BG Reads | News You Need to Know (April 1, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Podcast EP. 136: Q1 2021 Review: Austin's Residental Real Estate Market
Today's episode (136) features a conversation with Austin Board of REALTORS® CEO Emily Chenevert.
She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss the Q1 2021 performance of Austin’s residential real estate market.
You can listen to all episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. New content every Wednesday. Please like, link, comment and subscribe!
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
Special Called Meeting of the Austin City Council (4/1 @10AM) - AGENDA
Regular Meeting of the Austin City Council (4/8 @10AM) - AGENDA
[THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE]
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (5,368)
LINK TO FILED SENATE BILLS (2,492)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Tesla now hiring for 300 jobs in Austin area; Exec hints at opportunities to partner with local businesses (Austin Business Journal)
With a wide expanse of rooftop in place and pieces of heavy equipment rolling in, Tesla Inc.'s future $1.1 billion gigafactory in Travis County is starting to look more and more like a manufacturing facility.
And with CEO Elon Musk's timeline for the factory to produce vehicles by the end of this year, it's no surprise that Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) has ramped up hiring efforts over the last few months. It is just one of the many ways the electric carmaker is beginning to impact the Central Texas economy.
By publication time, more than 280 job openings in Austin were posted on Tesla's website, with positions available in a wide array of engineering and managerial capacities.
The company has said it plans to eventually employ about 5,000 people with an average annual salary of about $47,000. But that may be a low estimate: Manufacturing experts have said 15,000 jobs could be created at the gigafactory because of the scope of the carmaker's planned operations.
Tesla plans to produce its Model 3s, Model Y SUVs, Cybertrucks and Semi tractor-trailers in Central Texas. The factory will also host a battery cell manufacturing unit.
"We're adding on every day," Chris Reilly, Tesla's director of recruiting and workforce development, said about its job opportunities in Central Texas during a March 25 panel hosted by YTexas, a business network for companies relocating or expanding in the state.
Tesla's factory is pegged as a monumental gain for the region, especially with workers displaced because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Austin metro's unemployment rate was 5.6% in February, up from a seasonally adjusted rate of 2.6% a year prior.
The company has established relationships with Austin Community College, Huston-Tillotson University, the University of Texas and the Del Valle Independent School District, Reilly said. The car manufacturer is well known for not requiring college degrees for some of its jobs, but Reilly said part of the work they're doing with the local colleges is "thinking about recruiting students who can graduate high school and start a career at Tesla while continuing their education."… (LINK TO STORY)
These tech workers left SF for Austin. They don't regret it. (SF GATE)
Austin has something of a mythic reputation in the Bay Area. The Texas capital has come to represent a land of opportunity for those priced out of San Francisco, and especially during the coronavirus pandemic, an escape route for tech workers no longer bound by physical offices.
The moniker “Silicon Hills,” a nickname that’s seldom spoken aloud within the Lone Star State, has come to represent the city’s burgeoning reputation as a tech hub. From Dell’s ascent in the 1990s to the SXSW conference’s function as a start-up launching pad to Apple’s forthcoming second campus, the city has long punched above its weight in the tech world. And every day more tech companies seem to be fleeing for triple digit temperatures and zero digit state income taxes.
As more and more Silicon Valley workers decamp for Austin, the expectation is that the grass will be greener, and likely located not far from a swimming hole. To find out if that myth is true, we spoke to five tech industry professionals ranging from Salesforce alums who’ve experienced the work culture in both places, to founders who left S.F. during the pandemic, to the CEO of Austin’s premiere tech incubator.
The consensus was that the grass is definitely a different color, and for now, it looks very green.
Perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, San Francisco’s technology culture is all-encompassing and leaves little time or energy for a life “outside” the bubble of a tech campus or hacker house. In Austin, working as a coder or data analyst or web developer still means you qualify as “a techie,” but it isn’t exactly the same as working “in tech.” Since there’s simply so many more people working in other industries, tech doesn’t feel like something you’re necessarily “inside.”
