Austin Archives - Urbānitūs

Tales of the Global City

Austin’s ‘Strong Mayor’ proposal misses the fundamental issues in our country’s electoral process

Barry Kahn - April 18, 2021

Democracy, Winston Churchill once said, “is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.” Treatises have been...

Tales of the Global City

‘Strong mayor’ proposition on May ballot would be an obstacle to social justice

Nico Ramsey - April 6, 2021

Editor’s note: This is one in an ongoing series of essays and analyses Urbānitūs will publish reflecting the diversity of perspectives on the future of...

Tales of the Global City

Texas should empower local innovation, not block it, argues a new ‘Metropolitan Blueprint’

David Judson - March 25, 2021

If Texas is to continue its dramatic growth economically and demographically, slow-moving state lawmakers need to get out of the way of the fast-moving...

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As the pandemic becomes more dire, a fog of sorrow coils around life amid COVID-19

Brett A. Hurt - January 6, 2021

If the fear phase of my pandemic journey fused suddenly, and if the state of euphoria came as the crest of a wave, the...

Tales of the Global City

And in conclusion, here’s how we might seal Austin’s progressivism with a ‘city parliament’

Brooke Shannon - December 11, 2020

Austin’s progressivism might be compared to the agave americana, better known in its native Texas as the “century plant” for the decades between each...

Tales of the Global City

Austin moves toward a new and modern style of progressivism, but not without civic aches and pains

Brooke Shannon - December 9, 2020

If the slow death of the term liberal, the “L word,” and it’s replacement by the more broad-shouldered “P word” of progressive, has a...