BG Reads | News You Need to Know (September 14, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 107: Entrepreneurship and Resiliency with Musa Ato, Founder & President, League of Rebels (SHOW LINK)
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[AUSTIN METRO]
Under tight pandemic restrictions, college football returns to Austin (Texas Tribune)
On game days in Austin, Jon and Julie Amberg perch in a shaded courtyard with a perfect view of Bevo Boulevard, the hourslong street party that invites thousands of Texas Longhorn fans to dance, drink and celebrate the team’s mascot, a live steer named Bevo, as he arrives at the stadium.
This year, the Ambergs, season ticket holders for more than a decade, were among a handful of people quietly milling outside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium as handlers escorted Bevo from his trailer a few hours before kickoff – without any fanfare.
“It’s like walking into a ghost town,” Julie Amberg said from behind a burnt orange mask.
On Saturday, the University of Texas at Austin took the field against the University of Texas-El Paso in front of just over 15,000 fans, marking the start of an unusual season for major college football programs in Texas as the state continues to report thousands of new coronavirus cases a day and local health officials warn against in-person arena events… (LINK TO STORY)
With UT game day scaled back due to coronavirus, Austin economy will take a hit (Austin American-Statesman)
It generally hasn’t mattered what the scoreboard says after University of Texas home football games — local hotels, restaurants and retailers catering to the huge Longhorns fan base have come out winners.
That’s because about 80,000 visitors typically converge on Austin for each home game, according to a 2015 study, with many helping pack UT’s 100,000-seat stadium but others here simply to meet with old friends and cheer the team on from sports bars, restaurants and tailgate parties.
Either way, their spending has combined with that of Austin-area fans to generate about $63 million for the local economy every home-game weekend — a figure now closer to $70 million when adjusted for inflation over the past five years.
But, like everything else in the coronavirus era, this season will be different.
“We are going to see a significant dip” in the financial benefits related to home games, said Matt Patton, an economist with Austin-based Angelou Economics, which conducted the 2015 economic impact analysis for UT’s athletics department.
“It will be better than zero, but it will be felt for sure,” Patton said.
When the Longhorns square off against UTEP at Royal-Memorial Stadium on Saturday, seating will be limited to 25% capacity, or only about 25,000 people. The cap is a precautionary measure to help prevent spread of the coronavirus, but it also has constricted the pipeline of free-spending fans potentially coming in for the game.
In addition, public tailgating on campus — another big draw for fans — has been prohibited, while many area restaurants and gathering spots have ratcheted back their own traditional game day festivities because of capacity restrictions and coronavirus fears. Local hotels are expected to be hard-pressed to charge what typically are premium game day rates to out-of-towners who have made the trip, since they’ve been struggling merely to fill rooms amid the pandemic… (LINK TO STORY)
In rare offering, 1850s-era Congress Avenue building hits market (Austin American-Statesman)
A Congress Avenue building that was constructed in the 1850s, and for most of that time has been in the hands of the same family that built it, is going on the market.
It is a relatively rare offering of a property that sits just blocks from the Texas Capitol, in the heart of downtown along Austin’s premier avenue.
Long ago, the building at 617 Congress Ave. housed a bakery. Later, in the 1960s, it was home to Blomquist Clark, a men’s clothing store owned by the late state District Judge Harley Clark, head cheerleader in 1955 at the University of Texas who is famous for introducing the “Hook ’em Horns” hand sign.
Today, 617 Congress is known for its current tenant, the Hideout Theatre and Coffee House.
The improv theater, a mainstay in the building for about 20 years, has been operating virtually during the coronavirus pandemic. The coffee shop in the Hideout has continued to sell take-out food and beverages.
The property has drawn interest from more than a dozen parties after only a week on the market and more interest is expected by the Sept. 25 bid deadline, said Jill Rowe, an Austin real estate broker who is marketing the building.
The building has close to 4,800 square feet of space. The Travis Central Appraisal District values it at $1.96 million.
Buildings on Congress Avenue do not turn over very often, Rowe said.