“Tech is an industry [in S.F.], wherein other parts of the country, tech is a subset of other existing industries,” says Vivek Sodera, co-founder of email client Superhuman, who recently moved to Austin. “I think we’re going to start to see Austin not just be a subset of existing industries itself.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Before Uri, Austin Water didn’t see winter weather as a threat (Austin Monitor)
Austin Water deemed winter weather a low risk to the city’s water supply before Winter Storm Uri, the utility told the Water Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
Multiple climate and disaster preparedness plans failed to mention the threat of extreme winter weather, leaving the utility underprepared for the impending crisis.
“Unfortunately, in this event, we did not have information to indicate that extreme winter weather was a risk for us,” said Anna Bryan-Borja, an assistant director at Austin Water. “We have weathered other winter storms in the past, and they have not had a significant impact on our infrastructure.”
The city’s water system failed catastrophically during the storm. Thousands of Austinites lost water for multiple days due to excess water usage demand from burst pipes and mains and dripping faucets. The leaks caused the city to issue a boil-water notice and drinkable water had to be brought in from out of state.
In light of this disaster, City Council members wondered why winter weather wasn’t seen as a risk. “We do not seem to have planned as a city with respect to our infrastructure and other things for cold weather,” Council Member Alison Alter said. “I’d like to better understand why not?”
Bryan-Borja explained how the utility assesses risks. “When we do risk planning,” she said, “we look at the whole spectrum of risks … but the items that are selected for specific corrective action are those items that have a very high likelihood of coming to fruition.” Such corrective actions could include training or infrastructure investment.
“I don’t want to leave you with the impression that we are completely unprepared for cold weather,” Bryan-Borja emphasized. “But in terms of a risk assessment, for preparing for emergencies, (winter weather) did not rise to that level.”
Citywide climate resilience plans did not mention cold weather as a threat at all. Instead they focused on “the risk of increasing temperatures, and called out the fact that Austin is known for mild winters,” Bryan-Borja said.
Winter weather was also not included in Austin Water’s federally mandated risk and resilience assessment. The highest-priority threats for this plan, according to Bryan-Borja, included inclement weather in general, floods, droughts and extreme heat. The Environmental Protection Agency signed off on the city’s assessment.
Though the EPA requires updated plans every five years, Austin Water plans to do so every two years to better respond to changing risks. “Moving forward,” Bryan-Borja said, “Austin Water will adjust our responses to meet the threats that are evolving and our risk assessment will include extreme winter weather.”
Through these planning efforts, the utility intends to find the specific fixes to ensure the water supply doesn’t fail in future winter storms… (LINK TO STORY)
Herd immunity for adults by the end of May? Austin-Travis County health officials hope to make it happen (KXAN)
Austin-Travis County health officials say they’re hoping to achieve herd immunity from COVID-19 in adults by the end of May.
Dr. Mark Escott, the Austin Public Health interim health authority, said while adult herd immunity could happen by then, COVID-19 can still circulate in children so, in his estimation, early fall would be the earliest time the community could “relax.”
According to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard, the rolling average of new hospitalizations continues to be firmly in Stage 3 risk level at 18. There were 15 new hospitalizations reported Tuesday, and if the downward trend continues, the area could move to Stage 2 in April. The threshold for Stage 2 risk level is a rolling average of new hospitalizations under 10.
Escott is worried about a couple events that may cause an uptick in cases: last week’s spring break and the upcoming Good Friday and Easter holidays.
“It is a time to get together with family. It’s a time to gather together with your church community. We have to be very careful, particularly in our Hispanic communities, because it could light a fire,” he said.
“And I don’t want that to happen. So folks that are higher risk, really need to choose a virtual option. Other folks, if they’re going to gather together, go to church in person, please wear a mask. Please wash your hands. Please do those things to minimize your risk.”
Escott warned that despite vaccinations, high-risk individuals and those who live with high-risk individuals should refrain from gathering in-person.
About spring break, he said there hasn’t quite been enough time to determine if a spike hasn’t occurred. Once two weeks have passed, then health officials will assess the data and see what they can determine.
