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City Cast Austin

Explainers

Kelsey Bradshaw

Trying to find a parking spot at Barton Springs Pool can be terrible. Whether you’re at the south lot off Azie Morton Road or in the smaller one on William Barton Drive, getting a spot on a busy weekend day often feels like a Sisyphean task as you wait behind a person with their blinker on or end up stuck in a traffic jam.

as a way to help reduce traffic congestion in the area

The city is running a free shuttle service around Zilker Park through Labor Day weekend so you can avoid parking headaches. The shuttle service operates Saturdays and Sundays and on holidays through Sept. 7, and includes four stops on its route: Stratford Lot, Barton Springs Pool, Beverly S. Sheffield Zilker Hillside Theater and the Violet Crown Trail Head, and Zilker Botanical Garden.

You get two hours of free parking if you park in the Stratford Lot at 2228 Stratford Dr., 

. Otherwise, the cost is $3 per hour. The lot is the area covered in gravel near the intersection of Stratford Drive and Lou Neff Road. From there, you can get to 

. No pets or coolers are allowed on the shuttle.

The Loop runs noon to 6 p.m., and comes by every 20 minutes or so. During the Zilker Summer Musical July 10 through Aug. 16, the shuttle will run until performances end. This is the first year that the shuttle is taking riders to the hillside theater.

Getting to the city's most popular swimming pool doesn't have to be a headache!

How To Get to Barton Springs Pool Without Waiting for a Parking Spot

What Austinites have been wondering. We break down why things in Austin are they way they are and how they work.

Austin, Explained

After weeks of tinkering, Austin Independent School District’s Board of Trustees approved an $887 million operating budget for the upcoming school year.

The district was facing a possible deficit of $181 million during budget discussions. But with millions of cuts and possible property sales, the district should have a balanced budget going into the 2026-27 school year.

The budget includes cutting a total of 580 positions, decreasing the district’s number of full-time employees from 10,392 to roughly 9,750. More than 360 staffers whose positions were cut have already found new roles within the district, 

The district is also discontinuing bus routes for several of its schools and the Alternative Learning Center to help the budget. Late activity buses at middle and high schools 

Classroom sizes will increase, the number of teacher planning days at some campuses will be reduced, the district is decreasing how much it contributes to staff health benefits, and some of the central office staff will have their salaries decreased by 2%.

The new budget ensures that each AISD campus will have at least 

 next year. This comes after outrage over a proposal that would have 

Counselors were also at risk during discussions, but the final budget gives every school a counselor. However, smaller campuses may end up with part-time assistant principals.

The District Is Expecting $60 Million in Revenue

 this year in an effort to bring down its budget deficit. What happens to those campuses next is up to the district — it can repurpose them or sell them off.

 by the end of the next fiscal year from selling some of the closed campuses. If the district succeeds, it will have a 

AISD Just Approved Its 2026-27 Budget. Here’s What You Need To Know.

Elissa Castles

Welcome to your City Cast Austin news quiz! From time to time, we’ll publish a quiz to test your newsletter prowess. We want to see how much you paid attention this week. 😉 Answer the following questions and your score will appear at the end. 

Test your Austin knowledge with these other trivia questions.

Your Austin News Quiz

May is Bike Month in Austin and one of the city’s premiere events is on Friday. Here’s what you need to know:

Fueling stations will be set up all over the city 

. Stations will run from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and include free drinks and snacks like coffee, tacos, and waffles. People participating in Bike to Work Day will be able to get free bike tune-ups as well.

Dozens of stations will be available. You can find the one closest to you using 

Bike to Work Day culminates in a celebration outside City Hall downtown. Information and swag will be given out starting at 7 a.m. Breakfast tacos and beverages will be provided and speakers start at 9 a.m.

A group photo will be taken around 9:20 a.m.

CapMetro Is Offering Free Electric Bike Passes

Don’t have a bike? No problem! Capital Metro is offering free day passes all day Friday for its 

 program. Use the code B2WD26 in the agency’s One Day Pass option.

Four group rides will be led by Ghisallo Cycling Initiative on Friday. The rides are free to join and end at City Hall before 9 a.m. Rides take off from East Austin, South Austin, North/Central Austin, and Windsor Park.

Bike to Work Day ends with a happy hour and concert at Central Machine Works from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Cyclists get food and drink specials. A concert featuring 

Austin’s Bike To Work Day Explained

Big news, festival people! We’ve got a new one to attend. Manor May Day Festival is on Saturday and I’ve got all the deets.

Manor May Day Festival, which is free to attend, kicks off at 10 a.m. and runs through 6 p.m. along Manor Road in East Austin on Saturday. Think of the festival as a big block party. You’ll be able to walk around, shop, listen, eat, and hang out with your neighbors.

two dozen local businesses will be featured

 on the day, including spots like Bar Toti, Hoover’s Cooking, and Patrizi’s.

