Ridesharing Rolls On

An Uber important vote: City Council OKs ridesharing pilot program

Austin's City Council approved a resolution on Thursday, May 15 directing City Manager Marc Ott and team to examine, among many things, the possibility of bringing ridesharing services into Austin.

The first resolution passed will create a pilot program to potentially allow companies that use apps to connect drivers to users — a la Uber, Lyft and Sidecar — to operate within the city limits. Among the issues Ott and company will be examining in the program is how to put proper regulations into effect to protect both driver and passenger safety.

To combat the need for alternative transportation in the meantime, the City Council also passed a resolution directing Ott to work with current taxi franchises to establish ways to increase taxi availability. The resolutions were sponsored by Council Member Chris Riley and co-sponsored by Mike Martinez and Bill Spelman. The issue of alternative transportation will undoubtedly be a cornerstone for Riley and Martinez as they start their respective campaigns for council member and mayor into high gear.

But, as we reported earlier this week, the issue is not without controversy. Following the city's passing of the resolutions, Austin Yellow Cab president Ed Kargbo issued an italics-heavy statement saying, "The ordinances our city has in place for on-demand transportation services for compensation were developed and have evolved over the years to ensure that our community's residents and visitors have safe and legal transportation options."

Ott will report his findings to the City Council later this summer.

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More Foraging

Free 'food forest' in East Austin expands with thousands of new plants

Angelina Alanis at Festival Beach Food Forest

Photo courtesy of KVUE

Angelina Alanis gives a tour of the garden, which is open to anyone.

In East Austin, there is an edible forest garden called Festival Beach Food Forest where anyone can walk around and harvest free produce, nuts, medicinal plant leaves and herbs. And over the summer, it grew to several times its size.

The forest has fig trees, peach trees, grapevines, asparagus and more that's not in season right now. You can grab passionfruit and plants like yaupon holly, with leaves that can make a caffeinated tea, rosemary and lemon balm.

"[Lemon balm] is part of the mint family," said Angelina Alanis, communication and partnership coordinator for Festival Beach Food Forest. "It has a lemony taste but it's good for a nervous stomach. I'm prone to anxiety so I always grab a hunk."

The food forest is located right next to Interstate 35 and Lady Bird Lake on 29 Waller St., near a part of town that's known for being a food desert, lacking grocery stores.

"There's as much as a 20-year life expectancy difference between parts of East and West Austin, and a lot of that comes down to food access, health care access and also access to nature."

Alanis said for the past nine years, the volunteer-based grassroots project been helping with the issue and just recently expanded in the summer from two-thirds of an acre of city parkland to over 3.5 acres.

"We're going to have hundreds of new trees," said Alanis. "We've already planted 150 new trees in the area and then thousands of plants on the ground."

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They also plan to add a community kitchen and a pavilion to do things like cooking classes or informational sessions.

Read the full story at KVUE.com.

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