Latest / Austin Signal / ‘Bathroom bill’ in effect, but enforcement is unclear

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‘Bathroom bill’ in effect, but enforcement is unclear · Austin Signal

• 0:09
  A new bathroom bill approved by
• 0:11
  Texas legislators has been in effect
• 0:13
  across the state for just over a
• 0:14
  week now. The law requires people
• 0:16
  to use public restrooms aligned
• 0:18
  with the sex they were assigned at
• 0:19
  birth, but there are still questions
• 0:21
  about how the law will be enforced,
• 0:23
  and here in Austin a lot of it
• 0:24
  depends on which building you happen
• 0:26
  to be in.
• 0:26
  Plus, the guiding hand behind the
• 0:28
  Volces Oral History Project
• 0:31
  is stepping down after a quarter
• 0:32
  century of documenting the story of
• 0:34
  Latinos in Texas and the US.
• 0:36
  Come hear her reflections on the
• 0:38
  work. That's up next.
• 0:39
  The Austin Signal is a production of
• 0:41
  K U T News, hosted by Jerry
• 0:44
  Quijano.
• 0:44
  And the thirty-seventh street lights
• 0:46
  will be lit tonight.
• 0:48
  It's an Austin holiday tradition.
• 0:50
  But how did it come to be?
• 0:51
  And what does my mom have to do with
• 0:53
  it all? That's coming up next.
• 0:55
  It's right here on Austin
• 0:57
  Signal.
• 1:07
  Howdy out there, thank you for
• 1:09
  tuning in. This is Austin
• 1:11
  Signal, and you're listening on
• 1:13
  community-powered public radio
• 1:15
  K U T News.
• 1:17
  It's Friday, December 12th.
• 1:19
  I'm your host, Jerry Kehonnell.
• 1:21
  We're glad to have you here.
• 1:23
  A new bathroom bill has been in
• 1:25
  effect in Texas for just over a week
• 1:27
  now. The law requires people
• 1:29
  to use public restrooms aligned
• 1:31
  with their sex assigned at birth.
• 1:33
  But as KUT's Katy McAfee
• 1:35
  reports, how it's being enforced
• 1:37
  across Austin depends greatly
• 1:39
  on what building you happen to be
• 1:41
  in.
• 1:42
  Austin City Councilmember Mike
• 1:43
  Siegel stands with a group of
• 1:45
  transgender activists on the city
• 1:47
  hall steps Thursday afternoon to
• 1:49
  announce something big.
• 1:50
  Council members just unanimously
• 1:52
  approved his resolution to look into
• 1:54
  making city restrooms gender
• 1:56
  inclusive while complying with the
• 1:57
  state's new bathroom bill.
• 1:58
  I do believe this law will be struck
• 2:00
  down by the courts is
• 2:01
  unconstitutional.
• 2:03
  But until that happens, we
• 2:04
  want to send a message as a
• 2:06
  city that we are welcoming
• 2:08
  to our own residents, to visitors.
• 2:11
  And to everyone.
• 2:12
  But Siegel's plan won't come easy
• 2:14
  or cheap.
• 2:15
  One option is adding a single
• 2:16
  occupancy restroom to every city
• 2:18
  facility, a move that could cost
• 2:20
  more than $14 million.
• 2:22
  Another option is turning every
• 2:24
  city restroom into a single
• 2:26
  occupancy restroom.
• 2:27
  That option could cost more than
• 2:29
  $232 million.
• 2:32
  Speaking to the crowd, Ash Hall
• 2:34
  with the ACLU of Texas said
• 2:35
  they were heartened by the steps the
• 2:37
  city's taking.
• 2:38
  But Hall says they're holding their
• 2:40
  breath as enforcement continues.
• 2:42
  In the times ahead, we can expect
• 2:44
  to hear more reports about trans
• 2:46
  people facing discrimination in
• 2:48
  restrooms in government owned
• 2:50
  and operated facilities.
• 2:52
  Some of those may be in our city,
• 2:53
  some of them may be beyond.
