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Welcome to City View. I'm your host, Leslie Sopko.

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In this episode, high school seniors with the Austin Independent School District have an exciting new opportunity

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to work face-to-face with policymakers at City Hall. Plus, the City of Austin is recognized by Senator John Cornyn

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for helping Austinites fulfill their dreams of becoming local business owners.

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But first, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and City Manager Mark Ott took a moment to honor

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the emergency workers that responded to the horrific plane crash at the echelon building

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in North Austin.

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Police fire and paramedics were personally thanked for their quick response and collaboration.

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This was not a heroic act.

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This was a cowardly act.

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It was a repulsive criminal act perpetrated in rage without any regard for the sanctity

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of human life.

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But for the grace of God and the courage of Austin's first responders, hundreds of our

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neighbors might have died last Thursday morning.

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There's nothing here to celebrate.

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There's nothing about the perpetrator to honor.

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There's nothing of value in what happened here last week.

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Instead, there's only profound sadness, a deep sense of loss that will live in the hearts

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of many in our community for a long time to come.

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I'm extremely proud of the speedy and collaborative response from all of our emergency services

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personnel.

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As you might imagine, effective incident command is critical when scores of first responders

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show up at a scene like the one we saw last week.

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The mere fact that we were able to rescue and treat every person who was in a position

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to be saved is a testament to the skill and professionalism of our fire, police and EMS

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services.

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50 lucky seniors from Crockett and Aiken's high schools will be selected to participate

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in a new leadership development program known as Austin Corps.

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The year-long elective class is a joint partnership between the City of Austin and

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the Austin Independent School District. Austin Corps will offer courses on local government

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and students will get to work with policy makers and staff at City Hall during the fall semester.

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The reason we've created Austin Corps is simple. Our most valuable resource as a city is our

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young people. The young men and women sitting behind me here today are Austin's future.

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If we can do more now to educate and engage Boston students in civic life, then our entire

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community will ultimately reap the award.

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It's a strategy that gives our kids the real life experience that they need to be exposed

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to the jobs that will make a difference in a community and also give them the support

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and curriculum and instruction to take it to the next level in their academic classes.

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What's important to us in my profession is to bring young people along, you know, to introduce

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young people to local government, and there are managers all over the United States who

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are committed to doing that.

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So I think that this idea, this vision of Austin Corps is very much consistent with

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a commitment that I made in regard to my pursuit of this profession many, many years

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ago.

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So I'm really proud to, you know, to really be a part of it."

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In addition, these students will complete an internship with the City of Austin and will

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also work in small groups to plan and lead community service projects, if successful

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officials hope to expand the program to other schools.

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Residents are reminded to pick up their trash.

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While it seems like an obvious statement, the Watershed Protection Department continues

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to find junk like empty cans and yard waste stuffed inside our city's storm

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drains. Here's a look at how littering can cause an even bigger mess in our city.

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Basically we're out here today cleaning one of Boston's 32,000 storm drain

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inlets and what we're really trying to get the word out today about is that

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we really don't want people in the city littering or throwing their trash

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on the ground, blowing leaves into the streets because what happens is all that

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stuff ends up getting washed into our storm drain system and one of two things

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is going to happen is either going to clog the system which means it won't

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work properly when it rains instead of water running into the storm drains it

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might pool around the inlet and might flood the street or it's going to get

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washed further into our creek system. A lot of these items we found we find

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in the storm drains are things that you can dispose of properly through your recycling.

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We find a lot of plastic bottles, a lot of aluminum cans, things like that.

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You can simply place those in your single stream recycling cart.

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Probably the biggest thing we find is yard trimmings and leaves.

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And those are things also that you can put in your yard trimmings collection, which

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is a weekly collection we do here in Austin.

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So you can simply dispose of those properly by using your solid waste services instead

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of putting them in the storm drain.

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Now, it's time for an Austin City Council update from Larry Scholar.

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The speed of the Internet in Austin could get much faster.

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The Austin City Council wants to work with Google on increasing high-speed Internet access

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in Austin.

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Google wants to build a very fast Internet network, more than 100 times faster than

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most people have today.

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And Council decided the city will apply to become one of the places Google builds

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that network.

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Stay tuned for ways you can participate in that process.

