BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 21, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Blog: State Leaders Threaten Property Tax Revenue Freeze Over Police Defunding (BLOG LINK)
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 103: FY 2021 Budget with Council Member Jimmy Flannigan (District 6) (SHOW LINK)
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
UT students are returning to Austin — for remote learning (Austin American-Statesman)
A lot has changed for University of Texas students over the past year. When the coronavirus pandemic forced classes online in March, many went back to their hometowns. Graduations happened through a computer screen. Some lost jobs and internships. Now, facing a semester with more than half of classes online, students must decide whether to return to campus or wait out the pandemic elsewhere. Some, like junior Chase Breitenbach, have made the decision spend the semester in Austin, even though all his classes will be online.
“I only have two years left of college,” Breitenbach said last week while moving boxes into his new apartment in West Campus. “And if we’re already paying for the lease, and we couldn’t get out of it, I thought it was best to stay where we are.” About half of all UT students will have a fully online course load when classes begin Wednesday, university officials said last week. The hope is that a less-dense campus will mitigate spread of the coronavirus, which is infecting 100 to 300 people in Travis County every day. For some students, the shift online means another semester at home, hunkered down in childhood bedrooms. For others, the pandemic hasn’t changed housing plans. Students often sign leases in popular neighborhoods like West Campus more than a year in advance, and many say they miss the college atmosphere after the spring semester ended in chaos… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City to consider Walter Long park vision, while county moves ahead with expo center plans (Austin Monitor)
City Council will consider and possibly adopt the vision plan for Walter E. Long Metro Park later this month, more than a year after the plan was recommended for adoption by the Parks and Recreation Board.
A memo late last month from Parks and Recreation Department Director Kim McNeeley said the department is ready to present the plan to Council and will give a full presentation at the Aug. 27 meeting. The memo didn’t address the delay in bringing the plan for adoption and in an email to the Austin Monitor, McNeeley wrote, “The city of Austin had been engaged with the county in a number of conversations related to holistic planning and development of the park space and surrounding area.”
Travis County’s involvement in the park’s improvement is significant because it owns and operates the Travis County Exposition Center, which sits on city-owned land inside the park’s 3,600-plus acres.
The vision plan, which was created by Halff Associates following a significant community engagement process, spells out five phases of improvement totaling roughly $800 million, with the expo center’s expansion and reconstruction forecast in a separate 2016 report to cost around $500 million.
While the city moves forward with implementing the vision plan, which is expected to take decades, Travis County has reconvened its Travis County Exposition Center Redevelopment Engagement and Education Committee, which is expected to deliver its initial recommendations on the redevelopment by the end of October.
Rodeo Austin CEO Rob Golding, the leader of that group, said the city appears committed to using as much of its Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue as possible on the planned expansion of the Austin Convention Center rather than helping to fund the redevelopment of one of the largest tracts of land in East Austin.
In recent years City Council and county officials have negotiated unsuccessfully for the city to essentially give up a 2 percentage point piece of the hotel tax so that the county could levy it to help pay for the expo center work.
“I talked with (Assistant City Manager) Rodney Gonzales about this and when I said, gee, it seems like this might be a time for us to rethink whether we need a multibillion-dollar new convention center downtown and maybe there are better, more impactful uses for the HOT tax, his response on behalf of the city was (they) are still doing the analysis on the convention center and we’re not prepared to give anything up until that is complete,” Golding said.
Golding also said he thinks the vision plan for the park won’t bring enough community benefits to the area that is expected to see considerable growth over the next 20-plus years… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tesla urged to use water-saving measures (Austin Monitor)
As Tesla speeds ahead with converting an old sand and gravel mining site in eastern Travis County into a manufacturing facility for its Cybertruck and Model Y SUV, City Council members have begun asking questions about how much water the plant might use and whether Tesla owner Elon Musk would be willing to take steps to reduce the use of city water. The plant at the intersection of State Highway 130 and Harold Green Road could be 4 million to 5 million square feet, according to recent estimates.
Under the previous owner, the 2,100-acre property along the Colorado River in Austin’s extraterritorial jurisdiction was called the Austin Green PUD. The property owners went through most of the arduous process of getting a zoning change in order to make the site eligible for housing developments. Because of the condition of the property – which attorney Richard Suttle has described as looking like a moonscape – there was speculation at the Planning Commission that it might take seven years to clean up the site and make it habitable.
