Living Local

Letter

from the

Editor Wikepedia Commonms

Dear reader, This issue of Living Local Magazine is a combination of our hard work and dedication. Through scheduling conflicts and a million layout restarts, this magazine hasn’t been easy. Because of everyone’s hard work and dedicate everything came together.

Our goal was to make a magazine made for some who lives in, and loves, Austin. Living Local is centered around all things Austin, focusing on local businesses and entrepreneurs. We made this magazine because we all love Austin and wanted to take a closer look at some of our favorite things about Austin.

“

we all love Austin and wanted to take a closer look at some of our favorite things about Austin.

”

We all learned something new about Austin working on this issues, and we hope that you do to. We hope this issue gives you a closer look at businesses and business owners in Austin. As well, we wanted to give our readers help with what to do in the upcoming summer months.

Licing Local Editor

Audra Bogard

Philip Kromer from Flicker

Table of contents Entrepenuership in austin........ 8 Traits of Entrepenuers............... 12 Austin City Limits...................... 14 ACL 101...................................... 18 Homework: Is it Beneficial?...... 20 Top 8 Resturaunts in Austin..... 22 I Scream for Ice Cream............. 24 Art in Austin............................... 28 The blues of austin..................... 30 Musicians in Austin................... 32

Who Are We? Living Local Magazine was created by a group of individuals who share a common interest in all things local to Austin!

From food to music to business to school, our contributors cover it all and divulge into Austin culture.

Audra loves to bake, travel, and paint. She does aerials in her free time. She has a Great Pyrenees Mix named Graham and two cats named Ash and Stella. Audra has lived in Austin her whole life, and loves the culture that goes along with it. Audra has always loved ice cream, which inspired her to write an article about different ice cream stores in Austin and how they relate to the unique Austin culture.

Audra Bogard

Name of Article, Art in Austin

Sophia’s favorite sports include soccer, track, and karate. She loves being around her two dogs; a German Shepherd named Charlie and a Border Collie named Cooper. Sophia has played guitar for two years, and has always been interested in music.

This led her to write an article about musicians in Austin and to learn more about their lives.

Sophia Blaha

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Living Local Magazine

The Blues in Austin, Musicians in Austin

Eshita has been speedskating for 13 years. She often volunteers at the Thinkery, a children’s museum. Eshita loves to travel, and her favorite place she’s been to was Hawaii. Eshita’s favorite type of food is Mexican, and she especially loves tacos. Eshita knows several entrepreneurs who inspired her to write about starting a business in Austin.

Eshita Sangani

Entreprenuership in Austin, Traits of Entreprenuers

Katie enjoys playing lacrosse and baking in her free time. She loves traveling, and especially likes visiting Hawaii. Katie loves being around her friends, family, and pitbull-terrier named Callie. Katie has been to ACL three times, and plans on going again in the future. Her experiences at each festival inspired her to learn more about what goes into putting on ACL, and all the different aspects of the event.

Katie Peele

Austin City Limits, ACL 101

Charlie has been playing his favorite sport, basketball, for ten years. He loves his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Bear, and enjoys playing video games. Charlie’s favorite food is Tex-Mex, and he loves to visit Maudie’s Tex Mex. As a LASA student, Charlie receives lots of homework, and decided to write about the effects of homework on the brain.

Charlie Campbell

Homework: Is It Benef icial?, Top 8 Restaurants in Austin

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s r u e n e r p n e i r t t s n u E A n i Photo by Topher Bradfield

Austin Skyline

Austin Skyline

Photo by Dayln Gillentine

As local business owner Brandon Hodge walks along South Congress Avenue in downtown Austin, a busy road surrounded in the glow of countless neon signs, he describes the city of his childhood, “When I was growing up, Austin was a medium-sized college town,” Hodge says. “But now it’s maturing into something more real. The city is changing so fast.” There are plenty of people and places in Austin that are dedicated to helping you realize your dream. Over the past decade, the city of Austin has undergone a dramatic transformation. Places like South Congress and downtown are quickly becoming popular. Amy’s Ice Creams, Book People, Big Top Candy Shop, Cafe Monet, Blue Lux have all become iconic symbols of Austin.