Austin Public Health says 180,000 people have been vaccinated by APH alone — but anyone who is currently eligible and has the opportunity is encouraged to get their shot wherever they can.
“The sooner we all get vaccinated, we all can be protected and get back to a more normal scenario,” said Cassandra DeLon, APH Chief Administrative Officer. “But this is not the time to get lax.”… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
One in three Texas adults have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine as of today. (Houston Chronicle)
More than a third of Texas residents 16 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday afternoon, state data shows. A Chronicle analysis found that the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or a Johnson & Johnson vaccine, has been administered to more than 7.4 million people, accounting for 33.1 percent of adults over 16. This comes two weeks after the state has administered doses to 25 percent of all residents. Nearly 4 million Texans have been fully immunized against COVID-19, or 17.2 percent of Texans 16 and older, according to the data. In total, more than 11.1 million doses have been administered.
Harris County is poised to cross the 1-in-3 threshold this week as well, hovering at 32.29 percent as of Wednesday afternoon— just days after the state opened vaccine eligibility to all Texans 16 and older and Texas receiving a million vaccine doses. With the increase in vaccinations has come additional good news about some vaccines’ efficacy. A study released Monday found that the Moderna and Pfizer reduced risk of infection by 80 percent two weeks after the first shot. After the second shot, that risk was reduced by 90 percent. On Wednesday, Pfizer announced the results of a study that showed the vaccine had a 100 percent efficacy against COVID-19 in children between the ages of 12 and 15. While distribution across Texas has been escalating in recent weeks, the state is still behind the national numbers. According to an analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly 36.4 percent of Americans over the age of 16 have received at least one shot… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas Senate approves bill to stop social media companies from banning Texans for political views (Texas Tribune)
The Texas Senate early Thursday approved a bill that would prohibit social media companies with at least 100 million monthly users from blocking, banning, demonetizing or discriminating against a user based on their viewpoint or their location within Texas.
Senate Bill 12, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, was approved after 2 a.m. Thursday. The measure, which would apply to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among others, would also require the companies to disclose their content moderation policies, publish regular reports about the content they remove and create an appeals process for user content that has been taken down.
The Texas attorney general would be allowed to file suit against any company that violates a provision of the bill. If upheld in court, the attorney general could recoup "reasonable" attorney's fees and investigative costs.
Experts have raised doubts about the legality of the measure. Hughes acknowledged that, if signed into law, SB 12 would almost certainly be challenged in court. He repeatedly referred to social media platforms as common carriers, though they have never been classified as such by law or in the court system. Common carriers, such as phone companies and cable providers, are private or public companies that transport goods or people and are barred by government regulators from discriminating against customers… (LINK TO STORY)
With Gov. Abbott’s blessing, Texas Rangers expect packed home opener at ‘new’ ballpark (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
There are still several thousand tickets available for the Texas Rangers’ home opener at Globe Life Field next week. The Rangers host the Toronto Blue Jays at 3:07 p.m. Monday after opening the season with three games against the Kansas City Royals at Kaufman Stadium, starting with Opening Day at 3:10 p.m. Thursday. The $1.2 billion, retractable roof stadium officially seats 40,518 and opened in 2020, but the Rangers were unable to invite fans to their new home because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Fans were finally able to watch their first Rangers games in the new ballpark for two exhibition games Monday and Tuesday. Although full capacity was available, only 12,911 and 10,859 fans attended the two games. With a full or near capacity crowd in attendance, the Rangers’ home opener could be largest gathering of fans at a sporting event since the pandemic shuttered large crowds across the country more than a year ago. “We know Opening Day is traditionally one of the best-attended games of the year,” Rangers executive vice president of business operations Rob Matwick said. “We do expect it to sell out.” The Rangers are trying to thread a logistic needle for their home opener. They’re trying to balance a desire to allow long-waiting fans a chance to experience the new park while also being mindful of potential pandemic risks. Gov. Greg Abbott gave businesses the green light to open up at full capacity on March 10. It didn’t take long for the Rangers to announce that Globe Life Field would be fully open with no social distancing requirements, for at least the home opener… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
President Joe Biden's $2 trillion jobs and climate change plan would improve internet access, upgrade power grids and make road improvements (Texas Tribune)
President Biden unveiled a $2 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan Wednesday to address some of the country’s most pressing problems, including damaged bridges, unequal broadband access, climate change and care for people with disabilities and older people.
