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IN THIS ISSUE: Help Stop the $5.6 Billion Dollar Convention Center Waste Protect Water Quality on Our Pristine Streams - SB 1911 An American Eel Spotted at Barton Springs We’re Hiring! Summer Internship Applications Now Open New Eco-Tours for May and June  Save Austin's Soul, Not the Convention CenterNew Convention Center or local parks and culture, you decide. Volunteer now to Save Austin's Soul -- before it's too late! Yes, it really is that binary. While our City Manager sounds the alarm on budget cuts and revenue losses, our City Council barges ahead with a $5.6 billion boondoggle project to tear down the center we have and build a new, bigger convention center. If the Austin City Council keeps going, 75 to 80% of our hotel tourism tax dollars -- over $170 million per year -- will be tied up for 30 years to cover the massive debt and tens of millions every year in operating losses. But nobody comes to Austin for the convention center. The City tells us it's about 1% of visitors. The whole convention industry is dying, sliding downward since the 2008 bust. As virtual meetings boom, actual convention attendance declines and convention centers sit empty across the nation. As the mismatch between supply and demand widens, Austin and other cities now have to give away the space for free to attract conventions and events. Only a handful of downtown luxury hotels and giant construction, engineering, and architecture firms benefit from digging The Magic Hole for the new convention center. People visit Austin, businesses locate here, and we live here because of Austin's water, parks, and local culture. Culture and nature-in-the city visitors generate far more of the $170 million per year hotel tax collections than the convention center ever did or ever will. We are rapidly losing the Soul of Austin because of blind greed and failed leadership and integrity at City Hall. But we can stop this massive, 30-year transfer of wealth from the local creatives and Austin places that we love and are losing. With 20,000 Austin voter signatures, we can force a public vote this November. That vote would pause construction of the new center and make funding available to support local culture and nature tourism Austin’s top hotel tax priority. Want to help? Contact SOS here or the Austin United PAC here to help gather the petition signatures we need. Learn more and contribute to Austin United PAC here. Watch and share Austin Free Press' The Magic Hole short documentary for the truth about this civic nightmare. It takes a community to save a community. Please join with us today, next week, and until we have the petition certified.  No Sewage in Barton Creek: Help Pass SB 1911Senator Eckhardt has filed a bill to protect Texas’ last remaining pristine streams, including Barton Creek and Onion Creek, from new pollution due to the discharge of treated municipal sewage. SB 1911 would discontinue TCEQ’s ability to issue wastewater discharge permits, also known as TPDES permits, into Texas streams that have very low concentrations of phosphorus to protect their crystal clear waters and prevent algae blooms. You can read the text of SB 1911 here and check out an article featuring some of SOS’s partner organizations that describes the issues with wastewater discharges in the Texas Hill Country at this link. Please take a few minutes to express support for this bill by emailing:
What makes this American eel sighting so remarkable is the extraordinary migration and biology that made it possible. Their journey from the Sargasso sea to our springs is a feat of survival, swimming entirely upstream and crossing dams, levees, and drought-stricken areas. They can breathe through their skin for several hours in wet conditions, which could explain how this particular eel navigated to the springs' waters after recent rainfall across Central Texas. READ MORE HERE
 Nico Hauwert's sold out Eco-tour last week was epic! We ventured to secret caves and springs, where Nico shared expertise on dye tracing and the complexity of our aquifer system.  Don’t miss what’s ahead! Grab your tickets now for upcoming Eco-tours, including the first Barton Springs snorkeling adventure of the season in just two weeks, featuring some of Austin’s most amazing environmental leaders as our guides.
At Save Our Springs, we’re fighting to protect what makes this city livable, lovable, and unique. But we can’t do it without your support. If you believe in defending Austin’s soul over corporate spectacle, please consider donating today. Your gift helps fund our legal work, education programs, and campaigns to stop wasteful projects and salvage our natural and cultural heritage.
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