These businesses were all created by people who had a dream. The entrepreneurs had time and passion which helped them develop with ideas and they followed through. Anyone in Austin that has a passion and a dream can open a business. Two businesses contributing to the uniqueness of Austin: Big Top Candy Shop and Book People, were created by people with a dream to bring others happiness. Together, these businesses have come to represent the Austin of today. It is young, passionate and sophisticated with a mix of old and new blood. A city that has grown out of the dated image of a sleepy college town from decades ago into a thriving sanctuary for artists and entrepreneurs alike.

““““Anyone in Austin that has a passion and a dream can be an entrepreneur ”

Brandon Hodge is one of the many young entrepreneurs that wanted to start a business. At first, Hodge didn’t know that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. His young adult dream had been to be a college professor, “I wanted to teach literature or history in a really old institution with dark wood walls and a lot of history.”

But while he was getting his college education, he was getting a real-world education managing a locallyowned retail shop while he earned his bachelor degree at the University of Texas. After his education, he tried to get out of retail but an opportunity came for him to open his own shop. Hodge says, “It was called Monkey See, Monkey Do! Once it was born. I never looked back, but it took about a year for my nerves to settle!” The idea for Big Top Candy Shop came from his traveling. Hodge had just spent time around the world and noticed that Austin didn’t have a local candy shop at all. He pitched the idea to his landlords and they were open a few months later.

Amy’s Ice Cream

Another emblematic Austin local business is Camp Half-Blood (CHB). Sword fighting, lava wall climbing, and phalanx training are just a few of the activities that Camp Half Blood offers. Camp Half Blood is a literary camp that allows kids to bring their love for Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson” series alive. It allows kids to become their own demigod characters in the world of Percy Jackson. Campers get to go on adventures and quests as they make their own story. Topher Bradfield, Camp Half Blood founder, explains why he wanted to create this experience, “We’ll do anything to keep kids interested in reading. If this means, and it does, building the world of Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series, the “Heroes of Olympus” series, “Kane Chronicles” and now “The Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard” series, we’ll do it. We love the books, we love kids, we love creativity, friendships and adventure.” His inspiration for this camp came from the Rockin’ Readers book club at Book People. The participants in the club were wishing to be inside of the books. Bradfield said “why not?” and a dream was born. The campers intersect kindness, compassion, and confidence.

These businesses were created because entrepreneurship has its ups and downs. Hodge explains, “hiring and firing are equally excruciating to me. I always try to find the right fit for my shops, and there are so many things to consider to make sure the people you get are compatible with those you’ve already got.” When the right fit is found, is a magical experience and a creative community of coworkers is founded that work well together. But it is also difficult to let an employee go, Bradfield says “you have to recognize that they fit better somewhere else and that they are not a good fit for your business.”

Topher Bradfield has different challenges,“The management of the many different personalities and camper families can be challenging at times” Each business has different challenges and opportunities and each business always has benefits.

Mummy Racing

Campers get ready for a battle Photo by Dayln Gillentine

Photo by Dayln Gillentine

Photo by Dayln Gillentine

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Photo by Dayln Gillentine

“““ “Austin has become a place for local businesses and entrepreneurship ”

Starting a business may seem hard, it is a risk and a gamble. But in the end, if you follow your dream, anything can happen. Brandon Hodge has advice for young and upcoming entrepreneurs, “don’t let your dreams cloud reality. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but oftentimes people assume it had been my lifelong dream to open a candy shop, and that’s not the case. I already had my toy shop, and I opened Big Top because it was something I was interested in, yes, but also because it was a type of business that Austin and South Congress needed -- there just wasn’t a candy shop, so I saw a new opportunity and took it.”

Hodge used his surroundings and knowledge to create an iconic business that changed Austin into what it is today. Hodge says, “too often I see young business owners too caught up in what they want, and not what others need, and miss a great opportunity to have a successful enterprise. And since most successful businesses are successful because they satisfy a need, young entrepreneurs should always be on the lookout for voids they can fill.”

