BG Reads | News You Need to Know (October 14, 2019)
[BG PODCAST]
NEW -> Episode 56: Catching up with Chris Shorter, Austin Assistant City Manager (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
What's Next In The Process To Close Austin ISD Schools? (KUT)
The Austin Independent School District finished its third week of community meetings to get feedback on its plan to close and consolidate 12 schools. Now, district staff will revise the proposal before the school board votes in late November.
Here's a wrap-up of what was discussed… (LINK TO STORY)
Central Austin homeowners shudder at new land use code rules (Austin American-Statesman)
Stephanie Ryan has lived in Allandale for 16 years. When she purchased her home, devoting her time and finances to the house where she would spend her retirement, she thought she was investing in a quiet neighborhood.
But now, Ryan fears that Austin’s revised land development code, which stands to add nearly 400,000 homes to Austin, mostly through multi-unit housing developments along major urban corridors, could cram too many people into the area, putting untenable strain on infrastructure and area homeowners, and forever changing the place she calls home. Ryan’s neighborhood, off Burnet Road, is among those that include so-called transition areas in the new draft code… (LINK TO STORY)
Task force to recommend uses for hotel tax money for music industry (Austin Monitor)
With millions of dollars from the city’s hotel tax expected soon to be available for use by the local music industry, the Music Commission is forming a task force to advise City Council on the best way to use those funds.
At last week’s meeting, the commission voted unanimously to create an 11-member task force, made up of five commission members and six at-large members of the public. The task force will dig into how the city could legally use an estimated $3.5 million that will be available by the end of the year.
The money became available following a series of changes by Council to the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax, including an increase on the levy to 17 percent and a decision to make for-profit music-related businesses eligible for a portion of the tax money dedicated to cultural arts… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin metered parking rates could reach $5 per hour this year depending on demand (Community Impact)
The city announced earlier this week that starting Oct. 14, metered parking rates would increase to $2 per hour, up from the current rates of $1 per hour and $1.20 per hour downtown. However, that may not be the last rate increase drivers see this year.
Depending on demand, metered parking rates could reach as high as $5 per hour in some parts of the city, according to Austin transportation officials. This new market-based approach is an effort to bring supply and demand economics to the city’s parking policy. The strategy has been cited by transportation experts as a best practice to help ease congestion and encourage use of alternative transportation modes.
Mary Vo, spokesperson for the Austin transportation department, said the city would regularly monitor how the pricing impacts the city’s metered spaces, with the goal of always having 15-20% of metered parking spaces available on a block. If there are regularly no empty spaces in a given area, it signals parking might be too cheap considering demand; likewise, if half the block’s spaces are regularly vacant, it signals parking may be too expensive, according to Vo… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
No refugees allowed? Trump’s plan to give states and cities a veto prompts an outcry. (Texas Tribune)
No state in America resettled more refugees in the past year than Texas. And in the state capital, the mayor says the influx has been a boon.
“It’s brought in industrious, hard-working people. It’s brought greater exposure to the world and to different cultures,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said. “It’s a positive for the community.”
But it may end. Under policy changes announced by the Trump administration late last month, Adler’s neighbor in the governor’s mansion could opt to block refugee admissions to Texas next year. Trump’s executive order requires state and local governments to consent in writing before people can arrive, meaning a state could ban refugees even when a city is prepared to welcome them, and vice versa… (LINK TO STORY)
Industry advocates wary as state weighs hemp rules (Austin American-Statesman)
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has a seemingly innocuous question for farmers intent on planting hemp in the state: Who is going to buy your crop?
But where he might ask it — on the official applications for Texas growing licenses — is roiling some hemp advocates as potentially excessive government interference in the free market.
Miller says he’s simply considering ways to limit overproduction of the newly legal crop and to curb the temptation to plant on speculation based on the allure of sky-high prices touted by promoters.
“There is going to be a lot of fortunes made (on hemp in Texas) and twice as many lost,” said Miller, a Republican and a supporter of the state law approved four months ago that legalized hemp production in Texas. “We are just trying to head off all the bad actors” to the extent possible… (LINK TO STORY)
Dallas developer Hamilton ‘eagerly’ paid Dallas council members Caraway and Davis, say U.S. prosecutors (Dallas Morning News)
Federal prosecutors on Thursday released transcripts of talks between an indicted affordable-housing developer and the two former Dallas City Council members he allegedly bribed -- one of whom is dead, one of whom sits in federal prison.
Prosecutors say the transcripts, culled from recordings made in person and over the phone, show that developer Ruel Hamilton knew exactly what he was doing: “actively pushing Dallas City Council Members to take official actions to benefit him financially and politically and eagerly paying them for doing so.” Hamilton has insisted that the $40,000 he paid to Carolyn Davis and another $7,000 to Dwaine Caraway weren’t bribes at all, just harmless charitable donations. Prosecutors filed the transcript excerpts to rebuff those claims… (LINK TO STORY)
Houston architects, engineers compete to design homeless encampment solution (Houston Chronicle)
A few dozen Houston architects, engineers and contractors sat down at large conference tables, pulled out their laptops, rulers and sketch pads, and got to work — on a Saturday. The coalition of professionals and students arrived at the bright and open Love Dance Studio just outside of downtown at 2206 Edwards St. early ready to design a modular, movable structure to replace homeless encampments.
With a deadline of 3 p.m. to present their designs to a panel of judges, five teams comprised of members of the American Institute of Architects Houston and the American Institute of Steel Construction competed against each other to design a structure that could help transition people living in the encampments to a more stable environment. Their goal was to develop a “model in the middle,” said Alex Morales, who works in market development for AISC, a trade association, and one of the key organizers behind the event… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds in Syria has other allies worried (New York Times)
President Trump’s surprise acquiescence to a Turkish incursion into northern Syria this week has shaken American allies, and not just because it was a betrayal of a loyal partner. What alarmed them even more was his sheer unpredictability. His inconsistent and rapidly shifting positions in the Middle East have injected a new element of chaos into an already volatile region and have left allies guessing where the United States stands and for how long.
Previous American policymakers were clear about their intentions, said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a former Iraqi national security adviser. “This guy is all emotional,” he said. “It is unpredictable.” The uncertainties only compound simmering worries about the durability of the American commitment to the Middle East. American presidents have been promising for almost 15 years to reduce the country’s presence in the region, unnerving partners like Israel and the Persian Gulf monarchs that rely on American protection… (LINK TO STORY)
[BG BLOG]
Proposed Changes to the 2020 COA Calendar and FY21 Budget Timeline
Changes could be coming to the Austin City Council’s 2020 meeting calendar. Such was the discussion last week at Council’s October 1 work session. City staff’s goal is to have a version prepared for Council vote at their October 17 meeting... (LINK TO STORY)