Formed in 1973, the West Austin Neighborhood Group (WANG) is a non-profit organization of residents with the shared goal of preserving West Austin and protecting it from deterioration. WANG is concerned with community development, ecology, safety, and any other matters that indirectly and directly affect the quality and character of the neighborhood and the City of Austin.

With the new growth of Austin's Spring season, we're excited to launch WANG's updated newsletter with neighborhood news, events and information about West Austin.

APD's Central West Austin Community Connect Meeting -- March 26, 2025 (6-8pm) at SafeHorns Place (408 W 23rd St). Details below.

Tarrytown Neighborhood Blood Drive -- April 6 (8am-noon) at Tarrytown United Methodist Church. Please sign up to donate blood with the QR code (to the right) or at this link.

DSD Info Session entitled "Building Under HOME: 2-unit, 3-unit, and duplex (HOME Phase 1)" -- April 15 (11am) (Online registration here) – Explore permitting possibilities under the HOME Initiative Phase 1 passed by the Austin City Council to enhance housing diversity and supply.

WANG's April Board Meeting -- April 7 (6pm) at Howson Library.

WANG's May Board Meeting -- May 5 (6pm) at Howson Library.

Since this is my second inaugural President’s newsletter (having previously served as WANG’s president from 2002-2004), this seems like a good opportunity to re-introduce myself, and to describe some of the priorities I have for the coming year. But before doing that, I want to be sure to thank Holly Reed for all of her hard work this past six years as President of WANG. Holly has done a thankless job in guiding our organization, and I look forward to consulting with her and the other illustrious past-presidents (Cathy Kyle, Blake Tollett, and August Harris) as we go forward. I also want to thank all of the Board members from the past year for their work on behalf of our neighborhood. Special thanks also go to Joe Bennett (for shepherding the newsletter for years and years and years), Blake Tollett (for being our zoning guru), and George Edwards (who served as Treasurer), and Haidar Khazen (for managing our website and email platform).

Introduction: Having grown up in Austin (and spent my formative teen years carousing around Tarrytown), I bring the perspective of a nearly-native Austinite to WANG’s board. This means that I fondly remember many stories about the people and places here, but probably also means that I still call the grocery stores by their earlier names (like Rylander’s or Tom Thumb instead of Randall’s). Back in 2002 when I first served as President, I had a “born again” passion for our neighborhood as a truly great place to live where you see people at the store who you grew up with as a child (like one of the cheerleaders from Austin High), or where your kid’s classmate’s parents were your own classmates as a child. For me, this neighborhood has a sense of connectedness and community that I think is incredibly valuable, and that I am passionate about protecting. Beginning in 1999, I worked on numerous efforts to “preserve and protect” our neighborhood, including serving on the McMansion Task Force and chairing the Central West Austin Neighborhood Plan Contact Team. For this work, I was honored to receive the 2006 Roberta P. Crenshaw Honor Award for my neighborhood work. 

From my service on WANG’s board for the past 25+ years, I’ve learned that there is no way to preserve our neighborhood in “amber” to prevent change, and that there can actually be positive benefits from changes in our City. For example, my childhood experience of West Austin had a very limited restaurant offerings, primarily featuring the beloved “Holiday House” burger restaurant at the Tarrytown Shopping Center. While many long-time neighbors still rue the loss of the Holiday House, our neighborhood now has a wealth of new restaurants to more than make up for the loss of the Holiday House, including Hula Hut, Quince Lakehouse, Mozart’s Coffee, True Texas BBQ (HEB), Maudie’s Café, 68 Degrees Kitchen, Pool Burger, Thundercloud Subs, Tumble 22, Food Food, Tiny Boxwoods, and Littlefield’s Tacos and Coffee (not to mention the numerous other places that have come and gone).    

