BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 18, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 74: Episode 74 : Austin Public-Private-Partnerships with John Rosato, Southwest Strategies Group (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
As leaders spar over homelessness in Austin, California becomes a punching bag (Los Angeles Times)
In Austin, a booming tech and music hub that revels in its weirdness and has long been a draw for transplants, residents often complain about being overrun with Californians. More than 7,000 Californians moved to this city and surrounding Travis County in 2017-18, about a quarter of those who moved here from out of state — twice the percentage from five years earlier. Now California has entered the debate as the governor and mayor grapple over Austin’s homeless population. Last summer, inspired after visiting Los Angeles, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and fellow Democrats on the City Council lifted a ban on public camping.
Homeless encampments started spreading from downtown. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, was infuriated. He threatened to “unleash the full power of state agencies to ensure the health and safety of all Texans” if the city did not get a handle on the problem. “San Francisco chose to tolerate homelessness & drug use,” Abbott fumed on Twitter. “It did so in the name of compassion for the homeless. It made the problems worse. The result: Street squalor & misery increased, while government expenditures ballooned. No SF in TX.” Abbott, who lives downtown in the Greek Revival governor’s mansion, completed in 1856, sent state troopers to patrol the area and directed state workers to clear homeless camps from state property. He set up a five-acre state-secured homeless camp at the eastern edge of the city. It has been nicknamed Abbottville, or Adlerville, depending on who is doing the criticizing… (LINK TO STORY)
Housing at odds with parkland and open space in code rewrite (Austin Monitor)
The city’s well-established reputation as a land of abundant green spaces collided with its lack of housing supply last week as City Council debated amendments to the draft Land Development Code.
At stake were city requirements for open spaces and parkland dedication at new residential sites and the possibility that those demands could stop developers from providing the kinds of housing types the city needs in the places it needs them. The debate highlighted a key difference in priorities between Council members over which issue – securing parkland or encouraging new housing – is more pressing.
Given the choice between the two, in the present circumstances, Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison and Mayor Steve Adler said they would choose housing.
“I support parkland and I support open space, but in this case, in this instance, it’s a choice and right now I think the bigger threat to the health and well-being of our community is … the loss of diverse housing supply,” Adler said.
Adler brought an amendment to allow changes to the city’s Parkland Dedication Ordinance so that a fee-in-lieu payment option would be accepted as an option for smaller sites on major corridors… (LINK TO STORY)
Panel will look at future of development and displacement along I-35 (Austin Monitor)
A panel of national experts convened by the Urban Land Institute will look at ideas next week for how Austin could steer development plans for the land surrounding – and possibly covering – Interstate 35 in the years to come. The nine-member panel will spend the week touring the area along I-35 from Cesar Chavez Street to Airport Boulevard while conducting more than 100 interviews with local leaders about how to turn downtown Austin’s major east-west divider into a community asset.
The group’s recommendations for development concepts and possible funding sources will be presented on Feb. 28. Local leaders plan to use the findings as the starting point for community forums about how to manage the surfaces associated with the interstate that is expected to be lowered.
“Lowering the interstate brings a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink what happens on the surface,” said Dewitt Peart, president and CEO of the Downtown Austin Alliance, who noted that there are 30 similar “cap and stitch” projects in progress across the nations.
“These folks have looked at the financing and the community engagement and how to do equitable development. We have the advantage of looking back on projects similar to this, and if those cities had a chance to redo it they would have taken a different approach. What we’re thinking about is not unique, so why not bring in experts to help consult with us?”… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin's Asian Population Is Underrepresented In Public Life. The Census Could Help. (KUT)
Austin’s Asian-American population has been among the city’s fastest growing communities in the past decade, but groups are worried the upcoming census won’t reflect that.
The census is a national headcount that happens every 10 years. It informs the federal government about where it should spend money and how political power should be divvied up. An undercount of the Asian-American population could translate into less political representation in the years to come.