“Most buildings on Congress have been in the same family for a century or more,” Rowe said… (LINK TO STORY)
Economic Development Department outlines plans for $12M creative space bond, creation of Austin EDC (Austin Monitor)
The Economic Development Department outlined its plan for a $12 million creative space bond and a city-owned economic development corporation that could help it along at a joint meeting of the arts and music commissions Friday.
The city launched a request for information on Aug. 27 as the first step in an effort to create city-owned creative spaces through the $12 million bond approved by Austin voters in 2018. EDD’s Redevelopment Division Manager Christine Maguire explained to the commissioners that the request was designed to promote the bond project and solicit ideas from creative sector groups. The RFI is an optional part of the application process, and is the precursor for the official request for qualifications to creative space operators. The deadline to participate in the RFI is Sept. 21.
Maguire said the plan is for the project to be city-owned but not city-operated, to mitigate the funding limitations of a fully bond-funded project. While the department plans to negotiate the purchase/lease agreement with any property owner of the potential site, it will solicit a third-party operator to manage the creative space and another to construct and design the space.
Several representatives from local creative sector organizations spoke at the joint commission meeting, several proposing their organizations to be considered for the bond, including Austin Texas Musicians, EQ Austin and the Austin Tejano Music Coalition. Dan Redman, founder of the Mosaic Sound Collective, which offers space and resources to local artists, said that the true metric for the bond’s success should be how it supports existing organizations.
“If our proposal for Mosaic is approved, it will allow us to expand our space, fund our programming and support more creatives, nonprofits, and support future creatives through our collaboration with other organizations,” Redman said. “I believe the true metric of success for this bond is in supporting existing organizations that are already serving the community, plus supporting musicians, artists and the community.”
Arts Commissioner Bears Rebecca Fonte requested clarification on whether the city plans to fund an already established organization, acquire an established creative space or develop a new space altogether. Although the bond is not meant to fund established organizations, Arts Commissioner Maria Luisa “Lulu” Flores asked that the commissions not discourage established organizations from submitting operation proposals.
As the operator search is being conducted, the city will solicit a broker to search for potential sites for the creative space. Maguire said the Economic Development Department’s working group will focus on locations that had seen significant displacement even before the Covid-19 pandemic. Once the candidate pool is narrowed down, the city will privately share the potential site ideas with the candidates, under a nondisclosure agreement, for them to create proposals for building amenities and site improvements. The winning proposal will be awarded a contract to manage the property while the city negotiates either a purchasing or lease agreement with the property owner and manages the design and building process through another third-party partner.
Proposals will need to fulfill certain city requirements for the space, following the recommendations of the arts and music commissions. After the bond was approved by voters in 2019, the two commissions submitted recommendations for the creative space, with requirements for diversity and inclusion, outreach and amenities… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Amid pandemic, Texas homeowners falling behind on mortgages (Austin American-Statesman)
More Texas homeowners are falling behind on their mortgage payments amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, but Austin-area homeowners are faring better than the state’s other major metro areas, according to a new industry report. Nationwide, more than 7% of homeowners with mortgages had missed at least one loan payment as of June, according to a new report from CoreLogic. Among major Texas cities, Austin had the lowest late loan payment rate at 6.2%, according to the CoreLogic report. That was nearly three times the late-payment rate of 2.6% in June of 2019, according to the report.
Texas overall is doing better than the rest of the country in terms of people in arrears “mainly because our economy is in relatively better shape, and our unemployment rate is a little lower,” said Bud Weinstein, an economist at Southern Methodist University. Weinstein said Austin is in a better position to weather the pandemic and its fallout than other metro areas because of its diverse economy. “In Austin you’ve got more stability in employment,” he said.
“There’s state government, there’s the university and there’s the tech industry, which has been relatively stable and may even be growing.” While the local jobless rate remains a long way from its year-ago levels, the figure has been trending down since the first months after the coronavirus pandemic triggered huge numbers of layoffs and furloughs. It came in at 11.4% in May and 7.3% in June and 6.7% in July, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Weinstein said the biggest threat to the Texas economy would be “a second wave that leads to a shut down of the economy or a rollback of some of the openings that have occurred. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen.”