There are plenty of people and places in Austin that are dedicated to helping young and upcoming entrepreneurs realize their dreams. With the help of these wonderful local businesses, Austin has become a place for local businesses and entrepreneurship.

Morning Rituals of Entrepreneurs 1 Arianna Huffington

• She needs eight hours of rest time each night, winding down with a hot bath and Epsom salt.

• She starts her morning with 30 minutes of meditation

2 Steve Jobs

• Every morning, Jobs would look in the mirror and ask himself, “If today was the last day of my life, would I be happy with what I’m about to do today?”

• If he responded ‘no’ too many days in a row, he knew something needed to change.

3 Bill Gates

• Gates is known as an advocate of good health • He spends an hour on the treadmill, watching courses from the Teaching Company while doing so.

4

4 Howard Schultz

• He gets up at 4.30am every morning to walk my three dogs and work out • Around 5.45am He makes coffee for himself and his wife using an 8-cup Bodum French press.”

ACL 101

What to bring to the iconic Austin Music Fest!

by Katie Peele

This checklist contains many items that you should consider bringing to any music festival. Whether you’re a first-timer or you’ve been to ACL countless times, these helpful items will ensure you have a great experience.

Photo by Atomic Taco on Flickr

Camelbak Backpack o by

Phot

.

ski Jr

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Nie Rich

• carries water • can be refilled at hydration station • small and portable • carries all your items

• protection from sun • fun accessory • easily put in backpack

Sunglasses Photo by Tlc3707

• • • •

Converse 37

LIving Local Magazine

comfortable not too dressy goes with everything close toed and good for festivals

Photo by earthlydelights

• protection from sun • bring a small bottle • no aerosol sunscreen allowed inside ACL

• easy to charge your phone • just need a power bank and a cord • phone will be used a lot

Portable Charger Ph

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by

cm

art

29

on

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Phone

Sources: Independent survey of LASA students, Flickr, Pixabay

Sunscreen

y

• used to take photos and videos • can download ACL app to see map and lineup • can keep in touch with group

Photo by Katie Peele

• can be linked to credit card • no need to keep track of cash • admits you into the festival!

ACL Wristband Spring 2017

38

Homework:Is it beneficial ,

Students all across the country are suffering from the effects of sleep deprivation all thanks to homework. While homework has been around since school began, is it really necessary or all that beneficial to students, or is homework hindering their ability to learn? Remember these kids attend school for up to eight hours a day and are constantly learning while they are there.

In schools across America, students have too much homework and are cheating, losing sleep and missing out on time spent with other people. This is important because if kids are not sleeping, and are not being social, then no matter how much they learn they can’t be as successful without sleep and social skills.

The real problem is that students have to cheat to get top of their class, so when kids who regularly wouldn’t cheat realize they would be at the top of their class if they did cheat, why wouldn’t they? “They were good students at high performing schools,” said Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at stanford and Co-Founder of Challenge Success, an organization to help kids in school to become “resilient, ethical, and motivated learners.”Pope“realized they had health problems, they were stressed out, they weren’t sleeping,and they were cheating.”These were the kids who were considered doing well at the school.

When you’re looking for role models for students, you don’t want cheaters Pope said “I Was looking at what was supposed to be what was working at these high achieving schools with these high achieving students that we could use for lessons for other schools and other students. What I found is that you should be careful for what you wish for because they were getting good grades, but they were staying up way too late. They were in so many ap and honors classes and had all these extra curriculars after school and to add homework on all of that, it is a recipe for sleep deprivation and frustration.” Clearly something you don’t want kids to have as a habit.

One of the main reasons you have these problems is because of homework.”In high school no more than two hours even though we know there are kids doing well over that and in middle school nothing over an hour to an hour and a half.” Said Pope. It is said around “56 percent of

the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data,” according to Stanford News. While “Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, and 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category.” The shocking part is that “Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.”

However certain schools have learned to accommodate like Yaseen Abdalla’s, A sophomore at Liberal Arts and Science Academy, otherwise known as LASA, said, “It is kind of nice here [at LASA] cause all the teachers do seem to understand the homework load given by other classes and try and work around that. So they do consider the homework from other classes.”