• 2:55
  Under the law, individuals will not
• 2:57
  be held liable for using the wrong
• 2:59
  restroom.
• 3:00
  But the Texas Attorney General
• 3:02
  will fine political subdivisions,
• 3:04
  like Travis County, the City of
• 3:05
  Austin, and UT if they violate
• 3:07
  the law. Fines start at $25,000
• 3:10
  for the first offense and can grow
• 3:12
  up to $125,000.
• 3:14
  On the UT Austin campus,
• 3:16
  at least one gender-neutral restroom
• 3:18
  with multiple stalls has been
• 3:20
  changed to a women's restroom,
• 3:21
  and a new policy is in effect,
• 3:23
  stating only females, as they
• 3:25
  are defined in the bill, can enter
• 3:27
  female spaces, like restrooms,
• 3:29
  locker rooms, or changing rooms.
• 3:31
  UT did not directly answer questions
• 3:34
  about how the new law would be
• 3:35
  enforced, and neither did Travis
• 3:37
  County. Officials released a
• 3:39
  statement saying the county will,
• 3:40
  quote, follow all state laws and
• 3:42
  regulations, end quote.
• 3:44
  Over the weekend, a group of
• 3:45
  transgender activists tested how
• 3:47
  the Texas Department of Public
• 3:49
  Safety would enforce the law at the
• 3:50
  state capitol.
• 3:51
  The group used the restroom at
• 3:53
  first without issue, but activists
• 3:56
  say after they staged a peaceful
• 3:57
  protest in the rotunda, several
• 3:59
  DPS troopers flocked to the scene.
• 4:01
  They asked to see IDs for select
• 4:03
  people in the group before they
• 4:05
  could use the restroom a second
• 4:06
  time. Ray Vazquez, a
• 4:08
  transgender woman, says she was
• 4:10
  singled out by DPS.
• 4:12
  Honestly, in my personal
• 4:14
  opinion, it seemed like they were
• 4:16
  not given guidance on how to enforce
• 4:18
  this bill or enforce this
• 4:20
  new policy that had been put in
• 4:21
  place.
• 4:22
  A DPS trooper later cited Vasquez
• 4:24
  and three other demonstrators with
• 4:26
  criminal trespass warnings, which
• 4:27
  bans them from Capitol grounds for
• 4:29
  a year.
• 4:30
  But Caleb Armstrong, a trans
• 4:32
  activist who is at the protest,
• 4:34
  says the bathroom bill is sure to
• 4:36
  have effects beyond Capitol walls.
• 4:38
  It makes it so
• 4:40
  you can't go to your
• 4:42
  kids band concert
• 4:44
  because you you're not allowed to
• 4:45
  use the bathroom that aligns with
• 4:47
  who you are at their school,
• 4:49
  or you can't go spend a
• 4:51
  day at the public park because
• 4:53
  you're terrified to go into the
• 4:55
  restroom.
• 4:55
  Armstrong says, as long as the
• 4:57
  bathroom bill is in effect, its
• 4:59
  nebulous enforcement will push
• 5:00
  trans people out of public life in
• 5:02
  Texas.
• 5:03
  I'm Katy McAfee in Austin.
• 5:10
  This is Austin Signal.
• 5:11
  Thank you for tuning in.
• 5:13
  You may recognize the stories from
• 5:15
  Volces Oral History Center.
• 5:17
  Maybe you've heard them right here
• 5:18
  on our airwaves.
• 5:19
  Based at the University of Texas
• 5:21
  since its founding in nineteen
• 5:22
  ninety nine, the center has gathered
• 5:24
  more than eighteen hundred oral
• 5:26
  history interviews and over twenty
• 5:28
  five hundred photographs, helping
• 5:29
  to document the story of the Latino
• 5:32
  experience in Texas and the United
• 5:34
  States and preserving that record
• 5:35
  for future generations.
• 5:37
  For a quarter of a century, Voces
• 5:39
  has been led by its founder, Maggie
• 5:41
  Rivas Rodriguez, but that
• 5:42
  is about to change.