As a long-time Tarrytown resident, my own experience with having a young family and aging parents has also opened my eyes to the affordability challenges which our kids and parents now face if they want to live in our neighborhood which is increasingly out of reach to home ownership. My own kids, having listened to my neighborhood stories over the years, have told me that my NIMBY policy preferences are making the neighborhood unaffordable for them to live here. And I can also see the challenges for older neighbors who want to downsize their housing situation, but can’t find options in this neighborhood that they can afford. At the same time, I can also see from neighborhood events, like the Fourth of July Tarrytown Parade, that there are LOTS of new, young families who have moved into the neighborhood, just like I did over 25 years ago. Clearly, there is lots of demand for living in West Austin, and that has a real impact on housing costs.



WANG Objectives: While I didn’t intend to serve another term as president, I volunteered to assume leadership because WANG has served an important historical role in our community in working to “preserve, protect and defend” our neighborhood by focusing on community development, ecology, safety, and any other matters that affect the quality and character of the neighborhood. But looking forward, I also believe WANG needs to expand beyond the needs of addressing specific zoning disputes, and appeal more broadly to all neighbors, new and old. My primary goal as president will be to grow our membership and our board leadership to reflect the goals and concerns of our entire neighborhood. To that end, I hope to bring some fresh faces to our board and to expand the work of our committees, so we are looking for neighbors who are interested in serving as civic leaders and/or participating on WANG’s board and committees to help us with communications, membership, transportation, and zoning matters.

To guide our work in the upcoming year, WANG’s board will be holding a retreat in the coming months to discuss goals and objectives for our group. If you have any ideas about issues that deserve attention, please contact me at president@westaustinng.com. Some of the big challenges for our work are reviewed in the minutes from our January board meeting (below).

When I think of protecting our neighborhood, I want to make sure that we are not losing the people or the parts of our neighborhood that make our neighborhood special. This could include capital improvements like adding sidewalks in the neighborhood for the safety of pedestrians. There is also a need for additional bike lanes, as more of us ride bikes or mopeds around the neighborhood. A related safety issue is the increasing amount of traffic through our neighborhood. While the rush hour traffic on Exposition is heavy now, it would only get worse during the construction phase for the I35 project. Another issue that has been a neighborhood priority is to monitor the status of the Brackenridge Tract, Lions Municipal Golf Course, State Supported Living Center, and Camp Mabry, all of which are an important part of West Austin. However, we should be open to creative development solutions for these areas that provide additional neighborhood density and amenities.

Finally, our organization has vigorously defended the neighborhood’s existing single family character over the past decades by actively participating in preventing zoning changes to our neighborhood. Unfortunately, it’s hard to argue with the fact that development under the existing rules results in over-sized single family houses being built with the ever-increasing property values. My hope is that WANG can find creative ways to support development rules that will result in more affordable housing options being added to our neighborhood without negatively impacting the neighborhood character so that our kids, our parents, and young families can enjoy the benefits of living in West Austin.

Again, please let us know if there are any issues we should address at the board retreat. In the meantime, I encourage you to go outside, talk to your neighbors, and enjoy our neighborhood during this beautiful time of the year.

Michael Rocco Cannatti

president@westaustinng.com

West Austin Neighborhood Group

Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting on January 14, 2025

I.   Call to Order – The meeting started with the following attendees: Mary Arnold, Joyce Basciano, Joe Bennett, David Bolduc, Sarah Cain, Mike Cannatti, George Edwards, Darcy Gardiner, Heidi Gibbons, Craig Lill, and Holly Reed, Kris von Rosenberg, and Blake Tollett. Guest attendees included District 10 Council Member Marc Duchen and Annie Candido (staff)

II.  Approval of Minutes from December 10, 2024 board meeting was postponed. Holly Reed will bring the minutes to the next board meeting

III.  Neighbor Communications

A.            Introductions - Board member introductions were made with Kris von Rosenberg and Darcy Gardiner.

B.             Presentation by District 10 Council Member Marc Duchen – Marc provided an update on recent work with council's orientation process. Marc noted the importance of collaborating on key issues like Muny and Brackenridge Tracts, recent newsletter focusing on wildfire prevention and community education efforts, and seeking input on priorities from the district constituents at regular community listening meetings, including one at Rudy’s on North Lamar on January 17 (7:30-9 am). Marc is pleased with the new City Manager, and is seeking to join Council’s Climate and Parks Committee and the Audit and Finance Committee.

