Click the image to read the newest newsletter.
The Free Zilker Coalition Proudly Endorses:
- Carmen Llanes Pulido for Mayor
- Monica Guzmánfor District 4
- Mackenzie Kelly for District 6
- Gary Bledsoe for District 7
- Marc Duchen for District 10
Success! The “Zilker Vision Plan” is Now Off the Table
On August 7th Mayor Kirk Watson declared that the “Zilker Vision Plan” was not viable for consideration by the Austin City Council. After months (and for some of us, years) of resisting this insanity, to have it go away and leave the park alone, was a dream come true! As has been documented on our website and elsewhere, we at the Free Zilker Coalition were not opposed to every proposal in the plan, but we are glad that the offensive aspects of it (the bridges, the parking garages, the welcome center, the narrowing of Barton Springs road, the 5000-capacity amphitheater on the Great Lawn, and the nonprofit organizational partner), at least as a bundle, are no longer threatening Zilker Park. Therefore, we are not planning a big rally or gathering at City Hall on Aug 31st, as we had been. There may be some small demonstration but we’d rather everyone save strength and energy for another day, as surely we will need to come to the defense of our communal green spaces and our beloved springs again. It seems that monied interests can’t help but drool over the gazillions to be made if they could privatize our city and rent it back to us at events and by sellling us concessions. We feel that enough compromises have been made. We stand unwavering as public parks activists. So congratulations to all who helped put a stop to this insanity for now!! We won the battle, but the war is far from over. We know those behind the plan are playing the long-game. They are patient—we must stay vigilant against part and parcel of this plan getting tacked on to other needed legislation and other underhanded maneuvering. Here are our goals for a New Vision Plan. We continue to strive, with your help, to accomplish the following:
1) Make sure that improvements to Zilker are made in a way that protects free access to the park for everyone and preserves and protects the habitat of the plants and animals who make it their home.
2) Fix the structure of fees that Barton Springs / Zilker Park already generates so that this money goes to protect and expand the rewilding of ALL the Austin Parks, East and West, North and South.
3) Make the existing free shuttle service workable to reduce parking at ALL of our major city park attractions. Currently there is a shuttle that runs from Zilker on the weekends to One American Center, but it is two shuttles per hour, far too low for the demand of park goers.
4) Demand accountability and/or the resignation of those at the top of PARD and the parks board who enabled this to get as far as it did.
5) A public parks system run by city workers dedicated to public service, who are capable and responsive to the needs of the people of Austin for recreation and leisure —not revenue generating interests hiding behind the closed doors of nonprofit boards.
6) Reckoning with the history of colonization, racial discrimination and segregation that is bound up with the history of our city and parks system. Past wrongs must be set right before we can move forward, together.
7) Under competent PARD leadership, together in unity, championing parks in every area of the city as civic treasures and fighting to expand protected green space against development in the aquifer recharge and contributory zones. The appetite for this among the public is huge. A vibrant, well-funded parks system with public oversight by citizen activists is a legacy we will be proud to pass to future generations.
Read the new, August ’24 Newsletter, the Free Zilker Zephyr. It‘s a DOOZY! with deep dives into the bowels of soft corruption of City Boards and “dark .orgs” manipulating the process. And, of course, we would love any small donation to support our ongoing efforts!
Read the Press Release from Rewild Zilker
Forensic Financial Study Raises Questions About Austin Park’s Funding Model:
Are Parks Non-Profits Serving Private Interests Instead of Public Good?
Link to the Proposed Vision Plan
Read the Zilker Park Vision Plan
that Free Zilker and others succeeded in fighting and expect to resurface in other forms.
♦
Read Our News
A Win in East Austin re: Nash-Hernandez Building
The IRAC Advisory Board has withdrawn its proposal for an Intergenerational facility at the Nash-Hernandez building. The next step is to get PARD to adopt the community's vision for the building, get Cotera+Reed hired back and git 'er done! The next good news is that...
WE WON! Pool Fees to NOT Increase Dramatically in Current Budget
Make Your Voice Heard Before Thursday, August 14th! ANOTHER VICTORY WON BY FREE ZILKER AND FRIENDS! City officials cited “some question and concern” as the ultimate factors leading to the rescinded proposal. “We realize there has been some question and concern about...
Free Zilker and Allies Meet with City Manager Broadnax Regarding Hiring of New Parks Director
The Free Zilker Coalition representatives, along with East Town Lake Citizens Neighborhood Association and Deep Holly Advocates, met with our new City Manager T.C. Broadnax on June 24th. Our mission was twofold: introduce the new City Manager to parks issues dear to...