• 5:44
  Next year, Rivas Rodriguez will
• 5:45
  be stepping down from Voices ahead
• 5:47
  of her retirement.
• 5:49
  Texas Standards David Brown spoke
• 5:51
  with her about the program and
• 5:52
  what's next, but first asks
• 5:54
  her to take us back to the
• 5:55
  beginning.
• 5:57
  We we started off wanting to do just
• 5:59
  audio and a friend of mine named
• 6:01
  Hector Galan who's a documentary
• 6:03
  film producer said, Don't do audio,
• 6:05
  do video because if we do a
• 6:07
  documentary it can be my like
• 6:09
  my field research.
• 6:10
  Right.
• 6:10
  So we started off doing video
• 6:13
  because of Hector and I
• 6:15
  fell in love with video and it was
• 6:16
  so important that we start off at a
• 6:18
  time when oral history really was
• 6:20
  not doing a lot of video work,
• 6:22
  we started off doing video and
• 6:23
  I'm so glad we did because we still
• 6:25
  have those video interviews
• 6:28
  with people, including my parents
• 6:29
  who were both of this generation.
• 6:31
  Yeah.
• 6:31
  That are great treasures for all of
• 6:33
  us.
• 6:34
  Yeah, you know, i it's interesting
• 6:35
  that you come from the world of
• 6:37
  journalism initially, and
• 6:39
  I think that you have an
• 6:41
  appreciation for something that
• 6:42
  perhaps some of our listeners might
• 6:44
  not completely, and that is when you
• 6:46
  talked when you do these interviews,
• 6:48
  there's so much that winds up on the
• 6:50
  cutting room floor once it's
• 6:51
  condensed into a story that's
• 6:53
  fit for print, as they say.
• 6:55
  And and th there are gems,
• 6:57
  jewels, there's nuance and texture
• 7:00
  that if if you if it
• 7:02
  were just left to an article
• 7:04
  or an occasional piece or or
• 7:06
  what have you, it wouldn't do
• 7:08
  the full story justice.
• 7:09
  So a big part of what Voses
• 7:11
  seems to me contributes
• 7:14
  is having a much more full and
• 7:15
  rich story that's preserved.
• 7:18
  It's the preservation aspect
• 7:20
  of it and that and and having
• 7:22
  the complete story as well, it seems
• 7:24
  to me.
• 7:25
  That's such a great point, David,
• 7:26
  because it is one of my
• 7:27
  frustrations. If y probably
• 7:29
  in your career you've seen you've
• 7:30
  done the same thing where you've
• 7:31
  interviewed somebody and what
• 7:33
  ends up on the air is just a small
• 7:36
  small piece of what they said.
• 7:38
  It is frustrating.
• 7:39
  But it is true that that the that
• 7:41
  the real gold is that full
• 7:43
  interview. And one of my
• 7:45
  frustrations is that when
• 7:47
  people look at our website,
• 7:49
  vocescenter.org,
• 7:52
  if they look at our website they see
• 7:54
  the stories that have come out of
• 7:56
  those interviews, some people think
• 7:58
  that that is the oral history
• 7:59
  project.
• 8:00
  Right.
• 8:01
  And it's not. It is a journalistic
• 8:02
  interpretation of the interview.
• 8:04
  Mm-hmm.
• 8:04
  So to look at to see the entire
• 8:06
  interview, you either have to
• 8:08
  go to the repository,
• 8:10
  which is the Nettie Lee Benson Latin
• 8:12
  American collection on campus,
• 8:14
  or we are trying to put as many
• 8:16
  interviews as we can on YouTube.
• 8:18
  So when you go to YouTube,
• 8:20
  you can look up by collection like
• 8:22
  World War II collection and you
• 8:24
  can see some interviews of people
• 8:26
  that we interviewed twenty five,
• 8:28
  twenty-six years ago at the
• 8:30
  very beginning.
• 8:31
  And most of these people are no
• 8:33
  longer with us.