However, people like Kevin Lips, A LASA freshman say that “[homework] has been a pain in the butt, I think it is okay if teachers assign it, but not so that it takes up your entire weekend or evening. Because if they assign to much homework, it will affect your sleep pattern, and then you won’t get enough sleep for the next day.”

It really isn’t that the homework is two hours of really difficult work sometimes it is just the sheer number of problems that overwhelm you. As Pope put it “Rigor does not equal load and why are you assigning 60 math problems when someone might not even be able to do the first two and someone can do them all without even breaking a sweat.That that is not a good assignment for either student.” While It seems these kids should be taking different courses you don’t want them feeling like they are stupider or smarter than the other because of what homework they was assigned.

An alternative to this is flipped lessons: A system where you watch a video at home and do the work in class and ask questions. This is much easier than homework since it is just a ten minute video so you are prepared for the next class. As Lips put it, it is “a good class system like flipped lessons where they assign video for you to watch at home and then in class you do an assignment based on what you learned in that video. I did that in 7th and 8th grade and it worked pretty well.”

In conclusion, homework is not always beneficial for students it can even be hindering. Not only that it can “burn out” students according to Dr.Pope it is unnecessary and harmful to students. There are all alternatives to homework and I think it is time we start looking to those for a solution to this modern day dilemma.

Spring 2017

3

Top 8 Resturaunts in A

By Charlie Campbell

According to LASA Freshman these are the bes in th weirdest city in America.

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Austin

1. Kerbey Lane

3704 Kerbey Ln, Austin, TX 78731 The favorite resturaunt of LASA Freshman is Home to some of the best Pancakes you will ever have.

l

st resturaunts

2.P.Terry’s

3303 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78705 You can’t go wrong with a P.Terry’s Burger. I reccomend you try their Special Suace.

3.Torchy’s Tacos

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1801 E 51st St, Austin, TX 78723 Before you go to this tantalizing Taco shop, you should check their secret Menu for some more Delicious tacos.

4.Chuy’s

10520 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78753 When going to Chuy’s make sure you try their Big as your Face Burittos

5.Galaxy Cafe

2

1000 W Lynn St, Austin, TX 78703 This resturaunt is known for it’s great service and equally as great food.

6.Taco Deli

4200 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78756 Who doesn’t love tacos and when it comes to tacos it doesn’t get much better than this.

7. P.F. Chang’s

201 San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, TX 78701 This Chinese Rpresturaunt has great food and service and plenty of stone horses

8. Black’s Barbecue

3110 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78705 In Texas Welove BBQ and it doesn’t get much better

Sources: Independent Survey, Charlie Campbell

I scream for

Ice Cream By: Audra Bogard

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Living Local Magazine

As the summer approaches and the temperature reaches 100. Nothing seems more appealing than ice cream.

Fortunately Austin is home to many ice cream shops.

Austin’s food industry has recently exploded. New and innovative restaurants are popping up all over the place. Ice cream shops are doing the same. As summer is approaching, it’s the perfect time to experience the local ice cream scene.

Ashley Cheng, the owner of Spun, and an Austinite, says “Austin has exploded and there’s really a great restaurant scene. It’s a really welcoming local food world. And we’ve met a lot of the other ice cream shop owners in town, and everyone’s super friendly, and it’s a nice network of folks.”

Ashley grew up in Austin, and is happy about all the new ice cream places open, “Back then, when we were kids, there weren’t a ton of different ice cream options [ … ] In Austin, obviously, it’s so hot most of the year [ … ] We always wished we had more options when we were kids, and it’s nice now that there are so many takes on what you can do with ice cream in Austin.”

As summer is approaching, it’s the perfect time to experience the local ice cream scene, but with all these new places, it’s hard to know which ones to try. Living Local has the solution; the editors of Living Local tried them to find out which one was best.

In one day, the editors of Living Local tried three local ice cream shops. Each editor was responsible for trying one flavor at each shop.

For each location, the editors decided pros and cons.

X

Each ice cream place would be judged on taste, presentation, location, and price. These would be rated with stars; five stars being the best score, zero stars being the worst. After the editors had been to all four locations, the scores would be compiled to get the average rating for each place.