Biden’s proposal, the American Jobs Plan, would be paid for, in part, by raising the corporate tax rate and global minimum tax. Many of these measures would reverse the Trump administration’s 2017 tax cuts.
The proposal comes just a few weeks after Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package was signed into law, sending $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans and extending unemployment benefits.
The American Jobs Plan is expected to be followed by a second economic package in April that includes a major expansion in health insurance coverage, child-care subsidies, free access to community colleges and other proposals.
Republicans and prominent business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have already come out against the plan, particularly the proposed tax increases, arguing they would damage U.S. investment and global competitiveness. The White House’s stance is that higher taxes would offset concerns about adding to the federal deficit.
Meanwhile, economists are still debating whether Biden’s last major bill will overheat the economy and trigger cycles of inflation, compounding Republicans’ spending worries… (LINK TO STORY)
Biden Administration to Allow Work-Visa Ban to Expire (Wall Street Journal)
The White House won’t renew a ban on H-1B and other work-based visas imposed last year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that is set to expire Wednesday, according to three people familiar with the decision.
The ban blocked foreign workers on a range of temporary work-based visas from coming into the country. The Trump administration had imposed it in June, saying it was necessary to safeguard jobs for American workers as the economy sputtered and unemployment soared because of lockdowns designed to contain the coronavirus. On Dec. 31, then-President Donald Trump renewed the ban through the end of March.
The White House declined to comment on the ban’s expiration. Officials said President Biden doesn’t plan to speak about it publicly, instead focusing on his infrastructure package he plans to introduce Wednesday.
The decision to let the ban expire will benefit a range of companies, from technology to landscaping, that say there aren’t American workers who can fill their specific needs, especially as they plan for an improving economic outlook. Tech companies left jobs unfilled or hired preferred employees to work remotely from abroad. Seasonal employers, including landscapers, resort owners and summer camps, use other visa types covered by the ban to employ foreign workers for their busy seasons, and families use them to hire au pairs.
Even with the ban lifted, immigration experts say it will be tough for many of the blocked workers to come to the U.S., since pandemic travel restrictions remain in effect for most of Europe, Brazil, China, Iran and South Africa, and consulates in those countries for the most part won’t issue visas. Consulates in countries without blanket travel bans are still operating at reduced capacity, and in those cases, the State Department has instructed them to give priority to green cards over work visas.
“Visa processing won’t pick up as quickly as everyone will want,” said Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Labor unions, some of Mr. Biden’s most ardent allies, have in the past taken issue with some of the same work-based visas targeted by the ban.
Immigration hard-liners who favor the more aggressive policy approach taken by the Trump administration criticized the decision to let the ban expire, saying it would hamper economic recovery.
“President Biden often portrays himself as a man from the ‘working class’ who is a tireless defender of the American worker, yet his administration does the opposite with immigration policy,” said RJ Hauman, government relations director at the Federation of American Immigration Reform, a group that favors limiting legal immigration.
A Wall Street Journal review found the work-visa ban didn’t have the intended effect: Jobs allotted to foreigners, typically in high-skill roles as software engineers or seasonal positions, either moved abroad or went unfilled.
Business leaders and immigrant advocates had said they were worried by the Biden administration’s decision to leave the ban in place through its first months in office. The Democratic Mr. Biden had said as a candidate that Mr. Trump, a Republican, had used the policy to scapegoat immigrants to distract from his pandemic response. In recent weeks, these business leaders had begun criticizing the administration for not acting to reverse the restriction.
“We were hopeful this would have happened sooner, that this would have been a more immediate response,” Stephanie Hall, director of innovation policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, said Wednesday. “But we are glad to see they have decided to let the ban end.”… (LINK TO STORY)