1 big thing: A $1 billion push to remove highways

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Is a new job in your future?

2. Stat du jour: The best time to sell

3. 🤠 The Roundup: Wrangling the news

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4. We asked, you answered

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It's Monday. We hope you've recovered from SXSW.

 ☁️ Today's weather: Mostly cloudy with a high near 61°.

🍦 Situational awareness: It's Dairy Queen’s annual Free Cone Day — the chain is giving away free small vanilla cones at participating non-mall locations.

The offer is available all day but there’s a limit of one per person, while supplies last.

Today's newsletter is 793 words — a 3-minute read.

Thanks to Hadley Malcolm for editing and Kate Sommers-Dawes and Keely Bastow for copy editing this newsletter.

🤤 Nicole is headed to Suerte for dinner.

Austin

A daily look at the most significant and interesting stories affecting Austin. Written by Nicole Cobler and Asher Price.

Axios Austin

1 big thing: AISD Pride gets GOP pushback (again)

Illustration of a school bus with an activated stop sign showing a pride flag.

2. Burying power lines

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4. What to know about Dell Match Play

A new career is waiting for you

5. Hundreds of tablets to go at H-T

⛅Today's weather: Partly cloudy and a chance of some drizzle, high of 83°.

🎧 Sounds like: T.I.'s "Live Your Life," featuring Rihanna.

Situational awareness: Austin-based job site Indeed.com is laying off 2,200 employees, or about 15% of its global workforce.

Citing a slowdown in the broader job market, CEO Chris Hyams said in a blog post the cuts will come in divisions across the company.

Today's newsletter is 921 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Thanks to Bob Gee for editing and Kate Sommers-Dawes and Keely Bastow for copy editing this newsletter.

📖 Asher is reading this excellent, old Danish novel and wondering about sending a copy to his father.

☕️ Nicole can't stop thinking about the iced latte she got at Fleet Coffee.

1 big thing: Expanding EVs in Austin

2. Mapped: Austin EV charging stations

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4. ⭐️ America is becoming more Texan

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Take your career to the next level

5. 🇭🇺 Go Hungarian next time you're at Ikea

☔️ Today's weather: A 30% chance of showers. Windy and cloudy with a high near 73°.

Situational awareness: Axios' second annual What’s Next Summit is right around the corner — on March 29 in Washington, D.C.!

You can tune in via livestream alongside topline newsmakers as we explore the important issues, trends and technologies that will revolutionize our future.

Thank you to our members for supporting our newsroom! Join them.

Today's newsletter is 900 words — a 3.5-minute read.

🍒 Asher is lucky his mother-in-law makes a terrific Hungarian cold cherry soup.

📺 Nicole highly recommends trying out this streaming optimizer tool from Axios' data viz team.

1 big thing: Texas men's basketball sweet run

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2. AUS rebounds from Southwest Airlines' meltdown

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4. 🎉 Your weekender guide

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New jobs to check out

5. Banning a Texas classic

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⛈ Today's weather: A 50% chance of morning showers and thunderstorms. High near 88°.

Today's newsletter is 919 words — a 3.5-minute read.

🏦 Asher's listening to this Planet Money episode about the making of a bank run. 

😭 One week till Nicole gets to see Taylor Swift in Arlington.

1 big thing: Eviction filings back to pre-pandemic levels

2. New East Austin trail plans

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4. Pflugerville's new (and only) bookshop 

On the job hunt?

5. Netflix doc looks back at Waco

Happy Wednesday, and Ramadan Mubarak to everyone celebrating the holiday!

Situational awareness: Austin Resource Recovery has begun its second pass to collect winter storm debris from its customers.

Crews will drive every street to pick up debris properly set at the curb.

After April, customers should contact 311 to request a special collection for remaining storm debris.

☁️ Today's weather: Overcast but warmer — a high of 81°.

🌈 Sounds like: "Reading Rainbow," sung by Tina Fabrique.

Today's newsletter is 914 words — a 3.5-minute read.

🧐 Asher is reading this essay about Robert Morgenthau and Donald Trump — the DA and the developer.

Reproduced from Eviction Lab; Chart: Axios Visuals

Eviction filings in Austin have returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the Eviction Lab.

That's a Princeton University project aiming to fill an "information hole in the center of the evictions crisis" by collecting data from court filings and other sources, research specialist Jacob Haas tells Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick.

Driving the news: Sweeping local and national eviction moratoriums helped keep many families in their homes through the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, but with those moratoriums long since over, many Americans are once again exposed to the threat of displacement.

