BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 31, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 72: Market Talk - Atlanta and Southeast Lobbying with Howard Franklin of Ohio River South (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Black And Hispanic Drivers Are Increasingly More Likely To Be Stopped By Austin Police (KUT)
While the black population in Austin hovers around 8%, black people made up roughly 15% of people pulled over by police and 25% of people then arrested in 2018 – a disparity that has worsened since 2015.
At the same time, white and Asian people were underrepresented in motor vehicle stops and resulting arrests, according to a report released by the city Thursday.
“The data really wasn’t a surprise,” said Paulette Blanc, chief of research at MEASURE, a nonprofit that uses data analysis to combat social disparities. “It was more a confirmation of something that we already knew was happening,”
The report from the city’s Office of Police Oversight, Office of Innovation and Equity Office used data on motor vehicle stops collected by the Austin Police Department between 2015 and 2018… (LINK TO STORY)
As rents rise and labor costs increase, Austin small business owners are adopting creative business strategies (Community Impact)
While Austin’s population growth has been a boon to small businesses in terms of clientele, it has led to steeply rising rent and a labor shortage.
Commercial rent in the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area has increased 50% since 2007, per commercial real estate information company CoStar.
“Rent is always ... on our minds,” said Cody Taylor, owner of West Sixth Street restaurant Cafe Josie.
With worsening traffic and scarce parking downtown—and new development in areas such as the Domain and East Austin—diners can go elsewhere, Taylor said.
To stay relevant, Cafe Josie transitioned from a traditional menu to a tasting format and reintroduced lunch service… (LINK TO STORY)
CEO: Bay Area ‘not sustainable’ so we're moving to Austin (Austin Business Journal)
San Francisco online-survey company QuestionPro moved its headquarters to Austin after finding it too difficult and costly to make a big hiring push in California's Bay Area.
“We need to be in a city where we can scale and grow,” QuestionPro founder and CEO Vivek Bhaskaran said. “The Bay Area is too high priced, but price-to-valuation is a better description of the situation.”
He said if employees’ rents are going up at 10 percent then they need a similar increase in their salaries, with some already devoting half their income for rent payments in the Bay Area.
“We are beginning to scale the team, and we can’t scale at these rates,” Bhaskaran said. The company had about 20 employees at its San Francisco headquarters on Market Street. With the move to Austin, the company plans to grow its workforce to 100.
“The economics of the Bay Area are not sustainable,” said Bhaskaran, who founded QuestionPro in 2005 and moved the company’s headquarters to San Francisco in 2011.
“The Bay Area has nicer weather, there’s no question about that. But economically, we could not make it work,” Bhaskaran said.
QuestionPro, with more than 3.5 million users, counts among its clients Visa, Amazon, Intel, Netflix, Google and Facebook.
So why Austin?
Much of the team has West Coast roots and were willing to move to the Texas capital, Bhaskaran said.
“Austin is the perfect tech-friendly city for QuestionPro to place our roots and to drive our business to the next level,” Bhaskaran said. “It offers a mix of vibrant startups, incubators and classic technology corporations that we’re excited to be a part of.”
He’s also confident that QuestionPro can attract new hires to Austin as he builds the company’s workforce. The company had considered Dallas and Houston, but Bhaskaran said attracting the tech talent the company seeks to those cities was a “nonstarter.” Still, Texas has been a popular destination for Bay Area companies and residents leaving California.
Bhaskaran’s assessment of hiring in the Bay Area is echoed by other entrepreneurs and executives who have decided it’s time to leave California. Last year, Chubbies Shorts Co. also moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin, sharing the news with customers in an email that sported the subject line, “The sun is setting on SF.”
Caring.com CEO Jim Rosenthal moved his company’s headquarters from San Mateo to Charlotte, North Carolina, saying, “We struggled a lot to hire in San Mateo. At times, I felt like I was banging my head against the wall.” … (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
More Texas renters are struggling to find affordable housing, new report finds(Texas Tribune)
The percentage of Texans who rent instead of own their homes is rising at a faster rate than the state’s population. So, too, is the number of households spending more than 30% of their income on rental housing costs.
According to a Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies analysis released late Thursday, by 2018, nearly half of Texas households that rent were considered moderately or severely cost burdened by 2018. Moderately cost burdened means people spend between 30% and 50% of their household income on rent. And severely cost burdened means they spend more than 50%.
“In terms of other states, this is kind of in the middle of the pack,” said Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, research associate at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. “But Texas is seeing affordability pressures grow maybe faster than the rest of the country.” … (LINK TO STORY)
Texas lawmakers to hold hearing on TRS lease (Austin American-Statesman)
State lawmakers plan to scrutinize a decision by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to spend at least $326,000 a month on rent — or $3.9 million annually to start — for a new upscale office in downtown Austin, as sticker shock over the price tag continues to reverberate. State Rep. Jim Murphy, R-Houston, who chairs the House committee overseeing pensions and financial services, said a hearing on the issue is likely to take place in March, although a precise date hasn’t been nailed down yet.
Recently disclosed base rates for the retirement system’s lease of office space in the 36-story Indeed Tower under construction on West Sixth Street have stunned many retired teachers and prompted criticism from a number of state lawmakers — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — who contend the pension fund doesn’t need lavish digs in the most high-priced area of the city. “Warren Buffett works out of Omaha, Neb., and I wouldn’t call that a garden spot,” said state Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, referring to the famed investor and billionaire. Indeed Tower, named after the internet job-search company that will occupy its top 10 floors, is expected to be among Austin’s premier office buildings once it opens next year. The retirement system manages retirement benefits for about 1.6 million current and former teachers and school employees… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Bloomberg surges past Warren into third place in new national poll (The Hill)
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg surged past Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the latest nationwide Hill-HarrisX poll, putting him in third place in the field of Democratic presidential candidates. The survey, released Thursday, showed Bloomberg’s support ticking up 4 percentage points to 11 percent from from a Jan. 13-14 poll. Warren dropped 2 points, to 9 percent.
Other candidates registering in the single digits included former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, at 5 percent, and businessman Andrew Yang and billionaire Tom Steyer, who each received 4 percent. The rest of the White House hopefuls polled at 2 percent or less. Warren has struggled to rebound nationally after peaking at 19 percent support in October. But Warren isn’t the only top-tier candidate to slide in the polls ahead of Monday's Iowa caucuses. Progressive rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) dropped 2 points, to 17 percent… (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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