Latest / Austin Signal / Austinites join nationwide protests after ICE shooting in Minneapolis

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Austinites join nationwide protests after ICE shooting in Minneapolis · Austin Signal

• 0:10
  The people in the Austin area joined
• 0:11
  with many thousands of others across
• 0:13
  the country in protesting after an
• 0:15
  ICE officer fatally shot a woman
• 0:16
  this week in Minneapolis.
• 0:18
  Demonstrators gathered outside a
• 0:20
  Department of Homeland Security
• 0:21
  building in Pflugerville.
• 0:23
  We'll bring you some of those
• 0:24
  voices.
• 0:25
  And after a U.S.
• 0:26
  Military operation in Caracas
• 0:28
  last weekend, Venezuelans in Austin
• 0:30
  are hoping for bigger changes before
• 0:32
  they are able to go back home.
• 0:33
  We're going to hear from them and
• 0:35
  from a Venezuelan Texan author
• 0:37
  based here in Their stories
• 0:39
  and their voices coming up next.
• 0:41
  The Austin Signal is a production
• 0:43
  of KUT News, hosted by
• 0:45
  Jerry Quijano.
• 0:46
  Plus, how did Austin come
• 0:48
  to be known as the live music
• 0:50
  capital of the world?
• 0:51
  Come and dig into the ATXplain
• 0:53
  vault with us.
• 0:54
  That's coming up next, right here
• 0:56
  on Austin Signal.
• 1:08
  Howdy, you are tuned in.
• 1:09
  This is Austin Signal.
• 1:11
  It's January 9th.
• 1:13
  Thank you for making us part of
• 1:14
  your Friday.
• 1:19
  Out of Austin, ice,
• 1:21
  out of Austin!
• 1:24
  Anti-ICE protests popped up
• 1:26
  in Austin and Pflugerville yesterday
• 1:27
  after a woman in Minneapolis was
• 1:29
  shot and killed by an Immigration
• 1:30
  and Customs Enforcement officer
• 1:32
  earlier this week.
• 1:33
  She was identified as 37-year-old
• 1:35
  Renee Good.
• 1:36
  In Austin, protesters gathered on
• 1:38
  the corners of 45th and Lamar.
• 1:40
  Sarah Bradley was one of those
• 1:42
  protesters.
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  And I don't want to live in a place
• 1:45
  where I'm scared to spook my mind.
• 1:48
  I want to be as free as possible.
• 1:51
  And I also want us to take care of
• 1:53
  each other.
• 1:54
  Live in a society where we take care
• 1:56
  each other,
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  that's why I'm here.
• 1:59
  The protest in Pflugerville was held
• 2:01
  in front of the U.S.
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  Department of Homeland Security
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  building there.
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  After Goode's killing, President
• 2:05
  Donald Trump called her a quote,
• 2:07
  professional agitator, end quote.
• 2:09
  Protesters said they reject those
• 2:11
  claims.
• 2:12
  Protests are expected to continue
• 2:13
  later today at the Capitol and
• 2:15
  tomorrow morning at City Hall.
• 2:17
  You can find more coverage on the
• 2:19
  protest over at KUT.org.
• 2:22
  Again, this is Austin Signal.
• 2:23
  I'm your host Jerry Kijano.
• 2:26
  Here in town, there have also been
• 2:27
  protests and vigils in reaction to
• 2:29
  the Trump administration's actions
• 2:31
  in Venezuela.
• 2:32
  And as the ousted Venezuelan
• 2:34
  President Nicolas Maduro is facing
• 2:36
  trial in the United States,
• 2:38
  some Venezuelans here don't feel as
• 2:40
  hopeful about returning home.
• 2:42
  QUT's Greta Díaz González Vázquez
• 2:44
  talked to Venezuelas in Austin.
• 2:48
  Betty Nava and her family fled
• 2:49
  Venezuela in 2018.
• 2:52
  She and her husband were very
• 2:53
  outspoken against Nicolás Maduro's
• 2:55
  government and felt their lives
• 2:57
  would be in danger if they stayed.
• 2:59
  Last Saturday, when she heard about
• 3:01
  the U.S. Military action to arrest
• 3:03
  Maduro, she was overwhelmed
• 3:05
  and decided to go back to bed.
