The Future of Austin Parks, Your Local Election Guide, and Town Lake vs. Lady Bird Lake

Okay, so if you haven't heard already, 22 people are running for five seats on Austin City Council this November.

You've got incumbents, you've got activists, and you've even got a former reality TV star.

Amy Stansbury has reached out to all of them.

That's a lot of work.

She is the editor-in-chief of the Austin Common.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Amy.

Yeah, happy to be here.

Uh, like you said, I've been, uh, [laughs] I've been knee-deep in just interviewing lots and lots of people over the past, uh, few weeks, so.

That's-

[laughs]

... that's a busy woman.

A lot of numbers, a lot of email, and a lot of back and forth.

Before we get into these candidates, though, why should people care who's representing them on Austin City Council? I get a lot of questions in the community about, like, what do they do?

Hmm.

I could talk about this all day, but one thing I like to tell people is, like, imagine your day, like what you did today.

Like you woke up in a house or apartment or wherever you live.

You turn on your lights.

You maybe took a shower.

You got to work.

Like, all these things are impacted by your local government, like how much your house costs, if you're able to afford to buy a house or if you're renting.

Your power.

Here in Austin we own our own electric utility.

It's called Austin Energy, and City Council is ultimately in charge of it.

So how much-

Hmm