BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 1, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Podcast Ep 88: Austin Council Member Paige Ellis discusses the Healthy Streets Program (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
City leaders respond to protests (Austin Monitor)
Over the weekend, protesters across the country left their homes in a call for justice for George Floyd and other black victims of police brutality. In Austin, people turned out in an expression of solidarity and to demand accountability for the death of Mike Ramos, in a series of protests that included arrests, the shutting down of Interstate 35, looting, tear gas and fires. Through it all, many city officials remained mute.
Organizers canceled a Sunday march, though many still showed up at the Capitol and later shut down the highway for the second day in a row. Austin Justice Coalition Executive Director Chas Moore addressed the cancellation in a Facebook live video. He explained that protests had been co-opted, posing a threat to good-faith participants and the black community.
“White people have colonized the black anger and the black movement in this particular time frame and have used black pain and black outrage to completely become anarchists in this moment,” Moore said. “There’s no way, with good mind and a good conscience, that we can have this event today, because there’s no way possible we can ensure the safety of black folk.”
Moore said that, in Austin, white people predominantly led the protests that shut down I-35 and led to confrontations with police. The protests and response continue to dominate the news and social media in Austin.
At press time, Mayor Steve Adler and Council members Natasha Harper-Madison, Greg Casar and Paige Ellis had all used their platforms to speak about Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests. Yet most Austin City Council members remained curiously quiet on social media. No other Council members had released statements, though Council Member Ann Kitchen did retweet Harper-Madison’s call for “deep and lasting changes to our social structures and institutions.”
Harper-Madison also signed on to a statement from Eastern Crescent elected officials including state Rep. Sheryl Cole, Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion, Manor Mayor Larry Wallace and Pflugerville Council Member Rudy Metayer… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Third day of protests in Austin sees I-35 blocked again, more standoffs with police (Austin American-Statesman)
Protesters returned to downtown Austin on Sunday even if the day’s organized event, a rally at the Texas Capitol, was canceled on short notice by organizers worried about another day of violence.
The day’s events included tense standoffs between police add protesters at City Hall and multiple closures of Interstate 35 as protesters returned to the main lanes of the highway, just as they’d done Saturday. In separate instances, Austin police responded to reports of looting at LakeLine Mall and a Target store on North I-35.
Sunday’s protests began with an enthusiastic march down Congress Avenue, where demonstrators passed several businesses with plywood-covered windows and the iconic marquee of the Paramount Theatre bearing the message, “Black lives matter.”
Loud cheers greeted horns honked in support as the peaceful protest headed south amid chants of “Hands up. Don’t shoot” and “No justice. No peace.”
Police kept their distance, at one point flanking the long line of protesters while riding on bicycles a block away… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Garza suggests color-coded speed zones to slow car traffic (Austin Monitor)
At least in the short term, the Austin Transportation Department is hanging its hopes of reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries on a proposal that would drop most downtown and residential streets to a 25 mph speed limit while coordinating with the Austin Police Department to educate residents and enforce those reductions.
The concept earned the unanimous support of the Urban Transportation Commission last month as well as an early endorsement from Council Member Ann Kitchen at Thursday’s meeting of the Mobility Committee. However, Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza requested that the department also consider the visual cues that influence driver behavior as part of the comprehensive revision going to City Council for a vote June 11.
Physical and visual cues can be considered part of a street’s design, along with factors like street width and surface material that influence a driver’s preferred speed on a roadway.
“There’s a little back and forth with what needs to come first – engineering treatments or the posted speeds – and as we’ve said it’s part of a safe systems approach to do all of it, but we know we can’t get to 320 square miles of Austin’s geographic boundaries with engineering treatments anytime soon,” Lewis Leff, transportation safety officer at Austin Transportation, said in a phone call Friday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas governor announces disaster declaration for state after George Floyd protests (The Hill)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced a disaster declaration for the state Saturday in response to “violence” across several cities as protests emerged in response to the death of George Floyd.
Abbott declared a state of disaster across all counties in Texas. The declaration cites “threats and incidents of violence in several cities across Texas that have endangered public safety.”
“As protests have turned violent in various areas across the state, it is crucial that we maintain order, uphold public safety, and protect against property damage or loss,” Abbott reportedly said in a statement Sunday. “By authorizing additional federal agents to serve as Texas Peace Officers we will help protect people’s safety while ensuring that peaceful protesters can continue to make their voices heard.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas Democrats' convention begins online-only Monday, while state GOP officials stick to in-person plans in July (Texas Tribune)
The Texas Democratic and Republican parties are planning very different conventions this summer as the coronavirus pandemic persists — and drawing a growing national spotlight along the way.
The state Democratic Party is holding an exclusively virtual convention that kicks off Monday, while the Texas GOP is pressing forward with an in-person convention in mid-July in Houston. Both events are serving as instructive precursors — if not templates — for the respective national parties, which are wrestling with how to safely hold their own conventions later this summer.
The Democratic National Committee has postponed its Milwaukee convention until mid-August, though it is making preparations to conduct at least some of the gathering virtually. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has said it is moving "full steam ahead" toward an in-person convention a week later in Charlotte, North Carolina… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Dallas police announce 7 p.m. curfew ‘for the next several days’ amid protests (Dallas Morning News)
San Antonio officials unveiled a $191 million plan Thursday to keep residents in their homes, expand internet access to the city’s less wired and help small businesses stay afloat in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “They’re teetering on the edge,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said of residents whose livelihoods have been jeopardized by the virus. “They want action. They need relief.” The plan put forth at Thursday’s City Council meeting plugs $80 million into workforce development aimed at getting people who lost their jobs since the start of the pandemic back on their feet.
Of that amount, $70 million would go toward workforce training for about 10,000 people. The other $10 million would pay for 3 months’ of temporary child care assistance for parents training in new jobs or going back to school. That amount would cover about 5,000 children. Another $50.5 million would fund efforts to boost housing security. The plan would pump $25 million into the city’s primary emergency housing assistance program — geared toward helping residents with rent and mortgage payments as well as household costs like fuel, groceries and internet access — bringing the total amount in that fund to $50 million. It also would put aside $9.2 million for expanded housing options for the city’s homeless. The city plans to house up to 500 homeless residents in a hotel to make room at the Haven for Hope shelter for a wave of newly homeless, Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger said… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
SpaceX capsule carrying astronauts docks with space station (AXIOS)
SpaceX's Crew Dragon safely delivered two NASA astronauts — Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken — to the International Space Station on Sunday after the company's historic launch Saturday.
Why it matters: This marks the first time a private company has delivered people to the space station, and it signals the beginning of the end of NASA's reliance on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft for flights to orbit… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Trump Lays Blame For Clashes on ‘Radical-Left Anarchists’
As overlapping crises convulse an anxious nation, President Trump on Sunday sought to cast blame for widespread protests gripping cities on "radical-left anarchists," while adding that the media "is doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy."
The president has said that members of the loosely defined far-left group Antifa — short for "anti-fascists" — have led clashes with police and looting in cities across the U.S. since the killing of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis.
It's unclear if any group or groups are primarily responsible for escalating protests that began following George Floyd's death on May 25 as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd's neck.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, has told the press that he'd heard unconfirmed reports that white supremacists were coming from elsewhere to stoke the violence… (LINK TO FULL 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.
PLEASE RESHARE and FOLLOW:
Twitter #binghamgp
Instagram #binghamgp