• 3:07
  She couldn't stand the possibility
• 3:09
  of being disillusioned by her
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  country once more.
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  Because I thought that Maduro would
• 3:13
  go back to the Maduro area.
• 3:15
  She thought Maduro would return to
• 3:16
  power in a matter of hours.
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  Almost a week later, she's still not
• 3:21
  ready to celebrate, especially
• 3:22
  since Maduro's vice president,
• 3:24
  Delci Rodriguez, is now interim
• 3:26
  president.
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  I still don't fully celebrate
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  because those people are there.
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  Person who is much
• 3:33
  more intelligent than Maduro.
• 3:35
  Betty says she fears her more than
• 3:37
  Madro.
• 3:38
  When Betty, her husband, and their
• 3:40
  two sons first fled, they went to
• 3:42
  Peru.
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  In 2021, they came to the U.S.
• 3:44
  On a tourist visa.
• 3:46
  That same year, they applied for
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  asylum, and while waiting, they got
• 3:49
  Temporary Protected status,
• 3:51
  or TPS.
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  Solamente solicitamos el TPS
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  como protección.
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  They wanted to feel protected, she
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  says, but the Trump administration
• 3:59
  ended that program last year.
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  Now, after Maduro's detention...
• 4:03
  News for those who
• 4:06
  are here from Venezuela on
• 4:08
  temporary protective status is that
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  they can now go home.
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  With hope for their country.
• 4:12
  That's Trisha McLaughlin from the
• 4:14
  Department of Homeland Security.
• 4:16
  After Maduro's attention, officials
• 4:18
  from the Trump administration have
• 4:20
  repeatedly said that Venezuela
• 4:22
  is now a safe country for the
• 4:23
  roughly 600,000 Venezuelans
• 4:26
  who were under TPS.
• 4:28
  Venezuelan's like Betty.
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  But other people say with Maduro
• 4:31
  cabinet still in power, it's
• 4:33
  not that simple.
• 4:35
  Liani, a Venezuelian lawyer who also
• 4:37
  lives in Austin, says it will take
• 4:39
  some time for things to get better.
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  KUT is using only her first
• 4:43
  name because she still has family in
• 4:45
  Venezuela and fears for their
• 4:46
  safety.
• 4:50
  She says once the transition moves
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  forward and things become clearer,
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  it will take a while for those
• 4:56
  abroad to feel safe, to know
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  they won't be persecuted when they
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  return.
• 5:02
  Liani worked as a judge in
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  Venezuela.
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  She says all institutions there
• 5:06
  have become corrupt over the last
• 5:07
  two decades.
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  Cuando te digo que la han destruido
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  todo es porque...
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  We have to renew all the powers of
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  the state.
• 5:14
  She says federal, state and local
• 5:16
  reforms need to take place before
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  Venezuelans can go back.
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  When you see people inside Venezuela
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  celebrating and the
• 5:24
  free political prisoners,
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  it's because freedom has arrived in
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  Venezuela. Freedom will come for
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  Venezuela, she says, when people
• 5:31
  inside the country can celebrate and
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  all political prisoners are freed.
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  On Thursday, Venezuela's government
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  released some political prisoners
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  as a gesture to, quote,
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  consolidate peace.
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  There have been protests inside
• 5:45
  Venezuela against Maduro's
• 5:46
  detention, but people in the country
• 5:48
  who oppose the government have not
• 5:50
  been able to celebrate in public.
• 5:53
  The country is divided.
• 5:55
  Beti Nava hears about both sides.
• 5:58
  Some of her siblings in Venezuela
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  agree with Maduro government,
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  while others do not.
• 6:03
  To those who oppose Maduro, she asks
• 6:05
  them to delete all their tags
• 6:07
  criticizing the government.
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  But to those who support him,
• 6:11
  she's always asking
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  because they continue to support a
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  process and a group of people
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  that destroyed our future and
• 6:19
  separated us.
• 6:21
  Why support those people who
• 6:22
  destroyed their futures and split
• 6:24
  their family apart?
• 6:25
  That's what I asked them, that I
• 6:27
  wanted an answer.
• 6:28
  She hasn't gotten an answer yet,
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  but she still loves her family and
• 6:32
  even gives them money when she can.