• 8:34
  But that is that is the the
• 8:36
  beauty of having that
• 8:37
  w that it can be those interviews
• 8:39
  can be interpreted and
• 8:41
  understood in different ways by
• 8:43
  different people depending on your
• 8:44
  on your perspective.
• 8:45
  Yeah. I w I want to dig a little bit
• 8:47
  deeper into your early years as a
• 8:49
  reporter, which obviously shaped
• 8:51
  a lot of your appreciation for for
• 8:53
  this narrative approach that Vosis
• 8:56
  i has has developed.
• 8:58
  I understand that well
• 9:00
  before Vosis was initially
• 9:02
  conceived, you saw a need
• 9:04
  for more lat Latino representation
• 9:06
  in the industry at large.
• 9:07
  You were, I gather, among the
• 9:09
  committee that founded the National
• 9:11
  Association of Hispanic Journalists.
• 9:12
  Do I have that right?
• 9:13
  That is correct.
• 9:14
  Tell us a little bit about what you
• 9:16
  were hoping to accomplish there.
• 9:18
  Well, you know, I was a student here
• 9:20
  at U T and I graduated
• 9:22
  from U T in nineteen seventy six.
• 9:24
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:25
  And even in the seventies
• 9:27
  we were looking at the newspapers
• 9:29
  and the Daily Texas and we a lot
• 9:31
  of us did work at the Daily Texan,
• 9:33
  but the the number of stories that
• 9:35
  we could that we found in the Daily
• 9:36
  Texan or in the Austin newspaper,
• 9:38
  San Antonio newspapers, was
• 9:40
  really, really there were very few
• 9:42
  that were about the Latino
• 9:44
  experience.
• 9:45
  So what we didn't know was we
• 9:47
  didn't realize that the Kerner
• 9:48
  Commission report had come out and
• 9:50
  they had looked at the same issues
• 9:52
  of the the news new
• 9:54
  media was largely told
• 9:56
  through the perspective of
• 9:58
  people that were not part of these
• 10:00
  quote unquote minority communities.
• 10:02
  So our stories kept on getting lost.
• 10:04
  And so we were very aware of that.
• 10:05
  We were very you know, we as
• 10:07
  students were very aware of that.
• 10:08
  And we did a conference here in
• 10:10
  nineteen seventy-five that
• 10:12
  brought in people from all over the
• 10:14
  country to look
• 10:16
  at some of the issues facing Latinos
• 10:18
  in in the news media and
• 10:20
  what it meant to be part
• 10:22
  of the news media and try to get
• 10:24
  those stories told in the news
• 10:25
  media. So that it it really goes
• 10:27
  back to my college days.
• 10:28
  Well, flash forward, I ended
• 10:30
  up going to the Boston Globe
• 10:32
  and I was working at the Boston
• 10:34
  Globe from nineteen seventy
• 10:36
  nine to nineteen eighty two.
• 10:38
  And at the Boston Globe I was
• 10:40
  the first Hispanic they ever hired
• 10:42
  and there were you know, I had a lot
• 10:44
  of of black friends
• 10:46
  there and we would meet and we
• 10:48
  would talk about how can
• 10:50
  we get more perspective into
• 10:51
  the newspaper, how can we champion
• 10:54
  our stories.
• 10:55
  So we we we tried to
• 10:57
  to do as much as we could,
• 10:58
  but it was kind of
• 11:00
  the the entire thing was
• 11:03
  because we didn't have a lot of
• 11:04
  editors who could say, Well, that's
• 11:06
  a great story idea.
• 11:07
  And we didn't have enough reporters
• 11:09
  saying that story needs to be told
• 11:11
  and and it needs to be placed in
• 11:13
  a prominent part of the newspaper,
• 11:15
  not buried.
• 11:16
  So when I was at the Boston Globe,
• 11:19
  I got an invitation to be part
• 11:20
  of committee to
• 11:22
  plan a conference of Hispanic
• 11:24
  journalists.
• 11:25
  And that took place in nineteen
• 11:28
  eighty-two in San Diego.