With the intended use changing so radically, that’s no longer an issue; Suttle told City Council’s Water Oversight Committee at Thursday’s meeting that the PUD is on hold after winning Council approval on first reading. Since Tesla purchased the property, it has been in the process of reclaiming it for the last two or three weeks using the mining permits issued to the mine operator, Suttle said.
The previous owner of the property expected it to be annexed into the city, but that seems a lot less likely now. Suttle said under the current regulations the city reviews the site for environmental and water quality regulations and Travis County provides a general permit, looking mostly at drainage and floodplain regulations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Central Austin housing market numbers trend upward following early 2020 lag (Community Impact)
Central Austin’s home sales in July were up 14% over the same month 2019, according to a recent report by the Austin Board of Realtors.
After a five-month slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, overall sales for the years are still down 9.9% compared to last year, but ABoR President Romeo Manzanilla said that strong June and July numbers bode well for the rest of 2020.
“Strong home sales, combined with an increase in new listings and pending sales, are important benchmarks when analyzing the health of our market,” Manzanilla said in a press release. “A healthy housing marketing is vital to the overall economic recovery in the region, and with two consecutive months of positive numbers, we are growing more confident that this is sustainable and can help be the spark that gets our economy back on track.”
Central Austin realtors closed 463 home sales in July at an average price of $707,731—16.1% higher than the average price in July 2019. There was also a 32.3% year-over-year increase in the dollar volume of sales, totaling $327,679,300.
The entire Austin Metropolitan Area saw even stronger gains, with a 21.5% year-over-year increase in sales, minimizing the year-to-date decrease in sales to 0.3%… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas will apply for federal program to get extra $300 per week for unemployed Texans (Texas Tribune)
On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas will apply for federal funding to provide an extra $300 every week for people who have lost their jobs. More than 10 states have already been federally approved for the additional jobless relief, providing an extra $300, and in some cases, $400 in unemployment checks.
The directive from Abbott comes as 61,416 Texans applied for unemployment relief in the week ending Aug. 15. In total, more than 3.2 million Texans have applied for jobless assistance since the coronavirus pandemic began. In March, Congress passed a broad coronavirus relief package that added $600 to people's weekly unemployment checks, but the benefit expired in July leaving many people already reeling from the pandemic deeper in the lurch.
In early August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that he said would add $400 to people’s unemployment checks to help them weather life upended by the coronavirus. The White House later clarified that the federal government would provide $300 per week, and states could decide whether they wanted to contribute an additional $100… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas appeals court rejects ‘Save Chick-fil-a’ lawsuit, hands San Antonio a victory (San Antonio Express-News)
A group of conservative activists doesn’t have grounds to sue San Antonio over the City Council’s refusal to allow a Chick-fil-A restaurant at San Antonio International Airport, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday. The group, which includes former council candidate Patrick von Dohlen, sued the city in September alleging that San Antonio was in violation of a “Save Chick-fil-A” law passed by Texas lawmakers last year that bars government agencies from punishing people or companies for affiliating with or donating to religious organizations.
Seven months earlier, council members had voted to approve a contract with an Atlanta-based concessionaire to bring a slate of new vendors to the airport. But the council told the company to strike Chick-fil-A and find another food vendor, with Councilman Roberto Treviño citing Chick-fil-A’s history of donating to groups opposed to LGBT rights — a point that riled social conservatives. However, the Fourth Court of Appeals ruled the activists had no standing to sue the city and reversing a lower court decision. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Sandee Bryan Marion noted the activists effectively were seeking “to undo and invalidate a contract previously approved by the city council, compel the city to re-open the contract approval process, and require the city to re-award the contract to a subcontractor that will operate a Chick-fil-A restaurant in the airport.” On those grounds, the city has governmental immunity, Marion wrote… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How a state senator is pushing an unproven coronavirus cure (Austin American-Statesman)
As Bob Hall tells it, God brought him to hydroxychloroquine. “It’s interesting how God arranged where you are at certain times,” said the 78-year-old Republican state senator from Edgewood, 60 miles east of Dallas. “It just turned out for a totally unrelated reason, my wife and I were in a doctor’s office and it was just after the pharmacy board issued an order prohibiting the use of hydroxychloroquine. And the physician was very upset over it, because she had been treating patients and seen them turn around in hours and days.” That physician was Ivette Lozano, who on May 9 told a rally in Dallas: “Where and how did I learn to treat COVID patients? Well I’m going to tell you. I learned it from the president of the United States, Donald Trump.”