C.             Austin Wildfire Preparation Meeting - Heidi invited WANG members to attend the upcoming Austin Wildfire Hub Meeting on Feb. 11, 2-4pm at St. Matt’s Austin, Huffman Hall, 8134 Mesa Drive

IV.  Discussion of Major Issues for WANG in 2025

A.            Status Update for Lions Golf Course and Brackenridge Tract - Holly Reed and Mary Arnold provided a review of the past efforts and future plans to save Lions Municipal golf course, including the creation of the Muny Conservancy (a 501(c)(3)) and Save Historic Muny District (created by state legislation) in 2019, negotiations with the University of Texas System regarding the Brackenridge Tract, UT’s zoning requests, proposed development of the lakeside tracts, and the failed effort to buy the Lions Golf course from UT. Previously, the university agreed/offered to sell the golf course land to the city for $110 million, and the initial goal of the Muny Conservancy and SHMD was to raise money to buy the golf course property from the University. At this point, any progress toward purchasing the golf course from UT has stalled, and we’re no longer trying to buy land. In a series of 3-4 of summit meetings, representatives of UT, the City Austin, SHMD, WANG, Muny Conservancy met to negotiate how to preserve the golf course, including consideration of land swaps and rezoning of the Brackenridge Tract parcels, but the zoning discussions between the City and the University really didn't go anywhere, so UT dropped the zoning proposal. In addition, Joe Bennett and a fellow architect developed a plan for the lakeside tracts, but the initiative has stalled without further city council or planning commission meetings. Currently, WANG is not aware of any communication with the university. While the 1989 Brackenridge Tract Development Agreement setting development rights remains in effect under a month-to-month extension agreement, it can be terminated at any time by either party. In addition, the state legislation creating the taxing authority for the Save Historic Muny District expires in May, 2025 unless extended by the state legislature. Mary Arnold reported that our basic strategy now for preserving Lion’s Municipal Golf Course is to keep paying the University to lease the golf course under lease agreement which is in place until the University says it’s not. Mary also noted that there haven’t been any recent conversation with the University and that the current UT president will not attend meetings with the Save Historic Muny District (Muny Conservancy?), but hopes that a new UT president in June may help with the current impasse. In light of previous position statements and engagement on this topic, WANG may want to consider engaging with this issue to find a solution that benefits all parties concerned, including possibly creating a Muny/Brack Tract Committee.

B.             Status Update on Tarrytown Shopping Center - Craig and Sarah reported that the Beer Plant has closed, and the Pak Mail may be out if the rent prices increase further. Despite being a very busy vegan restaurant, rent increases may have contributed to the Beer Plant’s decision. No future plans for the site are known, but there are rumors that a JuiceLand store may be opening at the old Rabbit Grocery location. The board may wish to communicate with the property owner/manager to find a business that would serve the neighborhood’s needs. Board members discussed the lack of commercial options in the shopping center which has created pressure to open restaurants in new neighborhood locations, leading to disputes among residents regarding the new developments.

C.             Status Update on State Supported Living Center – There is no new information about development of the State Supported Living Center, but with the state legislature in session, this always seems to come up, especially as the population of clients ages and shrinks. Board members noted that the City might have an option to purchase the property from the State (as was the case with the Grove), and could then develop the property responsibly to include mixed use and affordable housing before selling the property to make a profit (as was not done with the Grove).

D.            Wildfire Preparation/Prevention – Before Council Member Duchen left, the board discussed the importance of community engagement in addressing neighborhood risks from wildfire, ice storms, and general climate risks. Craig proposed that WANG hold a community meeting to educate residents about fire risk and preparation. Sarah proposed the “fire and ice” branding for the event.