• 11:29
  So we planned this thing for I
• 11:31
  don't remember if it was a year or
• 11:33
  whatever, but that but I was part of
• 11:34
  that committee.
• 11:35
  And I made sure at that point
• 11:37
  to reach out to as many Hispanic
• 11:39
  journalists in the New England
• 11:41
  region as I possibly could.
• 11:43
  And and so that was kind of
• 11:45
  the beginning of my involvement
• 11:48
  in what ended up being the National
• 11:49
  Association of Hispanic Journalists.
• 11:51
  But in San Diego at that conference
• 11:53
  in nineteen eighty two,
• 11:55
  there were something like seven
• 11:56
  hundred people at this conference.
• 11:58
  I had never seen so many Hispanic
• 11:59
  journalists in one place.
• 12:01
  And we had some of the
• 12:03
  same problems
• 12:05
  that sometimes we'd have what we
• 12:07
  thought was a really important story
• 12:08
  idea and it would get shot down.
• 12:11
  Or we had a really important story
• 12:13
  and it got buried.
• 12:14
  And and we didn't have
• 12:16
  just by being able to talk about
• 12:18
  these issues and try to come up
• 12:20
  with solutions that was so
• 12:22
  important to all of us.
• 12:27
  That was a conversation between
• 12:28
  Voss's founder Maggie Rivas
• 12:30
  Rodriguez.
• 12:31
  She was speaking with the Texas
• 12:33
  Standards David Brown.
• 12:35
  You can hear their full interview at
• 12:37
  Texas Standard.org.
• 12:38
  And we're gonna have a link in
• 12:40
  today's podcast show notes.
• 12:42
  That is at KUT.org
• 12:45
  slash signal.
• 12:47
  A quick note from the
• 12:49
  KUT Newsroom happened
• 12:51
  late yesterday afternoon.
• 12:52
  Travis County is working to
• 12:54
  exonerate four young men in the case
• 12:56
  known as the Yogurt Shop Murders.
• 12:58
  It's after Austin police identified
• 13:00
  the man that they believe was
• 13:01
  responsible for the 1991
• 13:03
  killings of four girls.
• 13:05
  Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen,
• 13:07
  Maurice Pierce, and Forrest Wellburn
• 13:10
  were all charged in 1999.
• 13:12
  APD said in September they
• 13:14
  believe Robert Eugene Braschers
• 13:16
  committed the murders.
• 13:17
  Brashers died in nineteen
• 13:18
  ninety-nine.
• 13:19
  We have more from KUT's
• 13:21
  government accountability reporter
• 13:23
  Andrew Weber.
• 13:24
  That is at KUT.org.
• 13:27
  And we're gonna have more Austin
• 13:29
  Signal coming up in
• 13:30
  just a moment.
• 13:32
  You are listening to community
• 13:34
  powered public radio.
• 13:35
  This is KUT News
• 13:37
  90.5 or on the
• 13:39
  K U T app and online
• 13:41
  at K U T.org.
• 13:52
  This is Austin Signal.
• 13:55
  Thank you for tuning in.
• 13:57
  The holiday season is upon
• 13:59
  us and it is a nostalgic
• 14:01
  one, taking time to listen back
• 14:02
  to stories about who we are as
• 14:04
  a people and why we do the
• 14:06
  things that we do and partake in the
• 14:08
  traditions that we do.
• 14:10
  Traditions of old old
• 14:11
  Austin particularly, like the
• 14:13
  37th Street lights,
• 14:15
  the installation slinging lights
• 14:17
  from house to house as cars and
• 14:19
  people pass through.
• 14:20
  How did it come to be?
• 14:22
  Well, somebody asked our ATX Wayne
• 14:24
  project about it.
• 14:25
  Let's take it back to a fresh-eared
• 14:27
  2019 Cherokee
• 14:29
  Honel.
• 14:31
  I already had plans to head over and
• 14:33
  see the lights on 37th Street this
• 14:35
  year. Then someone told me they
• 14:37
  wanted to come along and check it
• 14:39
  out. So off we went to explore
• 14:41
  the street pulsing with color and
• 14:43
  discover the origins of the lights.
