Every morning, we send you a free email packed with Austin news, business, and entertainment. Join 16,000+ readers who wake up to Austonia's newsletter.
Featured
austonia newsletter
Most viewed
The Texas Department of Public Safety abruptly closed the Texas Capitol on Friday through Inauguration Day.
The Austin Police Department reports no known threats to the Austin area ahead of Inauguration Day on Wednesday, but remains on tactical alert following the deadly, pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.
"We're not really seeing a lot out there with regards to rival groups coming out, but we're certainly prepared for that," Assistant Chief Joseph Chacon said Tuesday.
As a precaution, the department is on tactical alert, meaning officers of all ranks report to duty in uniform and are ready to deploy out into the community if needed.
APD has also sent a contingent of 49 officers to Washington D.C. to assist with Inauguration Day security. This is the fifth inauguration the department has done so, although it sent fewer officers this year due to concerns about possible unrest in Austin.
"With the events that we just saw on Jan. 6 in our U.S. Capitol, I think it's more important than ever that we contribute to the effort to keep our president safe," Chacon said.
Last week, Council Member Alison Alter urged APD Chief Brian Manley to denounce the riot and launch an investigation into whether any APD employees had participated, according to local reports. (An 18-year veteran of the Houston Police Department is under federal investigation after participating.)
APD is not actively monitoring its officers or their social media profiles, Chacon said, and has not received any indications that they need to be. "They know what the rules are, and they know what they have to be doing to remain professional," he added.
APD is not the only law enforcement agency preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, which will take place on the day after the Texas state holiday honoring the Confederacy.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has deployed additional officers to the Texas Capitol, whose grounds it abruptly closed on Friday through Wednesday.
DPS "is aware of armed protests planned at the Texas State Capitol this week and violent extremists who may seek to exploit constitutionally protected events to conduct criminal acts," Director Steven McCraw said in a recent statement.
Federal law enforcement is also at work. The San Antonio branch of the FBI said its "efforts are focusing on identifying, investigating and disrupting individuals that are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity" in a statement shared with Austonia. The U.S. Attorneys representing the four districts in Texas also announced their intent to prosecute any violations of federal law committed at the Texas Capitol or elsewhere.
Dozens of armed gun rights advocates gathered outside of the Texas Capitol on Sunday, although protestors reportedly said the event had nothing to do with Inauguration Day.
- Austin City Council members sworn in amid COVID, Capitol mob ... ›
- Armed protesters gather at state Capitol over the weekend - austonia ›
- Members of the far-right Proud Boys militia stand on Congress ... ›
- Texas Capitol amps up security after pro-Trump protest - austonia ›
- Austin police, businesses prep for Inauguration Day protests - austonia ›
- "Field of Flags" designed by Austin-based promotion company - austonia ›
- Here's what Austinites have to say about Inauguration Day - austonia ›
Popular
(Pexels)
Our 15-year-old granddaughter and her sister, 12, have spent summer weeks with us, usually separately so that we could better get to know each individually. In visits focused on Austin and Port Aransas, the girls seemed to be developing an affection for Texas.
Houston and Dallas are two great American cities, the 4th and 9th largest, each loaded with cultural treasures, each standing in glittering and starchy contrast to Austin’s more louche, T-shirts and shorts ways.
Three hours up I-35, Dallas loomed before us as a set of gray skyscrapers in a filmy haze, accessed only through a concrete mixmaster of freeways, ramps and exits. I drove with false confidence. Be calm, I said to myself, it will all end in 10 minutes under the hotel entrance canopy. And it did.
The pool at the Crescent Court Hotel in Dallas. (Crescent Court Hotel)
We stayed three nights at the Crescent Court Hotel ($622 a night for two queens), a high-end hotel in Uptown, patronized by women in white blazers, business people in suits, and tall, lean professional athletes, their shiny Escalades and Corvettes darting in and out, and other celebrities like Bill Barr, the former attorney general who shoe-horned his ample self into a Toyota.
Each morning as I walked to Whole Foods for a cappuccino, a fellow identified by a bellman as Billy the Oilman arrived in his Rolls Royce Phantom. Where does he park? “Wherever he wants to. He likes the Starbucks here.”
We garaged our more modest set of wheels for the visit. We were chauffeured for tips by Matt Cooney and Alfonza “The Rev” Scott in the hotel’s black Audi sedan. They drove us to museums, restaurants and past the enclaves of the rich and famous. In Highland Park, The Rev pointed out the homes of the Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones and Troy Aikman along with the family compound of the Hunts, oil and gas tycoons.
The Dallas Museum of Art’s “Cartier and Islam” exhibit (until Sept. 18) attracted an older crowd; the nearby Perot Museum of Nature and Science was a powerful whirlpool of kids’ groups ricocheting from the Tyrannosaurus Rex to the oil fracking exhibit. Watch your shins.
A Geogia O'Keeffe oil painting called "Ranchos Church, New Mexico" at the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art. (Rich Oppel)
For us, the best museum was the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, a 50-minute, madcap drive away via a 75 mph toll lane along I-30. Don’t try it during rush hour. The Carter has an exquisite collection of Remington paintings and sculptures and an excellent array of 19th and 20th-century paintings as well. Pick one museum? The Amon Carter. Peaceful, beautiful, uncrowded, free admission and small enough to manage in two hours.
The Fort Worth Stockyards, a place of history (with a dab of schmaltz), fun and good shopping, filled one of our mornings. The 98 acres brand the city as Cowboy Town, with a rodeo and a twice-daily (11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.) cattle drive. We shopped for boots, drank coffee and watched the “herd” of 18 longhorns. So languid was their progress that if this were a real market drive the beef would have been very tough and leathery before it hit the steakhouse dinner plate.
The cattle drive at the Fort Worth Stockyards. (Rich Oppel)
But we could identify: the temperature was 97. “I saw a dog chasing a cat today,” said the emcee, deploying a very old joke. “It was so hot that both were walking.”
With limited time, we chose three very different restaurants:
- Nobu, in the Crescent Court Hotel; Jia, a modern Chinese restaurant in Highland Park; and Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth. Nobu’s exotic Japanese menu set us back $480, with tip, for four (we had a guest), but it was worth it.
- Jia was an ordinary suburban strip mall restaurant, but with good food and a reasonable tab of $110 for four.
- Joe T.’s is an 85-year-old Fort Worth institution (think Matt’s El Rancho but larger), a fine Mexican restaurant where a meal with two drinks was $115.
Sushi at high-end restaurant Nobu. (Crescent Hotel)
It was all a splurge for a grandchild’s visit. Now we will get back to our ordinary road trips of Hampton Inns, where a room rate is closer to the Crescent Court’s overnight parking rate of $52. And to corner cafes in small towns.
Did Dallas change our 15-year-old’s view of Texas? “Yes. I think it’s a lot cooler than I did. The fashion, the food.” So, not only Austin is cool. Take Texas as a whole. It’s a big, complex, diverse and wonderful state.