E.             Website Cleanup, Records organization, Newsletter, Social Media – Mike noted that numerous “dead” pages from the website have been removed, and expressed a desire to update and organize our website and records, and to improve and extend communication strategies, including newsletters and social media, to enhance neighborhood involvement and awareness. Board members discussed possible outreach efforts through Instagram, Nextdoor, Facebook Marketplace, and strategic use of using QR code on signs to raise our public profile.

V.      Board, Officer and Membership Goals for 2025

A.            Board Goals: Mike asked the board to adopt a goal of adding new board members to have a full board of 15 members with new/young board members and officers using Nominating Committee process in WANG’s bylaws. Mike noted that the August Harris and Steven Swogger are willing to serve on the Nominating Committee as “at large” members.

B.             Officer Goals – Mike reported that Cathy Kyle will continue serving as secretary, but that the President Elect/Vice President position is open, and should be filled using Nominating Committee process in WANG’s bylaws.

C.             Membership Goals: Subject to any update from Joe Bennett, Mike asked the board to adopt a goal of increasing our current membership to 346 (out of 3,461 total households per 2000 census). The board discussed appointing a robust Membership Committee to organize community events with appeal to new members and young families, such as a free Kona ice truck summer event, community service opportunities for students, park cleanup days, Tarrytown Fourth of July event, milkweed plant giveaways to children to promote butterflies and other pollinators. The importance of demonstrating a positive benefit of WANG membership value was emphasized as needed to increase engagement and grow membership. In addition, the Newsletter could include interesting and useful content, such as a feature article on a neighbor member, community Service opportunities, trash pick-up dates, park volunteer opportunities, message from District 10 council member, book club listings, and school activities, such as Casis Carnival, Round Up, games.

VI.    Committee Bylaws Review – Noting the bylaws requirement that each committee include at least 2 Members, Mike encouraged all board members to join a committee and to seek out community members for committee roles committees, particularly the Membership Committee. After reviewing the five standing committees (Membership, Nominating, Transportation, Zoning, and Communications), George and Heidi volunteered for the Membership Committee. Sarah suggested creating a list of BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP to entice new members, such as some portion of dues going towards community events (e.g., 4^th of July Parade), community experts and resources. On the Nominating Committee, August Harris and Steve Swogger agree to serve as “at large” committee members. Holly will consider joining the Transportation Committee. Blake and Darcy volunteered for the Zoning Committee. On the Communications Committee, Sarah volunteered to serve, and mentioned her father's background in journalism, suggesting he could assist with the Communications Committee. Sarah suggested creating a Fourth of July Committee and a “Fire & Ice” Committee to address climate issues.

VII.   Zoning Report – Blake discussed a variance request from Rawson Saunders School since it currently lacks the necessary street width for legal operation, noting that the school is currently operating without a conditional use permit and must obtain one to proceed.

VIII. Treasurer’s Report – George reported that WANG has $17,858.83 in its checking account and $1,233.82 in the oak wilt account with no significant expenses expected soon.

IX. Next Meetings – 2/11/2025 @6pm, 3/3/2025 @6pm, and 4/7/2025 @6pm

X.   The meeting was adjourned at 7:30.

With Austin’s swimming pools opening on March 15, 2025, PARD is looking to hire lifeguards, with hourly pay starting at $21.63/hour. Applicants must be at least 15 years old and qualified through PARD’s FREE StarGuard Elite certification training. Lifeguards (new or returning) that are hired and work at least 80 hours between Memorial Day, May 26 and Labor Day, September 1, 2025 will receive a $400 Training Stipend for hours invested in completing the certification class. More info and details at lifeguardaustin.com.

Information about daily entry fees and season swim passes can be found here: Pool Fees & Rentals | AustinTexas.gov. 