That's especially true as high rent prices have renters spending record shares of their paychecks on their monthly housing bills.

The eviction crisis tends to disproportionately affect people of color — particularly Black women, says Haas.

What’s happening: Austin averaged 207 eviction filings per week over the four weeks prior to March 4, per the Eviction Lab.

That’s up 3.5% over last year and more than seven times higher than the weekly average when pandemic moratoriums were in place.

Average weekly eviction filings hovered around 27 during the moratorium period.

Zoom in: Texas lawmakers are considering measures that would offer statewide tenant protections similar to what's being considered in Dallas and already offered in Austin, per the Texas Tribune.

The Republican-led Legislature has not signaled urgency for tenant-rights bills, however, per the Tribune.

Austin's policy allows landlords to issue a notice to vacate if a tenant owes three or more months of rent, and renters also have a grace period between seven and 30-days instead of the current three-day grace period under Texas law.

Yes, but: Local renter advocates fear that's not enough.

Emily Blair, executive vice president of the Austin Apartment Association, told Community Impact that the latest protections didn't do enough to halt evictions.

"Payment plans, rental assistance, and other outreach efforts are what kept renters housed," Blair said in an October statement.

Of note: The Eviction Lab notes that its data doesn't capture illegal evictions or cases where renters are effectively forced out by large rent hikes, and it may be undercounting recent evictions due to processing delays.

The bottom line: The Eviction Lab's data set, which includes 34 cities, is the closest thing available to a nationwide evictions database.

While the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is working on new data-collection efforts, "there's still no government database nationwide with full coverage," says Haas.

That data void makes it all but impossible to adequately track — and therefore address — the problem at scale.

Editor's note: This story has been updated.

Eviction filings return to pre-pandemic levels

Eviction moratoriums have long since expired.

Eviction filings in Austin have returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Eviction Lab" data-vars-click-url="https://evictionlab.org/" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://evictionlab.org/" target="_blank">Eviction Lab</a>.<ul><li>That&#x27;s a Princeton University project aiming to fill an &quot;information hole in the center of the evictions crisis&quot; by collecting data from court filings and other sources, research specialist Jacob Haas tells Axios&#x27; Alex Fitzpatrick.</li></ul>

Real Estate

News

Austin Country Club's final Dell Match Play — and the last PGA match play for at least a couple years — kicked off Wednesday, bringing the game's top golfers and thousands of visitors to town for the four-day tournament.

Driving the news: PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed earlier this month that this year's World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play would be the final one at Austin Country Club, although he didn't rule out a match-play event at another location in the future.

"I think for right now, for next season's schedule, it didn't work," Monahan told reporters. "But match play has been a staple out here. It's been a staple on the DP World Tour. I think that will certainly be a consideration as we go forward."

Whether you're an avid golf fan or would rather stick to March Madness, we're breaking down what you need to know about the tournament:

In Match Play, sixty-four players face off in 16 groups of four.

In round-robin group play — or the first, second and third rounds — competitors play 18-hole matches against each of the other players in their group.

The player in each pod with the most points at the end of group play advances to the 16-player, single-elimination matches.

By Sunday, there will be two semi-finals, during which winners advance to the championship match and losers play for third place.

Still with us? If you're lost, here comes the fun stuff:

Stop by Fan Village between the 12th and 16th fairways for a souvenir and lunch, featuring food from Taco Bronco, Micklethwait Craft Meats BBQ, Hat Creek Burger Company, Early Campbell Smoke Sausage and Amy's Ice Cream.

Grab a drink at the Maestro Tequila Deck on the front nine, or stop by the Tito's Stillhouse Lounge on the 12th fairway.

Worth mentioning: Tito's Bogey Boat returns to Lake Austin, overlooking the 13th hole, and features a live DJ, photo booth, food and more.

Tito's Bogey Boat on Lake Austin overlooks the 13th hole at Dell Match Play. Photo: Courtesy of Tito's

The first 10 people to stop by the Love, Tito's retail store Thursday and Friday can win a VIP ticket to the bogey boat.

What we're watching: Whether University of Texas darlings — defending champion Scottie Scheffler or Jordan Spieth — will bring home a piece of the tournament's record-breaking $20 million purse.

What they're saying: "I love match play," Scheffler told reporters in Austin on Tuesday. "I like the simplicity of it. All you have to do is just go out there and try and beat the guy that's in front of you and if you don't, you lose, and if you beat him, you win. So the simplicity of it is what I enjoy."

How to watch: Tickets are still available online, or you can stream the action at PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ and Peacock.

