Of all the discussion points at Saturday’s Coffee with the Council meeting, one thing was clear: People want to clean up and improve Austin.

City residents raised questions over dirty trails around Mill Pond, dusty, dry street sweeping, neglect for historic buildings, East Side Lake’s lack of use and more.

“It’s an ugly town to drive through,” said Wade Novak, who also had other concerns about Austin, such as there being no proper crosswalk on Oakland Avenue in front of Queen of Angels Church and no sober nightlife activities for Austinites to enjoy.

“We need to support more sober events in this town,” he said.

Council members answered most questions by alluding to the efforts of Vision 2020, a grassroots community betterment project with 10 major ideas to implement by 2020. In regards to dredging East Side Lake, preserving historic buildings and installing some sort of youth or sober nightlife club, council members urged concerned citizens to attend Vision 2020 committee meetings, as everyone is invited and committees are accepting new committee members.

Vision 2020 committee meeting dates and locations can be viewed at vision2020austin.com.

Austin residents agreed that Vision 2020 and some nonprofit efforts in town are great, but they attacked the council for lack of being proactive itself. However, most agree that the city of Austin is under a tight budget.

Dan Regner, who attended the meeting, defended the council.

“This city council is under some really tight budget restraints,” Regner said.

Furthermore, city council members and others noted that many of the issues at Saturday’s meeting have been addressed in the past, such as dredging East Side Lake or building a new community center. Mayor Tom Stiehm noted that if East Side Lake is dredged, it will simply fill back in again. In regards to a community center, some noted how residents stopped using the old Shaw gym.

Regardless, council members reiterated that most of the issues are already being addressed by Vision 2020.

The next Coffee with the Council meeting will be held the second Saturday in July at the Coffee House on Main.