• 6:35
  Both Liani and Betty know that if
• 6:37
  they could go back to Venezuela,
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  it wouldn't be the same country they
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  left years ago.
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  A lot of their friends and family
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  are scattered around the world.
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  Institutions have changed.
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  With so many years living abroad,
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  they have also changed.
• 6:52
  Liani says if things get better, she
• 6:54
  wants to go back and help her
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  country by being a professor.
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  I think there's a lot to do
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  and a lot of things to offer.
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  She says there's lots to do to
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  reconstruct Venezuela and she
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  doesn't want future generations to
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  forget their history.
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  It benefits a very rapid
• 7:08
  reconstruction of our country.
• 7:10
  Beti says that even though she's
• 7:11
  waiting for her asylum case to be
• 7:13
  resolved, what she really wants
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  is to go back to Venezuela and
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  to be in the land where her kids
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  were born.
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  Porque nadie sale de donde feliz.
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  Betty says because nobody leaves the
• 7:24
  place where they're happy.
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  And I was very happy in Venezuela.
• 7:27
  And she was very happy in
• 7:29
  Venezuela.
• 7:30
  I'm Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vazquez
• 7:32
  in Austin.
• 7:40
  Austin author Alejandro Puyana
• 7:42
  is a Venezuelan-American and
• 7:44
  wrote the 2025 novel Freedom
• 7:46
  is a Feast About Life in
• 7:48
  Venezuela.
• 7:49
  He reached out to Texas Standard as
• 7:51
  part of their Talk of Texas project
• 7:52
  with his own experience and thoughts
• 7:54
  on what's been going on.
• 7:56
  He spoke with the Standard's David
• 7:58
  Brown.
• 8:00
  Let's begin with your reaction when
• 8:01
  you first heard the news over the
• 8:03
  weekend. I mean, on one level,
• 8:05
  it was a huge surprise.
• 8:07
  On another level, President Trump
• 8:08
  had been warning about something
• 8:09
  like this for weeks.
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  What went through your mind in that
• 8:12
  moment when you heard the first
• 8:13
  news?
• 8:14
  Yeah, well, I got a
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  phone call from my mother at 2
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  a.m. In the morning, which is always
• 8:20
  a horrible thing to get because
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  you don't know what's happened.
• 8:23
  My mom told me that they had just
• 8:25
  bombed Caracas and it was first
• 8:27
  fear and concern for
• 8:29
  loved ones and friends and family
• 8:31
  that I have living there.
• 8:33
  And then very soon after, just
• 8:34
  a deep dive into news.
• 8:36
  So immediately on WhatsApp with
• 8:39
  my best friends and with my family
• 8:41
  members.
• 8:42
  Looking into coverage and seeing
• 8:44
  what I could find.
• 8:45
  And yeah, very afraid for what
• 8:47
  could happen on one side.
• 8:49
  And also a
• 8:51
  small part of me,
• 8:53
  I think, had hope of
• 8:55
  what this could mean for the
• 8:57
  end of a regime that's been horrible
• 8:59
  for the nation and for
• 9:01
  my people.
• 9:03
  So, wow, what a mix.
• 9:05
  Fear and hope.
• 9:07
  I know you've written fiction about
• 9:08
  Venezuela, but you've also lived
• 9:10
  this history personally.
• 9:12
  How did your experience growing up
• 9:14
  there shape the way that
• 9:16
  you have been processing?
• 9:19
  Yeah, it's impossible to divorce
• 9:21
  those two things.
• 9:23
  You know, when I grew up in
• 9:25
  Venezuela, like you said, when
• 9:27
  I first moved to the US,
• 9:29
  my dad was running an opposition
• 9:31
  newspaper in Venezuela called
• 9:33
  Talcual, which
• 9:35
  is still running now.
• 9:37
  And he had a lot of run-ins with
• 9:39
  the government, with the regime.
• 9:42
  He was prohibited from leaving the
• 9:43
  country. There was always a threat
• 9:45
  of, you know, of my dad
• 9:47
  possibly going.
• 9:48
  To prison as a political
• 9:50
  prisoner.
• 9:52
  So those fears were always
• 9:54
  up in the air for us, for
• 9:55
  my family, and for me leaving
• 9:57
  abroad. Me and my sister lived
• 9:58
  outside of Venezuela.