Additionally, liquid nitrogen creates a creamier ice cream, “[Liquid nitrogen] flash freezes our base, we make all our bases in house, the ice crystals are smaller and they’re more condensed than in a normal ice cream, so you get a really creamy, almost velvety texture to [our] ice creams.”

The three ice cream shops tested by the Living Local editors were Spun, Lick, and Holla Mode.

Spun is a nitrogen ice cream shop in east Austin owned by local Austinites. Ashley Cheng, one of the owners of Spun says, “There’s really this nostalgia in ice cream.

You remember that feeling of summer and what a fun treat that is, especially growing up in a place like Texas.” Spun was created to have a nostalgic feel; several flavors at Spun were inspired by foods Cheng and her sister ate as children.

The ice cream bases at Spun are made from locally-sourced ingredients. The ingredients are as fresh as possible, sometimes they are picked and made into ice cream in the same day. Nitrogen ice cream provides maximum freshness, “We don’t have any ice cream in the shop until you’re about to eat it, it helps to maintain that freshness of the base ingredients.”

Spun ice cream is made by putting the ice cream base in a stand mixer and blasting it with liquid nitrogen.

Lick was opened in 2011, with the goal of serving “honest ice cream” to Austinites. What exactly is “honest ice cream?”

Anthony Sobotik, a co-owner of lick describes it, “‘honest ice cream’ means that all of our ice creams are made from scratch with milk and cream that come [from] grass fed cows of a single family owned dairy [Mill-King Creamery in McGregor, TX] and our other ingredients are sourced from local farmers and artisans [ … ] You’ll never find anything artificial in any of our ice creams. Honest [ … ] This mission to support our surrounding food and farming community is at the heart of Lick Honest Ice Creams.” Lick is known for it’s unique flavours that alternate seasonally. Lick also has a set of flavors offered year-round.

They include: Goat Cheese, Thyme and Honey; Roasted Beets and Fresh Mint; Texas Sheet Cake; and Hill Country Vanilla Bean.

Spring 2017 2

The best part of the ice cream was it’s presentation. The ice cream was very cute.

The ice cream is made to order to order, and you can watch as people prepare it. The trailer is set up so that people can watch their ice cream being made. The staff were friendly and made sure you knew which station your ice cream was being made at.

Holla Mode Price Taste Appearance Location

\Editor’s Choice Spun

An editor holds their order. The unique rolled presentation is a main feature of Thai ice cream.

The editors gave each location a score out of five for location, apperance, taste, and price.

Spun Location Appearance Taste Price

Lick Location Appearance Taste Price

4.25

The beautiful presentaation, unique flavours and toppings, and creamy texture made spun the editor’s favorite. The combination of light, smooth texture, rich flavour, and good presentation is what made Spun the editor’s choice for best local ice cream shop.This summer Living Local reccomends a trip over to the East Austin shop to taste this delicious local treat.

Another Austin ice cream shop, Holla Mode, makes Thai-style ice cream rolls. Holla Mode is made with milk from a local dairy, and fresh ingredients. The owners of Holla Mode got the idea for a Thai ice cream food truck after they took a trip to Thailand.

They were fascinated by the food there, in particular the rolled ice cream sold by street vendors.

Thai ice cream is made by taking a liquid ice cream base and pouring it on a chilled metal plate. Fruits and toppings can be crushed into the base as it is chopped and stirred while freezing. The ice cream is then spread thinly out and rolled into cylinders.

A Holla Mode spreads out an order on the cold plate before rolling it into cylinders. Before the ice cream is rolled the ‘chops’ are crushed in using the paddles.

The first shop the editors visited was Spun. Living Local editors tested the Texas Rocky Road..

Texas Rocky Road is made of three scoops of dark chocolate ice cream topped with toasted merengue and texas pecan praline.

The ice cream is made right in front of your eyes. The liquid nitrogen creates a very unique texture. The editors 12

Living Local Magazine

described the ice cream as “light but not airy.” Spun ice cream is very smooth and not fatty or dense. Because there are no preservatives in Spun ice cream it tastes very fresh.