• 14:45
  Just say like, my name is my name.
• 14:47
  My name is Anna Quijano.
• 14:48
  Wait, do it again.
• 14:49
  Hi, my name is Anna Quijano and
• 14:50
  we're at the thirty seventh street
• 14:52
  light show.
• 14:54
  And how how do you know me?
• 14:57
  I am Jerry's mom.
• 15:00
  She'd just driven up from San
• 15:01
  Antonio and we're looking out as the
• 15:03
  darkest part of the night is
• 15:04
  beginning to be illuminated with
• 15:06
  glowing bulbs of electric color.
• 15:08
  There's blue, red, green, yellow,
• 15:11
  and everything in between.
• 15:12
  The lights are connected between
• 15:15
  right over the street.
• 15:16
  I mean over it looks like it could
• 15:17
  be power lines.
• 15:19
  But they're just like roped from
• 15:21
  across the street from each other.
• 15:23
  Looks pretty cool.
• 15:24
  She was probably thinking the same
• 15:25
  thing our question asker Liz Artega
• 15:28
  thought when she used to visit the
• 15:29
  lights as a kid.
• 15:30
  Yeah, they look pretty and all,
• 15:32
  but is this safe?
• 15:34
  You know, I went with my parents one
• 15:36
  year and my dad was an electrician
• 15:37
  and he was like, Oh man, this is
• 15:39
  this is a spider hazard for sure.
• 15:41
  Liz grew up in North Austin and
• 15:43
  visited the lights back in the early
• 15:45
  nineties. The festivities along
• 15:47
  the houses of thirty seventh street
• 15:49
  set a high bar for Liz's idea
• 15:51
  of Christmas.
• 15:52
  She just assumed everyone in
• 15:54
  central Austin loved Christmas
• 15:56
  this much, but not in the
• 15:57
  usual Santa Claus, Frosty
• 15:59
  the Snowman, chestnuts roasting on
• 16:01
  an open fire kind of way.
• 16:03
  It was like what made Austin weird.
• 16:05
  It was like one of those things.
• 16:06
  Like, oh yeah, that's why we call
• 16:07
  Austin weird.
• 16:08
  It's because we have things like
• 16:09
  this around a town around Christmas,
• 16:11
  which almost had nothing to do with
• 16:12
  Christmas.
• 16:13
  And so she wanted to know
• 16:15
  who started this odd Christmas
• 16:18
  adjacent celebration.
• 16:19
  Well, one of the people responsible
• 16:21
  for igniting the tradition is Jamie
• 16:23
  Lipman.
• 16:24
  He moved onto 37th Street in
• 16:26
  the late 1970s.
• 16:28
  He was stringing up his first set of
• 16:29
  lights when someone told him to try
• 16:31
  letting them hang straight down for
• 16:33
  a change.
• 16:34
  Well that's different.
• 16:35
  So I went with it.
• 16:36
  And a sort of a tic
• 16:39
  tac toe cross piece
• 16:41
  that I attached the lights to and
• 16:43
  then pulled it up with a rope.
• 16:45
  People could get in the middle of
• 16:46
  the strings and spin around.
• 16:48
  Pretty soon the other residents on
• 16:50
  the street started hanging their own
• 16:52
  lights, then Jamie and another
• 16:54
  neighbor decided they wanted their
• 16:55
  houses to be connected by lights.
• 16:58
  Across the road, over
• 17:00
  someone's house who had no lights,
• 17:02
  you know, just in the trees,
• 17:04
  and we connected and
• 17:06
  that was sort of the big
• 17:08
  catalyst for people to oh,
• 17:10
  I wanna put up lights, I wanna do
• 17:12
  this. So we ran with it.
• 17:14
  Jamie says the 37th Street lights
• 17:16
  hit their heyday in the late 80s
• 17:18
  and early 90s, but as the
• 17:20
  light displays grew, so did
• 17:21
  concern that the whole thing might
• 17:23
  be a safety hazard.