• 10:00
  It was always a
• 10:02
  looking back at home and
• 10:04
  wondering what was going to happen.
• 10:06
  So I've lived very personally
• 10:08
  the effects of this regime.
• 10:12
  In your talk of Texas message, you
• 10:13
  touched on the difference between
• 10:15
  wanting Maduro gone
• 10:17
  and of course your questions
• 10:19
  about how that happened, how that
• 10:21
  went down.
• 10:21
  Can you say more about that tension,
• 10:23
  you know, relief on one hand,
• 10:25
  concern on the other?
• 10:26
  Yeah, I think I think for many
• 10:27
  Venezuelans, we are split
• 10:29
  inside, you know, on one side, we
• 10:31
  have joy and there's
• 10:33
  a cost for celebration for the
• 10:35
  regime or for at least Maduro and
• 10:37
  Celia Flores to have been taken out
• 10:39
  of the country. I mean, they've
• 10:40
  they've done so much harm to so
• 10:42
  many people.
• 10:43
  But on the other hand,
• 10:45
  most Venezuelan understand that
• 10:48
  This is not for free,
• 10:50
  you know, Trump has his own agenda,
• 10:53
  he is in his own way.
• 10:55
  Tyrant in my point of view
• 10:57
  and is interested only in
• 10:59
  what Venezuela can give him.
• 11:02
  You know, minerals, oil,
• 11:04
  riches, whatever that may be.
• 11:07
  And the means that he's achieving
• 11:08
  this are horrifying
• 11:10
  in certain ways.
• 11:12
  But we can't forget also that
• 11:14
  Venezuelans have dealt with
• 11:16
  this regime for over 20 years.
• 11:20
  Desperate for anything that
• 11:22
  resembles hope.
• 11:24
  And this also
• 11:26
  provides that.
• 11:27
  So we are juggling two
• 11:30
  things.
• 11:31
  It was horrible to hear
• 11:33
  Trump's press conference
• 11:35
  the day after the attacks,
• 11:38
  how he was going to quote unquote
• 11:40
  run Venezuela.
• 11:41
  It was repulsive.
• 11:42
  It was humiliating.
• 11:46
  So it's a very complex
• 11:48
  place to be, I think.
• 11:49
  I think we can hold both of
• 11:51
  those things at the same time.
• 11:53
  We can hold on one
• 11:54
  hand the idea that
• 11:57
  Venezuela, this might be a
• 11:59
  path for Venezuela to be
• 12:00
  in a better space.
• 12:02
  And it also might be a path
• 12:04
  to a whole different way of
• 12:06
  oppression. And the reality is
• 12:08
  we don't know where we're
• 12:10
  gonna land. We just know that we are
• 12:11
  here now and we have to
• 12:13
  try to make the best of it.
• 12:16
  For other Americans and Texans who
• 12:17
  may not have close ties to Venezuela
• 12:20
  as you do, what
• 12:22
  do you think is most important to
• 12:23
  understand about this moment,
• 12:25
  especially about what comes
• 12:27
  after a leader like Maduro is
• 12:29
  removed?
• 12:30
  First of all, we have to
• 12:32
  allow Venezuelans to
• 12:34
  feel their feelings, like they
• 12:36
  are entitled
• 12:38
  to feeling happy and
• 12:40
  joyous about a terrible
• 12:42
  dictator being deposed.
• 12:44
  That's on one hand.
• 12:45
  On the other hand, we try to
• 12:48
  hold our leaders accountable
• 12:51
  for the actions that they've done.
• 12:53
  Who knows where
• 12:55
  we're gonna be a year from
• 12:57
  now or two years from now
• 12:59
  there might be consequences for
• 13:01
  how Trump acted and how he went
• 13:03
  about things. And we have to be
• 13:05
  open to those kinds of things,
• 13:07
  but we have hold both things
• 13:09
  at the same time.
• 13:10
  We've been speaking with Alejandro
• 13:12
  Puyana, a Venezuelan-American
• 13:14
  writer now living in Austin.
• 13:15
  He's the author of Freedom is a
• 13:17
  Feast, and he's been sharing his
• 13:19
  perspective with us as part of our
• 13:21
  Talk of Texas project.