Ray Perryman, president of Waco-based economic analysis firm the Perryman Group, said that with millions of jobs lost across the economy, it is not surprising that the number of people falling behind on their mortgage payments is rising… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Conflicting virus data in Texas raises distrust of the government (New York Times)
Inconsistencies and problems with Covid-19 data collection in Texas have clouded the picture of the pandemic’s trajectory in the state, to the point that some residents and officials say they cannot rely on the numbers to tell them what is really going on. The state has overlooked thousands of cases, only to report them weeks after infection. It has made major adjustments to its case and death counts, defining them one way and then another, suddenly reporting figures for some counties that were vastly different from those posted by the local health department. “The changing of gears and data reporting at the state has a lot of public health departments feeling a significant case of whiplash,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio said.
The daunting task of reporting coronavirus cases and deaths in real time has strained public health departments across the country. But none have shown more repeated cracks than Texas. The state has faced these data problems as infections surged in the summer and schools and colleges began to reopen for the fall. Changes in the state’s figures have been large enough to affect national trends, and have sown confusion and distrust at a time when the state says it needs public support to avoid another surge. “If everyone was counted in a timely way, then maybe people would be more careful, and maybe people would understand that this is real,” said Debra Zukonik of Rockwall County, where the deaths of her brother and a friend did not appear to be reflected in state and local figures for weeks afterward. Cases and deaths peaked over the summer in Texas and have been trending downward since then, according to a New York Times database that uses both state and county figures. But the virus is still spreading rapidly in many areas of the state, with an average of more than 3,500 new cases a day in September… (LINK TO STORY)
Shelley Luther puts COVID-19 orders on ballot in Texas Senate race, claiming credit for Gov. Abbott’s reversals (Dallas Morning News)
Shelley Luther has no past experience in elected office, but in her bid for state Senate, the beauty-salon owner claims a political victory she says no one else can: taking on Gov. Greg Abbott and winning. Luther made national news in early May when she was jailed for contempt of court after defying an order to close her Dallas salon during the coronavirus pandemic. Conservatives rallied to her defense, as did Abbott, who in response, removed confinement as a possible penalty for breaking the rules and reopened salons earlier than many expected. “I am the only person (including every single politician in the nation) that was able to force Abbott to retract his orders ... twice,” Luther wrote this week on Facebook, responding to a question about her qualifications.
By making defiance of his orders central to her campaign, Luther could turn the North Texas special election into a referendum on how Abbott has handled the coronavirus epidemic. The heavily Republican district wraps around Dallas-Fort Worth to the northwest and includes the cities of Sherman, Wichita Falls and a portion of Denton.
The tactic is also risky. Abbott is still widely popular with Republicans. While his orders closing businesses, such as bars, angered some voters, a vast majority agreed with his decision in July to require most Texans wear a mask, a poll found. Luther is one of six candidates in the election, which likely will result in a runoff. Pat Fallon is vacating the Senate seat to run for Texas' 4th Congressional District in the November election. The most prominent candidate is Muenster Rep. Drew Springer, who already represents a portion of the district in the House and rolled out a long list of endorsements from fellow Republican legislators, including Fallon, after announcing his candidacy.
Another is Denton Mayor Chris Watts. Rounding out the race is business owner Craig Carter of Nocona and software engineer Andy Hopper of Decatur, both of whom are running as Republicans. Jacob Minter, an electrician from Anna, is the lone Democrat… (LINK TO STORY)
Lawmakers call on Gov. Greg Abbott to plan to expand broadband access as pandemic worsens disparities (Texas Tribune)
As the COVID-19 pandemic has "exacerbated existing disparities" related to high-speed internet access in Texas, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers asked Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday to develop a plan to expand broadband access in the state.
“Texas is well overdue for a state broadband plan, and we believe the state needs to begin the process of creating one immediately,” the 88 lawmakers wrote in a letter to Abbott’s office. They said the need can't wait until the 2021 session of the Texas Legislature.