Live music, aerial performance, face painting, line dancing, and more are all 

More Events Are Happening at the Same Time

I hope you’ve got a good pair of walking shoes, because there’s lots to do and see. The following events are happening in the area at the same time as the festival:

The Festival Is Based on an European Celebration

. Celebrations often include maypoles, floral garlands, wildflowers, and more. The holiday likely originated in Greece and Rome.

What To Know About Austin’s New Manor May Day Festival

Before it had a booming tech scene and a skyline full of towering buildings, Austin was a small college town full of weirdos. Yearly revelers intend to keep that spirit alive through one iconic, weird, hippie-forward event: Eeyore’s Birthday Party.

The party is held annually at Pease Park, and 2026 will be the event’s 61st iteration. Held on April 25 this year, Eeyore’s Birthday Party is free to attend, lasts all day, and includes drum circles, food, drinks, music, costumes, face painting, and so much more.

Lloyd Birdwell was a student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1964 

 the author behind Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne. To celebrate the end of that spring semester, Birdwell pitched a party to his fellow classmates and Eeyore’s Birthday Party was born. The first version of the party was held on May 8, 1964, at Eastwoods Neighborhood Park near campus.

Just 50 people attended that first party. But eventually the party needed a new space due to attendance and was moved to 

“There really was no impetus for it, and I had never read ‘Winnie the Pooh,’” Birdwell told 

To throw the first party, the students used English Professor James Ayres as a faculty sponsor. But more than 10 years later in 1979, Ayres said he didn’t want to hold the party in Austin anymore. He canceled the Austin event so it could be held on his newly acquired land in Round Top.

That’s when the Young Men’s Christian Association of The University of Texas at Austin stepped in and took over organizing the event. The YMCA of UT is now known as Friends of the Forest.

 because of the coronavirus pandemic and returned in 2022.

Today, the Party Is a Bastion of Old Austin

Austin looks different all the time, but Eeyore’s Birthday Party still keeps that old and weird Austin flair.

“The Winnie-the-Pooh-themed bash is one of those reliably weird things about Austin that no amount of venture capital has managed to disrupt,” 

Eeryore's Birthday Party is 100% volunteer-run and all the vendors are nonprofits.

The party is often lauded as a chaotic tribute to spring complete with funky outfits, the feeling of freedom, and time with your neighbors.

Eeryore's Birthday Party is on April 25 this year. 

61 Years of Eeyore’s Birthday Party: What Is The Iconic Austin Event?

Moving to San Marcos for college in 2012, I had no idea what awaited me. I’d grown up in the lanes of Krogers, Tom Thumbs, and the occasional Albertsons grocery stores in Dallas. I never considered what grocery stores could be.

Enter: H-E-B. This might appear to be a little too much for the lead-in to an article about a grocery store. But that’s what H-E-B does. Through freshly made butter tortillas, disaster response, and highly curated shelves, H-E-B has developed a cultlike following since its inception in South Texas 120 years ago.

“You know, it’s just a sweet little company, honestly. It really is,” Heidi Post, Senior Director of Public Affairs for Central Texas at H-E-B, 

Of course, Post acknowledged that “little” is the wrong word to describe H-E-B these days. H-E-B has sales of more than $50 billion and operates more than 440 stores across Texas and in Mexico. The company, which started operating in the 

, continues to expand with locations in Lubbock, and in Dallas-Fort Worth.

So, how does a grocery store that started in one room in 1905 become huge enough to have Jim Parsons, the “Big Bang Theory” actor who was born in Houston, voice a baby for 

It’s a combination of things, of course. 

The store manages to keep its prices low in this economy by staying humble, Post explained. The company keeps things modest in how it operates — not having the fanciest offices, for example — to keep costs down.

H-E-B has also found that being communicative with the communities it serves has been helpful. Nikki DaVaughn, the host of City Cast Austin’s podcast, may be why the H-E-B near the intersection of Springdale Road and U.S. 183 has hummus.

“I remember going in one day and they didn't have hummus. And I was like, ‘Why don't y'all have hummus? This is weird, right?’” DaVaughn told Post.

DaVaughn took it upon herself to send H-E-B an email about the missing hummus and the company actually responded. A year or so later, hummus was on the shelves.

Depending on what store you visit, different products may be available. An H-E-B in Northwest Austin near the Jewish Community Center has lots of Kosher products and is always packed with matzo around Passover, for example.

“We try to personalize our assortment for different areas of a town. That is a bit of our special sauce. We're not cookie cutter,” Post said.

The Cult of H-E-B

But perhaps the best thing H-E-B does that keeps Austinites coming is how it responds to disaster. Anytime a natural disaster happens, jokes that H-E-B runs better than the Texas government make the rounds online.

