​This Monday night, May 22nd, at City Hall, the Austin Parks Board will hear public testimony and make a recommendation to City Council on the proposed Zilker Park Vision Plan (aka Zilker Entertainment District Construction Plan). Please sign up to speak in advance here and be there with us to tell the Parks Board to Save Zilker Park and Barton Springs from this terrible “vision” for our public park. 

If you cannot be there, or you sign up to speak remotely, you can watch the Parks Board meeting live here.  It’s much better to be there in person: it's more fun and the Parks Board will see us all there in force. Walk, ride your bike, take a bus, or carpool.  There’s free public parking under City Hall (enter the garage from the west side, on southbound Guadalupe). Bring friends and family too!! 

See more details by viewing presentation HERE. 

You don’t want to miss this special night of local democracy in action!! 

Please know the overwhelming public opinion is against the City consultant's recommended plan and in favor of our Rewild Zilker Vision Plan. We have an amazing citywide poll that shows this beyond any dispute. Watch this KXAN news report about the key points from the poll. 
While you are at it, tell Mayor Watson and the Austin City Council that you oppose the City consultant’s draft plan and that you support the Rewild Zilker coalition plan.  You can copy and paste into the “to” line the City Council and key council staff email addresses here. 
TO:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Brodie Oaks PUD too big, too little open space – Please consider also telling Mayor Watson and the City Council that the proposed redevelopment of the Brodie Oaks Shopping Center at South Lamar and Ben White should be scaled back to better protect Barton Creek and to comply with the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan. 
City Council should also require the developer to acquire offsite, undeveloped mitigation land upstream in the Barton Creek watershed to mitigate the much higher redevelopment impervious cover (56%) that would be allowed above the SOS ordinance standard of 15% impervious cover. 
SOS supports the proposal to reduce existing impervious cover, add over 10 acres to the Barton Creek Greenbelt, and treat the runoff from the proposed redevelopment.  We also support a major increase in density at Brodie Oaks.  Currently the site holds 360,000 square feet of commercial development. However, the proposed redevelopment calls for almost ten times more development – 3.2 million square feet of commercial, multifamily, office, and hotel space.  This would include skyscrapers over 250 feet tall.  Our City’s comprehensive plan contemplates mid-rise development at this site – a level of density that supports public transit while protecting this unique site above Barton Creek. 
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Council is set to vote on “second reading” on this project (Items 62 and 63 on the agenda). 

Senior Administrative Assistant/Office Manager
Must have proven experience and proficiency in data entry and operating database systems, basic Quick Books skills and other office management software.   Will need experience or willingness to learn assisting with large event coordination. Position is part-time (20-25 hrs. week) with flexible hours. Potential full time  would include additional duties.  Candidates should be passionate about protecting Barton Springs and the natural and cultural heritage of Central Texas.   Salary commensurate with experience. 
 
Save Our Springs Development and Membership Coordinator
Save Our Springs Alliance seeks a full time Development and Membership Coordinator to grow our base of donors, volunteers, and activist supporters.  Please submit a current resume and cover letter to [email protected]
Candidates for the position should be passionate about protecting the natural and cultural heritage of Central Texas.  Pay is commensurate with experience, performance, and the Austin market, with the opportunity for regular pay increases.  SOS offers health care and retirement benefits to all of its full time employees.
We seek someone who is creative, self-motivated, and entrepreneurial, and who is committed to working with SOS staff, board members, and volunteers to grow the organization and its influence.
Candidates should have a healthy mix of some of the following areas of knowledge, skills and experience:  
*A proven track record of growing a nonprofit donor/member support base, preferably in the field of conservation, environmental justice, and/or public health.
* A working knowledge or educational background in marketing, sales, environmental advocacy, environmental science, environmental policy, communications, or  journalism with some knowledge of the land, water, and wildlife conservation issues of Central Texas.
*Membership development through email, text, social media, direct outreach, and/or events.
*Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including advocacy writing grant and direct mail writing, social media, and video. 
*Project management, volunteer management, and/or public speaking experience.  
 
Save Our Springs Alliance does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, national origin, disability, religion, or sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity).

Please Note the following updates and correction:

You can participate in the Tuesday, May 16th Zoom Meeting at 7:00 p.m. here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85327754325
The Flash Mob with community leader Diana Prechter at City Hall will be held on Thursday, May 18th at 11:30 am  (not Wednesday as previously reported)
The May 22nd Parks Board Meeting at City Hall starts at 6pm.  Please arrive early for sign-making and group planning. 
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Do you love Zilker Park and Barton Springs?  If so, you likely know about the City consultants’ draft $200 million-plus construction plan in Zilker Park $200 that would convert our much loved public park into a privately controlled outdoor entertainment district. 

