This year saw a strange kind of sea change at City Hall led by newly reelected Mayor Kirk Watson... It was all a marked departure from the previous 10-1 system that had only operated under former Mayor Steve Adler with essentially the same faces and dynamics on the dais.
The spring kicked off with a call to the Department of Public Safety for help, widespread criticism of the move, then (kind of unheeded) pleas to go ahead and stop patrolling Austin. The year also saw the sudden retirement of Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon and ongoing fallout from the 2020 police protests, including in the Christopher Taylor murder trial and dismissed charges against APD officers.
After years of circuitous attempts to update the city's Land Development Code, this year actually saw progress. City Council, with its new makeup, quickly approved changes intended to ease the city's housing crisis, with a push from Council members to implement changes on a hastened timeline.
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