The Central Austin Catch-Up
Four questions on four stories from the past four days.
Austin ISD ended the 2025-26 school year with a budget deficit, and its state financial rating dropped a grade. How big was the deficit?
The deficit came in at $105 million. Austin ISD’s financial rating dropped to a B, its first time below an A since 2017, and its state score fell to 88 out of 100 from 95. The district plans to borrow $140 million this fall and to make about $19 million more in cuts.
Austin's homeless encampment management program launched in May, and the city has now reported its first results. What did the program's first month cost?
Slide to your guess. Get within $50,000 and we'll count it.
The answer: about $719,000, most of it staff and contractor wages. The city reported crews cleared more than 334 tons of trash from over 100 sites and that 35 people moved into shelter. The Texas Harm Reduction Alliance has criticized the lack of advance notice before cleanups.
1 Hotel Austin opened downtown Sept. 3. Three of these food and drink spots are inside it. One we made up. Which one?
Confluence Chophouse isn’t real. The other three are inside 1 Hotel Austin, which opened Sept. 3 at 96 Red River St. with 252 rooms. It is the brand’s first Texas location and sits in the Waterline, the 74-story tower on Waterloo Greenway.
A West Campus trading card shop opening Sept. 11 at 2350 Guadalupe St. carries the name of basketball player .
Drag a name into the blank, or just tap one.
His first name is short for Mohamed, and it is painted right on the shop's sign.
Mo Bamba Cards & Collectibles opens at 10 a.m. Sept. 11 at 2350 Guadalupe St. The shop sells football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey cards along with Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece and Magic: The Gathering, and plans monthly trade nights.
The four stories behind the questions
The Central Austin Catch-Up. Four questions drawn from Community Impact reporting published Sept. 4-8, 2026.