

“Are y’all registered to vote yet?” Black Voters Matter senior organizing manager, Dionna La’Fay said to two ACC students as they walked by.

La’Fay and her colleagues stood in the breezeway outside ACC’s Highland campus engaging with students and handing out flyers with instructions on how to register to vote.

Organizers from Black Voters Matter set up a table at ACC's Highland campus. — Black Voters Matter organizers set up in the breezeway at Austin Community College’s Highland campus. Photo by Ky Duffey

A non-profit organization that focuses on voting rights and community empowerment, Black Voters Matter stopped in Austin on the third day of their bus tour. While in town, the tour made stops at ACC’s Riverside campus and Huston-Tillotson University, a historically black college.

Traveling around the state in a bus wrapped in the photos of members of the Freedom Riders movement of 1961, which includes the late congressman John Lewis, the organization also held voter registration events in San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth.

“While these conversations are necessary for traditional 4-year university students, the 2-year college students are the folks that will be engaging the workforce sooner,” La’Fay said. “So it’s better for us to educate them and teach them how to advocate for themselves now while we still have their attention.”

A table with Black Voters Matter swag like fans, face masks and buttons that the organization was passing out to students. — While the non-profit organization was on campus, they engaged with students using Black Voters Matter branded gear to start conversations and ask them if they were registered to vote. Photo by Pete Ramirez

Black Voters Matter was founded in 2016 by LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright with the goal of increasing power in communities by focusing on voter registration, getting out the vote, independent election-related expenditures, and organizational development and training for other grassroots groups. The organization bases itself in Atlanta, Georgia, yet as of 2020 has expanded to Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Mississippi.

The bus tours were created to allow the organization to travel across the Southern United States in order to galvanize voters and stop voter suppression, especially in swing states.

During the 2018 elections, Senator Ted Cruz narrowly defeated Democratic favorite, Beto O’Rourke, by less than 3%. Last year during the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump won Texas by a 5.58 point margin, the narrowest for a Republican presidential candidate in the state since 1996.

Political experts see this as an indicator of Texas edging closer to becoming a swing state. Black Voters Matter view it as an opportunity to challenge more Texans to become engaged in the political process and vote.

The Black Voters Matter tour bus parked at Huston-Tillotson University. There a handful of people standing outside the bus and taking photos of and with the bus in the background. — The Black Voters Matter tour bus during their visit to Huston-Tillotson University. Photo by Ky Duffey

“Our goal with the bus tours is to remind students how important and easy it is to vote and engage before the primaries,” La’Fay said. “Voting is one aspect to building power.”

With the recent implementation of the controversial new Texas voting law, SB 1, voting rights organizations like Black Voters Matter are galvanized in their efforts to expand the electorate in the state.

“Organizations like the Texas Civil Rights Project have been amazing with making sure that we’re educated on the changes,” says La’Fay. “It’s not stopping anything we had already planned.”

For ACC students who want to get more involved with the electoral process, La’Fay recommends a few things:

Look into state boards, commissions and precinct chairs because some of them help to create local policy
Become a poll worker. According to La’Fay, several polling locations were closed in 2020 because they had staffing shortages.
Join organizations like Black Voters Matter that work on voter registration and civic education in your community.

“As you learn, share what you’re doing with the folks around you so we can build power together,” La’Fay said.

You can find more information about Black Voters Matter at blackvotersmatterfund.org or by visiting their Instagram page @blackvotersmtr.

ACC’s Rio Grande Campus Reopens After $49 Million Renovation

Story by Jonathan Gonzales

Edited by Pete Ramirez

Austin Community College’s Rio Grande campus reopened for the fall 2021 semester in a limited capacity after undergoing renovations that began four years ago during the fall of 2017.

The building that makes up ACC’s Rio Grande Campus has been around for more than 100 years and with an injection of $49 million worth of renovations, has been reconfigured into a high-tech home for higher learning.

The upgraded building sits on a rectangular block in downtown Austin off of Rio Grande Street and 12th Street now boasts 60 classrooms and an ACCelerator similar to the one at ACC’s Highland campus.

A large three story building that was built in the early 1900s fills the frame. This is ACC's Rio Grande Campus' rear entrance. — The rear entrance to ACC’s Rio Grande campus faces West Street in downtown Austin. Photo by Pete Ramirez

An interesting challenge that the architects and contractors tasked with renovating the building had to overcome was what to do with the two open-air courtyards that sit in the middle of the structure. They decided to use a hybrid Teflon material to create tent domes over the courtyards and add air conditioning which created two beautiful, large spaces inside of the building.

One of two indoor courtyards at the Rio Grande campus. Photo by Pete Ramirez
One of Rio Grande’s two large, ac-equipped indoor courtyard areas where students and faculty will be able to relax. Photo by Pete Ramirez

The Rio Grande building first opened in 1916 and served as Allan Junior High. In 1925, the building became the home of Austin High School, and later in 1975, it became another of Austin Community College’s campuses.

After hearing about the upgrades planned for the campus, Dr. Roy Casagranda, an ACC professor in the government/history department, was ecstatic. Dr. Casagranda has been teaching for 20 years and has seen many changes come to the school.

A view from inside an empty classroom at the Rio Grande campus. Through the window you can see a sunny afternoon and the Texas Capitol dome. — The view from one of the newly renovated classrooms has a sightline directly to the Texas Capitol. Photo by Dr. Casagranda

When Casagranda took his first steps into the campus to check on the status of the redesign, he said he was “speechless.” The interior was exquisite and completely new.

Casagranda loved the new library, the well-equipped labs and the spacious pristine classrooms. Casagranda’s favorite thing about the entire renovation was the exterior which now includes multiple areas where students and faculty can use to study and lounge. According to Casagranda, the campus faculty has plans to create a garden outside and display art from students within the halls of the school.

An image of an empty classroom. The room is clean, has large windows and new furniture. — ACC’s Rio Grande campus features 60 classrooms each filled with brand new furniture and equipment. Photo by Pete Ramirez

The Rio Grande campus is open from 7 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday and closed on Saturday and Sunday. Students can park in the parking garage located one block to the west of the Rio Grande campus by the No-Comply skate shop. The ACC Bookstore is not available at this campus yet and the ACCelerator is not yet ready for students to use either.

As construction nears completion in 2023, the campus will continue to provide many opportunities for students to gain their education. It has brought joy to Austin-area students and faculty for more than 100 years and it’s now well prepared to continue to serve the community for another 100 years.