• 17:25
  Then the blackout of 1993
• 17:27
  happened. Jamie says he woke up
• 17:29
  one morning and walked out to find a
• 17:31
  city worker on a cherry picker
• 17:33
  removing the lights.
• 17:34
  So, as a form of protest, the
• 17:36
  residents on 37th Street banded
• 17:38
  together and shut down the whole
• 17:40
  thing. Then they told upset
• 17:42
  visitors that they'd have to take it
• 17:43
  up with then Mayor Bruce Todd.
• 17:46
  So they did.
• 17:47
  Two days later they came back
• 17:49
  and put all the lights back up.
• 17:51
  And Mayor Todd walked
• 17:53
  down the street and said, Well, we
• 17:55
  messed with Christmas, we made a
• 17:56
  mistake.
• 17:57
  The lights burned bright until the
• 17:59
  mid-2000s when Jamie and some
• 18:01
  of his fellow neighbors moved out of
• 18:02
  the area. But thanks to the help of
• 18:04
  some new people on the block, the
• 18:06
  past few Christmases on 37th
• 18:08
  Street have been getting brighter
• 18:10
  and stranger, and that brings
• 18:12
  us back to this year.
• 18:13
  One of the first displays my mom and
• 18:15
  I bumped into was a science
• 18:17
  fair put on by stuffed
• 18:19
  animals.
• 18:20
  Which stuffing type exhibits the
• 18:22
  greatest cuddling force?
• 18:23
  Do stuffed balloon animals withstand
• 18:26
  the weather better than traditional
• 18:27
  balloon animals?
• 18:28
  What should I put in my pouch?
• 18:30
  Says the kangy.
• 18:31
  Does proximity to stuffed animals
• 18:33
  affect plant growth?
• 18:34
  The charmin bears wear underwear
• 18:36
  but not clothing.
• 18:37
  Why can't we see it?
• 18:40
  So not your typical
• 18:43
  light show so far.
• 18:45
  Not at all.
• 18:46
  Not all the houses on the streets
• 18:48
  are decked out in lights, but a
• 18:49
  good chunk of them are.
• 18:51
  People walk along both sidewalks
• 18:53
  dipping in and out of yards
• 18:55
  while cars drive down the road
• 18:57
  moving almost as slowly as the
• 18:58
  fascinated pedestrians.
• 19:00
  And the displays, yeah,
• 19:02
  they're still a little weird.
• 19:06
  I can't see.
• 19:08
  I think we have an idea.
• 19:09
  Oh, he's pole dancing.
• 19:13
  We walk down the streets weaving
• 19:14
  through the people and houses,
• 19:16
  searching out the perfect spots for
• 19:18
  my now influencer mom to
• 19:20
  snap some photos.
• 19:21
  I gotta document some of this on my
• 19:22
  phone.
• 19:23
  Even though I'm doing a story on it.
• 19:25
  Yeah, for my for my Instagram.
• 19:27
  Hello.
• 19:33
  I remember coming here with my
• 19:34
  family as both a young
• 19:36
  kid but then a lot also as a
• 19:38
  teenager.
• 19:39
  It was one of my favorite spots to
• 19:40
  go with many of my friends that
• 19:42
  lived around this neighborhood.
• 19:43
  Robert Foster moved to 37th
• 19:45
  Street in 2015.
• 19:46
  He started rattling his neighbors to
• 19:48
  gage their interest, and they
• 19:50
  decided to bring glory back to 37th
• 19:52
  Street.
• 19:53
  The first year it was very small,
• 19:55
  but there was just these two kids
• 19:56
  that were just having the absolute
• 19:57
  best time of their life right
• 19:59
  outside my window during the light.
• 20:00
  And I just realized at that point
• 20:02
  that like we we just had to do it.
• 20:03
  Like we had to bring a little weird
• 20:05
  and little joy back to Austin.
• 20:07
  He says the lights on thirty seventh
• 20:09
  street embody the idea that
• 20:11
  Austinites are just a little
• 20:12
  different.
• 20:13
  We come together.