H-E-B always appears to be ready for anything — a 2024 

. Hunger and disaster relief are part of the company’s key pillars, Post said.

“We are a grocery business. We have food on our shelves, right? One of our top pillars and values is ‘How can we make sure people are being fed?’ So our hunger relief program is really at the core of our disaster relief services,” she said.

Earlier this year, the city of Austin reached out to H-E-B when catering fell through for its warming centers during a freeze.

H-E-B started matchmaking stores with warming shelters. Once the city was able to get someone to a store, H-E-B gave them a budget to shop with to get food to the warming shelters.

“That's the city calling us, saying ‘SOS H-E-B, can you help?’ And we're saying, ‘Yes, of course,’” Post said.

‘SOS, H-E-B:’ How Austin’s Favorite Grocery Store Keeps Its Top-Tier Status

Whether your mom told you when you were a kid, or a friend scolded you later on, all Texans know one thing to be true: It’s illegal to pick bluebonnets in Texas.

But as much as we believe it and as much as the no-plucking rule was passed around the state like a sacred text, it’s actually just a myth.

 that no law exists against picking the flowers, which have started to pop up around the Austin area. It’s hard to believe, I know. But you could technically pluck a bluebonnet up and bring it home. (You’d never do that though, right?)

Some spots are off limits to picking, however. You can’t pick flowers off someone’s private property, and it’s against the law, according 

to the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association

, to pick, cut, or destroy any plant life on Texas park grounds.

Picking bluebonnets could also have longlasting negative effects: Bluebonnets and other annuals growing on the side of the road won’t reseed if they are picked or trampled, the association says. Avoid taking pictures among the flowers, too, because it could damage them.

Bluebonnet season has already started and will peak in mid-April, 

 this year after inconsistent to little rain fell in the fall.

So, it goes without saying that you should avoid picking bluebonnets. They’re the official state flower and serve as a special spring treat for Texans to enjoy. Let’s leave them be and I won’t tell anyone if you keep up the myth with your kids. 😉

Is It Illegal To Pick Bluebonnets in Texas?

Is It Actually Illegal To Pick Bluebonnets in Texas?

Eva Ruth Moravec

More than 150 FBI personnel have been investigating the West Sixth Street shooting, and have gathered more than 2,000 digital images, including CCTV and other camera footage, according to a 

In addition, officials have served 38 subpoenas, and executed eight search warrants — three on residences, one on an electronic device, and four for email, social media, and other electronic data accounts, the statement said.

Though the physical family assistance center has now closed, the FBI has established a 

 with information on resources available to those affected by the shooting.

Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden will reopen at 6 p.m. tonight, the bar announced 

. It’s been less than a week since a gunman fired into crowds on West Sixth Street, striking people outside the bar and on the patio. For days, a police barricade blocked off the entrance to Buford’s, as a memorial grew outside, where people mourned the three people killed and others injured in the shooting.

“(Forty) of our 41 team members shared they feel ready to return, and we want to support them not only emotionally, but also in their ability to provide for themselves and their families,” the Buford’s statement reads.

The bar is a home for many, Buford’s noted, and returning to it could be helpful for some to heal. Staff also announced they will be donating 100% of sales this weekend to victims and families most impacted by the shooting.

There will be an increased police presence at Sixth and Rio Grande streets, with Rio Grande Street closed off to traffic overnight Friday and Saturday nights.

Two people remain at local hospitals, with one in critical condition, following the shooting outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden on Sunday, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said.

During its investigation this week, Austin police learned that 19 people were injured in the shooting, Davis said during an update Thursday afternoon where she shared 

Three Austin police officers who shot and killed the suspected shooter, Ndiaga Diagne, 

, Travis County District Attorney José Garza said. Davis said police shot Diagne after he opened fire on them.

Body-worn camera footage shows police running toward Diagne as he stood at the corner of West Sixth Street and West Avenue. People outside the bar pointed officers to where Diagne was as they ran and hid.

Davis said Diagne had no interaction with Austin police before this shooting, and his only engagement with law enforcement was a welfare check in New York in 2022. That same year, a state civil court judge in Bexar County, which encompasses San Antonio, 

said Diagne had a history of committing family violence

. Diagne’s ex-wife was given full custody of the couple’s two sons.

with City Councilmember Zohaib “Zo” Qadri with the latest on the shooting investigation, as well as a conversation about what he’s hearing from his constituents, and how Austinites citywide are coping.

 for anyone impacted by the shooting today and Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at 1520 Rutherford Lane Building 4. Lots of city services are being pooled at the center, including spiritual care, crisis counseling, and behavioral and mental health services. Therapy animals will also be present. It’s also where you can go if you’re missing any personal items from the scene. (Just so you know: Media is not allowed at the center).

