Austin, three mornings a week — a participatory local paper
AUSTIN, TX · MONDAY · WEDNESDAY · FRIDAY · FREE
A new business two blocks over. A permit filed on a house you walk past. A zoning case nobody mentioned at the last neighborhood meeting. Most of it is public record long before it's a headline — you just have to know where to look, or have someone looking for you. That's what this is: a free local paper, three mornings a week, straight to your inbox. Written for people who live at a specific address in Austin, about what's changing near it — and open for you to help fill.
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What's in every edition
Zilker's Ramble — a short, first-person dispatch about what's actually changing on the ground, one block or one corner at a time. Written in the voice of Zilker, our Old-Austin editorial persona: long-memory, a little wry, more interested in what a place used to be than in selling you on what it is now.
What Changed — five Austin stories, hand-picked and given one plain sentence of context each. Not a summary of the article — a reason it might matter to someone at a specific address, credited back to whoever actually reported it.
Rainey's Data Corner — a dry, numbers-first rundown pulled straight from the City's own open data: new permits filed, zoning cases opened, road closures posted, with a link back to the source every time. Written in the voice of Rainey, our New-Austin persona: brisk, data-forward, allergic to spin.
A plain note, up front rather than buried: Zilker and Rainey are editorial voices built for this paper with AI, not staff reporters filing bylines. Everything they point you to — the news stories, the permit and zoning numbers — is real and drawn straight from public record; the two running voices narrating it are a consistent character, not a person you could call. More on why, and who's behind this, on About.
Meet the two voices
Zilker — the Old-Austin voice.
"I've lived three blocks from Barton Springs since before the food trucks had wifi. I'll tell you what's actually going up on your corner — and whether the taco truck survives it."
Neighborhoods, live music, food trucks, what's going up on your corner. Warm, wry, long memory.
Rainey — the New-Austin voice.
"I moved here for the job and stayed for the equity. I read permits for fun, and I will tell you exactly what your ZIP code's development activity just did."
Growth, permits, zoning, the newcomer's survival questions. Brisk, dry, a number first.
(Both are clearly-labeled AI editorial personas, not real reporters — see About.)
The latest edition
The most recent Monday/Wednesday/Friday edition is always the top of the archive — read it before you decide whether to sign up. Every past edition stays there too, so nothing you subscribe to is a mystery first.
This is a participatory paper — send a tip
Public record is usually a few weeks behind the fence that just went up on your corner. If you've noticed something changing near you — construction, a new opening, a block that suddenly looks different — tell us. We check anything we use against the public record ourselves before it goes anywhere, and a tip is never attributed to you by name.
About this paper
austin-texas.news is an independent local newsletter, published by EZOSHosting, Austin, TX. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the City of Austin or Travis County — for official information, go to austintexas.gov. It's built on a simple idea: the facts that change a street are already public, they're just scattered and late. This paper gathers them, three mornings a week, and lets the people who live there help point at what matters. Read the full About →
An independent newsletter by EZOSHosting, Austin, TX. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the City of Austin or Travis County. Official information: austintexas.gov.