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Council obtained the rights to more than 4,000 acres of land in West Texas to use for wind power generation.

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The city ultimately wants to get 30% of its electricity from resources like the wind and sun by the year 2020.

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Grant funds approved by council will pay for lifts that help physically disabled individuals board canoes, kayaks and other vessels.

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The city hopes to promote the activities of injured members of our armed forces.

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Council also agreed to work with the State of Texas on a hike in bike trail between Balcones District Park and Walnut Creek Park in North Austin.

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The Northern Walnut Creek Trail will connect St. David's Hospital and the Austin Community College Northridge Campus to numerous neighborhoods in the area.

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It should be finished in April of next year.

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Finally, Council voted to expand the Northwest Recreation Center by 7,000 square feet.

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You'll eventually see a classroom, a fitness room, and a multi-purpose room, among other improvements.

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In all, the City Council considered 80 items at its February 25th meeting.

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Its next regularly scheduled meeting is March 11th.

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For CityView, I'm Larry Schueler.

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If you'd like to watch the most recent City Council meeting, please visit the Channel

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6 website at cityofaustin.org slash Channel 6.

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Well after almost two years of public input regarding Austin Energy's future generation

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Mayor Lee Leffengwell held a final town hall meeting to review all of the proposed ideas.

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Panel experts representing all facets of the community, from large industrial customers to low income residents,

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addressed the crowd of more than 200 people.

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The audience was able to submit questions via text, email or note card.

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We are not proposing this plan in order to avoid building new capacity.

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We actually have enough capacity with our current power plants to pretty much meet our

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needs to 2020 if there is a shortfall, it's very little.

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The plan is more designed to shift our type of resources from fossil fuels to non-fossil

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fuels as opposed to needing to build new power capacity in order to keep the lights on.

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Austin Energy is recommending a generation plan that achieves 35 percent renewable energy

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by 2020 and offsets 800 megawatts through energy efficiency, which is the equivalent

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of a large power plant.

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The Austin City Council is expected to vote on this issue sometime in March.

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To watch the entire panel discussion, visit cityofaustin.org slash Channel 6.

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It's no secret the City of Austin supports locally-owned businesses.

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In fact, portfolio.com recently named Austin the nation's top city to launch a small business.

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That's because the City Small Business Development Program has helped more than 11,000 customers

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who have started their own business or are expanding their existing businesses.

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Senator John Cornyn and Mayor Lee Leffing well paid a visit to Parkside,

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an Austin restaurant that owes its success in part to the program.

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First I want to thank Senator Cornyn for coming here to Austin, his hometown,

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to talk about small business with us and we think we've enjoyed a lot of successes

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and it's really gratifying to be able to share what we've done here

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with folks at the national level because we think we have been successful here.

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I couldn't think of a better place to come than back here to Austin to listen to what

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you've done so successfully to reach that great accomplishment of being the number

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one small business city in the country.

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As a working chef and business owner, I really don't have the time to stay up and inform

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that I have an accountant who does parts and parcel, but to really do the nitty-gritty

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of the loan for a program I need somebody who can help me and that's what the city was

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able to provide.

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We were invited today to come speak to the senator and the mayor about the vitality

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of small business in Austin and how the city supports and encourages entrepreneurship.

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It was really an honor to be invited to speak about our business and our experiences

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in Austin and I hope that the senator will be able to take us back to Washington

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and help other cities.

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I was here today to explain how the Small Business Development Center or program helped

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my small business grow from grassroots, just from the idea to actually implementing the

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services.

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I definitely would support anyone to open and start their own small business no matter

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what it is because a lot of us have great ideas and they may be a little bit hesitant

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to start just because it may be intimidating, but if they have just a little bit of drive

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or a little bit of ambition to start a small business, they should.

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The Small Business Development Program offers a variety of resources, including a walk-in

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technology center and workshops for every level entrepreneur.

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Some of the most popular classes are on QuickBooks, an accounting software and social media.

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The city also offers assistance on writing business and marketing plans.

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programs. If you'd like to learn more about this program, visit austinsmallbiz.org.

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And that's all for this edition of CityView. I'm your host, Leslie Sopko. Our next episode

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premieres Friday, March 12th. Thanks for watching.