The editors tated Texas Rocky Road. They chose to order the special in a waffle bowl.

At Spun a special flavor, like Texas rocky road, costs $7. A special is three scops and specific toppings. However any ice cream can have toppings added for additonal cost. The ice cream is presented very beautiffuly.

As Cheng described it, it is very “instagrammable” . The ice cream is served in a bowl or a wafffle cone bowl. Additionally the bowls and spoons used are compostable. In fact the store doesn’t have a trash can. Instead it has a compost bin for bowls, spoons, and napkins.

Ice cream can be eaten inside the small shop. There are two tables, a bench, and a counter to eat at. The interior is decorated with things the owners found at antique stores and things made by local artists. Cheng says “Everything in the shop, there’s a story behind it and where it came from. We wanted it to have our personality infused in the shop.”

The negative is that the liquit

nitrogen is very loud.

At Lick the editors sampled Texas sheet cake. Texas sheet cake is described on the menue as “a swirl of decadent chocolate-pecan icing with delicate chocolate ice cream” Lick serves it’s ice cream out of large tubs stored in a freezer case. Pints of ice cream are also for sale. Lick ice cream is dense and velety. It has a rich, creamy taste. The rich flavor leaves a slightly fatty coating in your mouth.

The ice cream is served in recyclable bowls. Cones and waffle cone bowls are also avaliable. There are no toppings avaliable to add onto the ice cream. The ice cream is meant to stand alone.

Lick has several locations all decorated in the same style. The shops have a central color scheme of red and turquiose. There is minimal seating, only a bench and a few milking stools.

Holla Mode’s logo is written on the side of the trailer. The rest of the trailer is printed with small sketches reminiscent of Thailand.

Holla Mode is a trailer close to Zilker park. Ice cream costs $5.99 for a ‘house special’ or a ‘create your own.’ A ‘create your own’ has five steps: select dairy or coconut milk, a flavor, two ‘chops’, and two ‘tops’. The editors went with a chocolate ‘create your own’ with

Art in Austin By: Audra Bogard

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Where to find murals and street art in Austin. Some of the best murals in Austin and the stories behind them.

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Jeremiah the innocent first appeared on Daniel Johnston’s 1983 Hi, How Are You: the Unfinished Album. Johnston was comissioned in 1993 to make a mural featuring Jeremiah.

Valerie Hinojosa from flicker

This colorful mural was made by John Rockwell and the Creative Suitcase team.

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This mural was designed and painted by Sanctuary Print Shop in 2012 to cover their bare exterior wall.

Achim Hepp from flicker

This mural was made by Frederico Archuleta.

Archuleta has many other stencil murals in Austin.

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This sweet mural is on the side of Jo’s hot coffee. Amy Cooke wrote this message for her partner, and the owner of Jo’s, Liz Lambert.

Ms.akr from flicker

“Greetings from Austin” was first painted on Roadhouse Relics in in 1998. Todd Sander, the owner of Roadhouse Relics, and Rory Skagen are the artists behind this mural.

6 Philip Kromer from flicker

# Spring 2017

How the Live Music Capitol of the World is losing its defining trait

A

ustin, Texas is a place where over 2,300 musicians begin their journey. The capital city has a wide variety of concerts, venues and shows, year round. From international festivals such as South-By-Southwest or ACL, to local venues performing nightly, there is a place for every type of musician in this city. As Austin is an alluring place to live, its numbers are rapidly growing, becoming the fastest growing city in America. New skyscrapers are put in every week, and the previously small, locally dominated city has become one of the centers for tech, education, and business.

As the city grows and changes, so does the music industry, but not always in the ways local musicians and Austinites would like it to.

“Austin has always been an oasis

of creativity and free-thinking.

Very often those creative freethinkers find an outlet in music.” says CB Demiralp, head of social media at the Nutty Brown Cafe in South Austin.