What to know about Austin's final Dell Match Play

The world's best golfers compete at Austin Country Club.

Dell Match Play reigning champ Scottie Scheffler plays a hole at Austin Country Club last year. Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Austin Country Club&#x27;s final Dell Match Play — and the last PGA match play for at least a couple years — kicked off Wednesday, bringing the game&#x27;s top golfers and thousands of visitors to town for the four-day tournament.Driving the news: PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed earlier this month that this year&#x27;s World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play would be the final one at Austin Country Club, although he didn&#x27;t rule out a match-play event at another location in the future.

Sports

Food and Drink

Things to Do

Whats Next

Axios What's Next

In an attempt to reverse the socioeconomic harm of planning decisions made decades ago, the federal government is doling out $1 billion — including more than $1.12 million to Austin — over five years to remove highways that divide communities.

Yes, but: That's a modest sum compared to the billions the government is pumping into new highway expansion projects — looking at you, I-35 — that critics fear will repeat the same mistakes, writes Axios' Joann Muller.

Why it matters: Highways and rail lines are supposed to help people get to where they want to go. Yet infrastructure can also be a barrier that divides neighborhoods and cuts residents off from economic opportunity.

Communities of color often bear the brunt of the consequences.

That was the case in Austin, where I-35, completed in 1962, isolated the city's Black and Latino residents to the east. 

Reconnecting neighborhoods by turning highways into boulevards, putting parks over acres of asphalt, or adding more bridges, tunnels and trails can address some of these inequities and strengthen communities.

Driving the news: The Biden administration recently announced the first round of funding under the "Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program," established under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

Zoom in: Funds for Austin will go toward the city's "Our Future 35" study, which focuses on reconnecting East and West Austin by building decks that allow for features such as parks and bike lanes over the I-35 lanes downtown. 

In its proposal for the federal grant, the city called I-35 "a primary driver of segregation and disparity and presents a major roadblock to access, mobility, and economic opportunity."

At the same time, the Texas Department of Transportation continues to move forward with widening the highway, which agency officials say is necessary to accommodate the region's booming population.

TxDOT's preferred expansion plan would close or relocate 107 local businesses, residences and properties, including eight commercial properties that cater to non-white, Spanish-speaking or lower income populations.

Reality check: $1.12 million is a measly sum considering the I-35 project could cost as much as $800 million. And it pales in comparison to TxDOT's $4.5 billion I-35 expansion project.

Mike McGinn, executive director of the pro-pedestrian group America Walks, praised President Biden's grant program — but added that "we also must acknowledge that the program is modest compared to the flood of state and federal money still allocated for highways that divide and damage communities."

The bottom line: Cities are still being built around cars, not people.

Go deeper: The $1 billion push to remove highways dividing communities

The $1 billion push to remove highways dividing communities

Austin awarded $1.12M to study I-35 divide

The study will focus on re-connecting East and West Austin.

In an attempt to reverse the socioeconomic harm of planning decisions made decades ago, the federal government is doling out $1 billion — including <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="more than $1.12 million" data-vars-click-url="https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2023-02/RCP%20Fact%20Sheets%202022.pdf" data-vars-content-id="44fe2175-87c6-441f-bf82-dbe1d72155e9" data-vars-headline="Austin awarded $1.12M to study I-35 divide" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2023-02/RCP%20Fact%20Sheets%202022.pdf" target="_blank">more than $1.12 million</a> to Austin — over five years to remove highways that divide communities.Yes, but: That&#x27;s a modest sum compared to the billions the government is pumping into new highway expansion projects — looking at you, I-35 — that critics fear will repeat the same mistakes, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="writes Axios&#x27; Joann Muller" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/06/highway-removal" data-vars-content-id="44fe2175-87c6-441f-bf82-dbe1d72155e9" data-vars-headline="Austin awarded $1.12M to study I-35 divide" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/06/highway-removal" target="_self">writes Axios&#x27; Joann Muller</a>.

Austin ISD's annual Pride Week will continue through the weekend, despite threats and sharp criticism from state Republican leaders.

The big picture: The district's Pride Week celebrates LGBTQ+ students, staff and families and encourages campuses to bring inclusive activities and resources to the classroom.

The week concludes Saturday with a community event featuring interactive activities for students and families from 5-9pm at the AISD Performing Arts Center.

AISD has translated its Pride posters into eight languages, including Burmese, Mandarin and Pashto.

Driving the news: AISD Pride Week comes as Republican lawmakers threaten its future. 