• 13:23
  Alejandro, thanks so much for
• 13:24
  joining us on the Texas Standard.
• 13:26
  Thank you guys, thank you so much.
• 13:34
  We're gonna have a link to all of
• 13:36
  today's stories in our show
• 13:38
  notes. You can find those wherever
• 13:39
  you listen to your podcasts.
• 13:41
  Don't forget to subscribe to Austin
• 13:43
  Signal. And we have more of
• 13:45
  our show over at kut.org
• 13:48
  slash signal.
• 13:50
  We've got more show for your Friday
• 13:51
  coming up after this break.
• 14:00
  Welcome back and thank you for
• 14:02
  tuning in. This is Austin Signal.
• 14:04
  A reminder that free week kicks
• 14:06
  off tonight. Lots of live music all
• 14:08
  around the city that is known as the
• 14:10
  live music capital of the world.
• 14:12
  Our sister station, KUTX, is hosting
• 14:14
  a showcase tonight indoors at Stubbs
• 14:16
  with music starting at seven and
• 14:18
  going past midnight.
• 14:19
  We have more in our
• 14:21
  show notes, kut.org slash
• 14:23
  signal.
• 14:24
  But let's go back to that moniker
• 14:25
  real quick. The live music
• 14:27
  capitol of the World.
• 14:29
  Just how did Austin end up
• 14:31
  with that designation?
• 14:33
  Our ETXplain podcast answers
• 14:35
  all your questions about Austin's
• 14:36
  people, places, and culture, and
• 14:38
  they're celebrating 10 years of
• 14:40
  answering those questions.
• 14:42
  Today, we're gonna go back in time a
• 14:43
  decade to an oh-so-familiar
• 14:45
  voice. Here is KUT's
• 14:48
  Mose Buchele.
• 14:50
  No matter what you think of it,
• 14:51
  you've got to admit it's been
• 14:52
  effective.
• 14:55
  Even for people who don't like
• 14:56
  music, for people have never been
• 14:58
  here.
• 14:59
  Austin and music are synonymous.
• 15:01
  You live in Chicago now, but like
• 15:02
  when you say you're from Austin, do
• 15:04
  people bring up music?
• 15:05
  I think so.
• 15:06
  That's Austin Brown.
• 15:08
  Yeah, his first name is Austin.
• 15:10
  He asked us a question about the
• 15:11
  live music nickname, even though
• 15:13
  he's going to school up North.
• 15:15
  Like what are some other brands that
• 15:16
  cities have?
• 15:18
  Have been this effective.
• 15:20
  Is there a slogan in Chicago?
• 15:22
  Like a moniker?
• 15:23
  Nothing about music really, the
• 15:25
  windy city,
• 15:27
  the city of broad shoulders.
• 15:29
  But if you visit Chicago, people
• 15:30
  aren't saying, hey, don't miss the
• 15:33
  broad shoulders, I can't even think
• 15:34
  if LA has a slogan.
• 15:36
  The city of angels, but that's...
• 15:38
  Oh yeah, yeah,
• 15:40
  I don't know exactly what that
• 15:41
  means, but I always thought it felt
• 15:43
  a little sarcastic.
• 15:48
  Austin's more like the little town
• 15:49
  that boasts the world's largest ball
• 15:51
  of twine.
• 15:53
  If you stop there, people are going
• 15:54
  to ask you about the twine,
• 15:56
  so here's the question.
• 15:58
  Where did the live music capital of
• 16:00
  the world, Moniker, come from?
• 16:02
  Does it feel accurate to residents
• 16:03
  or musicians?
• 16:05
  Well, let me start by asking you,
• 16:06
  does it feel to you, do you think?
• 16:08
  Um, I don't know.
• 16:11
  We'll get back to that.
• 16:13
  First, a little history.
• 16:15
  Walk sign is on to cross Barton
• 16:17
  Springs at 1st Street.
• 16:18
  A lot of people say the music scene
• 16:19
  in Austin really took root right
• 16:21
  around where I'm standing.
• 16:23
  This was around the site of
• 16:25
  the old Armadillo World
• 16:27
  headquarters. It was one of the
• 16:28
  clubs where they say Willie Nelson
• 16:30
  helped unite the hippies
• 16:32
  and the rednecks.
