Current Events

Long long ago before covid, a friendly homeless guy named Jerry started camping in the yard of an old white apartment house on Government Street. It was a quiet place, next to the National Cemetery and across the street from the sale barn where the neighbors were mostly cows. One of the tenants asked the landlord if Jerry could stay, and they all struck up a friendship. They were friends for a long time, until the tenant got sick and died. But Jerry and the landlord are still friends. Then covid came. With it came a lot of wild and crazy things. Nobody could go […]

Community First Village 2020 Video Tour This week’s video is a backgrounder about the beginning of Community First Village. It’s been around for over 20 years and is now getting ready to expand again. The nonprofit that runs Community First Village is Mobile Loaves and Fishes. MLF started a food truck project to feed the several thousand of Austin homeless 20 years ago and then got into the housing business. Founder Allan Graham says “We want to empower the community around us into a lifestyle of service with the homeless. We achieve this vision through Community First! Village by taking […]

Monday July 10 – 5:30 pm – City Hall Room 219 In order to ao allow a small group of homeless people to stay on their personal property so they won’t be constantly driven from pillar to post, Richard and Gladys Tiffany are applying for a conditional use permit now required by the city for civic service like this. We can tell you that they’re a pain. The Department of Planning and Zoning has recommended that the conditional use permit be denied, even though there is nowhere else for the people to go. They really don’t like homeless people cluttering […]

Put LEARNS on the ballot by signing petitions at the Farmer’s Market from 9:00-1:00 today and each Market of July (Tues and Thursday too). If you prefer to stop by Omni Center and sign there, petitions are available. 3274 N. Lee Ave.

June 18 – 3:00 pm – Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 109 W. Cleveland Invitation from Rev. Stevie Gaines You’re invited to a free event at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 18. It will be in the Unitarian Universalist sanctuary, followed by refreshments. Award-winning author Diana Goetsch from New York will speak about transgender history, identity, awareness, and allyship; and there will be time for conversation. Diana is a poet and essayist. She’s the author of eight collections of poems, the “Life in Transition” blog at The American Scholar, and the acclaimed memoir This Body I Wore. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The […]

National Pollinator Week is an annual event celebrated internationally in support of pollinator health. Your Climate Victory Garden does just that! It’s a time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them.  See the entire series on Climate Victory Gardens at the YouTube channel: Climate Victory Gardens

Last night I couldn’t stop watching a Frontline episode I missed when it came out a couple years ago. The one about the rise and impact of Facebook and what it’s leadership thinks they can do to fix the problems it causes (they were vague on that point). Here’s the link to that episode if you missed it too: While trying to go to sleep afterward the thought that keep oozing back into my mind was how idealistic the founding group was and how determined they were to make the world a better place. A few of them still believe […]