“Traumatic events like the one that occurred Sunday morning have significant impacts, both seen and unseen,” said Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis in a news release. “A Victim Assistance Center can provide support to victims, as well as their families and friends, in both the short and long term.”

Over at The University of Texas at Austin, 

 the loss of a fellow Longhorn, Savitha Shan, 21. The campus chapter of Students Demand Action will hold a vigil on the South Mall Lawn at 6:30 p.m. tonight, and UT Student Government will host a vigil tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7 p.m.

Austin police confirmed 30-year-old Jorge Pederson died on Monday. 

Austin police identified the two people killed in Sunday’s shooting as Ryder Harrington, 19, and Savitha Shan, 21. Chief Lisa Davis said a third person who has been on life support since the shooting was not expected to survive.

Police and officials with the FBI say they are still investigating a motive for the shooting. Davis confirmed that Diagne acquired the guns he used in the shooting legally.

Buford’s remained closed on Monday while officials continue to investigate the scene, combing the sidewalks for evidence. A memorial of flowers, notes, and other items were left outside of the bar.

The bar posted a statement on social media saying, in part, that the victims were “young people with their whole lives ahead of them,” and that the FBI has offered Buford’s staff grief counseling services.

Monday's episode: What We Know So Far 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is working with the Austin Police Department to investigate a potential act of terrorism after a shooting early Sunday left three people, including the gunman, dead, and 14 hospitalized.

“There were indicators, on the subject and in his vehicle, that indicate potential nexus to terrorism,” said Alex Doran, an FBI acting special agent in charge for the San Antonio field office.

 the suspected shooter as Ndiaga Diagne. The Associated Press reported that 

 was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Property of Allah,” and had on a shirt with an Iranian flag design. A motive has not yet been determined.

Officials have not released the names of people who were shot.

Ryder Harrington, 19, died in the shooting, his friend confirmed to City Cast Austin. 

 for Harrington’s family has raised more than $56,000 so far.

Asher Chang said Harrington was from Round Rock and attended Westwood High School before going to Texas Tech University in Lubbock. There, he joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and though Harrington returned to Central Texas in recent months, he was extremely close to his fraternity brothers.

“He was a really funny guy — super energetic, loud, he had a lot of friends,” Chang said. A vigil is set for Monday night in Lubbock.

Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to increase weekend patrols in Austin’s Sixth Street District, and also increased security, patrols, and surveillance at energy facilities, ports, along the border, and elsewhere throughout the state.

“We must ensure enough boots on the ground to discourage criminal activity,” Abbott said in a statement, adding, “To anyone who thinks about using the current conflict in the Middle East to threaten Texans or our critical infrastructure, understand this clearly: Texas will respond with decisive and overwhelming force to protect our state.”

Austin police responded to Buford's Backyard Beer Hall, at West Sixth and Rio Grande streets, around 2 a.m. Sunday as bars were closing. APD Chief Lisa Davis said Diagne opened fire at people on the Buford’s patio and outside the bar from a large SUV.

Diagne then parked the SUV and began shooting at people with a rifle. Three police officers fatally shot Diagne as he walked east on West Sixth Street, Davis said.

Mayor Kirk Watson praised first responders on Sunday saying they were on-site and treating patients within 57 seconds of the call coming in. Police officers also made it to the scene very quickly, he said.

“There is no question in my mind that the quick response of the police officers and of our EMS personnel and those professionals made a difference and saved lives,” Watson said.

Police are now asking people to submit any videos or photos 

. We Are Blood is asking for O positive and O negative blood donations after the shooting. You can 

Four people, including the gunman, are dead. 

Buford’s Reopens After Shooting

Natalia Aldana

Americans have celebrated Black History Month every February for the last 100 years. But it wasn’t always that way. The annual event used to be just one week long:

Black History Month’s roots started in 1915

 co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He urged other Black scholars and civic organizations to promote their community’s achievements, and from that, the association sponsored Negro History Week the second week of February in 1926.

, Woodson’s concept was expanded into what we now recognize as Black History Month, and officially recognized by President Gerald R. Ford during the 1976 bicentennial.

Woodson, considered the “father of Black history,” chose February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a formerly enslaved person and abolitionist, and former president Abraham Lincoln. Douglass’ birthday is believed to be Feb. 14 and Lincoln’s is on Feb. 12.

: Black communities had already been honoring these two birthdays during the second week of the month.

The 2026 theme is “A Century of Black History Commemorations,” according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

“For our 100th theme, the founders of Black History Month urge us to explore the impact and meaning of Black history and life commemorations in transforming the status of Black peoples in the modern world,” 

Looking for a Black History Month event? Check out our list! 👇

Where to celebrate!

Austin has lots of great ways to celebrate! 