Today in Zilker Park

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Tips for speaking during public comment at COA meetings
Calendar of public speaking opportunities
A proposal to reduce trash in Zilker Park
Barton Creek banks in Zilker Park, photo journal
Bathhouse Rehab - Please "press PAUSE"
About PIR and ACAP requests for info
Butler Landfill
A Study: French Broad River Dog Park, Asheville, NC
Trail of Lights 2023: Selling Zilker Park at VIP prices, limiting hours of free access, and charging fees for children's "free admission on all event nights"

Barton Creek banks in Zilker Park, photo journal

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2025 Update: Zilker Park turns muddy - Updated with WPD & PARD new information 04-08-2025

Three days ago, journalist Kasha Patel in the Washington Post sounded the alarm that climate change is damaging soil worldwide. https://www....

A message to the Parks Board meeting 10-28-2024

As you may know, I and others have been conducting a citizens review of the contract for the Trail of Lights Foundation with the City. W...
Audit Request: Trail of Lights Foundation and the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, Case #3727 (2024)

The following are my personal discoveries and assertions. I am not a lawyer, and so I have simply assumed that intentional violation of a co...
Summary of Audit Request: Trail of Lights and the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department (2024)

I have been researching the Trail of Lights Foundation and PARD's "event oversight" of the Trail of Lights Event . My audit...

DP's Draft recommendations to improve Zilker Park FY25

DP Rec: Convert Butler Grass to green-surface parking lot for ANSC, ZBG, TOL and ABC; extend life of Butler Gravel by using exclusively for staging (AISD, ACL, TOL, etc))
DP Rec: Great Lawn rain gardens, berms and swales; improve water quality of Lady Bird Lake and reduce future erosion of riparian zone creek banks

Powerpoint Presentations by DP

Public education and survey taken Feb. 24 & 25, 2024: 135 people on South Congress Ave studied this 5-minute presentation signed a petition: Restore, don't Destroy Women's Historic Bathhouse
The Women Swimmers Technical Advisory Group forms and makes the following change order recommendations for the Barton Springs Pool Bathhouse
Why does the Barton Springs Bathhouse women's area make no sense? DP explains the "Anatomy of a Failed Design" that was based on pervious cover, not user experience

Useful links to research City of Austin

Active Contracts - Downloadable data set
Austin Finance Online
Austin Finance Online - Contracts catalog
Boards and Commissions "Newspaper" of upcoming activities and past records
City Council Meeting Archives
City of Austin City Clerk EDIMS search
City of Austin EDIMS Official Memos search
Council Members’ Committees
Events search on CoA website
OPEN Data portal - All city expenses itemized by accounts
OPEN Data Visualizer - Expenses as of today
PIR = Public Information Requests
Search CoA Contracts - Open Data Portal
Search for Permits (ABC - Build and Connect)
Solicitations - Active
Solicitations - closed
TXDoT Traffic count map data

Interesting CoA links:

Annual CoA Surveys by ETC Institute
Austin Water - Center for Environmental Research/lectures
Austin’s Community Tree Priority Map
Bathhouse Rehab - Full Site Plan. from DSD Riley Triggs
Bathhouse Zone Feasibility Community Engagement 2015
Bathhouse Zone Feasibility Study 2016
Community Engagement of Bathhouse Rehab Plan
Corridor Mobility Program
Special Events Policies and Procedures
VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT OF AUSTIN’S URBAN FOREST AND NATURAL AREAS 2020

Enjoying New Year's Day at Barton Springs Pool with a few friends

About me, Diana Prechter, Austin, TX

After developing a passion for swimming in Barton Springs Pool which brought me to Zilker Park almost daily, I became a civic activist in March 2023. At that time, PARD (the Austin Parks and Recreation Department) and Design Workshop (contractor) had proposed putting a 2-level 1,000-car underground garage at the site of the Zilker Park Polo Field, and a 5K-seat amphitheater on the Zilker Park Great Lawn. These two new cement structures were to be connected with a land bridge. None of this made sense. In this website, I have documented several problems in Zilker Park due to neglect and mismanagement of resources by PARD: None of these problems would have been fixed with a parking garage, an amphitheater or a land bridge. The proposed Zilker Park Vision Plan seemed to be blind to the real problems in the park. These real problems are due primarily to periodic episodes of overuse (eroded creek banks from humans climbing in-and-out of the water over tree roots), overcrowding (hot summer weekends at the pool and spillway), and over programming (ACL and Trail of Lights). It has become my mission to try to bring public attention to the real challenges of Zilker Park created by the tension between the need to protect an ecologically sensitive area with the desire to make the park accessible to everyone in Austin. The ZPVP didn't propose a solution to that tension. It is now our job to ponder the long-term future of this lovely park, its place within the entire network of Austin's park lands, and the impact that we can have as individuals to alert elected leaders to the need for funding and preservation. The current forces impacting Zilker Park are unsustainable. Please consider coming to City Hall during citizen communication to let our council members know what the future of Zilker Park should look like for the next generations.

Useful links to help you get involved:

Calendar of City of Austin meetings offering opportunities for public comments:
Facebook: Save Zilker Park
RewildZilker.org
FreeZilker.org

This site contains the following articles by Diana Prechter

What was wrong with the Zilker Park Vision Plan? PARD poverty.
A Conversation About Capacity
High priority: Informal pathway erosion is now dangerous for pedestrians. Please add berms and three sets of stairs ASAP.
High priority: Unsafe dust conditions on Butler Landfill Gravel Lot (complaint filed with TCEQ 9/8/23)
High priority: Revegetation of Polo Field grass
High priority: Repair Barton Creek banks and adjacent riparian areas

Get the app to pre-pay your pool admission: For Apple iPhone

Get the app to pre-pay your pool admission: Google Play for android

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