Austin Mayor Steve Adler, who is about to enter his last year in office as mayor, reflected on another trying year for the city in a statement.
He said, "The top priority this last year has got to be housing affordability and housing supply. That's the existential challenge that we have right now. Austin is a magical place, which is why, I think why so many people are wanting to come here. We're a city where art is being created everywhere. If we're not able to do something about housing affordability, we will be a city that continues to grow, but it'll be a city that can only be afforded by a small group of people and will be a city that consumes art rather than a city that creates art. And if that were to ever happen, the culture and nature of this magical place would change. So, that's got to be the priority this next year."
One of the toughest challenges that the city faced during the year was not so different from what many other places around the country are facing: rising COVID-19 cases and deaths.
When asked about the city's response to COVID-19, Adler said, "Well, overall, I'm real pleased with the city's response to COVID. You know, if their mortality rate was the same in the state of Texas as it is in Austin, over 30,000 Texans would still be alive. So, we've done a lot that's right and we have to keep doing that. We have a community right now that has vaccinated twice the percentage of kids over five years old, five to 12, as the state percentage as well. So, we're doing a good job with a community that is responsive. We need more people to get their boosters and we need more people to get vaccinated. The early information coming in on the new variant, I'm hopeful that the vaccines will be effective against them. I'm hopeful that the severity won't be as high as we once feared. But people who are not vaccinated are at increased risk, especially older people that are not vaccinated, at increased risk. Somehow or another, we have to be able to provide the information to those folks so that they, they protect themselves and better protect the community."
Other challenges included fighting homelessness in the city, which is becoming a more prominent issue and still hasn't been addressed fully.