ATX-NNW: Impact 9/9/2025

Persian pop-up Roya is set to open its first brick-and-mortar restaurant in North Austin this fall.

Meet the chef: Roya is owned and operated by chef Amir Hajimaleki who also owns several other Austin restaurants. He has served Roya's Persian cuisine at exclusive pop-up dinners across the Austin area since 2018. 

On the menu: The seasonally rotating menu will feature traditional Persian dishes with "minor modern tweaks" by Hajimaleki. A few mainstays will include:

• Royal Egg, or a savory egg custard with caviar, labneh and a chive blossom garnish
• Gormeh sabzi, or an herb stew made with short rib
• Kashke bademjan, or eggplant dip
• Caviar service

• 7858 Shoal Creek Blvd., Austin

Twelve Austin ISD campuses may be at risk of closing or undergoing other major changes.

What's happening: The district will be required to close or restart these schools after each campus received three F ratings from the Texas Education Agency, AISD officials announced Sept. 3 in a letter to families.

Something to note: This summer, AISD began a school consolidation process to close and merge some campuses in the 2026-27 school year due to budgetary constraints and declining enrollment. While AISD didn't use A-F ratings to rank campuses for potential consolidation, the 2025 ratings may now limit the district's ability to combine campuses, Superintendent Matias Segura said in a letter posted to the district’s website.

Learn more: On Sept. 9, 10 and 15, the district will host virtual meetings to inform community members about its school consolidation process from 6-8 p.m. on Zoom.

After a year of steady work, crews are closing in on completing mobility upgrades along Airport Boulevard in North Austin. The $3.8 million project, part of the city’s larger corridor improvement program, is about 80% finished, according to a Sept. 3 city update. While completion was originally projected for May, substantial completion is now expected by mid-October 2025, weather permitting.

The details: Current work includes finishing a shared-use path on Bruning Avenue, wiring for a new pedestrian signal at Airport and 55th Street, and bike lane improvements on the east side of Airport. Next steps involve extending the shared-use path to 51st Street and temporarily shifting Bruning Avenue traffic to one-way to allow repaving. Crews also plan to install mountable curbs near Lamme’s Candy and add a new bus stop at Bruning Avenue.

Once complete, the corridor between 45th and 55th streets will feature new shared-use paths, upgraded signals, and safer pedestrian crossings—part of the city’s $1.5 billion Corridor Construction Program approved by voters in 2016.

Most Texas public schools are required to display donated posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms under Senate Bill 10, a state law that took effect Sept. 1.

The details: On Aug. 20, a Texas federal judge temporarily blocked the following 11 school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments:

• Alamo Heights ISD
• Austin ISD
• Cy-Fair ISD
• Dripping Springs ISD
• Fort Bend ISD
• Houston ISD
• Lackland ISD
• Lake Travis ISD
• North East ISD
• Northside ISD
• Plano ISD