By Bridget Grumet
Column
Austin American-Statesman
Originally published May 11, 2018

Click here to read Bridget Grumet’s column, which starts out:

We’re nearly a year into the Austin City Council’s latest push to rein in its late-night meetings. And if, like me, you were watching as the April 26 meeting ran into April 27, with a big debate on rentable scooters starting after midnight and a critical CodeNext discussion running from 2 to 3 a.m., then you know how well that’s going.

Sadly, we’re so inured to late-night council meetings that we’ve accepted this is how Austin does things: Bleary-eyed council members cast important votes while most of the city sleeps, and civic engagement suffers because who can commit that kind of time to being involved?