Flashback: Last year, Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the district saying that the week flouts state law, writing that parents could file grievances with the school board and the Texas Education Agency "on the basis that your event violates 'school law.'"

Still, city Pride events flourished in 2022, spreading beyond Austin and into Central Texas' suburbs.

Of note: Paxton has so far stayed silent on this year's event while other Republicans vow to push legislation that would ban similar events in public schools.

State Rep. Jared Patterson blasted AISD's Pride Week on Twitter and pointed to his measure — House Bill 1155 — that would prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity instruction in K-eighth grade public school classrooms. More than two dozen GOP lawmakers have signed on as co-authors on the bill.

Plus, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said he will prioritize such legislation, which echoes a Florida law that made headlines last year.

Critics worry that HB 1155 and similar legislation is vague and would suppress discussion related to LGBTQ issues and representation, the Texas Tribune reported.

Context: The measure comes amid a GOP push in Texas and other states to target LGBTQ+ people.

"Austin ISD once again with a wildly inappropriate pride indoctrination for students," Patterson tweeted. "My HB 1155 would put a stop to these types of events in public schools."

What they're saying: AISD's Pride Week activities "do not amount to Human Sexuality instruction," a district spokesperson told Axios.

"Austin ISD hasn't made changes to our Pride Week celebrations since last year. We have, however, made a greater effort to ensure that families are aware of the activities taking place at their schools," the spokesperson added. "We are proud to create a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for all our students, staff and families. We want all LGBTQIA+ students and staff to know that we are proud of them and that we are committed to keeping them safe."

The bottom line: Outside the schoolhouse, Pride is engulfed in politics.

AISD Pride event receives GOP pushback (again)

A bill would ban gender identity lessons in K-eighth grade.

Austin ISD&#x27;s annual Pride Week will continue through the weekend, despite threats and sharp criticism from state Republican leaders.The big picture: The district&#x27;s <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Pride Week celebrates LGBTQ+" data-vars-click-url="https://www.austinisd.org/respectforall/pride" data-vars-content-id="c3cb378c-fcaa-4247-90f2-f870919ca276" data-vars-headline="AISD Pride event receives GOP pushback (again)" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.austinisd.org/respectforall/pride" target="_blank">Pride Week celebrates LGBTQ+</a> students, staff and families and encourages campuses to bring inclusive activities and resources to the classroom.

Politics

As the Austin airport continues to see a record number of travelers, new data from the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals the severity of Southwest Airlines' winter meltdown.

State of play: For most airlines, summer will test how well they've rebounded from the chaos of the holiday season.

But in Austin, that test comes early each year when South by Southwest crowds, spring breakers, WGC-Dell Match Play attendees and NASCAR fans swarm the airport throughout the month of March.

Driving the news: The real story of winter holiday travel, of course, was Southwest canceling thousands of flights nationwide.

New data from the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals that just 66.4% of flights — and 60.5% of Southwest flights — at AUS departed on time in December.

That's down from 76.5% of on-time flights — and 74.8% on-time Southwest flights — in November 2022, per the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Between the lines: 2022 was a record-breaking year for ABIA, but all indications so far suggest Southwest — and the airport — have recovered nicely since December.

AUS saw three of its five busiest days ever this month, according to airport officials.

During the same period last year, AUS dealt with fuel shortages and TSA waits that wrapped around the airport.

What they're saying: "While the terminal is definitely busy, we aren't seeing dramatically long lines," airport spokesperson Sam Haynes tells Axios.

Passengers are still encouraged to arrive early and expect a wait for airline ticket counters, TSA and concessions, Haynes added.

The bottom line: December was truly just as bad as it seemed, the data show.

What we're watching: How AUS handles another busy weekend as WGC-Dell Match Play and NASCAR collide.

Austin airport rebounds from Southwest meltdown

Just 66.4% of flights departed AUS on time in December.

As the Austin airport continues to see a record number of travelers, new data from the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals the severity of Southwest Airlines&#x27; winter meltdown.State of play: For most airlines, summer will test how well they&#x27;ve rebounded from the chaos of the holiday season.

Nicole Cobler

Stories

Austin airport rebounds from Southwest meltdown

AISD Pride event receives GOP pushback (again)

What to know about Austin's final Dell Match Play

Eviction filings return to pre-pandemic levels

Austin awarded $1.12M to study I-35 divide

Newsletter editions

🏀 Hitting the hardwood

🏳️‍🌈 GOP vs. AISD

🌆 Eviction filings rebound

🔌 Easier EV charging

💰 I-35's federal funding