• 16:34
  And that encouraged a vibrant music
• 16:36
  scene to take hold that might today
• 16:37
  be called Roots
• 16:39
  Music or Americana.
• 16:41
  Nowadays, this is a surface
• 16:43
  level parking lot for a city
• 16:45
  office building. There are plenty of
• 16:46
  city staffers going in and out.
• 16:48
  But there's no music right here.
• 16:51
  So instead of staying here and
• 16:53
  getting some weird looks,
• 16:55
  let's take a trip up your radio
• 16:57
  dial.
• 16:58
  Yeah, there we go.
• 17:00
  We'll find out what happened next.
• 17:02
  I'm Jay Trachtenberg.
• 17:03
  I'm a music host at our
• 17:05
  sister station, or your sister
• 17:07
  station KUTX.
• 17:09
  That's 98.9, Jay's
• 17:10
  been a DJ in town for decades.
• 17:12
  I asked him what it was like back in
• 17:14
  the 70s and 80s.
• 17:15
  I was at a party maybe a
• 17:17
  year ago, and
• 17:20
  this guy had in his music room,
• 17:21
  he had a poster from
• 17:23
  Soap Cree.
• 17:27
  That was a popular club back in the
• 17:29
  day.
• 17:30
  It was just a one-month post.
• 17:32
  With all the acts playing there that
• 17:34
  month.
• 17:34
  And within this month,
• 17:37
  let's see, Dugsong was there.
• 17:40
  Bye!
• 17:44
  Game Mouth Brown was there.
• 17:50
  Townes Van Zandt and...
• 17:52
  Well to live,
• 17:54
  to fly, all
• 17:56
  alone Hi,
• 17:59
  Delbert McClinton, Marsha Ball, Paul
• 18:01
  Ray.
• 18:03
  To see all these names on one
• 18:05
  poster from one club
• 18:07
  in one month, you look at this
• 18:09
  and you go, I can't believe all
• 18:11
  these people were here and this was
• 18:12
  only one place.
• 18:14
  That old highway
• 18:17
  The Austin Chamber of Commerce took
• 18:19
  note. One chamber pamphlet from
• 18:21
  the 70s said people were calling
• 18:23
  Austin a second Nashville.
• 18:25
  Well, the scene grew through the
• 18:26
  years to include blues, punk,
• 18:29
  New Wave.
• 18:29
  By the time South by Southwest
• 18:31
  started up, the Austin City Limits
• 18:32
  PBS show had already been around
• 18:34
  for more than a decade,
• 18:36
  and the Austin city government
• 18:38
  started to see music as
• 18:40
  a moneymaker.
• 18:41
  They created the Austin Music
• 18:42
  Commission to foster the industry in
• 18:44
  1988, and clearly
• 18:47
  Second Nashville wasn't
• 18:49
  gonna cut it.
• 18:53
  This is music from a woman named
• 18:55
  Lillian Standfield.
• 18:56
  Chances are you haven't heard of
• 18:58
  her, but when it comes to the live
• 18:59
  music nickname, Standfield,
• 19:01
  who died several years ago, left a
• 19:03
  big mark.
• 19:03
  I give 100% of the credit to
• 19:05
  Lillian Standfield.
• 19:06
  Nancy Copland was the first chair
• 19:08
  of the Austin Music Commission.
• 19:10
  She says sometime around 1991,
• 19:13
  she got a call from Stanfield.
• 19:14
  And she said, you know, I just drove
• 19:16
  back from a gig in Houston.
• 19:19
  And as I pulled into Austin and saw
• 19:20
  the Austin City Limits sign,
• 19:23
  I thought maybe we should have
• 19:24
  something that said Music Capital of
• 19:26
  Texas.
• 19:27
  The Music Commission looked at how
• 19:29
  many venues there were in Austin per
• 19:31
  capita.
• 19:32
  They decided maybe live music
• 19:34
  capital was a better claim.
• 19:36
  At that time, City Councilmember Max
• 19:38
  Nofziger was Austin Music's biggest
• 19:40
  champion at City Hall.
• 19:42
  Copeland went to him with the name.
• 19:44
  And I said, well,
• 19:47
  that's good. I like that, except
• 19:49
  this is no time to be modest.