Deep Eddy Pool's 2025 Spring Cleaning will take place from March 29 to April 18. Should scheduled work be completed early, there will be an update email, signage, and hotline information (512-974-9330)

Courtesy of our neighborhood pollinator expert (Juliette Madere), we’re sharing some info on seasonal planting of suitable pollinator plants that you and your kids can enjoy in your neighborhood parks and gardens.

“Butterfly Milkweed” (Asclepias tuberosa) – A wonderful plant for attracting butterflies is butterfly weed. While the best time to transplant grown milkweed plants is early spring after the last frost, milkweed doesn’t always do very well when transplanted, so it’s generally recommended to sow as seed in the fall. As far as variety goes, Asclepias Tuberosa (aka “butterfly weed”) has bright orange flowers, and dies back to the ground in winter, but please AVOID Asclepias Curassavica at all costs because it is a tropical milkweed that can harbor parasites that cause deformities in monarchs that feed on it. Make sure to check the scientific name, because it’s commonly sold as milkweed for ornamental use. 

“Texas Lantana” (Lantana urticoides, not Lantana camara) -- A great low maintenance plant with colorful, red, orange, and yellow, tubular flowers having four flared lobes, Texas Lantana transplants easily and can grow just about anywhere, but can end up taking up a lot of space in the garden!

Other Options --“Blue Mistflower” (Conoclinium coelestinum) is a good option as well. Of course, butterflies love the annual wildflowers, (Mexican hat, fire wheel, black eyed Susan, etc.), many of which are available in pots in early spring, but they tend to behave dubiously as garden plants, falling over, getting leggy, and generally being a bit messier than some might be comfortable with. Goldenrod is a poster child of caterpillar host plants second only to milkweed, (grey goldenrod is the Texas variety to look for), but it’s sometimes difficult to find, and is definitely also on the messy side for a garden plant. Salvia coccinea (scarlet sage) is a good one for gardens, particularly if they are part shade, but it needs a little more water than some other natives, and it self-seeds rather aggressively. Mealy blue sage is also recommended, which is great for butterflies, and seems to be a team player in gardens, too.

Since there is a lot of shade around the neighborhood, pick at least one type of plant that likes sun, and one that prefers shade. One of the biggest struggles with yard planting is finding flowers that do well in low light! From the list above, scarlet sage and mistflower are great for that. 

On March 26, 2025 (6-8pm), the Austin Police Department's Central West Austin Community Connect meeting is scheduled for SafeHorns Place (408 W 23rd St). APD executive staff and officers from the area will be available to answer any questions that you have for your area. For additional info, please contact our APD Neighborhood Liaison for Baker Sector, Josh Lake (512-974-5271 joshua.lake2@austintexas.gov)

Courtesy Article from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension:

Most people don’t start to think about grasshoppers until summer when they become very noticeable because of their large size. Unfortunately, that large size also means that they eat more and usually at that stage they have wings and can fly to wherever they want to go. If you want to reduce grasshopper damage in the garden, it’s best to start looking for grasshoppers now and manage them when they are small nymphs and don’t have wings to fly away.

Grasshoppers have chewing mouthparts that they use to feed on plants causing damage to foliage, fruits, and vegetables. They have an incomplete life cycle with three life stages- egg, nymph, adult- with the nymphal instars looking similar to adults but without fully developed wings. Eggs hatch in spring and continue into summer, taking 1-2 months for grasshoppers to reach the adult stage.

Turning over soil in areas before planting can expose grasshopper eggs which may lead to a reduced hatch rate. Controlling weeds in and around the property can help reduce food sources as well as egg laying sites. Grasshoppers also have natural enemies, and many may die from fungus, protozoa, nematodes and predators such as beetles, robber flies, birds and small mammals.

Early season grasshopper control can utilize low impact options such as vacuuming insects from plants, insecticidal soaps, horticultural oils during cooler temperatures, or botanicals (just remember that oils and botanicals are broad-spectrum and can kill beneficial and pest insects that come into contact with the pesticide).



For more information or help with identification, contact Wizzie Brown, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Program Specialist at ebrown@ag.tamu.edu.