Free Zilker and Allies Fight Expedition School Takeover of Chicano Park
Although The Expedition School (TES) proposal to build a boating concession on the Chicano Park Lagoon has been presented as a “done deal,” Free Zilker Coalition and allies are exposing it as an illegal “dirty deal.” This is a developing story. We ask that you read...
Zilker Park is being “Loved to Death” by The Austin Parks Foundation, ACL Festival, and Friends
Zilker Park is being “Loved to Death” by The Austin Parks Foundation, ACL Festival and Friends The Fleecing of Austin Tax-payer and the 10-Years Long “Venue Vision Plan” and Why You Should Care Editor’s Note: the following article is long and extensively...
Excessive Impervious Cover Limit Threatens Holly Shores/Edward Rendon Park
In late 2016, while researching a neighborhood property, East Town Lake Citizens Neighborhood Association (ETLCNA) members encountered a surprising proposed amendment to the city’s Waterfront Overlay. We soon discovered it had bypassed proper channels and was ready to...
Parks board to ask Council to explain why it bypassed public input on a Lady Bird Lake boat rental concession
Lady Bird Lake boat rental concession Expedition School
Austin Residents Demand to be Heard!
Austin residents are rising. We are, at last, finished allowing private and special interests to run this city. We are done with: * Urging our city council to consider our best interests only to see private gain as the main driver of planning and...
The Trails Conservancy Succeeds in Removing Protections for Lady Bird Lake—An In-Depth Account
On March 7th, environmental protection rollbacks demanded by The Trail Conservancy (TTC) were approved by Austin City Council. Three members (R. Alter, A. Alter and M. Kelly) left the dais without explanation during the public testimony and did not return to vote....
The Fight to Save Brackenridge Park in San Antonio—Free Zilker Allies with First Nations Leaders
Brackenridge Park Conservancy, a nonprofit that was "hired" by the City of San Antonio to be stewards of Brackenridge Park, seems to be more interested in pleasing its donors—who appear to be tied to private interests. The planned development of this National...
Meet Some of Our Allies
Rewild Zilker
Rewild Zilker Park is a joint project funded by Zilker Neighborhood Association (ZNA), Barton Hills Neighborhood Association, and Save our Springs Alliance.
Today in Austin
Provided by ATXPress: TodayinAustin is a bulletin board for City of Austin communications to the public.
Save Our Springs Alliance
Protecting the Edwards Aquifer and Barton Springs, the SOS Alliance has been Austin’s water watchdog since 1992.
Today in Zilker Park
A Barton Springs daily swimmer, Diane Prechter, a co-owner of The Magnolia Cafe, became a civic activist in March 2023
What does it mean to love a park?
What does it mean to love a park?
What does it mean to love a park to death?
What does it mean to be from Austin, Texas?
It’s not a birthright, it’s a mindset. If you love simple pleasures, natural beauty, and value authenticity above all else, you may be an Austinite. If you care about respecting nature and following her wisdom, and know in your bones no amount of promised riches could move you to betray your source of wonder and recharge—much less risk losing it for future generations, you may be an Austinite.
There are times when those who love this place are called to defend it. When people in boardrooms turn their gaze onto the treasures we hold in common, and see a future in which they can enrich their fortunes, then the threat of losing what makes us Austin becomes real. We locate ourselves in a long line of people who have carved out and defended public park spaces in Austin; environmentalists in the past who fought back when it was threatened, looking toward a generation of young people highly sensitive to climate stakes and the mortgaging of their future for corporate profits.
Though nonprofits have a duty to promote social benefit, corporations have a fiduciary duty to maximize profits and force the vision plan on Zilker Park. It may be too late to stop them.
We all love a good show and are very lucky to live in a place with so many venue opportunities. The Zilker Vision Plan is a business model vision for Zilker. Will we be forced to hand over our parks, from Waterloo to Zilker, to nonprofits working with monopolies? Or can we find a way to stop them? Free Zilker wants to find out.
The Future of Parks?
This book is getting us thinking and acting.
Join our book club discussion.
Stop the Zilker Park [di-]Vision Plan
We wish to stop the $200 million dollar Zilker [Di-]Vision Plan.The Zilker Park [di-]Vision Plan Enables Massive Future Commercialization. It does not address the needs of park users.
The plan proposes to:
- Build three paid parking garages, including an underground one near Barton Creek
- Remove parking close to the pool
- Move the Hillside theater to the Great Lawn, paving the way for more commercial events in the park
- Turn Barton Springs Road into a single lane in each direction with parallel parking
- Build a large and unneeded welcome facility over the creek
- Privatize the management of the park.
This is not what the public wants. Please join our efforts to stop the plan from turning Austin’s prime park into yet another high-priced entertainment venue.