• 20:14
  We also come together and we don't
• 20:16
  want just to see Santa Claus
• 20:18
  and like a Christmas tree.
• 20:19
  We wanna be creative, we wanna be
• 20:21
  unique, we wanna revel
• 20:23
  in like the diversity that the
• 20:25
  city has.
• 20:26
  Some people say there isn't much
• 20:28
  weird left in Austin anymore.
• 20:30
  For me, yeah.
• 20:31
  The lights were weird and they were
• 20:33
  cool. But what did my mom
• 20:36
  think?
• 20:36
  Would you say that
• 20:39
  that this experience was weird?
• 20:43
  Some of it was weird.
• 20:44
  Not a lot of it.
• 20:45
  A lot of it was just very
• 20:47
  creative to me.
• 20:49
  There's a few weird things, but I'm
• 20:51
  I wouldn't call they need to get
• 20:53
  weirder.
• 20:54
  Jerry Quijano, K U T
• 20:56
  News.
• 20:59
  That story was reported in
• 21:01
  December of 2019.
• 21:03
  That was before our very
• 21:05
  first AT Explained live
• 21:07
  show. And our next AT
• 21:09
  Explained Live Show is in the works,
• 21:11
  and the show date is set.
• 21:13
  It is May 21st next year
• 21:15
  at the Bass Concert Hall, and
• 21:17
  tickets are now available.
• 21:19
  You can get yours by going to K U
• 21:21
  T.org and finding out more.
• 21:22
  We're gonna have a link in the
• 21:24
  podcast show notes.
• 21:25
  Again, that's KUT.org
• 21:27
  slash signal.
• 21:28
  And don't forget you can subscribe
• 21:30
  to the ATXplained podcast
• 21:32
  as well as Austin Signal
• 21:34
  so that you never miss a thing that
• 21:36
  we're working on, because we are
• 21:38
  staying busy here at the KUT
• 21:40
  studios, bringing you everything
• 21:42
  that's been going on in Austin.
• 21:44
  And this week has been a busy one.
• 21:46
  KUT City Hall reporter Luz Moreno
• 21:48
  Lozano had the story of the
• 21:50
  downtown YMCA Town
• 21:52
  Lake expansion.
• 21:53
  The idea was brought to council
• 21:54
  earlier this week.
• 21:55
  They want to add housing and
• 21:56
  restaurants and office space
• 21:58
  to their current space with a little
• 22:00
  bit of an expansion and a
• 22:02
  renovation.
• 22:03
  KUT's government accountability
• 22:05
  reporter Andrew Weber also had the
• 22:06
  story of an Austin Energy employee
• 22:09
  accused of defrauding the city
• 22:11
  utility out of more than a
• 22:13
  million dollars.
• 22:13
  These stories are at KUT.org
• 22:16
  in addition to K U T's
• 22:18
  healthcare reporter Olivia Almridge
• 22:20
  covering the flu season.
• 22:22
  That we are in and going into
• 22:23
  through February.
• 22:24
  We have Waymo's passing AISD
• 22:27
  school busses.
• 22:28
  And we're wrapping up 2025.
• 22:30
  Our Sister Station K U T X
• 22:32
  is looking back at the year that
• 22:34
  was in Austin Music with the
• 22:36
  artists of the month and their
• 22:37
  favorite Austin songs
• 22:39
  of 2025.
• 22:40
  Again, K U T.org
• 22:42
  slash signal, or you can
• 22:44
  subscribe wherever you listen
• 22:46
  to your shows.
• 22:48
  Thank you for spending your week
• 22:50
  with us.
• 22:50
  We are listener-powered public
• 22:52
  radio, and we couldn't do what we
• 22:54
  do every single day without the help
• 22:56
  of our team. Kristen Gabrera
• 22:58
  is our managing producer.
• 22:59
  Rayna Sevilla is our technical
• 23:01
  director, and Jimmy Mass
• 23:03
  is our showrunner.
• 23:05
  I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
• 23:07
  We will talk to you on Monday.
• 23:09
  Have a fantastic weekend.