As proposed, the plan would threaten Barton Springs and the natural, historic, and cultural resources of the park while doing nothing to save the Barton Springs watershed before its too late. It would also drain limited funding away from our other City parks that need investments and basic funding for swimming pools, trails, and recreation facilities.

It’s hard to overstate how terrible this draft plan really is.  And because there is soooo much money to be made exploiting our flagship public park, this terrible plan will be approved if you don’t join with us in telling our city officials “no thank you!!” and “we prefer to rewild Zilker Park and keep it public!”
We need your help and attention next week and in the weeks thereafter to Save Zilker Park!  
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Specifically, the Rewild Zilker coalition invites you to:
--Join us Tuesday, May 16 at 7:00 p.m. for a zoom call update and training in preparation for speaking to the Austin Parks Board on May 22 and to Austin City Council later this summer;
--Wednesday, May 18, at 11:30 a.m. at City Hall, join with Austin community leader Diana Prechter and her Flash Mob to specifically protest the proposed construction of 3 parking garages in Zilker Park; and
-- Monday, May 22nd at 5:30 p.m. attend the Parks Board meeting at City Hall and tell them in your own words what Zilker Park means to you and what you want for the future of our flagship park. 
Learn more here and recruit your friends and family to be part of saving our park and springs.
 

 
 

Speaking of Zilker Park -- Real Austin Rides Again!!Monday night May 22nd may have been a turning point. People who love Austin, Zilker Park, and Barton Springs filled the City Council Chambers -- and the City Hall Lobby and part of the plaza outside. A few hundred people.

Almost all of them were there to tell the Austin Parks Board to ditch the City consultant’s draft plan to convert Zilker Park into even more of a private profit machine than it already is.

Overwhelmingly the people of Austin want Zilker Park – and all our parks – to simply be parks. Public parks. Public parks that belong to all of us. Places to connect with nature, play outside. Places with trails, swimming pools and natural waters, shade, ball fields and birds. Parks large and small to escape the stress and concrete of city life.

How do we know that’s what people want for our parks? Because that’s what residents from across the city have told the Parks Department over and over in recent years. A recent poll of residents from across all of Austin confirm this beyond any doubt and to a startlingly high degree of consensus. 

And then we have what we-the-people told the Parks Board Monday night, all evening long, in heartfelt and too-short speeches, in songs, chants, and poetry. If you weren’t there, take some time to watch it here.   You won’t be disappointed. The best reality tv was real Austin last Monday.
Don’t have time to watch it all? Catch Austin music legend Chris “Whipper” Layton speaking here or community leader Daniela Silva or David Weinberg. 

Sure, we love the occasional special events that make our parks places to party, hear great music, celebrate sad sack donkeys and other beloved creatures. If Eeyore had been there Monday, he would have said “Wish I could say yes, but I can’t.” 
We wish the City had brought forward a “vision plan” that we could say yes to. But they haven’t. To quote a former Parks Board Member, “this plan has less vision than an Austin Blind salamander.” 

They have ignored the public and the City’s own Our Parks Our Future Long-Range Parks Plan. They have tossed aside our Austin Climate Equity Plan and  Strategic Mobility Plan by calling for massive concrete construction projects, including three parking garages that would make Zilker Park even more car dependent than it is today. 

Why would they do that? Because there’s just soooo much money to be made at Zilker Park. More private events. More private concessions. Year around concerts in a new five thousand seat amphitheater.

Old school park concessions? Forget that. The plan envisions destination restaurants licensed by a private “umbrella” manager. And the prize for Barton Springs Conservancy leader Mike Cannatti? – a grand beer garden for year around drinking. The $60 million-plus parking garages are not for park users or Barton Springs swimmers – we didn’t ask for them. They are for paying customers.

Thankfully, the public is not having any of it. Or, to be accurate, about 85% of the public is not having it.
Of the few people speaking in favor of the draft plan Monday night almost all of them were employees or board members of the for-profit and nonprofit entities doing business in Zilker Park.

We now need your help more than ever. The Parks Board majority endorsed the plan with three members voting against. But the city council makes the final decision.

Mark your calendar for Thursday, July 20th when the Austin City Council will consider the proposed Zilker Park Vision Plan. The only way they change course is if we show them how much Austin really cares with the biggest crowd ever at city hall.
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Between now and then tell your friends and family to save July 20th for a historic night at City Hall. Keep up with these SOS email news alerts; sign up for Rewild Zilker updates; and join us for upcoming walk-and-learn and swim-and-learn gatherings at Zilker Park.
And if you are able, donate today to Save Our Springs Alliance.