Access to broadband has become even more important during the coronavirus pandemic as social distancing has prompted remote learning at schools and remote working for many offices. More than 800,000 rural Texans don’t have adequate broadband infrastructure, however, according to data and maps produced by Connected Nation Texas and cited by the lawmakers in the letter. As broadband speeds increase, the number of rural communities that get left behind also increases, they said… (LINK TO STORY)
White House COVID-19 report suggests Texas cut hours, capacity at college bars if cases rise (Dallas Morning News)
The White House, warning that Texas could risk the progress it’s made battling the coronavirus, has suggested putting additional restrictions on bars and restaurants near college campuses if cases jump in those areas. The advice comes as Gov. Greg Abbott faces mounting pressure from the struggling industry to ease up on the rules that have closed bars and limited capacity at restaurants. The Republican recently hinted on Twitter that changes may be coming soon, but he did not offer specifics. While the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Texas has declined since a peak in July, a report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force said spread at university campuses could reverse those gains.
“Texas has made progress and, to sustain the gains, should continue the strong mitigation efforts statewide and strengthen mitigation efforts in university towns to decrease spread from universities to the local community,” said the Sept. 6 report, which was obtained and made public by ABC News. Specifically, the report suggests Texas consider further reducing hours or capacity at bars and restaurants in college communities if COVID-19 cases begin to rise. Universities in Texas reported an uptick in cases soon after the fall semester began. In North Texas, Texas Christian University has reported over 700 cases since classes began in mid-August, according to the school’s website. Southern Methodist University has reported at least 280 cases. It’s not clear whether Abbott will follow the guidance. His office did not respond to questions. Diana Cervantes, an epidemiologist at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, said most transmission among students is taking place off campus at house parties or other social gatherings. “It’s a tradition when you go back in the fall, and that’s where we are having issues,” she said. The White House’s task force recommendations -- tailored for each state -- have been distributed to state government and health officials at least since June, but are not widely publicized. During a press briefing on Thursday, President Donald Trump said students want to return to school and people are working “very, very hard” to get Big 10 football back… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
States plow forward with pot, with or without Congress (Politico)
Roughly 1 in 3 Americans could have access to legal recreational marijuana if voters approve state ballot initiatives this November.
While a planned House vote on legalizing weed at the federal level is scheduled for later this month, the real action remains in the states. That’s because even if the House measure passes, there’s zero chance the Republican-controlled Senate will take up the bill, which would eliminate federal criminal penalties and erase some past marijuana convictions.
But with the federal government continuing to take a hands-off approach when it comes to cracking down on state-legal markets, five more states could make it legal to buy weed for medical or recreational purposes. The legalization wave could have been much bigger: Organizers in five states saw their efforts derailed in large part due to the pandemic, with Nebraska’s medical campaign the latest blow after losing a legal challenge on Thursday. The other state measures are already set.
The biggest stakes are in New Jersey and Arizona, where polling suggests voters will back recreational sales.
If both measures pass, more than 16 million additional Americans would be living in states where anyone at least 21 years old can buy weed for any reason. That would mean more than 100 million Americans would have access to legal recreational marijuana sales, less than a decade after Colorado and Washington pioneered the modern legalization movement.
South Dakota and Montana could also pass recreational legalization measures this year. The former could become the first state to go from a total ban on weed to legalizing both medical and recreational sales, if voters back a pair of referendums… (LINK TO STORY)
Microsoft, Oracle Lose Bids For TikTok, According To China State TV NPR)
With its deadline to sell or be banned in the U.S. fast-approaching, Chinese tech giant ByteDance said it will not be selling its video-sharing app TikTok to either Microsoft or Oracle, according to China state TV.
Before that report, Microsoft said in a statement that ByteDance informed the company its bid for TikTok's U.S. operations had been rejected.
Microsoft, a $1.5 trillion company, had been seen as the most likely buyer because of its vast resources and long history of doing business with the federal government.
"We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok's users, while protecting national security interests," a Microsoft spokesman said. "To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation... We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas."
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Oracle was in negotiations to be TikTok's "trusted tech partner," an ambiguous relationship that did not involve an outright sale of the platform, according to the Journal… (LINK TO STORY)