“We are inspired by a lot of things that shape what the music sounds like but to actually create and write is a necessity Austin is widely known as the Live Music Capitol of the world, but it’s rapidly losing the musicians that give the city its name. As outsiders move into the city, housing prices are on the rise. It’s getting harder and harder to find affordable housing in downtown Austin and

more musicians are leaving the city to find a place where they can live affordably.

Mayor Steve Adler has recognized this problem and how it is impacting the city’s identity, but with little control over real estate prices, some worry about the effectiveness of his plan.

“Doing music is more a need for us than anything else,” says John Kakoor, lead singer of the local band, Migrant Kids. “We are inspired by a lot of things that shape what the music sounds like but to actually create and write is a necessity.”

As local musicians find their livelihood in performing and composing music, affordable housing and access to the music scene downtown is a must. This is something that is increasingly hard to come by as Austin grows and

The Blues of Austin Local organizations lend a helping hand to aspiring musicians. They recognize the severity of this problem and seek to help fellow musicians find a place in the big city. According to Kakoor,“Austin Music Foundation has been a huge support along with Black Fret who awarded us a large grant last year.

We were able to make an album and buy a van with the grant money”. Migrant Kids and other local bands are starting to develop a national following, and attribute a lot of their success to these organizations. Local organizations recognize the importance of music to Austinites.“Many members of the Austin community are musicians or are otherwise connected to the music scene.

Music venues are the livelihood of so many in the service industry and production fields, not just bands,” Demiralp says.

Musicians are not the only ones struggling in the fast paced climate of today’s music industry.

Music venues are having a hard time staying open and allowing performances with the apartment buildings and houses next door.

Often times, a music venue will be forced to move or shut down if they are too close to residential

buildings. Mayor Adler’s plan includes a clause to address this problem.

“Music venues are still required to operate within codified sound levels,” the Omnibus Resolution Report reads, “However, should the permitted and codified sound levels be unacceptable or incompatible with a new development within proximity of an established music venue, the new development would be responsible for sound mitigation measures.” This means that whichever was there last, the music venue or the residential development, is responsible for keeping sound levels to a minimum.

Music venues are the livelihood of so many in the service industry and production fields, not just the bands.

Demiralp comments on the mayor’s plan, “I admire Mayor Adler’s efforts to help the musicians and venues in Austin. It’s a really tough issue with so many variables at play.” Many musicians and venue owners echo the sentiments of

Demiralp as this clause has made owning a venue more simple and accessible.

The other parts of Adler’s plan are not doing as well. “As the cost of living in Austin rises, housing is being built farther out pushing the geographic limits of what we think of as Austin.” Musicians and venue owners alike are being forced out of Austin largely due to the rising prices. This is a harder issue to fix, as housing market prices are not controlled by an independent party, and can hardly be regulated by the mayor. He has offered ideas such as tax and energy rebates, incentives for overseas labels, and guaranteed fair pay by venues.

However, all of these solutions pose potential problems with the city’s limited budget and range of power.

Austin’s music scene is very important to the city’s identity, and the city, local musicians, and organizations are working to keep Austin’s identity as a place for musicians. There are many challenges ahead for the city and it’s citizens in this fight.

Nevertheless, government and austinites alike seek to help aspiring musicians make it in the Live Music Capital of the World.

This Alternative Story Format will compare Austin musicians versus the Austin popuiation as a whole.

It compares the housing rates, gender demographics, and income rates of Austinites and Musicians, as well as giving examples of famous artists that came from or are currently in Austin.

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1. 58% of Austinites own their home, 42% rent their home.

2. 50.1% of Austinites are male and 49.9% are female.

3. 63% of Austinites make $25,000+, 9% make $15,000 to $25,000, 7% make $10,000 to $15,000, and 6% earn less than $10,000.

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This ASF serves to show the drastic difference between the wealth, demographics, and property of Austinites and Austin musicians. These differences show how musicians in Austin need assistance from the city in order to live the lifestyle that we associate with the average Austinite.

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1. 57% of Musicians rent their home, 43% own their home.

2. 20% of Austin musicians are female, 80% are male.

3. 68.4% of Austin musicians earn -$10,000, 10.7% make $10,000 to $15,000, 7.8% make $15,000 to $25,000, and 13.1% make