Alice Yi, the community engagement manager for the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, said that’s been a problem for a long time.
“Asian Americans are not represented in all different levels of leadership, and this is related to our civic engagement,” she said.
Yi is working to make sure Austin's Asian population is accurately counted. Officials expect to start sending out postcards next month directing residents to a website where they can respond to the census… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Presidential candidates turn their focus to Texas, as early voting begins (Texas Tribune)
Bernie Sanders wasted little time Friday night at a Dallas-area rally getting to what he said would be a “dramatic announcement.”
“We’re gonna win the state of Texas,” he declared, setting off raucous cheers.
“Yeah, we will,” he added nonchalantly seconds later.
While none of Sanders’ primary rivals has exuded as much confidence ahead of the March 3 primary, several others clearly see opportunity in the delegate-rich state — and are acting accordingly as early voting begins Tuesday. Still, the primary here remains somewhat in flux as campaigns gauge just how seriously to make a homestretch push in the massive, resource-intensive state, one of over a dozen that vote on Super Tuesday. To top it all off, early voting begins in Texas before Nevada or South Carolina even vote, meaning the state of the overall primary could be dramatically different by election day in Texas… (LINK TO STORY)
Report Finds Texas Led The Nation In White Supremacy Propaganda Incidents In 2019 (KUT)
Displays and demonstrations in support of white supremacy doubled in the United States last year, according to a new study, and Texas led the country in incidents.
In 2019, there were just over 2,700 instances nationally in which white supremacists demonstrated or distributed material that was racist, anti-Semitic or anti-LGBTQ, according to the Anti-Defamation League's report. That's more than a six-fold increase since 2017.
The ADL, a nongovernmental organization that monitors hate speech, says two-thirds of those incidents involved the Texas-based group known as Patriot Front, which formed out of a group that helped organize the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017… (LINK TO STORY)
With cruise ship evacuees, Lackland coronavirus quarantine grows to 235 (San Antonio Express-News)
The federal coronavirus quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland grew to 235 people Monday, after Americans evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan were brought to the base, federal officials said. The additional 145 people were among 328 Americans who were evacuated on two planes Sunday from the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that had docked in Japan as the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, continued to spread onboard. The ship, which has been described as a hotbed for transmission, hosted the largest cluster of cases outside of China, where the virus originated.
The evacuation continued as planned, even as test results for 14 of the passengers came back positive for the virus as they were en route to the airport in Tokyo. They were asymptomatic before they disembarked from the ship, officials said. Seven of those infected with the highly contagious virus ended up on the federally chartered flight that landed at 3:50 a.m. in San Antonio, said Dr. William Walters, executive director and managing director for operational medicine at the State Department’s Bureau of Medical Services, during a call Monday with reporters. But those sick passengers, who were isolated from the other passengers and crew in a special area on the plane, were subsequently taken to Omaha, Neb., to be treated at University of Nebraska Medical Center. During the flight to Lackland, two other people were isolated with symptoms, Walters said, but they have not yet been diagnosed with the virus… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Candidates in Obama's orbit fail to capitalize on personal ties (The Hill)
Former President Obama may be the most popular Democrat, but the presidential candidates in his orbit have all but fizzled in their quest for the White House. There's Joe Biden, Obama's vice president, and his friend, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Both Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro served in his administration.
At one point or another in the 2020 campaign, all have touted their relationship with the former president in speeches, campaign videos and town hall appearances. And it hasn't made much difference. "You can talk a lot about Obama, but you're still not Obama," said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale. "He was a fantastic candidate, campaigner and orator. No matter how much you interacted with him or praise him now, that still doesn't give you his innate talents.” “If I put on a Bulls jersey, that doesn't make me Michael Jordan," Vale added. Behind closed doors, Obama has counseled a number of candidates about their campaigns, offering advice from his successful 2008 White House bid and 2012 reelection… (LINK TO STORY)
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