As Austinites practice social distancing measures such as working from home to slow the coronavirus pandemic, the latest stay-at-home orders announced last week for the city and county requiring facial coverings in public threw us for a bit of a loop. Matthew McConaughey’s bandit alter ego helped explain the finer points — most importantly, owing to a shortage of cloth face masks, it’s okay to cover your…
Neighborhood-Scale Grocery Stores Keep Austin Stocked in a Pandemic
Austinites looking to avoid waiting in line at the major grocery stores limiting their occupancy during the coronavirus pandemic are likely discovering just how useful it is to have a small grocery store or bodega with staple items available within walking distance of their homes. Local outlets like Fresh Plus, Wheatsville Co-Op, and Royal Blue…
Cambridge Tower, Austin’s Breeziest Building, Stays Cool in Strange Times
Working from home as a social distancing measure to slow the spread of coronavirus is an option many people simply don’t have, but it’s easy to forget that privilege when you’ve been stuck inside for nearly a month. Are you looking out your window a lot? The view from my window, which looks east across Lavaca Street, happens…
Keep Your Meetings Local With 10 Extremely Austin Zoom Backgrounds
Unless you already worked from home, in which case we salute you, this whole coronavirus pandemic thing is shaking up your daily routine. For reasons unknown, the world has collectively agreed to use videoconferencing software Zoom for conducting business while distancing ourselves socially, and one nice feature those folks give us is the ability to load…
At Eighth and Congress, Demolition’s Underway for the Hyatt Centric Tower
After a brief pause in local construction due to pandemic-related concerns, work is spinning back up at sites around Austin — and one of them is really, really visible, smack in the middle of downtown at the corner of Eighth Street and Congress Avenue. Internal demolition and construction work at the future site of the 31-story, 246-room…
In 1918, Austinites Fought a Pandemic by Getting Drunk and Doing Heroin
“Avoid crowds, coughs and cowards, but fear neither germs nor Germans!” That’s the sort of helpful social distancing advice you’d find between the pages of the Austin American-Statesman circa 1918, when the Spanish flu pandemic’s chilling effect on city life briefly rivaled the closing days of World War I for prominence in local news. Social gatherings of any…