“For some reason those bureaucrats standing next to our president who think they know more about the president than I do are telling me I can’t use it,” continued Lozano, who runs a family medical clinic in Dallas and is active in the local Republican Party. Hall became convinced that hydroxychloroquine was a coronavirus silver bullet, joining other Republicans, including Trump, in the promotion of a drug that has not been proven to effectively treat the respiratory disease. Instead, hydroxychloroquine, typically used to treat malaria and lupus, has been shown to carry potential risks for COVID-19 patients. Undeterred, Hall has held online town halls with doctors, many with GOP ties, to talk up hydroxychloroquine. And he’s pressed Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials to give physicians greater leeway to treat COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine. On Monday, Hall sent a letter to Texas Medical Board President Sherif Zaafran, claiming that as many as 90% of Covid-related deaths “were lost because of government bureaucrat roadblocks.” “That’s a lot of blood on government bureaucrat hands,” he wrote. The letter asked the medical board to clarify the “freedom of physicians to treat their patients as they deem best” during the pandemic. Hall’s crusade expands a rift between Abbott and the right wing of his party over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic — amid complaints that his mask order among other measures meant to slow the spread of the disease impinge personal freedoms — and it points to how devotees of Trump have rallied around hydroxychloroquine, a treatment touted by the president, as part of a larger political tug-of-war over science and politics… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Biden just made it a lot harder for Republicans to tag him ‘Slow Joe’ (Politico)
In a campaign riddled with verbal gaffes and setbacks, where his cognitive abilities were questioned and his debate performances criticized, Joe Biden stepped up to the lectern and delivered the biggest speech of his life without a hitch.
That in and of itself was no small feat for Biden, known for veering off script or tripping on his words in a way that party Democrats worried could play into the caricature put forward by Donald Trump and Republicans.
But the Democratic nominee appeared at ease as he struck somber notes about the coronavirus pandemic, at once grieving with those who lost loved ones and promising he would take decisive action if elected in November.
“Look, I understand. I understand how hard it is to have any hope right now. On this summer night let me take a moment to speak to those of you who have lost the most. I have some idea how it feels to lose someone you love,” Biden said. “I know that deep black hole that opens up in the middle of your chest and you feel like you're being sucked into it. I know how mean, cruel, and unfair life can be sometimes.”
His remarks featured a greatest hits of lines he has used again and again on the campaign trail. From learning how to handle loss, to his first reaction to Trump’s remarks about white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, to the lessons his father taught him, the messages and even precise phrases were familiar to Biden, likely aiding his smooth delivery.
Biden also wove in a long list of reasonable-sounding policy prescriptions, but he elevated the importance of character, decency and compassion. By turns, he delivered less a celebratory convention speech than a premature inauguration or State of the Union address.
As the former vice president looked to cameras, he stood before a dark room, where reporters, wearing face masks, sat in chairs set up six feet apart from one another. Biden had been waiting more than a half-century to give this speech. It came on the last day of a virtual convention where speakers and videos humanized the 77-year-old career politician as a wellspring of empathy — a decent family man — and someone who would restore a sense of normalcy in America and order in the world.
By addressing the somber mood of the nation and reaching out to those who suffered loss from the pandemic, Biden sought to distinguish his style of leadership from Trump, who’s long been criticized for failing to memorialize those who died from the virus… (LINK TO FULL STORY HERE)
U.S. postmaster general to face tough questioning in Senate hearing (Reuters)
U.S. lawmakers will aggressively question U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in his first appearance before Congress on Friday about recent cost-cutting measures that Democrats say appeared to be an attempt to boost President Donald Trump’s re-election chances.
Under pressure from the public and lawmakers, DeJoy on Tuesday suspended all mail service changes until after the Nov. 3 election. Critics feared they would interfere with mail-in balloting, which is expected to be much more widely used amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that an increase in mail-in ballots would lead to a surge in fraud, although Americans have long voted by mail.
The Republican chairman of the Senate committee holding Friday’s hearing, Ron Johnson, will defend DeJoy in his opening statement, citing his “commendable attempt to reduce those excess costs that are now being cynically used to create this false political narrative.”
Democrats will want to know whether DeJoy plans to undo changes to the mail made in recent weeks. Changes that threatened to slow mail delivery - and in some cases, already have - include reductions in overtime, restrictions on extra mail transportation trips, and new mail-sorting and delivery policies, enacted in an attempt to cut cost… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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