• 19:50
  So how about if we become
• 19:52
  the music capital of the universe?
• 19:54
  I said, we really have no way
• 19:56
  to gage that, Max,
• 19:59
  I'm not sure they have music on
• 20:01
  Mars.
• 20:01
  I said, well, let the Martians be
• 20:03
  damned. You know, they can invade us
• 20:04
  or vaporize us, whatever they would
• 20:06
  do.
• 20:07
  But I think it'd be worth it.
• 20:09
  And she said, you probably couldn't
• 20:10
  get that past your city council
• 20:12
  colleagues. So we compromised
• 20:15
  on Austin, the live music capital of
• 20:16
  the world. And brought it to a vote.
• 20:17
  At City Hall and that means
• 20:19
  if you look through City Council
• 20:21
  archives you can find the
• 20:23
  exact moment in history
• 20:26
  August 29th 1991
• 20:28
  when Austin proclaimed
• 20:30
  itself the live music
• 20:32
  capital of the world I found
• 20:34
  a recording of that moment so
• 20:36
  I don't know if you want to give it
• 20:37
  a listen I'd love to get your
• 20:38
  reaction sure and emailed
• 20:40
  it to our question asker Austin
• 20:42
  Brown here I'll play it right now
• 20:45
  Under items from council,
• 20:46
  number 46, approve a
• 20:48
  resolution declaring the city of
• 20:50
  Austin the live music capital of the
• 20:52
  world.
• 20:54
  47.
• 20:55
  Approve a resolution. Here it goes
• 20:56
  on for a while.
• 20:57
  And upon task force members.
• 21:00
  So the consent motion will be item
• 21:01
  46 and 47.
• 21:03
  Discussion on those?
• 21:06
  Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
• 21:07
  Aye. Show those approved.
• 21:10
  It's a little anti-climactic.
• 21:14
  Yeah, yeah, I thought it was kind of
• 21:16
  low-key too.
• 21:17
  They're just like, yeah sure,
• 21:19
  why not?
• 21:20
  Let's go for it.
• 21:22
  Maybe I should add some music in to
• 21:23
  give it a little more oomph.
• 21:25
  I feel like it ought to be Willie
• 21:26
  Nelson, right?
• 21:28
  Sure. Turn out the lights.
• 21:32
  The party's over.
• 21:34
  There was one final piece to his
• 21:36
  question.
• 21:37
  What do people think of the
• 21:37
  nickname? Back in the 90s, there was
• 21:40
  some skepticism.
• 21:41
  These days, maybe even more
• 21:43
  so. Even Max Nofziger thinks
• 21:45
  it might not be accurate anymore.
• 21:48
  Austin's just become too expensive
• 21:49
  for a lot of musicians to live here.
• 21:52
  It would be one way to prove it for
• 21:53
  sure if you could find that
• 21:55
  old survey the city did to show how
• 21:57
  many clubs were here and compare
• 21:59
  it to today.
• 22:00
  The Austin Convention and Visitors
• 22:02
  Bureau that now owns the live music
• 22:04
  capital Trademark says it
• 22:06
  doesn't have that survey.
• 22:08
  I'm gonna keep looking for it, but
• 22:09
  until then, The truthfulness
• 22:11
  of Austin's live music claim.
• 22:14
  Might just depend on who's
• 22:16
  listening.
• 22:17
  And tomorrow starts
• 22:19
  the same old thing again
• 22:25
  KUT's Mose Buchele reporting
• 22:27
  that story.
• 22:28
  And hey, if you've got a question
• 22:29
  about Austin that you want answered,
• 22:31
  why not ask it?
• 22:32
  You can do so at KUT.org.
• 22:36
  Well, that's it for Austin Signal
• 22:38
  this week.
• 22:39
  Thank you for listening.
• 22:40
  And if you missed anything or if you
• 22:41
  wanna send something you heard to a
• 22:43
  friend, you can find more at
• 22:45
  Kut.org
• 22:47
  slash signal.
• 22:49
  Kristen Cabrera is our managing
• 22:50
  producer and Rayna Sevilla is
• 22:52
  our technical director.
• 22:53
  This is Austin Signal
• 22:55
  and we will talk to you on
• 22:57
  Monday. Have a great weekend.