BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 21, 2019)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 62: Cree Crawford, Founder and President, Ionization Labs (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Anti-displacement advocates seek $2 billion from tech giants to fund housing (Austin Monitor)
A new consortium of community activists has challenged Austin’s biggest technology employers to step forward with $2 billion to fund programs and nonprofits committed to fighting displacement of working-class residents.
The Development Without Displacement Coalition held its first press conference Wednesday morning at City Hall, announcing its intent to open dialogue with representatives from Apple, Google, Facebook and other major employers who have drawn thousands of highly paid workers to Austin in recent decades. Those high incomes have driven up area home prices by 40 percent in the past five years, causing widespread gentrification in East Austin and other pockets of the city.
Pointing to the multibillion-dollar gifts that companies like Microsoft and Apple have made to combat affordability issues in Seattle and San Francisco, group members said the time has come for peer companies in Austin to help solve the housing crisis their growth here has caused.
“So many tech companies have moved in and we’re at kind of a critical mass or tipping point because the tech economy influences the way people live,” said Frank Rodriguez, a group leader and former policy aide to Mayor Steve Adler. “High-tech job seekers are delighted, but first-time buyers and renters aren’t feeling the benefits of tech companies, which have mostly been filtered to the wealthy, and they often displace working-class black, white and Latino communities.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Apple breaks ground on $1B campus, welcomes President Trump to Austin (Austin Business Journal)
Apple Inc. has broken ground on its $1 billion North Austin campus, the technology company announced Nov. 20, which coincided with a visit by President Donald Trump to an Apple manufacturing hub nearby.
The office campus, first announced in December 2018, is expected to house 5,000 employees when it opens in 2022, with capacity to eventually fit 15,000 people.
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) currently employs about 7,000 people in Austin, according to the announcement. The company already has its largest campus outside of California in Austin: the Americas Operations Center off Parmer Lane in Northwest Austin.
“With the construction of our new campus in Austin now underway, Apple is deepening our close bond with the city and the talented and diverse workforce that calls it home," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement. "Responsible for 2.4 million American jobs and counting, Apple is eager to write our next chapter here and to keep contributing to America’s innovation story.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Claudio Reyna to be Austin FC sporting director (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin FC has a general manager, and he is one of the most revered names in United States soccer.
Claudio Reyna is leaving New York City FC for the MLS expansion franchise, a league source confirmed to the American-Statesman on Wednesday. The news was first reported by The Athletic.
When reached by the Statesman on Wednesday, an Austin FC spokesperson said, “It is extremely flattering for our club to be linked with an experienced executive with the stature and global experience of Claudio Reyna.”
Reyna’s title at Austin FC will be sporting director, the same role he has held with NYCFC since 2013. He will be responsible for building the team’s roster as well as overseeing all soccer operations including the academy, and will report directly to majority owner and CEO Anthony Precourt… (LINK TO STORY)
See also:
BG Podcast Episode 46: Austin FC Updates from Club President Andy Loughnane
[TEXAS]
As government prepares to seize more land for a border wall, some Texas landowners prepare to fight (Texas Tribune)
When David Acevedo attended a meeting with officials from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in Webb County last month, he thought he would come away with more information about the Trump administration’s border security plans.
But Acevedo, whose family owns 180 acres of land near the Rio Grande in south Laredo, said the meeting only produced more questions about how the administration was going to move forward with plans it had for the swath of land that’s been in his family for generations.
“They didn’t tell us that they were doing a physical barrier,” he said. “They said, ‘It may be a wall, it may be that we just need lights, we’re going to put lighting up, it may be we just need a road.’”… (LINK TO STORY)
South Texas is known for its moderates. A primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar could test that. (Texas Tribune)
It's one of the handful of blue pockets in the state, but unlike the others, it's not clustered in an urban center. The congressional districts that represent it encompass small border cities and ranch lands alike. Like other heavily Hispanic areas, the number of young voters grows each election, and what that means for the Democratic Party is uncertain.
But a spirited primary campaign in the district long held by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a moderate Democrat from Laredo, could test if and how the politics of the area are changing. Cuellar, who has served in Congress since 2004, isn't too different from the other Democrats who represent the Rio Grande Valley in Washington and Austin. But now he’s being challenged by a former intern who is running on a progressive platform… (LINK TO STORY)
Michael Bloomberg files paperwork to get on the Texas primary ballot (Texas Tribune)
Michael Bloomberg filed today for the Democratic presidential primary in Texas, according to the Texas Secretary of State.
The move is notable considering Bloomberg, a billionaire and former New York City mayor, has not yet announced his candidacy, but is reportedly preparing to run. His advisers have said he would skip all four traditional early-state contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, and instead focus his campaign in Super Tuesday states, which include Texas.
Bloomberg mailed his ballot application to the state party headquarters in Austin and paid the $2,500 filing fee, according to the party…(LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Amazon tried to remove a Seattle City Councilmember and lost. (Business Insider)
To Amazon, $1.45 million isn't much money — a rounding error on the billions in revenue the retail giant brings in every year. Apply that $1.45 million to the Seattle City Council elections, however, and it's a far more significant sum.
Of the seven Seattle city districts with races in 2019, most candidates received under $200,000 in donations. But in Seattle's third district, campaign contributions more than doubled that amount.
That's because of Councilmember Kshama Sawant, a Seattle politician who's notoriously critical of Amazon's impact on Seattle.
Amazon gave $1.45 million to a political action committee, the Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy, which lobbies on behalf of Seattle's business groups — the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. And that PAC financially backed Sawant's opponent, Egan Orion, who received over $400,000 in campaign contributions.
Despite the infusion of Amazon cash, Sawant won re-election to Seattle's City Council. She also raised over half a million dollars in campaign donations… (LINK TO STORY)
The Bingham Group, LLC is an Austin-based full service lobbying firm representing and advising clients on municipal, legislative, and regulatory matters throughout Texas.
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