Mayor Watson's Voting Against I-35 Caps!?

Hello Neighbors,

With a gloomy financial forecast and early summer heat wave, City Council is preparing to take one of the most consequential infrastructure votes of our era on Thursday.

The heat impacts everyone in one way or another, but Mayor Kirk Watson seems acutely impacted this week because he’s completely lost his bearings. He’s announced (via text) that he’s voting against funding most of the I-35 Caps, which would effectively eliminate 4.5 of the 9 acres of I-35 Caps from the ECC neighborhood (see discussion below).

We’ll discuss how this might impact our community for the next 50+ years along with other critical local issues at tomorrow’s meeting. Please see meeting details and agenda below.

Table of Contents

• Mayor Kirk Watson’s Heat Stroke

  • Call to Action: Email or Call Mayor Watson

  • Want to Learn More?

Heads up: In lieu of our usual announcements and updates, this month’s email focuses solely on the impending I-35 vote.

Mayor Kirk Watson’s Heat Stroke

Heat can make you do strange things. Forget your keys. Snap at a loved one. Vote against the future of your city.

Today, Mayor Kirk Watson finally revealed his position on the I-35 cap-and-stitch project, announcing via text message that he would oppose funding most of the proposed caps—effectively killing 4.5 of the 9 acres of long-promised cap space across the city center in critical areas adjacent to East Cesar Chavez.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about shade or green space. Thursday’s vote is about whether to fund the basic infrastructure—not the parks themselves—so that future generations can even have the option to cap the highway. We’re not even being bold. We’re just trying to avoid sealing our fate with concrete. And somehow, even that’s too much to ask.

Austin has a well-earned reputation for failing at long-term planning. Our airport has always been undersized. Our relatively new Convention Center is already being demolished and rebuilt. CodeNEXT failed, and light rail efforts failed for decades. And now, as cities across the country invest in connecting communities with innovative infrastructure, our mayor is choosing to keep Austin’s streak alive.

For someone who ran on a legacy of leadership, this is an incredibly disappointing failure of both imagination and leadership. More cynically, it’s precisely how Mayor Watson planned it. Remember, I-35 expansion was his pet project as Senator. As Mayor, Watson allowed (directed?) City Staff to promote the glory of maximum cap coverage to help justify I-35 expansion until it was funded and approved. Literally one month after breaking ground, the same City office that negotiated and designed all of the Caps with TxDoT suddenly reversed course and recommended downsizing to only two caps to reduce overall costs.

Since then, City Council has been deadlocked for several months: five members pushing for full funding of the infrastructure needed to support all caps, and five supporting the scaled-down version. That makes Mayor Watson the deciding vote.

Throughout months of public meetings, Watson has made no comments during City Council discussions and has refused to indicate his position even in private. Finally today after the end of the Council’s work session on the topic, Mayor Watson sent a text message to two TV reporters announcing his support for the staff recommendation, which will effectively eliminate the possibility for all but two of the caps. That's how everyone, including City Council, discovered his position. 

I rarely get angry at politicians for being duplicitous. It’s about as useful as getting angry at a dog for barking. It’s in their nature. But today, I felt angry.

Ironically, if this vote passes the University of Texas will fund more highway caps than the City of Austin. It was a rather easy, uncontroversial decision for the UT Regents to understand the impact of unifying the East and West campus. It’s unfortunate that Austin’s leaders don’t have the same foresight.

Before they voted, the Regents viewed renderings that looked similar to this:

Perhaps Mayor Watson could use a reminder of what a 20-lane trench looks like at 4th Street, and what we’re locking in for the next century:

As compared an opportunity like this:

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. So let’s assume this heat wave has clouded the Mayor’s judgment. Let’s help him see clearly. 

Call to Action: Email or Call Mayor Watson

Please urge Mayor Watson to vote yes on funding all roadway elements this Thursday. Let him know that this is a non-negotiable investment to reconnect our City and to preserve the opportunity for future generations. If you feel strongly about this or have ever wanted to make a difference, now is the time to act. If we let this moment pass, we don’t get it back.

• Call Mayor Watson’s assistant, Kate Alexander: 512-978-2333

• Email Mayor Watson: [email protected]

Want to Learn More?

Here’s a short explainer video. Yesterday, I provided a more in depth update on the City Council’s impending vote, and perhaps a more balanced assessment of the opposing position, which you can read here.

There’s a lot at stake for our neighborhood this year, and your participation makes a difference!

I hope to see you at a future meeting! -ep

Eric Pace, Chair
ECCNA/NPCT